Book Stack

Title: The Lightning Thief

Author: Rick Riordan

Language: English

Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Fiction

Add to Read: Goodreads

Rating: 4.19/5

"The Lightning Thief" written by Rick Riordan is a fantasy-adventure novel based on Greek mythology. He is mainly known for his Percy Jackson novel series. It is the first novel in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, which features the adventures that a twelve-year-old Percy Jackson have as he discovers that he is a demigod, the son of Sally Jackson and the Greek god Poseidon. Percy and his friends Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood go on a quest to prevent a war between the gods Zeus, Poseidon and Hades.

The story begins with Percy Jackson, a 12 year old boy with dyslexia and ADHD living in New York City explaining that he has been expelled from every school. On day his class from Yancy Academy takes a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His pre-algebra teacher Mrs. Dodds takes him and transforms into a Furies, which is of the Greek myth and attacks him. Percy's Latin teacher, Mr. Brunner, throws to him a magic sword named Anaklusmos, and sends Mrs. Dodds to Tartarus. When Percy comes out, Mr. Brunner is gone and acts like nothing had happened, and nobody guessed why Mrs. Dodds and his best friend Grover Underwood acted strangely.

“The real world is where the monsters are.”
― Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief

One day, when Percy and his mother Sally was at Montauk Beach in New York, Grover comes and say to leave immediately. A terrible storm rages as they drive to the New York countryside and on their way they are attacked by a Minotaur. During the fight, the Minotaur takes Sally in a blinding flash of gold light. Percy then takes one of its horns and kill it, but passed out due to exhaustion. He wakes up three days later, healed by the powers of nectar and ambrosia, at Camp Half-Blood. Grover reveals himself to be a satyr, and Mr. Brunner to be Chiron the centaur. He meets Luke, a son of Hermes; Annabeth Chase, a daughter of Athena; and Clarisse La Rue, a daughter of Ares. After several water-related incidents, a trident mark appears above Percy's head as his father, Poseidon, claims him.

“Go on with what your heart tells you, or you will lose all.”
― Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief

The oracle at the camp told him to find Zeus's master lightning bolt, as he blames Poseidon for stealing it. After defeating several mythological creatures, including Medusa,and the Chimera, they arrive at Underworld, where Hades is keeping his mother. Percy, Annabeth and Grover find Hades, who has taken Sally but also had his Helm of Darkness stolen too. Hades accuses Percy of stealing his helm and threatens to kill Percy and also his mother and release all the dead back into the real world. Percy and his friends use magical pearls to transport themselves out of Hades' kingdom. After discovering that Ares has all the stolen items, he challenges him to a duel and wins, to his own surprise. When Percy presents the Helm to Hades, Hades realizes that Percy has not stolen it and returns Sally safely. After the bolt is given back to Zeus, Luke is revealed to be the lightning thief and the number one servant of Kronos, the Lord of the Titans. Percy decides to spend the school year with Sally instead of staying at camp.

“If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself.”
― Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief

This is a good book. Really you will be in love with this the moment you understand th plots. In fact, the book is more good than the movies. So if you have not ead the book, but only seen the movies, I recommend that you read this book as well.