Robert's Book Pick of the Week: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

I don’t know how many people told me that Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan was good, but I know that it was a great many. I would have to get it sooner or later, and I finally did.

A 12-year-old boy who goes by the name Percy Jackson finds out that he is a demigod and is therefore sent to a Camp Half-Blood for demigods. Just when Percy is getting adjusted to life at Camp Half-Blood, it is discovered that Percy Jackson is the son of Poseidon: God of the Sea or one of the Big Three. He subsequently learns that the Big Three -Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades - made an oath never to have children; therefore it seems illegal for poor Percy to even be alive. With the rest of the demigod children avoiding him as much as possible, matters don’t get better when Zeus’s lightning bolt is stolen and Percy is the prime suspect. Percy along with his two friends Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood set out on a quest to find the real culprit and to return the bolt to its rightful owner.

When I read this book I could not help but to notice the similarities between Harry Potter and Percy Jackson: A boy suddenly finding out that he is the son of a god and that gods do indeed exist, is a fairly similar idea to11-year-old Harry Potter finding out that he is a wizard and that wizards do exist. Camp Half-Blood is merely the demigod version of Hogwarts School for Wizards. In addition, the fact that Percy is quite famous from the start, makes him very equivalent to Harry. The only real difference between Harry Potter and Percy Jackson is that HP is a wizard and that PJ is a demigod. Yet, both have supernatural powers that distinguish them from ordinary mortals.
However, Percy Jackson is a lot more funnier than Harry Potter. The comical element in Percy Jackson is reminiscent to the chemistry entailed in The Chronicles of Prydian. Although more than half the comedy is in the writing, the comic moments between Percy and Annabeth reminds the astute reader of Taran and Eliwonli from The Chronicles of Prydian. Although this Percy Jackson does not have the magic of Harry Potter, nor the charm of Pydian, The Lightning Thief will give you a smile and a chuckle, as well as edge-of-the-seat suspense in this action-packed novel. I can’t wait to see the movie!

Book Ratings – on scale from 1-100: Robert Steven Mack: 90/100; Steward Mackinley: 78/100; Johnny McChristmas: 93/100; average ratings: 87/100

Copyright 2010 by Robert Steven Mack (with special thanks to my mother Diana and my father Alex for their assistance in editing)