Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Oh guys, don't make me do this. I have such conflicting emotions regarding this book. And it's a good book, it really is! I just had some grounded issues with it for multiple reasons, often not even caused by the book itself. It's just that all my associantions and mind-bridges make judging this book a little harder. And, discussing such an admired and hyped book is hard in itself. I feel like that conservative Republican politician speeching for a group of teen moms considering abortion.
This book reminds you in every way possible of Harry Potter. There's a main boy with black hair and green eyes (yes, I meant every way), a slightly clueless sidekick, and an incredibly intelligent girl. There's the special place that's the 'real home' of the main character and a mentor who doesn't tell main character sh!t because that works out so well EVERY SINGLE TIME. And there's an evil vilain who should've been dead and has an unexpected helper. There's school-type-of-thing that has no safety policies whatsoever and there's a nasty semi-relative who the MC hates.
And that in itself did not bother me at all.
It were the expectations that came along with those parallels that ruined this perfectly good joyride for me. If I see signs pointing to Harry Potter. I expect a great deal of you, my friend. I expect complex and unfathomable characters. I expect deep and gradual character development. I expect you to subtly discuss essential questions of life. I expect you to blow me away with plot twists and unpredictable twists and turns that leave me sitting there for five minutes merely pondering over your utter briliance and story crafting-skills.
And as a first book, the Lightning Thief was incapable of meeting those unfairly high expectations. And I know full well that this book was simply not written with some of these goals in mind. Percy Jackson is a lot of fun, but because of some technical mistakes combined with my prejudice, my enjoyment did not creep up to those five stars. And I'm sorry for that.
Synopsis:
Meet Percy Jackson. He is twelve years old, and he decides to tell us the story of his past year. On the first day of summer, just after his sixth-grade year, Percy discovers that something is wrong with him. Or rather, something is right with him. He learns that he is a half-blood: half-human, half-god. He is taken to Camp Half-Blood in New York, a camp for kids just like him that is safe from monsters that like to attack half-bloods. - smidget of Smoop's detailed summary.
Rating:
About 4 stars, because I feel like it's a solid start for something that will just keep getting better.
Have you missed my spoiler warnings?
You know, we should make it some kind of solid rule that when unprepared teenager X arrives at magical/supernatural/survival location Omega with destiny/legacy/position of leadership Y, his/her first meeting with mentor figure Pentagon Dogtooth goes a bit like this.
Main Character: So what should I do first? Battle a dragon? Discover I am a lost heir to a destroyed kingdom? Survive the attack of a villain who has been in hiding for the past umph-teen years? Rescue one of my family members? Escape my fenced-in community and become a rebel leader and national hero?
Mentor: Almost correct. Here are all seven volumes of the Harry Potter series. You will be fed for every two hundred pages you finish. When you're done, my prestigeous collection of YA New York Times bestsellers is in the closet.
And I know that Mr. Rick Riordan fully agrees with me.
But the main problem I had with this book, is that everyone seemed to be more stupid than me. And I don't like to feel like that. I want to stare at all of you extremely intelligent people that only let me know anything once it is my time. That also means that I want you to draw conclusions faster than me. Or at least as fast as the average human being would.
Everyone: Okay, we're at the camp for kids with Greek gods for parents and we need to figure out who his father is. He seems to be rather important. We're expecting the kid of a powerful god.
Percy: *controls water in front of multiple witnesses, one of which is the daughter of ATHENA, and is the only one who remains dry*
Everyone: I wonder who it is. Maybe the god of plot delay.
And the list goes on.
Percy: One of my friends is going to betray me.
Luke: *gives flying shoes which he shouldn't wear*
Percy: I only have three friends.
Luke: *insists you wear said shoes*
Said shoes: *fly into abyss evil monster is in*
Percy: Maybe it's goat-friend or smart-girl that have had millions of chances to kill me already.
And this last one, Percy could have solved perfectly fine if he'd just read a little more YA fantasy.
Chiron: There once was an evil creature that was super powerful that can't die.
Percy: *dreams about scary voice in deep cliff*
Percy: *cliff monster turns out to be super old and trying to get out*
Annabeth: *knows who it is but denies it because of plot convenience
Annabeth: It's sure to be Hades, though. You know, the god of the Underworld who could practically do whatever the F he wants because he's totally not locked up in a pit.
And I liked this book! Despite all its predictable plot twists and not-so-fast characters, I really did enjoy reading it. I loved Percy's relationship with his dad and mom and the epic monster fights. But the fights feel almost strung together in a Series of Unfortunate Events rather than interconnected puzzle pieces. I hope this gets better in later books.
My religious POV:
*disclaimer*: I am not trying to save you, Paranoid Atheist #68. Just like victims of discrimination and racism have a special bonus level of thought on To Kill A Mockingbird, I have my own special office of Religious Background on the Book Review Floor of my brain.
Side note: Don't assume I talk about this in every review on this blog, because I don't.
The way the Greek myths are worked into this book series is a delight for the reader. It's understandable and at the same time challenging. I like learning about old folklore and history, so I'm generally interested in this kind of stuff. Still, the way it is presented in this story made me add the books to my TBR a little later than I would have otherwhise.
A particular part of my frame of reference (the way I view the world) is determined by my religion. One of those subjects that're greatly influenced by my religious background is the life after death.
This made me a little bothered with the scenes from the Underworld. I know Rick Riordan is following the set theories that come with Greek mythology and wouldn't want him to change it. That being said, it did affect my enjoyment and appreciation of the part in those fields. I haven't taken it into consideration with my rating, but I did want to share it with you.
Main Character: So what should I do first? Battle a dragon? Discover I am a lost heir to a destroyed kingdom? Survive the attack of a villain who has been in hiding for the past umph-teen years? Rescue one of my family members? Escape my fenced-in community and become a rebel leader and national hero?
Mentor: Almost correct. Here are all seven volumes of the Harry Potter series. You will be fed for every two hundred pages you finish. When you're done, my prestigeous collection of YA New York Times bestsellers is in the closet.
And I know that Mr. Rick Riordan fully agrees with me.
"He was reading a huge book with a picture of a wizard on the front. I wasn't much into fantasy, but the book must've been good, because the guard took a while to look up."So if there's ever going to be a dude who tells me I am unknowingly the most powerful [magical person] or the [symbol of the rebellion] or the [different from everyone else], I will not be marveling in silence. I will be trapping my entire family in an impenatrable bunker on [exotic island] and wrapping them in bubble plastic. I will avoid all forms of making friends or even polite conversation. I will force everyone to AT ALL TIMES, COMPREHENSIBLY INFORM ME OF WHAT IS GOING ON. I will always be paranoid of every sentient being and USE MY MODERN TECHNOLOGY to keep in contact with everyone. I will not be afraid until I reach the ripe age of [last book] and then pray that my author is not Veronica Roth.
But the main problem I had with this book, is that everyone seemed to be more stupid than me. And I don't like to feel like that. I want to stare at all of you extremely intelligent people that only let me know anything once it is my time. That also means that I want you to draw conclusions faster than me. Or at least as fast as the average human being would.
Everyone: Okay, we're at the camp for kids with Greek gods for parents and we need to figure out who his father is. He seems to be rather important. We're expecting the kid of a powerful god.
Percy: *controls water in front of multiple witnesses, one of which is the daughter of ATHENA, and is the only one who remains dry*
Everyone: I wonder who it is. Maybe the god of plot delay.
And the list goes on.
Percy: One of my friends is going to betray me.
Luke: *gives flying shoes which he shouldn't wear*
Percy: I only have three friends.
Luke: *insists you wear said shoes*
Said shoes: *fly into abyss evil monster is in*
Percy: Maybe it's goat-friend or smart-girl that have had millions of chances to kill me already.
And this last one, Percy could have solved perfectly fine if he'd just read a little more YA fantasy.
Chiron: There once was an evil creature that was super powerful that can't die.
Percy: *dreams about scary voice in deep cliff*
Percy: *cliff monster turns out to be super old and trying to get out*
Annabeth: *knows who it is but denies it because of plot convenience
Annabeth: It's sure to be Hades, though. You know, the god of the Underworld who could practically do whatever the F he wants because he's totally not locked up in a pit.
And I liked this book! Despite all its predictable plot twists and not-so-fast characters, I really did enjoy reading it. I loved Percy's relationship with his dad and mom and the epic monster fights. But the fights feel almost strung together in a Series of Unfortunate Events rather than interconnected puzzle pieces. I hope this gets better in later books.
My religious POV:
*disclaimer*: I am not trying to save you, Paranoid Atheist #68. Just like victims of discrimination and racism have a special bonus level of thought on To Kill A Mockingbird, I have my own special office of Religious Background on the Book Review Floor of my brain.
Side note: Don't assume I talk about this in every review on this blog, because I don't.
The way the Greek myths are worked into this book series is a delight for the reader. It's understandable and at the same time challenging. I like learning about old folklore and history, so I'm generally interested in this kind of stuff. Still, the way it is presented in this story made me add the books to my TBR a little later than I would have otherwhise.
A particular part of my frame of reference (the way I view the world) is determined by my religion. One of those subjects that're greatly influenced by my religious background is the life after death.
This made me a little bothered with the scenes from the Underworld. I know Rick Riordan is following the set theories that come with Greek mythology and wouldn't want him to change it. That being said, it did affect my enjoyment and appreciation of the part in those fields. I haven't taken it into consideration with my rating, but I did want to share it with you.
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