Despite still being one book shy on finishing 2018’s Resolution Project, I have moved onwards and upwards and begun working on this year’s pledge: reading all of the demigod books in Rick Riordan’s library. While I had previously read the first series, Percy Jackson & the Olympians, it’s been 9 years and several hundred books since then, so I’m beginning this Resolution Project with a reread.
The Lightning Thief (2005)
The Sea of Monsters (2006)
The Titan’s Curse (2007)
The Battle of the Labyrinth (2008)
The Last Olympian (2009)
Written by: Rick Riordan
Series: Percy Jackson & the Olympians
Publisher: Disney/Hyperion
There are no spoilers for the books in the discussion below.
Discussion: I first read these books in 2010 because that is the same year that 20th Century Fox released a movie that they called Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Sometimes, when I watch movies that I don’t consider to be particularly good (looking at you, Eragon), I’ll read the book they’re based on to decide who’s at fault. Invariably? The movie maker. This was absolutely no exception.
This isn’t going to be a discussion on the differences between the first book in this series and the movie they made that was supposedly adapted from it, I’m just pointing out my entry point into Rick Riordan’s world of demigods, but BOY HOWDY was that movie a terrible adaptation.
There’s so much to love in these books. Percy Jackson is an 11 year old boy (first thing the movies got wrong) who at the beginning of the first novel has no idea that he isn’t just a normal kid with two human parents and an ADHD problem that keeps getting him kicked out of school. But he’s not normal, and he learns this pretty quickly when a minotaur tries to kill him on the way to summer camp. Turns out his best friend is a satyr and his dad is none other than Poseidon, god of the sea (and horses!).
See, as the seat of western civilization steadily moved west from its erstwhile seat in Greece and later Rome, the gods moved west as well. Olympus currently hovers above the Empire State Building. The Underworld is accessible through a strip mall in California. Poseidon sometimes shows up as a Jimmy Buffet look-a-like in board shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. Zeus rocks a power suit and slicks his hair back. It’s all hilariously modern.
And here’s the thing, I know I missed references. It’s been a really long time since I last read Edith Hamilton’s Mythology and I really don’t have the Greek myths memorized. Riordan does a great job at explaining a lot of the references for the kids reading, but there are also Easter eggs hidden in the text for older kids (and adults) who are more polished up on their mythology.
The series follows a standard coming-of-age and saving the world storyline, so there’s nothing too ground breaking there, but lens of mythology is a fun one to read this story through.
In conclusion: So thrilled with this resolution. I love these books, I love these kids, and I can’t wait to see where the rest of the books take them.
No Comments