Friday, Jun 12, 2009

Book Review: The Lightning Thief

 Author:       Rick Riordan

Publisher:    Miramax Books/Hyperion

ISBN:         978-0-78683-865-3

Website:      http://www.rickriordan.com/

                 http://www.percyjacksonbooks.com/

Type:         Fiction:YA

Pages:        375 Trade Paperback

Purchase:    $7.99 @ Amazon.com (HERE)

The Story

“What if the gods of Olympus were alive in the 21^st Century? What if they still fell in love with mortals and had children who might become great heroes — like Theseus, Jason and Hercules?”

What if you were one of those children?

Such is the discovery that launches twelve-year-old Percy Jackson on the most dangerous quest of his life. With the help of a satyr and a daughter of Athena, Percy must journey across the United States to catch a thief who has stolen the original weapon of mass destruction – Zeus’ master bolt. Along the way, he must face a host of mythological enemies determined to stop him. Most of all, he must come to terms with a father he has never known, and an Oracle that has warned him of betrayal by a friend.”

(Above excerpt is from www.rickriordan.com)

The Review

I am involved in a Mother/Child(ren) book club.  Our first meeting is in July and we will be covering The Lightning Thief.   The twins received the very generous gift of not only this book, but the second book in the series, The Sea Monster, from their BFF at their recent birthday party.  Apparently, there are five books in the series with the last one being released in May of this year.   As you can imagine, they devoured both books and are begging me for the 3rd in the series.  I discovered that you can purchase the 3-book series for $11.99 at Amazon.com for only $4 more than just purchasing the first book.  So, I purchased the 3-book series as I had to read the book for the book club and would appreciate a fresh copy to enjoy (rather than the mangled one that was left in the wake of their reading destruction).  (Note:  I have a strange thing about reading books without a bunch of cracks, creases, torn pages, etc.).

Grover the Satyr

The 3-book set arrived and the twins are clamouring to read the 3rd book.  I told them, not until I read it first because I want to read the book before it gets mangled into an oblivion.  So they told me that I had to “hurry up” and read the other two.  Now, I started reading The Lightning Thief  on Friday night and finished it on Sunday evening.  They are sooo mad at me for not reading it faster than that!  After all, they read it in a day, yada yada yada.  And, they kept interrupting me every 10 minutes to find out where I was at in the book.  I would tell them and they’d say… “Oooohhh… that’s a good part, but it gets even better!”  The last 40 pages, they sat there with me and watched me read it and asked for updates at the end of each page.  For goodness sakes! 

I guess you can tell by now, they loved it. 

So, it really doesn’t matter much what MOM thinks of this book because THEY LOVED IT and THEY are the target audience for the book.  From glancing at Riordan’s website, I can see that this will be made into a movie and maybe video game, at some point.  I can also sense that Riordan is getting A TON of mail from kidlets on the books.  I can only congratulate him on his success at developing a book that both boys and girls learn something from and enjoy so greatly. 

Favorite Quotes:

“Percy,” Grover cuts in, “if you were Zeus, and you already thought your brother was plotting to overthrow you, then your brother suddenly admitted he had broken the sacred oath he took after World War II, that he’s fathered a new mortal hero who might be used as a weapon against you… Wouldn’t that put a twist in your toga?”

{This quote is about pollution in the River Styx in the Underworld} “Polluted,” Charon said.  “For thousands of years, you humans have been throwing in everything as you come across – hopes, dreams, wishes that never came true.  Irresponsible waste management, if you ask me.”

On Sher’s “Out of Ten Scale:”

First, if you have to purchase a child birthday gift (ages 9-10+), I don’t see how you could possibly go wrong with buying the 3-part series for $11.99.  The child’s parents will love you forever as they will get hours of peace and quiet.   And, the kidlet will love you for taking them on an odyssey that they won’t soon forget.  LET ME REPEAT:  Great gift idea at a very reasonable price!  

If you are into reading YA Fiction, you just might enjoy this.  What I personally grew tired of, and it’s solely based on my personality in that I am not much into it, were all of the fight/battle scenes in the book.  I’m not big into fantasy with swords and magic, etc.  But, even that being said, I was entertained and I can say that I found this to be a good book.  I’m just such a girlie-girl that I am the type who prefers Judy Blume to this type of read. 

For the genre Fiction:YA, I am going to rate this book a 8 OUT OF 10 however, the twins rate this book a 10 out of 10.  And, it is their opinion that counts!

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