#3: A book that became a movie; Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Theif, by Rick Riordan.
Where to begin? As you could probably guess by my last entry on the Goddess Test Review, I love Greek mythology, and more importantly, Fiction influenced by the greatest stories in history. This book will be used for both my reading challenge and a "Movie to Book" comparison. Out of the major current series that have hit cinemas this decade, Percy Jackson is the only other series that I've watched without reading, besides the Hunger Games series (okay fine, and Twilight, but you can't make me read it!).
I fell in love with the movie and when the second film came out: The Sea of Monsters, I decided it was time to consider reading the books, especially since the series was already completed. Just recently I bought the box set and it has found a home in my collection, but until then I read the first book on my nook.
Perseus Jackson, aka Percy, was a kid who seemed to be haunted by problems and trouble. The 12-year-old boy is at his 10th or so school, never takes long before something happens that leads to his expulsion. When he gets attacked by his Math teacher during a trip to a museum, Percy swears he is losing his mind. When Percy returns home to his mom and her crappy husband, he is more than thrilled to find out his mom planned a trip to an old beach house just the two of them, far away from Smelly Gabe, his stepdad.
On this trip, Percy has a horrible nightmare and when he wakes, the weather is just as dark. When his best friend appears at their doorstep saying they must leave, and his mother doesn't question a thing, Percy is confused, to say the least. His mother says she must take him to a safe place, but she can't go with him...she repeats that he is special and that his father would have wanted him to go to this place. On the way to the mysterious location, they discover they are being followed... not all of them make it to Camp Half-Blood.
When he discovers that he isn't fully human, that he is a demi-god, son of the Sea God, Poseidon, all hell breaks loose. He learns that a war is brewing, and he is now at the center of it all. His Uncle Zeus blames Percy for the disappearance of his mighty Lightning bolt. Of course, Percy had nothing to do with it, but with the blame on him, the gods have to pick sides in the argument, Poseidon, or Zeus, and when they learn that Hades might be behind it all, Percy is given the task to travel to the Underworld and retrieve what was stolen and return it. But not everything is what it seems.
There was a lot of creativity with this story and I loved that Rick Riordan stuck to the roots of the original myths. The original content that Rick created fit perfectly with the ancient versions, making them feel believable. I will compare this to the movie in another blog entry. Can't wait to read the next book in the series! 4.8 out of 5!
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