Series Review: Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan

Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Format: Paperback boxset
Goodreads (The Lightning Thief) || Book Depository (boxset)

sYNOPSIS FOR THE LIGHTNING THIEF

Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school… again. And that’s the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy’s Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he’s angered a few of them. Zeus’s master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.

Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus’s stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed in his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.

MY THOUGHTS ON THE SERIES

I still cannot believe that I haven’t read Percy Jackson and the Olympians until now. What was I doing with my life?! Percy Jackson and the Olympians is a middle-grade fantasy series that revolves around Greek mythology. I have a review of the first book, The Lightning Thief, if you’d like to read my in-depth thoughts about that first novel.

The series follows our hero, Percy Jackson, who is a half-blood. He is half-mortal and half-god, the son of Poseidon. He discovers his parentage at the beginning of The Lightning Thief and joins Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp and sanctuary for other demi-gods like Percy who are constantly being hunted by monsters. However, Percy’s life is about to get more and more hectic because big changes are going on in the world. There is a powerful force who is trying to overthrow the gods and take over Mount Olympus and Percy and the other half-bloods must try their hardest to stop them before his world collapses and disappears.

These books were so much fun to read! They were packed full of action and I just flew through each book in about a day. They were extremely well-paced and easy to read and I could have read 10 more of those books (and I probably will since I’ve already ordered The Heroes of Olympus series). I felt like I was a part of Percy’s crew, going along with him on his adventures, and that’s probably why these books were so enjoyable for me. I was completely immersed in the action and was so affected by everything that happened, and Rick Riordan definitely made me feel all the feels. I wasn’t expecting to cry for the enemy but I totally did. What I also really enjoyed and need to mention were the chapter titles! They were super funny to read and I think my looking forward to seeing what the next chapter title was really motivated me to keep reading.

This series also incorporates a lot of Greek mythology (I mean, it is a series about Greek gods and demi-gods). I learnt a lot about mythological creatures and gods in this series and it made me want to go out and discover more about these myths. This series featured not only the major gods, but also a lot of the minor gods, heroes and monsters too. I can definitely see why this series has been a hit not only with pre-teens but also adults too. Everything was accurate (as far as I can tell from my not-very-extensive Google searches) and I really liked the educational aspect of it, but I also appreciated the little twists that Rick Riordan put in as well.

I really, really loved Percy as a protagonist and I enjoyed reading from his point of view. He was such a funny and sassy character and I loved his voice. He never failed to make me laugh and his observations about the world were incredibly funny all the time. I wasn’t expecting to relate to him as much as I did, but Percy is like my best friend right now! I loved being able to see him grow and find different aspects to his abilities. But in addition to Percy, I also loved nearly all of the characters that we got to meet in this series! I really enjoyed Annabeth, Grover and Tyson as Percy’s sidekicks. They were so funny and adorable and I just wanted to hug all of them. I also really liked all of the gods and how Rick Riordan gave them personalities to match the myths surrounding them. But I think my favourite characters were Chiron’s party ponies. They made me laugh out loud so many times!! They were so unexpected and hilarious! I also discovered my new favourite war cry in this series, “PEANUT BUTTER”.

I did have a couple of small issues with the books though. I felt that The Titan’s Curse (Book 3) and The Battle of the Labyrinth (Book 4) took me a little while to get into. It took some time for the book to really get started. I felt like we weren’t really making any progress during the first 100 pages of The Titan’s Curse and it just lagged and made me want to put down the book. However, each book does come home strongly, so it pays off to persevere! Also, each book is so quick and easy to read that it’s worth just sticking with it.

My other small issue with the series was that each book is set during the summer and we don’t really get to see what happens to Percy and friends during the year. It felt kind of strange that this ongoing war ceased to exist during the school year and only recommenced at the beginning of summer. I know there are small developments that we don’t really get to see, but I thought it was a bit strange. It also broke the flow of the series for me a little bit, and because I marathoned these books in a week, it was quite noticeable to me.

Despite some small shortcomings, I thoroughly enjoyed Percy Jackson and the Olympians and I now have a newfound appreciation for Greek mythology. I can’t wait to dive into The Heroes of Olympus series soon! I’ve also ordered Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods and Percy Jackson’s Greek Heroes so I’m going to learn a lot about Greek mythology in the next few weeks!

RATINGS FOR EACH BOOK

The Lightning Thief                  

The Sea of Monsters                 

The Titan’s Curse                       

The Battle of the Labyrinth    

The Last Olympian