Book 7 - The Lightning Thief

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan attempts to merge ancient Greek mythology with the modern world.  Young Percy (Perseus) Jackson has never really fit in anywhere and has bounced around from school to school.  One day at 12, he was sure that his math teacher turned into a monster which he slayed with a pen given to him by his Latin teacher that turned into a sword when uncapped; however, nobody else seemed to believe.  When his mom finds out about the teacher and the three strange old ladies he saw by a fruit stand (the Fates), they jump into the car with his friend Grover, the satyr, and try to get to Camp Half Blood before being overtaken by the minotaur.  They almost make it, but Percy's mom is lost in a flash of gold and an infuriated Percy turns on the minotaur and destroys him.  Once in camp, Percy learns that he is a half-blood, a demigod, whose father turns out to be Poseidon, god of the sea.  The wacky weather that has been plaguing New York is the result of Zeus' anger over the theft of his master bolt, which he is sure that Percy stole for his father Poseidon.  Percy and his two friends have ten days to journey to the Underworld where bolt is believed to be and return it to its rightful owner without getting themselves killed by all of the monsters that will come after them along the way.

I have mixed feeling about this particular book.  I love the concept because I love Greek mythology.  The book is certainly packed with action (some of which is a little predictable) but still enjoyable.  However, I honestly hate the author's choice of narrator.  Having Percy narrating the story in the first person nearly made me give up after the first couple of chapters.  It makes the descriptions sparse and lacking and results in a writing style that is juvenile and annoying at times.  The plot reads more like an action movie jumping from one problem to the next.  As pure entertainment, if you can get past its narration style, it's a fun way to pass an afternoon or two.  I enjoyed it enough to place a hold on the next book in the series, but I'm holding off on passing it on to my kids at this point until I see how the main character develops over the next few books.