Perseus Jackson, known as Percy, is a troubled youth to say the least. He has only vague memories of his real father, his stepfather is an angry lout who abuses his mother, and Percy seems to have several learning disorders on top of being socially awkward. Kicked out of several schools already, he is worried about what will happen when things start to go wrong at his current school. Despite the efforts of his friend Grover and his Latin teacher, Percy seems to be headed for expulsion, when his math teacher turns into a monster and attacks him. Without quite knowing how, Percy is narrowly able to defeat her. At first it seems like no one noticed anything unusual, but it is clear that Grover is hiding something. When Percy goes home to his mother for the Summer, he thinks that things will calm down, but soon he is fleeing for his life with his mother and Grover (who turns out to be a Satyr) for the safety of a place known as "Camp Half-Blood" on Long Island.
Percy is able to reach the safety of the camp, but not before facing off against the Minotaur and seeing his mother apparently crushed to death by the monster. After recovering from his injuries he learns, from his Latin teacher who is actually the centaur Chiron, that he is a demigod, the son of one of the Greek Gods, though no one is sure which. The camp is a safe haven for his kind, where monsters cannot enter unless summoned, and left undisturbed by the Gods, who are alive and well on the mythical Mount Olympus, which has been moved to the top of the Empire State Building.
Just as Percy is getting used to this idea, and coming to terms with life at the camp, a monster appears and nearly kills him. He is only able to defeat it when he's standing in water, and it is then revealed that he is the son of Poseidon. Before he can come to grips with this, he is told that Zeus has been angry and suspicious of Percy's father ever since the Master Thunderbolt was stolen a few months ago. Others suspect Hades, god of the Underworld and Zeus' other brother, are behind the theft, and Percy is sent on a hero's quest to find retrieve the Thunderbolt from the Lord of the Dead. Percy, hoping to bring his mother back to the land of the living, agrees to go and is accompanied by his friend Grover and another demigod, a daughter of Athena named Annabeth.
During their journey, the three heroes learn to trust each other, and discover things about themselves and each other they never suspected. Percy and Annabeth in particular explore some of their feelings regarding their absent Divine parents. Meanwhile, the trio face dangers straight out of Greek myth, and eventually uncover the real lightning thief, though the danger is far from over, with the plot setting itself up for sequels.
While it is easy to see Percy Jackson as a copycat of Harry Potter, the parallels are likely more coincidental than not, the result of two authors drawing on many of the same literary traditions. Hero's journeys are a classic form; Percy and his story are familiar in the way that the stories Joseph Campbell describes in The Hero with a Thousand Faces are familiar, and this is because they are among the most compelling ever told. Without overselling it, this book is at least attempting to follow in that tradition.
The book also succeeds as a way to make Greek mythology and classical literature, often dreaded subjects in school, interesting to kids. While the setting and language are modern, the characters and even form of the story are straight out of the myths. While Percy is certainly the prototypical hero, he is also a teenage American boy, possessing both virtues and flaws, whom young adult readers will find highly sympathetic. Especially compelling to teens is the fact that many of Percy's seeming drawbacks turn out to be hidden strengths. This is something many real kids his age either hope or secretly believe, in some cases correctly, is true about themselves. Furthermore, despite his archetypal traits, he develops a distinct voice and sense of self that sets him apart from his literary contemporaries.
Another feature that is likely to make it popular is the fact that the action almost never stops. While Percy does manage to find some time to reflect on his circumstances, choices, and sense of self, the book moves along at a breakneck pace and danger is never far. Despite Oracular predictions of limited success, the reader never feels Percy is truly safe, even at the conclusion of the book. While this is sure to please many young readers, anyone looking for a more dialogue and character driven stories will be disappointed.
Based on the quality of the writing, and the loving treatment of the mythological source material (Riordan is clearly a big fan of the Classics) and for the sheer entertainment value, I would recommend this book to a wide range of readers. Given the somewhat graphic depictions of violence and the heavy subject matter, especially regarding complicated relationships with parents, I would not recommend this book for anyone below the 7th grade, though much like Harry Potter I think that the series is likely to appeal to readers of all ages above that.
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