The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson & the Olympians, #1)

by Rick Riordan

Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school . . . again. No matter how hard he tries, he can't seem to stay out of trouble. But can he really be expected to stand by and watch while a bully picks on his scrawny best friend? Or not defend himself against his pre-algebra teacher when she turns into a monster and tries to kill him? Of course, no one believes Percy about the monster incident; he's not even sure he believes himself.

Until the Minotaur chases him to summer camp.

Suddenly, mythical creatures seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. The gods of Mount Olympus, he's coming to realize, are very much alive in the twenty-first century. 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 has just ten days to find and return Zeus's stolen property, and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. On a daring road trip from their summer camp in New York to the gates of the Underworld in Los Angeles, Percy and his friends–one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena–will face a host of enemies determined to stop them. To succeed on 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 failure and betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.

Reviewed by thepunktheory on

4 of 5 stars

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Book vs. Movie:

Let's start with the novel. I am very fond of Greek mythology so this book was simply perfect for me. Along with the plot we get bits of interesting info on the Greek Gods. Although I already read quite a bunch of books on that matter, even I learned some new things!
The story is built cleverly around those bits of actual mythology and they are incorporated very well.
Percy's quest is thrilling and so funny! There are so many clever plot-twist, you just can't put it down!

Now to the movie. As you can tell, I was pretty excited to finally watch the film. unfortunately I ended up disappointed.
For some reason basically the entire quest was changed. The outline, the stolen bolt and Percy retrieving it, stayed the same but all the adventure, riddles and encounters along the way were either changed our completely left out. Thus the story ended up with no depth, confusing and rushed. Not only did they leave out events, also many characters I would have loved to see didn't make it to the screen. So many funny bits you don't get to see!
Furthermore, I was a bit annoyed with the casting. I am aware that you always imagine characters different from what they look like on the screen. But a girl who is described with blond curly hair, having straight brown hair in the film is just a bad joke.

All in all I have to say that the adaptation was a big disappointment. It was an okay-ish film but can't be compared to the book. Just go ahead and read it instead of bothering with the film. Can't wait to read the next part!

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 24 January, 2016: Finished reading
  • 24 January, 2016: Reviewed