| The Lightning Thief | |
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Cover The Lightning Thief |
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| Author(s) | Rick Riordan |
| Illustrator | John Rocco |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Percy Jackson & the Olympians (Book 1) |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy novel[3] |
| Publisher | Hyperion Books[2] Puffin Books |
| Publication date | July 1, 2005 (hardcover) April 1, 2006 (paperback)[1] |
| Media type | Print (hardback, paperback), audiobook CD |
| Pages | 384 (hardcover)[2] 400 (paperback)[1] |
| ISBN | 0786856297[2] |
| OCLC Number | 60786141 |
| Followed by | The Sea of Monsters[4] |
The Lightning Thief is a 2005 fantasy-adventure novel based on Greek mythology, the first young adult novel written by Rick Riordan. It is the first novel in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, which charts the adventures of modern-day twelve-year-old Percy Jackson as he discovers he is a demigod, the son of a mortal woman and the Greek god Poseidon. Percy and his friends go on a quest to prevent a war between the Greek gods Zeus, Poseidon and Hades.
The Lightning Thief was sold at auction to Miramax Books before being released on July 28, 2005. The book has sold over 1.2 million copies in the subsequent four years, appearing on The New York Times children's Best Seller list and being listed as one of the Young Adult Library Services Association's Best Books for Young Adults, among other awards. It was adapted into a film named Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief which was released in the United States on February 12, 2010. The sequel to this novel is The Sea of Monsters.[5]
Contents |
The Lightning Thief uses some concepts of Greek mythology in a modern setting.[3][6] It is written in a fast-paced humorous style.[3][2][6]
You shall go west and face the God who has turned,
You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned,
You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend,
And you shall fail to save what matters most in the end. [7]
Percy Jackson is a twelve-year-old boy, diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia, who has been expelled from six schools, the latest being Yancy Academy. During a school field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, his pre-algebra teacher, Mrs. Dodds, attacks Percy, revealing that she is one of the three Furies. Percy's mother Sally allows his stepfather Gabe Ugliano to mistreat them both because Gabe "takes care of them" economically. To get away from Gabe, Sally takes Percy on a trip to Long Island for a three day vacation.
In the middle of the first night, Percy's closest friend and former classmate at Yancy Academy, Grover Underwood, who is revealed to be a satyr, warns him that the "Kindly Ones" (The Furies) are trying to kill him. Sally drives them both to Camp Half-Blood, a camp for demigods where they can train. On the way there, they are attacked by a Minotaur, which grabs Percy's mother by her throat. She dissolves into a golden shower of light, while Grover and Percy narrowly escape and enter the camp. There, Percy passes out and is taken care of for a few days.
Percy is moved into the Hermes cabin (each of the 12 Olympian gods have a cabin) under the care of Luke Castellan, the cabin's counselor. The Hermes cabin is established to be the place where all demigods with unknown parentage are placed. Clarisse, a daughter of Ares, says newbies at camp have to have their heads dunked into a filthy toilet and tries to dunk Percy's head into a toilet with her friends. However, the water responds to Percy and Clarisse, her buddies, and Annabeth are drenched instead. For revenge, during a camp game of Capture the Flag, Clarisse and her siblings attack Percy. He steps into the adjoining river and is healed by the waters while Poseidon's trident appears above his head, revealing him to be the son of Poseidon. Unfortunately, it also means that Poseidon has broken an oath that he, Hades and Zeus took after the Second World War to refrain from having any more children with mortal women, as the children can become too powerful and become a threat. Such an example is demonstrated when Chiron mentions the story of Thalia Grace, an unfortunate daughter of Zeus. Percy is granted a quest to find Zeus's master bolt which Chiron, one of Percy's tutors at the camp, believes Hades has stolen. Zeus however, believes Poseidon had Percy steal the bolt.
Percy has ten days before the summer solstice to find the bolt and is given magic flying shoes by Luke before leaving on the quest with Annabeth and Grover. Percy decides to travel west to reach the entrance to the Underworld in Hollywood, Los Angeles.
The trip is not uneventful, instead turning out to be one with a large number of encounters with Greek monsters. A fight with the Furies on board a Greyhound bus causes an explosion inside the Lincoln Tunnel. Trying to find a place to eat, they visit a roadside curio shop some ways away, but the owner turns out to be Medusa. After an attack that nearly kills them, Percy cuts off Medusa's head, which he mails to the gods. Percy, Annabeth and Grover eventually find a lost poodle while camping out in the woods nearby. They turn the puppy in for reward money, which allows them to buy train tickets that get them as far as Denver. During a stopover in St. Louis, they visit the Gateway Arch, where the Echidna attacks them, also blowtorching a hole in the side of the arch. When they stop over in Denver, they have a run-in with Ares, the god of war, who tells Percy that his mother is alive and also requests that they retrieve his shield from an abandoned water park. When Percy, Annabeth and Grover visit said water park, they nearly get consumed by Hephaestus's robotic spiders and their activities broadcast to Olympus on TV. That night, they stow away on an animal transport that takes them to Las Vegas, Nevada. After Grover releases all of the underfed and mistreated animals in the back of the truck, they start looking around, and wander into the Lotus Hotel and Casino. They nearly end up forgetting completely about their quest but are saved when Percy finds people who think they are in the 1970s. They also find out that they have spent five days in the casino due to the fact that time passes quickly inside the building. After taking a taxi to Los Angeles, they nearly get stretched out by Procrustes on waterbeds. They go to a place called "DOA Recording Studios" and find that it is an entrance to the Underworld where dead people wait to be transported to the Underworld. Despite the fact that they are not dead, they manage to bribe the person in charge, Charon, with drachma. They are transported across the river Styx and enter the Underworld, where they enter the Fields of Asphodel.
As they approach Hades' palace, Luke’s shoes try to drag Grover over the edge of the Pit of Tartarus, but he manages to slip his hooves free. Percy confronts Hades, who also believes Percy has stolen his helm, an object that allows him to become a shadow. Percy discovers that the bolt had appeared in his backpack and flees from the Underworld with his friends using the three pearls he had received from a water spirit, forced to leave his mother behind. He then fights and defeats Ares by stabbing the god's heel.
Percy fights Ares, the God of War and wins, getting the helm in return which he asks the Furies, who witnessed everything, to return and give it to Hades. Percy flies to New York, risking getting blasted by going into the sky, the realm of Zeus. He arrives in New York City to give the master bolt to Zeus at level 600 of the Empire State Building, where Olympus is now located. Zeus accepts the master bolt and Percy returns to camp. Luke reveals that he stole the bolt for Kronos and summons a poisonous scorpion which stings and nearly kills Percy. Chiron cures him and Percy leaves to attend another school that his mother has found. Annabeth returns to live with her mortal father and Grover embarks on a journey as a "seeker" to try to find the great god Pan. Percy heads home and gives his mom Medusa's head, which she presumably uses to turn Gabe into a stone statue that she sells in order to make enough money to buy a new apartment. It is revealed that the only reason Percy's mother married Gabe is to disguise Percy's demigod stench with Gabe's filthy smell.
The Lightning Thief received mostly positive reviews. Common Sense Media said "there are two levels of fun in The Lightning Thief. One is the fast-paced quest of a young hero and his friends to save the world" and added "another level of fun here – laughing at the wicked ways the author has updated the gods and monsters for the 21st century".[8] However, it did criticize some aspects of the book describing the prose as "choppy and attitude-filled" and complaining that "[t]he characters aren't emotionally involving". Its overall rating was 4 stars out of 5.[8] The New York Times praised The Lightning Thief as "perfectly paced, with electrifying moments chasing each other like heartbeats".[9] School Library Journal said in its starred review that the book was "[a]n adventure-quest with a hip edge" and that "[r]eaders will be eager to follow the young protagonist's next move".[3] Kirkus praised the book, "The sardonic tone of the narrator's voice lends a refreshing air of realism to this riotously paced quest tale of heroism that questions the realities of our world, family, friendship and loyalty."[10] Eoin Colfer, author of Artemis Fowl called it "A fantastic blend of myth and modern".[11] Publishers Weekly also praised the book, regarding it as "swift and humorous" and added that the book would "leave many readers eager for the next installment."[12] On April 8, 2007, The Lightning Thief was ranked ninth on The New York Times Best Seller list for children's books.[13] When speaking about the various awards, Rick Riordan said:
"The ultimate compliment for a children's writer is when the kids like it."[14]
The Lightning Thief was the winner of the School Library Journal Best Book of 2005[15] as well one of the books in the Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books List, 2005.[4] It was also in the VOYA Top Shelf Fiction List[4] and was the winner of the Red House Children's Book Award Winner (UK), 2006;[4] Askews Torchlight Award (UK), 2006;[4] and the Mark Twain Award (Missouri Association of School Librarians), 2008.[4][16] It was an American Library Association Notable Book, 2006[17] and a New York Times Notable Book (2005).[18] It received the Young Reader's Choice Award in 2008[19] and the Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Book Award in 2009.[20]
In June 2007, 20th Century Fox acquired the feature film rights to the book.[21] In April 2007 director Chris Columbus was hired to helm the project. Logan Lerman is Percy Jackson and Brandon T. Jackson is Grover Underwood, the satyr. Alexandra Daddario plays Annabeth while Jake Abel was cast as Luke Castellan. Pierce Brosnan plays Chiron.[22] The film is titled Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief[22] and was released in the United States on February 12, 2010.[23] The film's plot deviates from the book's but is still considered a faithful adaptation. There are quite a few differences in the film from the book. Many of the characters are much older than in the novel, where Percy's approaching 16th birthday is a major plot point. Several members of the supporting cast are also absent, such as Clarisse, the daughter of Ares, who is a rather prominent secondary character in the sequels. In the book, Percy does not discover his father is Poseidon until after his first capture the flag match. The quest also does not involve gathering the pearls during the journey, rather Percy receives them from a sea spirit once the trio reaches Los Angeles. Luke does not betray the camp until the very end when he introduces his sword Backbiter and poisons Percy with the scorpion. The movie also establishes Luke as the lightning thief and main antagonist of the series, rather than Ares and Kronos, respectively, as in the novel. These changes have been met with a great deal of criticism from fans of the books.
On June 28, 2005, a 10 hour and 25 minute audio book version, read by actor Jesse Bernstein, was published worldwide by Listening Library.[24][25]
Kirkus magazine said, "the narrator’s voice lends a refreshing air of realism to this riotously paced quest tale of heroism that questions the realities of our world, family, friendship and loyalty".[3] AudioFile Magazine praised the audiobook, "adults and children alike will be spellbound as they listen to this deeply imaginative tale unfold."[25] School Library Journal both praised and criticized the audio book saying "Although some of Jesse Bernstein's accents fail (the monster from Georgia, for instance, has no Southern trace in her voice), he does a fine job of keeping the main character's tones and accents distinguishable".[26] There is no chimera, prophecy, or the theft of the Helm of Darkness.
The Lightning Thief is followed by The Sea of Monsters in which Percy and Annabeth rescue Grover who has been imprisoned by Polyphemus, the Cyclops, and recover the Golden Fleece to save the camp. They are accompanied by Percy's half brother, Tyson and Clarisse in this mission.
Like The Lightning Thief it won several prizes and received generally positive reviews as well.[4][27][28] It sold over 100,000 copies in paperback.[5] It was followed by The Titan's Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and The Last Olympian as well as a new series, The Heroes of Olympus.
The Lightning Thief was published in Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Serbian, Spanish, and Swedish. The French edition was known as Le voleur de foudre (OCLC 319924908). The German name of the book was Diebe im Olymp (OCLC 254901802). These two, along with the Spanish version El ladrón del rayo (OCLC 74884882), were published in 2006. The other translations of the book Salamavaras (OCLC 231203516) in Finnish, Os Ladrões do Olimpo (The thieves of Olympus) in Portuguese, O ladrão de raios, in Chinese, "波西傑克森：神火之賊", and פרסי ג׳קסון וגנב הברק. or Persi G'eḳson ṿe-ganav ha-baraḳ (OCLC 243824272) in Hebrew were published in 2008. In Serbia it is called Kradljivac munje, while in Croatia it is called Percy Jackson i Olimpijci: Kradljivac gromova. The Icelandic publisher Odinseye plans to release The Lightning Thief in 2012.[29] It is on sale in Taiwan, being published by Yuan Liou Publishing.[30]
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