Mission: Failure (and why you should read “The Lightning Thief”)
I regretfully admit that my summer reading list has become my summer-fall reading list. At the rate I’m going, it could become my summer-fall-winter reading list.
Since my last post I’ve only finished one book, but it’s the one I’ve been hoping to for a long time: Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief. It’s one of the best books I’ve read in a long time — not just because I enjoyed it, but because the writing is spectacular.
Yes. It’s a kid’s book — a kid’s series. The protagonist is in the 6th grade. And you should go read it right now. I’ve said it before, and I’ve said it again. The material may not be as explicit, but kids’ books still tackle difficult issues. And “The Lightning Thief” has difficult issues: abusive step-parents, deadbeat parents, violence, sacrifice and betrayal.
Rick Riordan really does know what he’s talking about. He recreates the sensations and the emotions of the main character in a way I’ve rarely seen. And even though you go into the story knowing what the main character doesn’t (that he’s the son of one of the Olympian gods), you still feel his puzzlement at the strange events surrounding him. Even though you know he’s on his way to a great adventure, you feel his anger and frustration and hopelessness when he’s expelled from school.
The beginning of the book isn’t just to get Percy where he needs to be.
It isn’t just to hook the reader with some sort of mystery, and it isn’t just to lay out the rules of Percy Jackson universe.
The beginning of the book is for the reader to get to know Percy. Some of the younger readers may empathize with him (he’s been told he has ADHD and dyslexia, has never done well in school, and like Harry Potter in “The Sorcerer’s Stone,” seems to get in trouble for strange things that aren’t his fault), but Percy isn’t just a stand-in character for every misfit kid out there wishing they were someone special. He’s got depth. He has a personality – he has quirks and he has limits, and he has issues.
Maybe Percy Jackson has some similarities to Harry Potter. A troubled young boy with a less-than-ideal home life suddenly finds out that he’s not what he thought he was, and gets dragged into a fight that he inherited without deserving.
It sounds a bit like the start of Wheel of Times series, if you exclude the less-than-ideal home life. And if we’re excluding that, it also sounds a bit like the beginning of the Sword of Truth series. And yes, even the start of the Lord of Rings.
It sounds a bit cliché. But Rick Riordan’s done his homework. He doesn’t just ask, “Hey, what if the Greek gods were still alive and kicking?” He explains why they are. He works in the myths of the past, and makes them relevant to his story without abusing them and twisting them to his own ends. He captures the spirit of the Greek myths – stories of gods who aren’t all-powerful, all-seeing and all-good. These gods were petty, vengeful and proud.
And that’s what sets “The Lightning Thief” apart. Harry, Rand in the Wheel of Time, Richard in the Sword of Truth and Frodo all get thrown into the ultimate battle of good-versus-evil. And while the world is still at stake in “The Lightning Thief,” it’s not a showdown between the forces of good and evil. It’s very personal, very petty, and very much like the old Greek myths.
But hey, if you don’t believe me, go read it for yourself.
Go on. You won’t regret it.
