The Lightning Thief

The golden-black hued cover gleamed as a beamed of light ricocheted off it. As it caught the attention of my sis & me, we went over to see an array of a certain book being displayed in the center of the mall floor. A flying shoe was depicted against the bluish black background & in bold italic golden letters was printed ‘Percy Jackson –And The Olypmians’ & below amidst the white streaks of light ‘The Lightning Thief’. ‘Half Boy, Half God, All Hero’ screamed the catchline. My sis was rather impressed and recommended we buy it.

“Another wannabe Tolkein or Rowling” scoffed I & pulled her away. A couple of days later, she showed me a glowing review of TLT in a Sunday newspaper & gave me her ‘I told u so’ look. As I always do in situations like these, I walked off in a huff.

Anyways, her birthday was fast approaching and it was time to go a-shopping. I walked through various gallis & nukkads (my favourite shopping haunts) but of no avail, I was stumped, I couldn’t find anything she’d like. So, out of sheer desperation, I went over to Blossoms & picked up, yes, The Lightning Thief.

So, on the eighteenth of October when she unwrapped her presents, she was quite shocked (pleasantly, ofcourse) to discover a hard bound copy of the book.
“So, you are gradually getting converted from an angadi shopper to a brand buyer” she exclaimed.
“Only this once” I muttered to myself.

Now any book, good or bad, new or old (the older the better, actually) plain covered or flashily clothed cannot stay for long infront of me-Unread. Barely had I tepidly opened TLT that I was pulled into a rollicking adventure.

Percy Jackson is a school kid who suffers from ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)he hates school (he’s changed many) & his teachers don’t like him much either, except his Latin teacher Mr. Brunner. Now, Percy’s lifez never been quiet and he seems to have a penchant for getting into trouble. A series of unnatural unexplained events happen & he lands up in Camp Half-Blood. Yup, turns out he’s not all human, he’s Half-God. But no one at the camp can figure out which God’s son he is. At the camp he meets Mr. Brunner, who is actually a centaur & his best friend Grover who is a Satyr. Here he’s told that he suffers from ADHD & can’t sit still in a classroom is because of his battlefield reflexes and the reason he has difficulty with English is cuz his brains’ hardwired to understand ancient Greek.

The fun begins as we slowly realise that he could be the son of any of the three most powerful God’s – Zeus (King of Gods), Poseidon (God of Water) & Hades (God of the Underworld). Percy is then sent on a mission to find out who has stolen Zeus’s Lightning Bolt & if he doesn’t all hell will break loose (literally).

Will Percy succeed? Ofcourse he will, but at what price & the how, makes for an interesting read.

My long review obviously indicates how much I enjoyed the book. With Greek mythology (which I always seem to be drawn to) deftly woven into the books tapestry, Rick Riordan has delivered a winner. But most important of all is the lesson I’ve learnt- Sometimes all that glitter can be gold.

[No. of pages: 375]