Read History
2023 | Score: 7.5
I mostly am reading these to refresh my greek mythology before trivia night, but I mean Percy Jackson is pretty cool. I like Magnus Chase more.
Format: Kindle
Days: 1
Date: 6/12/2023 -> 6/12/2023
2026 | Score: 6.5
Rick Riordan and Suzanne Collins are probably the two most foundational authors for me growing up. Listening to Gregor the Overland on books on tape and reading all the new Percy Jackson books as they came out are part of why I love reading. These books definitely read better a kid, but despite the writing and character relationship being pretty juvenile, the story itself remains interesting and the weaving of mythology into the world will always be fun for me to read. A couple big qualms I have are the numbers in camp Half-Blood never seem to add up. He says about 100 campers, but then looking at the individual cabin numbers that does not make sense. Another thing is why do people never just explain the situation to young protagonists. They are always faced with people withholding information for no reason.
Format: Book
Days: 2
Date: 3/6/2026 -> 3/8/2026
Summary
The Lightning Thief Summary
Rich Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1
Percy Jackson is a 12 year old 6th grader at Yancy Academy in upstate New York. He has been kicked out or expelled from school every year, and is now at a school for “troubled” kids. His only friend is a scrawny kid with a limp named Grover, and they get picked on by Nancy Bobofit who the teachers like. They are going on a field trip to a local museum to see ancient Greek stuff. The latin teacher, Mr. Brenner (uses a wheelchair), always pushes Percy hard and says he can do great things. At one point Nancy is harassing Grover and Percy “pushes” (he is not sure what happened) her into the fountain. The mean math teacher, Mrs. Dodds, takes him away for a talk, but then transforms into a leathery vulture monster in private and attacks him. Mr. Brenner appears and throws him a pen which becomes a sword and percy kills her. He seems to pass out for a second and when he regains consciousness everything is normal again. No one remembers a teacher named Mrs. Dodds, but Percy thinks Grover is lying when he says that.
Back at school one evening, Percy overhears Grover and Mr. Brenner talking about strange things and that he may be in danger. At the end of the year he confronts Grover about it and Grover tells him he is his protector, and Percy should wait for him and be careful, but Percy ditches him and heads home. His mom, Sally Jackson, was forced to drop out of school young and works in a candy shop. His step-dad, Gabe Ugliano (Smelly Gabe), is a gross vile man who is rude to both Percy and his mom. When percy gets home his mom says they are going to go to a cabin in Montauk for a short vacation. When they get there Grover shows up as a storm is brewing and tells them they all need to run. Except Grover is not crippled anymore, he has goat legs and is a Satyr. Sally drives the three of them somewhere, demanding explanations from Percy as they go. They are close to their destination, a hill with a tall pine tree, when lightning hits the car and they crash. Grover is unconscious and they are pulling him towards the hill when a Minotaur shows up and chases them. Sally tries to distract it but is grabbed and being crushed when she turns into golden light and disappears. Percy is angry (he has temper control problems) and kills the minotaur with it’s own horn, then passes out.
He wakes up in Camp Half-Blood, a safe haven for children the Greek Gods have with mortals (of course no one bothers explaining this to Percy really). A girl named Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, helps nurse him back to health with Ambrosia and Nectar, food and drink of the gods. His latin teacher, Mr. Brenner, is actually the centaur Chiron, famed teacher of heroes from myth. And the camp is run by Mr. D, the god Dionysus here on punishment detail. Percy is temporarily put in Cabin 11 with all the Hermes kids and kids whose godly parentage is unknown. The cabin leader, Luke, is about 19 and kind to Percy. Annabeth has a crush on him. He does not excel at any skills until sword fighting, where he is a natural and able to disarm Luke, who is a very good swordsman. Water seems to make him stronger. He makes an enemy of Clarisse, a daughter of Ares.
They play capture the flag and Percy beats a whole group of Ares kids while standing in a creek, and his team wins. But suddenly a hellhound shows up and before Chiron kills it, it savages Percy a bit. But the creek heals him almost instantly, and Poseidon claims him via a floating trident hologram symbol.
Percy learns the “Big Three” (the gods Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, not a basketball term) are not supposed to have children since their kids started WWII, but first Zeus and now Poseidon have broken the rules. There is some big prophecy no one will tell Percy about, but their is a little prophecy and he gets to go on a quest since someone stole Zeus’ master lightning bolt. He goes and talks to the Oracle of Delphi in the attic of the Big House, and him, Annabeth, and Grover set out. Percy learns over time the pine tree on the hill is Zeus’ daughter Thalia, who he turned into a tree when she was about to die fighting monsters to defend Annabeth, Luke, and Grover. Before they leave, Luke gives Percy a pair of flying shoes (which Percy gives to Grover because son of Poseidon would not be flying), and Chiron gives him a pen that turns into a sword, Riptide (anaklusmos or something in greek). They need to return Zeus’ master bolt by the summer solstice (10 days) or their will probably be a war. They assume Hades stole it so they head to Los Angeles, entrance to the underworld.
Argus drives them a bus station. It turns out Percy is a wanted criminal for the destruction of Gabe’s car and his mom’s disappearance. On the bus they shortly get attacked by the three furies, one of whom is Mrs. Dodds, servants of Hades who say they want something. They manage to escape and flee the crashed bus to Aunty Em’s Garden Emporium. A nearby waystation with lots of odd statues around. Aunty Em is very kind and gives them food but something seems off and Grover recognizes one of the statues as his Uncle Ferdinand and this is Medusa’s lair and Percy cuts off her head. In a fit of anger he mails it to Mount Olympus, which is on the 600th floor of the Empire State Building.
They are able to buy train tickets heading to Denver. They take a stop at St. Louis, and while in the gateway arch, Percy is attacked by Echidna and a Chimera, forced to jump into the river below, where he learns he can breath underwater. A voice tells him to go to the Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles. They all get back to the train and head to Denver. They are out of money and supplies, but then when at a local diner the god Ares shows up, buys them food, and says if they retrieve his shield from a local abandoned waterpark he will help them on their quest and share info about Percy’s mom. They retrieve the shield, which was in a trap by Hephaestus for Ares and Aphrodite. Very dangerous, almost die and Annabeth has a deadly fear of spiders but they escape. They return the shield, Ares says Sally is alive, and tells them to get in the back of a semi headed to LA. He also gives Percy a backpack with some supplies to help them.
The semi is a shady animal transport business, and the animals are miserable. grover , being a Satyr, can talk to animals and do minor nature magic. Percy can talk to the zebra because Poseidon is lord of horses. They free the animals when the truck stops in Las Vegas and are forced to run. They end up in the Lotus Casino, where they are given free money and room and decide to stay and play some games. Percy realizes something is off when a dude who thinks it is 1977 is playing next to him. He gets Annabeth and Grover and they get out, and realize 5 days have passed while they were in there. They use the casino card to get a taxi to LA.
They arrive at the Santa Monica pier and a niaid gives Percy three pearls that can help them. They are looking for the under world entrance, a DOA recording studios, when they enter Procrustes waterbed shop, where he stretches and chops customers to fit beds exactly six feet. Percy kills him and saves Annabeth and Grover and the find DOA studios. Charon, the receptionist, agrees to take them for a bunch of gold Drachmas they took from Crusty. They cross a polluted river Styx and use a red ball to distract Cerberus, who just seems sad. As they wander Grover’s flying shoes activate and start pulling him away, he is almost sucked into a big pit when one falls off and they save him and run from the pit, Percy’s backpack starting to feel heavy. Percy has been having dreams of this pit, a voice coming from it and Annabeth has suspicions about what it is.
They arrive at Hades palace and he accuses them of stealing his helm of darkness. They say No, and percy opens his backpack to reveal the master bolt. He does not know how it got there. Hades offers Sally back (he has her frozen in time) in exchange for his helm, but they don’t have it so use the pearls to flee. Back on shore they meet Ares, who they realize must have tricked them. Ares has the helm of darkness, and Percy challenges him to a fight for it. They duel in the see and Percy is able to land a strike to his heel.A bunch of cops and people are watching (percy is still wanted). Ares says he got lucky and he should be careful, as he will never help him in battle or something. Ares wanted a war to start between gods (god of war), but they know someone else came up with the plan. They return the helm to a fury who flies over, and then go talk to people. The Mist, a strange substance which keeps mortals from seeing the supernatural world, convinces people percy was actually held captive by the strange man (Ares) and he is now a hero. Despite him being warned not to, it is the day of the solstice and the only way to reach NYC and Mt. Olympus is to fly on a plane. They make it and Percy sends Annabeth and Grover to camp to tell Chiron while he goes to the Empire State building. He meets the gods, and returns the bolt and explains everything. Zeus decides not to kill him, and he meets his dad, who says he is proud of him and Percy is a true son of the sea god.
He returns home to find his mom returned by Hades, and the head of Medusa on his bed. He offers to use it on Gabe, since he realized that gabe has abused his mom before. Sally says no, I’ll handle it. A week later, he gets a note saying Gabe disappeared and his mom sold a lifelike stone statue for a lot of money so she could go back to college. Back at camp, Percy is a hero. He talks to Chiron and Annabeth and they all decide Kronos, titan and father of Zeus, imprisoned in Tartarus, is behind these thefts. But Percy is angry because Zeus won’t do anything about it. At the end of the summer Percy needs to decide if he stays at camp or goes back to school. Annabeth has decided to reconnect with her family, and leaves with her mortal dad. Percy goes to train and think and finds Luke. They go to talk in the woods and Luke summons a pit scorpion to threaten Percy, then tells him how he is the one who stole the bolt and helm and serves Kronos. He is resentful towards the gods of Olympus. He vanishes and the scorpion stings Percy, but he manages to reach Chiron and is saved. Then decides to go be with his mom and go to school for the year. THE END.