Other Worlds' Rating : 8 of 10 stars
I decided to read this after enjoying the recent film adaptation of this book. As is fairly typical, the book was much better than the movie was. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The goofy, almost sarcastic humor of Rick Riordan makes this book an immensely entertaining read.
The story is about 12 year old Percy Jackson, who is dyslexic and ADHD, and feels like hardly anything is going right in his life. His mom is married to the vile Gabe Ugliano, who lives for beer and poker, and hates work almost as much as he hates Percy. Percy knows little about his dad, whom he is informed died before he was born. Percy's main goal is to survive school and not incur Gabe's wrath too often.
However, when a vacation with his mom takes a turn for the worse, Percy discovers that the Greek gods of Olympus have never been more real, and that he is involved with them in a way that he never would have thought possible. Rick Riordan spins a tale of adventure and self discovery that will keep you both laughing and on the edge of your seat until the final page.
This book is advertised as children's literature, but I think that children and adults alike will enjoy this book. It was really a good read - I loved the writing style, and the plot was fairly gripping. Riordan had a fascinating view on how the Olympians could blend with modern society. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a good read. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
I liked this book a lot. It felt like there were a number of parallels to the Harry Potter series. (Boy has a difficult home life. Boy discovers he is not as ordinary as he thought. Boy goes off to fight great evil.) But the parallels didn't feel like it was ripping off Harry Potter or anything like that. It was just using an effective story model. It was so fun to see all the fantastic beings and creatures from Greek Mythology.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the rest of this series as well.
My wife has read the first book in the second Camp Half Blood series and is eagerly awaiting the second which comes out in October. I haven't delved in yet because I want to wait until more books are out before I start it.
Just stumbled across your blog (internet surfing Brandon Sanderson actually).
ReplyDeleteMy daughter and I both read this and then watched the movie - the movie had very little to do with the book in our opinion. (We're hoping for a remake actually following a little closer to the book).
Riordan has only improved as a writer - as his two current series (The Kane Chronicles - Egyptian Mytholoify, and the Lost Hero - the second Percy Jackson series) are more complex and deeper than the original Percy Jackson set.
Excellent series!