The Radical Child

The film adaptations of the first two installments of author Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson & the Olympians series seemed to amount to an orphaned franchise, but the Walt Disney Company, after acquiring 20th Century Fox, distributor of said movies, gave its crack at the fantasy novels in the form of a streaming Disney+ show. The first season adapts the inaugural book, The Lightning Thief, focusing on the eponymous dyslexic, attention-deficit twelve-year-old grade-schooler, expelled from school after a supernatural incident at a museum, whom his mother Sally begins to convey to Camp Half-Blood in a world where Greek gods and monsters are real.

While it's been years since I last read the books and saw the films, I enjoyed the Disney+ adaptation, given its modern fantasy setting like the Harry Potter books and mythological influences. The episode titles hint at the show’s lighthearted nature (and borrow from a few chapter names in The Lightning Thief). Given that the length of all episodes totaled grossly outweighs that of the first cinematic film, it’s assumedly faithful to the source material, having excellent world-building and cast performances. Thus, I will continue watching this series as future episodes are released.

The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In the penultimate entry of author Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, the namesake demigod protagonist is at an orientation of a school his mother wants him to attend the subsequent school year, and just like in prior books, things go awry with monsters in cheerleaders’ disguises seeking to off him, Camp Half-Blood being a prime target for the forces of the Titan Kronos. Grover the satyr also faces the threat of revocation of his searcher’s license unless he finds the god Pan, and an entrance into the titular Labyrinth constructed by Daedalus is found below the Camp.

Percy also has a number of dreams throughout the book, among them involving King Minos interrupting a conversation between Daedalus and his son Icarus. In the middle of their navigation of the Labyrinth, Percy and his friends encounter a ranch with horrid conditions for the animals, which prove carnivorous as well. They also encounter the Sphinx, which asks random trivia questions instead of posing riddles, with the group eventually finding Daedalus’ workshop. During the book’s events, the mortal girl Rachel helps Percy and company, and a council ultimately decides Grover’s fate.

The book ends with a few battles and Percy’s fifteenth birthday, and is overall another fine addition to Riordan’s series, given its enjoyable blend of fantasy, mythology, and contemporary America, with a few twists throughout the narrative. There are also a few locations visited I’ve actually been to, such as Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, and could certainly visualize it and other places Percy and his friends encounter during the story. Some fecal references at one point mar the book’s events, but otherwise, I would recommend the fourth Percy Jackson book to those who enjoyed its precursors.

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The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The first installment of author Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series opens with the franchise’s namesake protagonist, Perseus Jackson, also the first-person narrator, stating that he didn’t yearn to be a demigod, with one of his instructors attempting to kill him, only to discover that there was no such teacher with her name. He ultimately takes a bus back home to Manhattan and his mother Sally Jackson, not to mention stepfather “Smelly” Gabe Ugliano. Sally and her son plan a trip to the beach town of Montauk, with a hurricane and encounter with the Minotaur following, and Percy finding himself in Camp Half-Blood, full of others like him.

Percy discovers the truth about his biological father and an impending war among the Greek gods due to the eponymous thief of Zeus’s master bolt, which necessitates he go on a quest with his friends Grover and Annabeth cross-country to the entrance of the Underworld in Los Angeles. Along the way, they have several near-death experiences related to figures from Greek mythology, Percy himself becoming a fugitive that receives unwanted media attention, and needing to find the master bolt before the summer solstice. The trio ultimately does reach the Underworld, with several battles and twists rounding out the first entry of Riordan’s series.

Overall, the first Percy Jackson book is definitely a fun read, given its great combination of Greek mythology and contemporary American culture that has references aplenty to things such as Coca-Cola, media figures like Barbara Walters, and so forth. There’s also plentiful self-aware humor, with the titles of each chapter in particular attesting to the book’s general lighthearted, humorous disposition. Having watched the film adaptation, I can definitely attest that its literary source material is vastly different, and would both very well recommend the first entry to young readers and adults alike and continue reading Riordan’s series.

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