It's a good book. It didn't place in my top list but still scored pretty well. Usually I prefer to read the book before watching the movie, but this time I had already watched the film before even knowing this book series existed. Yet, it's so different that it didn't make any difference. I could never see the characters with the various actors' faces. They were completely different, everything is pretty different. Percy is a twelve years old kid, very young. Medusa appears like a kind old lady at first, not like a young, cool Lady Godiva. The story too is different in many ways, and Hades was pretty cool in the book.
The story is this: Percy changes school every year because he has behaviour problems: deficit of attention, and has also difficulty reading : he's more than dislexic, the letters appear to float around in front of his eyes. He feels that everything is against him, even his own mind. He loves his mother so very much, but hates the man she married. He doesn't yet know that he's Poseidon's son (nobody knows it yet) and that monsters are out to get him, so his mother only married that disgusting man so that his horrid smell could mask Percy's , and thus protecting him from monsters. One day they are found out, when his teacher reveals to be a fury and attacks him, but at first Mr Brunner and Grover covers it all up making him believe he's imagining things. While on a trip with his mother, Grover rushes in to tell them they're in danger, and the only way to save Percy is to run to the Camp HalfBlood, where all demiGods can live in peace, and his mother drives him and his friend Grover until a Minotaur attacks them. His mother is taken and disappears vanishing in light. He fights the Minotaur and the two kids get into the camp. Well, he's passes out and is brought into the camp where he wakes up a few days later. Grover is the satyr that was at his school to protect him, and his teacher Mr Brunner reveals himself to be Chiron the centaur. He stays at the camp for a while, training especially with Luke son of Hermes who becomes his friend, and stays in Hermes' house with Luke and many others until it is discovered who his father is. Poseidon himself identifys him as his son with his symbol over the kid's head, so Percy moves to an empty house since he's the only child of Poseidon in the camp. Later Percy finds out that Zeus' weapon has been stolen, and there will be a terrible war if it isn't returned. He's given the quest to find it, he consults the Oracle and accepts the quest thinking that going to Hades' realm will get him his mother back. He plans to explain to Hades that he doesn't have the Lightning and never did, and ask for his mother back. He goes with his friends Grover and Annabeth, daughter of Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom. Luke gives him a gift, his flying shoes, but since it's not safe for him to fly since the sky is Zeus' domain, he gives the shoes to Grover. They have to face the furies, Medusa (and they cut her head off, and Percy mails it to the Olympus), Echidna and her Chimera; Ares tricks them into recovering his shield, and we see Annabeth in terror for the first time when they are surrounded by lots of spiders, but they succeed, and Ares gives him a backpack with clean clothes and some money. They escape Las Vegas and oblivion at the Lotus Hotel, in Santa Monica Percy is given three white pearls by a sea spirit working for Poseidon, then they face Procuste - that I know absolutely nothing about - then Caronte who accepts to transport them for money, and Cerbero, who is distracted by Annabeth giving them time to pass past him, to get to the Underworld. Grover's shoes start acting dangerously, almost dragging him to the Tartarus. They again manage to save themselves, and go to Hades palace. Percy asks him not to start a war, but Hades tells him he doesn't want one. Percy tells him he thinks he stole the Lightning, but Hades denies it, and thinks it's all a plan against him. Hades thinks Percy stole his magical helmet and the Lightning. Since Percy entered the Underworld, his backpack felt heavier, and now he finds that the Lightning is inside it. At that point he takes the three pearls. They are not enough to take his mother with them, so the three kids leave after Percy promises his 'uncle' to give him back his helmet. They escape the Underworld and again talk to Ares, the one God that tricked them into such a trouble. He gave Percy the Lightning, planning for it to appear only once in the underworld. Percy challenges Ares to battle, and sticking near the sea he has the strength to fight him, and wound his heel. At that point Ares goes away disappearing God-style, cursing Percy and telling him he's made an enemy. Ares leaves Hades' helmet behind, and Percy takes it. Hades furies arrives, ackknowledging that now they know it wasn't him who stole it, and Percy gives it to them to give Hades. Percy's position for the mortal world had been that of a young criminal after his mother's disappearance and his stepfather had talked bad of him on tv, but now it is cleared and Percy explains to journalists that his father will be happy to give a free gift from his shop to all the people in that city who helped him, and gives them the number :lol: that was nasty of him, but rightly so! Then they fly back to New York. Annabeth and Grover go back to the camp while Percy goes to the Olympus (in Manhattan) and meets his dad for the first time. Zeus is very angry, listens to his story but takes no action after knowing of a unknown leader in that mischief, Crono the Titan. Left alone with his father, Percy talks to him. Poseidon tells him it's natural that he doesn't find obedience easy, because the sea doesn't like to be limited, and also that his mother is back at home, Hades paid his debt and gave her back. He tells him he'll find a package at home, for him to decide what to do. He tells him his mother is a real queen, that he hadn't met a woman like her for thousands of years, then Percy goes home to find his mother is really there, happy to see him. The package is Medusa's head, and Percy gives it to his mother to decide. Neither of them needs nasty, disgusting Gabe anymore, so Ms Jackson might decide to get rid of him... Percy goes back to the camp, and a week later he received a letter from her telling him that Gabe had misteriously disappeared and that she had sold a stone statue for good money that she used for lessons at the NY university. :lol: She also told him that she got rid of Medusa's head, although I'm not quite sure how she could do that. You can't throw something like that in the bin! At the end, Percy is poisoned by Luke and understands that he was the thief, he was behind it all, hearing in his head Crono talking to him. Luke leaves the camp, and Percy is cured. He decides to spent the year with his mother and only come back for the summer. Annabeth, who had told him that she had run away from home at 7 y.o. because she didn't get along with his father, now decides to try again, and goes home too. Grover leaves on his search for Pan.
A bit like Harry Potter going home every summer, only Percy at home has a good woman who loves him so very much.
I liked it, I liked that it was narrated by Percy, I liked how it was written, it's an easy read, and I liked that they were so young, because with older characters many things wouldn't have been possible. It's okay that young kids believed that the old lady was simply offering them a free meal no problem, without asking themselves why, for example. Annabeth playing ball with Cerbero is nice and funny, but if she were older is would look ridiculous and stupid. I loved the fact that when she was going away she looked back at the gigantic infernal dog who was also looking at her, and they both looked unhappy to part ways, and she even had a tear on her cheek... awww adorable.
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