Percy Jackson and the Olympians

When I was eight years old, my dad introduced me to Greek mythology by reading “Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief” to me. My third-grade self found it enchanting as we moved through the five books in the first series of the Percy Jackson universe. As years passed, the memories of the books’ specifics faded, and all I could remember was how much I liked the books. When the new Disney series came out, I decided to try them again and see if they were as good as my younger self thought they were  – ­­­they were better.  

Rick Riordan has a fascinating way of weaving words together, bringing serious situations to light with laugh-out-loud moments and cutting sarcasm. Every page is filled with this humor as well as gut-clenching action or emotional dialogue that makes the books incredibly hard to put down. The series is entirely engaging and all-consuming.  

Seriously, it’s all I’ve been thinking about for the past couple of months as I’ve gone through the universe’s three major series: “Percy Jackson and the Olympians,” “The Heroes of Olympus” and “The Trials of Apollo.”  

The first book of “Percy Jackson” introduces the reader to the titular character, a self-proclaimed “troubled” kid who has both ADHD and dyslexia. He keeps seeing things – strange things the normal world wouldn’t be able to describe, and he feels like there’s something wrong with him until he’s told by his mother and his best friend Grover that he’s the son of a Greek god, making him a demi-god. Once he finds his way to Camp Half-Blood, a place for all demi-gods, he learns his dad is one of the major gods: Poseidon.  

That’s why his wounds are cured by water, obviously.  

Percy, Grover and their friend Annabeth have to go on a dangerous quest to retrieve Zeus’s lightning bolt before the god of the sky starts a war with Poseidon, who he has claimed is the only likely candidate for the thievery.  

The rest of the Percy Jackson universe follows a similar structure: heroes embarking on dangerous quests while suffering the wrath of gods, learning about themselves and their backstories and, you guessed it, experiencing romances to end all romances. 

There isn’t a dull moment in these books, and the intersection between Greek mythology and incredible writing produced a raging fan base that follows Riordan loyally as he continues releasing new books.  

Riordan’s study of Greek mythology is evident in these books – he throws gods and monsters the reader hasn’t seen yet in every chapter to keep the story moving and exciting.  

However, the Greek mythology in his book, while addressing what the Greeks believed happened, creates a new path for the characters of the myths. For example, Medusa, who died at the hand of Percy’s namesake Perseus, has long been resurrected in “The Lightning Thief” and is running a gnome emporium in New Jersey that features the victims of her stony gaze.  

It can be argued that the Americanization of Greek mythology in the Percy Jackson universe is problematic – Mount Olympus, for example, is headquartered in the Empire State Building – and I agree with this, even if it’s amusing. The reasoning the books give behind this western shift is the gods would move to wherever the world’s power was.  

That might seem a bit… nationalist. I think it is.  

I also think Riordan recognized this and attempted to correct it when the second series of the Percy Jackson universe “The Heroes of Olympus” brought the main characters to Rome and Greece for many of their quests, recognizing where these stories originated. This series also brought much-needed diversity to the cast of main characters, with African American, Mexican, Chinese, South American and Native American representation compared to the all-white ensemble of the original series. One of the main characters was even revealed to be gay. 

 Riordan has also been heavily involved in the writing, casting and production of the Disney show. While Percy himself has remained white, the cast has diversified with Annabeth and Grover both being played by people of color – people who were best fit for the job regardless of race. They both exuded their characters and brought them to life in ways fans have been begging for decades. 

It’s also of note, though, that despite the potentially problematic Americanization of classic Greek mythology, this series has been influential for many young readers – or older readers – who developed new interest in the original mythology after reading “Percy Jackson.”  

There’s no doubt the series with Percy and his friends traveling to Los Angeles to enter Hades’s underworld or fighting off skeletons at the Hoover Dam inspired people to learn where the stories came from, and the series has rekindled interest in these classic legends. 

There’s also no doubt in my mind that the Percy Jackson universe is worth reading. It’s entertaining, yet educational, heartbreaking, yet heartwarming, impossible, yet helps the reader feel like they can be a hero too, even if they don’t feel like they were born one.  

“Percy Jackson” makes readers understand that it’s okay to be different – that being different may be the very reason you can save the day. 

Besides, it has one of my favorite ships in the world – or Tartarus – in it. I can’t stop thinking about this series.