From my personal vantage point the book would have probably gotten 2 or 3 stars but thinking of it as a kids book it would get 5 stars. If turned into a more young-adult/adult genre book I would thoroughly have enjoyed it because I would think the characters would have a lot more depth and certain concepts about this world would have been thought out much better. I liked the concept of the book, the thought process that went into creating this mythical world intertwined with our current time was rather impressive to say the least. Pity though I am not a kid nor do I have any at this time. The author takes some obvious liberties taking this into consideration and if I have to base my review solely on it being a kids book. That is no to say that as am adult you can't or won't enjoy it but the long and short is this book was designed for kids. The quintessential truth about this book is that this is a book for kids. I mean, there must be some reason kids like Barney but adults can't stand him, right? And if it is appealing enough to children that it encourages them to love literature, then I suppose that's what really matters. To be fair, the reader's delivery may appeal more to children than adults. And the worst offense was that in an attempt to give the male characters different voices, one of them - who could have been an interesting, complex character, instead sounds just like Keanu Reeves in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure like a dim-witted surfer with a script in front of him. Everything he reads is delivered in an over-earnest voice, like a child actor trying too hard to be super cute and precocious. Generally I give myself over to the story, but I found myself thinking over and over that I wished someone else - anyone else - were narrating instead. However, I had a hard time not being completely irritated by the narrator. I enjoy young adult literatire, and while this doesn't compare to classics like Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy, or recent greats like Cornelia Funke's Inkheart, the story was entertaining enough. Not great literature, but a diverting read for a few summer afternoons. The story itself was good - if predictable at several points. To succeed in his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of failure and betrayal by a friend and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves. On a daring road trip from their summer camp in New York to the gates of the Underworld in Los Angeles, Percy and his friends, one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena, will face a host of enemies determined to stop them.
Now Percy has just 10 days to find and return Zeus's stolen property, and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. And worse, he's angered a few of them: Zeus's master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect. The gods of Mount Olympus, he's coming to realize, are very much alive in the 21st-century. Suddenly, mythical creatures seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. Until the Minotaur chases him to summer camp. But can he really be expected to stand by and watch while a bully picks on his scrawny best friend? Or not defend himself against his pre-algebra teacher when she turns into a monster and tries to kill him? Of course, no one believes Percy about the monster incident he's not even sure he believes himself.
No matter how hard he tries, he can't seem to stay out of trouble. Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school.again.