Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
"Percy Jackson and the Olympians" is a fantasy book series written by Rick Riordan, centered around the adventures of a young demigod named Perseus "Percy" Jackson, the son of Poseidon. The series begins with "The Lightning Thief," where Percy discovers his identity as a demigod after surviving an attack by mythological creatures during a school trip. He later finds refuge at Camp Half-Blood, a sanctuary for demigods, where he learns that Zeus's Master Bolt has been stolen, and he is a prime suspect.
Throughout the series, Percy, along with his friends Annabeth Chase, the daughter of Athena, and Grover Underwood, a satyr, embarks on various quests to confront mythological challenges and uncover the truth behind the gods' conflicts. The adventure spans several books, including "The Sea of Monsters," "The Titan's Curse," "The Battle of the Labyrinth," and culminates in "The Last Olympian," where a climactic battle against the Titan Kronos occurs.
The series is notable for its blend of modern settings with ancient Greek mythology, making it accessible and engaging for young readers. Additionally, it has expanded into various media, including films, video games, and a 2023 Disney+ series, reflecting its lasting popularity and cultural impact.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
- Born: June 5, 1964
- Birthplace: San Antonio, Texas
First published: The Lightning Thief, 2005; The Sea of Monsters, 2006; The Titan’s Curse, 2007; The Battle of the Labyrinth, 2008; The Last Olympian, 2009
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Fantasy
Time of plot: Early twenty-first century
Locale: New York; San Francisco; Mount Olympus
Principal Characters
Perseus "Percy" Jackson, son of the Greek god Poseidon
Annabeth Chase, his friend, daughter of the Greek goddess Athena
Grover Underwood, his best friend, a satyr
The Story
In The Lightning Thief, Perseus "Percy" Jackson is attacked by a monster during a school field trip to a museum. He fends off the attack with a pen given to him by Mr. Brunner that transforms into a sword. Afterward, no one seems to remember what happened. While on vacation, Percy and his mother, Sally Jackson, are attacked by the Minotaur, and after fleeing the attack, Percy ends up at a place called Camp Half-Blood. Percy is told that he is a demigod—a child of one of the Greek gods and a human. His Latin teacher, Mr. Brunner, is actually the activities director for Camp Half-Blood, which is a summer camp intended to protect and train demigods. Percy learns that someone has stolen the Greek god Zeus’s Master Bolt, and as the son of Zeus’s rival, the god Poseidon, Percy is the suspected thief. He goes on a cross-country trip with Annabeth Chase, a daughter of the goddess Athena, and Grover Underwood, a satyr and Percy’s best friend, in order to clear his name and return the bolt to Olympus before Zeus’s deadline hits and a war between the gods begins. Along the way, he discovers that he has been tricked by the god Ares and the demigod Luke Castellan into carrying the bolt himself.
In The Sea of Monsters, Grover departs to search for the missing god Pan. He is trapped by the Cyclops Polyphemus and sends Percy a message for help. Meanwhile, Camp Half-Blood’s magical tree, which houses the spirit of Thalia, daughter of Zeus, has been poisoned. The camp’s only hope is to find the Golden Fleece. Though the quest is given to Clarisse, daughter of Ares, Percy, Annabeth, and Percy’s Cyclops half brother Tyson leave to search for it too. After braving the dangers of the Sea of Monsters, including whirlpools, sirens, and the man-hating goddess Circe, they find the island where Grover is imprisoned. Together they defeat the Cyclops and bring back the Fleece. When they put it on the tree, Thalia comes out of the tree, completely revived.
In The Titan’s Curse, Percy must save Annabeth and find the missing goddess Artemis. A mysterious man called the General sends monsters after Percy and his friends. While traveling across the United States, he learns that he must protect an innocent half-cow, half-fish creature that could be used to tip the scales in the battle for Olympus. Percy reaches a stronghold of the Titans, the beings that existed before the Greek gods, in San Francisco. He discovers that the General is actually the Titan Atlas, who was once cursed to hold up the sky. Atlas tricked Artemis into taking the burden, but Percy helps her trick him into taking it back. He saves Annabeth and destroys the Titan fortress.
In The Battle of the Labyrinth, Annabeth is given a quest to lead Percy, Grover, and Tyson into Daedalus’s Labyrinth. The Labyrinth could provide Kronos’s army with an easy way to travel to and attack Camp Half-Blood, and so they must find the genius inventor Daedalus before Kronos does. Percy enlists the help of mortal girl Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who is able to see through the Labyrinth’s traps, and he and his companions are able to defeat various monsters and safely find their way through. While fighting in the Labyrinth’s arena, Percy spares the life of demigod Ethan Nakamura, who is a member of Kronos’s army. However, as the son of the revenge goddess Nemesis, Ethan refuses to help Percy and instead becomes the final soul needed to allow Kronos to regenerate into a human form. Once Percy and his companions exit the Labyrinth, fellow demigod and son of Hades Nico di Angelo helps them shut it down, dealing a blow to Kronos and his followers. However, with Ethan’s actions, Kronos is able to regenerate and take Luke Castellan’s body, clearing the way for a final battle between the Olympians and the Titans.
In The Last Olympian, legendary monster Typhon is awakened, and the gods are forced away from Mount Olympus, located above the Empire State Building in New York, in order to fight it. While they are gone, New York City is attacked by Kronos’s army. Meanwhile, Percy finds out the reason why Luke turned traitor: he was abandoned by his father, Hermes, after his mother went insane. Percy also convinces his father, Poseidon, to help the other gods, despite the separate attack on Poseidon’s undersea kingdom. This allows the gods to defeat Typhon, but not in time to stop Kronos from bringing an army to New York City.
In order to fight Kronos, Percy enlists Nico’s aid to immerse himself in the river of the dead, Styx, in order to make himself invulnerable. With Percy’s newfound power, he is able to defeat many of the monsters that attack them, but they are soon beaten back to Mount Olympus. There, Percy fights Kronos, who is in Luke’s body. However, Luke still has some control, and Percy is able to convince him to change sides and help fight Kronos. Luke stabs himself with the knife Percy gives him. Mount Olympus is saved, and Percy is offered godhood as a reward. He turns it down, instead asking that the gods of Olympus claim and support their children so that what happened to Luke will never happen again.
In Popular Culture
Riordan’s Percey Jackson made the transition to the big screen in 2010 with the release of Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, which starred Logan Lerman in the title role. The film proved to be a moderate success, earning more than $88 million in the US box office and more than $226 million worldwide. A sequel, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, was released in 2013, earning $69 million in the United States and $199 globally.
Riordan’s characters were also spun off into a 2010 video game and a pair of web series in the late 2010s. In 2023, Riordan served as producer on the Disney+ series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which had an eight-episode run in its first season. Walker Scobell played Percy in the TV series. In 2024, Disney agreed to renew the series for a second season.
Bibliography
Bove, Kate. “10 Biggest Changes Percy Jackson Movies Made To Rick Riordan’s Original Books.” Screen rant, 12 Aug. 2023, screenrant.com/percy-jackson-movie-biggest-book-changes/. Accessed 2 May 2024.
Knight, Mary-Jane. Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Ultimate Guide. New York: Disney-Hyperion, 2010.
“Rick Riordan.” IMDb, 2024, www.imdb.com/name/nm2292894/. Accessed 2 May 2024.
Riordan, Rick, ed. Demigods and Monsters: Your Favorite Authors on Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series. Dallas: BenBella, 2013.
Riordan, Rick. Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Demigod Files. New York: Disney-Hyperion, 2009.