Never having known his father, a young boy– let’s call him just Mr. P for now — has long noticed strange things happening around him.  Things no one else seems to notice. Things that happen only to him.

When he is 11, his whole world gets turned upside down when, on a stay at a cabin near the sea, he gets a visitor he does not expect.

This visitor leads him to a camp for children just like him: special children, with something special in their blood.  Soon he find himself in a dangerous quest, joined by his two friends from camp: a loyal, though not very bright friend who wants nothing more than to stand out and make a name for himself; and a girl who’s brilliant, though sometimes annoyingly so.

Together, P. and his friends must solve the riddle of a prophecy, recover an all-powerful weapon, and face a legendary enemy long-thought defeated.

Allow me to introduce you to Percy Jackson, half-blood, son of the Greek god Poseidon, and prime suspect in the disappearance of Greek god Zeus’s Master Bolt.

Who did you think I was talking about?

In “The Lightning Thief”, author Rick Riordan has crafted a wonderful and fast-paced story, in which  troubled, ADHD & dyslexic kid Percy Jackson discovers his parentage, and in doing so discovers a world in which he finally belongs: a world where the Greek Olympian gods still exist, and still meddle in the affairs of mankind.  And a world in which he is suspected of having stolen Zeus’s Master Bolt.  Now Percy must embark on a quest across the country with his friends Annabeth (daughter of Athena) and Grover (a satyr) to find the real thief and recover the lightning bolt.

Though some similarities can be drawn with the main character of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, the coincidences are only superficial, as the writing is much coarser, quicker, and straight to the point.  And this is a good thing. The action flows fast and furious and that makes for a quick and engaging read, and a great opening act of the five-book series.

“The Lightning Thief” is marketed as being a children’s book (you may remember I opined about this earlier this year) but it can certainly be enjoyed by children of all ages.  If you enjoyed the Harry Potter series, I definitely recommend you let yourself be absorbed into another magical world, this time the world of Percy Jackson and the Olympians.