Krishna
Interesting. This is a young adult story based on ancient Greek myths. This also kickstarts the famous Percy Jackson series.
Like Harry Potter, it is meant to appeal to both adults and young adults; both stories even have prophecies and twists in them, which keep your interest. But unlike the other series, this lacks the depth of descriptions or the intricate plotting, in my mind. Definitely it holds your interest and keeps your interest from the very first to the very last page – once you get used to the mythological and modern American references mixed together everywhere. For example Mount Olympus has now moved to the mythical 400th floor of the Empire State Building. (‘Wait, what?’ kind of moment and there are many such moments in the book)
Story starts with Percy Jackson, who is a half-blood, going with Mr Brunner and other disadvantaged children in the class to Manhattan to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
We meet his friend Grover and an annoying girl Nancy Bobofit. The teachers are Mr Brunner who is wheelchair bound and Mrs Dodd. When Nancy annoys Grover, Percy seems to have pushed her into the pond without even going near her and the students whisper that ‘the water seems to have reached out and grabbed her’.
Percy is even more puzzled when Mrs Dodd calls him into the building and when they are alone, turns into a dragon-like demon before his very eyes. As he is about to be attacked, Mr Brunner comes in (not on the wheelchair now) and tosses his pen to Percy. The pen turns into a sword and Percy is able to vaporize the thing that was Dodds.
When he comes out, Mr Brunner is in his chair as before, all of them claim that there was no Mrs Dodds – there never was – and Brunner takes his pen back, asking Percy to ‘bring his own pen next time if he wanted to write’.
And Percy learns that Mrs Kerr – whom he had never met before the field trip – has “always” been the pre-Algebra teacher and this fact from everyone from the school.
He overhears Grover and Brunner talking about him – how his life is in danger and how they need to resolve the imminent Summer Solstice Crisis without him and let him enjoy his ignorance for a little more time.
Grover apologizes for failing in his duty and Brunner says that even he did not know who she really was.
When the term ends, Grover and Percy go back together. On the way, they meet three old ladies who are knitting an eclectic blue yarn out of the bucket and Grover freaks out when they stare at Percy pointedly and snap the thread. He wonders why all his wards have to die and always when they are in the sixth grade. Spooked, Percy gives Grover the slip and runs away to his mom’s house.
She seems to be under the thumb of a crazy and vindictive stepfather (and he wonders why she allows herself to be treated that way). She also says that though she loves him more than life itself, she has to ‘send him away’ for ‘his own good’.
Grover catches up with them and his mother urges him to run with Grover in the Camaro. He is shocked to see that Grover has lost his pants and shoes and he notices his friend’s cloven-hoofed foot!
When they again run away in the Camaro at his mother’s insistence, they are pursued and overtaken by a Minator. It manages to get Percy’s mother but Percy overcomes it by breaking off and stabbing it with its own horns, thereby saving Grover’s life.
He recovers in the sanctuary they were headed towards but feels unbearable sadness due to the loss of his mother. He realizes that Mr Brunner is actually Chiron. Mr D is the chief of that place. He turns out to be the old god Dionysis. All the Greek gods of yore are now in America and living in disguise. (Yes, this book is meant for young adults)
Mr Brunner’s real name is Chiron and he is also in disguise, because, packed inside his wheelchair, he is a centaur!
There is an astonishing scene where Percy is bullied by a fellow student and her gang and he makes toilet water flow over them and literally push them back, without even knowing how he did it. In the entire long toilet room, only he was dry (with a dry circle around him).
He learns from the pretty girl Annabeth that he is – and everyone else there are – sons of the union of a god and a human and therefore demi gods. He learns that this place will be his home now as this is the only safe place where demons (like the Minotaur and the creature that was Mrs Dodd) do not come after them because they can sense them. Some of them are given a quest and that is the only time they can leave the facility. The exception is that some of the ‘weaker’ students are allowed to go back and spend part of the time in their cities and prior homes as the demons cannot sense them as well.
Luke, his room monitor turns out to be the son of Hermes. Somehow, after dousing himself with water, Percy manages to defeat even the tutor, Luke, in a swordfight. He does not make the connection. Then he is assigned to a border watch – a glorified watchman – in the flag capture game of the school.
However, the bully kids are targeting him there and an evil monster in dog form tries to attack him and he is saved just in time by Chiron. He understands that Annabeth and Jack planned the strategy knowing that the bully kid who was humiliated will be targeting Percy and they can use the distraction to capture the enemy flag.
He realizes during that fight that water gives him strength and also a water Trident appeared above his head during the fight. The camp realizes that he is the son of Poseidon. This causes complications. Poseidon and Zeus are involved in a war because Zeus thinks Poseidon stole his lightning (Hades did it and framed Poseidon). It is now his, Percy’s duty to go on a quest to get it back. All he needs to do is go to the underworld to get it!
The Oracle, when he visits it on Chiron’s advice, tells him that he should go West. It says that he will be successful in the quest but (and this part he hides from Chiron and everyone) two things will happen – he will be betrayed by a friend and also he will not be able to retrieve what is most precious to him.
With the Oracle’s green light he goes on a quest with Grover and Annabeth. Annabeth has a cap that can make her invisible. When Jake gives Percy some flying shoes, he realizes that he cannot use them as Zeus, the god of air, is an enemy at present. So he gives it to Grover and in turn gets a pen (the same pen he used before) from Chiron that turns into a fiery sword when the cap is removed.
And yes, he cannot go in a plane west (Los Angeles) for the same reason he cannot use the shoes – it flies through the air. He decides to take the Grayhound and promptly meets the three furies – the same women he met on the side of the road earlier. In fact one of them is Mrs Dodd, resurrected. He vanquishes them again but has to crash the bus (no one killed) and run.
But he goes to Aunt Em’s emporium where he is seduced into eating burgers and fries. Annabeth is the first to notice that Aunt Em is herself danger to them but he seems too far gone to think. There is a confrontation and Aunt Em is successfully defeated by looking onto a polished surface when the real Em (Medusa) shows herself to turn them into stone. All the statues there were hostages earlier.
It is a kid’s story so don’t ask why they give so much of an easy clue so that the three kids can guess who they are. It gets worse. They go to St Louis and at the top of the arch, at a viewing point, Grover and Annabeth go in an elevator while Percy is asked to wait for the next one. There is an old lady and a tiny chihuahua who are really – you guessed it – a monster and a monster dog. When everything seems lost (and even Percy’s sword falls out of his hand), he jumps through a huge hole blown on the side of the building straight into the river. He seems to be able to breath underwater and also finds himself dry. He finds the sword and puts it in his pocket (and yes, it turns back into a pen) and gets out, but not before the news media identifies him as the boy who was involved in the bus accident and the police have put out an all points alert to find him as a ‘person of interest’. In the water, a lady who is formed of water (and appears to be his mother but is not) tells him that his mother is alive and that he first needs to go to San Francisco before heading to Hades (in Los Angeles)
You begin to get the drift. There seems to be no pause in this whole thing, and they keep getting into and out of plots woven for them by evil demons and keep getting out of them. They also seem to be travelling all over USA.
Next is Ares, who requests them to get his Shield which was left in the Tunnel of Love in St Louis and the kids wonder why he needs their help, he being a God and all. It turns out that he met Aphrodite clandestinely there and the shield was left by mistake and as they suspected, they fall into another trap set by Hephasteus (With the Greek letter Eta on the boat to announce whose work it is) who tries to set mechanical spiders to wrap them in threads. They are so numerous that they are almost trapped, helpless, when Percy manages to use water to free them and short circuit the electrical circuits of the mechanical spiders (This was written before the age of electronic waterproof gadgets after all)
OK, then Ares gives them a ride on a van that has illegally trafficked animals. Grover talks to them and finds this out and they release the animals when the van stops in Vegas. Percy finds that he can communicate with the zebra but not the lion and gazelle. (Poseidon could create horses; this is the explanation).
They then get into a honey trap where they stay in a hotel and Percy suddenly realizes that there have been boys there since a very long time, not realizing that they are stuck. He manages to get Annabeth and Grover out of their trance and get them out in the nick of time. (This is like the sirens in the Odyssey). All lightweight, with references to epics and myths, made accessible to young adults. If you don’t question it too closely, it is entertaining and will help you wait through an airport lobby or a long plane ride pleasantly.
He keeps having dreams of a terrifying voice from deep in the chasm. They finally reach the palace of Hades and that God ‘proves’ that Percy always had the lightning bolt in his backpack, much to the astonishment of the three friends. Finding his mom in the custody of Hades, he decides to leave her there as he has only three pearls and saves his two friends.
Realizing that Ares had tricked him and he is ‘the God who turned’ as in the prophecy, he goes to fight Ares and realizes that he is under the spell of the mysterious being of his dreams. He just manages to wound Ares who disappears after leaving Hades’ crown. Percy returns the crown to the Furies to return to Hades and they understand that he had nothing to do with the property of Hades.
Yes, they explain who the mysterious being is, but since it is not central to this part of the book, I will skip it here.
Now he has to prevent the Zeus and Poseidon war by returning the lightning – which was planted by Ares on him – back.
He does that and is puzzled by one part of the prophecy that says that a friend will betray him. He rationalizes it within himself but we have, at the end, an unexpected twist to complete the story.
All in all, a fun read to pass time.
7/10
= = Krishna