The story was enjoyable, and Riordan did a fine job of creating plausible scenarios (Camp Half-Blood is in New York because the gods follow the “spirit of the West”) and believable characters, except for Ares. This Ares is not the ancient god of war, but the dim-witted god of street thugs and biker gangs. If you decide to read this as an adult, just pretend the character is actually an adult child of Ares, it will work better.

The Lightning Thief is fun and well-constructed, and kept me interested throughout. At times I had to remind myself that it was written for young teens and preteens, but that wasn’t often. There were more times that I had to remind myself that the hero (and heroine) were only twelve. Percy Jackson no challenger to Harry Potter, but I’m looking forward to getting the next volume.