Percy Jackson & The Olympians

infobox Book
name = Percy Jackson & The Olympians


genre = Fantasy
publisher = Miramax Books
author = Rick Riordan
starring = Percy Jackson
Annabeth Chase
Grover
country = United States
release_date = 2005-present
language = English
media_type = Print (Hardback and Paperback)
Books_in_Series = The Lightning Thief
The Sea of Monsters
The Titan's Curse
Battle of the Labyrinth

"Percy Jackson & The Olympians" is a series of adventure books written by Rick Riordan, based on Greek mythology.

The series begins with a 12 year-old boy named Percy Jackson. He discovers that he is the son of Poseidon, the god of the sea. In the process, he learns that the Olympians still exist, along with many other figures and monsters from Greek mythology like Titans, cyclopes, and other creatures. He later becomes the owner of the sword Anaklusmos (which means "Riptide"). This was a gift from his Greek language teacher and mentor, Chiron.

Four books have been published thus far in the series, with one more still to come:
* "The Lightning Thief" (2005)
* "The Sea of Monsters" (April 1, 2006)
* "The Titan's Curse" (May 1, 2007).
* "The Battle of the Labyrinth" (May 6, 2008).
* "The Last Olympian" (May 5, 2009). While using much of the relevant Greek mythology as a basis for the book, some creative license is taken by Riordan.

Characters

Main Characters

* (D) = Deceased
* (H) = Half brother/sister

The Lightning Thief

"The Lightning Thief" is the first book in this fantasy series. Percy Jackson is a dyslexic 12-year old boy who suffers from ADHD (Attention-Deficit Hyperactive Disorder). Unfortunately, this—among other things—has gotten him expelled from six different schools in the past six years. His most recent school was Yancy Academy in upstate New York where he began to realize he is different from the other kids. He accidentally slays his evil pre-algebra teacher, Mrs. Dodds (who stands for one of the three Furies, from the depths of the Underworld), who never existed for the other normal students thanks to the Mist, a veil over reality that prevents mortals from correctly perceiving monsters and anything else out of the ordinary. Meanwhile, his Latin teacher, Mr. Brunner, is clandestinely discussing his safety behind his back with Percy's best friend Grover. After returning from Yancy to his mother and horrible stepfather, Gabe Ugliano, Percy and his mother take an impromptu vacation to the beach. However, after a surprise visit from Grover who has been hiding the fact that he is a satyr, and a subsequent flight away from the beach house towards Camp Half-Blood in Gabe's beloved car, the three are attacked by the Minotaur. Percy watches in horror as his mother suddenly disappears after being grabbed by the minotaur. He kills the minotaur by breaking off the beast's horn and using it against him. He then drags Grover over the property line and into Camp Half-Blood.

At Camp Half-Blood, Percy begins to learn his true identity as a demigod. Here he meets Annabeth Chase, a daughter of Athena, and learns that Grover had actually been at Yancy in order to protect Percy. At the camp, Annabeth reveals to him that his dyslexia is caused by his mind being "hardwired for Ancient Greek" and his ADHD is his "battlefield reflexes" which could save him in such a situation. While initially unclaimed by any god, Percy is dumped in the Hermes Cabin, where all newcomers are sent (See Section "Camp Half Blood") where he meets Luke, a son of Hermes. While being shown around by Annabeth, he is cornered by four bullies from the Cabin of Ares, God of War, who drag him into a bathroom in an attempt to introduce his head to a toilet. The plumbing rebels, spraying the four bullies so hard they are unable to complete their hazing of Percy, while Percy himself is left completely dry in the soaked bathroom. The leader of the group is a particularly mean girl by the name of Clarisse who leads the attack on Percy during his first-ever game of Capture the Flag. Percy is pushed into a creek by Ares' kids and, gaining additional strength from the water(being Poseidon's son), beats the four. He is subsequently claimed by Poseidon. This leads to Percy being sent on a quest by Chiron, an ancient centaur who posed as Mr. Brunner at Yancy and is the Camp Activities director. Percy's quest is to find Zeus' missing master bolt, for which all lightning is patterned, in order to prevent a war between Mt. Olympus' "Big Three" (Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades); Zeus believes that Poseidon may have used Percy to steal the master bolt, while Percy believes Hades is behind it. But, Chiron tells him that Zeus believes that Poseidon used Percy to steal it because, as Chiron said, a hero can do anything while gods are bound by certain rules. Percy is joined on his quest by Annabeth and Grover. All the while, Percy is having odd dreams about someone whom he believes to be Hades.

After tracing Zeus' missing master bolt to Hades, Percy, Grover and Annabeth make an epic trip to Los Angeles to visit Hades. Along the way, they are sidetracked by mythological monsters, including Medusa and the Chimera, and encountering Ares in Denver, who revealed that Percy's mother is in fact, not dead. After reaching the Underworld, they are nearly dragged into the pits of Tartarus by some unseen force. They finally reach Hades' palace only to discover that Hades had not stolen the master bolt, and that the bolt had somehow materialized in Percy's backpack given to him by Ares. Hades tells them that his helm of darkness, which makes the wearer invisible, is missing as well. Hades blames Poseidon and Zeus for its disappearance. He threatens to kill Percy and his friends with undead soldiers, but they manage to escape using pearls that had been given to Percy earlier by a nereid.

As it turns out, Ares was tricked by Kronos, and is actually a pawn in a strategy planned by the Titan Lord for eons. After a battle in which Percy wounds Ares and subsequently obtains from him the helm of darkness, Percy returns the master bolt to Olympus and the helm to Hades (via the Furies) and prevents a war among the gods. He tells Zeus and Poseidon that he believes Kronos may be rising to power again, but Zeus states that the matter is barred from discussion. Percy returns to his mother, who was returned to her apartment in New York City after Hades' helm of darkness was returned to him. Near the end of the novel, Percy is betrayed and almost killed by one of his friends from camp: Hermes' son, Luke, who was the real thief of Zeus's lightning bolt during the winter solstice, and was found to also be working for Kronos. Percy meets with his father, Poseidon and receives the Head of Medusa. The book ends with Percy deciding to spend the school year in New York with his mother (who has moved into a new apartment and gone to college after turning Percy's disgusting stepdad Gabe into stone, as she was only using him to protect Percy anyway) and spend his summers at camp.

ISBN 0141319135 (British version, paperback)ISBN 0786856297 (US First Edition, Second Printing)

The Sea of Monsters

Thalia's tree, that serves as the magical border of Camp Half-Blood formed to prevent a daughter of Zeus from dying, has been poisoned mysteriously by unknown forces. After Chiron is dismissed from camp, blamed for poisoning the tree, Tantalus, who came from the Fields of Punishment and can not have food or water, has taken the job. The only thing to get rid of the poison is to the Golden Fleece, which is located on Polyphemus's Island, in the Sea of Monsters (the Bermuda Triangle). Clarisse, the daughter of Ares and longtime enemy of Percy, is given the quest to go into the Sea of Monsters to find the Golden Fleece, which has healing powers for plants, animals, and humans. Percy and Annabeth decide to go also, not just for the Golden Fleece, but for their friend Grover who is trapped in Polyphemus's cave somewhere in the Sea of Monsters. Percy and Annabeth go along with Tyson, a young Cyclops (Poseidon's son, thus Percy's half-brother) whom Percy befriended at school that year, joins them on their journey, after saving Camp Half-Blood from two fire-breathing bulls. Polyphemus believes that Grover is a female cyclops and not a satyr. To enter the Sea of Monsters, they have to get past either Scylla, or Charybdis. Clarisse goes for Charybidis, believing she can blast her way through to the Sea of Monsters and Tyson almost dies in Clarisse's ship. After that, Percy and Annabeth journey to many dangerous islands, and Annabeth tells Percy many things about how Thalia died and she also mentions his prophecy. Fighting their way through many other obstacles, like the Sirens and Circe's island, they join up with Clarisse, Grover, and later Tyson, and leave with the Golden Fleece. When they get back to the mortal world, they send off Clarisse on an airplane to camp alone, and Percy, Annabeth and Tyson get kidnapped by Luke. Percy reveals to Dionysus that Chiron is innocent by sending him an Iris message. Luke then duels Percy and almost kills him but Chiron comes to rescue them with his strangely dressed relatives. When they get back to camp the Fleece is put on the tree. The Fleece not only revives Thalia's tree, but it makes Thalia come back to life too. It's Thalia who appears as she looked in Percy's dreams. He remembers the dream and realizes that it is her. It turns out that this was actually Kronos's plan, done so that he would have another chance to manipulate the prophecy which governs the future of Olympus and the Olympians.

ISBN 0141319143 (British version, paperback)

The Titan's Curse

The demigods, Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia rushed to the rescue to find that Grover has made an important discovery: he has found two powerful half-blood siblings whose parentage is unknown: Bianca di Angelo and Nico di Angelo. A fierce battle awaits... and a surprise from a group of Hunters with Artemis, the goddess of the moon and the hunt. But that's not all that awaits them. The Titan lord Kronos has devised his most treacherous plot yet, and the young heroes have just fallen prey.

They're not the only ones in danger. An ancient monster has arisen—one rumored to be so powerful it could destroy Olympus, and Artemis, the only one who might know how to track it, is missing. Now Percy and his friends, along with the Hunters of Artemis, have only a week to find the kidnapped goddess, find Annabeth who supposedly got kidnapped by the evil Dr.Thorn, and solve the mystery of the monster Artemis was hunting. Along the way Grover makes a very important discovery about Pan. Along the way, Percy meets a mortal girl named Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who can see straight though the Mist. She helps him escape from dead warriors. While warning them about the junk yard of the gods, and not to take any thing, Aphrodite tells Percy there is a romantic future waiting for him with Annabeth . Bianca later takes a Mythomagic figurine for Nico from the junkyard. The four end up fighting a giant of metal created by Hephaestus. To stop it, Bianca insists that she goes inside the robot's maintenance hatch so she can stop it. She remains inside the robot when it runs into electrical wiring and dies.

Once at the other side of the country, the others go to the Mountain of Despair to fight Atlas and Luke. Thalia fights Luke, and Percy and Zoe fight Atlas. Artemis is seen struggling against the weight of the sky which she takes on herself to save Annabeth. Percy takes the sky from her and holds it while Artemis and Zoë lure Atlas back to where the sky is being held. While this is happening, Thalia fights Luke, and is a better fighter than him. Finally, Artemis throws Atlas over to Percy. He knocks Percy from under the sky and is forced to hold his burden once more. Thalia and Luke go on fighting but finally Thalia shoves him off the edge with her foot. Zoë is hurt badly. She has been poisoned by her old friend, Ladon, and her father, Atlas, makes the final strike that kills her. Artemis puts her out of her pain and she turns into dust. The dust flies into the stars, creating a new shape in the sky in the shape of a huntress. On the way back to camp, Percy tries to figure out how to tell Nico his sister is dead because of some crazed robot in the junkyard of the gods. Once at camp Percy tells Nico the horrible truth and the undead soldiers appear, but Nico creates a giant whole in the ground that swallows them up. Annabeth, Percy and Grover look for Nico for over 2 hours, but they do not find him. Percy looks at the figurine of the god Bianca got for him at the junk yard. Eventually, Percy realizes who Nico's dad was, Hades, Lord of the Dead. Many weeks later, Grover drinks a lot of coffee, trying to get a connection with Pan, like he did in New Mexico. He comes running towards Percy to tell him Pan spoke in his mind. Pan only said three words, "I await you."ISBN 0141382899 (British version, hardback)

The Battle of the Labyrinth

Percy Jackson thinks that freshmen orientation won't be fun, and that proves to be true when he is accompanied by a mortal friend, Rachel Elizabeth Dare. Rachel tells Percy to get out of the room when she spots the demon cheerleaders that Percy had encountered when he went in through the side of the building to ignore Rachel. As Percy leaves, he ends up having to fight the demons and runs into Annabeth Chase, a friend from camp along the way. She takes him to Camp Half-Blood, a camp just for demigods like them. Percy goes to the arena, and finds the new swordmaster, Quintus, has a pet hellhound, which develops a soft spot for Percy. After the trial of Grover in the woods, Percy finds his half-brother Tyson, waiting for him in his cabin. But during a game that Quintus made up, Annabeth and Percy go through the rocks of Zeus's Fists and are stuck in a dark corridor, which they discover is the Labyrinth. Though it was only a few minutes for them, when they came out, it was almost an hour since they went in. Annabeth is offered the quest she has been waiting for since age 7. She must enter the Labyrinth, find Daedalus and get Ariadne's String before their arch enemy Luke, son of Hermes, does. If she doesn't, Daedalus, a scientific genius, may join Luke and help him a great deal. Luke had been planning on destroying Camp Half-Blood, and using the Labyrinth to get there, guided by Ariadne's String. Annabeth gets her prophecy from the Oracle: You shall delve in the darkness of the endless maze, the dead, the traitor, and the lost one raise, you shall rise or fall by the ghost king's hand, the child of Athena's final stand, destroyed with a hero's final breath, and lose a love to worse than death(Annabeth does not share this last line with anybody). Annabeth takes Percy, Grover, and Tyson along with her. Together, they enter the maze. They meet Hera, who tells that Percy knows how to go through the Labyrinth. When they take a wrong turn throughout the maze they find a ranch, where they also find Nico di Angelo, son of Hades. Nico is accompanied by King Minos, who tries to convince Nico to try to kill them and that they are not his friends. Once they get out, Percy and the others run into a Sphinx, who runs a quiz-show type room and questions Annabeth, who refuses when she finds them an insult to her intelligence. Once they get out, they find Hephaestus, who has them go to one of his forges in return for the location of Daedalus. Percy battles fierce water demons in Mt. St. Helens, where Hephaestus' forge is located. Before parting with Annabeth, they find themselves kissing for good luck. Percy blasts out of Mt. St. Helens while escaping and ends up falling into Ogygia, a phantom island mortals don't know about. There, he meets Calypso, a young girl whom Percy thinks is much more pretty than Aphrodite herself. Percy must leave the island and the love-blinded Calypso behind. When he finds Annabeth again, Percy realizes that he does know the way. They travel back to New York to find Rachel, who being able to see through the Mist can lead them through the Labyrinth, Rachel leads them run into a wide arena, where Percy must battle demigod Ethan Nakumura. Sparing Ethan, Percy challenges his giant half-brother, Antaeus that is accompanying Luke. Percy kills him by tying him in chains in the air, off of the ground, for the earth helps him heal. Once they navigate through the maze, Percy hears the Titan Lord speak to him. Taking Annabeth's invisibility cap, he goes into the room and opens the coffin. There, not fully put together is Luke. As much as Percy hated him, Percy did not draw out Riptide. He finds the demigod whom he spared earlier in the maze, Ethan. Ethan joins the Titan's side and Luke/Kronos comes to life. Percy barely escapes thanks to Rachel. While they were going through the Labyrinth, they meet up with Tyson and Grover. Together, they all found the wild god Pan, who tells them he is fading. As his spirit fades, it goes into the mouths of each of them, and it seems like Grover got a little bit more than the rest. Rachel leads them to Daedalus' workshop, where Quintus arrives and reveals he is Daedalus, and he has survived for 2 millenia by building himself new automaton bodies and transferring his soul into them. Then suddenly, several monster arrive with Nico and the monsters attack them, The group then escape from on bronze wings. They land in Colorado Springs, and Rachel persuades a chaffeur to drive them around the city, so they can find a Labyrinth entrance. The group finds one in an abandoned mine, then Rachel leads them back to New York, and Rachel is forced to stay behind, as she cannot enter Camp Half-Blood because she is mortal. Once they get to camp, they get ready for Kronos' army. Percy, remembering what Annabeth had done earlier in the maze, gets to her side and they both fight a fierce monster of the Kronos' army, which is defeated by Mrs O' Leary who arrives with Daedalus and Briares, Briares buries the monster under hundreds of rocks. Then Grover, in panic makes a scream, which encites fear and panic into Kronos' army. Grover's Dryad girlfriend, Juniper, insists that it was Pan's wild scream that had scared the Titan army the first time they rose against the Gods. Daedalus then tells Percy that the Labyrinth is tied to his life . The child of Athena mentioned in the prophecy, Daedalus, dies and there is a global earthquake, as the Labyrinth collapses. Percy, Annabeth, and the other uninjured campers take the wounded to the Big House. Percy decides to leave camp and go celebrate his birthday with his mom.Before he leaves, he talks to Annabeth on half blood hill, when Hera appears. Annabeth and Percy are both disrespectful to her and she leaves saying "You will regret this very much. Also after she leaves,Annabeth admits the last line of her phrophecy to percy. Percy tries to tell Annabeth his feelings, but is interrupted by Argus honking the horn. Annabeth then leaves Percy, without looking back once. Percy returns home, Two surprising visitors stop by while Percy, his mom, and Paul Blofis(Percy's mom's boyfriend) and Tyson are celebrating. First, Percy's father Poseidon comes and Percy tells him all that has happened, Poseidon then says that he fears Luke/Kronos is only temporarily kept back. Finally Poseidon departs, and Percy decides to go to his room. He then notices the flower in his shirt pocket and the promise to plant a garden for Calypso. As he does, Nico di Angelo stops by and tells him that he needs to tell Percy things about how they might be able to stop the Titan army. Nico then notices the slice of blue birthday cake by Percy's bed, and Percy then invites him in feeling sorry for Nico.

The Last Olympian

The Last Olympian is the fifth and final book in the Percy Jackson series. It is scheduled to be released on May 5th 2009.

Movie

Chris Columbus has lined up to direct and produce "The Lightning Thief" for 20th Century Fox through his 1492 Pictures banner. The planned release date is November 13, 2009. [cite news | author=Claude Brodesser | url=http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117906944.html?categoryid=1236&cs=1 | title='Lightning Thief' strikes Maverick | publisher=Variety | date=2004-06-23 | accessdate=2008-07-30 ] [cite news | author=Peter Gilstrap | url=http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117963285.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 | title=Columbus struck by 'Lightning' | publisher=Variety | date=2007-04-17 | accessdate=2008-07-30 ]

External links

* http://www.percyjackson.co.uk
* http://rickriordan.com/news.htm