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Book Review of The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 1)

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 1)
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I know I shouldn't be surprised when a book is infinitely better than it's movie adaptation. I watched the movie version of The Lightening Thief before I'd read anything of this series, which is fortunate. I liked the movie enough to start reading the series, but if I'd read the books first I would have been sorely disappointed by the movie.

Besides the characters being better developed, there are major plot differences that work much better in the book. Additional characters play major roles and many details about the characters are changed -- mostly things like AGE. The books are about awkward early teens, while the movie featured pretty teenagers. Ugh.

Criticism of the similarities to Harry Potter put aside, this is a great series so far -- quick, entertaining, imaginative reads.