Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

This debut young adult fantasy novel, which launched Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series, centers on the theft of Zeus’s most powerful weapon: his master lightning bolt. When Zeus accuses Poseidon’s son, Percy, of stealing it, the accusation sets off a chain of events that brings ancient Greek mythology into the modern world. The book portrays Zeus as a volatile and prideful king of Olympus, whose anger threatens to trigger World War III. Riordan’s depiction shows how Zeus’s classical traits, his power over the sky, quick temper, and rigid sense of justice, are reimagined through a modern lens.