Review: Percy Jackson and the Olympians [audio]

Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
Published: June 4th, 2005
Narrator: Jesse Bernstein
Source: bought
Buy the book: Audible
Rating: ★★★★★


Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood. I never asked to be the son of a Greek God. I was just a normal kid, going to school, playing basketball, skateboarding. The usual. Until I accidentally vaporized my maths teacher. That's when things started really going wrong. Now I spend my time fighting with swords, battling monsters with my friends, and generally trying to stay alive.

This is the one where Zeus, God of the Sky, thinks I've stolen his lightning bolt - and making Zeus angry is a very bad idea.

Can Percy find the lightning bolt before a fully-fledged war of the Gods erupts?

As you may know, I’m a massive fan of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. I think I’ve forced it on just about anyone. So when I was checking out audiobooks to spend my credits on and stumbled across The Lightning Thief, read by Jesse Bernstein, I decided to give it a try, even though I already own a set of the series. And I’m so glad I did.

Jesse Bernstein is a fantastic narrator and storyteller. He captures the story perfectly, with his slight changes of voice while speaking like the characters in the story. I particularly enjoyed his way of portraying Tyson, for whom I now have an even bigger soft spot.

There isn’t much to tell about the story itself, since I already reviewed all five books before when I finished reading them. But somehow, when Bernstein reads it, the story feels slightly different and it gets the same quality as the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling; you discover new things along the way. And I loved that. Even though I already knew the story, I was hooked and couldn’t stop listening.

I found myself laughing out loud while I was listening to one of the books on one of my walks. I only realised I was laughing because I was getting funny looks from several people walking past. And you know what? It didn’t even bother me. I just let myself embarrass myself by laughing, snorting, frowning and talking along with some of the parts of the story. It was that good.

If you have the slightest interest in audiobooks, whether you’ve read the books before or not, I’d recommend checking out the audiobooks of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. It’s worth it.