David Caldwell's Reviews > Percy Jackson's Greek Gods

This is a companion piece for the Percy Jackson series. While it is not necessary to have read those other books, it will definitely help in understanding some of the comments made here.

This is basically stories of the 12 major Olympians (with a few extra thrown in as needed) from Greek mythology as told by Percy Jackson. So keep in mind, you are starting with classic Greek mythology filtered through the eyes of (the fictional) teenage Percy Jackson (which is filtered through the eyes of Rick Riordan , an older man, interpreting his views of his teenage character and making all of it family friendly, which can be a challenge with these tales).

I think this is a great way to introduce kids (and some adults) to Greek mythology. The stories are written to appeal to the modern reader. While they have been sanitized, they still hold enough of the basic mythology to get the story. I also liked that Mr. Riordan acknowledged some of the more parts that would sound strange to modern readers (like the gods basically marrying their siblings).

Some of the stories I basically knew, some were new, and others were ones that I had heard but had forgotten a lot of the details. I found it to be a fun, fast read. A nice addition to the Percy Jackson series.