I’ve been reading the Percy Jackson books by Rick Riordan recently. It is a series of five books (now on my last one) following the adventures of Perseus Jackson, a “half-blood” son of Poseidon and a mortal. It has a nice premise that the old Greek gods are still around and heroes (one parent is a god and one a mortal – like Heracles or Theseus) go on quests to save the world.

For anyone who knows a reasonable amount of Greek mythology, some parts of the stories are predictable. However, the books are quite well written and are the context of a modern day setting makes for interesting changes. The series is told from the first person perspective of Percy Jackson, who finds out his true nature at the age of 11. This is so Harry Potter! He befriends other half-bloods (and makes enemies of some others), satyrs and other creatures from mythology as he goes along on adventures. Of course as the son of Poseidon, he has special powers over water and is afraid of the sky which is the preserve of Zeus.

For the most part the references to Greek mythology are consistent with what one reads.. But several stories are twisted around and children whose first introduction to Greek myths are from these books will be rather confused when they get around to Homer.

One question, though: while the book keeps the Greek names instead of the Roman for almost all the characters, why is Heracles referred to by his Roman name in the series?