Percy Jackson has been expelled from six schools in six years and has no idea why monsters keep attacking him. When he discovers he is the son of a Greek god, he is taken to Camp Half-Blood, a training ground for demigods hidden in Long Island. Within days he is accused of stealing Zeus's master lightning bolt and sent on a quest across America to prevent a war between the Olympians. The first novel establishes the world, the voice, and the central trio of Percy, Annabeth, and Grover in a story that moves fast and takes its mythology seriously without taking itself too seriously.