Rick Riordan

Rick Riordan was born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1964, studied English and history at the University of Texas at Austin, and taught English and social studies for eight years at Presidio Hill School in San Francisco. His first books were for adults: the Tres Navarre mysteries, beginning with Big Red Tequila (1997), about a Texas private eye. The series won the Shamus, Anthony and Edgar awards.

Percy Jackson started as bedtime stories about Greek heroes for his son Haley, who had been diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia; Riordan gave Percy the same traits. The Lightning Thief (2005) opened a five-book series, and that world has grown into the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles: The Heroes of Olympus, The Trials of Apollo and The Nico di Angelo Adventures. He applied the same approach to Egyptian myth in The Kane Chronicles and Norse myth in Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard. His books have sold more than 30 million copies in the United States. In 2018 he launched an imprint with Disney-Hyperion, Rick Riordan Presents, and he co-created the Disney+ Percy Jackson series, released in 2023.

Start with The Lightning Thief and read the first five Percy Jackson books in order; they build to a single conclusion in The Last Olympian (2009). Then move to The Heroes of Olympus, beginning with The Lost Hero (2010). It switches to third-person narration across three new demigods, Jason, Piper and Leo, and it is a direct sequel to the first series.

BookList4u lists The Chalice of the Gods (2023) and Wrath of the Triple Goddess (2024) as Percy Jackson books 6 and 7. They form the Senior Year Adventures, in which Percy collects recommendation letters from the gods so he can get into college. They were written 14 years after The Last Olympian, so read The Heroes of Olympus first. The Kane Chronicles, starting with The Red Pyramid (2010), is a separate trilogy and can slot in at any point.