The Percy Jackson Reading Order: Navigating the Whole Riordanverse

Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books are a perfect gateway to mythology-fueled adventure — but the wider "Riordanverse" has grown into a sprawl of interconnected series, and that's where readers get lost. Start simple: the original Percy Jackson and the Olympians five-book run — The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and The Last Olympian.

From there, the natural next step is The Heroes of Olympus, which continues the story with an expanded cast and raises the stakes considerably. The reading order is The Lost Hero, The Son of Neptune, The Mark of Athena, The House of Hades, and The Blood of Olympus. Many fans consider this the strongest stretch of the entire universe.

After that, The Trials of Apollo wraps up threads from both prior series, so it genuinely benefits from reading the others first. The Greek-Roman mythology series also connect loosely to Riordan's Norse (Magnus Chase) and Egyptian (Kane Chronicles) books, with a few crossover novellas — but those can wait. Don't let the full map intimidate you; the core path is just Percy Jackson, then Heroes of Olympus, then Trials of Apollo. Riordan has since added two lighter senior-year Percy adventures, The Chalice of the Gods and Wrath of the Triple Goddess — save those for dessert once you know the story.

Where did you jump off, or did you read the whole Riordanverse? And the eternal question: is The Heroes of Olympus better than the original five, or is that blasphemy? Settle it in the comments.