Want to stay on top of all the Percy Jackson updates? The fandom is alive and well, and as fantastic as it is now, the number of projects that have been announced for the next couple years means it’s only going to get better.
My love of Percy Jackson knows no bounds, and I feel like the luckiest fangirl alive to bear witness to the trajectory this fandom has taken as of late—and where it’s headed in the next couple of years. Get ready, because there are a ton of Percy Jackson updates to go through.
If you’re reading this article, it’s likely you’re already familiar with the books and know most of the projects currently in the works. And that’s fantastic! I want to celebrate together. I can’t wait to watch the show as a collective community when it airs in 2024.
But I want to talk to the people who have always wanted to get into Percy Jackson but felt too overwhelmed by the prospect. Let’s be real, there’s are fifteen books in the original Camp Half-Blood Chronicles series, not to mention the two other spin-off series that take place in the same universe. That’s a whopping twenty-one books if you want the full experience. Oh, and there are several companion novels and short stories, too.
Wait! Don’t leave yet! I’m here to tell you that now is the perfect time to get into Percy Jackson, and I’ll even give you a wonderful little guide to do so. You can keep referring back to this article to stay on track, and for all of you who have already read the books, you can pass this onto the people you want to join this fandom. Or you can use it to keep tabs on all the upcoming projects Rick Riordan is putting out. The more the merrier!
Okay, the first thing you’ll want to do is read The Lightning Thief. Yeah, I know, seems obvious, right? But the best place to start is the beginning. If you read book one in Percy Jackson and the Olympians and you don’t like it, then by no means force yourself to keep going. Maybe you’re more of a TV person, and that’s okay!
Luckily for you, The Lightning Thief will be adapted for television, and is set to stream on Disney+ come 2024. If you’re like me and enjoy reading a book before seeing it on screen, that means you have plenty of time to get through it before the live-action TV show hits the platform in a couple of years. Curious about who’s in the Percy Jackson cast? Yeah, I have an article for that. This is a great place to get all your Percy Jackson updates.
Author Rick Riordan has been involved in every step of the adaptation process, and it’s shaping up to be incredibly faithful to the source material. But don’t worry! You might know the main beats of the story, but Rick has talked time and time again about expanding what was in the books and letting us see more of what’s happening around Camp Half-Blood and the rest of the world. You can see that in the early casting of Hermes (Lin-Manuel Miranda) and Hephaestus (Timothy Omundson), who don’t have significant roles in the first book but will feature a little more heavily in the first season of the show.
Okay, so you’ve read the first book and enjoyed it. Huzzah! Now you can read the rest of the books in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series: Sea of Monsters, Titan’s Curse, Battle of the Labyrinth, and The Last Olympian. With any luck, we’ll be able to witness Percy Jackson and the Olympians season 5 on our screens by 2030 (oh my gods…).
My Prophecy Radio co-host, Kristen, and I are currently making our way through the first series, discussing each book chapter by chapter. I first read these books about the time I was going into college, and I’m now in my 30s. And let me tell you—the books definitely hold up. The plots are clever, the humor is witty, and the emotional depth still resonates, even at my age. If you’re older, I can assure you there’s plenty to enjoy in this series. And if you’re the target age range? Rick has purposefully written them to be timeless, despite all of the pop culture references, so they’ll still hit their mark, even nearly 20 years later.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians is the original series, but the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles contains three pentalogies, for a total of fifteen books. So, when we’re talking about Percy Jackson updates, we’re not just talking about the Olympians. The second series is Heroes of Olympus, and it contains The Lost Hero, The Son of Neptune, The Mark of Athena, The House of Hades, and The Blood of Olympus.
This second series includes characters from the previous books, like Percy, Annabeth, Grover, Nico, and some others, as well as introduces a few new characters, like Leo, Piper, Jason, Frank, and Hazel. House of Hades has been my favorite book from the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles for years now, and I can’t wait until we get to it on the podcast to see if it remains in that top spot.
Heroes of Olympus has a much wider scope, but it still feels like a Percy Jackson book. Sure, the cast is a little bigger and there are chapters from other characters’ POVs this time around, but—most importantly—the humor and heart shine through just the same. Oh, and it deals with Roman gods as well.
The third and final series is called The Trials of Apollo, and it includes The Hidden Oracle, The Dark Prophecy, The Burning Maze, The Tyrant’s Tomb, and The Tower of Nero. These books are a little different because they are from the perspective of the god Apollo after Zeus turns him into a mortal as a form of punishment.
Though this series feels a little separated from the other two, we still get to check in with all of our previous heroes. Some major events take place in the Trials of Apollo, so don’t skip this one! And try to avoid spoilers so you get the full impact of everything that happens.
I like this series because Apollo grows a lot over the course of these five books. He’s entirely insufferable in Book One, but by the time you get to Book Five, he’s, well, slightly less insufferable. Kidding. Kind of. But you do have a lot more sympathy for him by the end. These books are unique because they’re from a god’s point of view, which we’ve never experienced before, and they introduce some really new and interesting characters. The themes in these books are a little heavier than those in the previous series, so consider checking for trigger warnings and be sure to have some tissues nearby.
If you made it this far, congratulations! Thanks for sticking with me, and for choosing me as your guide through the Riordanverse (that’s what we call the collective universe made up of Rick Riordan’s books) and all of the forthcoming Percy Jackson updates. If you’re a completionist, like me, be sure to check out this timeline for all of Rick’s books and short stories. To be clear, this is an in-universe timeline. I use this to know which short stories to read between which books, though you can certainly follow it for the other series Rick has written as well.
Speaking of, you might’ve noticed some titles I haven’t mentioned yet. The Kane Chronicles (Egyptian mythology) and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard (Norse mythology) both came out before Trials of Apollo, so it’s up to you if you want to read in publication/chronological order, or if you want to stick with the same pantheon before moving onto the next (i.e., Greek/Roman, then Egyptian, then Norse).
If you’re a slow reader and enjoy finishing a book before watching the adaptation, then I’d suggest jumping into the Kane Chronicles series prior to moving onto Heroes of Olympus (this is a bit closer to publication/chronological order, as they came out and take place simultaneously). These books include The Red Pyramid, The Throne of Fire, and The Serpent’s Shadow.
As I said, these books deal with Egyptian mythology, and surprise! There’s only three of them. They do, indeed, take place within the Percy Jackson Universe, as there are several short stories that see Percy and Annabeth team up with Sadie and Carter. Refer back to that timeline if you want to stay on top of everything!
It’s important to get The Red Pyramid done sooner rather than later because Netflix is adapting it into a live-action, feature-length film. Rick Riordan is also involved in this project, having done several passes of the script along with other writers. There’s no cast or release date for this one yet, but once the script is done, it’ll be full steam ahead! (This might be a “Percy Jackson updates” article, but it also includes all of his other projects, so if you want to stay up to date on this, check out his blog or listen to Prophecy Radio to hear us break down the news on a weekly basis.)
The other main series you’ll want to check out is Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, which includes The Sword of Summer, The Hammer of Thor, and The Ship of the Dead. Again, there are only three books here, and they center on Norse mythology. This series is right up there with the original Percy Jackson books in terms of how much I love them, and you can really see how much Rick has grown as a writer, as the cast is much more diverse and nuanced.
This series is also tied to the Percy Jackson universe in that Magnus is Annabeth’s cousin, and she and Percy go visit him at one point to catch up on everything that’s going on.
Whew. If you truly want to read all of the books in the Percy Jackson universe, then you’ve got your work cut out for you. It seems like a lot, but these books are fun and fast-paced. You’ll make it through them sooner than you think. And it’ll help you kill time until the new Percy Jackson books hit store shelves!
Yes, there will be more stories set within the Percy Jackson universe. First up is The Sun and the Star by Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro. This is the first time Rick has co-authored a book with someone, and he couldn’t have chosen a better person than Mark Oshiro, who is a self-proclaimed Percy Jackson fan. This book centers on Nico di Angelo and Will Solace as they traverse the Underworld. It takes place after The Tower of Nero, the final book in the Trials of Apollo series. It is meant to be a standalone novel, and while you don’t *technically* have to read all of Trials of Apollo to appreciate this story, it’ll help inform their current situation (and you will likely get spoiled for a major event).
I’ll be breaking down everything we know about The Sun and the Star soon enough, but until then, there’s nothing to do but prepare ourselves for its release on May 2, 2023.
We’re getting a second book set in the Percy Jackson universe next year as well, and this one is called Chalice of the Gods. It is written by Rick Riordan, and it takes place after the Heroes of Olympus series but before the Trials of Apollo series. In it, Percy has to get recommendation letters from three gods in order to attend New Rome University. The stakes won’t be quite as high as the other books (i.e., there’s no world-ending disaster on the horizon), and it’ll reunite the original trio—Percy, Annabeth, and Grover—for another adventure. This one comes out September 26, 2023.
This is why I keep saying this is the best time to be a Percy Jackson fan, and why it’s so important to stay on top of all the Percy Jackson updates. There is so much established content to explore, with more on the horizon. Not only do we have two in-universe Percy Jackson books coming out next year, it’s also not outside the realm of possibility there could be more.
With The Sun and the Star‘s almost-guaranteed success, it’s likely we could see other standalone novels set in the Percy Jackson universe. Do you want to check up on Piper or Leo or Thalia? Maybe we’ll be able to! I’ve got a ton of ideas for another Percy Jackson spinoff standalone novel, plus Rick’s hinted that this might not be the last time we see Nico and Will, either.
He’s said the same of The Chalice of the Gods. After everyone’s initial shock wore off, one of the first questions Rick received was about future books in the series. For now, Chalice is meant to be a standalone, but he also hasn’t ruled out another one if this one sees a modicum of success. Count me in!
And then there’s the adaptations, which will certainly drum up more hype for the series and send readers back to the books or help them discover them for the first time. Rick’s other book, Daughter of the Deep, which is not tied to Percy Jackson but is rather a middle grade sequel of sorts to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, is also getting a film adaptation at Disney+. The more successful these projects are, the higher the chances we could get a Heroes of Olympus or Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard adaptaion.
But, wait! There’s more! Rick Riordan is also working on a new manuscript centered around Celtic mythology. We’re not yet sure if it’ll take place within the same universe as Percy Jackson, but it’s certainly not outside the realm of possibility. With this, and everything else going on, we’re going to have plenty of Rick Riordan projects to discover and revisit over the next several years. And who knows what’s coming up that hasn’t even been announced yet!
If you’ve fallen in love with these types of stories, then I have one more generous gift for you. Rick Riordan Presents is an imprint of Disney-Hyperion Books, and its sole focus is to shine a spotlight on authors from underrepresented cultures and backgrounds and to let them tell stories inspired by the mythology and folklore of their heritage. This technically falls outside of the spectrum of our Percy Jackson updates, but if you love Rick’s books, there’s no reason why you wouldn’t love these, too.
The RRP imprint boasts over a dozen authors, who have all written books that span a variety of cultures and genres. You like science-fiction? Check out Yoon Ha Lee’s books. Want to know more about Hindu mythology? Read the Aru Shah series by Roshani Chokshi. Do you want to branch out into young adult fiction? Then Ballad & Dagger should definitely be your next read. These don’t technically take place in the same universe as Percy Jackson, but there have been hints that the multiverse exists and, well, I’m choosing to believe my dreams of an Avenger’s style team-up, however unlikely, are still within reach.
And as a cherry on top of this already decadent cake, many of the Rick Riordan Presents books have been optioned for film and television. As the books and their adaptations become even more successful, they will help change the landscape of the publishing and film world for good, opening the doors for other projects which would have otherwise never had the chance to see the light of day.
I wish you luck in all of your adventures, and be sure to leave your thoughts with Prophecy Radio as you make your way through this vibrant, exciting, wonderful world. And once you finish? Well, then maybe you can be the one to pass this article onto a friend and say, “Hey, there’s this book I think you might like.”