Hollywood doesn’t always get adaptations right the first time, but second time’s the charm… right?
That’s what every Percy Jackson fan under the sun is hoping, as they eye the impending debut of Disney Plus’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians. The incoming series represents a renewed attempt to bring the beloved book series, written by Rick Riordan, into live-action. Thus far, things are looking great for we fantasy fans — but until season 1 officially drops, we’ve got nothing but crossed fingers and high hopes to rely on.
The first attempt at adapting the Percy Jackson series was unimpressive, to say the least. It departed massively from the books the story was supposed to be based on, largely leaving the soul of the franchise behind. As a result, the series lasted only two films before abruptly ceasing mid-way into film number three. Fans of the books were hugely let down by the Chris Columbus-directed releases, and largely celebrated their cancelation.
We’re hoping that Percy Jackson & the Olympians is a much more true-to-form interpretation of Riordan’s work, but you never know where fantasy is concerned. The notoriously challenging genre has seen too many failures to count over the years, as filmmakers demonstrate — time and time again — just how hard fantasy books are to adapt. Thankfully, even if they never prompt a worthy adaptation, we’ll always have the beloved books to fall back on.
The best order to read the Percy Jackson books
Each of the books in the original Percy Jackson series were released in order, which makes tackling the five-book series (recently expanded into six) nice and easy. Its not until you hit the supplemental series, like The Heroes of Olympus, that things start getting more complicated. Even then, Riordan clearly wasn’t looking to confuse anyone as he produced the mega-popular fantasy series, leaving his readers with a nice simple approach to the entire franchise.
The first six books follow the young Percy Jackson, a demigod, and his friends as they work to prevent the re-emerging Titans from destroying the world. They should be read in order of release, starting with The Lightning Thief.
- The Lightning Thief (2005)
- The Sea of Monsters (2006)
- The Titan’s Curse (2007)
- The Battle of the Labyrinth (2008)
- The Last Olympian (2009)
The only confusing entry in the lineup is the most recent book, The Chalice of the Gods, which was released on Sept. 26, 2023. The book is technically a standalone novel, but its intended to be set between the events of The Heroes of Olympus and The Trials of Apollo, two spin-off series from Riordan. As such, any hardcore Percy Jackson fans should tackle the original series, then The Heroes of Olympus, before diving into Percy’s sixth outing, and then moving on to enjoy The Trials of Apollo.