What order should the books in the Percy Jackson universe be read in?

Question

There are several dozen novels, short stories and other works set in the same world as Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Many of them aren't released chronologically in relation to each other. If I was a completely new reader, what would be the best order to read these in?

Novels:

• The Lightning Thief
• The Sea of Monsters
• The Titan's Curse
• The Battle of the Labyrinth
• The Last Olympian
• The Lost Hero
• The Son of Neptune
• The Mark of Athena
• The House of Hades
• The Blood of Olympus
• The Red Pyramid
• The Throne of Fire
• The Serpent's Shadow
• The Sword of Summer
• The Hammer of Thor (Unreleased)
• The Hidden Oracle
• The Dark Prophecy
• The Burning Maze
• The Tyrant's Tomb
• The Tower of Nero (Unreleased)

Short Stories:

• The Two Headed Guidance Counselor
• The Library of Deadly Weapons
• My Demon Satyr Tea Party
• My Personal Zombie Apocalypse
• Percy Jackson and the Stolen Chariot
• Percy Jackson and the Bronze Dragon
• Percy Jackson and the Sword of Hades
• The Diary of Luke Castellan
• Percy Jackson and the Staff of Hermes
• Leo Valdez and the Quest for Buford
• The Son of Magic (Written by Haley Riordan but still canon)
• The Son of Sobek
• The Staff of Serapis
• The Crown of Ptolemy

Graphic Novels:

• The Lightning Thief Graphic Novel
• The Sea of Monsters Graphic Novel
• The Titan's Curse Graphic Novel
• The Lost Hero Graphic Novel
• The Red Pyramid Graphic Novel
• The Throne of Fire Graphic Novel

Other:

• Percy Jackson's Greek Gods
• Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes
• Demigods and Monsters (A book of real-world essays on the original series with an introduction by Riordan)
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Ultimate Guide
• The Kane Chronicles Survival Guide
• Camp Half-Blood Classified
• Camp Jupiter Classified (Unreleased)

Let's just ignore the movies and video game.

Answer 1

I recommend reading chronologically

Chronological order is usually the best way to avoid spoilers (except in books with lots of time travel, or where characters can see the future…which come to think of it does apply here). This isn’t strictly chronological, though: for some books, it doesn’t make much difference if you read them slightly out of order.

First, read:

• The Diary of Luke Castellan

  This describes how Luke and Thalia found Annabeth, and as such is set some years before the main in Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Then, start Percy Jackson and the Olympians:

• The Lightning Thief

• The Lightning Thief Graphic Novel

After this, it should be safe to read:

• The Two Headed Guidance Counselor

• The Library of Deadly Weapons

• My Demon Satyr Tea Party

• My Personal Zombie Apocalypse

  These are interactive novels. I’m not sure where these books are located chronologically, but I don’t think they’ll spoil anything that you wouldn’t have learned in the first book.

We have a short story that occurs after The Lightning Thief:

• Percy Jackson and the Stolen Chariot

Then return to the main series:

• The Sea of Monsters

• The Sea of Monsters Graphic Novel

Another short story:

• Percy Jackson and the Bronze Dragon

  This provides useful background for events that occur in The Lost Hero, but if you like surprises you might want to hold off until after that novel.

Back to Percy Jackson and the Olympians

• The Titan’s Curse

• The Titan’s Curse Graphic Novel

• The Battle of the Labyrinth

• The Battle of the Labyrinth Graphic Novel

Next is:

• The Red Pyramid

• The Red Pyramid Graphic Novel

Apparently this short story happens during The Red Pyramid:

• Percy Jackson and the Sword of Hades

Then is the second book in the Kane Chronicles:

• The Throne of Fire

• The Throne of Fire Graphic Novel

• The Kane Chronicles Survival Guide

  This last book was published before The Serpent’s Shadow, and should therefore be safe to read here

Then:

• The Last Olympian

• The Last Olympian Graphic Novel

Then read

• The Son of Magic

  This story follows a demigod who fought in the Manhattan battle in The Last Olympian, and as such should be read after that novel.

Next is probably:

• The Staff of Hermes

• Percy Jackson and the Singer of Apollo

Back to the Kane Chronicles:

• The Serpent’s Shadow

After that, we start on Heroes of Olympus:

• The Lost Hero

• Leo Valdez and the Quest for Buford

• The Son of Neptune

• The Mark of Athena

• The House of Hades

• The Blood of Olympus

You might as well read these afterwards:

• Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods

• Percy Jackson’s Greek Heroes

• Demigods and Monsters

• Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Ultimate Guide

  Most of these could be read earlier, but are probably best enjoyed once one has gained a full appreciation of the Greek side of the Riordanverse.

Then come:

• The Son of Sobek

• The Staff of Serapis

• The Crown of Ptolemy

Then comes the first entry in Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard:

• The Sword of Summer

  This is out of the order that the chronology in the notes presents it, but The Sword of Summer is definitely set before or concurrently with The Hidden Oracle. Percy references Annabeth being in Boston:

  “Annabeth.” I tried to place the name. “She’s the blond scary one?”

  “That’s her. I promised her specifically that I wouldn’t get myself killed while she’s gone.”

  “Gone?”

  Percy waved vaguely toward the north. “She’s in Boston for a few weeks. Some family emergency. The point is—”

  _{The Hidden Oracle}

  Lest we think that this refers to some meeting between Annabeth and Magnus after the events of The Hidden Oracle, The Hammer of Thor references the events of that series:

  ‘There’s a crisis happening,’ Annabeth said. ‘A god fell to earth as a human. These evil Roman emperors are back, causing trouble.’

  _{The Hammer of Thor}

Then go on to:

• The Hidden Oracle

Finally:

• The Hammer of Thor

• The Dark Prophecy

  These last one has not been released as of the time this answer was written, and as such must be read last. Also, practically speaking, since it is unreleased I don’t really know where it fits in chronologically.

_{Note: Graphic novels tend to be less detailed than prose novels, so reading the print version of each novel before the graphic version might help you understand the graphic novel better.}

_{Note : I received a great deal of help from this timeline. It’s not certain, but I’m not going to do all that work over myself.}

Answer 2

I would read the main books by order of release so:

• The Lightning Thief
• The Sea of Monsters
• The Titan's Curse
• The Battle of the Labyrinth
• The Last Olympian

• Percy Jackson and the Stolen Chariot

• Percy Jackson and the Bronze Dragon

• Percy Jackson and the Sword of Hades
• The Lost Hero
• The Red Pyramid
• The Son of Neptune
• The Diary of Luke Castellan
• Percy Jackson and the Staff of Hermes
• Leo Valdez and the Quest for Buford

• The Son of Magic

• The Throne of Fire

• The Mark of Athena
• The Serpent's Shadow
• The Son of Sobek

• The Staff of Serapis

• The House of Hades

• The Blood of Olympus

• The Two Headed Guidance Counselor
• The Library of Deadly Weapons
• My Demon Satyr Tea Party
• The Crown of Ptolemy
• My Personal Zombie Apocalypse
• The Sword of Summer

• The Hidden Oracle

• The Hammer of Thor (Unreleased)

• The Dark Prophesy (Unreleased)

The graphic novels should be in the same order as the main books, but I would suggest reading them after you read the main books:

• The Lightning Thief Graphic Novel
• The Sea of Monsters Graphic Novel
• The Titan's Curse Graphic Novel
• The Lost Hero Graphic Novel
• The Red Pyramid Graphic Novel
• The Throne of Fire Graphic Novel

All of the 'other' ones should be read after you've read all of the main books. PJGG and PJGH are the only ones that need an order, PJGG coming first and then PJGH:

• Percy Jackson's Greek Gods
• Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes
• Demigods and Monsters
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Ultimate Guide
• The Kane Chronicles Survival Guide

Answer 3

Personally, I would read series that were meant to be in order in the order they were intended. For example, instead of cutting the Kane Chronicles together with Heroes of Olympus just because they were released around the same time, I would read Heroes of Olympus then Kane Chronicles, or vice versa, just because it can be somewhat jarring to jump back and forth between relatively unrelated stories.