What’s to Love About . . . Rick Riordan’s Books

Who can believe it’s 2023 and we are still getting books in the Percy Jackson and Shadowhunter universes?

As you all know, I am an avid reader, so it should be no surprise that a big part of my childhood was built around The Percy Jackson book series.

Rick Riordan is the well known (both in the world of books and out) for his middle grade series: Percy Jackson and the Olympians(PJO) about the children of Greek gods (and later in The Heroes of Olympus and The Trials of Apollo, Roman too) . His other two series hold the mythology theme: The Kane Chronicles—Egyptian, and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard(MCGA)—Norse.

I was a lover of mythology before I started his books many years ago and it is the first thing I love about them. They are pretty much the only accurate (if modernized) versions of these myths in any media ever. (And I will fight you on this.) The way he fits these myths into our modern world is amazing and it’s always fun to try and guess who someone is or what myth is being retold.

Two misgivings people may have with his books is 1) they are very popular and 2) they’re middle grade. First, yeah, these books are really popular because they are amazing and deserve all the hype they get. Second, they may be middle grade, but the only way I notice is that they’re fast paced and quick to read, but the books do deal with some heavy topics as well.

While these books are action packed and contain some deep morals and serious topics, they aren’t at all serious. These are some of the funniest books ever written. My favorite thing to do when I got a new book from the PJO or MCGA series was to read the chapter titles because those alone would make me start cry-laughing. Even the most intense scene is lightened by these characters thoughts and dialogue. Definitely another thing to love about these books.

Another thing is how diverse and different they are. You’d think with so many books, you’d start seeing the same old things. Every character in every book is different. The only thing all the characters have in common is difficult family issues— and not always just because one of their parents was a god. Rick started writing these books because his son had ADHD and dyslexia and he wanted to hear a story about a hero with those same disabilities. In his first few series, his characters were diverse not only in background, but nationality, gender, sexual orientation and race as well and it only grew from there. The depths of detail and care he puts into each character and their different stories is incredible.

My favorite of his series is a very firm tie between the original Percy Jackson series and the Magnus Chase series. I think I might like the latter just a bit more because I just love Norse myths so much and I adored all the characters. (Just why did you have to go and make Loki the bad guy again, Uncle Rick?) The other two were good, but not really close to the greatness of the first two I mentioned. I like the Kane Chronicles because Egyptian is one of my favorite mythologies. The Heroes of Olympus was really good for many reasons, but it just kind of got too dark and serious toward the end and didn’t really feel like a Rick Riordan series. To be perfectly honest, I have not finished reading the Trials of Apollo series. I will probably get to them eventually and likely in the form of audio books. I just got distracted by other books and now have greater priorities on my TBR.

The reason for me revamping this post is that Rick’s newest book, The Sun and the Star, came out May 2nd and is a stand-alone about Nico di Angelo and his boyfriend, Will Solace. Nico was one of my favorite characters from the original Percy Jackson series and was my gay-awakening character. If it weren’t for Rick writing that arch for this character, I might not be where I am today (an almost-published author of queer fantasy) or read some of the incredible books I have. This book coming out means a lot to me on a personal level and I an so excited to read it.

Hopefully these gave you enough reasons to love Rick Riordan’s books or to at least give them a try. I will also leave the full list of his books below (in the order they probably should be read).

Percy Jackson & the Olympians:

• The Lightning Thief

• The Sea of Monsters

• The Titan’s Curse

• The Battle of the Labyrinth

• The Last Olympian

The Kane Chronicles:

• The Red Pyramid

• The Throne of Fire

• The Serpent’s Shadow

The Heroes of Olympus:

• The Lost Hero

• The Son of Neptune

• The Mark of Athena

• The House of Hades

• The Blood of Olympus

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard:

• The Sword of Summer

• The Hammer of Thor

• The Ship of the Dead

The Trials of Apollo:

• The Hidden Oracle

• The Dark Prophecy

• The Burning Maze

• The Tyrant’s Tomb

• The Tower of Nero

The Sun and the Star (PJO stand-alone)