Percy Jackson books, ranked
The rest of 2023 is looking up for fans of Percy Jackson! On Sept. 26, Rick Riordan’s new standalone Percy Jackson novel, The Chalice of the Gods, will be released. And, on Dec. 20, Percy Jackson and the Olympians TV series premieres on Disney. It’s going to be a great rest of the year, Half-Bloods! With all the new Percy Jackson content on the way, we wanted to celebrate with a ranking of the Percy Jackson books.
For the purpose of this ranking, we’re going to be focusing exclusively on the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. We’ll do another ranking for The Heroes of Olympus series, and if our readers want it, a full ranking of Rick Riordan’s works. We’re big fans of Camp Half-Blood at Bam Smack Pow.
I also should preface with this: none of the Percy Jackson books are bad! I love every single one of them in their own way, but it’s obvious that some are just better than others.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians books in order
- The Lightning Thief
- The Sea of Monsters
- The Titan’s Curse
- The Battle of the Labyrinth
- The Last Olympian
- The Chalice of the Gods (Sept. 26, 2023)
Let’s get the ranking started with The Sea of Monsters.
5. The Sea of Monsters
The Sea of Monsters is the second book of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. It was published in 2006, about a year after The Lightning Thief. Unfortunately, this is my least favorite of the Percy Jackson books, and it’s also the worst of the Percy Jackson books. Again, it doesn’t mean that it’s bad! It’s just not quite as good as the others.
In the book, Percy and Annabeth set out on a quest of their own to find the Golden Fleece and save Camp Half-Blood. Thalia’s tree is dying, and the Fleece is the only thing that can save it. Unfortunately, their quest leads them into the Sea of Monsters while they also try to save their best friend, Grover, who was captured by a Cyclops, Polythemus. Percy and Annabeth race against the clock to save their friend and the camp.
Overall, there’s nothing wrong with The Sea of Monsters. It’s a classic adventure story with lots of twists, turns, and high stakes, but compared to the rest of Riordan’s series, it falls a little bit flat, especially after the epic beginning of this story in The Lightning Thief.