Do you like mythology mixed with modern days? Or do you like stories on Greek, Roman, Egyptian, or Norse mythology? Then Rick Riordan is the best author for you, as his books are truly fascinating, action-packed, and spellbinding, leaving you in awe. Here is a list of his top ten books. I have read most of his books myself, and I always get drawn into the book, forget what is happening, and literally see what is happening in the book. Also, PLEASE read the books in order; this is just ranked. This information was derived from a website (https://www.thetoptens.com/books/rick-riordan-books). Visit for more ranks.
10: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters
At tenth place, we have Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters. This is the second book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. This shows the story of Percy, Annabeth, and Percy’s friend Tyson (who is a grecian cyclops) trying to save Grover. The story begins with Percy arriving at Camp Half-Blood. There, he finds out that the magical borders of the camp were weakening due to the poisoning of Thalia’s pine tree! Chiron, the camp’s activities director, gets fired as he is one of the sons of Kronos, the titan lord. Clarisse goes on a quest to get the Golden Fleece and heal the tree. Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson sneak out and go on a ship to the Sea of Monsters, where the fleece is. They survive a lot of disastrous events, like their meeting with Luke(twice), the half-blood hideout and the hydra, their time at Circe’s island, and finally, Polyphemus’s island, where they save Grover and get the Golden Fleece. At the end of the book, the fleece heals Thalia’s pine tree, but also purges the life of Thalia, making her alive again. This is a problem, as a son of Poseidon and a daughter of Zeus could either be best friends or worst enemies. Kronos, the titan lord of time, had gotten another pawn to play. Also, there is a tiny detail in the book. The Grey Sisters tell Percy some coordinates. The coordinates show a point in the North Atlantic Ocean, near the Bermuda Triangle.
9: The Kane Chronicles: The Red Pyramid
At ninth place, we have The Kane Chronicles: The Red Pyramid. This is the first entry in the Kane Chronicles series. The story starts when Carter Kane and his father, Julius Kane, go to meet Sadie Kane, Julius’s other child. Sadie lives with her maternal grandparents, the Fausts, due to the accident that killed Ruby Kane, Sadie and Carter Kane’s mother. The court ruled that Sadie live with her grandparents. Julius and Carter meet Sadie twice a year in London. One day, on Christmas Eve, they meet and visit the British Museum, where Julius attempts to awaken the Egyptian god Osiris. But in a failed attempt, he unleashes not only Osiris, but Isis, Set, Nephthys, and Horus. Osiris, Horus, Isis, and Nephthys take hosts, Julius, Carter, Sadie, and Zia Rashid, the scribe of the everlasting House of Life, respectively. Set, however, doesn’t take a host immediately. He captures Julius, or Osiris, in a coffin, just like it happened 3000 years ago. Then Carter and Sadie find out that they are magicians, the most powerful ones alive at the moment. They combine the bloodlines of two families of the House of Life, the Kanes and the Fausts. After Julius’s death, his brother Amos takes them under his care, where they next go to the House of Life to learn and practice magic. Carter and Sadie, along with Bast, the goddess of cats, and Zia Rashid’s shabti, go on a mission to stop the building of the red pyramid of Set. In the end, Sadie shows all of the people there that Set was actually a pawn to unleash and power Apophis, the monster of Chaos. The book ends with a conversation between Sadie, Carter, and their parents. Then they send a call to all the other children of the pharaohs. This series is Egyptian mythology.
8: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Sword of Summer
Just above The Red Pyramid is the start of a new series. Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard is a series on Norse mythology. It starts with Magnus Chase, a homeless 16-year-old orphan who had been living on the streets of Boston for two years after his mom’s death, getting searched for by a ‘middle-aged white guy and a teenage girl, probably his daughter’ (exact words from the book). His friend (called Blitz) woke him up and told him about that. Blitz tells him to go to Mugnus’s other friend, Hearth. Instead, he passes by his Uncle Randolph’s home. He decides to sneak into it. Once inside, he finds all sorts of things. Then he finds Hearth there. Confused, he communicated with Hearth in sign language (Hearth was deaf) about why and how he had gotten there. Instead, Hearth frantically signs to Magnus to go back, and when Magnus does, he sees his uncle Randolph. Randolph takes Magnus to Longfellow Bridge in his car. While in the car, Magnus learns that he is the son of the Norse god Frey, or Freyr, the god of fertility, peace, and prosperity. He has to get Sumerbrander, or the Sword of Summer, to delay Ragnarök, the end of the world. There was a problem, though. A fire giant, Surt, is also going for Sumerbrander. As a last stand, Magnus takes himself and Surt down into the water, where Magnus dies. Magnvus is revived as an einherjari, or an undead warrior, of Valhalla. He goes on a journey with Blitz, who actually turns out to be a dwarf named Blitzen who has a passion for fashion, Hearth, who is an elf named Hearthstone, and Samirah Al-Abbas, the valkyrie who gets Magnus to Valhalla, and after going through a bunch of worlds with Sumerbrander(who Magnus nicknames Jack) and delays Ragnarök.
7: The Heroes of Olympus: The Son of Neptune
In seventh place, we have the second book in the series The Heroes of Olympus. The book is the journey of a memory-wiped Percy Jackson. The series is a mix of Greek mythology and Roman mythology. Percy’s dad is Poseidon, and Poseidon in Roman mythology is Neptune, hence the name, referring to Percy. The book starts with Percy getting chased by the Gorgons, mythical creatures with snakes for hair. They are most famous for their sister Medusa, whose face is so ugly(due to a curse by Athena) that it can turn you into stone if you look at it, but luckily for Percy, Medusa is not chasing him. Anyway, he gets chased to the Caldecott Tunnel in San Francisco. There, the Gorgons attack him, but as usual, the weapons do nothing to him. They just glance off. There, he sees an old lady, carries her inside, and swims in the Little Tiber river, where the weapons can finally hurt him. He now finds himself in Camp Jupiter, where Roman demigods and descendants of demigods live and train. He gets selected for the Fifth Cohort. Then, after a while of training and fighting, Percy and his newfound friends, Frank and Hazel, go to beat a Giant called Alcyoneus. Normally, Giants need to be killed by a god and a hero together. But Alcyoneus is different. He cannot be killed in his homeland. Instead, though, he can be killed in a different country. So, when they reach Alcyoneus, whose homeland is Alaska, Percy gets the other monsters away from Alcyoneus, Frank shapeshifts(yes, he can shapeshift) into an elephant and takes him to Canada, and Hazel keeps Alcyoneus in Canada, where they then decapitate him. Afterwards, they take back the Fifth Cohort’s lightning-shooting golden eagle. Then, the book ends with Percy’s memory returning and the Argo arriving at Camp Jupiter.
6: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titan’s Curse
Coming up at sixth place, we have The Titan’s Curse from the Percy Jackson series. For the third book of a series, this book is awesome. The story begins with Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia Grace embarking on a rescue mission. Then they finally arrive at the location where the distress call was sent. It was a military school, and immediately, they got into a situation where they couldn’t enter the school. Thalia uses the Mist and fools the people blocking the entry(there was a man and a woman) into letting them in. Grover, the satyr who sent the distress call. He takes them in and tells them that there were two powerful demigods. They get pulled away by the monster, and Percy tries to save them. Instead, Annabeth gets snatched away by the monster. Then, after a while, the goddess Artemis gets lured somewhere, and all connections to her get lost. The hunters of Artemis come to Camp Half-Blood, and they take a quest. Percy, Thalia, Zoe Nightshade, lieutenant of Artemis, Bianca di Angelo, hunter of Artemis, and sister of Nico di Angelo, and Grover Underwood. They go on the quest, and while reaching the mountains where Artemis is captured, Bianca dies. Then, in the mountain, they find Atlas, the Titan general, who makes Artemis hold up the sky instead of him. They get into a fight, where Percy holds up the sky, then lets Atlas take over when he is tricked. Thalia joins the hunters of Artemis, and Nico reveals that he is a son of Hades by summoning dead people when Percy tells him that Bianca is dead. Then, the book ends.
5: The Heroes of Olympus: The Mark of Athena
Coming into our top five, we have The Heroes of Olympus: The Mark of Athena. This is the third book of the series ‘The Heroes of Olympus’ and continues from the second book; The Son of Neptune. The Argo tries to land but gets stopped by Terminus, the Roman camp’s border patrol god. They anchor it midair, and Annabeth, Jason, and Piper get down. Leo stays on the ship. Then, while everyone has a nice lunch, the Argo starts bombing Camp Jupiter. Then everyone is thrown into confusion, and Percy, Annabeth, Jason, Piper, Hazel, and Frank escape on the Argo . Leo helps, and he claims that he didn’t do anything at all. After that rocky start, they begin their journey to Greece. Once safely away from Camp Jupiter, they find out that Leo was possessed by an Eidolon, a malevolent spirit, and ensure that it wasn’t his fault. Even though they knew it, they knew that no one from the Roman camp would believe them. They land at the Great Salt Lake in Utah to repair the ship. Hazel and Leo go and gather supplies and encounter Nemesis and Narcissus. After gathering supplies, they continue the journey until they reach Kansas, where Percy, Piper, and Jason encounter Bacchus. Afterward, Gaia possesses Percy and Jason, causing a fight between them till Piper and Blackjack knock them out. Then, they continue the journey, and after a long and eventful time, they reach Rome, where Annabeth, who has to retrieve the Athena Parthenos, outwits Arachne and gets the statue. As the statue is being pulled out, Arachne pulls Annabeth and Percy in with her, and they get pulled into Tartarus. Percy tells Nico(who was rescued by the demigods) to meet him at Epirus, the location of the Doors of Death. The book ends.
4: Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth
In fourth place, we have the fourth book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series: The Battle of the Labyrinth. It starts when Percy and his friends find out that Kronos, Luke Castellan, and their army were planning to invade Camp Half-Blood using the ancient Labyrinth that connected to the camp. To stop the invasion, Annabeth receives a prophecy and acquires the assistance of Percy, Grover, and Tyson. The quest takes them through the Labyrinth. First, they meet Janus, the god of doorways and beginnings. Janus guides them to Hera, the queen goddess. Hera then guides them to Hephaestus, the god of blacksmithing. Hephaestus sends Percy and his friends on a mission to find out who is using his forge, which leads them to Mount St. Helens. He later helps them by giving information about the maze and about how a mortal was able to navigate it, which prompts Percy to realize he needs Rachel Elizabeth Dare’s help. He also tells them what he knows about Daedalus. At Mount St.Helens, Percy blows the mountain up to try and delay the rising of Typhon, the father of all monsters. Before that, Percy and Nico meet each other, and Percy, Annabeth, Grover, Tyson, Nico, and Rachel find Pan, god of the wild. At the end, Camp Half-Blood and the titan Kronos’s army have a battle. The camp, with Daedalus, Mrs O’Leary, and Briares’s help, the camp fights back. The book ends with Nico helping Daedalus(who sacrifices himself) pass on and a memorial service for the campers who died in the battle.
3: The Heroes of Olympus: The House of Hades
This book continues the Mark of Athena, where Percy and Annabeth fall into Tartarus, he pit where monsters reform and the god of Tartarus(the pit). The rest of the crew of the Argo get the Athena Parthenos on board, and have to make up for the absence of the demigods Percy and Annabeth. The book is two parallel stories. The first story is of Percy and Annabeth’s journey in Tartarus. The second storyline is about the Argo ’s Journey to the Doors of Death. Percy and Annabeth walk by the coast of one of the five rivers of the Underworld, the river Phlegethon. Eventually, as all demigods do, monsters go and attack them. The demigods were not in good form. They were not able to fight back. Then, Bob, the titan Iapetus who took a dunk in the river Lethe(another river of the Underworld), saved them. They followed the Phlegethon for some time and soon reached a swamp that held the giant Damasen, created to oppose the Greek god Ares (god of war), who was a helpful giant cast to Tartarus for helping humans. He helped Percy and Annabeth, and after a long, long time, they reached the Doors of Death. On the way, they acquired Death Mist from Akhyls. The Titan and Giant help Percy and Annabeth go through the Doors of Death. On the other side of the world, though, the Argo flew through the sky, stopping at Bologna, where the Kerkopes raided them, Venice, where a book was needed to be retrieved, and an encounter with Sciron, a bandit in the Apennine Mountains. They finally reached Greece, where Hazel and Leo fight Pasiphaё, a sorceress, and Clytius, the giant who absorbs light and magic. Hazel manipulates the mist into making the Labyrinth, and traps Pasiphaё. Then, she beats Clytius with Hecate’s help. Percy and Annabeth go out of the Doors of Death, and the book ends after all of the demigods get out.
2: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
In second place, one place before first, we have The Lightning Thief from Percy Jackson and the Olympians. This book is the first in the series, and it is excellent. The story starts with Percy Jackson, a 12-year-old boy in a boarding school for troubled kids called Yancy Academy. The class of Grade 6 goes to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. On that field trip, Nancy Bobofit throws PB&J sandwich pieces at Grover, Percy’s friend. Percy gets angry, and suddenly Nancy Bobofit is in the water fountain. Miss Dodds, the grade’s chaperone, soothes Nancy and calls Percy aside. Then, she turns into a monster called a Fury. Just as she was about to attack, Mr Brunner threw Percy a pen. As the pen flew into Percy’s hand, it turned into a sword. Using the sword, Percy slashed at the Fury in front of him. The monster disintegrated into dust and dissolved. Percy soon got expelled, and his mom(Sally Jackson) and Grover took him to Camp Half-Bood. At the border of the camp, the Minotaur attacked them. As Sally couldn’t enter the camp, she got squished by the Minotaur. Percy, now very angry, beat the Minotaur. At the camp, he was sent to Cabin Eleven(Hermes). Then, after a few weeks, Percy was determined to be a child of Poseidon because of his water powers. He received a quest to give Zeus’s lightning bolt back to him and made his way to Los Angeles, where the entrance to the underworld was, with Annabeth and Grover. On the way, they meet Medusa and decapitate her, find Procrustes and cut a bit off both of his sides, and get stuck in time for 5 days in the Lotus Hotel. In the end, Percy beats Ares, the god of war, and finds out that Kronos, the titan king and titan of time, was rising from Tartarus. Back at camp, Luke, head counselor of Hermes and Percy’s good friend, betrays him just like the prophecy says. The book ends with Percy going back home for the summer to live with his mom, who got revived.
1: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian
For the BEST Rick Riordan Book, we have Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian. The fifth book of the series, it has the mood and tension of a real fight. The descriptions are so real that you can be in them. The book starts with the death of Charles Beckendorf, which is bad, as the whole camp’s mood deteriorates. The Apollo and Ares cabins were fighting over a flying chariot, and Clarisse(the head counselor of the Ares cabin) said that her cabin would not battle unless they got the chariot. When the battle came, the 40 campers and the Hunters of Artemis came. The heroes valiantly fought against the enemy, but they were outnumbered. Then, Tyson took over the fight against Oceanus, and Poseidon helped with the fight against Typhon, leading to its demise. Then, as the prophecy told, Annabeth’s knife, a cursed blade(explained in the book The Demigod Diaries), was given to Luke, and Luke sacrificed himself for the promise he made 9 years ago. Then, a meeting at Mount Olympus was called, and Percy was given the opportunity to become a god. Percy politely declines and takes a different favour instead. Then, Rachel Dare becomes the new Oracle and spews out the Prophecy of Seven.
To conclude, these are the top ten books of the mythology writer Rick Riordan. A huge shout-out to The Lost Hero, The Serpent’s Shadow, and The Ship of the Dead, coming at places 11, 12, and 13, respectively.
By: Advith Reddy Chintala
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