Rick Riordan will publish another novel in his popular middle-grade fantasy series Percy Jackson and the Olympians next year, Publishers Weekly reports.
Disney Hyperion will publish The Chalice of the Gods, the sixth installment in the series following the titular character, a boy who discovers he’s a demigod and must help defend the world from the evil Titans. The books are currently being adapted as a television series for Disney+.
“After saving the world multiple times, Percy Jackson is hoping to have a normal senior year,” the publisher says in a description for the novel. “Unfortunately, the gods aren’t quite done with him. Percy will have to fulfill a new quest in order to get the necessary letter of recommendation from Mount Olympus for college.”
In a blog post, Riordan said he approached Disney with the idea for a new novel in order to convince them to move forward with the television adaptation.
“Flash forward to 2022, when we got the green light to begin filming,” Riordan wrote. “My friends at Disney Publishing came to me and said, ‘Hey, Rick, what can we publish that will help us take advantage of the new interest in Percy when the TV show comes out?’ We talked about all manner of things, but I didn’t want to publish something just to publish something. I wanted it to be a book you all might actually love, a kind of ‘thank you’ for sticking with me all these years as you waited for a better PJO adaptation.”
The Chalice of the Gods is slated for publication on Sept. 26, 2023.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
