Background
The prequel to The Court of the Dead, The Sun and the Star , which was originally intended to be a standalone book, [12] was released on May 2, 2023, and immediately became the number one bestseller on The New York Times Best Seller list for Children’s Middle Grade books, [13] [f] the American Booksellers Association IndieBound Best Seller List for Early & Middle Grade Readers, [14] [g] the Publishers Weekly Best Seller List for Children's Fiction, [15] [h] and The Globe and Mail Bestseller List for Juvenile books. [16] [i]
The Sun and the Star was listed on The New York Times Best Seller list for Children’s Middle Grade books for a total of 73 weeks, [17] [j] the American Booksellers Association IndieBound Best Seller List for Early & Middle Grade Readers for a total of 44 weeks, [18] [k] the Publishers Weekly Best Seller List for Children's Fiction for a total of 33 weeks, [19] [l] and The Globe and Mail Bestseller List for Juvenile books for a total of 9 weeks. [20] [m] The book was the number one overall bestseller on the American Booksellers Association IndieBound Best Seller List for Early & Middle Grade Readers for the entire year of 2023. [21] [n]
The Sun and the Star was awarded the Common Sense Selection Seal for Families by Common Sense Media, [22] and listed as a Best Middle-Grade Fantasy of 2023 by Kirkus Reviews. [23]
As a result of the above aforestated success, the sequel to The Sun and the Star , The Court of the Dead, was announced by authors Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro on February 28, 2025. [24] [25] [26]
Plot
Three months after their quest to Tartarus, Nico di Angelo and Will Solace, as the most veteran campers currently in attendance, have been helping Dionysus and Chiron deal with a massive influx of new campers. The two receive a sudden summons to Camp Jupiter from Hazel where they learn that their recent journey to Tartarus has caused several monsters, or mythics as they prefer to be called, to seek sanctuary at the Roman camp, seeking to make a new life for themselves. These mythics are the Minotaur, now going by his real name of Asterion, Johan the blemmyae, Quinoa the karpos, Arielle the empousa, Orcus the gryphon and Semele the eidolon.
Nico and Will attempt to help the mythics settle in at Camp Jupiter, but have to deal with a great deal of backlash from the Roman legion who are used to hunting and being hunted by mythics. Things get off to a rocky start with Arielle being targeted by Savannah, a legacy who lost her family to empousa, Orcus struggling to adapt to the modern world, and Johan being the target of pranks and bullying due to his polite nature. However, Nico and Will eventually make progress with Orcus' struggles endearing him to some of the legion, Johan finding a job as a historian and archivist while befriending his tormentor and Quinoa quickly finding acceptance as a kindergarten teacher in New Rome.
Despite these successes, the mythics begin mysteriously vanishing one by one from Camp Jupiter following unsettling dreams about facing judgement. With the help of the Coco Puffs who help to see through the intruder's illusions, the legion is able to uncover the culprit as Laverna, a minor Roman goddess who leaves behind an ID badge as she flees. Following this clue, Nico, Will and Hazel discover that Laverna works for the Court of the Dead, a tribunal run by Pirithous, Tantalus and Mary Tudor who claim to be able to destroy a being completely and, having amassed an army of the dead, evil mythics and minor gods, wish to overthrow Hades and take control of the Underworld for themselves. Hazel is placed on trial and seemingly executed while Nico and Will escape. As they go, Hazel warns Nico not to believe what he has seen.
In reality, Hazel and hundreds of mythics are imprisoned in Golden Gate Park where Pirithous intends to use their presence to break the Mist, which is the veil separating the mystical world from the mortal world, and force Hades to the surface where the Court will put him on trial. Nico reaches out to Hades who is unable to interfere directly, but offers his son advice while discreetly leading Will's country singer mother Naomi to the park so that she can reveal the location to the demigods. Hades and Johan reveal that Pirithous is seeking revenge for Hades punishing him by trapping Pirithous in a rock when he and Theseus tried to steal Persephone. Hades eventually released Pirithous, believing that he had changed, only to have Pirithous come up with this revenge plot.
A strike team of demigods and the remaining mythics, carrying the Coco Puffs to sharpen their perception, attack Golden Gate Park as the Mist breaks, throwing everything into chaos. The Court only succeeds in summoning Dolus and Apate, two minor trickster gods who incinerate Mary and Tantalus. However, Pirithous and Kelli trap the two in the chains of Prometheus which Pirithous has been using to force gods to swear allegiance to him. Asterion organizes the escape of the mythics while Hazel kills Kelli and Nico, with Semele inhabiting his body to lend him her strength, manages to free Dolus and Apate with the Coco Puffs' help. The two gods restore the Mist, although they go overboard, resulting in more chaos before Semele brings them back in line. Pirithous attempts to escape in the camp van, but is ran off of the road by Hazel and Arion and forced to release the minor gods from his service.
Drawn by the chaos, Hecate, the goddess of magic, arrives to deal with the aftermath. Hecate banishes Pirithous back to his punishment in the Underworld, erases the memories of the mortals who witnessed the events, and restores Semele -- who is revealed to be a goddess who had faded -- to physical form. At Hecate's request, Nico, Will and Hazel promise to ensure that the minor gods who worked for the Court get cabins at Camp Half-Blood and temples in New Rome.
Afterwards, most of the mythics settle in at Camp Jupiter aside from Orcus who decides to travel the world. The mythics become a part of the legion as an auxilia . Savannah decides to go on a quest with her friends Yazan and Deion as well as Arielle to hunt down the empousa who killed her family so that she can get closure. Returning to Camp Half-Blood, Nico and Will discover that Semele has reunited with Dionysus who is her son. Nico realizes that for the first time, he is truly happy, having finally found a home, family and someone to love.
