Reading order
Legend reading order
1
2
3- 4 volumes
- Volumes
- 2011–2019
- Published
- about 30 h
- Reading time
- Completed
- Status
- Dystopian#8
- Genre
Quick answer
Publication order
4 volumes2011–2019Completed
- Three books, one arc: Legend, Prodigy, Champion, and the ending is the point — read them in order or not at all.
- Prodigy and Champion both came out in 2013, which is why lists sorted by year sometimes swap them; Prodigy is second.
- Rebel arrived six years later and jumps forward a decade to follow Eden, Day's younger brother, so it reads as a coda rather than a fourth act.
A plan for the whole series
4 volumes, 1,512 pages, about 30 hours. At 45 min a day that is about 5 weeks.
Share of volume 1’s readers who reach the last volume. Chance of reaching the last volume: medium
Stages
2 stages, with 1 short book from outside the series between them. You finish around December 9, 2026, 4 days later than in one go.
- Stage 113 h18 daysby November 16, 2026
- Short breakThe Fire Next Time · James Baldwin · 120 pp. · score 8.8
- Stage 215 h19 daysby December 9, 2026
- 3. Champion
- 4. Rebel
- The end of the series
We count 1.1 min per page, the pace of an average novel reader. Faster? Move the slider.
≈ next to a page count: a volume with no page count in our data is counted at this series’s average.
Does the series hold up
Shape of the series: even. Volume scores differ by at most 0.2 points. You get the same level from the first page to the last.
Best volume: Champion (8.0, 340 ratings). Weakest: Legend (7.8). The series is complete; you can read it start to finish with no waiting. The last volume (8.0) scores close to the series average or above it.
How this plan is calculated
The plan comes from the pages and ratings of each volume: we split the series into stages of about three weeks’ reading, size each break to the stage before it, and read the chance of finishing from how many readers rate the last volume compared with the first. How we work out the plan →
Every volume in order
Order checked by hand · Order and years: Wikidata (CC0). Spotted an error? Tell us. · Data updated October 29, 2026
Legend books ranked, best to worst
Top Dystopian series →Frequently asked questions
Which Legend book is the best?
By reader score, Champion (8.0/10). The lowest-rated is Legend (7.8/10).
Which Legend book is the longest?
“Champion” is the longest at 414 pages; the shortest is “Legend” with 320 pages.
What should I read after Legend?
Other series by Marie Lu: The Young Elites.
