Richard Russell Riordan, Jr., more commonly known as Rick Riordan, (born June 5, 1964, age 50) is a highly acclaimed American author from San Antonio, Texas. He currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts.
Biography
Riordan is famous for his Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. He also wrote the Tres Navarre mystery series intended for adults and helped edit Demigods and Monsters, a collection of essays on the topic of his Percy Jackson series. In addition, he published Maze of Bones for Scholastic, which is the first book in the 39 Clues series of books.
He graduated from University of Texas at Austin, where he double-majored in English and history. For fifteen years he taught in public and private schools in California and in San Antonio, Texas. He used to be a teacher, where he got names for his famous Percy Jackson and the Olympians series like 'Jackson' (Percy's last name), Nancy Bobofit and even Luke Castellan.
Riordan is the multi-award winning author of the Tres Navarre mystery series for adults and the #1 New York Times best-selling Percy Jackson and the Olympians series for children. The novels draw on Riordan's experience teaching Greek mythology and his interaction with students who have learning difficulties. Riordan currently lives in Boston with his wife and their two sons.
A new series, The Kane Chronicles was released in May of 2010, involving the Egyptian gods, but he hints that it relates to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series (it is hinted in the book as well). He also wrote a second follow-up to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, The Heroes of Olympus series. The first book, The Lost Hero, was released in October of 2010. The second book, The Son of Neptune, was released in October of 2011. The third book, The Mark of Athena, was released in October of 2012. The fourth book, The House of Hades, was released on October 8th, 2013. The fifth and final book, The Blood of Olympus, will be released on October 7th, 2014.
Riordan also wrote a series of interactive stories in the app Demigods of Olympus.
Riordan released a crossover short story called "The Son of Sobek", to which he has sequels planned in mind. He also pointed out that he is going to write a book on Greek mythology called Percy Jackson's Greek Gods that will come out next year on Percy's birthday week August 19th, 2014. However, it doesn't have anything to do with the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series or The Heroes of Olympus series. Also there is a new short story called "The Singer of Apollo", which was released in September of 2013.
Rick also has stated that a new series based on old Norse mythology is being developed and that it will be published in 2015. In an interview with the Boston Globe, he announced that these books will take place in Boston, Massachusetts.
Book Series
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
- The Lightning Thief - June 28, 2005
- The Sea of Monsters - May 3, 2006
- The Titan's Curse - May 1, 2007
- The Battle of the Labyrinth - May 6, 2008
- The Last Olympian - May 5, 2009
The Heroes of Olympus
- The Lost Hero - October 12, 2010
- The Son of Neptune - October 4, 2011
- The Mark of Athena - October 2, 2012
- The House of Hades - October 8, 2013
- The Blood of Olympus - October 7, 2014
Demigods of Olympus
- My Two-headed Guidance Counselor - August 7, 2014
- The Library of Deadly Weapons - August 7, 2014
Graphic Novels
- The Lightning Thief - October 12, 2010
- The Sea of Monsters - July 2, 2013
- The Titan's Curse - October 8, 2013
Companion Books
- Demigods and Monsters - February 10, 2009
- The Demigod Files - February 10, 2009
- The Ultimate Guide - January 19, 2010
- The Demigod Diaries - August 14, 2012
- Kane Chronicles Survival Guide - March 20, 2012
Crossover Series
- The Son of Sobek (Short Story) - May 7, 2013
- The Staff of Serapis (Short Story) - April 8, 2014
- The Crown of Ptolemy (Short Story) - May 12, 2015
- Big Red Tequila - June 1997
- Widower's Two-Step - June 1998
- The Last King of Texas - January 2000
- The Devil Went Down to Austin - June 2001
- Southtown - April 2004
- Mission Road - June 2005
- Rebel Island - August 2007
The 39 Clues Series
- The Maze of Bones - September 9, 2008 (First Book)
- Full List (Various Authors)
- Vespers Rising - April 5, 2011 (Riordan with Gordan Korman, Peter Lerangis and Jude Watson)
- The Black Book of Buried Secrets (introduction only)
The Kane Chronicles
- The Red Pyramid - May 4, 2010
- The Throne of Fire - May 3, 2011
- The Serpent's Shadow - May 1, 2012
Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard
- The Sword of Summer - October 6, 2015
Trivia
- In The Demigod Files, it says that Rick is the senior scribe for Camp Half-Blood, so he may be the person narrating in The Heroes of Olympus series.
- Rick originally wrote The Lightning Thief for his son, Haley Riordan, who has ADHD and dyslexia, in order to encourage him to do his work. The character Percy Jackson was based on him.
- According to his official website, he has not seen the movie version of The Lightning Thief, or the movie version of the Sea of Monsters because he didn't want the movie to change the way he imagined the characters or the way they acted.
- Rick Riordan does not like audio book versions of his books, because he says they don't sound the way he would like them to.
- Rick Riordan never looks at fan fiction because he doesn't like that other people are writing about his characters, and he doesn't want people saying, "Hey, that was my idea though!" if he uses it in a book.
- For some of his characters in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, he used his students' names, such as Connor and Travis Stoll and Katie Gardner.
- "Riordan" means "royal poet" in Irish.
- His favorite character to write in The Heroes of Olympus is Gleeson Hedge.
- He once joked on twitter that he had a pet Hydra named Peanut.
External links
- Official Rick Riordan Site
- Miss Erin interview
- Teen Libris interview
- The official Kane Chronicles website
- The Official Percy Jackson Fan Kit
- Official Camp Half-Blood site