Rick Riordan

Lore & Background

Riordan's first full-length novel was Big Red Tequila, which became the first book in the Tres Navarre series. His breakthrough was The Lightning Thief (2005), the first novel in the five-volume Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, which placed a group of modern-day adolescents in a Greco-Roman mythological setting. Since then, Riordan has written The Heroes of Olympus, a sequel to the Percy Jackson series; The Kane Chronicles, a trilogy of similar premise focusing on Egyptian mythology; and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, a trilogy of similar premise focusing on Norse mythology. Riordan also helped Scholastic Press develop The 39 Clues series and its spinoffs, and penned its first book, The Maze of Bones.

His fourth spin-off series set in the Percy Jackson universe, The Nico di Angelo Adventures, began on May 2, 2023 with the release of The Sun and the Star, co-written with author Mark Oshiro. Originally planned as a standalone novel, positive critical reception lead to the publishing of a sequel The Court of the Dead in 2025. Riordan was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. Riordan's family came from Cork, Ireland.

He graduated from Alamo Heights High School, and first attended the music program at North Texas State University, wanting to be a guitarist. He transferred to the University of Texas at Austin and studied English and History. He received his teaching certification in those subjects from the University of Texas at San Antonio. He taught English and Social Studies for eight years at Presidio Hill School in San Francisco.

In 2021, Riordan completed an online master's degree in Gaelic literature offered by the University College Cork. Rick married Rebecca 'Becky' Klahn in 1985. They have two sons, Haley and Patrick. They moved from San Antonio to Boston in June 2013, in conjunction with older son Haley starting college in Boston.

Riordan has created several successful book series. Tres Navarre, an adult mystery series about a Texas private eye, won the Shamus, Anthony, and Edgar Awards. He conceived the idea for the Percy Jackson series as bedtime stories about ancient Greek heroes for his son Haley. Haley had been diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia, inspiring Riordan to make the titular protagonist hyperactive and dyslexic.

Reader's Guide

Riordan's works of children's literature center around an adaptation of mythology for modern readers and for children. He has used Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Norse and combinations thereof in a total of five separate novel series. The mythology used in his works possesses elements unique to his series, but has a largely historical basis.

Some of its characteristics include an emphasis on human-divine interaction and a preference for anglicized names. Examples include: Greco-Roman mythology: Camp Half-Blood Chronicles (Percy Jackson & the Olympians, The Heroes of Olympus, The Trials of Apollo, The Nico di Angelo Adventures); Egyptian mythology: The Kane Chronicles; Norse mythology: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard. Riordan's sources for the mythology used in his books are surmised from isolated comments on the subject during various interviews, as he has never released a list of any kind.

These sources begin with the myths and the derivations thereof that he was exposed to as a child. Unnamed 'novels on Norse mythology', suggested to him by a teacher who noticed his interest in The Lord of the Rings, were his first introduction to mythology and continue to influence his writing today. The author also claims to have read such notable classics as The Iliad and The Odyssey, and to use his 'general knowledge' of a given mythology as a basis for his stories. As far as Greek mythology is concerned, Riordan has stated that Tales of the Greek Heroes by Roger Lancelyn Green was one of his first introductions to that type of myth, and is in part responsible for his decision to interpret myths in his own books.

Finally, Riordan has stated that he uses modern sources such as The Theoi Project for fact-checking purposes, as needed. None of his novels include a list of references. Percy Jackson's Greek Gods and Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes alone possess 'Background Reading' sections, listing sources such as Robert Fagles's translation of The Aeneid and web sites such as the Encyclopedia Mythica.

Did You Know?

• Rick Riordan has been the most-awarded Goodreads Choice Award winner since surpassing Stephen King in 2020.
• Riordan was the recipient of the Goodreads Choice Award in Middle Grade and Children's category every year from 2011 to 2021, collecting 11 awards so far.