Rick Riordan Profile

Alright, so this week, in honor of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians turning ten years old, I am debuting a new type of post on my blog. I'm calling it Author Profile and it will basically be a post dedicated to an author and his/her work. Obviously, I had to choose of my favorite authors first so here we go, it's going to be a long one. 

Tres Navarre

So, his first ever series published book was not The Lightning Thief, it was Big Red Tequila. This first book is about an unofficial private investigator who gets into some trouble. I honestly don't know much about this series because I have not read it. It is an adult series so I don't see myself reading it in the near future but I do know it involves murder, the mafia, and missing people. It sounds interesting, don't get me wrong, but at the moment, I'm not too interested. I've heard mixed things about this series but I suppose that it's all about personal preference. The rest of the books are: The Widower's Two-Step, The Last King of Texas, The Devil Went Down to Austin, Southtown, Mission Road, and Rebel Island. In that order of course. This series is his least known and I am not sure how successful it was but I wanted to include it because I will be including all of his works.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

By far his most well known series, the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series is about a twelve year old boy who has ADHD and dyslexia. His dad is out of the picture, his step-dad is terrible, they're struggling with money, and he's constantly being kicked out schools. Percy basically sees himself as a loser. But one day, he finds out that his dad is actually a Greek god and he has special powers. So, he's sent to a camp and has to be sent on a quest to return Zeus' master lightning bolt before the summer solstice in order to save his mom and the world. That's obviously not the overall series plot but the first book is defiantly an intro to the world and I don't want to give anything away. This series is glorious. It's action packed and is full of self discovery. The books are, for the most part, a year apart so we are able to see where the characters begin and end which is just amazing because they grow so much during the course of these books. This is my favorite series of all time. It's so funny and witty and adventurous and it has a great message. People of all ages can read this series and enjoy it. The books are: The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and The Last Olympian.

The Heroes of Olympus

So, first and foremost, I would like to clear the air and say that this series is a continuation of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. It takes place a couple of months after The Last Olympian so I won't go into detail so I won't spoil anything, but I will say unlike his last series, Riordan includes both Greek and Roman mythology in this series. We get to see a whole bunch of new characters but we also see a lot of the old ones as well. It is very different from his first mythology series because it is on a much larger scale and I feel as though this one is a bit more mature. I think it touches on some more important topics that kids will learn from. This series expands on what we learned in the first series about the world. Some people weren't too happy about the end of this series but I thought it was pretty good and made me stop and think a little. The books are: The Lost Hero, The Son of Neptune, The Mark of Athena, The House of Hades, and The Blood of Olympus.

The Kane Chronicles

Alright, this trilogy is about Egyptian mythology in the modern world. It's about a brother and a sister, Carter and Sadie, who grew up apart. Carter travels around the world with his dad and Sadie lives with her grandparents in England, I believe. They all see each other for a brief amount of time and during that time, the Egyptian gods decide to make their presence known. Now they must reunite to save the world. And find out what's going on. And learn how to use their powers. And they are left without parents. Easy. This series is different from his other two because it has a brother sister dynamic that isn't your traditional one. They are, essentially, strangers who need to learn about each other before they can really take on this task. It's also told in an alternating point of view between the two of them. It's really interesting to see them grow as people and as family. The books are: The Red Pyramid, The Throne of Fire, and The Serpent's Shadow.

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard

This is his newest series of books. So new, in fact, that they aren't even out yet. All we know so far is that it is based on Norse mythology and it will be released on October 6th. Okay, so we know a little bit more than that. It's about a boy named Magnus Chase and he is poor. He has no parents and lives on the streets. But it is revealed that he is the son of a Norse god and must search the Nine Worlds for a weapon to, I assume, save the world. It sounds amazing, I am so excited, and you can bet your money I will be rushing out the day it is released to buy it. Books in the series: The Sword of Summer.

Miscellaneous Books

These are the rest of the books that Riordan has published but don't fit into a series as a major work does. So let's get into them because I don't want this post to be longer than it should be. First off, let's get this out of the way, there are graphic novel editions out of The Lightning Thief. The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, The Lost Hero, and The Red Pyramid. 

The Demigod Files is a collection of short stories that happen over the course of the series but we don't get to see in the main books. It's full of adventures that are fun and exciting but are still full of danger. I recommend reading this book after you've read The Battle of the Labyrinth but it isn't necessary to the over all series. It also contains maps, diagrams, interviews with characters, and fun games. 

The Demigod Diaries is the same thing in concept but it is meant to go along with the Heroes of Olympus series. More fun short stories and diagrams and games. I would recommend reading this one after you read The Son of Neptune. Or, at least, that is the safe time to read it meaning, no spoilers. 

Percy Jackson and Kane Chronicles Cross Overs are short stories about characters from his series meeting. It's exactly what you'd think it is. Percy meets Carter, Annabeth meets Sadie, they go on a short adventure. They're really entertaining reads that are so much fun because we see two worlds collide and interact. So far, they are only available in e-book format, or they are included in the paperback versions of The Serpent's Shadow, The Mark of Athena, and The House of Hades. Riordan says that "eventually" he plans on releasing a physical book with all of them in there but no other news than that. 

Percy Jackson's Greek Gods is a huge book in which Percy tells the reader about the Greek gods and some of the major myths they are involved in. This just the most fun book ever. It's just like Percy is goofing off and telling stories but he's also putting in his own opinion and sassy remarks. There are a few nerdy references that I fangirled over way too much but hey, this isn't a serious book. It's teaching you about Greek mythology but it's highly entertaining. I say read it after you finished The Heroes of Olympus because it's a nice reminder of the journey they went on.

Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes is the same concept as the last book, but, obviously, it's about heroes, not gods. I can't tell you much about this book other than that and it will have amazing art work and that it comes out August 18, Percy's birthday.

Survival Guides are available for both Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Kane Chronicles but they don't have any real story. I think they're full of fun stuff about the characters but nothing necessary for the series. I'm also not sure if they are written by Riordan or not.

The 39 Clues is a series about a world chase for clues to solve a mystery about a powerful family. The main characters Amy and Dan need to find them, or discover what happened to their parents. This is a long series, I'm not sure if it's even complete yet, but Riordan has only written two books out of this series, the first and the eleventh, I believe. The rest have been written by a number of different authors. I haven't read it but maybe one day I will.

Why Riordan is an Amazing Author

Riordan is such a good author because he just shines in writing adventure novels. He has an act now, explain later method that he uses flawlessly. His characters are deep and dynamic and you feel for most of them, even some of the villeins. These books are great to read regardless of your age and if self discovery and adventure are things that you enjoy, check out some of his books because they are all awesome.  

FINALLY, this post is coming to an end. I've worked really hard on it so I hope you enjoyed it. I've been typing for a really long time so I'm kind of tired at this point, but I had a lot of fun doing this post. If I left anything out, or you still have questions, or you want to request another author for me to do this on, let me know and I'd be happy to. See you next week.

NOTES:

In the image at the top, I said his son's name is Bailey, it's actually Haley. I was thinking of my English teacher's son's name.

All of the information in this post I got from either Goodreads, Riordan's website, his twitter account, or it was my personal knowledge about the books.

The image for the profile is also not mine. I found it through the Google image search and I just added in all of the information.