Richard Russell "Rick" Riordan, Jr.  (born June 5, 1964) is an American author best known for the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. He also wrote the Tres Navarre mystery series for adults and helped to edit Demigods and Monsters, a collection of essays on the topic of his Percy Jackson series. He helped develop the 10 books in  The 39 Clues series, published by Scholastic Corporation, and wrote the first book in the series, The Maze of Bones.

Life and career 
Riordan was born in San Antonio, Texas. He graduated from the 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. He was awarded St. Mary's Hall's first Master Teacher Award in 2002.

Riordan is the multi-award-winning author of the Tres Navarre mystery series for adults; his The Maze of Bones reached number one on the New York Times Best Seller list on September 28, 2008. His Percy Jackson and the Olympians series features a twelve-year-old boy who discovers he is the modern-day son of an ancient Greek god. Film rights were purchased by Twentieth Century Fox and a feature film was released on February 12, 2010. Riordan lives in San Antonio with his wife and their two sons. Recently, Riordan has stated that he is working on a new series based upon the Egyptian pantheon, which then turned out to be The Kane Chronicles, with the first book, The Red Pyramid, to be released May 4, 2010. He also won 13 awards the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original, the Goodreads Choice Awards Best Middle Grade & Children's ( 5 times 2011-2015 ), Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original ( 5 times 2011-2015 ), Hampshire Book Award, and the Shamus award for best first PI novel!

Published books

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series 
(Film: Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief )
 The Lightning Thief – June 28, 2005 hardcover, March 21, 2006 paperback
 The Sea of Monsters – May 3, 2006
 The Titan's Curse – May 1, 2007
 The Battle of the Labyrinth – U.S.A. May 6, 2008, U.K. July 3, 2008
 The Last Olympian – May 5, 2009

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Companion Book(s)  
 The Demigod Files – February 10, 2009
 The Demigod Diaries- Unknown 
 Demigods and Monsters – February 10, 2009
 The Ultimate Guide – January 19, 2010

The 39 Clues 
(Series: 39 clues)
 The Maze of Bones – September 9, 2008
Note: This is the first and last book series written by Rick Riordan, the rest of the books were written by 2 other authors with him.

Tres Navarre Series 
 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 Kane Chronicles 
 The Red Pyramid – May 4, 2010
 The Throne of Fire - May 3, 2011
 The Serpent's Shadow - May 1, 2012

Heroes of Olympus Series 
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
Note: This book series is the sequel to Percy Jackson & the Olympians.

The Trials of Apollo Series (Sequel to Heroes of Olympus)
 The Hidden Oracle - May 3, 2016
 The Dark Prophecy - May 2, 2017
The Burning Maze - May 1, 2018
The Tyrant's Tomb - September 24, 2019

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard Series 
 The Sword of Summer - October 6, 2015
The Hammer of Thor - October 4, 2016
The Ship of the Dead - October 3, 2017
Nine from the 9 Worlds - Companion Book - October 2, 2018

Awards 
 1998 Shamus Award and Anthony Award for Big Red Tequila
 1999 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original for The Widower's Two-Step
 2008 Mark Twain Award for The Lightning Thief
 2009 Mark Twain Award for The Sea of Monsters
 2009 Rebecca Caudill Award for The Lightning Thief

References 
To know more about the author and his books go to www.rickriordan.co.uk

Other websites

 Official Rick Riordan Site
 Official Percy Jackson UK Site 
 Miss Erin interview
 Starred Review of The Last Olympian 
 Teen Libris interview 

 
1964 births
Living people
Writers from San Antonio, Texas