Rick Riordan

**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. In January 2022, Disney+ gave the green light for a TV Show adaptation of the series. As of December 2022, more than half of the first book has been filmed. 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!

### _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 Books_

- _The Demigod Files_ – February 10, 2009
- The Demigod Diaries – August  14, 2012
- _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_ series

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

### _Heroes of Olympus_ Series (Sequel to _Percy Jackson and the Olympians_)

- 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

### _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
- The Tower of Nero - October 6, 2020

### _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

## Infobox (writer)

- **name**: Rick Riordan
- **image**: Rick riordan 2007.jpg
- **caption**: Riordan signing copies of _The Battle of the Labyrinth_ on November 3, 2007
- **birth place**: San Antonio, Texas
- **occupation**: Author
- **genre**: Fantasy, Detective fiction, Mythology
- **notableworks**: _Percy Jackson and the Olympians_ series