Rick Riordan

Today's guest has turned thousands of 21st century kids into passionate, intensely knowledgable fans of ancient mythologies. When Rick Riordan published The Lightning Thief in 2008, his story of modern tweens magically connected to a hidden world of gods and monsters taken from Greek myths was an instant sensation — but it was no flash in the pan. Across multiple blockbuster series including Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the Kane Chronicles and Magnus Chase, Riordan has taken his fans on thrill rides through fantasy worlds that draw up on Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Norse mythos, mixing anachronistic humor and page-turning thrills to make figures from Poseidon to Loki come alive as friends or foes to his young adventurers. In his latest series, The Trials of Apollo, Riordan has taken a fresh twist, following the travails of a god trapped in a human body. Book four in the series, The Tyrant's Tomb, is just out, and Riordan joined B&N's Melissa Albert — who frequently hosts our YA podcast — to talk about his new book and his groundbreaking new imprint Rick Riordan Presents, which has tapped authors from diverse backgrounds to tell stories from myth traditions around the world.