Reading Riordan

*Quick note, I am going to be discussing some of Riordan’s books. I’m not revealing any super big plot details for the books but I do discuss some plot/relationship stuff. Just thought I would put a heads up. Also, I’m recalling a lot of this stuff from my memory but I tried to remember everything to the best of my abilities.*

I’m sure that most of you, even if you haven’t read his books, have heard of the author Rick Riordan. Probably best known most for writing the Percy Jackson series, but also the author of a variety of other series focusing on mythology. I personally enjoy reading these books and have all five of his mythology focused series on my bookshelf. The fifth and final book of The Trials of Apollo series came out just a few Tuesdays ago so I started to reread the other four books in the series before I read the new book.

I started rereading these books during our LGBTQ+ unit and so I feel like that was kind of in my mind as I was reading. I know in class we have talked about the lack of representation of LGBTQ+ characters in books and movies and I know that I personally have experienced that as well when reading many books. So really it was quite refreshing to jump into this series and see one of the first relationships being between Will and Nico. Depending on if you have read other Rick Riordan series, we previously learned that Nico is gay from a crush that he had on Percy. I felt like when we were introduced to this relationship, there isn’t that sense of awkwardness that there sometimes is when the author goes about explaining a gay relationship. There is a general sense of normalcy and acceptance. Apollo, the narrator and main character (who is also Will’s father), was totally chill with it, mentioning that he has had affairs with both men and women (and in fact Apollo’s earlier relationships with Hyacinth and Commodus play a vital role in the plot later on).

In general, Riordan does a nice job of having a diverse range of characters. I remember that when Riordan was releasing books in The Gods of Asgard series, there was a lot of discussion on diversity. The focus landed especially on Alex Fierro, a gender-fluid character who ends up in a relationship with the main character, Magnus Chase. This sort of relationship is something you really don’t see represented in books often. When Alex was first introduced in the books, I remember this conversation between Alex and Magnus on Alex’s gender-fluidity:

    "'Look, some people prefer they,' Alex said. 'They're non-binary or mid-spectrum or whatever. If they want you to use they, then that's what you should do. But for me, personally, I don't want to use the same pronouns all the time, because that's not me. I change a lot. That's sort of the point. When I'm she, I'm she. When I'm he, I'm he. Get it?'

    'If I say no, will you hurt me?'

    'No.'

    'Then no, not really.'

    She shrugged. 'You don't have to get it. Just, you know, a little respect.'

    'For the girl with the very sharp wire? No problem.'

    She must have liked that answer. There was nothing confusing about the smile she gave me. It warmed the office about five degrees."

I thought that Riordan overall did a good job with Alex’s character because although Alex’s gender-fluidity is important and is discussed (as shown in the previous scene), it doesn’t become the only feature of Alex’s identity as it sometimes happens with LGBTQ+ characters in books. I also thought it was nice that Riordan made it clear that Alex doesn’t represent all gender-fluid people.

Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, Riordan does have a lot of diversity with his characters. Also in the Gods of Asgard, there Samirah, who is Muslim, and Magnus, who is homeless at the beginning. In other series like in The Kane Chronicles the two main characters are biracial, with a white mother and black father, and in The Gods of Olympus series, the main characters included Leo, who is Hispanic, Frank, who is Chinese, Piper, who is Cherokee, and Hazel, who is black. Overall, the side characters keep on becoming more diverse with increasing racial diversity among the campers at Camp Half-Blood as well as just diverse backgrounds. And I say increasing diversity as the original Percy Jackson series didn’t have as much diversity. I think that it’s good that we see this diversity in such popular books targeted to a younger audience so that there is this representation in popular book series. It’s nice after all the things that have happened recently with J.K. Rowling with Harry Potter being so popular. I hope that more book series can be more diverse, not only in LGBTQ+ characters but in all kinds of appearances and backgrounds.