The PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS author talks about his new series, THE KANE CHRONICLES, and more:
On his inspiration for THE RED PYRAMID:
While I was doing tours and school visits for the PERCY JACKSON series, one question kept coming up from the kids: “Would I ever do another kind of mythology?” And as I thought about it, I went back to my days as a school teacher and I realized that the most popular unit that I ever taught was about ancient Egypt. So, I started thinking that it would be a really neat idea if I could take a PERCY JACKSON-type spin on Egyptian mythology.
On the role of magic in the new series:
There’s an ancient college of magic… called the House of Life. Every temple in Egypt had a branch of this. When an accident unleashes the gods of Egypt into the modern world, Carter and Sadie Kane, the brother and sister in the book, find out that they’re the only ones who can set things right, because they’re descendants of that college of magic from the ancient times.
On some of his favourite books:
From my own childhood, JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH, and later on, THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH. But the books that really got me into reading were the LORD OF THE RINGS series. Today… some of my favourite[s] are Suzanne Collins’ THE HUNGER GAMES [and] SKULLDUGGERY PLEASANT, [which is] one of my two sons’ favourite series.
Thank you Rick Riordan!