For those of you who don't know, I'm a nerd and I love to read. I can't even give you an estimate of how many books I've read in my life. However, I can tell you which books I've read stand out the most as being one of my favorites. One of my favorite book series is the Greek mythology based series written by Rick Riordan. He has a ton of series that are centered around mythology in general; including Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Norse mythology. Here are a list of reasons why I personally think he's a great author.
Characters
No matter which book or series I'm reading, almost all of his characters just instantly hook me in. A lot of them are either very lovable or you can't stand them. A lot of his characters are also relate able, which is odd given how heavily fictional all of it is. He focuses on characters with troubled lives or troubled pasts. This includes characters with problems such as Dyslexia and ADHD. It also includes characters who have lost close family members, mostly parents, at a young age. It also discusses heavily on characters who have never met one of their parents. He just seems to give his characters a lot of personality, he really focuses on making sure readers understand who these characters are and what their story is about.
Description
Rick Riordan is probably one of the best authors I've known when it comes to giving great description in his work. He goes into detail of what a certain scene might look like, as well as what certain characters look like. This can really help a reader understand what's happening in a story. It helps the reader imagine what something or someone might look like.
Cliff Hangers
Cliff hangers make me mad. I'm pretty sure they make a lot of people mad, and Rick is great when it comes to this. The first series he wrote didn't really end on any cliff hangers and at first I thought that would be it. Now he's come out with so many more series and almost every book ends on a cliff hanger. In fact, the last one I read ended on a cliff hanger and now I'm waiting for the next one to come out in the fall. This is a pretty good way to get your books to sell though.
Inside Jokes
You have to read all of his series from the beginning to understand the inside jokes that are subtly used. He'll make an inside joke in the first series and then bring it up again in the third one. Any fellow major fans will know what I'm talking about when I say "I want to buy a Dam T-shirt."
Mind Twisters
I'm not sure how well I can explain this concept. It's really better if you read the books to really understand it, but I'll try to explain it. As I said before Rick has book series based on all kinds of mythology. At first all of these series remained separate from one another. If you read his series on Greek mythology, that's all you get. Now he's letting all of those intertwine with one another. The Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Norse mythology all cross over at some point. All of the characters are aware of this too. In the book series it's claimed multiple times that all kinds of mythology are true and that all of the different kinds simply coexist and work on separate fields of reality. It's kind of hard to understand but if you read the books it will make sense.
