Essay Questions

What is the unifying thematic conceit of this collection of stories?

The thematic concept upon which this collection of short stories is founded is that they are standalone stories featuring well-known and beloved characters from the Rick Riordan “multiverse.” For instance, Paola Santiago is a character in a series devoted to her adventures written by Tehlor Kay Mejia as part of the Rick Riordan Presents publishing imprint. One can extrapolate from that description the idea that being a part of the “Riordan Multiverse” does not necessarily mean being a character created or written about by Riordan himself. As a means of comparison, think of the Star Wars “multiverse” and a series of stories about various characters who were not necessarily the brainchild of George Lucas. This is what the publishing world looks like today in the era of branding. Not this is a new idea: many famous painters never actually painted some of the words attributed to them, but instead outsourced either all or some of the work to apprentices.

Is this book truly an example of a multiverse project?

A book of stories about characters inhabiting a writer’s multiverse in which the narrator of the opening story is discussing the concept of the multiverse. Talk about meta! But, of course, it is important to fully grasp the idea of the multiverse, especially since the idea is becoming more and more a part of the literary lexicon. Although multiverses of fictional creations have long existed, it is not extending too much credit to suggest that the Marvel Comics movies bringing together multiple heroic figures of their own individual comic book series together greatly increased the presence and made the multiverse concept more accessible to a larger number of people. Simply trying to parse the paragraph above greatly illuminates how much more complex and complicated crossing over from one realm to another an actually be, however. If a multiverse exists, after all, then by definition those inhabitants cannot be limited to just one realm, otherwise it would simply be a universe.

So the question becomes, then, is this book of short stories really the example of a “multiverse mansion in which all the heroes of Rick Riordan Presents exist together” or is it simply a universe populated by those characters? The concept of a multiverse by definition strongly suggests interaction across multiple universes. There is no interaction here between the characters in the stories, so while the idea may be clear enough, the execution may be less than what is promised for some readers.

Are any of the stories actually written by Rick Riordan himself?

As indicated, the “Rick Riordan Multiverse” is a term that does not necessarily imply all the characters are the inventions of Riordan. The cover and title page clearly identify Riordan’s involvement in the project as limited to being just one of the many contributing authors, but, indeed, he does author the closing story in the book. Riordan contributes the story “My Life as a Child Outlaw” which begins with the ominous opening line “They came to kill me when I was eight years old.” Readers familiar with the name Rick Riordan but not necessarily steeped in the broader context of what the “Riordan Multiverse” entails should certainly be aware before purchasing the book for what they are in for, but should not expected disappointment simply because he himself is not present as the writer of the tales found within. And even if a reader is particularly interested in reading the writing of Riordan himself, they are likely not to be disappointed since his story is not cheap throwaway, but one of the longest—if not the longest—story in the entire book.