The Sun and the Star: A Nico di Angelo Adventure

Unlike the rest of Riordan’s Camp Half-Blood Chronicles, The Sun and the Star is coauthored with Mark Oshiro. Riordan’s large corpus has grown in its approach to diversity and representation over the years. The first kind of representation in his novels was neurodiversity: Percy Jackson and all demigods have dyslexia and ADHD.

While Riordan’s first series was lauded for its presentation of neurodiversity, its characters were largely white and heterosexual. Nico, who identifies as gay, was a minor character in this series and thus the first Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning (LGBTQ+) character in the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles. Riordan’s two non-Camp Half-Blood Chronicles mythology series introduced characters of diverse races, genders, and sexualities. The Kane Chronicles features bi-racial siblings who struggle with identity and colorism, while Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard features characters who use sign language, Muslim characters, teens who experience homelessness, and teens who identify as transgender and non-binary. Riordan’s second Camp Half-Blood Chronicles series, Heroes of Olympus, also features a diverse cast, including characters who are Cherokee, Latino, Chinese Canadian, Black, and Puerto Rican, characters with diverse sexualities, and characters with complex home lives, including familial and emotional abuse and other traumas.

These representations were largely welcomed, but several misrepresentations created a backlash. In particular, critics objected to the portrayal of Piper McLean’s Cherokee heritage. Piper, who was raised outside of Cherokee culture, adopts eagle and harpy feathers for her hair. In Cherokee culture, eagle feathers are spiritually significant object given by Cherokee elders. Given this context, Piper’s donning this sacred object is misappropriation. In response, one Oglala Lakota and Choctaw reader of the series invoked the slogan, “no stories about us without us” (Watson, Ali. “It Is Not Just ‘A Feather In Her Hair’.” NtvTwt, 2020). First used by South African disability rights activists in the 1990s arguing that policy decisions about disability rights should not be made without input from disabled people (Pfeifer, Whitney. “From ‘Nothing About Us Without Us’ to ‘Nothing Without Us’.” National Democratic Institute, 2022), this slogan has migrated from the realm of government to literature and media. Many marginalized communities use it to convey the idea that stories about their identities and cultures should not be told without their input and consent to ensure accuracy and sensitivity and so that people from marginalized communities and identities have control over their own stories.

Perhaps due to this, Riordan has become more outspoken about his positionality as an older, straight, cis, white male. To write a “Nico di Angelo adventure,” Riordan sought another voice:

Writing about two young queer demigods, I felt very strongly that this wasn’t a story I should be telling by myself as an older straight guy. I needed to work with a great LGBTQ+ author who could bring perspective and thoughtfulness to these characters in ways that I might not be able to (Ulatowski, Rachel. “‘Percy Jackson’ Spinoff ‘The Sun and the Star’: Rick Riordan & Mark Oshiro Interview.” The Mary Sue, 2023).

Riordan brought on Oshiro, who identifies as queer and gay, as a coauthor.

When queer people are involved in telling stories about their community, there is a “purity of aesthetic, a queer neutrality derived from a central queer experience" (Taylor, Brandon. "Who Cares What Straight People Think?" Literary Hub, 17 Jul. 2017). Here, Oshiro’s lived experience factors into portraying Nico and Will’s realistic and healthy relationship. As coauthor, Oshiro has an active hand in portraying this positive example of queer youth.

Riordan and Oshiro’s dedication to the novel reads: “To all the Nicos, Wills, Pipers, and everything in between: this is for you. May you shine as bright as the sun and the stars.” Via their dedication, Riordan and Oshiro advocate for LGBTQ+ representation in fantasy and adventure genres, and in middle grade literature. When asked about the meaning behind this dedication, Oshiro elaborated: “You belong here. You belong in adventures, in fantasies, in middle grade books, in the world around us” (Ulatowski). Answering the same question, Riordan said, “We see you. We love you. You deserve to be included in wonderful adventures. You are heroes just as much as anyone else in Percy Jackson’s world. There is an equally important message in the book for readers who are NOT LGBTQ+: People are people. We are more alike than we are different” (Ulatowski).