Jump to content

James Riley (writer)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

James Riley
Riley in front of a poster of his cover to ONCE UPON ANOTHER TIME in 2022.
Born (1977-05-09) May 9, 1977 (age 49)
Connecticut
EducationGeorgetown University[1]
OccupationWriter
Writing career
LanguageEnglish
Years active2010–present
GenreFantasy
Notable workStory Thieves
Websitejamesrileyauthor.com

James Michael Riley (born May 9, 1977) is an American novelist, most famous for the fantasy series Story Thieves.[2][3][4][5] He has also written the Half Upon a Time, Revenge of Magic, Once Upon Another Time, and The Dragon's Apprentice series.[6] James Riley is a real person and not a fictional character, nor an alias for the fictional character Nobody.

Early life

[edit]

James Riley was born in Connecticut on May 9, 1977. He majored in English at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Before becoming a writer, he considered a career as an attorney, worked as a travel editor, and worked at Disney.

In 2014, he moved from Los Angeles, California, to northern Virginia, outside Washington, D.C.[7]

Writing career

[edit]

Half Upon a Time trilogy

[edit]

James Riley's first published novel, Half Upon a Time, was released on September 7, 2010, and published by Aladdin, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.[8][9] It is a fantasy novel centered around a boy named Jack, the fictional son of the main character from the children's story Jack and the Beanstalk, and a girl named May who is from our nonfictional world. The novel incorporates plot points from various Brothers Grimm fairy tales, including Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White. This is Riley's first story centered around the idea that the fictional and nonfictional worlds are connected, a common theme in his first eight novels and his last three.

The two other books in the trilogy, Twice Upon a Time (published April 24, 2012)[10] and Once Upon the End (published May 7, 2013),[11] expand upon May and Jack's adventures as they seek to thwart the main antagonist, known as the Wicked Queen.[12][13]

Half Upon a Time was included on the 2014–2015 Sunshine State Young Readers Award Middle School Master List,[14] was a Mark Twain Readers Award finalist,[15] and was listed as a NCTE/CLA Notable Children's Book in the English Language Arts.[16] Once Upon the End was included on the MSTA Reading Circle List.[17]

In 2022, He published a spinoff of Half Upon a Time called Once Upon Another Time.

Story Thieves series

[edit]

James Riley launched his second series with the release of the novel Story Thieves on January 20, 2015.[18] The meta novel centers around Owen, a nonfictional boy from our world, and Bethany, a half-fictional girl. The duo works to stop a fictional wizard named the Magister from the Kiel Gnomenfoot series (a parody of Dumbledore from the Harry Potter series), as he angrily reacts to the realization that he is a fictional character.[19][pages needed]

James Riley covers a number of different genres in the Story Thieves series. Story Thieves: The Stolen Chapters (published January 19, 2016)[20] is a mystery novel.[21][pages needed] Story Thieves: Secret Origins (published January 17, 2017)[22] is a superhero novel with occasional comic book-style pages.[23] Story Thieves: Pick the Plot (published September 26, 2017)[24] is James Riley's first gamebook, but unlike most gamebooks, it is not set in second person. Pick the Plot makes a substantial attempt to break the fourth wall, not only in its gamebook genre but also due to its plot twist in which Owen discovers that the fictional and nonfictional worlds originated from the same universe before the Big Bang.[25] Nobody, the supposed author of Pick the Plot, also claims that readers are living inside of a book and the Story Thieves stories is factual, and as readers pick the plot, they are orchestrating real time travel. The final book in the series, Story Thieves: Worlds Apart (published March 20, 2018)[26] returns to the original Story Thieves' fantasy genre, and sees Owen and Bethany work to foil the ambitions of the main antagonist, Nobody.[27]

Story Thieves appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list for twenty-three consecutive weeks,[28] as well as on the Publishers Weekly bestsellers list.[29]

The Revenge of Magic series

[edit]

The Revenge of Magic, the first book in Riley's third series, was released on March 5, 2019,[30] almost a year after his previous work. Shortly after an attack on Washington, D.C., by magical giants and his father's resulting death, Fort Fitzgerald is recruited to a government-run school for magic. Here, Fort encounters an "Old One", an otherworldly being which vaguely resembles characters of the same name from the Cthulhu Mythos.[citation needed] Fort and other children from the school eventually use magic to banish the Old One before it can summon others of its race to their reality.[31]

Later books in the series include The Revenge of Magic: The Last Dragon, published on October 8, 2019,[32] The Revenge of Magic: The Future King, published on March 3, 2020,[33] The Revenge of Magic: The Timeless One, published on October 3, 2020, and The Revenge of Magic: The Chosen One, published on March 2, 2021. As with the Story Thieves series, the cover art for the Revenge of Magic series is by Vivienne To.

The film rights for The Revenge of Magic were acquired by Greg Silverman's Stampede Ventures, an independent film company, in August 2018.[34]

Once Upon Another Time trilogy

[edit]

Once Upon Another Time, the first book in James Riley's fourth series was released in 2022. It serves as a spinoff for Half Upon a Time.[citation needed]

Later books include Tall Tales (2022) and Happily Ever After (2023). The cover art for Once Upon Another Time is by Vivienne To.[citation needed]

The Dragon's Apprentice series

[edit]

James Riley's The Dragon's Apprentice series was published by Labyrinth Road, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, division of Penguin Random House Publishing on April 1, 2025.[35] It is his first book not published by Aladdin. The Dragon's Apprentice follows twelve-year-old Ciara in the town of Skael, where magic has been forbidden by the Emperor throughout the Draconic Empire. Ciara accidentally summons a dragon named Scorch, who mentors Ciara and helps her try to rescue her mother and liberate her village from the Emperor.

The second book in the series, The Dragon's Apprentice: Revenants Return, was published on February 3, 2026.[36] Revenants Return continues with Ciara's tale, with her summoning the world-ending Revenants, while dealing with Prince Aiden from the Empire.

A third book is planned for release on November 3, 2026, titled The Dragon's Apprentice: Destroyer of Magic. The Emperor has taken Scorch and separated the dragon from Ciara, but Prince Aiden is working with her to locate the dragon and overthrow the Emperor.[37] There is also the appearance of "a monster masquerading as a human who could destroy magic once and for all", where the theme of destroying magic reappears after The Revenge of Magic: The Chosen One. James Riley had previously destroyed magic in The Chosen One, or rather the rules of order that limited the pure chaos magic was made of, and the theme of order and chaos can be found in all his books, most notably the Story Thieves series.

References

[edit]
  1. ↑ Georgetown University Yearbook 1999 (PDF). Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University. 1999.
  2. ↑ "Story Thieves | Kirkus Reviews". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved November 3, 2018.
  3. ↑ "The Stolen Chapters | Kirkus Reviews". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved November 3, 2018.
  4. ↑ "Secret Origins | Kirkus Reviews". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved November 3, 2018.
  5. ↑ Maughan, Shannon (September 15, 2016). "'Story Thieves' Captures Readers". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved November 3, 2018.
  6. ↑ "James Riley - Author of the STORY THIEVES, REVENGE OF MAGIC, and HALF UPON A TIME series". JAMES RILEY. Retrieved May 4, 2026.
  7. ↑ "James Riley Books, Author Biography, and Reading Level". Scholastic.
  8. ↑ Riley, James (September 7, 2010). Half Upon a Time. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781416995951.
  9. ↑ Riley, James (2010). Half Upon a Time (1st Aladdin hardcover ed.). New York: Aladdin. ISBN 9781416995951 – via Internet Archive.
  10. ↑ Riley, James (April 24, 2012). Twice Upon a Time. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781416995982 – via Internet Archive.
  11. ↑ Riley, James (May 7, 2013). Once Upon the End. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781442474239.
  12. ↑ Riley, James (2012). Twice Upon a Time (1st Aladdin hardcover ed.). New York: Aladdin. ISBN 9781416995982 – via Internet Archive.
  13. ↑ Riley, James (2014). Once upon the end (1st Aladdin pbk. ed.). New York: Aladdin. ISBN 9781442474215.
  14. ↑ "2014-2015 Sunshine State Young Readers Award Middle School Master List, Previous Master Lists - Sunshine State Young Readers Award, Books". Barnes & Noble.
  15. ↑ Riley, James (September 13, 2011). Half Upon a Time | Book by James Riley | Official Publisher Page | Simon & Schuster. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781416995944.
  16. ↑ "NCTE/CLA Notable Children's Book in the English Language Arts | Book awards". LibraryThing.
  17. ↑ Riley, James (January 7, 2014). Once Upon the End | Book by James Riley | Official Publisher Page | Simon & Schuster. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781442474215.
  18. ↑ Riley, James (January 20, 2015). Story Thieves. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781481409216.
  19. ↑ Riley, James (2015). Story Thieves. New York: Aladdin. ISBN 9781481409209 – via Internet Archive.
  20. ↑ Riley, James (January 19, 2016). The Stolen Chapters. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781481409247.
  21. ↑ Riley, James (2016). Story Thieves: The Stolen Chapters. New York: Aladdin. ISBN 9781481409230 – via Internet Archive.
  22. ↑ Riley, James (January 17, 2017). Secret Origins. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781481461276.
  23. ↑ Riley, James (2017). Story Thieves: Secret Origins. New York: Aladdin. ISBN 9781481461252.
  24. ↑ Riley, James (September 26, 2017). Pick the Plot. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781481461306.
  25. ↑ Riley, James (2017). Story Thieves: Pick the Plot. New York: Aladdin. ISBN 9781481461283.
  26. ↑ Riley, James (March 20, 2018). Worlds Apart. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781481485760.
  27. ↑ Riley, James (2018). Story Thieves: Worlds Apart. New York: Aladdin. ISBN 9781481485746.
  28. ↑ "Children's Middle Grade Paperback". The New York Times.
  29. ↑ Riley, James (December 15, 2015). Story Thieves. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781481409209.
  30. ↑ Riley, James (March 5, 2019). The Revenge of Magic. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4814-8579-1.
  31. ↑ Riley, James (March 5, 2019). The Revenge of Magic. Aladdin. ISBN 9781481485777.
  32. ↑ Riley, James (October 8, 2019). The Last Dragon. Aladdin. ISBN 9781534425729.
  33. ↑ Riley, James (March 3, 2020). The Future King. Aladdin. ISBN 9781534425750.
  34. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (August 17, 2018). "Stampede Taps JP Sarni As WW Content Acquisitions Head; Snaps Up Novels 'Revenge Of Magic' & 'Star-Crossed'". Deadline. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  35. ↑ "The Dragon's Apprentice by James Riley: 9780593813188 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved May 4, 2026.
  36. ↑ "Revenants Return by James Riley: 9780593813218 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved May 4, 2026.
  37. ↑ "Destroyer of Magic by James Riley: 9798217124961 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved May 4, 2026.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=James_Riley_(writer)&oldid=1375511296"