2011 Book 33: The Throne of Fire
Book 33: The Throne of Fire (Kane Chronicles, Book 2) by Rick Riordan, isbn 9781423140566, 464 pages, Hyperion, $18.99
The Premise: Carter and Sadie Kane barely survived learning that they are descended from Egyptian Pharoahs and therefore have magical ability and that the Kane family are considered outlaws by the House of Life because they seek to bring the Gods back to fight the rise of Chaos. Now six months wiser and gathering a group of teens like themselves, they find themselves with a deadline: find the three parts of the Book of Ra, raise the long-slumbering Sun God from the depths of the Duat, and do it all in just a handful of days, before Apophis the Chaos Serpent rises. But even if they succeed, can they keep the world from ending?
My Rating: 4 stars
My Thoughts: What a roller-coaster ride. With the Kane Chronicles Rick Riordan has managed to create a second YA mythology-based series that complements his Percy Jackson/Camp Half-Blood books without being just a "nothing's different but the pantheon" retread. The differences range from the background of the protagonists (not children of gods, but descendents of pharaohs) to the narrators (alternating once again between siblings Carter and Sadie) and how that narration is delivered (the kids are tape-recording their adventures so "the truth will be known").
There was the possibility, in my mind at least, that Riordan wouldn't be able to keep the quality of these books up now that he's writing two series concurrently. After 5 great Percy Jackson books, and two strong debuts for the Kane and Camp Half-Blood series, something's bound to give. But no. THRONE OF FIRE continues Riordan's streak. There's a strong internal logic to the events, solid dropping of hints early on that pay off later, and a good portion of world-buidling -- taking groundwork laid in THE RED PYRAMID, stretching it out, and then adding layers: we get a look at some of the less well-remembered members of the Egyptian pantheon, and we get a deepening of the Kane siblings' relationships with the gods and other humans they already know.
The alternating-narrator conceit works a little smoother this time out. In fact, echoing something other reviewers have said, it almost works too smooth. There were times where mid-chapter I'd forget if it was Sadie or Carter narrating, until either Carter mooned over the missing-in-action Zia or Sadie made a comment about how hot Walt or Anubis are. That usually set me back straight for at least a little while. Sadie also seems to have lost just a touch of her distinct British-ness. The usual key buzzwords were there, but I felt like she was starting to sound too much like Carter. In the first book, the distinction between Sadie (raised in London) and Carter (raised mostly on the road with his father) was more noticeable.
The main cast of the first book was relatively small, focused as it was on Carter, Sadie, Zia, Bast, and the gods taking up residence in Carter and Sadie's psyches (Horus and Isis). As is usual for Riordan, the cast expands exponentially in this installment: Bast and Uncle Amos stay mostly off-stage, but the kids pick up a godly guardian in Bes, the god of dwarves, and human companionship in the person of Walt, a boy harboring a secret of his own that doesn't so much impact the events of this book as it will future books. Other teens are added to the action as well, but none of them really connect yet -- although I'm sure that will change in the next book as the stakes continue to get higher and the Kane kids need all the help they can get.
The action gets going in the first chapter and never really slows down. Thankfully, there were far less "learning things by dreaming and entering the Duat" moments and more "figuring things out on the fly" situations, which enabled Carter and Sadie to show their intuitive skills as well as showing that they really are still kids and somewhat in over their heads. They do make a couple of bad calls; what kind of an adventure would it be if they didn't have a few false starts? As I closed in on the final hundred pages I was beginning to wonder how Riordan would wrap it all up in the space left, and if perhaps we were going to get a real honest-to-goodness cliffhanger. I won't say how that turned out, of course. Read the book yourself for the answer to that.
The Premise: Carter and Sadie Kane barely survived learning that they are descended from Egyptian Pharoahs and therefore have magical ability and that the Kane family are considered outlaws by the House of Life because they seek to bring the Gods back to fight the rise of Chaos. Now six months wiser and gathering a group of teens like themselves, they find themselves with a deadline: find the three parts of the Book of Ra, raise the long-slumbering Sun God from the depths of the Duat, and do it all in just a handful of days, before Apophis the Chaos Serpent rises. But even if they succeed, can they keep the world from ending?
My Rating: 4 stars
My Thoughts: What a roller-coaster ride. With the Kane Chronicles Rick Riordan has managed to create a second YA mythology-based series that complements his Percy Jackson/Camp Half-Blood books without being just a "nothing's different but the pantheon" retread. The differences range from the background of the protagonists (not children of gods, but descendents of pharaohs) to the narrators (alternating once again between siblings Carter and Sadie) and how that narration is delivered (the kids are tape-recording their adventures so "the truth will be known").
There was the possibility, in my mind at least, that Riordan wouldn't be able to keep the quality of these books up now that he's writing two series concurrently. After 5 great Percy Jackson books, and two strong debuts for the Kane and Camp Half-Blood series, something's bound to give. But no. THRONE OF FIRE continues Riordan's streak. There's a strong internal logic to the events, solid dropping of hints early on that pay off later, and a good portion of world-buidling -- taking groundwork laid in THE RED PYRAMID, stretching it out, and then adding layers: we get a look at some of the less well-remembered members of the Egyptian pantheon, and we get a deepening of the Kane siblings' relationships with the gods and other humans they already know.
The alternating-narrator conceit works a little smoother this time out. In fact, echoing something other reviewers have said, it almost works too smooth. There were times where mid-chapter I'd forget if it was Sadie or Carter narrating, until either Carter mooned over the missing-in-action Zia or Sadie made a comment about how hot Walt or Anubis are. That usually set me back straight for at least a little while. Sadie also seems to have lost just a touch of her distinct British-ness. The usual key buzzwords were there, but I felt like she was starting to sound too much like Carter. In the first book, the distinction between Sadie (raised in London) and Carter (raised mostly on the road with his father) was more noticeable.
The main cast of the first book was relatively small, focused as it was on Carter, Sadie, Zia, Bast, and the gods taking up residence in Carter and Sadie's psyches (Horus and Isis). As is usual for Riordan, the cast expands exponentially in this installment: Bast and Uncle Amos stay mostly off-stage, but the kids pick up a godly guardian in Bes, the god of dwarves, and human companionship in the person of Walt, a boy harboring a secret of his own that doesn't so much impact the events of this book as it will future books. Other teens are added to the action as well, but none of them really connect yet -- although I'm sure that will change in the next book as the stakes continue to get higher and the Kane kids need all the help they can get.
The action gets going in the first chapter and never really slows down. Thankfully, there were far less "learning things by dreaming and entering the Duat" moments and more "figuring things out on the fly" situations, which enabled Carter and Sadie to show their intuitive skills as well as showing that they really are still kids and somewhat in over their heads. They do make a couple of bad calls; what kind of an adventure would it be if they didn't have a few false starts? As I closed in on the final hundred pages I was beginning to wonder how Riordan would wrap it all up in the space left, and if perhaps we were going to get a real honest-to-goodness cliffhanger. I won't say how that turned out, of course. Read the book yourself for the answer to that.