Review: The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan (Kane Chronicles)

Ever since the gods of Ancient Egypt were unleashed on the modern world, Carter Kane and his sister, Sadie, have been in big trouble.

As descendants of the magical House of Life, they command certain powers. But now a terrifying enemy – Apophis, the giant snake of chaos – is rising.

If Carter and Sadie don’t destroy him, the world will end in five days’ time. And in order to battle the forces of chaos, they must revive the sun god Ra – a feat no magician has ever achieved. Because first they must search the world for the three sections of the Book of Ra, then they have to learn how to chant its spells . . .

Can the Kanes destroy Apophis before he swallows the sun and plunges the earth into darkness . . . forever?

In the eighteen months that I have been running The Book Zone I have not written many negative reviews. This isn't because I feel I have to keep publishers and authors happy, it just so happens that I have not read many books in this time that I have felt were not very good. Interestingly, some of my more negative reviews have not been for debut or less-known authors, but for books by writers whose previous work I have loved. One such review was for The Red Pyramid, the first book in Rick Riordan's Kane Chronicles series. I loved the Percy Jackson series, and they still rank amongst my favourite series of books for young people, and I also thought The Lost Hero was also very good, yet for some reason I just did not gel with The Red Pyramid, and now having read the sequel, The Throne of Fire, I wish I had the time to go back and read The Red Pyramid all over again to see if my opinion changes, especially as that one review resulted in quite a few comments and emails from young readers vehemently disagreeing with me.

At the time I personally found it difficult to get in to, and the principle reason for this was the use of the first person for telling the story, with chapters alternating between the two Kane siblings. I found this a little confusing and irritating, although I have never really been a huge fan of first person storytelling anyway. Not so for The Throne of Fire. Perhaps I was not in the right mood when I read the first book (I do occasionally suffer from kids/YA book burnout), but this time I gelled with the narration immediately, and not once did it grate on me. In fact, this time I found the alternating between characters narrating worked much better, although the story does lend itself to this much more in The Throne of Fire as Carter and Sadie spend lengthy scenes apart in the story, engaged on different tasks.

Another moan I had regarding The Red Pyramid was that due to the alternating narration sometimes the same event would be mentioned twice, but from different points of view. Now that book was 500+ pages in length and really would have gained from being trimmed back by 100 or so pages, and I think the removal of this occasional repetition would have helped greatly in this respect. The Throne of Fire is still a hefty tome, weighing in at 446 pages, and quite a big ask for many kids in the targeted age group of 9+, and yes, it could still do with being trimmed of 80 or so pages, but I did not get that sense of repetition much at all in this case. 

Another reason for The Red Pyramid's length was the need to set up the story, and this was one area where I felt that Mr Riordan did a very good job. With the main characters and situation already established it is straight into the action for the Kanes in the sequel, as they attempt a late night raid on the Brooklyn Museum, in an attempt to get their hands on the first part of The Book of Ra. We are also introduced to a couple more teenage descendants of Pharaohs, Walt and Jaz, who are now living and working with the Kanes as a result of the worldwide plea for help they sent out at the end of The Red Pyramid (as with that book, this sequel is also narrated in the form of an audio recording to be sent out to gain followers to the cause). And from then on the action comes in peaks and troughs, so although the book is a little over-long the pace is enough to keep most readers interested and excited for the duration.

Egyptian mythology is so complex compared to the Greek mythology that Mr Riordan thrilled us with in the Percy Jackson series. There seem to be far more gods, and of course many of them are not household names in the same way that their Greek counterparts are, and you really have to admire the author for the research that he has carried out, and the knowledge he has built on this subject. My knowledge of the Egyptian gods is still fairly minimal, but I do know that their stories sometimes read like an ancient soap opera, filled with petty jealousies, betrayal, and so on. Mr Riordan weaves their ancient histories into his story very well, and as readers we are sometimes as wary as the Kane siblings when it comes to which god we should place our trust in. The Throne of Fire introduces us to a further handful of these ancient Egyptian deities, and one in particular really stood out for me - the dwarf god Bes. This wonderful character had me laughing out loud at times and his first big scene on Waterloo Bridge will probably have you doing the same.

My final verdict: I feel it is a great improvement on The Red Pyramid, although if I had the time I would definitely re-read that first book to see if I feel any differently about it now. Sometimes when I am writing a review I have to make a great effort to remind myself that I am reviewing books written for younger readers, and in this case the 9+ age group, and therefore do the occasional gripes I have as an adult reader really matter to younger readers. I know for a fact that The Red Pyramid has been very popular in the school library, and rarely gets to sit on the shelf for more than a day before it is taken out again, and the comments and emails I got following my review of it were testament to how much many other children had enjoyed it. 

My thanks go the the generous people at Just So for Puffin Books for sending me a copy of The Throne of Fire to review. It is released in hardback today, and paperback edition of The Red Pyramid is due out on 5th May.

News: Book Cover - The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan (The Kane Chronicles)

I am slightly behind the rest of the world with this one as it was last week that I received the email informing that the cover for Rick Riordan's second Kane Chronicles book had been unveiled. However, I have spent the best part of the last week in bed with a horrible flu thing and I completely forgot about that email. If you have read my review of The Red Pyramid, the first book in the Kane Chronicles series, then you will know that I was a little disappointed with it. However, I loved The Lost Hero and let's face it - the release of any new Rick Riordan book is something to be excited about so I am determined to keep an open mind when I get the chance to read The Throne of Fire, and rest assured that when I have my review will appear here.

Anyway, my apologies for the somewhat belated post about the cover of The Throne of Fire - what do you think of it? I personally think it is a huge improvement on the cover for The Red Pyramid, and I definitely prefer it over the US cover.

The Throne of Fire is scheduled to be released in the UK by Puffin on 3rd May, and if you have not yet read The Red Pyramid then you will be able to get the paperback version that is being published on the same day. For a teaser of what is to come for the Kanes then why not pop on over to www.kanechronicles.co.uk were you can preview the first chapter of the new book. Percy Jackson fans - you will have to wait until October to get your hands on the next (as yet untitled) book in the Heroes of Olympus series.

Review: The Red Pyramid (Kane Chronicles) by Rick Riordan

Carter and Sadie have nothing in common but their parents: their father Dr. Julius Kane, a brilliant Egyptologist, and their mother, a famed archaeologist who died under mysterious circumstances when they were young. The siblings barely know each other, but one night, their father brings them together at the British Museum, promising a ‘research experiment’ that will set things right for their family. His plans go horribly wrong. An explosion unleashes an ancient evil – the Egyptian god Set who banishes Dr. Kane to oblivion and forces the children to flee for their lives. Now orphaned, Carter and Sadie must embark on a dangerous quest – from Cairo to Paris to the American Southwest, to save their father and stop Set from destroying everything they care about . . .

As a child I had quite a collection of Ladybird Books, as did many other kids who grew up during the 70s, and my favourites were the two Famous Legends books which included the stories of Theseus and Perseus. I have harboured this interest ever since and loved Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series, both for the clever way in which he brought those classic myths into the 21st Century and also for the way in which, through the Percy books, he ignited an interest in these myths for a new generation of kids. As I grew up I developed an interest in the mythologies of other cultures, and especially in those of the Ancient Egyptians. I have been lucky enough to spend a few weeks travelling in Egypt, and last year took my very excited godson, who also shares this interest, to the Tutankhamun exhibition when it came to London. I have therefore been looking forward to reading Rick Riordan's The Red Pyramid ever since I first heard about it back in October of last year.

So, did it meet my expectations? I wish the answer was a straightforward yes, but it isn't. However, it is also not a no either. Don't get me wrong, on balance I enjoyed it but it is flawed in several ways that disappointed me. First of, unlike the Percy Jackson series, this took me longer than usual to get into. I think this was because of the way the story is told, in the form of a first person narration by the two main characters, Carter and Sadie Kane, alternating every couple of chapters (supposedly they are recording their story for others to discover). At first I found this a little irritating, although I eventually got used to it (although I'm not sure I needed the supposedly humorous asides that were occasionally slotted in). I also have to admit that I found it a little confusing at times and had to double-check who was narrating from time to time (the publishers made this easy for me by having the name of the narrator at the top of each odd-numbered page), and for me this is a weakness in the author's ability to give his characters individual and distinct voices - Carter and Sadie just 'sound' far too similar, even though one of them has grown up travelling the world with his father and the other has lived a far more normal life with her grandparents in London (and despite this she often doesn't 'sound' British at all).

This way of telling the story leads sraight on to my second moan - there are a number of times throughout the book where a particular incident is told from one character's point of view, and then subsequently retold by the other character when it is their turn to narrate. The consequences of this are that a) the pace of what would otherwise be a very fast-paced plot from beginning to end is affected and b) the book ends up being much longer than it needed to be. In fact, some readers may be deterred from even picking up this book as it weighs in at a mighty 514 pages.

OK... that's my moans taken care of so what elements of the book did I enjoy? Well first of all the 500+ pages are not solely due to the irritating retelling of scenes - as the first book in a new series there has to be a large amount of setting up take place and I believe that Rick Riordan does this pretty well. I think this was easier for him in the Percy Jackson series as the concept of ancient Greek Gods having modern-day offspring was more straightforward. In The Red Pyramid Carter and Sadie are not gods or even demi-gods, they are just normal kids who happen to be descended from the pharoahs of ancient Egypt. This requires a lot of necessary history telling and world building as the two siblings slowly discover that their lives are far from ordinary.

I also loved the way Rick Riordan built the mythology of Ancient Egypt into this modern tale - this man really knows his stuff! Some might say that he is just repeating a formula that he has already proved to be successful, but this is certainly no Percy Jackson copy. Egyptian mythology is far more complicated than the Greek tales and also far less well known (Mummy movies aside it has been represented on the big screen far fewer times) and this creates quite a task for the author. Just read this short piece on Wikipedia about Osiris and you will see what I mean about complicated. However, as I said, Rick Riordan knows his material and his passion for this mythology really shines through, just as it did in the Percy Jackson series, and this will give the inquisitive minds of his young (and old) readers to further investigate and learn about these ancient stories (I have spent a good few hours reading up on the likes of Isis, Horus and Set since I finished the book).

Despite my previous moans and all this plot setting, world building and myth telling the story is still pretty fast paced with the siblings going from one life threatening escapade to the next, sometimes with little time for the reader to get his/her breath back. Rick Riordan has already proven his story telling abilities in the past, and despite its faults this is still an exciting adventure story with plot twists, great battle scenes and engaging characters (including a basketball loving baboon called Khufu). Yes, I was a little disappointed with it, but the Percy Jackson series is a high standard against which to compare this book, and even with the faults it is still a lot better than many books on the market for the 9+ age group. And this disappointment does not mean that I am not already looking forward to the next in the series; in actual fact I am really excited about continuing with this series in the future as I feel that now the scene has been set and the characters established we will see more of the Rick Riordan storytelling that we have come to know and love.

Initially Mr Riordan stated that The Red Pyramid would be the first book in the Kane Chronicles trilogy, although he also said that given the opportunity he may take the story further than this. If this is the case and the books are all this thick then I just may have to invest in a new set of bookshelves to make room for them. The Red Pyramid is published in the UK by Puffin, who very kindly sent me this copy to review, and is available to buy right now. You can find out more about the book and the mythology behind it at the official Kane Chronicles website.