I have a child to thank for having my copy of the second book in The Kane Chronicles in my hands so quickly. This child, a boy, has come to the library weekly to check on the availability of this title. Long before it was even published, he was asking. In fact, if I had to put a finger on the date that his queries began, I would say it was the day after he finished The Red Pyramid.
Rick Riordan is the guy who wrote the Percy Jackson series and now the Heroes of Olympus series. The first is well known by now and has a movie franchise and it is based on the premise that Greek mythology is real, present and modern – and resides in Manhattan. The second series is most certainly a companion series but Roman mythology enters the picture. And then there is that 39 Clues series. Riordan must be a workaholic.
The Kane Chronicles are similar to the first two series and yet they are different. Here we rely on Egyptian mythology, but the Egyptian gods are not alive and well. They have been conquered, retired, imprisoned. It is the House of Life, run by magicians, that controls the fate of the world. There are no demigods. Instead, there is the royal bloodline. Strong in magic, they strive to maintain the balance between Order and Chaos without involving the gods or succumbing to them.
Enter the Kane siblings. Carter and Sadie represent the joining of two very strong royal Egyptian bloodlines. They were raised unaware of their importance and potential in order to keep them safe from both gods and magicians. When their mother died, the two were separated. Carter who more closely resembles his African American father stayed with his father. They traveled extensively for his father’s scholarly research. Sadie, who takes after her blond-haired, blue-eyed mother, went to live with her grandparents in London, only seeing her father and brother on holidays.
In the first book, Carter and Sadie were finally thrown together again when their father attempted to stave off Chaos for a while longer. They learned that their mother sacrificed herself in order to keep Apophis, the god of Chaos, imprisoned. Then their father became the god Osiris and went to live in the Seventh House and rule the Egyptian Afterlife. This left the siblings parentless as well as clueless.
The Throne of Fire finds Carter and Sadie way ahead of the game. They are teachers in their own Brooklyn House. They have their own initiates who have made their way to Brooklyn to learn to use their magic to continue in the struggle against Chaos. And Apophis is rising. In five days.
The siblings receive visions and discover a way to prevent the end of the world as we know it. They must raise the sun god Ra to defeat Apophis. In order to summon him from places unknown, they must retrieve the three scrolls of the Book of Ra, each heavily protected. They must travel the god’s original path through the Houses and survive each challenge. And speak the spell within the scrolls pages. And hope that Apophis doesn’t swallow Ra whole anyway.
This would be easy enough, except that the Kane’s are considered traitors to the House of Life and the two strongest magicians are against them. So instead of receiving their help, they must fight them every step of the way. The Kane’s have become godlings. They shared their thoughts and bodies with Horus and Isis and the penalty is death. But the Kane’s know that the only way to restore Order and defeat Chaos is to bring the gods out of retirement and rediscover the “old ways” of the glorious ancient Egypt.
I still prefer this series to the Greek and Roman ones that are so familiar to me. It is fun too learn more about Egyptian mythology in this way. I'd recommend this to the Percy Jackson followers, as well as to kids who enjoy mythology. The 5th to 8th graders will get it first, but the adults, both young and old will follow.
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