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Title | The Red Pyramid
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Author | Rick Riordan
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Cover Art | John Rocco
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Publisher | Disney - Hyperion - 2011
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First Printing | 2010
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Title | The Throne of Fire
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Author | Rick Riordan
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Cover Art | John Rocco
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Publisher | Disney - Hyperion - 2012
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First Printing | 2011
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Title | The Serpent's Shadow
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Author | Rick Riordan
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Cover Art | John Rocco
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Publisher | Disney - Hyperion - 2013
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First Printing | 2012
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Title | The Kane Chronicles Survival Guide
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Author | Rick Riordan
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Cover Art | ---
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Publisher | ---
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First Printing | ---
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Title | The Demigods & Magicians
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Author | Rick Riordan
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Cover Art | Steve James
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Publisher | Disney Hyperion - 2016
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First Printing | Disney Hyperion - 2016
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Category | Children/Young Adult
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Warnings | None
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Main Characters | Carter and Sadie Kane, Julius, Amos, Khufu and the Egyptian Gods & Monsters
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Main Elements | Gods, monsters
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Website | Rick Riordan Official Site
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 The Red Pyramid
Ever since their mother's death, siblings Carter and Sadie have been near-strangers. While Sadie's lived with their grandparents in London, Carter has travelled the world with their father, the brilliant Egyptologist Dr. Julius Kane.
Then one night they are reunited when their father takes them to the British Museum, hoping at last to set things right. Instead, he unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes him to oblivion and forces the children to flee for their lives.
Soon, Carter and Sadie discover that the gods of Ancient Egypt are waking, and the worst of them - Set - is after the Kanes. To stop him, the siblings must embark on a dangerous journey across the globe - a quest that brings them ever closer to the truth about their family and its link to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs...
The Throne of Fire
Ever since the gods of Ancient Egypt were unleashed in the modern world, Carter Kane and his sister Sadie, have been in trouble. As descendants of the House of Life, the Kanes have some power at their command; but the devious gods haven't given them the time to master their skills at the Brooklyn House, a training ground for young magicians. And now their most threatening enemy yet - the Chaos snake, Apophis - is rising. If they don't prevent him from breaking free in a few days' time, the world will end. In other words, it's a typical week for the Kane family.
To have any chance of battling the forces of Chaos, the Kanes must revive the sun god, Ra. But that would be a feat more difficult than any magician has ever accomplished. First they have to search the world for the three sections of the Book of Ra, then they have to learn how to chant its spells. Oh - and did we mention that no one knows where Ra is, exactly?
Narrated by two different wisecracking voices, featuring a large cast of new and unforgettable characters, and with adventures spanning the globe, this second installment of the Kane Chronicles is nothing short of a thrill ride.
The Serpent's Shadow
When young magicians Carter and Sadie Kane learned how to follow the path of the Ancient Egyptian gods, they knew they would have to play an important role in restoring Ma'at - order - to the world. What they didn't know is how chaotic the world would become. The Chaos snake Apophis is loose and threatening to destroy the earth in three days' time. The magicians are divided. The gods are disappearing, and those who remain are weak. What are a couple of teenagers and a handful of young trainees to do?
There is possibly one way to stop Apophis, but it is so difficult that it might cost Carter and Sadie their lives, if it even works at all. It involves trusting the ghost of a psychopathic magician not to betray them, or worse, kill them. They'd have to be crazy to try it. Well, call them crazy.
With hilarious asides, memorable monsters, and an ever-changing crew of friends and foes, the excitement never lets up in The Serpent's Shadow, a thoroughly entertaining and satisfying conclusion to the Kane Chronicles.
Demigods & Magicians
Magic, monsters, and mayhem abound when Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase meet Carter and Sadie Kane for the first time. Weird creatures are appearing in unexpected places, and the demigods and magicians have to team up to take them down. As they battle with Celestial Bronze and glowing hieroglyphs, the four heroes find that they have a lot in common--and more power than they ever thought possible. But will their combined forces be enough to foil an ancient enemy who is mixing Greek and Egyptian incantations for an evil purpose? Rick Riordan wields his usual storytelling magic in this adrenaline-fueled adventure.
I love Riordan's books. He takes ancient mythology, and while still keeping true to the personalities of the gods, weaves them into the modern world with more than a touch of humour. Once I pick up one of the books in a series, I need to keep going till it's done, I can't get enough. The action is non-stop as are the laughs. Just as in my Percy Jackson and the Olympian review, I'll give an example of a quote:
Carter pulled out several lengths of brown twine, a small ebony cat statue, and a thick roll of paper. No, not paper. Papyrus. I remember Dad explaining how the Egyptians made it from a river plant because they never invented paper. The stuff was so thick and rough, it made me wonder if the poor Egyptians had had to use toilet papyrus. If so, no wonder they walked sideways.
See, there must have been a reason for why Egyptians were painted that way...ok, it's a potty joke, but there were other examples, like where the children were presented with a carving and there's a pharoah with someone cowering before him, and for those of us not experts in Egyptology, it did indeed look like the Egyptian king was beating a poor subject with a spoon...the kids described things in ways that real kids might when presented with odd looking implements or concepts and I thought that was quite fun. Riordan really knows how to think like a 12-year-old.
Oh, and the Kanes are a mixed colour family which is something you don't see to often in any books, let alone children ones. While the ancient Egyptian gods didn't care about the colour of their skins, the kids sometimes had issues navigating the regular world.
There were some minor problems in consistency, particularly Carter who sometimes appears to know less about Egyptology than I do, even though he grew up surrounded by it, and other times spouting stuff only an expert would know. And the timelines were a bit ridiculous, with at most two or three days before the end of the world...multiple times. I wasn't sure how they fit everything in since there was a LOT of stuff going on. And frankly, they've already taken on the biggest, baddest thing out there and destroyed it forever...not sure what's left for the Kane's do to going forward, unless there are some crossovers with the other pantheons. We get a hint of that in the story Son of Sobek which is a bonus at the end of the third book. I still need to get that companion book to read the remaining bonus stories!
Minor complaints aside, I enjoyed the ride. It was fun, funny, non-stop with endearing characters with attitude. I'm going to start the next series that Riordan has finished, The Heroes of Olympus, and I'm collecting the other two series he still has ongoing. I love mythology and so far Riordan is the best at reviving the ancient gods of the world.
The companion book, Demigods & Magicians takes place right after the end of The Heroes of Olympus and is an interesting trilogy of three short stories where the Greek Demigods have to work together with the Egyptians Magicians, Riordan's other series. The downside of buying this little book was that all the stories were included with the other books, there wasn't even one story that was specific to this edition, if I had known that I would have saved myself some money!
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