Kane Chronicles: The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan
In this exciting second installment of the three-book series, Carter and Sadie, offspring of the brilliant Egyptologist Dr. Julius Kane, embark on a worldwide search for the Book of Ra, but the House of Life and the gods of chaos are determined to stop them.
The second installment of The Kane Chronicles continues the story of Carter and Sadie Kane a few months after the events of the first book, The Red Pyramid. They have been spending their days training other young, fledgling magicians in the Brooklyn House and trying to figure out what the next step will be in saving the world from the inevitable return of Apophis.
I’ll admit that I liked this book a lot more than the first one but I think that had to do with being able to jump right into the action this time instead of needing all of the character buildup and introduction that took place in the first installment. The action as a lot more interesting and the plot seemed to be a lot more solid than before. New characters were introduced such as the dwarf god, Bes who has an entire back-story that had me very intrigued. Especially when it comes to his powers of scaring people as a means of attack/defense.
One of the best parts of The Throne of Fire was the various cameos by characters from the first book. Bast shows up here and there to help the kids out. Set, who is basically the god of evil shows up and turns out to not be quite as evil as you might think in the end, even if he is scheming behind the backs of the heroes. I also really liked some of the small touches. The things like the small glowing balls that crew the boat Ra used to ride through the Duat each night between sunset and sunrise. Rick Riordan does a really good job of sneaking in small surprises within the text that are all fairly unimportant as far as the story is concerned, but when you notice them it gives the text a little more vibrance.
I’ll be reading the third book in the series sometime soon, but there is one thing I hope the author can get away from. Sadie and Carter have done enough of the “little sister/big brother” bickering. I hope he lets them grow up and mature a little at some point because otherwise it might be a little tiring as a reader.
Grade: B
Length: 465 pages