The author Rick Riordan is the author behind the extremely popular Percy Jackson Greek mythology series. I read The Lightning Thief (the 1st book in the Percy Jackson series), totally loved it, and was all geared up to read more, but for some reason didn’t sustain the interest long enough to do so.
Instead I have jumped ship to start with his Egypt mythology series – The Kane Chronicles. The first book in the series is The Red Pyramid.
The Story
Sadie and Carter are two siblings who are separated when their mother dies a mysterious death. Carter is the elder brother who lives with his Egyptologist father and travels with him everywhere. Sadie lives a pretty sedate life living in England with her grandparents.
However, their lives completely change one horrific day when their father breaks the Rosetta stone in the British museum to let out a spirit and then gets buried in the process.
The rest of the story is a fast-paced adventure where Sadie and Carter come to terms with their past and the role of their family throughout history. They also need to find a way to rescue their father and prevent the world from coming under the control of the Egyptian God of Chaos – Apophis.
My Review
I liked this book. I can’t say that I loved it. For some reason, I had issues with the style in which it was written. I had loved Riordan’s writing in The Lightning Thief, but I never continued with the series because I guessed I would tire of it soon. And I was right. I found his writing repetitive and tedious second time around.
This book has a lot of fun facts about Egyptian Gods, and their stories. But somehow, the writing felt pretty childish to me. I also could not connect with the main characters – Carter and Sadie too much. Probably because there is so much happening with the plot, the author has not been able to develop the characters much. The whole book felt like one long drawn-out action sequence. There is hardly enough time to process so much going on all at once.
I guess what I am trying to say (and not quite succeeding) is that this book was OK. I enjoyed the travels and the adventure. But, it’s not high-quality YA Fantasy. But, then that’s just me. Middle and high-schoolers would probably enjoy this book very much and probably get quite a decent introduction to another country’s history and legends.
Me, I am not very sure about reading the rest of the books in this series. What about you? Did you read and enjoy this book? Do the other books in the series get better?
The red pyramid is much better than lightning thief.I enjoyed it a lot and read the whole book in one sitting.Pretty gripping.
I read The Lightning Thief to my class last Spring, and they loved it. I enjoyed the mythology, and we learned a lot about it in class, but I can’t say I think this series is great. Then again, I think Harry Potter is medium, too, so what do I know? 🙂
Don’t go by the movie! It didn’t folow the story in the books! I compared the two here http://thiskidreviewsbooks.com/2011/02/05/the-lightning-theif-book-vs-the-lightning-theif-movie/
You are right, may be the high schoolers will love this guy. But it has all the elements of becoming really good 🙂
Hmm, I never read the Percy Jackson books, though I did watch the movie (I found the story had lots of potential but the acting was lame).
I’ve never heard of the book actually, but then again I’m not an avid reader. I have to get better at that! Haha, great post. I might check out some of those titles in the above comment, because I do love series. I’m currently reading the Mortal Instruments series, but I’m only 5 pages in. Haha =)
I feel the same way about the book. I thought it was okay but it didn’t rock my world. I do love the Percy Jackson series though,
A lot of posts I read by grown-ups about The Red Pyramid or The Throne of Fire say they think these books are just OK. I actually like the Kane Chronicle books better than the Percy Jackson books (and I do LOVE the Percy Jackson books!) I liked the THrone of FIre more than The Red Pyramid. I know a lot of my friends like this series. So you are right! Younger kids do like the book! Great post 🙂