Review - The Throne of Fire (The Kane Chronicles, Book 2) by Rick Riordan (4.5/5 stars)

Reading level: Middle Grade/YA

Genre: Fantasy
Size: 464 Pages
Publisher: Hyperion Book CH
Release Date: May 3, 2011
ISBN-13: 978-1423140566
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Kane Chronicles
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 4.5/5 stars

This is the second book in the Kane Chronicles by Riordan.  The Kane Chronicles is supposed to be a trilogy with the third, and final, book being released in Spring of 2012.  This was a great addition to the series.

Carter and Sadie are back at home training their initiates in the use of the old prohibited magic of the Egyptian gods.  Then via dreams and messages they realize that they must find the Book of Ra and wake Ra in seven days or the world will end.  Of course nothing is ever easy and Carter and Sadie have a billion obstacles to overcome if they are going to get the pages of the book of Ra.

This was a fast-paced and action filled follow-up to the first book in this series.  There is a lot of humor woven throughout the story and I found myself laughing outloud a number of times and really enjoying Riordan's writing style.  I don't know nearly as much about Egyptian mythology as I do about Greek mythology; so there are lots of interesting things in this book to learn about Egyptian mythology.  It is also interesting to watch Sadie and Carter struggle to work through problems together as a family when they still don't know each other that well.

I was a bit disappointed that Bast wasn't in the story more, she is hands down my favorite character in this series.  She is replaced by the God of Dwarves who was an okay character, but kind of gross and not nearly of funny as Bast.  I am going to be honest and say that I am still not totally sold on Carter and Sadie; I don't know if I just don't relate to them well or what but I just don't find them as engaging as Percy and his friends.

A lot happens in this story and it ends well, but I am eager to see what happens in the next installment of the series when the group finally takes on the God Apropos.

Overall an excellent addition to this series.  Full of interesting Egyptian mythology and lots of adventure and action.  I am still not totally sold on Carter and Sadie, and because of that I was a bit slower reading this book than the Percy Jackson ones.  I still really enjoyed it; there is a lot of humor and the book is hard to put down.  I am eager to see how all of this concludes in the third book.  Definitely a good series for those who enjoyed Percy and the Olympians.  I would also recommend checking out the Theodosia series by R.L. LaFevers; this series is also humorous and features Egyptian mythology, although it is told from the viewpoint of a young girl.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:

- 100+ Reading Challenge

Early Review - Theodosia and the Last Pharaoh (Theodosia Thockmorten, Book 4) by R.L. LaFevers (4/5 stars)

Reading level: Middle Grade
Genre: Adventure/History
Size:  400 pages
Publisher: Houghton Books for Children
Release Date: April 4, 2011
ISBN-13: 978-0547390185
Stand Alone or Series: Book 4 in Theodosia series
Source: Ebook;from Netgalley.com
Rating: 4/5 stars

This is the fourth book in the Theodosia LaFevers.  This was my favorite book in the series so far, it really took the story to another level.

Theodosia has journeyed with her mother to Egypt supposedly to help her mom on an archaeological dig.  Theodosia's real purpose it to return the Emerald tablet and other important artifacts to the protection of the Brotherhood so that they don't fall into the evil hands of the Serpents of Chaos.

I really enjoyed this book.  Theodosia takes on more responsibility than in previous books and is really maturing; she has started making decisions that take the welfare of others into account.  We also get some great new characters thrown into the mix.

In general it was just cool to have this book take place in Egypt.  Theodosia finds out a ton of interesting things about her birth and history and about how she is tied into the ages long battle between the Serpents of Chaos and the Brotherhood.  All in all a very solid addition to the series.

I continue to enjoy Theodosia's intelligence, snarky attitude, and ability to work her way through almost anything.  There were a lot of twists and turns in this novel so it really kept me guessing and was hard to put down.

I did have one small complaint and that is things are getting complicated.  Between the secret groups in London and the similar but separate secret groups in Egypt I was having a bit of trouble remember who belonged to what group and what the focus of each group was.  This would have been clearer in my mind if I had read previous novels more recently.  

Overall a great addition to the series.  If you liked previous books you will like this one.  I loved that this Theodosia to Egypt and that she learned so much about her history.  Fans of strong young women, adventure, travel, and ancient magic should enjoy this book.  I highly recommend this series, it is lots of fun to read and appropriate for all ages.

Review - The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles, Book 1) by Rick Riordan (4/5 stars)

This is the first book in the Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan.  This series is set to be a trilogy; with the next book released in 2011 and the final book released in 2012.  I absolutely loved Riordan's series Percy Jackson and the Olympians; so I was excited to read this one.  I actually listened to this on audio book so I have a couple of comments about that in the paragraph below (skip this if you have it in paper format).  This was a great book and I think fans of Percy Jackson will find a lot to like here.

The audio book was interesting.  They had two readers one who read Carter's part and one who read Sadie's part.  The person who read Carter's part sounded almost exactly like Percy Jackson.  The person who read Sadie's part tended to sound a bit shrill at points in the book.  Overall the audio was well done but the shrillness of the girl's voice got to be a bit much at times.

The story involves two of the Kane siblings, Carter and Sadie.  They are the children of Julius Kane and have been raised separate for most of their lives because of a legal battle that Julius lost after his wife died (Carter and Sadie's mom).  In this book they are drawn into a scheme by their father involving the Rosetta Stone and a number of Egyptian gods.  Things go horribly wrong though and when their Uncle Amos comes to rescue them; Carter and Sadie are drawn into a world of Egyptian Gods and Magicians that is more dangerous than anything they have ever encountered.  Will they be able to save their father?  Will they be able to save the world?

If you liked the Percy Jackson series you will like this book.  Riordan does an excellent job of creating believable characters that are easy to relate too.  Carter and Sadie are just your every day kids but with a twist.  Riordan manages to add history and depth to all of the characters.  My favorite part about Riordan's writing is his ability to inject humor into his stories no matter how crazy the adventure and danger gets.

Carter is the more serious character in this story and Sadie is the one that is spunky with a lot of sarcasm.  Between Sadie and Sadie's protector (the Goddess of Cats, Bast) you get a lot of laughs throughout this book.  The pace was great; the characters are thrust from one adventure to the next and you are constantly on the edge of your seat wondering what will be thrown at them next.

Of course there is a lot of Egyptian mythology in here and Riordan has again done his homework.  I don't know as much about Egyptian mythology as Greek mythology; but what I do know coincided with the facts Riordan presents and there was a lot for me to learn too!

My only complaint with this book is that well...it is definitely a Riordan book.  It echoes a lot of the same themes and feelings that we saw in Percy Jackson and the Olympians.  You have all the dealing with Gods, the kids missing parental figures, and kids dealing with budding power.  The writing style is nearly identical and Riordan is absolutely writing for the same audience he was writing for in his Percy Jackson series.  Don't get me wrong most of the book is very unique and different; but I couldn't help feeling like some of this ground was covered in Percy Jackson.  Comparison to the Percy Jackson series is inevitable, and while I loved that series, I was hoping that Riordan's next series would be something super special.  And The Red Pyramid is entertaining and special, just not all that different from what we've read before.

Overall this is a great read.  If you liked the Percy Jackson series you will enjoy this one.  It took me a bit to get into the story but I imagine as the series develops I will get very attached to these characters, just like I got attached to the ones in the Percy Jackson series.  If you are interested in reading more great books about Egyptian mythology check out the Theodosia books by R.L. LaFevers.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- The Young Adult Reading Challenge
- The 100+ Book Reading Challenge

 

Theodosia and the Staff of Osiris by R. L. LaFevers (4/5 stars)

This is apparently the 2nd book in the Theodosia series. I got this through Amazon vine. It was a good book. I enjoyed it, definitely more of a young adult series, which is what it is listed as. I guess I would call this series Artemis Fowl meets ancient Egypt.

I did not read the first book in this series. This did not cause me any confusion in this book really, there were some references to people and places that occurred in the first book. These references didn't detract any from the story presented in this book. Theodosia is a very intelligent young lady who has become involved with some Secret Societies that are either looking to cause chaos or prevent it. In this book Theo finds the Staff of Osiris in the basement of the museum her father owns. When she accidentally activates it things start spiraling out of control.

It was a quick, fun read. Theodosia is a great character. It would have been nice to have some of the other characters be more developed, but the story doesn't center on them so I guess that is that. The book brought to mind the Artemis Fowl series, I don't think it is comparable, even a little bit, to Harry Potter; it is a completely different type of story. The book also brought to mind The Mummy movies.

I am not sure I need to put another young adult series on my plate of things to read, but I might consider it since this was such a well-done and fun book.