The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan

Before I say anything else, there are a couple of things you need to know about The Throne of Fire. First off, this book (and the book before it, The Red Pyramid) are written by Rick Riordan, the author of the Percy Jackson series and the newer Heroes of Olympus series. Both of these are all about Greek and Roman mythology. So, in this set of books Riordan decided to mix it up a little bit by basing these books, the Kane Chronicles, on Egyptian mythology. So, before you read these books I would highly suggest getting a bit of background info on Egyptian legend and myths. Sure, the book does a pretty good job letting you know what gods are which, but in my opinion it is helpful and makes the story that much more enjoyable knowing about Egypt’s ancient gods.

This story begins in the Brooklyn House, the headquarters for Carter and Sadie Kane along with their uncle, Amos Kane. It is also home to about twenty new recruits that Carter, Sadie, and Amos are training. In their world, there are magicians who practice the magic that was once commonplace in ancient Egypt. They can use this magic by saying spells, writing hieroglyphs, and many other things. The people in the Brooklyn House are officially part of the House of Life, the order of magicians throughout the world, but they aren’t exactly popular. The Chief Lector, the leader of the House of Life and about everyone else who belongs to it, think of the Kane’s as criminals. Because of this, they are constantly being hunted by other magicians. Now here is the real problem:  Apophis, the master of Chaos and arch-nemesis of the King Ra, King of the Gods and the Sun (who is currently missing), is about to rise from his prison in 3 days and swallow the sun and all the other gods and plunge the world into darkness and Chaos. The only way to stop him is for Carter and Sadie to collect the three parts of the Book of Ra and bring Ra back to take up his throne again, all in 3 days.

From there is where their journey begins. They go from London, to Russia, and to Egypt to try and find the pieces of the Book. They fight creatures of darkness and even at one point have to run away from a god and a goddess that took over the bodies of Carter and Sadie’s grandparents. On their way they find Bes, the god of dwarfs, who is sent to help them and is a big and important part of their quest.
            This is a book I very much enjoyed. It had great and likeable characters, a good plot-line, and it picked up from where the last book left off pretty nicely. I would also like to hand it to the author, Rick Riordan. Every time I read one of his books, he continues to impress me. I really like the way he adds so much character and humor into his stories, making it seem as if you are right there with the characters of the book every step of the way. One thing that I really appreciate about The Throne of Fire is that it switches back and forth between Carter and Sadie, each taking one or two chapters. I like this because it is fun and interesting to see both of their personalities in the story. As I said before, this is a great book that I would definitely recommend to anybody. A!