Throne of Fire

My turn.

[Ow! Let go of the microphone, Sadie! I'm telling your story. Don't worry! I loved the book.]

Phew! Carter and Sadie are back in, The Throne of Fire, book 2 of the Kane Chronicles, saving the world from being devoured by the god of Chaos. The two narrate their story with humorous asides and sibling rivalry. The action is nonstop as they try to find the three scrolls of the Book of Ra which they want to use to wake up the Egyptian sun-god Ra who they feel is the only person who can stop the god of Chaos, Apophis from taking over the world. Oh yes, and they have one week to accomplish this mission. They get help from Bes, the god of Dwarfs (who wears a speedo), Zia and Walt. They have to make sacrifices and struggle against the temptations of placing themselves on the throne and becoming all-powerful.

Riordan is an entertaining writer. He has strong characters, funny dialogue, and lots of action. Egyptian mythology is somewhat complicated and there are quite a few gods to keep track of in this story. I like how Riordan uses mnemonics in a fun way to remember who's who such as the vulture goddess Nekhbet whom Sadie calls, Neck Butt, and has breath that smells like roadkill. Or the god Ptah whom she calls Patooey or the god of spit. The play on words is nonstop throughout the story and quite funny. The plot has some interesting twists and there is more romance with Carter being interested in Zia and Sadie being interested in Anubis and Walt. The thoughts Sadie has regarding the boys makes her seem older than a 12-year-old who just turned 13. 

[What! Don't punch me Sadie. Okay, she wants me to tell you that she's a mature 13-year-old.]

This leads me to the part of the book I didn't think worked so well. The first person narrative with the alternating narrators and the asides pulled me out of the storyline so that I didn't get sucked into the story as quickly as I normally do with Riordan's books. While Riordan also uses alternating viewpoints of characters in The Lost Hero, he uses third person omniscient narrative and I think it works better with the pacing of the stories. Or maybe it is the best narrative form for epic/hero stories with lots of action. What do you think?

[Oops! Here's the microphone. Your turn.]

A fun fantasy read!

Reading Level 6.0

:-) :-) :-) :-) 4 out of 5 Smileys