I had just finished reading the 1st book of yet another Chronicles by Rick Riordan, The Red Pyramid. In comparison to his first hit on the Percy Jackson stories, The Red Pyramid gives you a more or less similar scenario of normal children being godlings. Although this time, the theme centers on the similarities between Old Egypt and the Modern World. Percy Jackson's story was of him being the son of the Sea God Poseidon and his task on battling the gods who sided with the evil Titan Kronos and Kronos himself. The Red Pyramid on the other hand, focuses on Sadie and Carter Kane, children of two famous magicians whose task was to restore peace between Egypt's House of Life (magicians) and the pharaos who ruled Egypt. A little family background showed that Sadie and Carter grew apart from each other, Carter being the loyal companion to his dad's travels all over Egypt and Sadie, living a normal life with her grandparents in London. The children were lead to believe that the reason for this arrangement was because their dad lost custody over Saddie to their mother's parents. Also they were lead to believe that their dad "killed" their mother when they were still young. Little did they know that they possess great magic that works best when they are together. A flashback in the story showed little Saddie and Carter arguing over a birthday cake and suddenly the cake exploded. The story's progress was fast complete with action scenes of magic and fantasy, that makes Rick Riordan's book entertaining and exciting. Later in the story, Sadie and Carter realized that they are what the magicians in the House of Life called godlings since they serve as mediums to the spirit of the Pharaos(imagine being possess by a spirit). Carter being the great Egyptian ruler Horus and Saddie, Horus wife Isis. This may seem weird and a bit incestuous at first, but the author gave no hint of being it such as the story progresses. Anyway the children began learning their skills in magic and meeting new friend and enemies along the way. They met Bast the goddess whose spirit resided in Saddie's cat Muffin, who later on was discovered to be the loyal servant of the sun God Ra and who acted as the children's protector. They also met a relative, their father's brother, also a magician, and other members of the House of Life who meant on killing the children. The story's energy and excitement begun when their dad accidentaly released 5 spirits into the human world, in an attempt to bring their dead mother back. The spirits comprises of Nepthys, Osiris, Horus, Isis and Set. Set being the most evil and creator of Chaos. From here on, the children were posessed with the spirits of Isis and Horus, while Osiris (the god of the dead) inhabited their dad's body. Set was set free and battled with Osiris (the dad) and sent him into the underworld. Now, at this time, little was known as to the whereabouts of Nepthys(Set's wife). Sadie and Carter, becoming orphans in just one night, was then taken by their uncle Amos and brought to his invisible mansion in New York. From there all hell broke lose. Muffin turned into Bast, a baboon played basketball, and an albino crocodile head-butted with pre-historic longnecks. Here they met Zia(who later in the story was discovered to hold the spirit of Nepthys) and some other gods of the Egyptian period. The children were led to a battle to stop Set from creating Chaos all over the earth. Honestly, you wouldn't notice that this is actually a long book because the action, the mystery and make-believe aspect of the story keeps you lifting pages after pages. It has more dialogues as opposed to more narrations which sometimes, as we all know, makes the story boring. Plus the character depicted in the two children were those of someone who is looking to have some fun but not in a chaotic and disastrous way. This book is definitely not for teenagers alone. It's a family read and good for all ages. I have already completed Rick Riordan's 5 Percy Jackson books. This time I'm not going to let The Red Pyramid pass as another collection to my library. Happy reading everyone!
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