Series Review - The Kane Chronicles

The Red Pyramid
Author: Rick Riordan
Series: The Kane Chronicles #1
Genres: Mythology, Urban Fantasy | Childrens, Young Adult
Release Date: 4th May 2010
Publishers: Puffin
No. Pages: 516
Source: Borrowed
Rating:
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

Since their mother's death, Carter and Sadie have become near strangers. While Sadie has lived with her grandparents in London, her brother has traveled the world with their father, the brilliant Egyptologist, Dr. Julius Kane.

One night, Dr. Kane brings the siblings together for a "research experiment" at the British Museum, where he hopes to set things right for his family. Instead, he unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes him to oblivion and forces the children to flee for their lives.

Soon, Sadie and Carter discover that the gods of Egypt are waking, and the worst of them - Set - has his sights on the Kanes. To stop him, the siblings embark on a dangerous journey across the globe - a quest that brings them ever closer to the truth about their family and their links to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs.

I never really had intentions to review The Kane Chronicles, so much so, I didn't actually make any notes, and notes I did make were lost into the abyss, so I suppose you could ask why I'm reviewing them now, as a series, when I hadn't planned on doing so.. The Kane Chronicles is the series by Rick Riordan that gets forgotten about. People are aware of Greek and Roman retellings, they're more aware of the gods and the heroes from those legends, and so Egyptian retellings get forgotten about an awful lot and I think this quite a shame - much like his Percy Jackson series, Riordan has wonderful characters, and vast and vivid world and really delves into the history both that occurred, and that of the Egyptian myths, and it's a shame that people don't give this series the love and attention it so rightly deserves, and I want to change that.

The Red Pyramid is instantly different to the Percy Jackson series because of the dual perspectives, and I actually really enjoyed this change - instead of experiencing the character growth of side characters through the eyes of one character, you're able to experience it through two character, two very different characters, of different sexes, related to one another, while the actual format itself reads like you would listen to an audiobook, description is not high on the priority, but the world doesn't suffer due to this, and the easy flow of speech from the two main characters, Carter and Sadie, in the form of a video recording brought to life by Riordan, it's a wonderful change in format and I think it's this change that allows Riordan to bring this world to life. There's a feel of those characters being real and sending Riordan these stories, these adventures, and that in itself brings the series to life in a way that Percy Jackson never was like. I feel I believed these adventures much more than his previous series.

The plot and story itself I found fascinating and really enjoyable. The dynamics between Carter and Sadie and how they had to adjust to being around each other, not only as fellow people, but as a family, it was wonderful to see just how much they grew to care and love one another, almost as if they hadn't been separated. I also really like the actual plot itself - the characters used in the plot were superb and I admit, while I did have to do some research on who some of these characters were, the actual characters that Riordan created were fantastic and the situations he put those characters into was also wonderful. While the Red Pyramid's plot is a little more character driven rather than action, there's an awful lot that this book brings in entertainment value. I loved learning about the myths and legends that I was unaware of, I loved the cast of characters, of Anubis, of Bast, especially Bast, and overall, the whole aspect was wonderful. I loved the twist Riordan took of instead of these teenagers, these people being descendants from the gods they worshiped, they could in fact house and be that god, I thought that was a really good step away from his other series and really defines The Kane Chronicles as something new and different and I have to admit to really liking this difference quite a lot.

Carter and Sadie grew and developed an awful lot in this novel too and really, I thought the entire story, the power, the writing, the characters, the action, the emotions and the really thorough inclusion of myths and legends was superb, so much so, I didn't think twice when it came to continuing the series.

Throne of Fire
Author: Rick Riordan
Series: The Kane Chronicles #2
Genres: Mythology, Urban Fantasy | Childrens, Young Adult
Release Date: 3rd May 2011
Publishers: Puffin
No. Pages: 452
Source: Borrowed
Rating:
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

Ever since the gods of Ancient Egypt were unleashed in the modern world, Carter Kane and his sister Sadie have been in trouble. As descendants of the House of Life, the Kanes have some powers at their command, but the devious gods haven't given them much time to master their skills at Brooklyn House, which has become a training ground for young magicians.

And now their most threatening enemy yet - the chaos snake Apophis - is rising. If they don't prevent him from breaking free in a few days' time, the world will come to an end. In other words, it's a typical week for the Kane family.

To have any chance of battling the Forces of Chaos, the Kanes must revive the sun god Ra. But that would be a feat more powerful than any magician has ever accomplished. First they have to search the world for the three sections of the Book of Ra, then they have to learn how to chant its spells. Oh, and did we mention that no one knows where Ra is exactly?

The following review may contain spoilers concerning earlier books in the series.
If you have not read the previous installments, please proceed with caution.

Much like The Red Pyramid, Throne of Fire was a fantastic read, with much more action, many more characters introduced and with much more development and depth explored within the characters in the series, and it's these features that made this book a fantastic sequel to the series. With choas rife, with emotions frayed and no real answer to their problems, the sequel was set to be just as good and just as enjoyable as the first, and it was.

The biggest and bets thing that continued to show through the series was Carter and Sadies relationship with one another. To go from not knowing much about one another, to trusting one another completely, understanding and supporting, joking and communicating so easily, as well as working brilliantly together, it's wonderful and when you put that alongside some of the new found friendships in this novel, I don't think it could have been better. Sadie's relationship with Anubis and a new character Walt was really explored fantastically in this novel, Sadies emotions as a teenager were developed beautiful, her want and need for female support not exactly handed out by Bast was great to read about and her general struggle to define her feelings for either, creating a triangle, really worked well I think - it showed that Riordan can write a romance entirely different to what I'd seen before and this worked well. Where-as, on the other hand, Carter developed by trying to distance himself from people and those her cared about, choosing to protect rather than involve and take on a lot of responsibility, as his Father wanted, himself. yet when he opened up to Horus, his charcater was wonderful, his humour, his sarcasm, his passion and his power, it all worked well apart and with Sadie, and I think Riordans talent for showing off their family connection and highlighting family with a blood line so strongly in this series shows.

As was with this installment, Riordan's passion and talent for mixing the mythological with the new was fantastic and especially with the Egyptian influence - you cannot deny, this man knows what he's doing and it shows, his research into the characters is fantastic and education I received just by reading this series is beyond words. His world building is fantastic, maybe not as good as his other works, but consistent and brilliant and his plots are well defined and more than capable of holding my attention, and for big books like these, they do very well. I loved and appreciated how Zia was development and how her progression has been slow and well planned out, I really enjoyed reading about Amos and his rehabilitation after being involved with Set and how he's growing into a leader and learning more about the new cast of characters, about the mythology involved, about the history and having pages upon pages of action was just fantastic.

Riordan creates a constant source of action, a constant source of entertainment and I genuinely don't know how he does it, but if he continues to churn out books written at this standard, I don't think there'll ever be a Riordan book I don't read.

Serpents Shadow
Author: Rick Riordan
Series: The Kane Chronicles
Genres: Mythology, Urban Fantasy | Childrens, Young Adult
Release Date: 1st May 2012
Publishers: Puffin
No. Pages: 406
Source: Borrowed
Rating:
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

He's b-a-a-ack!

Despite their best efforts, Carter and Sadie Kane can't seem to keep Apophis, the chaos snake, down. Now Apophis is threatening to plunge the world into eternal darkness, and the Kanes are faced with the impossible task of having to destroy him once and for all. Unfortunately, the magicians of the House of Life are on the brink of civil war, the gods are divided, and the young initiates of Brooklyn House stand almost alone against the forces of chaos.

The Kanes' only hope is an ancient spell that might turn the serpent's own shadow into a weapon, but the magic has been lost for a millennia. To find the answer they need, the Kanes must rely on the murderous ghost of a powerful magician who might be able to lead them to the serpent's shadow.. or might lead them to their deaths in the depths of the underworld.

Nothing less than the mortal world is at stake when the Kane family fulfills its destiny in this thrilling conclusion to the Kane Chronicles.

The following review may contain spoilers concerning earlier books in the series.
If you have not read the previous installments, please proceed with caution.

Reaching the final book in the Kane Chronicles brought on the same emotions as finishing the Percy Jackson series did, and saying I didn't have high expectations about this series would be lying, so expecting, wanting, praying for a fantastic ending was what I had done and as endings go, I was overall, very very impressed.

What Serpents Shadow had that the other novels didn't was many somethings to lose. While Red Pyramid and Throne of Fire developed the characters and the relations between them, Serpents Shadow threatened to bring them down, to ruin them, with high flying action, with emotional scenes galore and with some pretty predictable, yet always enjoyable twists. Was I impressed? Damn yes, of course I was, Riordan excelled in creating a fantastic finale for this series, but did I want more? I guess the answer is yes. What this series was always good at for me was being consistent, being at the same good, enjoyable and pretty amazing level, but it never was any higher than that. Maybe I wasn't as connected as I could have been, or maybe the bland moments within made it less enjoyable, but what was good about Serpents Shadow was that the final battle, the big moments, as with last Olympian, didn't take part near the end of the novel, they were the end of the novel. There were lose ends to tie up, moments to have and other characters that took to the stage and shined, those like Walt, Anubis and Zia and I thought this was wonderful; there's nothing I like more than a secondary character that compliments and works well with the main characters that, you already know, I cherish and adore.

What I haven't mentioned about this series which needs to be mentioned more is the talent at which Riordan created a different method when including the gods, and I confess, this could be what makes people dislike this series more, and what could link itself to his more recently announced series of Norse Mythology, how the gods could reside in humans, in descendants, rather than were descendants and I think this was way too good of a feature not to mention at some point. There's a lot more development with this kind of connection, there's a level of trust and involvement of the gods in this choice, in this feature and I haven't explored it. Appreciating and reading about Anubis, Horus, Isis and so may other gods opinions, reflections on human lives and even how they thought and acted was so much better than you get when you read The Olympians. You get some interaction, but in The Kane Chronicles, you get to explore, get to delve deep and get to appreciate the relationship built between Sadie and Iris, Carter and Horus and so many others. It's quite possible my absolute favourite part of these series and I genuinely think Riordan should write more like it.

The action in this finale installment was also amazing. Seeing the action play out in front of your eyes, meeting all of these other characters and gods, seeing the talent and the use of general knowledge and their gained knowledge that the characters had was wonderful, and watching some of my favourite characters develop and grow into something so much better, so much more amazing that I could have expected just blew my mind. I think The Kane Chronicles constant feel of consistency is what makes it so enjoyable for me, there's many little issues I had with it, such as pacing or plot or teenage angst, but these things would come about in a teenage and childrens series, so it's not something I pick apart and throw about, but as an all standing finale goes, this was definitely one of the better ones I've read this year and ended this series with me, smiling like a real dork.

The Kane Chronicles is nothing like The Olympians or Heroes of Olympus. There is no Percy comfort, there is nothing Greek about it, only a talented author who does his research, delivering what is only a fantastic, wonderful trilogy that not enough people give a chance. Egyptian Mythology might so far fetched, but it doesn't take long to pick up and given the time, the effort and the faith, it's so easy for Kane Chronicles to become something you love on the same level as Riordans other work. There's nothing scary about new characters, or a change in style, or different and multiple perspectives and new romances and different settings and there's nothing scary about meeting and learning more about the gods, more about mythology and more about what could have been. I myself put Kane Chronicles on the same level as The Olympians, except it's more consistent and more enjoyable on some levels. If you haven't tried this series yet, I urge you to, and if you regret it, I give you permission to ignore me for life, but for those Percy fans too afraid to try something new, you're seriously missing out..