Riordan Retrospective: The Serpent's Shadow

Welcome once again to the Riordan Retrospective.  For those of you just joining the fun, this is my look back at the works of Rick Riordan.  That means we're taking a look at Percy Jackson, its sequel series and its spin-off series. This is less of a formal review, and more of a look back, along with my thoughts and observations.  Last time we took a look back at the short story collection The Demigod Diaries.  This time, we're finishing our look back at The Kane Chronicles.  We're taking a look back at The Serpent's Shadow, The Kane Chronicles book 3.

This is the moment everything has been building up to.  The final showdown with Apophis is at hand, and the House of Life is about to make its last stand against the forces of chaos.  There isn't really much more I can add, so let's jump directly to my thoughts.  Also, as usual, there's going to be plenty of spoilers.  Turn back now if you want to avoid that sort of thing. 

Before we get any further, I'd like to address something I should have brought up in previous retrospectives: where Mr. and Mrs. Kane married?  We know that after Mrs. Kane died her parents fought Mr. Kane for custody of Carter and Sadie.  The only way that would be even remotely possible is if Julius and Ruby hadn't been married; if you don't get married, and your spouse dies, then their parents can fight you for custody of your kids.  The only other scenario is if the parent is severely negligent and/or abusive, and that's certainly not the case here.

It only gets more complicated when you consider that Ruby's parents are British, and now your dragging international law into it.  And they couldn't expect to just say "Julius is unfit to be a parent because his lifestyle as a magician who fights gods and monsters puts these children at risk" without the judge laughing them out of court.  Also, why did they only get Sadie, and Mr. Kane only got Carter?  Wouldn't the judge want to keep the siblings together? 

The whole affair always just never made sense to me.  Speaking of familial relations, let's talk about Setne.  He is bound to Carter and Sadie's service as punishment for his crimes against the gods.  This, along with the fact that he later betrays them, is rather odd.  Setne was an actual historical figure, specifically he was the son of Ramses the Great.  He was beloved by the people of Ancient Egypt, a faithful servant of the gods and considered a hero. Granted, you could argue that he did so in a chaotic way, which the gods wouldn't approve of, but it is still rather odd for him to be portrayed as a villain. 

As I've previously mentioned, I kind of figured that Sadie's love triangle would be resolved by Walt becoming the host of Anubis.  Walt will be the Eye of Anubis, and Anubis will be a living god like the pharaohs of old.  Apparently, the more time they spend like that the more their personalities will merge together.  I guess it's kind of like the end of the second Rosario+Vampire manga where Inner Moka and Outer Moka combine to form a composite Moka.  Alternatively, it's kind of like how Mr. Kane and Osiris are pretty much one and the same.  Does that mean Carter and Sadie are, technically, children of Osiris?   

On that topic, back in the first book Rick tried to dance around the fact that Isis and Osiris were brother and sister, but also husband and wife.  It was explained as one time a brother and sister hosted them, and then a husband and wife hosted them.  Yeah, that didn't happen in the original myths, but I understand why he did that.  Egyptian Mythology is...kind of full of incest, which isn't a very family-friendly topic, so yeah.  

We finally get an answer to a question I'd been wondering for a while: what happens to atheists when they die in the Riordanverse?  Apparently, they don't see anything, at least if they default to the Egyptian afterlife.  We are told this, and yet it's contradicted by the text itself.  We see a man being judged who didn't believe in any gods, but had a love of Ancient Egypt, and he can see everything perfectly fine.  That was my personal take on the matter; if you don't have any strong convictions you ought to default to whatever the dominant pantheon is wherever you happen to be.  

So, moving to lighter subjects, during Sadie and friends' dance we get a surprise cameo by Drew Tanaka and Lacy from The Heroes of Olympus.  The Kane Chronicles does take places in the same universe as Percy Jackson/The Heroes of Olympus, but I gotta admit, I wasn't expecting characters from the other series to appear.  Then, of course, there were the official crossovers, but that's a topic for another time.  As previously mentioned, I liked Set's reasoning for fighting with the other gods.  He may be the god of chaos, but he views himself as someone who shakes things up and breaks old patterns.  Apophis, by contrast, just wants to destroy everything.

As with the previous installment, the series takes a more international approach than Percy Jackson does.  Besides some early scenes in Dallas and Brooklyn, almost all of the scenes on Earth take place in Egypt.  By sear coincidence, this part of the series came out not too long after the Arab Spring happened.  I wonder if, in the Riordanverse, Apophis had a hand in all of that. Good thing the series came out when it did; any later and it would have been pretty difficult to have scenes set in Egypt.  Hmm, I wonder if Apophis also had a hand in creating the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.  Did he convince them to pick that name in order to defame the goddess Isis?  

Also, it's mentioned that Dallas Museum of Art was hosting a King Tut exhibit.  A few years before this book came out, it really did.  In fact, my family took a trip to Dallas to see it.  King Tut, however, was not actually at the exhibit, which was mildly disappointing.  Still, it was great to see all of the Egyptian artifacts, many of which I'd only seen in books before that.  Kind of cool to think my counterpart in the Riordanverse might have bumped into Carter and Sadie.  Well, Apophis did kill all of the magicians at the Dallas nome, meaning I might have wound up as collateral damage so...yeah.  

While we're speculating, let's talk about Thoth.  We know that he was the only god the House of Life didn't banish in ancient times.  It is said that they did this because he's the god of magic, and thus their patron and founder.  What if there's more to it than just that?  Without the other gods around he'd get all of the prayers and offerings, and potentially more power, so what if he was behind the banishment of all the other gods?  The Riordanverse version of Thoth might act silly and scatterbrained, but maybe, just maybe, he just might be the biggest chess master in the entire Riordanverse. 

I gotta admit, when the series started off I really wasn't sure about Sadie, but she grew on me.  I honestly feel like I witnessed her grow as a character.  At the start of the series she's very rude and brash, but does so as a coping mechanism to hide her insecurities.  By series end she's calmed down and matured a bit.  She accept that her life won't ever be normal, but that's okay, because she's a magician of the House of Life.  I really like how she embraced the magical and otherworldly part of her life, rather than pining after a "normal" teenage life.  She also finally got around to using polytheistic swearing.  

As was prophesied at the start of the series, Carter becomes the first pharaoh in over 2000 years, but leaves most of the day to day affairs to Uncle Amos.  Carter has never loved the spotlight, in large part because of his upbringing.  He never got to do typical kid things because he was always traveling with his dad.  Unlike many other Riordanverse characters, he didn't really ever have a taste of "normal" life.  I like to think that eventually he'll learn to accept his life as it is like Sadie did.  

So we all knew Apophis was going to be defeated, but it was a fun ride to get there.  Unfortunately, since order cannot exist without chaos, the gods will be withdrawing from the world as well.  That is rather sad, especially given how nice, for the most part, they tend to be.  Still, at least Carter and Sadie can visit them in the Duat.  And hey, Anubis gets to say because Walt is hosting him as his eye.  

As I've previously mentioned, one of the drawbacks to The Kane Chronicles only being three-books-long is that the minor characters don't get as much time to shine.  For example, in this book we meet a young Russian magician named Leonid who learn the Path of Shu, god of the wind, against the wishes of his nome.  He felt a bit underutilized.  On a more positive note, Felix finally found his magic: ice magic!  That combined with his love of penguins, will probably make him the only magician who actually wants to be assigned to the Antarctica nome.  The Egyptian Pantheon doesn't have a snow deity, so I don't know which Path of the Gods he'll be taking.

The book ends with Sadie mentioning that mysterious magical activity has been discovered on Long Island, and that an investigation will be commencing soon.  Obviously, this is setting things up for the crossover short stories collection Demigods and Magicians.  

Speaking of audiobooks, for one final time, I'm going to plug the audiobook version of The Serpent's Shadow. 

Well, I think it's time I gave my overall thoughts on The Kane Chronicles.  Like I said in the Red Pyramid retrospective, not a perfect series, and I admit some of my objections are unique to me, but overall not a bad series.  It doesn't quite have the charm of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, but it is still well worth reading.  Who knows, you just might learn something new about Egyptian Mythology and/or Ancient Egyptian History.  

For one final times, let's analyze the cover.  We see Carter and Sadie deep within the Duat.  They're admits the primordial sea of chaos and are making their way to the very first land, where Ma'at, given form by the obelisk, shines bright.  Apophis looms ominously in the clouds. 

The new cover is...actually, it's not half bad.  We see Carter and Sadie standing in front of the Pyramids of Giza as Apophis rises out of the sands.  Easily the best of the new covers, even if it doesn't quite have the charm of the original.

With that we've come to the end of our retrospective of The Kane Chronicles.  Thus, the Riordan Retrospective hits another major milestone.  We'll be continuing on, uninterrupted, with out look back at The Heroes of Olympus.  That is, unless Demigods and Magicians comes out in audiobook form in the near future.  I hope you've all been enjoying these retrospectives as much as I have.

Join me again next time when we take a look back at The Mark of Athena.  I will see you all next time.