Riordan Retrospective: Demigods and Magicians

Welcome once again to my Riordan Retrospective.  For those of you just joining the fun, this is my look back at the works of Rick Riordan.  That means Percy Jackson, its sequels, and spin-offs.  This is less of a formal review and more of a casual look back.  Last time, we finished our look back at Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard with a look back at 9 From the Nine Worlds.  This time, the moment you've all been waiting for has arrived.  We're looking at the Percy Jackson/Kane Chronicles crossover Demigods and Magicians. 

I'd been putting this one off because the audiobook wasn't available through Audible.com, my preferred source of audiobooks.  However, it is available via iTunes, but not as a complete set.  Just type in the name of the individual stories: "The Son of Sobek", "The Staff of Serapis", and "The Crown of Ptolemy."  The one you want is the one that cost $2.99, because those are the ones that comes with the audiobooks.  While we're on the subject, there is a very special narrator for "Son of Sobek" and "Staff of Serapis".  You see, Rick Riordan himself narrates these stories.  He is just as great a narrator as he is a writer.  It is certainly interesting to see how he imagines the characters sounding.  It isn't terribly different to how Jesse Bernstein narrates.  Incidentally, Jesse returns to narrate "Crown of Ptolemy".  He is as excellent as ever. 

The first story is called "The Son of Sobek."  Carter Kane is on a mission to Long Island to investigate reports of mysterious magical activity.  He's nearly eaten by a giant crocodile, but is saved by a teenager wielding magic like nothing Carter's ever seen before.  The teenager's name?  Percy Jackson.  Carter and Percy are going to have to team up to take down a petsuchos.  

Interesting that the crossover begin's from the Kane's point-of-view, rather than Percy's.  Then again, 2/3 of the crossover are told from Percy and Annabeth's point-of-view.  Also interesting in that the monster of the story was a purely Egyptian creature, rather than a Greco-Egyptian hybrid like the other stories.  I like how these story feel like a throwback to the early days when Percy Jackson and the Olympians was still making a name for itself.  We'd all been hoping for something like this; epically after all the hints Rick left in The Kane Chronicles.  Also, we finally get to see Percy use his hurricane generation powers again.  It takes quite the strain on him, which is why he doesn't use it as often, but still it was nice.  

There's an amusing scene towards the beginning where Percy asks Carter if he's a half-blood, as in a demigod.  However, Carter briefly misinterprets it as a racial slur.  This is how you know Percy Jackson and the Olympians was first written in 2005.  If it had started today, some idiot would get offended over the use of the word half-blood, and faux-outrage would ensue.  Anyway, all in all an excellent start to the collection. 

The second story is called "The Staff of Serapis."  Annabeth Chase is on her way to an architect interview when she attacked by a monster with the heads of a lion and wolf.  Thankfully, a mysterious girl Sadie Kane soon arrives to help take down the monster.  The two girls are going to have to team up to take down the Greco-Egyptian god Serapis.  

There's a great scene at the beginning where Annabeth evades the monsters by tricking its heads into arguing with each other.  It recalls her time in the catacombs of Rome in The Mark of Athena.  It goes to show, particularly in how she worded things, that she and Percy might not be so different after all.  Annabeth and Sadie get along noticeably better than Carter and Percy did.  Granted, Percy and Carter got into a fight not long after meeting, which probably set the tone for things.  

They are facing off against Serapis.  He was originally a minor Egyptian deity, but rose to prominence during the Ptolemaic Dynasty.  In fact, Serapis was considered the head of the combined Greco-Egyptian pantheon for many years.  Several centers of learning where built from temples dedicated to Serapis known as Serapeum.  The Ptolemaic Dynasty gets its name from Ptolemy.  He was one of the three generals who inherited Alexander the Great's empire.  Alexander died childless, so his four general carved the empire among themselves.  Ptolemy got Egypt, and his dynasty would be the last to rule Egypt before the Romans conquered them.  As you can imagine, the Ptolemaic Dynasty saw quite a bit of mixing of Greek and Egyptian culture. 

Interesting fact, Alexander the Great claimed to be both a son of Zeus and the reincarnation of Achilles.  Knowing the Riordanverse, there's a high probability that he wasn't just blowing smoke.  I can't help but wonder if that will become relevant in the future, but I digress.  Also, in case you're wonder, the other three generals were Seleucus, Antigonus, and Cassander.  Seleucus got Persia, and the Seleucid Dynasty is named after him.  Cassander got most of mainland Greece, and Antigonus got Turkey and the bits of Greece Cassander didn't get. 

Serapis was trying to build a new Lighthouse of Alexandria, also known as the Pharos.  Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great, and served as the capital of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, so it is certainly fitting.  He was doing this to harness enough Greek and Egyptian magic to take down the other gods.  Also, thanks to Rick narration, I realize I've been pronouncing Hecate wrong all these years.  It is "heck-at" not "heck-uh-tea."  Once again, an excellent story.  

Our final story is titled "The Crown of Ptolemy."  The rouge undead magician Setne has been behind all the strange happenings.  Setne plans on attaining ultimate power by combining both Greek and Egyptian magic.  However, if he wants to do that he's going to have to take down Percy, Annabeth, Carter, and Sadie.  To stop Setne, our heroes are going to have to do a bit of mixing and matching of their own.  

I knew we'd be seeing something like this as soon as I got to the end of The Serpent's Shadow.  Setne was still missing, the Kanes had reports of mysterious magic on Long Island, it was all there. Throughout the collect there has been a them about working together, and combining the best aspects of both systems.  That theme is especially strong here.  Early on, Percy loses Riptide when Setne absorbs it into his body.  So he makes due with one of Carter's spare wands, which turns into a kopis, a variation on the khopesh used during the Ptolemaic Dynasty.  Later, Carter uses Annabeth's invisibility cap as part of the plan.  

Oh, but that's just the warm-up.  Percy winds up hosting the vulture goddess Nekhbet.  This makes him quite possibly the first Greek demigod, that we know of, to host an Egyptian deity.  He's also quite possibly the only person without blood of the pharaohs to do so.  Of course, demigod blood is more than a sufficient substitute, as Nekhbet attests.  Also impressive in that Nekhbet and Poseidon have nothing in common.  We know from previous books that bad things can happen if a host and their god use different sorts of magic.  Then again, Percy was kind of perfect for the role.  He turned down the opportunity to become a god, and that willpower and determination allows him to keep Nekhbet in check. 

Then, as if that wasn't awesome enough, Sadie tells her Annabeth her ren; as in, secret name.  This allows Annabeth to temporarily gains the ability to read hieroglyphics and perform Egyptian magic.  That makes Annabeth among a select few to crack the magic of hieroglyphics without having blood of the pharaohs.  There's an amusing scene where Percy muses that Sadie is like what would happen if he and Annabeth were to have a kid.  She has Annabeth's looks, but is impulsive and fidgety like Percy.  I liked the bits where Percy and Sadie interacted, and the same with Carter and Annabeth interacting.  I kind of wish we'd gotten two more stories; one with Percy and Sadie teaming up, and one with Carter and Annabeth joining forces.  

I should mention that Setne is trying to absorb Nekhbet and the cobra goddess Wadjet to gain the power of the Crown of Ptolemy.  That way, he can become a god, absorb the other gods, and gain the ultimate power of both the Greek and Egyptian pantheons.  I kind of wish Wadjet had been the one Percy hosted, since we already encountered Nekhbet in the main Kane Chronicles series.  Nekhbet and Wadjet are the snake and vulture on the double crown of the pharaohs, and are both guardians of the pharaohs.  Nekhbet for the white  crown of Upper Egypt, and Wadjet for the red crown of Lower Egypt.  He's doing all this on Governor's Island, because it is halfway between Manhattan and Brooklyn, the hearts of the Greek and Egyptian pantheons in America. 

While overall Jesse does great with the narration, there is one minor point I have to ding him on.  He has Setne talk like Elvis, because Percy says he looks like Elvis.  There's is no evidence that this is how Setne talks.  You know, when a series has multiple narrators, they really should exchange notes with each other.  

Anyway, Setne is defeated and sealed in a snow globe.  Our heroes decide that, in light of everything that has happened, it's best that they not tell anyone about their adventures.  Thus, we get the overall moral of the short story collection: multiculturalism will inevitably lead to disaster...wait a minute, that can't possibly be correct!  The real moral is that we should all stick to our own kind...oh gods, that's even worse!  Uh...yeah, Rick probably didn't intend it, but the collection does inadvertently end with a "we're better off apart" feeling. 

Sure, there would be more problems if Camp Half-Blood and Brooklyn House knew of each other, but also more solutions.  Just think of the potential.  I'm sure Percy and the other demigods would have been grateful for some Egyptian magic during the war against Gaea.  I'm also pretty sure that the magicians of the House of Life would have appreciated some Greek assistance for the battle against Apophis.  Just think of the potential.  Sadly, it seems that Percy, Carter, Annabeth, and Sadie will be the only ones to know of both the Greeks and Egyptians.  Well, I'm pretty certain that Chiron and Uncle Amos know, but you get what I mean. 

Still, despite the unintentionally message, this was still an awesome story.  In fact, the whole collection is a welcome return to form after the trainwreck that is Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard.  Now let's analyze the covers.  For the story collection as a whole we see Riptide and an Egyptian Khopesh crossed over each other.  Simple yet effective.  

Next we move on to the cover for "The Son of Sobek" where we see...ahhh!  Percy!  Carter!  What have they done to you?!  The covers for the individual short stories are by Antonio Camparo.  He...leaves something to be desired as an artist.  It would seem that he is drawing inspiration from John Rocco's character art.  I think we can all agree that it is better now that Viria has replaced John Rocco as the official character artists.  Rocco usually makes great cover art, but his charcter art leaves something to be desired.  Percy and Carter look like they're about to eat the reader.  It's even worse since Carter kind of looks like a young Bill Cosby.  

Next we the cover for "The Staff of Serapis."  We see here...no!  Annabeth!  Sadie!  Not you too!  Annabeth looks like she's become a meth addict, and Sadie isn't much better.  It's always a bad sign when the monsters look friendlier and more appealing than the heroines.  I would not like to meet these character portraits in a dark alley, or anywhere, for that matter. 

Finally, we have the cover of "The Crown of Ptolemy."  Well, I guess it isn't completely terrible.  Of course, that's also like saying that this cover was the shiniest turd in the pile.  It’s still pretty bad.  All the characters look like those 30-year-old high schoolers you’d see on television shows from the 1990s and early 2000s.  Stress can cause premature aging, but not like this.  Thank goodness the collection has a better cover than the individual stories.  

Here, have a picture of Percy that Viria drew so that we all don't lose our sanity.  And be sure to check out all of her other excellent official character art over here.  You can also find her over on DeviantArt. 

And that was "Demigods and Magicians."  A highly anticipated crossover that did not fail to deliver. It was a long time coming, but it was worth the wait.  Now, we've got one more Kane Chronicles stop to make before returning to The Trials of Apollo.  Join me next time when we take a look back at Brooklyn House Magician's Manual.  I will see you guys next time.