Monday, January 6, 2020

Riordan Retrospective: Brooklyn House Magician's Manual

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 Riordann.  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 took a look back at the Percy Jackson/Kane Chronicles crossover extravaganza Demigods and Magicians.  This time, we're making one last stop at The Kane Chronicles.  We're taking a look back at Brooklyn House Magician's Manual.


Carter and Sadie Kane have decided that new initiates at Brooklyn House needs a beginner’s guide to Egyptian gods, magic, and life at Brooklyn House.  At the same time, we also get to see a series of vignettes about the lives of Brooklyn House's residents.  So, it's basically The Kane Chronicles version of Camp Half-Blood Confidential.

Well, not much more to add to the opening.  I'd been putting this one off for a while, but I'm glad I finally got around to it.  I realize I unfavorably compared this book to Camp Half-Blood Confidential.  Turns out I was wrong, but I still stand by what I said about Guide to Hotel Valhalla.  Not much more to add, so let's just jump into it.

Actually, first let's talk about the audiobook.  Kevin R. Free returns to voice Carter and is as excellent as ever.  He also voices Kevin in the podcast Welcome to Night Vale.  The fact that I knew hm first as Carter Kane makes it surreal in a way even the Night Vale creators couldn't have anticipated.  Sadly, Katherine Kellgren, who previously voiced Sadie, has passed away due to cancer.  As such, Fiona Hardingham has taken over the role.  She does an exceptional job.  I barely noticed any difference.  The other characters are a voiced by a full cast that was never named in the credits.  Though I'm fairly certain that Uncle Amos was voiced by Bronson Pinchot.  I just finished The Years of Rice and Salt, which he narrated; lovely alternate history book, I will be reviewing it soon.  However, if that is the case, it is a bit odd given that Bronson is white, and Amos is black.

The other narrators tend to be a bit hit or miss.  For example, the narrator who voiced Zia could be a bit flat and monotone at times.  There's a point where Zia discovers some old writings from Iskandar and mentions that she was moved to tears.  The narrator, however, sounds board out of her skull.  Also, she doesn't give Zia an Egyptian accent.  She also voices Cleo without a Brazilian accent.  I suppose it wasn't terrible, but it could have been better.  By contrast, the narrator who voiced Felix sounded way too old, but he absolutely nailed Felix's character.  He certainly made the most of what he had to work with.  The narrator who voices Setne does an outstanding job.  The narrator who voiced Jaz does pretty well.  However, if she's the one who voiced Zia and Cleo, as I suspect, I will be slightly mad.  At least Jaz's narrator remembered to give her emotions and a Southern accent.

In addition to the vignettes, we also get several quizzes about the gods of Egyptian Mythology, along with Carter and Sadie's commentary, throughout the book.  Most of these translate reasonably well into audio, though some of the matching and word bank ones were a tad clunky.

Now let's get into the main plot.  Carter and Sadie have received letters from Uncle Amos about a secret masaba located beneath Brooklyn House.  Mastabas were above-ground tombs, made from mud brick, that the Ancient Egyptians created before they started making pyramids.  If you've ever played the computer game Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile, you'll be quite familiar with mastabas.  However, while casting an opening spell, Sadie accidentally releases Setne from his snow globe prison.  Setne interweaves himself throughout the vignettes and provides commentary on them.

As I've previously mentioned, it is rather odd that Setne is a villain, given that he was a hero in Egyptian Mythology.  True, he did steal the Book of Thoth and tried to learn its secret magic, but he learned his lesson and repented.  Then again, according to The Heroes of Olympus, King Midas didn't actually learn his lesson, and the accounts of his story have apparently forgotten that over the years.  Perhaps something similar happened with Setne in the Riordanverse.

There a fun little vignette where Doughboy runs new recruits through a checklist of magical items they'll be needing for their stay at Brooklyn House.  We also get one where Bes extols the benefits of ugliness, but the narrator didn't really work.  He made Bes sound queer as a three-dollar bill.  Bes should sound rough and gruff.  Taweret is his girlfriend, and Bast an old fling, so he's clearly straight.  Well, that and homosexuality was forbidden in Ancient Egypt.  Speaking of Taweret, later on she teaches us a song to remember the major animal gods and goddesses.

We get a vignette where Zia discovers some pottery shards that recount her hosting the goddess Nephthys, but told from Iskandar's perspective.  As I've said, it actually isn't bad, but the narrator's flat delivery kind of ruined it.  On a lighter note, I loved Felix's vignette.  As we know, his specialty is snow and ice magic.  Unfortunately, there is no god of snow and ice in Egyptian Mythology.  However, Felix does mention that there are thousands of gods, and it is possible that a snow and ice god was lost over the years.  He does mention ancient accounts of the Nile freezing due to cold weather.  This is indeed something we do have a record of.  However, he decides to follow the Path of Ptah, and he does makes a very convincing case that Ptah might be the snow and ice god he's been searching for.

Interestingly, we learn that, while Leonid is following the Path of Shu, he has no intention to host him because Shu was born from Ra's spit.  I do wish his segment had been longer; I'd like to have seen how he's been doing.  As I understand it, Path of the Gods is where you tap into the power of the gods to perform magic.  Hosting a god gives you the full set of god powers all at once, but you risk burning up, or getting taken over by the god.

Carter gets a fun vignette where he is visited by the Bas of the basketball players Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.  This means that both of them are magicians and members of the House of Life in the Riordanverse.  I guess Magic's name is a subtle reference to his secret identity.  This is also the first time that currently living real world celebrities have made on-screen (well, on page) appearances in the Riordanverse.  We also get a vignette where Uncle Amos reviews protocols for what to do on the days of the year Set decides to be particularly mischievous.

Then we get a vignette where Carter begins having dreams and visions after spending too much time in the Hall of Ages.  Turns out Cleopatra was the last pharaoh to host Isis, but not the last person prior to the modern day.  Isis and Horus fled south after Cleopatra committed suicide and Egypt fell to Rome.  Eventually, they arrived in Kingdom of Kush, and the court of the warrior queen Amanirenas.  She and her son agreed to host them.  However, Amanirenas wanted to be the one to host Horus, while her son got to host Isis.  Amanirenas was indeed a real warrior queen of Kush, and she even managed to defeat a group of Roman soldiers who traveled to Kush.  I certainly love it when I get to learn about historical figures that I haven't previously heard of.

Next, Cleo from Rio gets a surprise gift from Thoth: his cloak of magic spells.  Ever the follower of the Path of Thoth, she puts it on, and promptly gets overwhelmed by all the magic power.  Thankfully, a helpful voice in her head allows her to snap out of it.  That voice was, of course, Setne trying to see if she had any info about where the Book of Thoth is.  Not bad, but Cleo's narrator left something to be desired.  On a lighter note, Brooklyn House is organizing an Ancient Egyptian games night, and it looks like Carter is finally loosening up and having fun for once.

From Jaz's vignette we learn that her last name is Anderson.  We also learn that she's been rather board following the battle with Apophis.  Not too many patients to treat with a major battle.  So, she's taken to inflicting ailments on herself and then treating them.  Then she literally gets tongue-tied.  This is a problem because Ancient Egyptian magic requires spells to be spoken aloud. The solution was...certainly interesting.  I'll leave you to discover just what it was.  Another great vignette from the minor characters.  One of my complaints with the main series is that the minor characters didn't get a chance to shine.  Jaz spent most of The Throne of Fire in a coma.  So good that they're finally getting love.  Though I do wish their segments had been just a bit longer.

Next, Sadie applies a translation spell to recordings of her cat Muffin, who was actually the goddess Bast in disguise.  Riordan really captured the mind of a cat well.  For example, one of the recordings is of Sadie opening a can of chicken flavored cat food, but Muffin refuses to eat it.  Sadie says, essentially, "Oh come now, it's chicken.  You like chicken," but Muffin refuses to eat until Sadie opens a can of seafood cat food.  I've had many moments like that with my cat Tiger.  And then there were the bits where Muffin talks about the ball of yarn going under the couch, the land from which nothing returns.  We also learn that Muffin slept on Sadie's head a lot to keep her Ba from traveling in her sleep.  It was a very fun vignette.

So, what has Setne been planning all this time?  Well, he mentions that he's got his eye on someone with unusual powers by Egyptian standards.  He says that this individual is connected to the sea.  At first, I thought he was planning on possessing Percy, but then he mentioned something about a pair.  Was he going to possess Annabeth too?  Nope, turns out he was planning on completing a ritual to become the god/goddess Wadj-Wer, the Egyptian God of the sea.  Well, scholars are a bit uncertain about that.  Something think he was actually god of lagoons and lakes.  Something he might actually have been a fertility goddess.  It's complicated, but makes for an interesting story.

Well, Setne plans to become Wadj-Wer, but the Kane siblings and their allies nip his plan in the bud.  Turns out they were expecting him to try to escape, so they let him, and played along until Walt was read to seal him in the mastaba beneath Brooklyn House.  Interestingly, Setne old snow globe prison sat atop a copy of The Complete History of Cement.  If you'll recall, this is what the Mist disguises Camp Half-Blood Confidential as.  Sadie even mentions that Carter got it from a friend on Long Island.  A friend named Percy Jackson, to be exact.

And that was Brooklyn House Magician's Manual.  A true Egyptian counterpart to Camp Half-Blood Confidential.  Some of the narration was occasionally clunky, but overall a great book.  A good time was had by all.  With that, we are officially at the end of our Kane Chronicles retrospective, barring the publication of an future books.

We'll be retuning to our regularly scheduled order now.  Join me next time when we return to The Trials of Apollo for a look back at The Tyrant's Tomb.  I will see you guys next time.

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