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.

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.  

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. 

Riordan Retrospective: The Throne of Fire

Welcome back 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 the we began our look back at The Heroes of Olympus with a look back at The Lost Hero.  This time we're returning to The Kane Chronicles.  We're taking a look back at The Throne of Fire, The Kane Chronicles book 2.  Let's kick things off with a brief summary.

Carter and Sadie Kane have had their hands full over the past few months.  They converted Brooklyn House into a training facility for magicians who want to learn how to channel the gods and use their magic.  Things only get more stressful when they learn that Apophis, the serpent of chaos, is going to be loose in only a few days.  To stop Apophis they'll need to find the god Ra, but there's just one problem: nobody has seen Ra in centuries.  To find Ra they'll have to find all three section of the Book of Ra and learn how to correctly chant its spells.  Along the way they'll have to survive devious gods and scheming magicians from the House of Life.

Okay, as per usual there will be a lot of spoilers from this point forwards.  Turn back now if you don't like that sort of thing.

Okay, people who don't like spoilers gone?  Now let's dive into the discussion of The Throne of Fire.

It's often said that the middle book of a trilogy is always the best book in that series.  I don't know if that's always true, but it's certainly the case for The Kane Chronicles.  Red Pyramid had the task of introducing the characters and setting up the world.  Serpent's Shadow had to wrap everything up and tie-up the loose ends.  Thrones of Fire, however, gets to really explore the characters and their world without having the pressure of having to open or close the story. 

Let's talk about the new characters, starting with Zia.  The Zia we met in the previous book turned out to have been a shabti.  She was timid and demure, but what about the real Zia?  Turns out she's the exact opposite.  She's fiery, passionate, snarky and a bit of a live wire.  Her fiery personality is rather fitting, given that she specializes in fire magic.  I did get some shades of Thalia Grace with Zia's characterization.  I also noticed that she and Sadie had fairly similar temperaments; could explain why they hit it off so well.  Another thing I liked is that Zia is a well-written Arab character who is not a Muslim.  Remember this, it will be important when we get to Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard.

There's something to consider about Carter's relationship with Zia, or rather, her shabti counterpart: just how much did he really love her?  Carter clearly saw something of himself in Zia, they'd both be raised as almost the only kids in places dominated by adults.  However, because of his upbringing of archeological digs and home schooling with his dad, Carter never really got much interaction with people his own age.  Does he truly understand what it is to be in love?  Where his feeling merely infatuation?  Carter spends some time sorting things out for himself.  

Now let's talk about Walt Stone.  He is the head sau, which means charm maker, at Brooklyn House and is also one of Sadie's love interests.  He's descended from the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten, and as a result, is cursed to die young.  It is explained that this was the reason Tutankhamun, who was Akhenaten's son, died young.  This might have a kernel of truth to it.  Art during Egypt's Amarna period, named after the city Akhenaten moved Egypt's capital to, depicts Akhenaten and his children noticeably different than pervious art styles.  Scholars have debated if this really was how he looked, and thus indicative of disease, or if it was merely an artistic choice. 

Anyway, this revelation about Walt heritage also leads to Riordan dancing around some of the religious implications a bit.  He really does a pretty bad job explaining the religious changes Akhenaten made, while also trying to reconcile that with a world where gods are a concrete fact.  Basically, Akhenaten thought that the priest of Amun-Ra were getting a bit too powerful for his taste.  In order to knock them down a peg, he created a new religion based around the worship of the sun, known as Aten, and thus (arguably) founding the first monotheistic religion in the world.  However, the new religion was extremely unpopular with the Egyptian people, and the worship of the traditional gods of Egypt was restored by Tutankhamun (with help from the priests of Amun-Ra) shortly after Akhenaten's death.

This brings me to something I brought up back when we were looking at Percy Jackson and the Olympians: doesn't it bother the gods that hardly anyone worships or believes in them?  The Egyptian gods are a bit of a different case than the Greek gods, since they've been imprisoned for all those year, except those times they managed to escape or be set free.  Still, none of them are bothered that they've been supplanted by some punk from Judea and another punk from Arabia?  I mean, they seem to be sustained more by people remembering their stories, rather than genuine belief, but don't they long for sacrificial smokes and all that?  Well, we'll get more into that when we get to Magnus Chase...in case it wasn't abundantly clear, the retrospectives for Hammer of Thor and Ship of the Dead (to a lesser extent) are going to be bloodbaths.

On that note, we get some insight into the interaction between the different pantheons.  Sadie and Walt visit the Valley of the Golden Mummies, where they met some Romans who were unable to move onto the Egyptian afterlife because they were improperly mummified.  They're clearly devoted to the Roman gods, but wound up defaulting to the Egyptian afterlife because of how they were buried.  Keep that in mind, it will have significant when we get to The Serpent's Shadow.  I enjoyed how they acted a bit like stuffy tourists.  Egypt was already ancient by Roman times, and was a pretty popular vacation destination for Romans.  Of course, they're fate is also pretty terrifying when you think about it.  They'd been stuck in the tomb for nearly two millennia before Sadie and Walt sent them on their way.  

Sadie's other love interest, the god Anubis, bares more than a passing resemblance to Nico di Angelo. Given certain revelations about Nico, which we'll discuss in The House of Hades, this is somewhat amusing in hindsight.  Sadie and Anubis' relationship is also notable in that it is the first time a character, other than a parent, romanced one of the gods.  I kind of figured how the Anubis-Sadie-Walt love triangle was going to be resolved, but let's save that for when we get to Serpent's Shadow.  

There's a scene towards the beginning where Carter mentions that he once saw a pegasus flying over Manhattan, but dismisses it was just seeing things. An obvious nod to how The Kane Chronicles takes place in the same universe as Percy Jackson and the Olympians.  Still, given that he'd just found out that Egyptian Mythology is real not all that long ago, you'd think Carter would be more open-minded. 

I thought that Set's characterization was well done.  He's chaotic and unpredictable, god of chaos and all that, but he's clearly on the side of the good guys.  Also, I loved just how crazy awesome he was. Overall, the Egyptian gods came across as much nicer and more helpful than their Greek counterparts.  Though, personally, I thought that Isis and Horus were a bit snootier than they should have been.  I really appreciated the theme of gods and humans working together.  The gods have power, but they're creatures of habit, and tend to be set in their ways.  They need the creativity of humans to bring about change.  

That's another thing that makes The Kane Chronicles distinct from Percy Jackson.  Percy Jackson had a big theme about history and myths repeating.  This makes a certain amount of sense; the Ancient Greeks were big on the concept of cyclical time.  The Kane Chronicles, while certainly the myths, goes in its own direction.  In fact, back in The Red Pyramid, Thoth only offered to help Carter and Sadie if they promised they weren't going to just repeat the old stories.  Also, going back to what I said last time, The Throne of Fire continues the globe trekking feel of The Kane Chronicles.  We get scenes set in London, St. Petersburg, several places in Egypt, and of course the Duat.  In fact, the scenes at Brooklyn House and thereabout are the only scenes set in America.    

Speaking of the Duat, we find out what happens to Egyptian gods who are forgotten.  Given that there were over 3000 Egyptian gods, there's a lot of those.  They apparently wind up at a magical retirement home, which is where Ra, who has become a senile old man, was this whole time.  Let us all take a moment to appreciate how, by distracting Apophis, Ra was able to save the world from certain destruction with the power of weasel cookies. 

I enjoyed getting to meet all of the new members of Brooklyn House.  One of the downsides of The Kane Chronicles only being three books long is that the minor characters didn't have as much time to shine, like the minor characters in Percy Jackson and the Olympians did.  Of course, Rick really used most of the Egyptian myths in the three books we got, so there was a bit of a limit on how long the series could go for.  I loved Felix and his obsession with penguins.  Cleo from Rio is somewhat amusing in light of how Rick Riordan's books have taken off in Brazil.  In fact, the Brazilian fandom is almost as huge of the American fandom.  Fun fact, the Brazilian fans are why we call him Uncle Rick; it started when they took to calling him Tio Rick.

Jaz seemed like she was going to play a bigger role, which isn't to say she did nothing.  She provided support, in spirit form, to Carter and Sadie.  Still though, I can't help but feel that she was underutilized.  As stated, I kind of feel that way about all of the new recruits. 

There also don't seem to be quite as many monsters, but that's understandable.  Egyptian Mythology doesn't have quite as big of a bestiary as Greek Mythology does.  To make up for it, with get plenty of varieties of demons, and we do get some cool creatures.  Case in point, Freak the Egyptian Griffin, and back in The Red Pyramid we got the serpopards. 

Now let us analyze the covers.  The original cover features Carter and Sadie hanging onto Ra's solar barge, which is old and tattered from lack of use.  The titular Throne of Fire blaze bright as they ride down sand dunes covered in scarab beetles.  There is a purple hue to the background evoking myth, mystery and adventure.  All in all, an excellent cover.

Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the new cover.  They're standing on the top of...Brooklyn House, I guess.  There's the Throne of Fire in the background, and there's purple light, but it just doesn't evoke the same feeling as the original cover.  In fact, it looks a bit like a bad comic book cover. 

To prevent us from going out on too much of a negative note, I'm going to take this opportunity to plug the excellent audiobook version of The Throne of Fire.

I think that should do it for now.  We're returning to The Heroes of Olympus next time for a look back at The Son of Neptune.  I will see you all then. 

Riordan Retrospective: The Red Pyramid

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 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 looked back at The Last Olympian, and finished our look back at Percy Jackson and the Olympians.  

Today, I am proud to announce that we're are officially starting our look back at The Kane Chronicles. As such, we're going back to the one that started it all, and taking a look back at The Red Pyramid,The Kane Chronicles book 1. As per usual, we're starting off with a quick summary.

Carter and Sadie Kane are brother and sister, but have hardly ever seen each other.  Carter travels with their dad around the world on archaeological digs, while Sadie lives in London with their maternal grandparents.  Carter and Mr. Kane are visiting Sadie for Christmas vacation, and the trio go on a trip to the British Museum...and Mr. Kane is imprisoned in a sarcophagus of golden light, after blowing up the Rosetta Stone.  

Before long, the siblings discover a number of shocking revelations: the Egyptian gods are both real and active in the modern world, their parents are members of an ancient society of Egyptian magicians called The House of Life, and their dad is being held hostage by the god Set.  Oh, and they've only got five days to make sure Set doesn't take over the world.  Carter and Sadie are in for a whirlwind adventure of gods, monsters and magic.  

I've been a fan of Egyptian Mythology for a long time.  In fact, I was a fan of Egyptian Mythology even before I got into Classical Mythology.  So, you can imagine that I was really excited back when The Kane Chronicles was first announced.  Admittedly, I was a bit disappointed that Riordan mostly shied away from the animal-headedness of many of the Egyptian gods; that was one of the things always made them so cool to me.  Still, I'm overall reasonably happy with how he portrayed the gods.

Well, if I'm being honest, it's a bit more complicated than that.  Let me state up front, I don't thing Riordan necessarily did a bad job with the gods.  As per usual, his knowledge of the myths is second to none.  It's just...well, I've written stories of my own that involve Egyptian gods, so they're kind of like old friends to me.  As such, sometimes it feels weird how Riordan interprets the gods in the modern world.  For example, Thoth is an absent-minded professor.  Nothing bad there in and of itself, just not how I would have written him.  Thought, admittedly, Riordan's Thoth has started to grow on me over the years.  Like I said, nothing inherently bad, just my own bit of weirdness and biases. 

A common criticism the series gets is that the characters are a bit too similar to Percy Jackson characters.  I suppose that's true to an extent.  Carter and Annabeth do have somewhat similarly brainy personalities, but they have enough differences to keep things interesting.  People always say that Sadie is similar to Percy, but I just don't see it.  She just comes across as a bit too bitchy to really be remotely similar to Percy.  Speaking of Sadie, at times it felt like Riordan was trying to make her edgy and rebellious, but had to keep things family friendly, and couldn't go as far as he wanted to. 

I suppose that's why she says "God!" so much.  And yeah, God singular.  One of the things I always liked about Percy Jackson was how Riordan adapted to swearing and exclamation to the polytheistic setting, so I was rather disappointed that The Kane Chronicles didn't follow suit, at least for the first two books.  Sadie does also say bloody a lot, but that might have been Riordan slipping up.  For those who don't get it, in British English, using bloody as an exclamation is considered minor swearing, akin to saying shit or damn.  Then again, we all remember that scene in The Titan's Curse at the dam snack bar, so who knows. 

I do thing that The Kane Chronicles differs from Percy Jackson in scope and feel.  Percy Jackson takes place almost exclusively in America, baring a few bits in the Bermuda Triangle.  The Kane Chronicles, by contrast, has much more of a globe trekking feel to it.  Granted, much of The Red Pyramid still primarily takes place in America, but we also get scenes set in Britain, France and Egypt.  It does help that, thanks to magic, the characters can teleport across the world at a moment's notice.  Another thing is that you get just as much Ancient Egyptian history as mythology.  Rather than being children of the gods, Carter and Sadie, as well as pretty much everyone else in the House of Life, are descended from the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt.  Specifically, they're descended from Narmer on their dad's side, and Ramses the Great on their mom's side.  Fun fact, the House of Life was an actual institution that existed during Ancient Egypt. 

The Egyptian gods have a different feel to them than the Greek gods of Percy Jackson.  They feel, at times, a bit more raw and primeval.  So, let's talk about the concept of hosting.  It took my a while to wrap my head around how works, but I think I've finally figured out an explanation.  An Egyptian god manifesting in the human world without being hosted by something would be like a human stepping onto the Moon without a spacesuit.  The gods need things to help anchor them to the mortal world.  It doesn't have to be humans, it can be anything from a building to a car.  In the latter case, it doubles as a rather literal example of deus ex machina.  They also tend to prefer humans who have Blood of the Pharaohs.   

Now let's get a bit more serious and talk about race, specifically, Carter and Sadie's race.  Their father is black American and their mother is white British.  Carter is looks more black, while Sadie looks more white, to the point that people often don't realize that they're siblings.  This isn't as crazy as it sounds; there's actually quite a few cases of mixed race siblings where each sibling tends to favor one parent's race over the other.  This actually doesn't come up all that much, and never gets preachy.  

This ties into another point: what race were the Ancient Egyptians?  Egypt sits at the crossroads of three continents, so you do get a good mix of peoples.  Overall, though, not all that different from the modern-day Egyptians; meaning similar to the Arabs and other Middle Eastern peoples.  Genetic analysis of mummies has pretty much confirmed this theory.  In fairness, Egypt has several black dynasties during the reign of the Nubians, and we have the very Egyptian Zia Rashid as Carter's eventual love interest as prominent character to provide some balance on the racial front.  Unlike a certain other series, it never dips into "We Wuz Kangz" territory, but I'm getting a head of myself.  We'll get to Magnus Chase in our due time.

When I first read this series, I was sure that Iskander, the Chief Lecter of the House of Life, was going to turn out to be Alexander the Great.  Iskander is the Arabic form of the name Alexander, and it is mentioned that he's been around since the Ptolemaic Dynasty.  Sadly, it turns out that I was wrong, and all of the above were red herrings.  Then again, Alexander the Great claimed to be a son of Zeus, so that would have opened a whole new can of worms.  Also, the Chief Lecter is the second in command, and the one who runs the House of Life when the pharaoh isn't around. 

In other events, I'm quite happy with how Set was portrayed.  It's set-up (hahaha, I said set!) to make it look like yet another poorly researched story where Set is portrayed as the Ancient Egyptian Satan, which isn't even close to being true.  Then the story subverts it all by revealing that Set is being manipulated by the true villain of the series: Apophis.  Set has always had a bit of a bad reputation even since ancient times.  You can blame it on the time the Hyksos people invaded Egypt.  Set was their favorite god, so the Egyptians began to associate Set with foreign invaders.  Over time, he got increasingly conflated with Apophis; which is ironic, because Set helped Ra battle Apophis every night.  

I liked how the series was able to reconcile mythology and science.  As Bast explains it, two things can be true in different ways.  Chairs exist, but so does the idea of chairs.  The sun can exist as a physical star, but Ra and his solar barge can exist as the embodiment of humanity's hopes and dreams about the sun.  Also, like The Demigod Files before it, The Red Pyramid confirms that Rick Riordan exists as a character in the Riordanverse.  The Kane Chronicles are explained to be based on a series of audio recording given to Riordan from the Kane siblings.  It also turns out that not every famous person was a demigod.  Some, like Elvis, were members of the House of Life.   

On the flip side, I thought that Riordan could have handled the religious implications better.  For example, Uncle Amos is very adamant that the House of Life doesn't worship the gods...except that what he describes is pretty much worship in all but name.  This is particularly odd, as there's a scene in Battle of the Labyrinth where Percy prays to Apollo and Artemis for good luck, and he's prayed to Poseidon plenty of times.  Even more bafflingly, it's confirmed that Moses existed in the Riordanverse, and was apparently the only magician who ever bet the House of Life in a magic contest.  

Now, there's a couple reasons for why this might be.  One, Riordan himself is a Christian of some stripe; my guess is Episcopalian based on how he used to work for an Episcopalian summer camp.  On the other hand, he did eventually more comfortable incorporating aspects of pagan religion into his books as time went on, so maybe that wasn't it.  More likely, he was fearing backlash from the Religious Right, and other such groups.  Remember, The Red Pyramid was published back when the whole "Harry Potter Leads Kids to Satanism" hubbub was still fresh in everyone's memory.  As such, Riordan might have wanted to avoid similar controversy. 

Despite The Kane Chronicles taking place in the same universe as Percy Jackson, we don't really get much in the way of crossovers.  The closest is when Uncle Amos looks to the Empire State Building and remarks that Manhattan has other gods, and other problems.  Well, we don't get much crossover in the main series.  Hopefully, Audible.com will get its act together and we'll be able to discuss Demigods and Magicians at some point.  

Speaking of Audible.com, let's take a moment to talk about the audiobook.  It features two narrators; Kevin R. Free narrates Carter's chapters, while Katherine Kellgren narrates Sadie's chapters.  This was my first encounter with Kevin R. Free, and he certainly does a good job.  So imagine my surprise when I encountered him again as the voice of Kevin from Welcome to Night Vale.  It was kind of surreal, since first and foremost, he'll always be Carter Kane to me.  

Now we have to get a little bit sad.  Earlier this year, Katherine Kellgren lost her long battle with cancer and passed away.  She narrated numerous audiobooks over the years, and was a much beloved narrator, but to me she'll always be Sadie Kane.  Was her narrator not always perfect, and sometimes a bit annoying?  Perhaps, but she always gave it her best shot, and whoever replaces her will have some awfully big shoes to fill.  

I'm not a big can of the new cover.  Aesthetically, it just feel like a big step backwards.  Even the new logo looks like a step backwards.  We see Carter and Sadie standing behind the Brooklyn Bridge, with a the Red Pyramid looming in the background.  Also, there's a statue of either Amun or Khnum, despit neither of them appearing in The Red Pyramid.  What else can I say?  The new cover sucks, let's move onto the older and better cover. 

We see Carter and Sadie standing in front of Brooklyn House, seat of the 21st Nome, while magical hieroglyphs float around them.  Nomes were administrative divisions used in Ancient Egypt, and are still used by the House of Life to divide their territory across the world.  There are 360 in total, with the First Nome, the House of Life's headquarters, being based in Egypt.  

Well, I think that should do it for now.  Join me again next time when we begin our look back at The Heroes of Olympus by taking a look back at The Lost Hero.  I hope to see you all next time.