*New York Times Bestselling Author
The Gist
“Making things right” in Carter and Sadie’s opinion was fixing everything that was broken: bringing their mother back from the dead, having a real sense of family again. Stuff like that would be enough for the Kane siblings. Their father, on the other hand, has a completely different definition of “making things right”. And that is blowing up the Rosetta Stone. On one of those rare occasions where Julius Kane was permitted to visit his daughter, he insisted on taking Sadie and Carter (who traveled with him year round) to a local museum, though Sadie would rather do something a bit more enjoyable on the one day she gets to be with father every year. When an innocent trip to the museum turns into an alleged terrorist attack, murder and destruction of property, Sadie and Carter know something is seriously messed up with their family. Their Dad, in an attempt to summon Osiris – the egyptian lord of the dead – from the Rosetta stone, summons Set – the egyptian god of chaos. Set then imprisons their father in an ancient coffin, and sets (forgive the pun) out to take over the U.S and turn the continent into nothing but burning ruble and desert sand. Meanwhile, Sadie and Carter have discovered that their family is far from normal. Traveling to New York with their long-lost uncle Amos, they find out they are the blood of the pharaohs - descendents of Egypt’s oldest and most respected families. Not only that, but there is a secret society of Magicians living throughout the world, and they’re a part of it. Sadie and Carter are the most powerful magicians born in centuries, and their only learning this know. Just as soon as Amos tells them it’s their destiny to defeat set and restore order to Ma’at, the gods, and the people he leaves for a day to find out all he can on what Set is planning to do. In the time when he’s gone, their place is attacked by Egyptians monsters, their new pet crocodile (Philip of Macedonia) and their new pet baboon (Khufu) sacrifice themselves to save them, and they find out that Sadie’s cat, Muffin (who she’s had for years) is really the cat goddess Bast in disguise. Sadie and Carter must use their magic, knowledge, and family tree to figure out how to defeat Set before it’s too late. And then there’s the task of actually defeating him, which they are both pretty sure is impossible to accomplish in the few days they’ve been given.
What We Think
What We Think
Reviewed by Dream Catcher
Number of Pages: 516
For those of you who have read the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan, you’ll be pleased to find that he has come out with another series, with another set of characters and another set of gods to go with them. For those of you who haven’t, you really should read that series first, because that is the better of the two so far. For those of you with high expectations: lower them. After writing something as epic and popular as Percy Jackson, most anything Rick Riordan writes now will prove not to be as grand or as ahh-I-have-to-finish-it-this-very-moment-the-suspense-is-killing-me! In short, the writing itself was as good as Percy Jackson. Plenty of detail, but not an agonizing amount. Dialogue is funny but not corny. But there was something about the characters that irked me. And I’m still not sure why I use the word irked, but it seems to fit. Though I’m sure you don’t want to read on and on about me comparing the book to his other series, it’s kind of involuntary. Everyone compares everything to everything else. But, anyways, the characters annoyed me. Sadie especially grated on my nerves. She really thinks a lot of herself, which I could have overlooked, but she also continuously rips on her brother, Carter, who, most of the time, has hardly any confidence at all. And she knows this about him. It just seemed a little cruel and unnecessary, even for brother/sister teasing. Now, Carter on the other hand had too little confidence, and this could make him annoyingly jealous of those who he thought were superior to him in various skills. Jealousy is never becoming for main characters. It just makes them seem whiny and (this sounds harsh, but) weak. But near the end the characters developed a bit, so they were more likeable (most of the time, anyways). Props for character development, I guess. Besides these two though, the other characters were interesting and funny. Very enjoyable to read about, in my opinion. The plot could be described in one word: unique. I have never read anything like it, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. At first, when you’re still trying to organize all the new egyptian vocabulary in your head, and working out the complications happening in the plot, things get a little confusing, but hang in there. When you get past all the introducing of characters and culture, you get down to the main plot which is actually, in my opinion, a page-turner. The only problem was that it took a little while to get there. For me, the end made the book. It was good, maybe even just okay (gasp!) until I got to the last 150 pages (or maybe a little more). Then, suddenly, I couldn’t put it down. The end is more interesting, funny, heart-felt and plot-twisting then the beginning, and I finally saw the writing I’d known from Percy Jackson. It was something I could enjoy and remember not as a dud, or a let-down, but as something almost forgettable. The ending was good, but other than that it was forgettable. Of course, there will be more of this mysterious new Kane Chronicles. I would call it, all in all, a late-bloomer, but one you should consider reading reading if you really love Rick Riordan. Stay tuned for more Kane Chronicles (which I currently have absolutely no information on).
Real Teen Rating~ B- : Check it out from the library.
Reviewed by Living Destiny
Reviewed by Living Destiny
I was so totally obsessed with the Percy Jackson series. It was borderline scary. So when I heard that Rick Riordan was coming out with a new series, I was really excited, especially when I found out he was taking on a whole new set of gods. (Haha Set is an Egyptian god…no pun intended though). Egyptian gods were always interesting to me, and Rick Riordan is definitely a master of polytheistic fiction series. So I borrowed this book from Dream Catcher as soon as she was finished with it. I wasn’t disappointed with it, but I wasn’t exactly astounded either. For most of the book, it was interesting, but not mind-blowing. I liked the characters a lot, and Sadie didn’t bother me nearly as much as she bothered Dream Catcher. I thought she was very rough-and-tough, and I liked her for that. Carter was a little annoying sometimes, because he didn’t have a lot of confidence, but mostly I liked him too. The two of them (being brother and sister) go back and forth a lot, and have little arguments and side comments stuck in the story within parenthesis (that probably doesn’t make sense, but read the book and you’ll see what I’m saying). The only character i really didn’t like was Uncle Amos. Something about him just made me cringe whenever he was in the scene. He just struck me as sketchy. I loved Bast and Anubis though, so they sort of offset Uncle Amos’ creepiness. Bast was just amazing. She was funny and lovable, and very cat-like (duh). Anubis was awesome too. I found it really funny that Anubis was a super hott sixteen year old guy. Not really how I pictured him, but still cool. The plot was entertaining, although kind of touch and go. Sometimes, it would seem to go by super fast, then it would slow down a little. But it was still fun to read. The end was where it really picked up and caught me. I literally didn’t put it down from page 250 (ish) to the end. I was pretty sucked in. The ending was so so so good and surprising that it left me waiting for the next one. I don’t know when it’s coming out, but it can’t be fast enough for me!
Real Teen Rating~ A-: Read it!
0 comments:
Post a Comment