"The Throne of Fire" Review

If I were, say, looking for a story involving glowing hieroglyphs, would I find them in this book? Yep. Mad, evil, cunning, and/or slightly helpful gods of the Egyptian sort? You bet. A quest to save the end of the world? Of course. A helpful hippo nurse who runs a rest home? Yes … even that, too.

            If you like adventure and haven’t read Rick Riordan’s The Kane Chronicles, then I encourage you to get started. The “Throne of Fire” (May 3, 2011) is the second book in this series. “The Red Pyramid” is the first. Ignore the idea that this adventure/fantasy/mythological fiction series is aimed at 9- to 11-year-olds; it is a read for anyone of any age. Riordan is already well-known for his Percy Jackson series and the newer Heroes of Olympus series. I recommend all of those books.

            Siblings Carter and Sadie Kane have been busy. They recruited and were training 20 new magicians (all descendants of Egyptian pharaohs, so the story goes) when things went awry. It’s just another day for the Kane family when Horus – the war god – tells Carter in a dream that they need to find the three scrolls of Ra – the sun god – figure out how to read them, bring him back and awaken him, all while traveling in a boat with sinister orbs (they don’t like Sadie) through the Twelve Houses on the River of Night. Oh, and they need to prevent Apophis from escaping his prison and thus save the world so he doesn’t eat the sun.  No pressure, right?

            But, back to the scrolls. They have less than five days to find three scrolls, none of which they know by themselves where to look for them, plus they’re protected by powerful spells, enchantments and probably harm-inducing creatures. They travel from Brooklyn to Russia and Egypt into the Duat and eventually back to Brooklyn … all in under a week.

            Their Uncle Amos returns to Brooklyn House, well-rested and Set-free. When Carter and Sadie go off to search for and retrieve the scrolls, he takes charge in the continued training of the recruits. There are other familiar characters, including the Egyptian gods, mortals and creatures like Horus, Bast, Anubis, Zia, Michel Desjardins, Khufu and Philip of Macedonia. There are numerous new faces as well: Vladimir Menshikov (look out for him!), Bes (a god) and Ra (though he’s not what you might expect from a god), Walt, Jaz and Felix (Brooklyn House recruits). Also, a Roman ghost with a big chip on his shoulder.

            “The Throne of Fire” is, like Riordan’s other tomes, a busy adventure.  There are not dull moments in this book, and about the time you think there might be a lull, BAM!, something else hits you … or one of the book’s characters.  The River of Night might sound like it’s built from a character’s nightmares, but assuredly, it is not.  Not that plummeting into a river of fire sounds enjoyable, but there is a function for it.

            The book raises new questions for me: What will be Walt’s fate?  What will come of Ra?  What is Anubis’ “side project?”  What sort of chaos is Apophis trying to stir?  I expect these answers and more will be resolved in the last book.

Note: Since this review was written, I have read the final installment in The Kane Chronicles. I’m not sure if I’ll get to reviewing that, so in case I don’t, I still recommend this trilogy!