Plot Summary:
Carter and Sadie are brother and sister magicians. Their magic is based on ancient Egyptian gods, and they have a job to do. They must save the world from being eaten by a snake, Apopsis. In order to achieve this lofty goal, they need to awaken the sun god, Ra, which is easier said than done. They must find the three parts to the book of Ra and then assemble them without getting nuked. Then they must follow the directions given by the book in order to wake Ra and follow his daily journey through the duat (the Egyptian god world). Sadie gets attacked by a vulture god and a baboon god, Carter gets attacked by water spirits, and they both get saved by the ugly dwarf god, Bes. In addition to battling gods and spirits, they add the House of Life and a new magician, Vladimir Menshikov to the list of enemies. Sadie vacillates between her god crush and her human crush, while Carter “digs up” his old girlfriend only to find that she no longer has feelings for him. In the end, Sadie and Carter do awaken Ra only to find him a little lacking in the, um power and maturity departments. Of course they are not safe and sound because there is going to be a sequel.
Personal Reaction:
Riordan has a very strong writer’s voice. It is my understanding that he also writes adult books, and I would like to read them an compare them to his young adult novels which I have enjoyed. I read this book out of order without having read the first book of the series, which I am going to have to go back and do. I think it was very creative to do this work from two different points of view and as a recording so that Carter and Sadie can speak to each other as well as to the audience at any point in the book. That allows for further voice, character development, and some comic relief. Riordan often uses foreshadowing in his work, but keeps mum pretty well about Walt’s disease. This was a great book.
Riordan, R. (2011). The throne of fire . New York: Disney/Hyperion.
No comments:
Post a Comment