The Throne of Fire

Author: Rick Riordan
Number of Pages: 452
Reading Level: 5th grade and up
Series: Kane Chronicles #2
Reading Time: 10 days

If you've ever in your life found Egypt or Egyptian mythology remotely interesting, this series is for you.

The second book in Rick Riordan's Kane Chronicles picks up about three months after The Red Pyramid ended. Carter and Sadie are running the Twenty-First Nome with their Uncle Amos, where they have recruited many kids both older and younger than themselves to follow the path of the gods. The most notable of the new recruits being:

a) Walt - An attractive young man (according to Sadie) and her new crush, since her old flame Anubis is, after all, the god of the dead.

b) Jaz - A girl following the path of Sekhmet, the goddess of causing and healing disease.

c) Felix - A young boy, only nine years old, whose main use for magic is summoning penguins from Antarctica. Alright, so he's really not that important (at least not yet), but I thought he was hilarious.

The premise of the book is Sadie and Carter's journey to find the book of Ra and then awaken the sun god. This causes much controversy within the House of Life (who are still trying to deny the path of the gods), which makes the Kanes' mission that much harder. Even the gods are unsure of it.

The danger is that Ra could be old and senile - not brilliant characteristics for the leader of the movement against Apophis, lord of chaos. Nevertheless, Sadie and Carter embark on their journey.

Meanwhile, Zia is still missing. I must say, I really missed Zia. She was sort of cold and haughty (well, she was a fake clay figure) in the last book, but I liked her all the same for it. It's sad to have your favorite character missing.

Overall, it was a pretty good book. Not as good as the first in the series. And, let's be real, not nearly as good as the Percy Jackson and the Olympians or the Heroes of Olympus series. But it was a solid second installment, and it did leave me wanting to read the third, though not with the sense of urgency that... ahem... The Son of Neptune did.

A Note to Parents:
I'd say that this book is a clean read, as long as you're okay with your child reading books in which Egyptian gods are "real." Sadie sometimes thinks about the physical attractiveness of Walt and Anubis. There is mention of a shirt coming off. There are also a few instances of God's name being taken in vain.