REVIEW: The Kane Chronicles: Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan

Sadie and Carter Kane recently found out that they were descended from Pharaohs and that they are magicians. In the last book, Carter and Sadie’s father, Julius, released the Gods into the mortal world and as such, allowed chaos Gods to walk among us. Set, was the first God but who turned out to be pretty harmless, but along came Apophis to destroy the world. So Sadie and Carter Kane must stop him at all costs.

Sadie and Carter are told that they must find the three scrolls of the book of Ra to wake the Sun God, Ra from his sleep. The first scroll is at the Brooklyn Museum. Along with their magician trainees, Walt and Jaz, they go to the Museum and retrieve the scroll. Horus warns Carter that the other Gods might go against him if he tries to wake Ra and that they aren’t keen on their plan to awaken the Sun God.

Sadie’s Birthday is just around the corner and decides to visit London to see her friends as she misses them but is attacked by Babi the baboon god and the vulture goddess Nekhbet who are possessing their grandparents. Bes, the dwarf God, a friend of Bast, saves her and takes them to the next destination to find the second scroll. Set has been trapped in a vase and if he is let go, he will reveal the last location for the third scroll. Sadie untraps him and also gives him back his secret name releasing her control over him. The last destination for the scroll is given and he tells Carter where Zia’s home village is as Carter wants to awaken her.

They separate ways: Walt and Sadie going to find the third scroll and Bes and Carter go to Zia’s village. Walt and Sadie retrieve the third scroll from some angry mummies and Carter and Bes awake Zia from her sleep who has no memory of what her shabti (animated clay) did. Zia joins forces with them eventually after having Sadie try to persuade her for so long. Brooklyn House is under attack so Zia and Walt leave to defend it. Whilst Carter and Sadie must climb into Ra’s boat and retrace his nightly journey through out the Houses of Night.

On the journey, they encounter three aspects of Ra’s soul and they must read them the three parts of the scroll. They find Ra at the fourth House that turns out to be a special care facility for elderly, forgotten minor Gods. He is old and has a mind of a child and is unaware of his surroundings. Unfortunately, time has run out for them and they cannot continue to the Eighth house as it is past eight o’clock. To finish their journey, they must gamble their secret names in order to get three extra hours of moonlight. They get the three hours but at the cost of Bes’ secret name. They read the third part of the scroll to the third part of the soul and Ra is awakened again, kinda. He is still talking like a child. Apophis possess Menshikov and Desjardin appears and puts Apophis deeper into the Duat but kills himself in the process. They continue their way down the river and eventually travel back to Brooklyn house, which is still being attacked. Bast takes Ra to his place into the sky. But the Kanes know that their win is only temporary and that they must work harder than ever to unite the magicians against Apophis.

The second book in the series does not fail the first. Rick Riordan has done it again and continues to shine a light on different mythologies that capture people’s heart.

4 out of 5 stars.