The Throne of Fire
| The Throne of Fire (novel) | |
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| Author(s) | Rick Riordan |
| Illustrator | John Rocco |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Kane Chronicles (Book 2) |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Hyperion Books |
| Publication date | May 9, 2011 (hardcover |
| Pages | 464 |
| ISBN | ISBN 978-1-4231-4056-6 |
| OCLC Number | 698117335 |
| Preceded by | The Red Pyramid |
| Followed by | The Serpent's Shadow[1] |
The Throne of Fire is a 2011 fantasy adventure novel written by Rick Riordan. It is the second novel in The Kane Chronicles series, which tells of the adventures of modern day fourteen-year-old Carter Kane and his thirteen-year-old sister - Sadie Kane, as they discover that they are descended from the ancient Egyptian pharaohs Narmer and Ramesses the Great. It was released on May 3, 2011. The book takes place roughly three months after the first book, The Red Pyramid. It is followed by the third and final book in the series, The Serpent's Shadow, which was released on May 1, 2012.
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Full Summary [edit]
Ever since the gods of Ancient Egypt were unleashed in the modern world, Carter Kane and his sister Sadie have been in trouble. As descendants of the House of Life, the Kanes have some powers at their command, but the devious gods have not given them much time to master their skills at Brooklyn House, which has become a training ground for young magicians. The other branches of the House of Life are hunting the Kane family down once they left the safety of their branch, the Brooklyn House. And now their most threatening enemy yet—the chaos serpent Apophis is rising. If they do not prevent him from breaking free in a few days' time, the world will come to an end.
The story begins with Carter and Sadie breaking in to the Brooklyn Museum during a wedding to search for a part of the Book of Ra, which will allow them to wake up Ra to help them imprison or kill Apophis, the lord of chaos. Along with them are Khufu the baboon, and their new trainees, Jaz and Walt. Instead, they find a papyrus scroll that is booby trapped with a series of fire traps. As Carter and Walt distract the demons that are a part of the booby trap, Jaz performs a spell that banishes the demons back to the Duat, but Jaz ends up falling into a coma. Before she does, she manages to hand Sadie a wax statue to heal Carter. Sadie escapes from the museum with the scroll before the police arrive. When they arrive back in the mansion, Carter explains to the new trainees that they must find Ra, the sun god, before Apophis wakes in four days and swallows the sun as well as all of existence. They also find out that to do this, they must find the three scrolls that control the embodiments of Ra, one of them being the scroll that Sadie found in the museum. However, new enemies await, such as (Menshikov) who serves Apophis and holds one of the key scrolls in freeing Ra.
Sadie returns to London to celebrate her 13th birthday, but when she arrives, her grandparents have been forced to host Nekhbet, the vulture goddess, and Babi, the baboon god, and hunt down Sadie and her friends, Liz and Emma. While escaping the two gods she has a short conversation with Anubis. There she is given directions as to where she has to go next, a netjeri knife and they head off to their next destination. They are then rescued by the dwarf god Bes, who is able to use his extreme ugliness as a weapon. They meet up with Carter and Walt along the way. When Bes opens a portal, he insists for Walt to get out for reasons Sadie and Carter do not know. They teleport to the Eighteenth Nome, in St. Petersburg, Russia, which is Menshikov's home. They get inside Menshikov's headquarters, and find out that he is summoning Set. They get the scroll but are attacked by Menshikov's two-headed snake (tjesu heru). Sadie manages to destroy the snake, but not before it bites Carter. Set tells them the location of the last scroll and also the location of the real Zia, in exchange for his "secret name". After Sadie agrees to give Set back his secret name, she still remembers his secret name, which is "Evil Day", but doesn't know how to use it. After Sadie heals Carter with the statue by using his secret name, Sadie calls on Walt to help her with the scroll, while Bes and Carter go to find Zia.
Carter and Bes find some men to take them to The Place of Red Sands, Zia's birthplace and where she is hidden. Nephthys, who is using Zia as a host, leaves Zia, but Mehsikov and Micheal Desjardins arrive. Carter finds the weapons of Ra, the crook and flail, and uses it to defeat Menshikov, but Menshikov attempts to curse him while Bes is trapped in a cage. Meanwhile, Sadie and Walt arrive at the Valley of the Golden Mummies, meeting a Roman ghost called Appius Claudius Iratus (Mad Claude), who wants them to get the mummies' spirit to the Afterlife, as the rites were not done properly. When they cannot, Mad Claude gets angry and calls on the other mummies to kill them. Sadie manages to find the last scroll, but they get trapped by mummies. Ptah, a god, sends rats to help them and creates a portal to Carter and Bes. The portal destroys Bes' cage, and he scares them away. It turns out Walt is cursed and will die young, which was why Bes sent him away. Menshikov is preparing an army to attack Brooklyn House, so Walt and Zia go back to protect it, while Sadie, Bes, and Carter go into the Duat to free Ra and defeat Apophis.
In the Egyptian version of the underworld, the Duat, there are 12 Houses, each representing an hour of the night. At the Gates of the Fourth House (Can only be entered before 4 O'clock), they find Khnum, the first part of Ra, who has forgotten what his secret name is. Using the Book of Ra, Sadie reads out his secret name, returning his essence to the scroll. They enter the Fourth House. With the help of Tawaret, who has history with Bes, and it takes them four hours to find Ra, who is senile. Ra acts like a madman, throwing ice cream bananas into the air, and talking about weasels and zebras. Because the Eighth House can only be entered at 8 O'clock, they travel to the Seventh House, where Osiris, who is being hosted by their dad, and the ghost of their mom await them. They invite Khonsu, the moon god, who can add more time into the night, but they have to gamble for it. If they lose a round, their identity (Ren) will be consumed. They will have no memories. They have to win 3 rounds of senet. They win the first round, but lose the second, causing Bes' identity to be lost. They win the last two, and with the extra time, they get into the Gates of the Eighth House and travel towards the Twelfth House. Menshikov is there, possessed by Apophis. They get Ra to merge with his last aspect, Khepri the scarab god, but free Apophis (they must in order to get Khepri). Desjarins witnesses this and helps them banish Apophis, but combusts from using too much magic. He warns them that Apophis will return in time.
They return to Brooklyn House and find out that because of the power of Ra, they were able to hold the enemies and win the fight. However, the gods are not happy with them, especially Horus and Isis, because bringing back Ra has caused Horus to lose his throne. Walt is dying in a year unless they can find a cure, which is lost, because Menshikov was the last person to know it. Bes is sitting in the Fourth House, not having any memories, not knowing who and where he is. Apophis will return, and Ra is in no shape to fight him. The House of Life is still trying to crush them, as they think that Desjardins died by the hands of the Kanes, and Amos is the new Chief Lector. In the end, Sadie is left with nothing but a crush on both a person who is about to die, and a 5000 year old god.
Main characters [edit]
- Carter Kane: He is fourteen and was a host of Horus. Since he was eight, after his mother died, he traveled with his father, Julius Kane.
- Sadie Kane: She turns thirteen in this book and was a host of Isis. She loves gum and has lived with her grandparents since the age of six. She has a stubborn and strong-minded personality, but is also caring and kind. She had a cat named Muffin later revealed to be Bast, the Egyptian goddess of cats, who protected Sadie in her cat form her until Sadie found out about the Egyptian gods. She also has a double crush on Anubis and Walt.
- Amos Kane: Their uncle who is a very powerful magician, and is also a jazz musician. He used to be the unwilling host of Set.
- Walt: One of Sadie and Carter's initiates at the Brooklyn House, which is a part of the House of Life that urges magicians to return to the path of the gods to battle Apophis. Walt is a descendent of the pharaoh, Akhenaten who exiled all the gods except the god Aten. Therefore, Akhenaten's descendents have been cursed and the more they practice magic, the faster it progresses. The curse causes its victims to die at a very young age. Walt suffers from this curse, and will die soon, unless he receives the cure Vladimir may hold. Sadie is in love with him.
- Jaz: Jasmine, a cheerleader from Nashville, Tennessee, she is one of Sadie and Carter's initiates at the Brooklyn House. She is a healer. She accompanies them to the Brooklyn Museum to find a scroll from the Book of Ra, but falls into a coma after stopping the Arrows of Sekhmet when they were accidentally unleashed. She also gives Sadie a statue that is used to help save Carter from the bite of the monster they met in Russia. She comes out of her coma just in time to fight some magicians attacking the Brooklyn House.she is to fall in love with Carter.
- Vladamir Menshikov: Grandson of the great General of the Russian Empire, Alexander Menshikov 18th. His nome is Russia. He has been (willingly) enslaved by Apophis. He tries to become the host of the Apophis to release him and let chaos rule for ever. Sadie and Carter go on a quest to stop him.
- Zia Rashid, a fourteen year-old girl who is a fire specialist in House of Life. She was hosting Nephthys, a water goddess, which can be fatal for a fire specialist. The former Chief Lector Iskandar hid her in the Nile to protect her from Apophis and replaced her with a shabti to cover her absence in the first book. In this book the real Zia is finally awakened by Carter. It is hinted that she may play a major part in destroying Apophis in the last book.
- Bes, the dwarf god, although very ugly, he has a fun, brave and great personality, he helps Carter and Sadie in their quest until his 'ren' is devoured by the moon god, Khonsu. Although Tawaret loved him, he preferred Bast who did not know of his true feelings and treated him as a brother.
- Anubis, the Egyptian god of death and funerals, Sadie Kane appears to have a double crush on him and Walt.
- Ra, the Egyptian god of the sun. King of all gods, and forced to exile a long time ago by Isis, the goddess of magic. He is senile in this book, as he had been essentially 'dead' for a long time. Carter and Sadie revive him in the duat.
References to other books [edit]
While looking at the Empire State Building, Carter briefly thinks he sees a winged horse. The Empire State building is identified as the current home of the Olympian gods of ancient Greece in RIck Riordan's Percy Jackson novels. The winged horse could very well be Blackjack from the Percy Jackson series.
Release [edit]
Rick Riordan announced that there will be a sequel coming out on May 3, 2011.[2] The title, The Serpent's Shadow, was announced in a blog post by Riordan on January 13, 2011. The book was released worldwide on May 3, 2011. It was released in the third week of April, 2011 in Indonesia, via local bookstore Periplus. A preview was published in USA Today.[3]
The Serpent's Shadow debuted on the New York Times Bestseller List on May 22 at #1, and has held that spot as of the week of June 12.[4]
Critical reception [edit]
Kirkus Reviews reviewed the episode positively, writing, "This volume begins so thunderously that the narrators seem more like frenetic tour guides than friendly companions, pulling readers along at a breakneck pace. Riordan supplies them with his trademark wisecracking voice and explores themes of power, responsibility, family, love and loyalty as the tale hurtles along."[5]
References [edit]
- ^ Rick Riordan (January 9, 2012). "The Serpent's Shadow". The official blog for author Rick Riordan. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
- ^ Riordan, Rick (November 12, 2010). "The Throne of Fire". Myth & Mystery. Retrieved 13 January 2011.
- ^ Riordan, Rick (January 13, 2011). "The Throne of Fire". Myth & Mystery. Retrieved 13 January 2011.
- ^ "Children's Chapter Books". The New York Times (The New York Times Bestseller List). 12 June 2011. Retrieved 8 June 2011.
- ^ "The Throne of Fire". Kirkus Reviews. 3 May 2011. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
