Den röda pyramiden (2010)

I am so glad I finally got around to this! I love Rick Riordan’s other books, but for some reason, just picked up The Kane Chronicles recently. This was such an exciting, adventurous book! ( )

I enjoyed the first installment in the series. Although a little too similar to the Percy Jackson series, in both content and form, I enjoyed reading the story from two perspectives. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series, but I do hope that Riordan mixes things up a bit and gets out of the habit of revealing plot elements in dreams and journeys into the Duat. ( )

Better...Mr. Riordan's writing is better in this book, at least that is what I think. Better than the Percy Jackson series (although I liked those also). He seems to have a flushed it out really well. The plot seems a little more complicated but it reads better and the characters are also better. Great book. ( )

While the story of "Red Pyramid" is much more complex than that of any of the Percy Jackson books, it can't whip up the same atmosphere and just plain fun of that series. The story is much more serious and far less humorous. The few jokes Riordan tries to squeeze in are groan-inducingly bad.

The main narrative device of the recording is pointless and adds nothing to the overall effort. We get to hear the story directly from the two main characters' perspectives but Sadie is one of the most obnoxious characters in a book I've ever encountered and her Britishness is weakly handled and unbelievable. Carter is the exact opposite, having almost no personality whatsoever. His character is completely unmemorable.

The book is also over bloated. Clocking in at over 500 pages it lost me around the 300 page mark and was torture to finish. The main problem is that there are too many battles and too many monsters and bad guys that all look the same and start blending in with each other. There are also many side adventures that veer off the path of the main quest and the plot starts to lose its momentum. I did like the one offshoot adventure to Graceland though. It was genuinely entertaining and felt the most like a classic Percy Jackson scenario.

The main strength of the book comes in Sadie and Carter’s relationship to their parents. The final denouement of that whole plot thread feels very fulfilling and resolved. It’s a shame Riordan couldn’t have handled the rest of his story with such care.

Overall the whole book just comes across as hurriedly slapped together and rushed out to make some more money off the Percy Jackson enterprise, which is too bad. This could’ve been something really special since the book is so strong thematically. A missed opportunity. ( )

This is the first book in the Kane Chronicles and I fairly enjoyed it. This is like the Percy Jackson books that Riordan also does. This is about Egyptian mythology and is about two siblings, Carter and Sadie.

I don't know much about Egyptian mythology and I like the way Riordan explains and describes things. I love the dynamic between the two siblings and I can't wait to find out what happens next in the series. ( )