Hi.
This is the Kane Chronicles #2. If you hadn’t read my post about the Red Pyramid, go read it now. This is the Throne of Fire, by Rick Riordan.
The Throne of Fire is the book where Carter and Sadie finally realize that the giant snake about to swallow the sun is a big problem. Apophis the Evil Snake. Lord of Chaos.
They know that the only guy Apophis is afraid of is Ra, the sun god, but it turns out that Isis poisoned him so badly he had to retreat into the Duat.
The Duat = magical void inside reality. Also, the Underworld is in the Duat, as well as the Houses of the Night. Ra made nightly journeys through the Houses of the Night. Ra had a big boat, so he sailed through the rapids of the Duat, to the Lake of Fire, then to the Hall of Judgement, back to the morning.
So, Carter and Sadie ride a boat to find Ra. They think that Ra is the only chance they could win.
Turns out that when they find Ra, he is not his true self. He keeps on saying:
“Weasels are sick!”
“I like zebras!”
“Do you want cookie?”
He’s not much help.
Also, Carter and Sadie spent too much time finding Ra that it isn’t enough time to stop Apophis. So they go to the Hall of Judgement, play a game of Egyptian checkers, Khonsu the moon god buys them some time, but their best friend Bes sacrificed his soul, and now they’re devastated.
There’s this crazy guy named Vlad Menshikov, part of the Russian Nome, very evil, also the friend of the Chief Lector of the First Nome in the House of Life, which is Michel Desjardins. So now the two most powerful magicians in the world are against them, meanwhile, they’re supposed to beat up Apophis the Evil Snake, only accompanied by an ugly dwarf, a cat goddess, and a sun god who likes weasel cookies.
But Desjardins is suspicious of Vlad. When Vlad sends his troops of demons and magician serial killers to attempt to kill Carter and Sadie, Desjardins comes while they’re fighting Apophis, Desjardins execrates him, it fails, and he dies. He only bought them some time, so that’s that. Then, Carter and Sadie beat up Vlad Menshikov. Then Amos, their uncle, becomes the Chief Lector.
I like how the author gives multiple problems to Carter and Sadie. Maybe it was just to make the book longer and more exciting, but I think he did a pretty good job.
Messages: Don’t waste time. There will be consequences. Don’t summon clumsy people. It will waste time.
Character traits: In this story, Vlad is bad. He’s also pretty smart, but he’s a bad smart guy, meaning he’s very dangerous.
Vlad is smart because he tricked the Chief Lector. Chief Lectors are chiefs for a reason, because they’re powerful, not evil, and smart. So if Vlad tricks the Chief Lector, Vlad is smart. That also shows that Vlad is bad.
Okay, here are my notes for today.
=<^.^>=