The Throne of Fire- Rick Riordan

Are you ready for another entry in the “Am I Too Old For This?” category? Because the answer to this one is yes, absolutely.

Any book by Rick Riordan is targeted at an age group below my reading level. However, I have read all of his books, with the possible exception of anything he contributed to the 39 clues series, which is where I draw the line. This book is the second in his series about Egyptian Gods, the Kane Chronicles. Between these books and the Percy Jackson (Greek Gods) series, everything Riordan writes is kind of a sneak attack mythology lesson. The Kanes are siblings with magical powers, who can channel the powers of the Egyptian Gods Isis and Horus. In this second book, they depart on a journey to find the scrolls of Ra, the sun God, and master of all of the rest of the Gods, with expected obstacles along the way.

In all honesty, I don’t have a lot to say about this one. The most interesting thing about it is the way it’s told, Riordan gives us an author's note at the beginning explaining that what we are about to read is his transcription of audio tapes recorded by Sadie and Carter Kane, the titular characters. The way that the narrative switches between the two of their voices, with occasional sidebars to make comments outside the events of the novel is a clever way of moving the story along. Apart from that, the plot isn’t anything really fantastic. It’s exactly what you’d expect after reading a summary, and to be honest, I liked the Percy Jackson books more than these. These aren’t bad books, but unlike books like Harry Potter and the Hunger Games, what you see is what you get. There’s not a lot to read into, and there isn’t a lot of suspense. Since the story is set up as tapes recorded after these events have happened, you know that both Carter and Sadie are going to end up ok, no matter what occurs.

I’d say this is a solid 3. I’m not going to read any of these books again, but they are entertaining, pure and simple.

Next up: Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese, which Amazon has listed as a recommendation for me since I read (and loved) The Help.