An Action-Packed Modern Myth - The Throne of Fire, A Book Review

Egyptian mythology has fascinated the world for centuries, and its eerie grip on us is exploited perfectly by Rick Riordan in his book 'The Throne of Fire'.


The book. Duh.

A sequel to his book 'The Red Pyramid', the second book in The Kane Chronicles series follows our young heroes as they embark on a quest to stop Apophis the chaos snake from rising. In the meantime, though, they've got several gods to get through, and a perilous boat trip to take.
When I picked this book up, I was stuck between two pre-opinions: One, that it would be terrible beyond imagining, and the other that it would simply be another unputdownable read from 'the myth master', as he's now known. And, in a way, I was right on both accounts. It is a truly riveting read, but there are some elements that I've begun to dislike in retrospect.

First on the list of bones to pick is: characters. Riordan appears to have an aptitude for perhaps accidentally recycling his characters (not to mention his plots). The similarity between his Kane Chronicles characters and his Percy Jackson series is unthinkably close. This makes for a rather predictable read as far as characters go. You find a god, they either want to kill you, help you or manage to be insanely funny. Which brings me to my next point...

The prose and the plot is all the same. Whoopee, you're a magic person. Now go and find the sacred donkey and win back the magical Sceptre of Watercress; or something along those same lines. Saving the world gets boring when it's gods, gods, gods and magic people or demigods. however, even I, critical as I can be, must admit that this story has some merits.

For one, the action and suspense scenes are amazing. Sword battles, godly skirmishes and general magical mayhem spreads itself throughout the book, and I always get a warm fuzzy feeling when a truly evil monster appears. Like Apophis, or Ra. And even Sekhmet, though she may have been in 'The Red Pyramid'. The suspense is also on the verge of intolerable. Ending in a bit of a cliffhanger, it's almost certainly a marketing ploy coupled with a plot device, but by Odin's missing eye, does it work!

So it is that I'm looking forwards very much to the next book in the series, 'The Serpent's Shadow'. And, seeing as I'm lucky, I'll be getting my itching fingers on that very soon indeed.

This is Professor Pisces, saying if you like myths, legends and monster mayhem, read this like Lewis Hamilton tries to drive an F1 car: fast.

Rating: 7.5/10

This review was taken from Penguin Book's 'Spinebreakers' website, where the author goes by a slightly different name. To view the original review, click here. For more information on Spinebreakers and how to become one, click here.