5/8/14: The Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan

The Kane Chronicles

Author: Rick Riordan

Publisher: Disney Hyperion

My Overall Rating: 5/5
Points for Prequel/Sequel Challenge: 13
*THERE WILL MOST LIKELY BE SPOILERS*

So I love Rick Riordan, and if you don't know that by now, now you do. His writing is so influential and light hearted and realistic. Besides the fact that he writes about fantasy worlds. 

I've been reading his books for five years now, and have yet to be disappointment. They pull you in. You get so attached to the story and the characters that you inhale the books (not literally, don't inhale books). It took me longer than expected to read these books just because I didn't have as much time as I would've liked to have to read them (finals week). But when I got to the last book, I busted through it in a day. 

The characters in his books, all his books, are very round, meaning they are realistic and have traits that you would find in real people. Carter is a kid who traveled around with his dad all his life and never got a formal education. Sadie lived with her grandparents, separate from Carter. They led totally different lives and hardly ever saw each other, but they still have this beautiful sibling relationship. When they come together to find their father and discover their family lineage and their Egyptian powers, we see them connect almost immediately. They care for each other. And I believe this is extremely realistic in for sibling relationships today. Usually, siblings stick together in situations where their parents are absent or they develop the ability to channel godly powers. Not that that is truly realistic, but I think you are getting what I'm saying. 

Another thing that really got me was, Rick Riordan is a soon to be fifty year old man with two sons. Yet his first person point of view from a fourteen year old girl is flawless. How? What? I'm not kidding you. I am a girl and the way Sadie thought most of the time, was what I would think in those situations. I am so utterly speechless by the fact that he can so effortlessly write different point of views from Greek teenage boys with different family issues and personal insecurities to Egyptian teenage girls who miss their parents and their crushes join together to become the same person. It is astounding and worth reading just for that aspect. 

I do have to admit that I was wary about reading these books. It took me two years to finally pick them up, but I am so glad that I did. His writing with Egyptian mythology is no different than Greek. It is sarcastic and funny and their is romance and conflict. And my favorite part... YOU LEARN AT THE SAME TIME! I honestly don't think I could ever know so much about Egyptian mythology without reading his books. 

The only thing I have to say against Tío Rick, and this is a selfish thing to complain about, is swearing. At first, in Percy Jackson, it was funny. The "Holy Hades!" and "Oh schist!" but now I don't really know. It is still funny, and I totally get that he writes middle grade books but I just feel like in certain situations (like battling great lords of chaos) I would use stronger wording than "Holy Horus." I know that this probably won't ever change, but I thought it was something to mention. 

The last subject on this matter I will go over is his endings. And this is a very sad topic because I hate endings. As soon as I started getting into the first book, I knew, oh I knew, that this was a finished trilogy. I did not like the idea of an ending. This also frightens the heck out of me for October 7th, 2014 (The Blood of Olympus). I was completely satisfied with the ending though. He, like J. K. Rowling, ends the books to a point where there is still magic. 

"As for you lot out there, listening to this recording— we’re never too busy for new initiates. If you have the blood of the pharaohs, what are you waiting for? Don’t let your magic go to waste. Brooklyn House is open for business."

And that was the last line of the book. He ends it so that the story never truly ends. And although I'm scared to leave Percy Jackson, a story that has shaped me and grown up with me, behind. I don't want the books to stop coming, but I know that with Rick Riordan, the story will never truly end. 

Other Notes:

As I mentioned above, Blood of Olympus, the final installment in the ten book Percy Jackson series, comes out October 7th of this year. The next crossover in the Percy Jackson and Kane Chronicles Crossover series comes out as a single book on May 20th. It will be called The Staff of Serapis featuring Sadie Kane and Annabeth Chase.