The Kane Chronicles

The Kane Chronicles

The US and UK logo for The Kane Chronicles
The Red Pyramid The Throne of Fire Third Book
Author	Rick Riordan
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Fantasy novels
Publisher	Disney Hyperion (formerly Mamy Books)
Published	2010-2012
Media type	Print (hardback and paperback)

The Kane Chronicles is a fictional trilogy by Rick Riordan about the adventures undertaken by Carter and Sadie Kane, the two main heroes, in their many quests regarding many facets of Egyptian Mythology. It is set in the modern day United States, in the same sort of universe as Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus. The books are predominantly based on Egyptian mythology. Athough the series has the same young adult/adventure genres of the Camp Half-Blood series, the tone is slightly, but visible darker and more serious than the former series. The first book was released on May 4, 2010. The second book followed on May 3, 2011. The third book is tentatively scheduled for release in May 2012.

The protagonists are Carter and Sadie Kane who discover that they are descendants of two Pharaohs, Narmer and Ramesses the Great. They learn that the legendary beings of Egyptian mythology still exist and have always existed, including shabti, Egyptian magicians, the House of Life, otherwise known as the Per Ankh, and the Egyptian gods and goddesses. Rick Riordan explained where the idea came from in an interview:

“In my classroom, there was only one thing that was more popular than Ancient Greece, and that was Ancient Egypt,” said Riordan, who taught middle-school Social Studies and English for 15 years. “This was a matter of listening to a lot of fans, and a lot of young readers.”^[1]

Contents 1 Novels 1.1 The Red Pyramid 1.2 The Throne of Fire 2 Companion books 2.1 The Kane Chronicles Survival Guide 2.2 The Kane Chronicle: The Red Pyramid (Graphic Novel) 3 Characters 3.1 Main characters 3.2 Other characters 4 References 5 External links

Novels

The Red Pyramid

The Red Pyramid is the first book in the series and was released on May 4, 2010.^[2] The book is written as an audio recording made by the Kane siblings. The story begins with Carter and his father arriving in England on Christmas Eve for visitation day with Sadie,Carter's 12-year-old sister, who lives with her maternal grandparents in London. Julius, their father, has custody of Carter and takes him on his travels as an archaeologist. Their mother is dead, and their grandparents believe it's their father's fault, but Sadie and Carter do not know what happened, and their father refuses to tell them.^[3] Their father releases the Ancient Egyptian gods Set, Osiris, Isis, Horus,and Nephthys, but got trapped and captured by Set after merging as a host for Osiris, the god of the dead. They believe that restoring the gods and goddesses is the only way to save the world despite the fact that hosting and unleashing gods meant a death sentence in the House of Life.

Set wanted to rule over the modern world and turn it into a desert. Sadie and Carter, the strongest magicians ever born, must find a way to defeat him before it is too late. Carter hosts the god Horus, (which makes him supposedly destined to rule the gods). Sadie hosts the goddess Isis. Amos, their uncle, was captured by Set and was made Set's host, and Julius Kane is hosting the god Osiris. Soon, they go on a daring journey with their chaperone and friend, the cat goddess Bast. It turns out that their mother was a diviner (she could see the future.), and Bast was in Apophis's prison, fighting Apophis. Bast was losing the fight, and the prison was weakening, so their mother freed Bast and re-sealed the prison, using so much magic that she was incinerated. Along the way, they meet Zia Rashid, a fire elementalist in the House of Life, but chooses to rebel with Sadie and Carter, who Carter immediately takes a liking to. Also, the two siblings learn the true secrets of their family history.^[4]

Eventually, Carter and Sadie meet Set and fight him together with the powers of Horus and Isis. Carter and Horus fight using a super-powerful combat avatar and Sadie uses the power of Isis, a goddess of magic, to create a portal even though it's during the Demon Days. The portal teleports the pyramid and everything directly around it to Washington, D.C. Set is stopped from destroying the world. Sadie started the ritual but Sadie does not complete the ritual that will completely destroy Set because she realized that the actual perpetrator of the Chaotic events was the serpent Apophis( god of chaos), not Set. Aphophis intended to use the pyramid's Chaos power to make his way into the mortal world.

Sadie and Carter witness Zia die, but it turns out that "Zia" was a shabti, a magic statue, made to protect the actual Zia, who was hosting Isis's sister, Nephthys. The siblings go back to their Brooklyn mansion hauling an upset Amos. Amos later departs for Egypt to heal and rid himself of the evil taint that had plagued him when he hosted Set. They receive an amulet from their father, who has now merged with Osiris and is living in the Underworld. They lock the amulet in the school locker Sadie saw in a dream. This is the item which is stored in the locker that Carter mentioned in the beginning. Carter is tempted to wear his amulet, which gave him the power of Horus, but he locks his and Sadie's up so they do not wear and consume the power of the gods all over again. The book ends with Carter cautioning anyone who finds the locker with Osiris's amulet in it to be careful and come to Brooklyn for training.

The Throne of Fire

Ever since the gods of Ancient Egypt were unleashed in the modern world, Carter Kane and his sister Sadie have been in trouble. As descendants of the House of Life, the Kanes have some powers at their command, but the devious gods have not given them much time to master their skills at Brooklyn House, which has become a training ground for young magicians. The other branches of the House of Life have been hunting them down once they left the safety of their branch, the Brooklyn House. And now their most threatening enemy yet—the chaos snake Apophis—is rising. If they do not prevent him from breaking free in a few days' time, the world will come to an end.

The story begins with Carter and Sadie breaking in to the Brooklyn Museum during a wedding to search for the Book of Ra, which will allow them to raise Ra to help them imprison, or kill, Apophis: the lord of chaos. Along with them are Khufu the baboon, and their new trainees, Jaz and Walt. Instead, they find a papyrus scroll that is booby trapped with a series of fire traps and demon-summoning curses. Carter and Walt distract the demons, while Jaz performs a spell that banishes them back to the Duat. But this results in Jaz falling into a coma-before she does, she manages to hand Sadie a wax statue to heal Carter.

Carter escapes from the museum with the griffin before the police arrive. When they arrive back in the mansion, Carter explains to the new trainees that they must find Ra, the sun god, before Apophis wakes in four days and swallows the sun as well as all of existence. They also find out that to do this, they must find the three scrolls that control the embodiments of Ra, one of them being the scroll that Sadie found in the museum. However, new enemies await, such as Vladimir (Menshikov) who serves Apophis and holds one of the key scrolls in freeing Ra.^[5][6]

Sadie returns to London to celebrate her 13th birthday, but when she arrived, her grandparents were forced to host Nekhbet, the vulture goddess, and Babi, the baboon god, and hunting down Sadie, and her friends, Liz and Emma. They get rescued by the dwarf god Bes, who was able to use his extreme ugliness as a weapon. They met up with Carter and Walt along the way. When Bes opens a portal, he insists for Walt to get out for reasons Sadie and Carter does not know. They teleported to Russia, Menshikov's Nome. They get inside Menshikov's headquarters, and found out that he was summoning Set. They get the scroll but are attacked by Menshikov's two-headed snake. Sadie manages to destroy the snake, but not before it bites Carter. Set tells them the location of the last scroll: The Valley of the Golden Mummies, and also the location of the real Zia. After Sadie heals Carter with the statue, Sadie calls on Walt to help her with the scroll, while Bes and Carter go to find Zia.

Carter and Bes finds some nomads to take them to The Place of Red Sands, Zia's birthplace and where she was hidden. Nephthys, who was using Zia as a host, leaves Zia, but Mehsikov and Desjarins arrive. Carter has the weapons of Ra, the crook and flail, and uses it to fight Menshikov, but Menshikov curses him, making snakes wrap around him and poison him. Bes got trapped in a cage. Meanwhile, Sadie and Walt arrive at the Valley of the Golden Mummies, meeting a ghost called Mad Claude, who wants them to get the mummies' spirits to the Afterlife, as the rites were not done properly. When they cannot, Mad Claude became enraged and called on the other mummies to kill them. Sadie manages to find the last scroll, but they got trapped by mummies. Ptah, a god, sends rats to help them and creates a portal to Carter and Bes. The portal destroys Bes' cage, and he scared them away. It turns out Walt is cursed and will die young, which was why Bes sent him away. Menshikov is preparing an army to attack the Brooklyn House, so Walt and Zia go back to protect it, while Sadie, Bes, and Carter go into the Duat to free Ra and defeat Apophis.

There were 12 Houses, each representing an hour of the night. At the Gates of the Fourth House (Can only be entered before 4 O'Clock), they find Khnum, the first part of Ra, who forgot what his secret name is. Using the Book of Ra, Sadie read out his secret name, returning his essence to the scroll. They enter the Fourth House, and it took them four hours to find Ra, who was really senile. The Eighth House can only be entered before 8 O'Clock. They travel to the Seventh House, where Osiris, a.k.a, their dad, and the ghost of their mom, awaits them. They invite Khonsu, the moon god, who can make time go back in the night, but have to gamble for it. If they lose a round, the moon god will get their ren. They will have no memories. They have to win 3 rounds. In the end, they won the first round, but lost the second, causing Bes' identity to be lost. They won the last two, and given the extra time, they get into the Gates of the Eighth House and travel towards the Twelfth House. Menshikov was there, possessed by Apophis. They let Ra merge with his last aspect, Khepri the scarab god, but freed Apophis (they must in order to get Khepri). It turns out Desjarins witnessed it, and helped them banish Apophis, but burned up from using too much magic. He warned them that Apophis will return in time.

They get back to the Brooklyn house, found out that because of the power of Ra, they were able to hold the enemies and win the fight. But the gods were not happy with them, especially Horus and Isis, since bringing back Ra made Horus lose his throne. Walt is dying in a year unless they can find a cure, which was lost, since Menshikov was the last person to know it. Bes was sitting in the Fourth House, not having any memories, not knowing who and where he is. Apophis will return, and Ra is in no shape to fight him.The House of Life is still trying to crush them, as they think that Desjarins died by the hands of the Kanes, and Amos is the new Chief Lector.

The title, The Throne of Fire, was announced in a blog post by Riordan on January 13, 2011. The book became available worldwide on May 3, 2011.^[7]

Riordan announced on his website that the third book of the series will be coming in spring 2012.

Companion books

The Kane Chronicles Survival Guide

The book is somewhat similar to The Ultimate Guide from the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, but takes up facts about Egyptian mythology and The Kane Chronicles. It is scheduled to be released on March 20, 2012. (

The Kane Chronicle: The Red Pyramid (Graphic Novel)

It a is a Comic version of The Red Pyramid, just like Percy Jackson's The Lightning Thief graphic novel. It has been plan to be released sometime in 2012.

Characters

Main characters

• Carter Kane: (Age 14) Carter is a descendant of Narmer and Ramesses the Great through both sides of his family. He is one of the main protagonists, and,in the first book, is described as always dressing "impeccably" in dress shirts and pants, but eventually relaxes into a more modern style. He has dark skin with dark curly brown hair and brown eyes. After the death of his mother, he spent six years traveling with his father and 'living out of a suitcase' as he puts it. His specialty is combat magic and his preferred weapon is a Khopesh, an Ancient Egyptian sword. He first becomes the host of Horus until the end of The Red Pyramid. He likes Zia Rashid, who turned out to be a 'shabti' at the end of the first book.

• Sadie Kane (Age 12) Sadie is Carter's sister, and, like him, has magic in her blood. She looks more like her mother, having been described in the books as a tall girl with blond hair (most of the time it is streaked with bright colors), blue eyes, and pale skin; bearing little resemblance to Carter or her father, Julius Kane. Like her brother, she is a descendant of Narmer and Ramesses the Great. She was raised in England by her grandparents after her mother died. Sadie loves chewing bubble gum and listening to her iPod. She's always been 'precocious' as she puts it, a real troublemaker. She is a learning magician and is a talented spell caster. She can read hieroglyphics, understand and translate the Egyptian language, and becomes the host of Isis after her father releases five gods at the London Museum. She is skilled at most types of magic and is also known for her sharp tongue. In the first book, she immediately becomes attracted to Anubis, the god of death and funerals. In The Throne of Fire, she develops a crush on Walt, one of the new trainees at Brooklyn House.

• Bast — Ancient Egyptian goddess of cats. After Ruby Kane died, releasing her from Apophis' prison, she promised Julius that she would watch over Sadie, although she eventually takes charge of Carter as well. She is hosted by Sadie's cat Muffin in the first book and is transformed to her human form later on. She usually travels with Sadie and Carter, holds her own classes for the trainees, and always has an expression on her face that's either concerned or amused. As Sadie likes to say, 'You just never know with cats.'

• Amos Kane — Carter and Sadie's uncle. Though he tried to fight it for most of the book, he was the host of Set. Carter said 'He looked like one of those jazz guys that my dad would drag me in to see in concert.' At the end of The Throne of Fire it is revealed that until Michel Desjardins' death, he was the second most powerful magician in the world,therefore, becoming the new Chief Lector. However, his claim is upset by many.

• Zia Rashid — A magician who has mastered fire magic and serves as a scribe for the House of Life. Her parents died when her village was destroyed by the chaos snake Apophis. She is reluctant to trust Sadie and Carter because of her loyalty to the House of Life in the first book, but she eventually befriends them. Because she was at the London Museum at the time of the explosion, she became the host for the goddess Nephthys. The Chief Lector Iskandar hid Zia to protect her from the House of Life and replaced her with a shabti who helps Carter and Sadie. Carter develops feelings for her before discovering she is a shabti and goes to find her hiding place in the second book. Throughout The Throne of Fire she is unsure about her feelings for him, confused by the memories sent to her by her shabti counterpart, as well as by the nightmares she experienced while asleep under the Nile. When awakened, Zia seems to get along quite well with Sadie with slight hopes that she and Carter can have a relationship together in the future, though she is unsure. She is described as having dark hair cut to her jawline, amber eyes (which Sadie describes as "Either really beautiful or really scary"), and vaguely Arabian features.

Other characters

• Walt Stone – (Age 16) A character from The Throne of Fire. He is a natural sau (charm-maker). He is from Seattle, Washington. He is said to have dark brown skin, black hair in a buzz cut, and dark brown eyes. He is the first to respond to their recruitment message with the djed symbol. He is a descendant of Akhenaten and is dying of a family curse, as did Tutankhamen. He has feelings for Sadie, but she is torn between him and Anubis. Sadie mistakenly thinks he likes Jaz,and is jealous because she likes him, too, when she sees them holding hands. He is really seeking Jaz's help as a healer.^[8]
• Jaz – A character from The Throne of Fire; a healer. Her full name is Jasmine. She is from Nashville, Tennessee. She is said to have light blond hair and bright blue eyes. She is following the path of Sekhmet. She is a healer and in Throne of Fire she is in a coma quite early on, because she tried to banish some bau (bad spirits). She later helps Sadie's Ba by showing it how to cure Carter. She is awoken by Ra's Power at the end^[8]
• Set — Ancient Egyptian god of Evil, Chaos and Deserts. Amos Kane acted as a host to him unwillingly. He is Associated with the color red. In the duat, he is a tornado made of sand and fire. His true name in the story is "Evil Day". He is the Main Antagonist of The Red Pyramid, and a minor supporting character in The Throne of Fire.
• Horus — Ancient Egyptian God of Warfare. His host is Carter Kane. His symbol is the eye of Horus.
• Isis — Ancient Egyptian Goddess of magic. Her host is Sadie Kane. Her symbol is the knot of Isis.
• Osiris - Ancient Egyptian God of the Dead. His host is Julius Kane.
• Nephthys — Ancient Egyptian Goddess of night and Lamentation. Wife of Set and mother of Anubis. Zia is her host.
• Julius Kane— Carter and Sadie's father, he is a PhD in Egyptology. Julius has dark brown skin, piercing brown eyes, is bald and has a goatee. He becomes the host of Osiris, god of the dead, and he is imprisoned in a golden sarcophagus by Set. Later resurrected while hosting Osiris in The Red Pyramid (novel). His symbol is the djed.
• Bes - Egyptian God of Dwarves. He works as Carter's and Sadie's driver during The Throne of Fire. He is also described with a wonderful personality, but is also extremely ugly and embarrassing.
• Serqet — Egyptian Goddess of Protection and Arachnids.
• Anubis — God of Funerals. He appears to Sadie as an "incredibly hot" 16-year-old boy with black hair, wearing a leather jacket, jeans, and combat boots. He later appears in human form to Carter as well. Anubis enjoys giving Sadie sarcastic comments whenever Sadie talks back at him, and he likes to treat her like a kid. In The Throne of Fire, he tells Sadie where a scroll of Ra is, gives her a netjeri blade and kisses her on her birthday. He also tries to help Walt ease his pain.
• Michel Desjardins — Appointed Chief Lector of the House of Life after Iskandar dies. Has a strong hatred of Carter and Sadie for their association with the gods. His last name means "of the Gardens" in French. He dies in the second book when he sacrifices himself to temporarily imprison Apophis the chaos snake.
• Iskandar — Otherwise known as Chief Lector during Alexander the Great's time period. The first Chief Lector, 2,000 years old at death.
• Thoth — Ancient Egyptian god of Wisdom, Scribes, Baboons, Ibises and Magicians. Founder of the "Per Ankh," the House of Life. He lives in Memphis, Tennessee, but thinks it is Memphis, Egypt. He is a professor at the University of Memphis. He explains the book of banishing Set after a challenge in Graceland in "The Red Pyramid."
• Ruby Kane — Carter and Sadie's mother, who sacrificed her life to help save the world. She released Bast.
• Sobek – Egyptian God of the river and crocodiles. His sweat is said to have made the rivers of the world.
• Sekhmet – Egyptian Goddess of war, battles and lions. She has an opposite side of her that is more gentle portrayed as Hathor, goddess of cows and turquoise. She was the Eye of Ra, but became too blood thirsty. She gave off the Seven Arrows of Sekhmet.
• Hathor – Egyptian Goddess of joy, motherhood, cows, turquoise and love. She has an opposite side of her that is fierce and destructive, portrayed as Sekhmet.
• Tawaret - Egyptian Goddess of hippopotami, pregnancy and childbirth. She is quite fond of Bes. She runs the Sunny Acres Assisted-Living Community, located in the Fourth House of life
• Khufu — Amos's pet baboon. Khufu enjoys basketball, always wearing a Los Angeles Lakers jersey, and only eats things ending in O, i.e. Cheerios, Oreos, Doritos, Flamingos, Armadillos, buffaloes, etc.
• Philip of Macedonia – Amos's pet albino crocodile. He fell into the East River while fighting enemies who ambushed the mansion in New York but survived. He is revealed to be a shabti.
• Doughboy – Julius Kane's shabti. His legs were taken away due to the fact that he hated his master and tries to run away or even kill him. Owners of shabti often do this to prevent escape.
• Leroy- The Set animal. Carter gave the Set Animal the name Leroy. Leroy does not like his new name. He is put into Carter's "magic locker" in the Duat and Carter and Sadie hope he stays there for the foreseeable future. (Note that the name "Leroy" is a joke that Rick Riordan often uses.)
• Nut - The sky goddess of Ancient Egypt and mother of Osiris, Isis, Horus, Set and Nephthys. Wife of Geb, the Egyptian god of the earth. Free-form goddess, which means she has no host.
• Geb - God of the earth. Father of Osiris, Isis, Horus, Set, and Nephthys. Husband of Nut.
• Shu - God of the wind. Father of Nut and Geb. Separates Nut from Geb because of the curse given to them by Ra, mentioned in the first book - The Red Pyramid (novel).
• Ra is the sun god. In The Throne of Fire, the Kanes and their trainees, Jaz and Walt, try to revive Ra, who retired to the heavens because he became too senile, and the only one who can convince Set and Osiris/Julius Kane to defeat Apophis, the Serpent of Chaos. He is found only to be revealed as slightly insane. He makes references to "zebras" and "weasels", which Sadie realizes is code for Zia and Walt.
• Nekhbet Egyptian Goddess of the Vultures. Takes Sadie's grandma as host.
• Babi Egyptian God of the savage alpha male baboons and the darkest side of the primates. Takes Sadie's grandpa as host.
• Vladimir Menshikov Evil sorcerer. Owner of the middle scroll of the book of Ra. Tried to awaken Ra using only one part of the book. The result was his eyes becoming horribly scarred, or as Sadie describes them,"splashed with acid, then repeatedly clawed by cats", and his voice becoming raspy from sunfire going in his throat. He then wants Ra to be awakened but for revenge and turns to aiding Apophis, hoping to see the swallowing of the sun. He is Russian. He becomes Apophis's host at the end of the Throne of Fire but Apophis is cast from his body by Desjardins. He is the main antagonist of The Throne of Fire.
• Freak - An ancient Egyptian griffin that Carter found at the museum. He is also the animal of Horus. His name comes from the sound he makes (FREEEEK!).
• Felix - Another trainee. Nine and seems to be obsessed with penguins. Other than summoning penguins, he is not particularly proficient at magic.
• Apophis - God of Chaos, a massive serpent. True Name "The Hated One"
• Ptah - God of workmen and he also known as the god of "opening of the mouth ceremony" performed by priests at funerals to release souls from their corpses, was said to have been created by Ptah.

References

External links

• Official USA website
• Official UK website
• Official Complete Online Wiki for the The Kane Chronicles
• The Red Pyramid preview chapters
• http://www.rickriordan.com/my-books/kane-chronicles/books/red-pyramid.aspx