Share this
Twitter
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
Yahoo
Googlize this
Facebook
Export PDF
Print
E-mail
Popular young adult protagonists seem to rise in turns. In the span of a decade or so, first, there was J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, and then there was Stephenie Meyer’s Bella Swan. While both obviously retain their popularity, the next to step up to the plate was young demigod Percy Jackson. While he isn’t as popular as the first two, Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series gained enough attention to be on bestseller lists, and among YA and middle grade readers around the world. Last year it achieved that milestone that shows a literary character has "made it": the Hollywood movie. Now that Percy’s adventures are over--at least for now--fans of Riordan ask: What’s next?
From Ancient Greece, Riordan brings us to Ancient Egypt, in a whole new fantasy adventure series for young adults entitled The Red Pyramid, the first book from his new series, The Kane Chronicles. Siblings Carter and Sadie Kane grew up barely knowing each other after they were separated when their mother passed away. While Sadie lived a normal life with their maternal grandparents, Carter tagged along with their archaeologist dad and travelled around the world. One Christmas Eve, during their yearly visit to Sadie, their father brings them to the British National Museum, to “make things right.” Something goes wrong, of course, and their dad disappears, but not before releasing five ancient Egyptian gods, including Set, the god of storms and chaos. Rescued by their magician uncle Amos, Carter and Sadie learn the truth about their identity: they come from a family of powerful Egyptian magicians, and they in particular are strong because of their combined bloodlines. This starts their journey all over the world to save their father, stop Set from destroying North America, and figure out both the extent of their powers and the mysteries of their past--all within four days.
If you think the story’s similar to Percy Jackson, well, you’re not wrong. In fact, The Red Pyramid not only reminded me of the young demigod, but also of another series by Riordan, The 39 Clues. Riordan seems to have stumbled on a very successful formula to sell children’s books: (1) take away something important from your young protagonist; (2) place them in a larger-than-life adventure; (3) have them learn something about themselves in the process. We see this formula at work again in The Red Pyramid, and while some readers were put off about this, I didn’t think it was so bad. At least Riordan wasn’t deriving from anyone else but himself – why mess with a good formula? Nevertheless, while I'm fine with thematic similarities between the books, my hope is that he doesn’t become too repetitive with his story arcs--like say, Dan Brown--to the point that I can draw upon his previous plots to solve any mysteries by the middle of the book.
While a similarity with Riordan's prior works is one of the first things you'll notice, this doesn’t mean that this new series is a carbon copy of his prior works. Red Pyramid deals with some modern day issues – like mixed-race families and Sadie’s abandonment by her father (as pointed out by this reviewer) – which give this book a darkness that the Percy Jackson series doesn't possess. Moreover, Egyptian mythology is not as common a narrative influence/inspiration as the Greek/Roman mythology, perhaps because it's not as overtly exciting. Most of what I know about Egypt comes from Bible stories, or common cultural associations gleaned from pop culture: mummies, pyramids, curses. Riordan showed me a new side to Egypt through Carter and Sadie’s adventures, introducing me and his other readers to Egyptian gods and goddesses, myths, and even some hieroglyphics (which appear during spellcasting). However, some readers feel that they couldn’t feel Egypt in the story at all. While personally I did get a sense of Egypt in the novel, I do feel that it was somehow lacking in the sense that the book doesn't show what specific myths and personalities meant for the Egyptians--there was no time, because everything happened a bit too fast, too many things happening one after the other… and yet even with that hectic pace, the story still managed to feel too long.
As this reader pointed out, it seemed like it took 514 pages for Carter and Sadie to accomplish things that Percy and his friends did in The Lightning Thief in less than 400. While part of this may be due to the fact that more explanation was required for the less familiar Egyptian myths, and the stage needed to be set for future novels, this doesn't excuse placing explanations right before or during action scenes. Sure, The Red Pyramid was written for a younger audience, but while the action scenes will keep their attention, they also need to be used with care. Part of this is due to the need to keep some semblance of reality--even if the characters have magic powers and all, they are still just kids and likely can only take so much. Also, as this reader says, the many fight scenes became repetitive after a while.
While Riordan's pacing could use some work, the characterization of the main characters was well done. I like reading about brother-sister relationships, and I admired the growth of Carter and Sadie relationship from strangers to siblings (although Riordan leaves room for more growth, and I'm curious as to where he will take the characters). However, the voices Riordan used for the two characters need to be better differentiated. The story is told in alternating points of view, with the each having two chapters before the other one takes over, but while Carter and Sadie started out with distinct accents they eventually started sounding the same. Like some readers, I found myself having to double check the identity of the narrator every now and then, just to keep the story straight. Riordan admits to having a hard time finding a voice for Sadie; while he believes he was successful in the end, I think that isn't completely accurate.
Despite these issues, The Red Pyramid is still a well-written and enjoyable novel, a great book for middle-grade readers and a good one for those past the age of the target audience. The over-arching story was satisfying, and questions laid out at the start of the book kept us guessing up to the end. Also present was the signature Riordan wit and humor that fans know from Percy Jackson, often coming in the form of Carter and Sadie’s banter (familiar to anyone who has a sibling). The book is also very safe for kids to read, even for more conservative parents uneasy about a book which portrays foreign gods as real (as this reader states, Riordan makes clear that even in the world of the story, the Egyptian gods are not divine but just more powerful ). I also appreciated the fact that Riordan never completely left grown-ups out of the picture: Carter and Sadie had their uncle and, later on, Bast, the cat goddess, to watch and protect them.
There’s adventure, mystery, a whole lot of magic and even a little bit of romance, so The Red Pyramid may tickle a lot of readers’ fancies. While it may never be at par with Harry Potter, it can allow the reader to lose him or herself for a while in a world of strange and fun new horizons.
The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan is available in paperback at most major Philippine bookstores for P459.00.
[Image source: Goodreads. Copyright holder/s maintain appropriate rights.]
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
