Monday 11 June 2012

Review- The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

Title: The Red Pyramid
Series: Kane Chronicle's 
Author: Rick Riordan
Published: May 4th 2010
Book 1 


The Red Pyramid is a novel which also consists of God's like the Percy Jackson Series (another series by Riordan), however, the God's are of Egyptian origins rather than Greek. The novel revolves around siblings Sadie and Carter Kane and begins when their father accidently releases five major God's and Goddesses from their "prisons" when he only intended to release one. Releasing the God's are illegal and punishable by death from the organisation called The House of Life (you'll understand more once you read it). The God's are blamed for plunging the world into chaos at one stage and were imprisoned because they were considered unstable and drunk with their own power. 


Anyway, continuing on, once Sadie and Carter's dad release the God's/Goddesses, they become hosts for them, which means that the God's can use their body. One of the God's, named Set, is the evil one and he took his chance to escape and try to reduce the world to nothingness then rebuild it in the form of his empire. Sadie and Carter learn that they are magicians on the way and that they must use their abilities to stop Set and save the world. It turns out that Sadie is hosting the Goddess Isis and Carter is hosting Horus. Along their quest, they endure many challenging obstacles which all take time, and time is not a luxury that they have.

What I absolutely love about this novel is how unique the magic is expressed throughout the book. Weapons like staffs and wands are used (which you may think is general), however, wax figurines, amulets and a number of other essential items are used to make the plot more interesting and appealing to readers. These items and weapons can be modified to the magicians needs. For e.g. the staffs can transform into animals and attack something or someone or they can just be used to emit the magicians spell. Riordan has great ideas put into this which are mostly new and haven't been used before. 

I also liked Riordan's use of hieroglyphs throughout the story line. The hieroglyphs are also part of the way magic is used and they are also used for writing and so on. I may of also mentioned in another review that in many books the characters are like machines and never run out of energy. In Riordan's book, he expresses how exhausted the characters are feeling once they have used too much magic or if they have over extended themselves physically. 

What I didn't really like in the novel was that the characters weren't described in detail. They were brief descriptions of how the character looked and in times of emotion, one sentence was used to describe the basic feeling. Riordan is more focused to the story line, which is great, but the characters are what makes the story line more interesting and effective on readers. The characters are described extremely well in times of combat when they are using magic, however, in other more important parts, as I said before, the descriptions are quite bland. 

Overall, I gave the book a major “thumbs up” and it had many twists and details that left readers entranced within the world of Sadie and Carter.



Rated: 4/5

25 comments:

  1. Hey Daniel, great review. I lovedt hat you mentioned the part about characters being machines. It toally get what you mean. Some books are just like that. I hate that Rick Riordan concentrates too much on the plot and not the characters. In every great book the characters usually are the most important thing. Of course the author supplimented the lack of character description with plot and action. I guess I can't really say that's a bad thing, look at his sales! Anyways great review I should really start reading this series I might once the third book of the second percy jackson series is out!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks a lot Nic! You should definitely get onto this series! The third one (The Serpent's Shadow) came out recently so it would be the perfect time to read it... Thanks again for the comment ;)

      Delete
  2. I loved this book and Riordan is one of my favorite authors!! Hope you enjoy the rest of the series!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the comment David,
      I agree that Riordan is an amazing author and the rest of the series was great
      !!! Thanks again...

      Delete
  3. This is a great book and series of books. As an avid reader of Riordan's, I would say that the Kane Chronicles is my favorite series he has written and he introduces two great new characters with this book. The banter between the two while the story is taking place in fantastic, but the story itself is genius. Read it and you will love it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is one of his best series written!!! The rest of the books in that series are just as good, if not better...
      Thanks for the comment

      Delete
  4. Great review Daniel! I actually haven't read any of Riordan's books but I'll put this one on my list : )

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Anna, this is one of Riordan's finest and you should definitely start reading more of his works... I recommend the Percy Jackson series after this...
      Thanks a ot for the comment ;)

      Delete
  5. I like that the main character is named Carter. I'm assuming it's a tip of the hat to Howard Carter.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not really sure if it is towards Howard Carter but it would be clever if it was... Thanks for the comment anyway.

      Delete
  6. What a great and awesome review on The Red Pyramid. You did a great job of describing the main and important bits in the novel without giving anything away! Riordan is one talented writer....
    Great Work!
    - Alex

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Alex... Generous words... Riordan is indeed a talented writer and I did find it difficult to write thi review without giving anything away...
      Thanks again
      -Daniel-

      Delete
  7. You did a wonderful job reviewing this book! I like how you describe the details about the book, without giving the important events away.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much, Riordan is an amazing author and like I said in the previous comment, it was difficult to make the review without giving anything away...
      Thanks again
      -Daniel-

      Delete
  8. Hey Daniel, what an excellent review!!! You really describe everything well and you provoke people to read this... Keep up the good work

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much, I'm glad that I provoked people to read this because it is such an AMAZING novel that should be read by everyone.
      Thanks Again
      -Daniel-

      Delete
  9. I have been thinking about reading this series for a long while, but I was afraid that it might not be as good as the Percy Jackson books. But I think I´ll believe your words and put it on my to be read list :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is another one of Riordan's great works. It is just as good as his Percy Jackson series and you should definitely give it a go.
      Thanks for the comment,
      ~Daniel~

      Delete
  10. Hey Daniel, I tagged you to accept the Liebster Blog Award.

    Here is the link http://intothepages87.blogspot.com/2012/06/thank-you-d.html

    I hope you check it out :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OMG!!! Thank you so much!!! Really nice of you!

      Delete
  11. Great review! I Loved this series. First Greek Mythology, now Egyptology, Rick Riordan does such a good job of putting an amazing contemporary spin on them and bringing his stories to life.

    http://thecrossbreeds.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Riordan is one of my favourite authors. I admire him because he usually writes about Mythology but he also doesn't repeat what he already uses...
      Thanks for the comment!
      ~Daniel~

      Delete
  12. I'm also a big fan of Rick Riordan! His books are just so great and interesting. Nice review

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Aaron,
      you have to read this if you haven't already. I don't think that anyone who has commented on this review is not a Riordan fan. Thanks again...
      ~Daniel~

      Delete
  13. It is quite beneficial, although look at the facts when it reaches this target. polysec

    ReplyDelete