Since their mother’s death, Carter and Sadie have become near strangers. While Sadie has lived with her grandparents in London, her brother has traveled the world with their father, the brilliant Egyptologist, Dr. Julius Kane.
One night, Dr. Kane brings the siblings together for a “research experiment” at the British Museum, where he hopes to set things right for his family. Instead, he unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes him to oblivion and forces the children to flee for their lives.
Soon, Sadie and Carter discover that the gods of Egypt are waking, and the worst of them —Set— has his sights on the Kanes. To stop him, the siblings embark on a dangerous journey across the globe – a quest that brings them ever closer to the truth about their family and their links to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs.
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Short and Sweet: A captivating and imaginative retelling of Egyptian mythology.
After my last not so great read of an Egyptian mythology book, I needed something to cleanse the bitter taste that was left behind. What better way than to read one of my favorite authors? Rick Riordan’s books never fail to make me happy. From clever one-liners, to sarcastic quips, to hilarious chapter titles, his books tend to leave me in stitches.
You can 100% tell that the author used to be a teacher and you can tell that he’s writing for the middle-grade age group, but yet, I still can’t seem to put his books down. I don’t even see them as being middle-grade, they are literally for ALL ages. He has a way of incorporating mythology into the 21st century and I honestly can’t get enough.
He adds in so many well known places in all of his novels, using major landmarks like Cleopatra’s Needle as magical objects. It makes it so much more engrossing. He definitely puts his researching skills to good use.
The way he wrote this book, as if it was a recording that he found, was unbelievably clever. It’s the type of thing that if I was a middle-grader reading this book, I would of devoured it all while contemplating if Sadie and Carter were actually really people.
I absolutely love Carter and Sadie’s characters. Sadie is so sarcastic and sassy, yet extremely relatable. Carter is more the nerdy, awkward type which is incredibly endearing. Their character growth, not only as individuals coming to terms with their powers, but as siblings coming to terms with their proximity is fantastic. You really see them growing into themselves. You see them face not only finding each other, but also facing loss, grief and even budding romances. It’s addicting to read about.
One of my favorite supporting characters had to be Bast. Somehow, I ended up picturing her like Nyphadora Tonks and it made the novel so much better. I think it was the shape-shifting element. And also, cat goddess, of course I was going to love her. She was great! Rick always ends up with such an interesting and diverse cast of characters and each one adds their own unique element to the story.
I really can’t think of anything I disliked. The action/fight scenes were amazing and captivating. I usually ended up skimming action scenes because I find them pretty boring, but I loved these ones. The plot was perfectly paced and pretty solid, it all made sense which I’m gathering can be a difficult thing to do (or maybe it just needs to be the right author.)
All in all, it was a fantastic start of a series and I will definitely be finishing a re-read of the whole thing. It’s been a long time since I read it, so I’m excited to see what I think of it this time around. I remember there being something in the last book that I disliked, but I can’t remember what it is right at the moment. I guess I’ll find out.
ALL THE STARS 😀
Bree Howland 