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.
We must start this review saying that we enjoyed The Red Pyramid way more than the Percy Jackson series, which is ironic. We’re huge fans of Roman and Greek mythology, so we were not expecting to like a book about Egyptian mythology as much as we did.
Meet Carter and Sadie Kane. Although they’re siblings, Sadie lives in London with her grandparents while Carter travels the world with their dad. Julius Kane is a famous Egyptologist, but since his wife passed away he gets to see Sadie once a year. In one of this visits he takes both Carter and Sadie to the British Museum, where things get really bad. With their dad missing, Carter and Sadie must survive—and somehow find him.
We think what made me love this book so much were the characters. We’re not a huge fan of books where the story is told by the characters’ point of view, but Sadie’s and Carter’s personalities gave this one a special touch. We loved to see the siblings interaction during the narrative, how they made comments about each other and the situations. This book is full of humor moments, but also packed with the right amount of action. We couldn’t put it down, we didn’t feel its length going by as we were reading–and when we finished we longed for more.
Rick Riordan is known by his way of putting mythology in a book, he waves the facts and the unreal aspects of it in a natural pace, making everything seem so cool and obvious, even the most strange things end up almost real right in front of our eyes. This, mixed with Sadie and Carter’s amazing personalities, made The Red Pyramid a must read.
Author: Rick Riordan
Country: United States
Language: English
Genre(s): Fiction, Adventure
Publisher: Hyperion Books
Publication date: May 4, 2010
Pages: 528
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Our favorite quotes on this book are bellow.
My name is Carter Kane. I’m fourteen and my home is a suitcase.
You think I’m kidding?
“Six years in England,” I muttered, “and she thinks she’s James Bond.”
I’d been to the British Museum before. In fact I’ve been in more museums than I like to admit—it makes me sound like a total geek.
[That’s Sadie in the background, yelling that I am a total geek. Thanks, Sis.]
“What’s in his workbag?” she asked.
“I don’t know. He told me never to look.”
Sadie raised an eyebrow. “And you never did? God, that is so like you, Carter. You’re hopeless.”
Manhattan has other problems. Other gods. It’s best we stay separate.
“Carter, after you.”
“Um, how do I—”
“How do you think?”
Great, another mystery. I was about to suggest we ram Amos’s head against it and see if that worked.
“Fairness does not mean everyone gets the same,” Dad said. “Fairness means everyone gets what they need. And the only way to get what you need is to make it happen yourself.”
“I don’t want to scare you.”
“Too late.”
We were alone in a strange mansion with a baboon, a crocodile, and a weird cat. And apparently, the entire world was in danger.
As if that had been on my to-do list for Christmas hols. See Dad—check. Develop strange powers—check. Defeat an evil god of chaos—check.
So, yeah. Our cat was a goddess.
What else is new?
Bast borrowed a silver Lexus convertible.
“Oh, yes,” she purred. “I like this one! Come along, children.”
“But this isn’t yours,” I pointed out.
“My dear, I’m a cat. Everything I see is mine.”
We raced to the entrance of the museum, and I had no idea why, except that a giant glowing cat woman had told us to.
We passed hieroglyphic scrolls, gold jewelry, sarcophagi, statues of pharaohs, and huge chunks of limestone. Why would someone display a rock? Aren’t there enough of those in the world?
“Nothing there but a couple of cold magicians and some magic penguins.”
“Magic penguins?”
“Don’t ask.”
I’m not sure how he could miss me, floating a few feet away in glowing chicken form, but apparently I was invisible to him.
You know how hard it is to feel like an extreme falcon-headed combat machine when somebody calls you “chicken man”?
The servant flinched. I guessed his name was Face of Horror. I wondered how long it had taken his mom to think of that. Bob? No. Sam? No. How about Face of Horror?
“This is Graceland. Home to the most famous musician in the world.”
“Michael Jackson lived here?”
“No, dummy,” Carter said. “Elvis Presley.”
For once I was pretty sure what he’d said in Baboon. It wasn’t an invitation. It meant something like: “I’m going to play basketball by myself now. I will not invite you because your lack of skill would make me throw up.”
“I am Shezmu!” the bloody lion man said.
I wanted to say, “Yes, you certainly are.” But I decided to keep my mouth shut.
“You’re really dead, then?”
He chuckled. “Last I checked.”
“I’m not a dog,” he grumbled.
“No,” I agreed. “You’re…”
No doubt I would’ve said delicious or something equally embarrassing, but Carter saved me.
“You’re not dead.”
“No,” I said. “Though we’re trying awfully hard.”
It’s my birthday, Horus insisted. Wish me happy birthday!
“Happy birthday!” I yelled. “Now, shut up!”
“I hate this plan,” Sadie grumbled.
“Just keep her occupied for a few seconds,” I said. “And don’t die.”
“Yeah, that’s the hard bit, isn’t it?”
Far, far below, red liquid bubbled. Blood? Lava? Evil ketchup? None of the possibilities were good.
It was a fight to the death, and I felt great.
When you become a parent, you may understand this. One of my hardest jobs as a father, one of my greatest duties, was to realize that my own dreams, my own goals and wishes, are secondary to my children’s.
Have you ever noticed how parents can go from the most wonderful people in the world to totally embarrassing in three seconds?
Source:
http://www.murphyslibrary.com/2013/01/review-the-red-pyramid-rick-riordan/