Kane Chronicles

Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan

Red Pyramid: starts with a blast. Carter and Sadie visit the Egyptian exhibit at the British Museum where their father touches the Rosetta stone, unleashing the Egyptian gods into the world again. We find out the divine need mortal vessels to interact with the world, a major difference from the Percy Jackson books. They must stop Set from gaining control of the world with his Red Pyramid, which is his seat of power. 

Throne of Fire: Carter and Sadie team up with new recruits with magical powers to find Ra and restore him to his rightful place. Things don’t go to plan, sacrifices are made, hearts broken, and secrets revealed.

Serpents Shadow: the Kane kids and friends must do battle with Apophis to restore order to the world while his agents try to destroy their homes. 

Al in all the Kane books are fun but were not as well liked by most of the readers I walked with, the Egyptian myths are great but get watered down a bit more than the Greek myth of the Percy books. There is not as much cultural cross over to engage the readers, growing up the only experiences I had with the myths were being terrified at the museum by the mummies and seeing them chase Shaggy and Scooby, whereas the Greek monsters are everywhere in American culture. The children’s books are starting to catch up lore wise, the 39 clues series takes us to Egypt in their book Beyond the Grave by Watson and the Tombquest series by Northrop where the main character dies and his mother brings him back to life using the Lost spells from the book of the dead. 

Rick Riordan did write three crossover short stories. Son of Sobek, Percy and Carter meet up and fight a giant crocodile as well as have a scuffle themselves. Staff of Serapis where Annabeth and Sadie fight against a old foe using both Greek and Egyptian magic. And Crown of Ptolemy where all four children team up and try to bash evil in the face, the short stories are amazing because it combines both myth structures into a shared world and has future ramifications. 

The next book Rick Riordan is releasing is Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard book one: the Sword of Summer. I am a bit excited about this new series, Greek myth has always been my favorite but Nordic myth is my runner up. We should be seeing loads of giants and trolls as well as more crossovers with the other myths, Magnus and Annabeth are cousins and from the preview chapter it seems she is trying to find him.  

Bringing mythology to the classroom is a great idea. It gives us a glimpse of history as well as helping kids find wonder, giving them both heroes and monsters they will remember for a lifetime. Egyptian and Greek influences can be found everywhere in our modern world from architecture to video games, to terrible music videos. I realized late in the game my intense love of monsters and myth as far as classes went in college but now most of my art and creative energy is directed towards myth and making my own stories.