Morgan's Reviews > The Red Pyramid
My rating:
The Red Pyramid (Kane Chronicles, #1)
by Rick Riordan
by Rick Riordan
Morgan's review
bookshelves:
ya-fantasy,
ya-adventure
Jan 22, 12
Recommended for:
I wouldn't.
Read from January 01 to 21, 2012 — I own a copy, read count: 1
I didn't love this one, I must admit. Like a lot of readers here, I started with Riordan' "Percy Jackson" series and I found them to be enjoyable, funny, and compelling fantasy/adventures. "Lost Hero" is off to an even better start. I picked up "The Red Pyramid" because I was hoping for another adventure through a mythology I knew almost nothing about: ancient Egypt. To be fair, there were many things to like about this book:
1. A bi-racial protagonist. I just don't see this very often in youth lit and we definitely need more of it. We need more books where diverse readers are seeing brown characters in more than just supporting roles. And not only is Carter brown, but he is very mindful of what that can mean in a "white world" and he doesn't shy away from sharing his thoughts on the subject of stereotypes.
2. I actually did learn a lot about Egyptian mythology. Thanks, Rick!
3. Riordan does pull together some genuinely funny moments. The Friskies and grilled cheese lunches made me smile.
But there are some problematic points:
1. I liked the idea of the siblings Carter and Sadie recording their experience for successors, but that narrative device quickly turned into a gimmick as each chapter inevitably featured some sarcastic aside to the sibling not currently in possession of the "microphone". Which leads me to...
2. Sarcasm. Too much of it. Between the siblings. Between the gods. Between the magicians. It was just too much. I found that the funniest moments were when the characters were allowed to just let their eccentricities shine without a snide remark from someone else in the narrative. (See Bast's Friskies and grilled cheese lunches.) The sarcasm kind of killed the humor for the most part.
3. I didn't see much variety in the Egyptian God characters. A few stood out - Thoth, Bast, and well, that's kind of it. The others just seemed to blend together. They all seemed to spout the same lines so after a while the "Magic! Chaos! Du'at!" shouts just become white noise. It was a bummer.
If you're up for adventurous kids and a world where ancient mythology is very much modern, take a pass on this series and give "Percy Jackson" or "Heroes of Olympus" a try instead.
1. A bi-racial protagonist. I just don't see this very often in youth lit and we definitely need more of it. We need more books where diverse readers are seeing brown characters in more than just supporting roles. And not only is Carter brown, but he is very mindful of what that can mean in a "white world" and he doesn't shy away from sharing his thoughts on the subject of stereotypes.
2. I actually did learn a lot about Egyptian mythology. Thanks, Rick!
3. Riordan does pull together some genuinely funny moments. The Friskies and grilled cheese lunches made me smile.
But there are some problematic points:
1. I liked the idea of the siblings Carter and Sadie recording their experience for successors, but that narrative device quickly turned into a gimmick as each chapter inevitably featured some sarcastic aside to the sibling not currently in possession of the "microphone". Which leads me to...
2. Sarcasm. Too much of it. Between the siblings. Between the gods. Between the magicians. It was just too much. I found that the funniest moments were when the characters were allowed to just let their eccentricities shine without a snide remark from someone else in the narrative. (See Bast's Friskies and grilled cheese lunches.) The sarcasm kind of killed the humor for the most part.
3. I didn't see much variety in the Egyptian God characters. A few stood out - Thoth, Bast, and well, that's kind of it. The others just seemed to blend together. They all seemed to spout the same lines so after a while the "Magic! Chaos! Du'at!" shouts just become white noise. It was a bummer.
If you're up for adventurous kids and a world where ancient mythology is very much modern, take a pass on this series and give "Percy Jackson" or "Heroes of Olympus" a try instead.
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