THE THRONE OF FIRE

In Carter and Sadie Kane's last adventure (The Red Pyramid, 2010), they fought Set, god of evil; now the stakes are even higher.

Apophis, god of Chaos, is rising, and he’s in a whole different league. Related as a transcript of an audio recording made by Carter and Sadie, the tale begins with a bang in the Brooklyn Museum. They manage to smash up the museum, set Brooklyn on fire and ride off in an Egyptian reed boat pulled by a screeching griffin, and that’s just in the first 30 pages. The dynamic duo survives their first adventure with a scroll in hand or, more precisely, a third of a scroll. They must now find the other two thirds to piece together the Book of Ra. The plan: to awaken Ra, the powerful Egyptian sun god, to counter Apophis. From Brooklyn, it’s on to London, Russia, Egypt and the River of Night. This volume begins so thunderously that the narrators seem more like frenetic tour guides than friendly companions, pulling readers along at a breakneck pace. Riordan supplies them with his trademark wisecracking voice and explores themes of power, responsibility, family, love and loyalty as the tale hurtles along.

What a week for the Kanes. If they don’t quite vanquish evil for all time, they at least avert disaster long enough for Riordan to write Book Three, coming the spring of 2012.