The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

from goodreads

3 stars

My friend form the blog My Fale wrote an excellent post about the importance and magic of libraries. Check it out here. She writes beautifully. Have a fun time reading her blog!

I read the Red Pyramid during the summer. I wanted to start the Percy Jackson series, but all the other kids in my city must have wanted to do the same thing because they were all out at the library and the hold list was a bit crazy. So, I decided to read this book, the first in the Kane series, by the same author as Percy Jackson.

Synopsis

Twins, Carter and Sadie are thrown into the crazy world of Egyptian gods after their father destroys the Rosetta stone and unleashes the evil god Set. Carter and Sadie have to learn magic and face many dangers in order to save their father and the world.

My Thoughts

I liked how this book taught about Egyptian legends and the gods personalities. It sort of reminded me of the Stargate SG-1 series (on TV) as it talked about gods taking human hosts, though not in in the same way as in Stargate. 

That being said, the book was not the best. At times I found the story very hard to pictures. There were details that were not explained well or I forgot about and had to re-read. I also got confused at times of who the narrator was. Every two chapters the narrator switched from Carter to Sadie, and then back. The voices of the two protagonists were hard to distinguish. If I put the book down in the middle of the chapter I had to flip back to the beginning to remember who was narrating. It is definitely a book that you should finish the chapter before stopping. As a busy mom that is hard to do.

It was hard to believe that the characters were only 12. To me the seemed older like 14 or 15, especially Sadie. It might have been better if Riordan had said they were 14. It would have made the book a bit more believable and possibly more enjoyable. Some of the things they said and did just seemed more mature than "normal" 12 year olds. But that being said, it has been a while since I was 12 and my oldest is no where near 12, so you can judge it for yourself. To me it was just not believable.

I was also frustrated with the lack of help and magical training Sadie and Carter received. They were just supposed to know what to do. Wouldn't there be a guide of some sort? That just didn't make sense to me and that could be  why I found the story hard to picture.

I will probably read the rest of the series, but I am in no rush to do so. Older children would probably have no issues with this book. They will love it and probably would give it a higher rating than what I did. An adult will probably find the story frustrating if they were reading it themselves. But, if reading with your 10 year-old, you will probably have lots of fun.