The Red Pyramid

 

Level: Youth

Genre: Fantasy > Urban Fantasy

Obtained: Purchased at Walmart

Reviewed by: Nic Echo

About the Book:

Sadie Kane has lived most of her life with her grandparents in England while Carter, her brother, has lived with their father, constantly traveling. During one Christmas, Carter and his father go up to visit Sadie. While there, the three of them visit the British Museum and end up releasing Set, an Egyptian god of chaos, whose first act is to imprison Carter and Sadie's father. From then on out, Carter and Sadie are forced into a quest to try to save their father and to stop Set from destroying the North American continent.

Rating: 5/10

Having read and loved the first four Percy Jackson books, I was incredibly excited to see that Riordan was going to be writing a series based in Egyptian mythology. Sadly, it was not as great as I was expecting and not nearly as gripping as the Percy Jackson books. The latter I could read over and over again, but I think The Red Pyramid will be a one time read from me. Now, don't get me wrong; I didn't find the book bad. In fact, the concept was quite interesting, and it definitely had its moments. Granted, my favourite bit was after the climax so I'm not sure what that says about the book.

Honestly, I felt that The Red Pyramid moved slowly. This could have been due to the fact that it was bogged down with information. Now, I understand why. Most people (including me) know very little (if anything at all) about Egyptian lore, which also happens to be quite complicated. However, the exuberant amount of information isn't the only problem I had. To be frank, I couldn't care less about any of the characters. Honestly, I think my favourite character was the albino crocodile. It wasn't that I even hated the characters. I simply didn't care. Then, the fact that I cared very little for them made the book seem longer since it was mostly our heroes running and fighting baddies. Yes, I am aware there was a lot of this in the Percy Jackson books, but it seemed that they were required to use their brains a lot more often. Now, there are times when Carter and Sadie need to use their noggin, but it seemed that either someone else did the thinking for them or the solution was pretty eye roll worthy. I also wasn't fond of the humour in this book, but I do think that kids could get a kick out of it such as Bast's references to Friskies and seeing one of the villain's pink boxers. My cousin, who is in the 5th grade, is also reading this, and I do plan on getting his feedback and perhaps posting his insight on here. So maybe it will be more enjoyable from a kid's point of view. We'll see. As for me, I will still read the next book, but this time, I will get it from the library.

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