Book Review: Kane Chronicles

"We choose to believe in Ma'at.  We create order out of chaos, beauty and meaning out of ugly randomness.  That's what Egypt is all about.  That's why its name, its ren, has endured for millennia.  Don't despair.  Otherwise Chaos wins."


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Everyone knows that I love the Percy Jackson series.  One of the reasons that I love it so, however, is that it really respects Greek myths.  Too often, writers give into the temptations to view Greek myths through the lens of  modern theology or thought.  But if we really look into it, they are different.  For example, we like to label certain gods in the Greek pantheon as good or evil, when the Greeks didn't view it that way. They were all good, and they were all evil. To us, gods are superhuman--they are different, separate and better than.  To the Greeks, gods were ultrahuman--they were everything about humanity, just multiplied.  So, instead of transcending human fault, they actually embody it.  There are other situations, too, but Greek myth modernized is hard for a lot of writers.  For the record, that's why I hate Disney's Hercules with a burning passion.  Rewrite the myths.  I'm okay with that.  They've been rewritten a million and one times anyways (also see my thoughts a few summers ago about Merlin and Arthurian Legend).  But keep their spirit.  The Percy Jackson series did that. 

But this actually made me more nervous about Rick Riordan's series The Kane Chronicles, his Egyptian myth inspired series.  Because Greek and Egyptian mindsets are just as dissimilar as modern Western and Greek mindsets.  He couldn't do it again, and just as well, for sure. 

I was quite pleasantly surprised by Riordan's offering.  Once again, he managed to bottle up the essence of an ancient mythology (this time Egyptian) and present it to readers in a fresh way that enhances their understanding of the myths.

Brother and sister pair, Sadie and Carter Kane, have only a few days to keep the world from falling into Chaos.  And all they have is their limited knowledge of Egyptian magic (though it is growing), and a cat.  The cat just happens to be Bast, but details. Minutia. 

Riordan did it again with a fresh, modern take on myth, his signature style throughout, and two distinct, new narrator voices in Sadie and Carter. 

I fully recommend this series to any and all who like Egyptian myths (or who want to).

Five stars for the series (though some installments get four stars)

Comments

Amanda said…
I really enjoyed the third one, because everything really came together, but the first book had me nervous. Also, that's my favorite quote from the series.
August 11, 2015 at 2:21 PM
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