‘Percy Jackson’ author Rick Riordan finds new magic with ‘The Red Pyramid’

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LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK REVIEW

Susan Carpenter recently reviewed Rick Riordan’s latest book for the Los Angeles Times, here’s an excerpt...

In “The Red Pyramid,” the first book in “The Kane Chronicles,” Rick Riordan’s new series for middle readers, a child has godlike powers but doesn’t know it until strange things begin to unfold. A parent disappears, prompting introductions to ancient characters and travels to otherworldly places. There are battles with evil forces and a looming deadline by which the child must complete a mission, lest society descend into chaos.

If this sounds like “Percy Jackson & the Olympians,” the author’s five-book, New York Times bestseller fantasy series — and source of the film “The Lightning Thief” — that’s no coincidence. Why mess with a successful formula, especially if you can use it to make your new story just as fast-paced and intriguing as its predecessor?

With “The Red Pyramid,” Riordan has done just that. Here there are two protagonists instead of one — siblings Sadie and Carter Kane — and their powers hail from gods who are Egyptian rather than Greek. Their mission: to find their archaeologist father, who accidentally blew up the British Museum and, as a result, was absorbed through the museum’s floor. On Christmas Eve, no less.

Once again, Riordan masterfully meshes modern life with mythology and history, reinvigorating dusty artifacts such as the Rosetta stone and revitalizing ancient Egyptian story lines....

THERE’S MORE, READ THE REST

-- Susan Carpenter

Here’s a trailer for the book...

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