Book Review: The Red Pyramid

TITLE: The Red Pyramid
Book 1 in the Kane Chronicles
AUTHOR: Rick Riordan
PUBLISHED: 2010
CATEGORY: Childrens
GENRE: adventure, fantasy
PREMISE: Siblings Carter and Sadie have always been seperated ever since they were six. Carter travels with his dad, Sadie lives with her grandparents. Then their dad does something crazy during one of his visits with Sadie and all hell breaks loose...
MY REVIEW: If you've read Percy Jackson you pretty much know the deal with Riordan's books: great humor, lots of action/adventure, fast paced, simple. It's a formula that worked well for Percy Jackson and the audience Riordan is aiming this at (reluctant readers, middle-schoolers) and it works just as well here.
Does it sometimes feel like Percy Jackson redone with Egyptian Gods? Yes. In fact this series apparently takes place in the same universe as Percy Jackson so it doesn't really stray much. So if you wanted something new and different and unique with this, you were probably disappointed. Me, I was okay with it. Uber spectacular? No. But like the Percy series it works because of who the books are aimed for and what Riordan is trying to accomplish. He's not trying to be Harry Potter (though lots of people try to accuse him of this), he's not trying to be utterly brilliant either. He's trying to get reluctant readers/boys in middle-school to pick up books and enjoy reading. For that, I applaud him.
I personally enjoyed it. As much as I enjoyed Percy? Maybe not. But it's still a fun series and I look forward to future installments of it. Fans of Percy will probably enjoy it as well. I am personally curious if this means Riordan plans on exploring other gods as well because with this it kind of makes me wonder if there gods in other cultures. For instance Native American Gods, or Japanese Gods, or Nordic Gods and so on. Possibilities are endless and I look forward to whatever Riordan brings us.
WHO SHOULD READ: Percy Jackson fans, Egyptian god fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five hierglyphs

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