REVIEW: The Kane Chronicles: The Serpents Shadow by Rick Riordan

Our story begins six months after the last book having just reawakened Ra, the Sun God. Sadie and Carter Kane travel to Dallas and meet the leader of the 51st Nome, JD Grissom. They tell him that they need the magic scroll from the King Tut exhibit at the Dallas Museum of art or the forces of Apophis will destroy the Nome. The Nome is attacked and falls because of this and the scroll is destroyed as the Scroll is the key to defeating Apophis and Apophis wants all the scrolls burned. A mysterious face in a wall tells Sadie that she needs to retrieve a golden box. She does so and later finds out that it is a shadow box of King Tut.

Leonid, a Russian magician that we met in the last book finds the Kanes and warns them about the rebels who are led by Sarah Jacobi and Kwai. They have teamed up with Apophis in doing his bidding. Carter and Walt visit Thoth, the god of Knowledge and founder of the House of Life to ask him more about shadows and the statues. He sends them on a mission and tells them to find Setne who is currently on trial by Osiris, Carter and Sadie’s dad. They meet Osiris and persuade him to let Setne go with them as he needs is the only one that knows where the book of Thoth is and Carter and Zia retrieve it from the Temple of the Apis Bull. It is then revealed that Ra has chosen Zia as a host of his. Setne tricks them as forewarned by Osiris and escapes.

At the last battle, they find Bast distracting Apophis to the best of her ability. Bes and Ra/Zia go to help her whilst the Kanes go and help the first Nome from being attacked. Walt and Anubis merge their forces as Walt is very weak and become one. They help the initiates get through to Amos where he is trapped in the hall of ages through their death magic. Amos is now revealed to be the host of Set and stands his own for majority of the battle and also keeps Set in check. Sadie and Carter channel Isis and Horus respectively and join in the fight against the chaos demons. Walt and Anubis save Sadie from being killed by Sarah Jacobi by channelling the forces of the death and send her to the duat. Kwai manages to step up though and destroys the first Nome. Sadie with the help of Isis performs a very powerful spell and restores the First Nome and then passes out.

But that is not the end of the battle; Carter calls upon the rest of the Gods to help with the execration of Apophis. The serpent swallows Zia but she kills him in the end by making his head explode whilst the execration is going on. The Gods must flee as the power of Chaos and Ma’at must always be at balance so when one is pushed away, so must the other.

Carter takes the throne of the Pharaoh as well as Horus taking the throne of the Gods. Sadie and Carter have saved the world after all and because of Anubis’ eye and mortal host Walt, they didn’t have to retreat when the rest of the Gods did and so they can stay with Sadie.. Awww. Carter and Sadie end the book by saying that they are so busy, that they don’t have any time to record the events anymore. And thus ends the trilogy with an invitation for anybody with Pharaoh blood to join the House of Life.

These three books written by Rick Riordan have been explorative and an entertaining peek into the Egyptian Mythology. Obviously, some things are changed to suit the narrative and others to be dumbed down so that younger readers can understand but I still stand by that Riordan’s books are for all ages and everyone will find something to enjoy about them.

4 out of 5 stars.