Rick Riordan is acclaimed by many to be a great author, and I agree with that. The way he writes under different personalities is really interesting, as well as very realistic, despite it being a book about Egyptian magic and gods. He does not take anything to the point of overboard, just uses subtle hints from time to time - which is more to my liking, I think. Both of the main characters have people they seem interested in (even if only minorly), and he does not make me feel as though I am going to barf up grossly chunky bits of early teenage romance. (If you want to understand this better, please check out one of my prior reviews, Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel, which although I liked it, was a little overboard on the romance level of things.)
This is seriously a good book - I could just let my brain relax with it, which, although some might argue otherwise, I feel to be a good thing, every once in a while.
Ever since Carter and Sadie's family was split up after their mother died, Carter has been traveling around the world with his archeologist father while Sadie has been living with their grandparents in London, England, only reuniting as a family twice a year, due to a legal fight between their grandparents and father. On Christmas Eve, the small family of three meet each other again, but Carter and Sadie's dad is acting a little on the strange side of things, repeatedly talking about 'making things right' and mumbling about Sadie and Carter's mom. Since they have only this one day together for the next few months, where else does their dad take them but to an Ancient Egyptian Museum for Christmas Eve to see the Rosetta Stone? Suddenly, once the museum curator has left, their dad is mumbling to the stone strange words, and as if that isn't enough, a creepy red man pops up out of the stone and puts Sadie and Carters dad into a magical sarcophagus, sending him away. Sadie and Carter discover that their life wasn't quite what they thought it was (is it ever?) - that secrets lurk within their ancestry, that they have a magician (a real one) of an uncle, and that they too can do magic. On top of all that, they have to save the world from the creepy red man (who is actually an Egyptian god named Set), who wants to wreak havoc, sending the world into eternal Chaos. Not complicated enough for you yet? They have recently discovered voices lurking in their heads, and magicians chasing them around, trying to kill them for it, and to keep them away from Set.
I know, that was probably confusing - but imagine being such a good writer that you can actually juggle such a story line like that around in your head (with other subplots, too), and manage to make it out on paper! I like to imagine myself to be a good writer, but I don't think I could do that!
I will admit this book is probably aimed at a 12 to 15 or 16 year olds, but even if you are older than that, you should try this book out - it is worth it. Overall, I think I would give this a 3.5-4 star rating (but you should know I am very tough when I rank books, and that is a really good ranking for me. I rarely give out 5 stars)
Are you reading any good books that have a difficult plot, that just wows you with they way the author balances it all? If so, please let us know which book it is in the comments below!
In the meanwhile,
Stay Addicted!
-Jason