The Throne of Fire facts for kids
Cover of first edition
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| Author | Rick Riordan |
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| Illustrator | John Rocco |
| Country | United States |
| Series | The Kane Chronicles (bk 2) |
| Genre | Fantasy, adventure, children's novel |
| Publisher | Disney Hyperion |
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Publication date
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May 9, 2011 |
| Media type | Print, audiobook |
| Pages | 452 (first ed.) |
| ISBN | 978-1-4231-4056-6 |
| OCLC | 698117335 |
| LC Class | PZ7.R4829 Th 2011b |
| Preceded by | The Red Pyramid |
| Followed by | The Serpent's Shadow |
The Throne of Fire is an exciting fantasy adventure novel written by American author Rick Riordan. It came out on May 3, 2011. This book is the second one in The Kane Chronicles series.
The story follows fourteen-year-old Carter Kane and his twelve-year-old sister, Sadie Kane. They find out they are related to ancient Egyptian pharaohs like Narmer and Ramesses the Great. This book takes place about three months after the first book, The Red Pyramid. The series finishes with The Serpent's Shadow, which was released on May 1, 2012.
Contents
What Happens in the Story?
Sadie and Carter Kane have a huge mission. They need to find three special scrolls from the Book of Ra. Their goal is to wake up the sun god Ra from his long sleep. If they don't, Apophis, a giant serpent of chaos, will destroy the world!
They start their search at the Brooklyn Museum. With two young magicians, Jaz and Walt, they find the first scroll. They have to fight a griffin and some evil spirits to get it. That night, Sadie's soul, called her ba, leaves her body. It travels to the Hall of Ages, which is the main place for the House of Life magicians. There, she sees Desjardins, the Chief Lector, planning to destroy Brooklyn House with a man named Vladimir Menshikov. Meanwhile, Carter's ba meets the god Horus. Horus warns him that other gods might attack him if he tries to wake Ra.
On Sadie's birthday, she visits friends in London. But she is attacked by the baboon god Babi and the vulture goddess Nekhbet. They are controlling her grandparents! Luckily, Bes, the dwarf god, saves her. Bes then joins Sadie and Carter on a trip to the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.
In Russia, the siblings find the second scroll. Menshikov is also there. He has trapped the god Set in a vase. Menshikov finds Carter and Sadie and unleashes a scary two-headed snake. The snake bites and poisons Carter. Sadie manages to kill it. Sadie is not strong enough to fight Menshikov's magic alone. So, she frees Set from the vase. Set knocks Menshikov out. Set tells Sadie where the third scroll is and the name of Zia's home village. In return, Sadie gives Set back his secret name, which frees him from her control. Then, she heals Carter.
Carter and Sadie split up. Walt helps Sadie find the third scroll in the Valley of Golden Mummies. Bes takes Carter to Zia's village. Walt and Sadie get the third scroll after fighting many angry Roman mummies. Carter and Bes find Zia in a deep sleep. Carter wakes her up. Zia has no memory of the adventures her shabti (a magical clay figure) had with Carter. She thinks Carter is a traitor and attacks him.
Desjardins and Menshikov arrive. They trap Bes and plan to execute Carter. Sadie and Walt show up just in time! They free Bes. Bes sends Menshikov and Desjardins back to the Hall of Ages. Menshikov then starts gathering a team of demons to attack Brooklyn House. Sadie convinces Zia to join them. Zia and Walt leave to help defend Brooklyn House. Carter and Sadie get into Ra's boat. They travel into the Duat (the Egyptian underworld) to follow Ra's journey through the Houses of Night.
On their journey, they meet a giant man with horns. He is one part of Ra's soul. Carter and Sadie read from the first scroll of Ra to him. He lets them pass. The siblings travel through a Lake of Fire. Bes joins them at the Fourth House. This place is a special home for old, forgotten minor gods. Tawaret, a hippo goddess who used to have a complicated relationship with Bes, runs the facility.
By reading from the second scroll, Carter and Sadie find Ra and wake him up. But he is very old and weak. He acts like a child and speaks nonsense. He doesn't seem to know where he is. The Kanes continue down the River of Night until they reach the Seventh House. They cannot go through the Eighth House because it is past eight o'clock. To finish their journey, Carter, Sadie, and Bes play a game of senet with Khonsu, the moon god. They bet their rens (secret names) for three extra hours of moonlight. They win three hours, but Bes loses his ren.
The Kanes continue deep into the Duat to the pit where Apophis is trapped. Menshikov is already there, waiting for them. He challenges them to a fight. While Carter keeps Menshikov busy, Sadie reads the third scroll. This wakes up the third part of Ra's soul, which looks like a golden scarab beetle. Apophis takes over Menshikov's body. He gets ready to destroy the Kanes. But Desjardins appears! He uses a powerful spell to banish Apophis even deeper into the Duat. Desjardins dies in the process.
As dawn arrives, the Kanes travel back to Brooklyn House. It is under attack by demons, evil magicians, monsters, and flying snakes. Carter and Sadie help defend it. Bast takes the confused Ra to his place in the sky. Before he leaves, Ra gives the golden scarab to Zia. After winning the battle, the Kanes offer the enemy magicians a choice. They can join them and learn the path of the gods. Some accept, others run away.
Apophis's defeat is only temporary. Sadie and Carter must work even harder to unite all magicians. The gods don't really want to, but they admit Sadie and Carter won. They promise to fight with them in the coming war against the forces of Chaos.
Who Are the Main Characters?
- Carter Kane: He is a fifteen-year-old magician. He used to host Horus, the god of war. After his mother died when he was eight, he traveled with his father. He likes Zia, a young magician. He feels very responsible for his sister and the other young magicians at Brooklyn House. Carter loves Egyptian history and knows a lot about old artifacts. He is a very skilled fighter using magic.
- Sadie Kane: She is a thirteen-year-old magician. She used to host Isis. Sadie loves chewing gum. She has lived with her grandparents since she was six. She is stubborn and strong-willed, but also kind and caring. She had a cat named Muffin. Muffin was actually Bast, the Egyptian goddess of cats. Bast protected Sadie in her cat form until Sadie learned about the gods. Sadie also likes both Anubis and Walt. She started with an English accent but began using an American accent after living in the U.S. for a few months.
- Amos Kane: He is Sadie and Carter's uncle. Amos is a very powerful magician and also a jazz musician. He used to unwillingly host Set. This still affects him, as his magic glows red instead of blue, which was his brother's magic color.
- Walt Stone: He is one of the young magicians at Brooklyn House. Brooklyn House is part of the House of Life, where magicians learn to use the path of the gods to fight Apophis. Walt is a descendant of the pharaoh Akhenaten. Akhenaten banished all gods except Aten. Because of this, Akhenaten's family has a curse. The more they use magic, the faster the curse makes them sick. The curse causes them to die very young. Walt has this curse and will die soon unless he finds a cure. Sadie likes him a lot.
- Jaz: Her full name is Jasmine. She is a cheerleader from Nashville, Tennessee. Jaz is another young magician at Brooklyn House. She is a healer. She went with Carter and Sadie to the Brooklyn Museum to find a scroll. But she fell into a coma after stopping some dangerous magical arrows. She also gave Sadie a statue that helped save Carter from a monster's bite in Russia. Jaz woke up from her coma just in time to help fight magicians attacking Brooklyn House.
- Bast: She is the Egyptian goddess of cats. Bast is Sadie and Carter's protector.
- Vladimir Menshikov: He is the grandson of a famous Russian general. He willingly serves Apophis. He wants to host Apophis to release him and let chaos rule forever. Sadie and Carter go on a quest to stop him.
- Zia Rashid: She is a fourteen-year-old girl. Zia is a fire specialist in the House of Life. She was hosting Nephthys, a water goddess, which is very dangerous for a fire specialist. The former Chief Lector, Iskandar, hid her in the Nile to protect her from Apophis. He replaced her with a shabti (a magical copy) in the first book. In this book, Carter finally wakes up the real Zia. It is hinted that she might play a big part in defeating Apophis in the last book by hosting Ra.
- Bes: He is the dwarf god. Even though he is very ugly, he is fun and brave. He helps Carter and Sadie on their quest until the moon god Khonsu takes his 'ren' (secret name). Tawaret loved him, but he preferred Bast. Bast knew how he felt but used it to her advantage.
- Anubis: He is the Egyptian god of death and funerals. Sadie Kane seems to like both him and Walt. He gives Sadie some information about where to find the second scroll. He also gives her a special knife during the chase with Babi and Nekhbet.
- Ra: He is the Egyptian god of the sun and king of all gods. He was forced to leave a long time ago by Isis, the goddess of magic. In this book, he is very old and confused because he has been "dead" for a long time. Carter and Sadie bring him back to life in the Duat. They hope he can stop Apophis from swallowing the sun and taking over the world.
Graphic Novel Version
A graphic novel version of The Throne of Fire was released on October 6, 2015.
What Happens Next?
Rick Riordan announced that the next book, The Serpent's Shadow, would be released on May 1, 2012. He shared the title in a blog post on January 13, 2011. A sneak peek of the book was published in USA Today.
Want to Learn More?
In Spanish: El trono de fuego para niños
