The Throne of Fire

The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan (Disney Hyperion, 2011) is the second installment in the Kane Chronicles, following The Red Pyramid and followed by The Serpent’s Shadow. The story follows teenagers Carter and Sadie Kane as they fight to stop chaos from overtaking the world. A graphic novel of The Throne of Fire was published in 2015, and the book received a glowing review from Kirkus. Riordan is the New York Times bestselling author of over 15 books for young readers. Before transitioning to writing full time, he taught Greek mythology at the middle-school level, which prompted him to modernize the tales as bedtime stories for his son. From this, the joint worlds of his many mythology-fantasy series were born. This guide follows the Disney Hyperion 2011 version of The Throne of Fire.

Plot Summary

The Throne of Fire opens a few months after the end of The Red Pyramid. Following a call for other descendants of the Egyptian pharaohs to join them in Brooklyn, Carter and Sadie Kane have begun training other kids to use the magic of their bloodlines. As the book opens, the siblings and two of their recruits break into a museum to retrieve part of the Book of Ra, the scroll that will let them awaken the god Ra to fight the forces of chaos in just a few days. Leaving a trail of destruction in their wake, the kids retrieve the scroll and return to the Brooklyn magician headquarters, where they learn an evil magician from Russia, Vladimir Menshikov, is amassing an army to defeat the Brooklyn magicians and wake Apophis, the serpent of chaos.

Carter wants to begin their search for the rest of the Book of Ra immediately, but the following day is Sadie’s birthday, and she refuses to spend it hunting for artifacts. Her celebrations are interrupted by angry gods trying to stop her and Carter from waking Ra, and the kids are rescued by Bes, the Egyptian “dwarf” god (the god’s preferred term), who leads them to Russia and the second piece of the book. There, they learn Menshikov has enlisted the help of Set, the god of chaos. In the battle to escape Menshikov’s stronghold, Carter is poisoned. Using powerful magic, Sadie manages to heal her brother, but the incident costs them an entire day.

Set revealed the location of Zia Rashid, a magician from The Red Pyramid who was revealed to be a shabti (clay replica) while the actual Zia had been hidden in an enchanted sleep for her protection. Carter, who developed a close bond with Zia’s shabti, won’t continue the mission without rescuing Zia first. Against Sadie’s better judgment, Carter and Bes go find Zia while Sadie and Walt (a trainee she has a crush on) search for the final piece of the Book of Ra. Carter frees Zia, but the blast of magic he uses alerts Menshikov to his location. After their own struggles retrieving the final piece of the book, Sadie and Walt rush to Carter’s rescue with the assistance of another god. The group temporarily defeats Menshikov, just in time to begin their search for Ra.

Zia and Walt return to Brooklyn to defend the house from Menshikov’s minions while Carter, Sadie, and Bes enter the Twelve Houses of the Underworld to find the three aspects of Ra and combine them. When they finally find the sun god, he is a shell of his former self, and the search has taken so long that they’ll never make it to the Twelfth House in time. In a gamble with the moon god, Carter and Sadie earn three extra hours, and Bes sacrifices himself so the kids can continue their mission. In the Twelfth House, the kids are nearly defeated by Menshikov and Apophis, but a rival magician arrives to help. Having realized the kids are doing the right thing, the magician sacrifices himself to weaken Apophis, a temporary fix designed to give the magicians enough time to rally a defense. Carter and Sadie return to Brooklyn, where they help fight off the remaining attackers and unite most of the magicians against the forces of chaos.