The Kane Chronicles ends
with The Serpent’s Shadow which promises the end of the world and
reigning chaos as Apophis has risen and is ready to destroy the world with a
broken faction of magicians, and it’s up to Carter, Sadie, and a small team of
friends to stop them. Rick Riordan ends
the trilogy in honestly one of the weirdest climaxes for a book, with a real sense
that Riordan wanted to write an all out magic battle, but had implemented a
magic system that really doesn’t lend itself well to a structured fight. Instead, there is a final spell scroll which
works as a McGuffin for the plot as the book becomes a fetch quest with a dead
evil magician called Setne and plenty of character drama involving romances and
the stress of trying to save the end of the world. The magic system working on simple commands
mean that magic battles end up being simplified, asking the question why
someone doesn’t just use a hieroglyph for death, other than the fact that this
is a young adult novel. Riordan is
unable to fully flesh out this magic system’s limits and really what it can do
in combat, as in the previous two books it excelled at being used mainly for
utility and the energy costs of the magic (especially in The Red Pyramid)
could be felt by the reader. Here it
feels like Carter and Sadie have, not quite a mastery, but enough understanding
of magic that the reader doesn’t ever get to see the other aspects of the
system. It is one major aspect in the
book which makes the climax feel underwhelming, the spell scroll is found and Carter
and Sadie just have to team up and read it out, defeating Apophis once and for
all.
Apophis as a villain is also one of those major issues
in the book. The serpent really is a shadow
throughout the book, only getting one or two monologues that are not nearly as effective
as the chilling characterization in the short scenes in The Throne of Fire. He is supposed to be an embodiment of chaos,
but you really don’t see anything of chaos coming for the Kane’s from Apophis, the
ghost Setne who is basically chaotic neutral causes more chaos and trouble. It doesn’t help that Apophis doesn’t have a
lieutenant that had been built up, instead his forces are lead by Sarah Jacobi
who was a minor villain in The Throne of Fire, but she doesn’t really
get characterization. Her motivations
are contradictory, believing the gods the cause of chaos and not the giant
snake that fully admits for wanting chaos.
Riordan isn’t trying to make her seem naïve, she’s supposed to be this
big villain, but there isn’t anything there for her to make an impression with
the rest of the characters. She’s also
kind of disposed of rather quickly at one little point in the middle of the
climax without any real ceremony. The
lackluster villains feel like Riordan had a deadline to meet, so he had to
quickly get a villain in the book without any consideration. Compare this to Percy Jackson and the
Olympians where Kronos and Luke both served as an immortal and human
villains, even when Kronos isn’t included as a physical presence until the final
book. There has been build up here, but
that build up has lead to absolutely nothing in terms of catharsis, at least in
this aspect. It makes The Serpent’s
Shadow a really difficult book to get into because the threat doesn’t
actually seem real in this one.
Where Riordan at least succeeds is in wrapping up the
personal stories of Carter and Sadie Kane, and their conflicts with the gods. Both get their romantic shots which at least
feel right for the endings, though Sadie’s is kind of odd as she doesn’t have
to choose in the love triangle ending up in a sort of polycule thing that isn’t
really a polycule, it’s weird. As
always, having their narration is fun and snappy with the sibling bickering being
one of the few highlights of their relationship. There’s also a real sense of conclusion with
the estranged family aspects of the plot, especially after The Red Pyramid
and The Throne of Fire made things incredibly complicated with their
parental situation. It feels like
Riordan was attempting to use the Egyptian gods as analogues for their own
problems and insecurities which actually works really well. There’s also the general writing style that Riordan
employs in all of his books that make
even the more unbearable portions of the plot at least readable. There are far worse books out there, however
of everything Riordan has put out that I have read, The Serpent’s Shadow
is a weak entry and leaves The Kane Chronicles with a hasty and almost
messy wrap up. 4/10.
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