Riordan Wiki:Featured Articles/The Red Pyramid



The Red Pyramid is a 2010 fantasy, adventure novel written by Rick Riordan and is the first installment of The Kane Chronicles. The story is told as a transcription of a recording made by Sadie and Carter Kane, detailing the rise of the Egyptian gods in the modern world.

Carter Kane has been traveling around the world since he was eight years old. He was home schooled by his father, Julius Kane, who is a famous Egyptology scientist.

On Christmas Eve, Carter and Julius head to London to visit Carter's sister, Sadie, who lives as a British student. Both siblings were separated at a very young age, Sadie to live with her grandparents, and Carter with his father. Julius picks up Sadie, and she discovers that one out of the two days of the year they get the spend together was going to be occupied by a trip to British Museum. Before heading there, Carter and Sadie spy on their dad talking to a strange man named Amos. They had no idea what the adults were talking about, but when Sadie pops out to say hi to her dad, Amos disappears. While at the museum, Sadie and Carter noticed that their dad was extremely interested in one specific artifact, the Rosetta Stone. Julius Kane ends up blowing the artifact up by trying to summon Osiris. He also accidentally releases the other children of the Demon Days: Nephthys, Isis, Horus, and Set. Set, the Egyptian god of chaos and storms and the most evil of the gods, ends up locking Julius in a sarcophagus and sending him through the floor. Meanwhile, Sadie and Carter sit by watching the entire event. The British police end up taking and "arresting" the two for questioning. This happens at Sadie's home, also her grandparents' home. Both tell the police what happened in the museum and about the mysterious man their dad had talked to earlier. Amos is revealed to be their uncle, who saved them from being taken into custody. Amos takes them to the family mansion in Brooklyn. He leaves them their to search around the house, but tells them not to go to the library, but they decide to go into the library anyway due to Sadie's recklessness. While in the library, Set's warriors attack the house and Bast the cat goddess, who was disguised as Sadie's cat, Muffin, saves them. Also in the process, they loose Philip of Macedonia, the albino crocodile. They all escape, but Bast is later overcome by Serqet, the scorpion goddess. Not shortly after, they meet Zia Rashid, who helps distract Serqet while Sadie and Carter escape through a portal. In those past couple hours, Sadie and Carter learn a lot about what has happened and that they are blood of the pharaohs.

Zia takes them to the House of Life in Egypt, to be trained as magicians. The Chief Lector, Iskandar, dies, and is replaced with Desjardins, the Kanes have to flee again, as the House of Life sees them as a threat. They are godlings, meaning they host the gods Horus and Isis (hosting the gods is against the beliefs of the House). They go to Paris and retrieve a book from Desjardins' property which tells them how to defeat Set and save their dad. They find out that they need the Feather of Truth to help defeat Set; they then go to the Egyptian underworld, the Duat, to retrieve the Feather of Truth. On the way out they are attacked by Sobek the crocodile god but they escape when Bast (who turned out not dead) sacrifices herself to save Carter and Sadie.

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