62 pages • 2 hours read
Rick RiordanThe Throne of Fire
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2011A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Literary Context: The Kane Chronicles
The Kane Chronicles (The Red Pyramid, The Throne of Fire, and The Serpent’s Shadow) follow Carter and Sadie Kane as they discover their Egyptian heritage and the magic that runs through their blood. Sadie and Carter are descendants of Egyptian pharaohs, making them extremely powerful magicians. For most of their childhoods, Carter and Sadie were kept apart so their magic wouldn’t flare and cause problems. At the beginning of the series, their mother is dead, and their father is imprisoned by Set, forcing Carter and Sadie to trust one another and their Uncle Amos, a magician in the Egyptian world. Throughout The Red Pyramid, Carter hosts the god Horus and Sadie hosts Isis, giving them access to power beyond what they should be able to harness. Hosting gods is dangerous, especially for inexperienced magicians, and at the end of the book, Carter and Sadie relinquish the gods. The Throne of Fire shows Carter and Sadie learning to utilize their godly connections to tap into their power without losing control of themselves.
The Kane Chronicles take place in Riordan’s shared mythology world. The New York magicians make their home in Brooklyn because it is on the eastern side of the East River. In ancient Egypt, east was associated with the rising sun and life, and people lived only to the east of the Nile because it was considered dangerous to live to the west—the side of sunset and death, where the dead were buried. In Riordan’s fantasy world, the magicians also live to the east of the river because the Greek gods inhabit Manhattan, and it is best if the gods do not cross. Riordan’s many Greek and Roman novels take place in Manhattan (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Heroes of Olympus, and The Trials of Apollo), and beyond this, Riordan’s Norse stories (the Magnus Chase series) take place in Boston, where the Norse gods hold dominion.
Historical Context: Ancient Egypt
Riordan draws upon the traditions and mythology of ancient Egypt to construct his modern-day take on the Egyptian gods and the struggle between order and chaos. Ancient Egypt had many gods, only a fraction of which appear in the Kane Chronicles. The major gods (Ra, Osiris, Horus, Isis, Anubis, and others) play major roles in the series, and Riordan variably modernizes the gods as is appropriate for the role they play in the story.
The main stories of the gods form much of the series’ conflicts. Most prominently, the conflict between Ra and Set/Apophis (order and chaos) is a central theme of the series, with the magicians mostly fighting to maintain order. In The Throne of Fire, Riordan reimagines the specific conflict between Ra and Isis. In myth, Isis wanted her son to have the throne, so she created a snake from clay and Ra’s spit to poison Ra. Since Isis created the snake, only she could cure the poison. Overcome with the illness, Ra agreed to relinquish the throne to be cured. Riordan stays true to this myth in the novel; Isis poisoned Ra so that her husband, Osiris, could take his throne, which would allow Isis’s son—Horus—to rule after him. He adds that Isis’s betrayal put Ra into an enchanted sleep, giving the Kanes a goal to achieve in this second novel.
Ra’s return to power is met with mixed reactions. The third and final book in the series, The Serpent’s Shadow, continues to explore the story of Ra and Horus while following Carter and Sadie’s battle against Apophis; other major gods, such as Anubis, Neith, Osiris, and Shu, also make appearances.
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By Rick Riordan
