The Red Pyramid (Kane Chronicles, #1)
Like Riordan's other YA series, Percy Jackson and The Olympians, The Red Pyramid is fun to read and educational to boot. I re-learned things about Egyptian mythology that I forgot I even knew. But, also like Percy Jackson, there's something about Riordan's storytelling voice that just bugs me. When the action is slow and the only thing keeping your interest is the voice of the characters, Riordan falters.
The book is told in first person from the alternating POV's of siblings Carter and Sadie Kane. Riordan does okay with Carter's voice, but when it comes to Sadie, a twelve year old British girl, he just tries WAY too hard. I've read books by British authors who used less "British" words. It's like he thought just putting a bunch of "rathers," "quites," and "poshes" in there would automatically make her British. Most of the problems that I had with the writing style faded into the background, however, when the action and story really started in (which unfortunately wasn't for about 150 pages). And even though I can see exactly where this series is going, and you will, too, if you've read Percy Jackson (Riordan writes in that same "Gods and Monsters" formula, almost to the point where I could predict events in this book based on events in PJ), I still enjoyed myself. It was a nice break from all that serious reading that's making my head hurt so much these days.