He's b-a-a-ack! Despite their best efforts, Carter and Sadie Kane can't seem to keep Apophis, the chaos snake, down. Now Apophis is threatening to plunge the world into eternal darkness, and the Kanes are faced with the impossible task of having to destroy him once and for all. Unfortunately, the magicians of the House of Life are on the brink of civil war, the gods are divided, and the young initiates of Brooklyn House stand almost alone against the forces of chaos. The Kanes' only hope is an ancient spell that might turn the serpent's own shadow into a weapon, but the magic has been lost for a millennia. To find the answer they need, the Kanes must rely on the murderous ghost of a powerful magician who might be able to lead them to the serpent's shadow . . . or might lead them to their deaths in the depths of the underworld. Nothing less than the mortal world is at stake when the Kane family fulfills its destiny in this thrilling conclusion to the Kane Chronicles.
Review:
After reading the second book of the "Kane Chronicles" series, it was so bad that I wasn't really interested in picking up another book of the same series. But after a while, I had my second thoughts, and decided to give this book a shot. I was hoping Rick Riordan would change up the unconvincing resolutions while keeping the same level of intensity and humor. And thankfully, this last book in the series did live up to my expectation.
The Serpent's Shadow might not be equally as good as the first book of the series, but it was undeniably better than the second. Number one: this book is humorous, definitely more than both the first and the second book combined. It made the plot and conflict off this book not as challenging as it should be, while making the book entertaining. Number two: the plot is interesting, with intense events, electrifying moments, one after another, and relatable as well as exciting characters, both new and old. And number three: a thoroughly entertaining and satisfying ending concludes the series (which I think is about time).
The humor in this book is what made it so different from the other two. The two characters, Sadie and Carter Kane, had told the story in a very brother-and-sister way, making every chapter amusing to read. I laugh my head off every so often (every two minutes). With all the humorous sentences, phrases and dialogues, the two main characters in this book seem to say something like "We just survived doomsday, you know. We saved the world. No big deal, really. Now we can have a nice laugh over it." I was never bored, because I was too busy laughing over the humorous details and events every page or so.
Though with the humor, it couldn't hide the true conflict and the plot. Humor did make it less troublesome, but it was still obvious that the conflict is dangerous and challenging. And in order to solve the problem, there must be action and intensity, and you can never get enough of those. This book is full of electrifying moments chasing one another like heartbeats, pages after pages, chapters after chapters. Endless battles between the gods and non-stop action from the characters are never enough in this book. The high level of intensity is kind of like when there is just too much air in a balloon, it exploded. The events are just too intense and breath-taking that they leave me standing on the tip of my toes, frantically flipping pages to find out what will happen next.
Rick Riordan is great at combining non-stop action and laughable events in just simple paragraphs and sentences, sometimes even small phrases. He had put them together so well, like mixing ice cream and coke together (not very appealing, I know), but he mix them so well that you can have a taste of both, in a perfect combination. Action and humor literally alternate, one after another, making laugh my head off and suddenly holding my breath and quickly flip the pages. I had kept my fingers crossed, hoping this book would be more Rick-Riordan-like, and thankfully, this book is just that.
5/5, no doubt what so ever.
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