Kane toads vs Snake

Last week, I also finished the third book in the Chronicles of Kane, The Serpent's Shadow.

I'm actually having more trouble figuring out what I want to say about it than I was with the second one (and I didn't say a whole lot about that).

I guess, let's start with what's happening. The Serpent of Chaos is rising again, more quickly than seemed likely after the second book. The Kanes, and the House of Life in general, are playing a holding game against the Serpent, and against the traitors, and it isn't working out very well for them.

Adding to that, they've got only one lead on how to defeat Apophis, which is a scroll created centuries ago currently residing in a Dallas museum.

I still wasn't too thrilled with the conceit of how the story was told. One thing that really hit me on that was that, if you're reciting into a tape, you will not stop at a cliffhanger (as happened one chapter). Plus, maybe I was just overly sheltered, but I definitely didn't spend any significant amount of time contemplating dating the distaff at that age. So it felt like too much of that to me (especially at Sophie's age; thirteen might have been marrying age a millenium or two ago, but not so much, these days).

One thing I did find interesting was how Ra was used in the book. I was wondering, after the second book, and liked what happened to him.

One thing I didn't really like all the focus on order vs chaos, and trying to destroy chaos. Neither one even has any meaning without the other, so portraying that as a winnable fight (for either side) is fairly ridiculous. There was a small nod towards that at the end, but I found it fairly weak.

Having a pharaoh at the end also seemed kind of silly. There's no state for him to be head of. What's wrong with just having a Lector? Why is there any need to have a pharaoh at all? The only thing I can think of is for dramatic reasons, but dramatic reasons are supposed to improve what's in the story, not create it. Perhaps I didn't phrase that well... I think it's to show the progress of the character, but being titular head of nothing, really, isn't adding anything.

I rather liked the "Uncle Vinnie" character, although he felt a bit too modern. I'm not sure what should have been done, but I think something should have. I suppose, in reflection, the original Lector was the same way and, perhaps, the Gods as well.

Oh yeah. Minor detail I almost forgot about: Hapi pills. Rating: badly forced.

Still, I did enjoy the book, overall. I think the series wasn't nearly as good as the Olympian ones, but it was pretty good. There were intimations that crossovers might be possible at some point in the future. I'm not sure whether I'd look forward to that, but it's certainly got some potential.