"Before publishing such an alarming manuscript, I felt compelled to do some fact-checking on Sadie and Carter's story."
This is how Rick Riordan begins his author's notes at the end of this book, the second in the Kane Chronicle Series.
The rest of the book is much like the first: Harry Potter-esque adventures of a brother-sister duo who are descended from the pharoahs of Egypt and battle both for and against the various gods of Egyptian mythology for nothing less than saving the world.
What intrigues me is the style the author chose to use. He says he found this story whole in the form of audio recordings made by Sadie and Carter (they alternate telling the story each chapter, with funny asides to each other to stop hogging the mic). That's what the quote above is about. I wonder what it is that makes us readers want to believe that a fictional story just MIGHT be true. It's not just young adult fiction--the book I read last year about Leningrad during World War Ii (City of Thieves) had a similar message at the beginning of the book. I mean, look at the cover of this book. It's clearly fantasy. But it's fun to think, since so much of the history in the book is true, that the rest may be possible.
Also interesting is how Riordan makes the two kids' voices different from each other. Due to some custody issues, Sadie was raised in England by her grandparents and so uses a lot of British slang (I love words like manky and git!) Carter was raised traveling all over the world by his dad but is mostly American and talks like every teenager I know (um, yeah). It's great characterization through dialogue.
Can you tell I'm thinking more like a writer these days than a reader? I almost didn't even post about this book because I'm into writing my own book so much, but it's good to take a break and write something different for a while. And even though I'm trying to improve my own writing through what I read, it's good to read for just plain fun. These Percy Jackson and Kane Chronicle series are totally fun, even for adults. I heard the Percy Jackson movie stunk, though. I wish someone would make a good one about these books. I'd love to see them.
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