Hello everyone!
It's back to basics this week with books, and with that I mean that I want to review one of the so-called guide books you sometimes get with a book series or a single book (if it warrants it).
Of course it's also just because I'm a big Rick Riordan fan.
Every once in a while, I'll sit down and make sure I read through some of his books, and while I was busy reviewing his Kane Chronicles about a month ago, I almost completely forgot about a new publication he was releasing into the world!
Since every magician needs a trusty sidekick and a guide to ensure that they don't accidentally set themselves on fire, or turn their helpful baboon into a statue, I thought we might take a look at this.
And I mean, I love how every series is getting a manual of how-tos.
Percy Jackson and Magnus Chase having done their job, it's now time for the Kanes to take centre stage.
Let's take a look at the Brooklyn House Magician's Manual, shall we?
Now I only just realized I never actually reviewed the Hotel Valhalla guide book. I need to remedy that, so I think I'll do it next week.
For this one, as I've already said, we're going to be taking a bit of a look at just what, specifically, makes magicians tick in Brooklyn. And of course, this is also a really great chance to catch up with the Kanes and their band of misfits. After all, they've defeated Apophis, so now they can relax a little!
Right?
Haha, wrong.
There's ALWAYS something.
If you've read some cross-over books that included the Kanes and Percy Jackson, you'll know that an evil magician ghost, Setne, has been trying to come back to life and do all sorts of unspeakable things. I promise I'll review those soon enough too!
But for the purpose of this book, what you have to know is that the Kanes managed to imprison Setne in a snow-globe - and he escaped! His little notes are all over the manual.
As for the manual itself, it's Carter Kane who personally explains the need for it:
after his girlfriend Zia misunderstood a basic 'employees wanted' poster, he started thinking that young magicians normally have no clue what it's all about before they arrive to Brooklyn and begin their training. So to ensure that they didn't get things TOO wrong, the idea was to compile the Kanes' experience, some stories from other magicians, maybe grab a god or two, and finish it all up with a nice baboon final word from Khufu.
We start off with a bit of information about Brooklyn House - it's location, what you can find, how it works, and what's right underneath: aka some sort of final resting place for somebody.
Sounds like a REALLY good spot to stuff an annoying ghost magician!
Then we're taken for a tour by the resident shabti who makes sure we have everything we need for our spells and magic and whatnot. And THEN we learn about the Duat, or, basically, the magical ream that coexists with our own.
If you're head's hurting already, wait until we get to the fun stuff.
After we get a bit of a lesson on how magic works - you need to do what feels right for YOU, not what everyone else wants you to do - we finally go and check out a compiled list of most of the major gods and goddesses. And how did the Kanes accomplish this, you ask?
They apologised to all the minor deities that had to take a backseat, and then included really fun quizzes about the rest. I love those, you learn a lot faster that way.
Also, reading about a potential Judge Judy-styled show with Osiris as the head judge is hilarious.
Another fun thing is the 'Un-do' list. Usually, you make to-do lists on a daily basis, but in the Kane household, there's a lot of magic someone has to undo before you can function properly! And Chief Lector Amos Kane knows just the spells you can practice the un-doing on. It's fun to consider.
Of course, no book would be complete without something from the little kindergarten initiates, and imagining Sadie dealing with them and explosions is kinda funny.
However, NOTHING is as funny as the story about how Horus went and merged with a Queen instead of a Pharaoh and ruled through her. Trying to imagine the war-like god as a woman just gives me the giggles.
There's also a cameo from one of our favourites, Bes, who makes sure we all know how to get properly ugly.
Thanks Bes!
It'd be even more fun if we could invite him for some games that you find in this book. Can you imagine playing against a god?
If you want some extra laughs after all the quizzes and games and sing-alongs before we deal with Setne, it's a good bet you'll get them from the Muffin section. Muffin, being Bast in disguise, knows all about napping and threatening paper bags into submission, after all.
But as for Setne - the ghost forgot that you can't ghost around when there's Anubis in the house. And since Walt merged with Anubis in the original trilogy ... well.
So until further notice, he's stuck indefinitely in that tomb I wrote about in the beginning of this blog.
As for the rest of us ...
AGH!
xx
*image not mine
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