Hello everyone!
Ohmygosh, I know.
It's taken me absolutely forever to finish this trilogy, and the things are only short e-novellas.
I'm terrible at keeping track of what still needs to be done when it comes to books, because I get too easily distracted by the whole lot of unread tomes out there.
I have a list as long as my arm of things I have yet to read, not to mention a couple of books that are begging to be reviewed, but right now I figured, might as well do something useful and actually stop pissing off a group of demigods.
And magicians. Never forget the magicians.
When Greek and Egyptian magic collide, you're bound to have some really great stories, and among them, Rick Riordan is probably the ultimate storyteller, at least so far as I've seen.
He did give us Percy Jackson, after all.
So let's check out The Crown of Ptolemy, and see what kind of trouble our favourite demigod gets himself into.
In The Son of Sobek, the first e-novella, Percy meets Carter Kane, and the two of them battle a giant crocodile which turns out to be some sort of spell from an old friend of Carter's, Setne the magician.
In The Staff of Serapis, Annabeth and Sadie prevent a flower pot god from taking over the world by inhaling both Egyptian and Greek magic from it.
Now though, it's time for the ultimate showdown ... and a test.
In The Crown of Ptolemy, the four kids come together.
Initially, it's just Percy and Annabeth on Governor's Island where a freak hurricane has slammed into the area, and both of them know it's Setne up to his old tricks again. They're just not sure what he's doing specifically, but they do know he needs to be stopped.
They give it a valiant try after failing to call up the Kane kids, with Percy's sword Riptide ending up devoured by Setne, Annabeth momentarily losing her invisibility through her cap, and Setne devouring a goddess that pops up wearing a crown, which he also takes.
By this point the Kanes finally arrive and the two Greeks are able to explain some of what happened.
Sadie and Carter figure out Setne is trying to combine the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt, which would then make him a god if he read out the right spell from the Book of Thoth. The problem here is that he's going to suck out all magic - Egyptian AND Greek - and be so powerful nothing and no one will be able to stop him.
The kids try a tactic that worked for the girls before, switching things up a little by having Percy fight with an Egyptian weapon and Annabeth reading from a papyrus while the Kanes try to do it Greek style, not that it works.
Setne's just a little bit too powerful at the moment.
He summons Nekhbet, who the kids do manage to save, but the goddess is angry after learning the crowns are going to be combined again, like when Ptolemy the Great did it, the general who took over ruling Egypt after Alexander the Great passed away.
She suggests their plan needs some serious modifications, and in the end the strangest thing ever: the Egyptian goddess will require a mortal host.
Enter one Percy Jackson.
The reasons are supposedly that his mind is easily steered, implying he's a dumb-dumb, but who cares as long as it works, right? Right, so she hitches a ride on the demigod express, but even that isn't initially enough because Setne keeps on beating them.
Eventually Percy grabs the magician and takes off with him in magical form, and finally figures out how Setne operates: he finds something to relate to in anyone he speaks to, and twists their thoughts around and around until they're useless. He was able to do that with Annabeth, Sadie and Carter, the lot of them, but he hits a big fat wall with Percy.
Why?
He offers him immortality.
Now if you've been reading Percy's stories, you'll know he's been offered immortality before, by a god much more powerful than Setne could ever hope to be, and Zeus is probably still miffed he got himself turned down.
Turns out, Setne doesn't quite get Percy after all, and makes the tactical error of falling into the sea with the demigod - who happens to be a son of Poseidon so the sea only makes him stronger.
Dragging him back on land where his friends are waiting, Percy then tells Setne he just doesn't get it - and as a reward, Setne gets locked up in a snow globe.
The goddess vacates Percy, but leaves the combined crown of Egypt behind, like some sort of test if one of the four kids will want to try it on for size and attempt to become gods, though Percy is like, so against the idea it's funny. They agree the Kanes will take the crown to their uncle in Egypt for safe keeping, and that, regardless if their teachers know about other kinds of magic, they need to keep the information to themselves, because mixing magic hasn't exactly led to any good results before.
After which, the Kanes pack up and say goodbye, and Percy and Annabeth can finally have a sort-of normal movie date night.
They deserve it!
xx
*image not mine
And if you want to see what eventually happens to Setne, check out the Brooklyn House Magician's Manual 😉
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