The Kane Chronicles Survival Guide

The Kane Chronicles

by Rick Riordan

A guide to the people, places, gods, and creatures found in the chart-topping 'Kane Chronicles' series. Packed with brand new material, it teaches readers how to compile secret messages, read hieroglyphics and recite ancient magic spells.

Genres: Fantasy, Mythology, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Percy Jackson, Fiction, Adventure

144 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Rick Riordan is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of many books, including the Percy Jackson series.

Reviews

[Connor · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun extra for the Kane Chronicles. You definitely should NOT read it before reading the first or second book (It's been a while, so I don't know how much this spoils the series. I think it spoils through the second book though). It doesn't have anything you don't already get from reading the series, but seeing the pictures was nice.

[Sophia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual rating 3.5 stars.
This was a quick and engaging book about the Kane Chronicles (or more accurately the characters within the Kane Chronicles) as well as some of the culture and history of Egypt. I liked the fact that we learned a little more about Egypt and their culture, something the books do sprinkle through the story but mainly focus on the magic or spells. Overall, the information was not too overbearing and still held some of that Riordan wit. Plus the way that it was presented was so engaging and colourful! For those curious, it seems the narrative is set before the third book.

[eden ⊹]

“when carter and sadie do see each other, they usually argue, each envying aspects of the other’s life. but both carter and sadie get annoyed when people question whether they are members of the same family— after all, kanes have to stick together.”

YOU'RE MY BROTHER, BUT YOUR EYES ARE COLD
YOU'RE MY SISTER, BUT YOUR WOMB IS BARE
I BET OUR MOTHER WOULD BE PROUD OF YOU
I BET OUR MOTHER WOULD BE PROUD OF YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU 😭🎤😭🎤😭🎤😭🎤😭🎤

[Mariah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short ready, and probably only interesting to the Riordan addict.
The illustrations commissioned for the series are pretty cool, and seeing picture of the places we visit in the books are great, but some of these are straight up stock images.
This is great if you took a long break between reading the second book and the last one, serves as a refresher course in all things Kane Chronicles.

[Cori Reed · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Stars

Cute but doesn't give you any new information about the trilogy.

[♥ Rebecca ♥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had a lot more information than I was expecting, more than the Percy Jackson one of similar design, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Ultimate Guide. It had some Egyptian legends, a timeline of the Pharaohs, and information on mummification and hieroglyphs, information that you wouldn't get just from reading the series. At least I don't think so. I've been immersed in the world of Camp Half-Blood for 13 books so I have absorbed a lot of the information naturally. The Kane Chronicles is only 3 books and maybe the information was there but I didn't absorb it all after a single read.

[Nina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute stories but it don't add anything new to the series. Most of the information here is in the trilogy, so read the trilogy.

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

***NOTE MY REVIEWS OFTEN CONTAIN SPOILERS***


Learn the details of The Kane Chronicles world in this interactive ebook featuring character profiles, Egyptian History and Egyptian Mythology. Hear exclusive interviews with Carter and Sadie Kane and meet the many Kane Chronicles Characters up close and personal. Learn to read hieroglyphs show your knowledge of the Egyptian world and magic in interactive quizzes. All that and more awaits you in the Kane Chronicles Survival Guide.

Even though this is a shorter novel, be sure to a lot a decent amount of time to reading the Interactive Ebook version of this book. If the cute bits of information weren’t interesting enough. Most pictures include animation when touched and touching certain spots in the novel will bring sound and voice clips to life as you make your way through this short informational book. Touching section titles shows the names rewritten in hieroglyphs which I’m sure will delight young Kane Chronicles fans. One page if you touch the page just right snakes crawl across your screen as you read. The enhanced editions special effects will certainly appeal to young readers. While I thought this was cute though it didn’t offer much in the way of appeal for an adult reader. While the actual novels in this series are well written enough to attract a wider audience The Survival Guide targets only the younger readers. If you’re under the impression that this book includes series associated short stories or anything really necessary to the regular book series I think you’ll find yourself very disappointed. While the interviews with Sadie and Carter are adorable and being able to read about Egyptian gods and some of their myths as well as the country’s history is interesting, the book isn’t really necessary or beneficial to the series. What series information is included in this novel is mostly already revealed in the actual novels and in some places it actually contradicts that main series books. For example in this book Bes is the God of Children while in the main series books he’s the God of Gnomes. The book related information offered in the survival guide only offers information that’s been provided already in the first two books of the series, it does not include anything revealed in The Serpent’s Shadow with the exception of a short except from Chapter 13 which you can hear read to you in Sadie’s voice if you so choose.

Since the most offered character wise is character profiles I can’t really talk about characterization though I will note that most character profiles include on touch animated illustrations so children can see how the character is intended to look. Some character illustrations are actually a bit of a surprise, for example Anubis look very little like I pictured him in my head when I was reading the series novels, in this book he looks almost oriental in nationality and he doesn’t much resemble the bad boy Sadie always describes. The benefits of this book are not so much in the enhancement of the series because honestly I don’t see how it does do that, but in the educational value for children who are fans of the series. Parents can use their children’s Kane Chronicles worship to get them to learn about moments in world history related to Egypt as well as Egyptian myth and various other Kane Chronicles related topics. The book includes illustrations, photographs, maps and sound effects to make the learning experience enjoyable to children.

Overall I'd recommend this book to parents who have children that are fans of the Kane Chronicles series because the way the book makes learning fun is always a benefit to parents seeking to better educate their children. I would not however really recommend this book to adult fans of the series.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only for really big fans of the series. While I love Riordan for giving so much information about mythology and history in his YA books, this companion book was dissatisfying in its depth of coverage of the characters and story and of the mythology and facts, it ended up feeling shallow on all counts. As a fan, I wanted to see more pictures of the kids or characters I was so invested in and it was really disappointing to see so few and to read about so few of them. On the other hand, as an adult I felt like it was trying too hard to be a general reference about the Egyptian mythology as used in the novels, but the entries were so short that it was almost pointless to include a lot of them, at least to me. Even having read the books, without more information I couldn't remember what they were talking about or it wasn't enough information to be interesting or make much sense out of context. It's a Catch-22, the entries would have had to be really long to make me happy and there would have had to be a lot more of them, which would have been quite a different book than just a little relatively inexpensive companion piece. So it is what it is and it's just for big fans, full circle.

[Anniek · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book doesn't provide a whole lot of new information, but it was fun to read and the art was a nice extra.

[Kailey (Luminous Libro) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book details the Egyptian gods that are featured in the Kane Chronicles trilogy, and some of back story for the characters. It includes some real Egyptian history, and information about Egyptian artifacts found museums around the world. There are sections about the spells that the Kanes use in the books and the weapons and artifacts they use to create magic.

This book did not have any information that was not already included in the main trilogy. I did not care for the artwork. Waste of time to read this.
Even the real Egyptian history was just basic things about mummification and pyramids that any schoolchild would already know.
It's a shame that this book is so boring, because I really love the Kane Chronicles trilogy.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be honest, I skimmed through this book. I was only really interested in the parts about Egyptian deities and symbols. I’m reading the Kane Chronicles next, and I know next to nothing about Egyptian mythology. I thought it would be good to fix that and this was the fastest way to do that. I can’t wait to discover this corner of the Riordanverse.

[Rogerio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Could have better content - missed the chance to clear up distinctions between fantasy and archaeology.

[Abel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grades: A+

This is a very special and very different companion book for Fun Extra for the kids at the age of 9-10.
Although this is not written by Author but by Mary-Jane Wright who write Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Ultimate Guide.
-The Hardcover were created By Threehold Limited and printed in Malaysia
-Original Caparo Illustrations, Photograph, And Other Illustrations were Really Great
-Reading the Knowledge of Egypt of Myth And History, And it’s combine of Archeology and Mythology and Fantasy. It really much like a Fantasy like the Tolkein’s Middle Earth Body of Work.
-Piece of Triangle’s Pieces and images of Characters.
I got to say I love the hardcover! It really help for the kids who have to Fun and learn unless they’re young Book worms. This should be help but you must read 1st and 2nd Novel First And Before the 3rd And Final Novel. It may not shown the most detail of Egypt History, Culture, And Myth, which is kind of disappoint. But This is for the Kids!
P.S.- I really need to find the Ultimate Complete of Egyptian History And More, Don’t You Think?

[Gwessie Tee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent for anyone aged 9 and over

Utterly loved it its,literally a guidebook all the characters we've met in the series of Kane Chronicles so far, beautifully illustrated and extra information on each. The Kane Chronicles are a a series by the same author who wrote Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief ( the movie did not do those books justice the books are amazing), in the Kane Chronicles the lead characters Sadie and Carter find out they are Wizards, not like Harry Potter Wizards I am talking Ancient Egyptian Gods and Wizards coming together. I enjoyed them very much, I must go back and review all of Ricks Books that I've read and re read before I started reviewing.

I will say though dont read this before reading at least the first three Kane Chronicle Books to avoid spoilers nut I highly recommend reading any and all of Ricks books he mixes history and mythology with modern day and does it in an amazing way that captures kids and adults alike,

I most definitely feel had Peter Jackson not messed up the movie they would've been bigger than Harry Potter and Rick has written way more books and listens to his readers more 😁


( Disclaimer I loved the first 5 HP books, not bashing JKRowling just feel that Rick Riordans books are better and theres alot more of them.)

[Emily Porcupine · Rating 5 out of 5]

haha SO COOL!!

[A. Mickey Perkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cool quick review of the Kane Chronicles. I read the series a while ago and really enjoyed it.

[Scolardy · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The Kane Chronicles: Survival Guide” von Rick Riordan ist der zweite Begleitband zu seinen „Kane-Chroniken“. Es empfiehlt sich, diesen zwischen Band 1 („Die rote Pyramide“) und Band 2 („Der Feuerthron“) zu lesen.

Passend dazu startet das Büchlein auch mit einer kurzen Zusammenfassung von „Die rote Pyramide“. Ansonsten ist es mehr Bildband als Geschichtensammlung. Dazu passend ist auch alles auf Hochglanzpapier gedruckt.

Der „Survival Guide“ ist voller Illustrationen und Stockbildern – Letztere von den realen Sehenswürdigkeiten, die die Helden in der Buchreihe so besuchen. Die Illustrationen der Protagonisten, Götter etc. haben mir besonders gut gefallen.

Allerdings bietet es inhaltlich keinen wirklichen Mehrwert. Die Infotafeln sind sehr überschaubar und dienen lediglich als Erinnerungsstütze. Es ist mit Sicherheit hilfreich, wenn man seine Erinnerung auffrischen möchte, bevor man die Reihe fortsetzt. Oder wenn man es tatsächlich begleitend liest.

Auch hier gilt also: eine liebevoll gestaltete Ergänzung, insbesondere für junge Leser, aber mehr auch nicht. 3/5 Sterne.

[Octavia Cade · Rating 3 out of 5]

A step up from the other tie-in to this series, the Brooklyn House Magician's Manual, because it actually goes into some of the history and mythology behind the ancient Egyptian gods and the culture in which they were created. In marginally more depth, anyway. It's still a very thin treatment - this is more two and a half stars, rounding up to three - and as with BHMM I struggle to see the point. Riordan has clearly got an audience here: this series is really popular with kids, so I can't help but wonder if he couldn't have leveraged that popularity to turn this into something rather more informative than it is. Because right now, there's nothing in here that isn't in the series proper, and there's a lot of repetition even within this single book. Basically, it's struggling to be average.

[Eule Luftschloss · Rating 2 out of 5]

trigger warning
mention of slavery

Very, very weak. Where the Demigod Files and other spin-offs by Rick Riordan I read had short story and bonus material to his works, this was mostly about the Egyptian myths. The best thing about this are the illustrations of how the mythological figures and characters appear in the Kane books, but that's it. If you're collecting them all because you have been subjected to Pokémon slogans for decades, maybe don't really bother with this.

[Eduardo Walter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tem umas curiosidades legais sobre o Egito, mas acho que podia aprofundar mais. Não gostei muito do estilo de escrita, com um formato de entrevista com a Sadie e uma excursão pela casa da vida no Brooklyn.
As ilustrações são legais, mas o livro não adiciona nada de novo que já não tenha sido dito nos outros livros.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a short little companion to The Kane Chronicles but it was nothing too special. It's not essential reading at all since all of the information gathered here is included in that series anyway.

[Cata ❀ · Rating 4 out of 5]

no es una novela, es literalmente una guía sobre la cultura egipcia, y se me había olvidado lo mucho que me gustaba 🥺 me enganchó un montón y por eso avancé tan rápido, además me dieron ganas de leer la trilogía otra vez 🥺 tal vez solo echaba de menos leer a rick riordan

[Álvaro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Estuvo bueno y bastante interesante, si te da más datos de la historia egipicia , pero no mucho más alla de lo que hace la trilogía, se lee rápido y las imagenes son un buen acierto, creo que se podían abarcar mas temas y desarrollar mas el universo, pero como guía y libro complementario esta ok, no es tan indispensable pero si es disfrutable, ahora a terminar la trilogía.

[Dejanira Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now that I read this, I think it's time to read the last book

[Oleander · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's an easy read with cool pictures and interesting facts. Younger Riordan readers are sure to love the simplicity of it.

[Elizabeth Meadows · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I had read this before finishing the trilogy. I probably would have had a clearer picture of what was happening.

[Evi · Rating 3 out of 5]

fun art, but nothing new to add to the series, which most other rick riordan companion books do. don't read this before you've read throne of fire!

[Anirudh Kumar · Rating 1 out of 5]

So boring

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of pretty Egypt pictures, more like a companion guide to the Kane Chronicles series without the spoilers after the first book.