The Throne of Fire

These chapters show Carter and Sadie going separate ways, where each learns something that makes them realize they need the other. In Chapters 5 and 6, Carter struggles with the responsibility of stopping Apophis and the promise he made himself to find Zia. His dream in Chapter 5 foreshadows the book’s climactic battle against Apophis, as well as how Carter and Sadie learn to channel godly powers in less harmful ways. Carter’s worries about Ra’s strength foreshadow Ra’s state when he wakes; they also present The Difficulty of Making Choices. Carter wants to believe that waking Ra will turn the tide in favor of the magicians, but deep down, he is unsure about whether waking Ra will be the solution he hopes for, and if it’s even the right thing to do.

Amos’s question about waking Ra in Chapter 6 speaks to the subjectivity of the “right” thing. Amos believes waking Ra is the right thing to do, but he also recognizes the potential problems with doing so: specifically whether Ra wants to be awakened and whether or not the god will be willing to help against Apophis. Even the gods have choices, and though Ra once made it his mission to hold Apophis and the forces of chaos at bay, that was centuries ago. Ra may not want to do so anymore, since Isis and the other gods betrayed him. Amos also notes that finding the Book of Ra is supposed to be difficult, suggesting that anything worth doing is worth overcoming adversity to do; this includes acquiring different types of power, even for selfless reasons.

Chapters 7 and 8 show Sadie coming to terms with her magician nature and the battles her nature forces her to fight. Entering these chapters, Sadie wanted only to escape her responsibility and have a “normal” birthday with her friends, who know nothing about magicians or the gods. But Sadie learns she can’t run from who she is when she arrives at her grandparents’ apartment to find them possessed by gods. After escaping the apartment and running into her friends, who get dragged into the situation, Sadie realizes the responsibility she has—not only to the magicians, but to the rest of the world. Saving her friends makes her understand that not acting against Apophis will ensure chaos rules. To have the “normal” days Sadie wants, she must take up the responsibility of being a Kane. Sadie’s chapters combine the themes The Difficulty of Making Choices and The Different Types of Power, as once Sadie decides to step into her role, she is able to utilize her powers as a magician and fight Nekhbet and Babi. Though her friends are regular mortals, they see the gods as they are and seem to remember events after Sadie leaves with Bes, which suggests they will reappear in the next book.

Nekhbet represents the powers of fear and might. In Egyptian myth, Nekhbet was the goddess of the city of Nekheb, and Riordan stays true to the vulture-headed goddess’s appearance and nature. Nekhbet was a protector and in The Throne of Fire, she protects the gods against the influence of magicians. Specifically, she ensures that the Kanes are powerful enough to wake Ra and deal with the consequences of doing so. In these chapters, Sadie must fight to free herself from Nekhbet’s influence, which symbolizes how fear can cause people to give up.

Nekhbet also represents the power of might. As a vulture, she believes that the strong should survive while the weak are eaten, and she sees nothing wrong with this as, to her, it ensures that strength prevails. Nekhbet never defines “strength,” suggesting that she chooses what she deems to be strong or weak, which hints at a biased preservation of strength. If Nekhbet were to allow only a certain type of strength to win, she would be ignoring The Different Types of Power. This matches her desire to prevent Ra’s awakening because doing so would change the balance of strength and weakness she’s comfortable with. It is also the reason she is defeated, at least for now; Bes uses an unusual method—primarily, shock and disgust—to banish Nekhbet and Babi from Sadie’s grandparents’ bodies.

Lastly, these chapters expand on Sadie and Carter’s backstories and how those backstories will influence the rest of the book. The three-headed serpent in Chapter 5 is a messenger from Apophis, and its announcement brings Zia’s fate into the story’s conflict. Whether Apophis is simply trying to sow chaos and distract Carter, or he needs Zia to be awakened, remains unclear; either way, Carter must decide between focusing on his mission or finding Zia, which adds further complexity to his worries about whether or not to raise Ra.

Sadie’s meeting with Anubis is the first time she’s seen the god since the previous book. His appearance in the story, and the rules he must follow—being bound to his “territory,” lacking a true human body—add depth to Riordan’s worldbuilding. Additionally, their meeting stirs up the conflicting feelings she has about her crush on the god of death. Anubis’s visit is motivated both by emotion and necessity—emotion because he likes Sadie and necessity because she will need the blade he gives her to wake Ra. Sadie’s reaction to the kiss reminds the reader that, despite everything she’s going through, she’s still a teen girl who is thrilled by her first kiss from a cute boy, even if that cute boy is the human form of a jackal-headed god.