Episode #93 – Attack Sphinxes

Prophecy Radio episode #93 discusses City of the Plague God by Sarwat Chadda ahead of the sequel’s release, Fury of the Dragon Goddess before catching you up on all the latest Rick Riordan news, including what sort of Percy Jackson and the Olympians content we got from San Diego Comic-Con 2023. This week, we’re also talking about The Kane Chronicles: The Red Pyramid by tackling chapter 17, in which the Kanes end up in Paris and run into an old friend. New episodes of Prophecy Radio air weekly, and we keep our discussions PG-13.

News and Updates (00:02:32)

We’re kicking off this week’s news and updated by talking about SDCC. We had some boots on the ground at the convention and got a peek at what the campers were handing out. Next up, we talk in-depth about the new Percy Jackson and the Olympians character posters. Oh yeah, and there was even a flash mob! Don’t forget that Fury of the Dragon Goddess comes out on August 1! Books of Wonder is hosting a virtual tour, and it’s gonna be awesome. Read Riordan also posted an article about Lugal, the god of insanity. On June 27, Rick wrote a blog post talking about the Chalice of the Gods book tour. We go through all of the tour stops, plus the Boston Book Festival happening in October. Can Rick talk about the show on tour? We also think he’ll be talking about his next project. Oh, and Karen will be at another stop! We also discuss whether we’ll stop our The Red Pyramid discussion to talk about Chalice of the Gods. Don’t forget to check out this Bookseller interview. City of the Plague God by Sarwat Chadda (00:23:38)

Talking about this book has been a long time coming, and we’re so glad to finally discuss it on the podcast! What’s this book about? We talk about our overall feelings for the book and the writing. It’s wild to think this was written before COVID. But don’t worry, this book won’t remind you too much of the pandemic. It’s well worth reading the Foreword, if only to see what it was like to have Rick as a teacher. This book teaches us a lot about racism, being a hero, dealing with grief, and fighting for your home. It seems only right to kick off the character section by talking about Sikander Aziz. All work and no play makes Sik a tired boy. There’s so much to love about Sik, but especially his compassion for other people. We draw some parallels between Sik and Samirah/Magnus Chase. Daoud seems only skin-deep at first glance, but we both loved him from the beginning. We also loved Belet, who has a killer roundhouse kick. She’s so intense, but her and Sik balance each other out perfectly. SO. MANY. CATS. Kasusu is an amazing sword, and i