100 pages • 3 hours read
Rick RiordanThe Red Pyramid
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “A Death at the Needle”
Chapter 1 is told from Carter’s perspective and opens with a warning that the reader is in danger just by reading the book. Carter instructs the reader to find an unknown locker at an unknown school and warns whoever seeks out the locker not to keep what’s inside for more than a week, so it doesn’t corrupt them. After this, Carter introduces himself as a 14-year-old who’s traveled the world with his dad, an archaeologist, since he was eight. Having spent most of his time in airports or dig sites, Carter mostly got to do what he wanted. The only rule his dad enforced was not to look in his tool bag, a rule Carter didn’t break “until the day of the explosion” (3).
The explosion occurred on the previous Christmas Eve in London while Carter and his dad were visiting with Carter’s sister Sadie. Normally, Carter’s dad is calm and collected, but on this trip, he’s nervous and clutching his work bag, which Carter’s only seen him do right before they end up in danger. After several situations in the past where they’ve been shot at or chased, Carter doesn’t ask questions anymore.
Sadie lives with her maternal grandparents. When Carter and his dad arrive at their apartment, a man in a trench coat is watching them from across the street. Carter’s dad goes to meet the man, telling Carter to get Sadie and wait in their cab. Carter does as his dad says, but rather than get in the cab, Sadie investigates the man in the trench coat, who’s named Amos, sneaking across the street with Carter in tow. Amos and their dad argue about the Per Ankh and how the world is in danger, but before they can get into a fight, Sadie jumps out of hiding to hug her dad, which makes Amos leave.
Carter and Sadie’s dad takes them to the British Museum. On the way, they stop to look at Cleopatra’s Needle, an obelisk monument from Egypt. Their dad starts talking about how it was the last place he saw their mom, but before he can finish the story, an image of two people in Egyptian garb appears in the night, fading quickly. With a new sense of urgency, their dad herds Carter and Sadie back into the cab, telling them he needs their help tonight to “make everything right again” (15).
Chapter 2 Summary: “An Explosion for Christmas”
The museum is closed, but the curator invites the group inside. Carter and Sadie’s dad takes them to see the Rosetta Stone, which contains writing in Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic (a combination of Egyptian and Greek), and the Greek alphabet. Their dad explains the stone allowed the modern world to finally crack the code of hieroglyphics and that he was “a fool not to realize its potential sooner” (20). The curator removes the glass barrier around the stone and leaves to retrieve notes from the museum’s archives.
As soon as he’s gone, Carter and Sadie’s dad pulls a pad lock and bike chain from his bag. He orders the kids to lock the curator in his office and stay outside the exhibit room. Confused, Carter and Sadie comply but soon notice glowing light coming from the exhibit hall and feel a rumble in the floor. The kids run back to the hall, where they see their dad write “Osiris, come” in blue light on the Rosetta Stone. Realizing he’s summoning the Egyptian god of death, they yell for him to stop, but the Rosetta Stone explodes, knocking the kids unconscious.
Carter wakes to find the exhibit hall in ruins and a man made of fire (Set—the Egyptian god of chaos) standing between him and his dad. Carter drags Sadie behind a pillar, and the two watch as Set traps their father in a golden sarcophagus that sinks into the floor. Set turns on them, revealing dual faces—one of a man and one of a vicious dog. Before he can attack, the people from Cleopatra’s Needle appear. Set disappears in another explosion, and Carter passes out again. The last thing he sees is the figures from the Needle approaching. One holds a knife, and the other says, "We must be sure before we destroy them” (28).
Chapters 1-2 Analysis
The opening chapters of The Red Pyramid introduce the main characters and conflicts of the novel. Carter and Sadie are dual protagonists, each with unique skills. Carter presents as Black and is cautious, while Sadie presents as white and charges ahead into situations. Their complementary tactics clash at first, but the two eventually learn to supplement one another’s strengths and weaknesses, which turns them from fractured siblings into a heroic team. Set, the novel’s main antagonist, is seen for the first time in Chapter 2. He appears as a man made of red fire, which represents his chaotic nature. Like Carter and Sadie, there is more to him than is clear at first appearance and Set’s role changes throughout the story.
The backstory alluded to in Chapter 1 provides the necessary context for the book’s main conflict. Eight years ago, Ruby—Carter and Sadie’s mother—gave her life to protect Julius (their father) at Cleopatra’s Needle. It is revealed in bits and pieces throughout the story that Ruby was a diviner (able to see the future) and foresaw that the Egyptian gods and magicians needed to join forces to combat the rising forces of chaos. On the night of Ruby’s death, she and Julius meant to free Bast from her eternal prison and begin bringing the gods back into the mortal world.
It is implied that Julius’s actions at the British Museum were the next step in his and Ruby’s plan. Julius has been on the run from the House of Life for years. Releasing the gods is against the House’s laws, but Julius is sure Ruby’s visions were true and is determined to save the world through whatever means necessary. Julius releases the five gods trapped in the Rosetta Stone—Set, Osiris, Isis, Horus, and Nephthys—and the placement of these gods becomes crucial to the rest of the story. Set remains independent of a human host but controls Amos. Isis inhabits Sadie, Horus occupies Carter, and Osiris is hosted by Julius, which is why Set imprisons Julius in Chapter 2. Set means to sacrifice Osiris to unleash chaos on the world and become king of the gods. It is not revealed until much later that Nephthys resides in Zia, which is the main point of Zia’s character arc.
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