Carter Kane

Summarize Top Qs Fact Check

Carter is the eldest child of Julius and Ruby Kane, who were descendants of Ancient Egyptian pharaohs Narmer and Ramesses the Great, respectively. Carter was named after Howard Carter, the archaeologist who discovered Tutankhamun's tomb. Carter and his little sister Sadie (about one and a half years younger than him) were unaware that their parents were magicians of the Per Ankh until the events of The Red Pyramid. The family lived in Los Angeles, California until Ruby's death when Carter was eight years old.^[2]

As Carter and Sadie learn later, Ruby divined that Iskandar's decision to persecute magicians who "hosted" gods would hasten Apophis's escape from his magical prison. Ruby and Julius decided to illegally gather the gods in preparation for his eventual escape, starting with Bast, a goddess tasked with fighting Apophis for eternity. The Kanes were successful in freeing Bast, but when Apophis tried to escape as well, Ruby chose to sacrifice herself to keep him contained. A shattered Julius swore to find a way to reunite with her and finish their mission to bring the gods back into the word.^[2]

Carter's maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Faust, later took Julius to court and won custody of Sadie. Carter was left to be raised by his father. He was allowed to see his sister twice a year, but was otherwise constantly on the move as his father evaded magicians from the House of Life seeking to arrest him.^[3] Carter sometimes regretted his father's strict parenting style, but strove to emulate him. He acquired the habits of always dressing "like a junior professor", living out of a single suitcase, following basketball (especially the Los Angeles Lakers), and reading avidly.^[2]

Six years after Ruby Kane's death, Carter and his sister become unknowing hosts to the gods Horus and Isis when their father releases these gods into the mortal world. Over the course of the novel, Carter and Sadie work to foil the evil plans of another freed god, Set.^[4] After the capture and later death of their father, their paternal uncle Amos takes the siblings into his custody; his mental illness at the end of the novel leaves the siblings with only the goddess Bast as a guardian.^[2] Over the course of the novel, Carter is forced to assume the role of older brother and take on a greater level of independence than he has previously experienced.^[5][4][6] As Elizabeth Bush says in a review of the novel, the "bittersweet ending lays the foundation for subsequent titles" and character growth.^[7]

Carter also learns to accept the facets of his personality which make him similar to Horus—namely, his ability to lead and his courage in the face of danger—and learns that it is not disrespectful to his father to relax his standards a little and become his own person. Despite his newfound individuality, he retains many of his father's values and attributes. He vows to find the real Zia Rashid (a young girl to whom he is attracted) over her dying shabti "body", much as his father did for his mother.^[8] Carter acquires a khopesh in Amos's mansion which becomes his weapon of choice throughout the series.^[9] He begins to specialize in combat magic, and inherits his father's magic kit.^[8]

Three months after the defeat of Set, Carter, Sadie, and Bast have begun to educate a group of about twenty initiates about the Path of the Gods. In this novel, the trio and their trainees work to find Ra, a powerful god who will help them in their upcoming fight with Apophis. Carter experiences a number of traumatic experiences in the novel, including the near death of himself and (separately) a trainee named Jaz; the loss of a close friend, Bes; and the disappointment of Ra's inadequacy coupled with his former enemy Michel Desjardins's ultimate sacrifice to protect the Kanes from Apophis.^[10][11]

The novel is characterized by Carter's eye-opening experiences and his "becoming the [hero] that destiny demands".^[11] When he is poisoned by a tjesu heru (Egyptian pushmi-pullyu), Sadie is forced to analyze his ren to learn his secret name -- "the sum of [his] experiences, even those [he'd] never want to share". He says this event "felt like [Sadie had] opened me up on the surgery table, examined me, and sewn me back together".^[10] Carter also struggles with his new and almost-obsessive love for Zia Rashid, and has to balance his desire to protect her with his duty to the rest of the world; and cope when she admits that she does not feel the same for him. On top of all this, Carter is also learning to be a leader for children his own age and older, annoyed by his sister's rebellious nature and occasional lack of responsibility.^[5] His visit to the palace of Osiris in the underworld, where he sees his deceased parents, comforts him but reinforces the knowledge that he will never be able to live with them.^[10]

The 21st Nome's situation is dire in the opening of the final book, as Apophis is soon to escape and the magicians are still searching for a way to defeat him. The Kanes spend the course of the book recruiting all the Egyptian gods and gathering information about a dangerous spell to execrate the dangerous Apophis. For a short while, Carter struggles to channel Horus because the war god believes they should try an all-out assault on Apophis, rather than risk hunting for the spell and its ingredients. The magicians manage to banish Apophis, but this disruption of the balance between Order (Ma'at) and Chaos (Isfet) forces the gods to retreat from the world, including Horus, Isis, Ra, and Carter's father Julius (host to Osiris).

The Serpent's Shadow represents Carter's final transformation into a leader and the head of his family (with his mother and father now completely out of the picture).^[12] Because of his victory over the serpent, Carter is named pharaoh of the House of Life, though he chooses not to exercise this power until he has matured. He decides to continue life as a "normal" high school student while living at the Brooklyn House with his trainees. Carter also begins a romantic relationship with Zia Rashid.^[13]