Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos – Book Review

Theodosia & the Serpents of Chaos (Book 1)

by R.L. LaFevers
 
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008
 
352 Pages
 
Middle Grade (Ages 9-12)

 

I have found a new addiction. The Theodosia adventures grabbed me by the shirt collar and dragged me along for a ride through all four books, non-stop!

Theodosia Throckmorton is an eleven-year-old girl whose parents, Alistair and Henrietta, run the Museum of Legends and Antiquities in a parallel-history Victorian London along with a staff comprised of Nigel Bollingsworth (the 1st Assistant Curator), Clive Fagenbush (the 2nd Assistant Curator), and Edgar Stilton (the very nervous 3rd Assistant Curator).

Theo’s mother has just returned from an archaeological expedition in The Valley of The Kings in Egypt. At the train station picking her up, Theodosia nabs a pickpocket, Sticky Will, who turns out to be both a friend and a great ally with his skills of stealth. Well, after a few meat pies, anyway. But there is someone else following her mother.

Theodosia’s brother Henry returns home from boarding school, a destiny which Theo has luckily escaped, though the price is often being forgotten or ignored, missing meals, and sleeping in a sarcophagus in a closet which she calls home.

We learn that Theo has a special skill; she can sense evil magic and see curses on objects, a useful ability as she discovers many objects from the museum’s dig at the Tomb of Amenamhab (Thutmose III’s Minister of War) imbued with nastiness by the worshipers of Mantu. While Theo is trying to remove one such curse, she is distracted and the curse goes directly into Isis, her cat.

1st Level Test for a cursed object:
I felt as if a parade of icy-footed beetles were marching down my spine.

2nd Level Test:
Wax is very good at absorbing heka, or evil magic.

3rd Level Test:
Moonlight is the only way to make the inscribed curses visible to the human eye.

Protections:
Amulets, Mud from the Nile, Sand from a Pharaoh’s tomb

When Lord Snowthorpe of The British Museum shows up hoping for a glimpse of one extremely precious artifact, The Heart of Egypt –which they then discover missing– Theo wonders how he had known they had it to begin with. So of course, she tails him back, and eavesdrops on a conversation with Mr. Tetley at The British Museum, who then leaves in a huff.

Theo and Henry follow the culprit to the Seven Dials, the kind of neighborhood a young Victorian lady should not be frequenting without supervision, and witness a man named Stokes clunk Tetley upside the head. He takes something off his body, but then is himself thumped in turn by three German assailants who stab him. Stokes coughs out– “Get Wigmere at Somerset House.”

What a jolly good penny-dreadful romp through the back alleys of London!

The Antiquaries Society that Lord Wigmere heads is only a front for The Brotherhood of the Chosen Keepers, a secret society dedicated to protecting the world from evil Egyptian Magic. Theo immediately proves her worth with some quick thinking, curing a man named Danvers who touched a cursed object without knowing the nature of its curse.

The Germans, under a Count Von Braggenchnot, now have the Heart of Egypt, and Wigmere explains the true peril of it: the Heart of Egypt was removed from the country by a British subject, bringing to bear a curse designed to topple an entire nation. In fact, the removal of the artifact by Theodosia’s mother was entirely orchestrated by a group calling itself The Serpents of Chaos for the purpose of destroying civilization as we know it.

May your retribution upon these enemies of Thutmose be swift and terrible, may Sekhmet devour their hearts, and Ammit feast on their heads. May all the lands run red with their blood until they return the heart of Egypt to its rightful resting place, and lay it back at your feet, so that Thutmose’s glory will be whole once more.

Theodosia uses extraordinary resourcefulness to cure her cat and retrieve the Heart of Egypt while keeping the Brotherhood apprised of what is going on. But Wigmere reminds her that the only way to truly remove the curse from her country, which has already begun to degrade in political upheaval and an influenza outbreak, is to return the Heart to the sands of Egypt.

On her adventure, Theodosia discovers a traitor in their midst as well as an annex to the Tomb of Amenamhab… and an artifact called the Was scepter. Then she must face the Serpents of Chaos alone. Will her wits and magical abilities be enough to save her flu-infected brother’s life and the British Empire?

I opened [the pouch] and pulled out a tiny wedjat eye hanging on a thin, golden chain. “Oh my,” I said, staring at the gold as it spun round in my hand. It was heavily weighted with good magic and protection. I’d never seen any amulet ooze as much protective power as this one.

This book is a classic. An intricate web of sub-plots, evil, misdirection, and hope, I was thoroughly absorbed in the action and mystery to the last page. LaFevers brings Victorian London alive and makes museums and archaeology the home of puzzles, spying, and intrigue. Fast-paced noir that will not disappoint.

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