[1] Carter is the eldest child of Julius and Ruby Kane, who were descendants of Ancient Egyptian pharaohs Narmer and Ramesses the Great, respectively.
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.
[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.
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.
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] 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.
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] 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.
[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".
[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.
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).
Carter has frequently been "whitewashed" on covers of Kane Chronicles non-English edition novels, such as in Russia, the Netherlands, Italy, and more.