Lee Allen's Blog - Posts Tagged "ancient-egypt"

The Mummy by Anne Rice

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Anne Rice tackles another classic horror legend in this Edwardian/Egyptian gothic romance.

Egyptologist Lawrence Stratford unearths the archaeological discovery of the century – the tomb of Ramses the Great. Inside, the perfectly preserved mummy of the ancient pharaoh, long believed to have already been discovered and residing in a museum in Cairo. Lawrence begins to transcribe the hieroglyphs and Latin and Greek texts in the tomb, hoping to uncover its mysteries. They refer to an elixir granting eternal life. But before Lawrence can uncover more, he is found dead. Rumours of curses abound – but the truth is far more malign, though the only witness to his murder is the slowly awakening mummy. The mummy is transported to London, where it is held in the Stratford home prior to its acquisition by the British Museum. Lawrence’s daughter, Julie, grieving for a loss of her father, finds herself in danger at the hand of her father’s killer. Rejuvenated by rays of sunlight, Ramses fully awakens and prevents her murder.

Intrigued and terrified, Julie shelters Ramses, watching as he transforms from a shrivelled, dusty corpse into an attractive, handsome man, full of youth and energy, absorbing language as quickly as he consumes food and wine. Having lain dormant for centuries, Ramses quickly adapts to the modern world – he and Julie developing a passionate desire for each other. But Ramses is also haunted by the memories of the last time he was awakened to serve as an advisor to pharaohs – by the last ruler of Ancient Egypt, Cleopatra, with whom he fell in love, who turned down his offer to partake of the elixir if Ramses would not also grant it to her lover, Mark Antony.

Travelling from England to Egypt with Julie and a small group of others, Ramses is staggered by the changes to his homeland, while he struggles to maintain his disguise in the modern world. What the future will hold for him as an immortal surrounded by mortals remains uncertain. Then a chance discovery in a museum leads Ramses to take action that endangers him and all those around him, unleashing an unrelenting force of fury and vengeance.

I love Ancient Egyptian themes and stories set in the Victorian, Edwardian and pre-First World War eras, from which many of the classic gothic horror monsters originate (in their typically recognisable forms in literature and film, that is). We don’t see Egyptian mummies reimagined as frequently as vampires or Frankenstein’s monster, so a new mummy story to delve into is always an exciting prospect. Taking inspiration from classic short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, Anne Rice’s ‘The Mummy’ is a romanticised and eroticised version of the concept – Ramses is an immortal hero in the image of a Greek demi-god. Conflicted and at times amoral, he is nonetheless very much the co-protagonist in this tale, rather than the typical antagonist of horror literature. Both the love story and horror unfold throughout the novel, exploring moral questions along the way while under the intense heat of the Egyptian sun, building to a fiery climax and its emotional denouement.

The story reportedly began life as a screenplay for a film, which Rice later turned into a novel instead. A sequel would follow twenty-eight years later with the novel ‘The Passion of Cleopatra’, co-written with Rice’s son Christopher Rice.

Oozing with slow-burning horror and the subtle eroticism that bleeds through Anne Rice’s work, ‘The Mummy’ is a decadent Egyptian delight that will satisfy a desire for a summer romantic-horror fix.



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Doctor Who: The Ruby's Curse by Alex Kingston

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


From the universe of ‘Doctor Who’, archaeologist Professor River Song must hunt down a reality-altering weapon and solve the mystery of ‘The Ruby’s Curse’.

AD 5147. River breaks back into intergalactic high-security prison Stormcage, seeking peace and quiet to finish writing her new novel.

AD 1939. Based in New York, the novel’s heroine and River’s alter ego Melody Malone is hired to track down a priceless Egyptian ruby, purported to hold the secret to the location of Cleopatra’s tomb, only to find herself embroiled in a case of murder.

From a fellow inmate of Stormcage, River hears about a dangerous new weapon and soon finds herself hunting it, travelling back to 30 BCE Egypt and into her own fiction to find the answers and prevent further death and destruction.

River Song is one of my favourite characters in Doctor Who’s 58-year history. Created by Steven Moffat, who also created some of the modern series’ most memorable characters and monsters, as well as having written some of my favourite episodes, River is a mysterious time-traveller with a dark past and knowledge of the Doctor’s future, one of those rare recurring companion-esque characters who possess as much mystery and alien otherness as the Doctor themselves.

Alex Kingston absolutely owned the character and shone in every episode in which she appeared. If anyone can know River as much as Moffat, and even more so than the Doctor, it is Alex Kingston – and here she presents the first full-length River Song novel, with the timey-wimey, futuristic/historical blend of mystery and adventure and all-out bonkers storytelling that ‘Doctor Who’ (and perhaps only ‘Doctor Who’) does so well. Packed with allusions and a seasoning of spoilers and cameos, ‘The Ruby’s Curse’ is a fun, clever and thrilling journey that blurs fiction and reality, taking us from a space prison of the 52nd century to 20th century inter-war old New York, Earth, and further back in time to the mystery and grandeur of Ancient Egypt.

Much like ‘Doctor Who’ itself, the story is accessible to all ages and will prove a delight to fans. There is an edge to River that, much like John Barrowman’s Captain Jack Harkness, gives her a more adult appeal than many other characters may do, with much darkness and moral ambiguity to explore. River could seamlessly carry a more mature series alongside her appearances for a wider audience, as was so successfully done with ‘Torchwood’. But there is already so much River material to enjoy: Alex Kingston also stars in the Big Finish audio series ‘The Diary of River Song’ – much like the novel, set somewhere prior to her final and first appearances on TV, as well as featuring in some other audio adventures led by other characters. For more Melody Malone, we also have the novella ‘The Angel’s Kiss’ – River’s second book.

Due to the nature of River and the Doctor’s convoluted timelines, if you’re ahead, behind or somewhere in between River’s TV episodes, I’d recommend watching them all before diving into this gem – it always pays to avoid those pesky spoilers!

An absolute thrill to read, ‘The Ruby’s Curse’ does not fail to entertain. More please, sweetie!



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