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Cyberquest #1
Pharaoh's Tomb
In a future world divided into the privileged Technocrats and the poor Plebots, Mok is taken from the slums of Old Newyork by the Committee to be part of an experiment in which the first test of his faith comes in ancient Egypt
60 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1997
27 people want to read
About the author
Sigmund Brouwer
256 books408 followersSigmund loves going to schools to get kids excited about reading, reaching roughly 80,000 students a year through his Rock&Roll Literacy Show.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 5, 2015
For some reason I wanted so badly to like this but the anti-theist in me just cannot get over the Christianity bullshit. It was short and I hate leaving a book unfinished, so that's mostly why I powered through. When it wasn't talking about the beloved Christian persecution complex, it was pretty alright.
April 10, 2024
This is the first part in the Christian kids SciFi series CyberQuest. It's only one sixth of the full story, so I would suggest getting all six or, or pick up a compilation volume that includes all six stories. This was one of my favorite book series as a kid, and I still think about it often.
August 17, 2021
Please don't read this book. It's painfully bad.
February 12, 2022
Sci fy and christian messages are not something I thought would ever be combined
November 22, 2024
Somewhere during the 1990s cultural fascination with cyberspace, virtual reality, and dystopian settings came Sigmund Brouwer’s serial tale CyberQuest, which attempts to combine Christian values for kids with the worldbuilding of Blade Runner, the action sequences of MacGyver, and the conceptual possibilities of a high-tech, futuristic Quantum Leap. The fact that Brouwer attempts to do all this in about 55 pages should tell you everything you need to know.
In the year 2096, the aftermath of the Water Wars has left the earth desperate for clean water, and the bombed-out shell of Manhattan Island is one of the last remaining sources for cheap iron to use as barter for water. In a last-ditch effort to keep the president of the World United from destroying Old Newyork with a heat bomb, a mysterious group known as the Committee seeks a candidate who can complete a series of simulation situations for unknown purposes. The chosen candidate is Mok, a young Welfaro (a poverty-class Newyorker) is kidnapped and sent into cyberspace; he is placed in a simulation of ancient Egypt, where he learns that he is the Pharaoh’s undertaker accused of stealing three necklaces from the dead Pharaoh Cheops’ body. Under orders from the Pharaoh’s beautiful daughter Raha, Mok must clear his name, catch the real criminal, and pass a morality test in order to move to the next simulation, but he has no idea that he is in a simulation at all, and he has to stay alive in cyberspace if he wants to stay alive in the real world.
There is certainly a good effort here on Brouwer’s part, and, to his credit, it’s not a complete washout of a book by any means. CyberQuest started as a serial published in Breakaway, a Christian magazine aimed at teen boys, and Brouwer’s novelizations of those stories read more like extended installments than actual books. The draw here, of course, is the overall concept: a gifted young man being put through a series of tests by the government, all taking place in cyberspace in various simulations of historical eras. Brouwer’s ideas are good, but with his limited page-count and painfully stilted exposition, Pharaoh’s Tomb doesn’t do much for making us ache to know what happens next.
Brouwer spends the first half of the book establishing the dystopian setting, introducing us to the vaguely-alluded-to plot (which will not be revealed until the final book), and the set-up to get Mok into cyberspace. Unfortunately, this requires his storytelling to move at a breakneck pace, with no time for characterization or even good worldbuilding. Mok is a cardboard protagonist with only a few moments where we see any personality at all, and the other characters are paint-by-the-numbers stereotypes through and through. In a series like CyberQuest, we can hardly expect too much, but Brouwer has proven with his much-superior series The Accidental Detectives that he’s capable of turning out fantastic stories if he gives himself room.
One of the primary problems with Pharaoh’s Tomb is simply how heavy-handed everything is. After an excruciating prologue and a few set-up scenes, we have to endure pages of meaningless dialogue and contrived scenarios (and I’m telling you, the plot is thinner than a paper snowflake) to get to the good part, only to have the Egyptian adventure comprise less than half of the page-count. In character with what we expect from a Christian vs. secular dystopia, Brouwer’s futuristic world is not intended to be a cautionary tale, but rather a unique backdrop to Mok’s adventures. So many of the features — the chosen one trope, the corporate spy, the lesson in choosing integrity over injustice — are just painfully cliché, not adding anything interesting to the genre or the plot.
Even as a kid, I could recognize that Pharaoh’s Tomb was far-fetched and heavy-handed, but rereading this book as an adult is even more disappointing. Sigmund Brouwer really is a good author, but Pharaoh’s Tomb should definitely not be listed on his resume. Thankfully, the subsequent books in the CyberQuest series are much better, as we’ve gotten past most of the painful exposition and can focus on what Brouwer had in mind in the first place: fun historical cyber-space adventures with life lessons.
In the year 2096, the aftermath of the Water Wars has left the earth desperate for clean water, and the bombed-out shell of Manhattan Island is one of the last remaining sources for cheap iron to use as barter for water. In a last-ditch effort to keep the president of the World United from destroying Old Newyork with a heat bomb, a mysterious group known as the Committee seeks a candidate who can complete a series of simulation situations for unknown purposes. The chosen candidate is Mok, a young Welfaro (a poverty-class Newyorker) is kidnapped and sent into cyberspace; he is placed in a simulation of ancient Egypt, where he learns that he is the Pharaoh’s undertaker accused of stealing three necklaces from the dead Pharaoh Cheops’ body. Under orders from the Pharaoh’s beautiful daughter Raha, Mok must clear his name, catch the real criminal, and pass a morality test in order to move to the next simulation, but he has no idea that he is in a simulation at all, and he has to stay alive in cyberspace if he wants to stay alive in the real world.
There is certainly a good effort here on Brouwer’s part, and, to his credit, it’s not a complete washout of a book by any means. CyberQuest started as a serial published in Breakaway, a Christian magazine aimed at teen boys, and Brouwer’s novelizations of those stories read more like extended installments than actual books. The draw here, of course, is the overall concept: a gifted young man being put through a series of tests by the government, all taking place in cyberspace in various simulations of historical eras. Brouwer’s ideas are good, but with his limited page-count and painfully stilted exposition, Pharaoh’s Tomb doesn’t do much for making us ache to know what happens next.
Brouwer spends the first half of the book establishing the dystopian setting, introducing us to the vaguely-alluded-to plot (which will not be revealed until the final book), and the set-up to get Mok into cyberspace. Unfortunately, this requires his storytelling to move at a breakneck pace, with no time for characterization or even good worldbuilding. Mok is a cardboard protagonist with only a few moments where we see any personality at all, and the other characters are paint-by-the-numbers stereotypes through and through. In a series like CyberQuest, we can hardly expect too much, but Brouwer has proven with his much-superior series The Accidental Detectives that he’s capable of turning out fantastic stories if he gives himself room.
One of the primary problems with Pharaoh’s Tomb is simply how heavy-handed everything is. After an excruciating prologue and a few set-up scenes, we have to endure pages of meaningless dialogue and contrived scenarios (and I’m telling you, the plot is thinner than a paper snowflake) to get to the good part, only to have the Egyptian adventure comprise less than half of the page-count. In character with what we expect from a Christian vs. secular dystopia, Brouwer’s futuristic world is not intended to be a cautionary tale, but rather a unique backdrop to Mok’s adventures. So many of the features — the chosen one trope, the corporate spy, the lesson in choosing integrity over injustice — are just painfully cliché, not adding anything interesting to the genre or the plot.
Even as a kid, I could recognize that Pharaoh’s Tomb was far-fetched and heavy-handed, but rereading this book as an adult is even more disappointing. Sigmund Brouwer really is a good author, but Pharaoh’s Tomb should definitely not be listed on his resume. Thankfully, the subsequent books in the CyberQuest series are much better, as we’ve gotten past most of the painful exposition and can focus on what Brouwer had in mind in the first place: fun historical cyber-space adventures with life lessons.
December 18, 2014
This is a quick little juvenile book that incorporates science fiction as a plot device to tell a little about Jesus Christ. It's not a bad little book, and might have a big following as the series progresses. Basicly the world has had a third World War, Manhattan Island is not the place for the undesireables, and from that island is found a boy. The ruling elite use the boy in some kind of time traveling cyberspace experiment. Not much is told about why or what is going on, the boy is just dropped into an adventure in ancient Egypt. After succeeding there, he moves to The Holy Land during the Crusades.
December 20, 2009
It was short. Good for people with small attention spans, but it doesn't hold enough information to make me want more, not really. I need the whole series, and that would be good, but one by itself is SHORT.
November 20, 2012
This one's hard to rate. My only complaint is that it's so short--I want the story to be more fleshed out.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews