The Scorpion King

The Mummy #0.5

by Max Allan Collins

As the warlord Memnon gains control of the Middle East, he seeks to fulfill prophecy by becoming the Scorpion King, but Mathayus, an Akkadian assassin, has plans to stop him with the help of Memnon's own sorceress, Cassandra.

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Fiction, Egypt, Action, Film, Historical Fiction

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 5, 2002

About the author

Received the Shamus Award, "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) in 2006.

He has also published under the name Patrick Culhane. He and his wife, Barbara Collins, have written several books together. Some of them are published under the name Barbara Allan.

Book Awards
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1984) : True Detective
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1992) : Stolen Away
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1995) : Carnal Hours
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1997) : Damned in Paradise
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1999) : Flying Blind: A Novel about Amelia Earhart
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (2002) : Angel in Black

Japanese: マックス・アラン・コリンズ
or マックス・アラン コリンズ

Reviews

[Mojca · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last of his tribe of assassins, Mathayus is tasked with stopping warlord Memnon from completely taking over the known world. The only way to do it, is to kill Memnon's sorcerer. But the sorcerer turns out to be a sorceress, more a prisoner than ally and advisor to the warlord, and together, and with the help of a motley crew of outlaws, bandits and warriors, they will strive to change the destiny foretold in Cassandra's prophecy.


While the movie is your typical popcorn-y fare coupled with C-movie worthy acting in which you can send your brain on an hour-and-a-half vacation, the book expands on the world, characters and their motivations, inner thoughts and emotions.

That gives the story a few more layers and a little more depth, but that's pretty much it. It's definitely better than the movie (which isn't such a difficult feat), but still firmly in the average field.

[Dimitris Papastergiou · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wish I could say that the book was better than the movie. It wasn't. It was exactly like the film. Garbage.

[Naoya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was easy to read for me. I have watched this this movie before,so I could understand easily.
This story is a little not real,but it is interesting.
You can understand movie if you can't in book.

[Victor Orozco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very Good. A good adaptation. B+

[Joe McLaughlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Identical to the movie which wasn't very good.

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book describes a story that a brutal general masters the soldiers in Egypt。Other general preparation against him, and launch a war for several times, but he was defeated. They know a thing at a time, and the general's side has a witch, she was able to foresee the future, and you help him to victory. After get the news, the league for a killer to kill the witch.
But when he is ready to kill the witch, witch is found to be a beautiful woman. Killer can't bear to kill the woman and the witch told him that she is not willing to help the general.
Kind of killer does not kill the witch, he entered the general's castle and kill the general.

[Julia Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh, not impressed. From what I can tell, its a prequel to the Scorpion King movie so it's kind of nice having a background for the Scorpion King, but since I haven't seen the film in years it doesn't help much (and perhaps that's my problem, I kept trying to reference what little I remember from the movie). The writing was overly dramatic and sometimes hard to follow. The story itself wasn't awful, I just feel poorly executed. I love ancient civilization stories, but this one didn't have as much oomph as I had been anticipating!

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is one of the Funniest books I've ever read, if I want to sit around and roll with laughter with some friends we will read this out loud. the over the top double entendre's, the outright slaughter of History, the seriously overdone testosterone... not one page without a laugh... Truely horrible and Hilarious all at once. it was a fluke that I was given the book, I would never have thought to pick it up, but somehow I have the feeling that it was written in protest by a decent bard!

[Hiroyuki Morito · Rating 4 out of 5]

penguin readers level 2
10/20=50minutes
ancient Egypt-sorcerer-dominate-employ-fighter-prediction-win
1 What do you think about a hero?
I think hero is very cool. The hero in this story fight for people,so he is fantastic.
2 Do you believe any predictions?
Yes, I tend to believe predictions.

I want everyone to read this book because it is very good. The hero who fight for country is very cool!

[Kazuaki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book is very fantacy. And may be It is easy for everyone to read this book.

The reason is that this book is written with very easy English.

When Iread this book,I feel I live in somewhere looks like desert.

I want you to read to read this book.

Thank you.

[Yuuga Fujikawa]

good book!

[Igy The Book Hermit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great sword and sorcery.