Le retour de la Momie

The Mummy #2

by Max Allan Collins

Egypte, 1935. Près de Louxor, Rick O'Connell et sa femme Evelyn, une égyptologue, découvrent dans le temps d'Imhotep, grand prêtre d'Osiris, la momie de ce dernier. C'est compter sans les disciples du culte d'Imhotep, bien décidés à le faire renaître à la vie car ils vénèrent ses immenses pouvoirs. Tremblements de terre, attaques de scarabées et de pygmées carnivores se succèdent dans ce récit riche en épisodes mouvementés.
Suite du film culte " La momie ", " Le retour de la momie ", également réalisé par Stephen Sommers, mêle habilement aventure et horreur, humour et suspense.

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Fiction, Horror, Historical, Media Tie In, Action

317 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 2001

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

[Alex ☣ Deranged KittyCat ☣ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, I made it. I finished reading the book in less than a year. :))) Don't get me wrong. The novelization is pretty good, it's just that real life has a way of getting into everything. *sigh*

So, back to our mummy, the Brendan Fraser first two movies are my favorites. There is adventure, a great looking man, a gorgeous kick-ass woman, and now they have an amazing son. Oh, and let's not forget Jonathan. John Hannah as Jonathan Carnahan is wonderful. He makes me laugh every time, even if I've seen the movie so many times I can't even remember.


My favorite parts are the flashbacks. I love the two ladies, Evelyn/Nefertiri and Meela/Anck-Su-Namun. Their fight scenes are some of the best, and there is always something magical about seeing old Egypt in all it's glory (the palace and the temples, the costumes and jewelry etc.).


And I'm sorry for Imhotep. His love got him doomed for all eternity. And, in the end, it was all for nothing. He had to die a few times trying to get back the woman he loved, to realize she wasn't worth it.

[Mojca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Evelyn Carnahan O'Connel has been having strange dreams and visions since the start of the Egyptian new year—the Year of the Scorpion. Dreams and visions that send her and her family back to Egypt to look for the mythological Bracelet of Anubis.

They find it, but they're not the only ones looking for it. The newly reawakened Imhotep, alongside his reincarnated lover, want the bracelet to gain control over the army of Anubis and unleash hell.


Again, the movie (though much worse than the first one) was still better than the novelization. Plodding of pace, dull of story, annoying of character (Evelyn was still rather self-involved and self-important because she was having visions of the past)...I was at least hoping for an explanation as to why the Scorpion King turned evil (or whatever he was at the beginning), but alas, no explanation was forthcoming.

[Martein Joaquim · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best is to watch movie this is the first Hollywood movie I have a watch in my childhood and the great one

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the route of the Scorpion King was the completely wrong route for the film makers to go down, especially introducing the spin off film. Looking back on the CGI of Dawyne Johnson now as the Scorpion King is unbelievable, it's so bad. Thankfully, you don't get any of this in the book.

Once again, the writing and description from Max Allan Collins is excellent, and he definitely weaves an excellent story, whether you've watched the film or not. There are some minor changes from book to film - this is obviously taken from one of the drafts of the screenplay, before they realised scalping on film probably wouldn't work. (But half-human, half-scorpion would?) There are some changes to the dialogue, with some being described in the book, and spoken by a character in the film.

I really appreciate that Max Allan Collins' stuck right throughout these novelizations, rather than as I've seen previously, passed from author to author, like you do find in some novelization series. I think he was able to focus much more on the storyline this time, as he has already introduced Rick (who annoyingly gets referred to as Richard more than once) and Evelyn, and we already know the story of Imothep and Anck-su-namun, but we get a different spin on it with this novelization.

I just really wish they'd gone with something different than the Scorpion King. Although it comes across better in the book, than it does on film, if you've already seen the film and hated the character, you'll still feel the same reading this. It'll be interesting to see if my feelings change with the novelization of the spin off.

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sequels will never match up with greatness of the original, but this was decent because I know it could’ve gone much worse. Even so, I would much rather watch the film, then read the novelization again. The novel wasn’t terrible because it does follow most of the film’s plot, but there were some notable differences.

We get the backstory of Anck-Su-Namun and Nefertiri, extra information that fills in some of the blanks (such as why didn’t they look for and use the Book of the Living to kill Imhotep again) and more characterization of the characters like knowing that Imhotep isn’t completely heartless. He was lenient with Alex’s antics and didn't allow any physical harm. He was even reluctant to kill him, but his desire to cause Rick pain outweighed his moral value, which is why he ordered Lock-Nah who was far more eager and thrilled to do it.

The film and as a result the novel too, felt rushed and the lack of effort in keeping things consistent is quite noticeable. There are some silly mistakes, like how could Evelyn be the curator of Cairo Museum in 1925, when that’s a year before The Mummy even started? At that time, she was a librarian and Dr. Terence Bey was still alive. And for Alex to be 8 years old, his parents would have had to have him in 1925, possibly conceived in 1924, but Evelyn and Rick hadn’t even met.

There’s also a few very obvious plot holes that for some unknown reason were completely overlooked. The major one is in the beginning, because if the twelve tribes of the Medjai number in the thousands, why weren’t they able to stop the excavation of Hamunaptra in the first place? If the cultist was too much for Ardeth’s tribe to handle, why not get Horus, his beloved bird companion, to summon the others for help?

It’s not all bad, there were some parts that I enjoyed that weren’t in the film, such as...


...when Rick mispronounced the ancient Egyptian, “Mi Phat Ahs!”, which is ‘I am your disciple’ to “My fat ass!”

There’s also the ending in which Rick and Imhotep were hanging at the edge of the crevice. It’s mostly the same as the film, but the difference is that in the novelization before Imhotep lets go, he gives the couple a few parting words. It makes the scene even more tragic when you later find out what he said to them.

Anck-su-namum—who had also died more than once—stood frozen, just another statue on the cavern's periphery. And then Meela turned and ran, ran down the tunnel back toward the gateway—getting the hell out, leaving her ancient lover to the precipice. Imhotep, hanging by his fingers, screamed in disbelief: "Anck-su-namum!" But she had vanished down the tunnel. O'Connell glanced over at his foe, and could see in the mummy's face that his world had just collapsed much as this cavern was coming down around them. "Anck-su-namum?" the mummy whispered. At that moment, Evelyn reached the edge of the crevice, leaned over its edge, and grabbed onto her husband's arm. Quickly she yanked him up and over the crevice, to relative safety. O'Connell, Evy at his side, looked down at the helpless Imhotep, and—strangely, unbelievably—he found himself wanting to reach down a hand to help this worthiest of foes. But Imhotep, devastated, stared up at them and something like a smile etched itself faintly on his lips. He spoke a few words in ancient Egyptian, and then he let go of the crevice wall, falling into eternity.

Once they're all on Izzy's dirigible, Rick asks...

"Imhotep—before he fell. He said something in ancient Egyptian."
She nodded. "He said... 'Love that lasts longer than the temples of the gods.'"
"No kidding. Talking about himself and that dame...?"
"Talking about us, I think—I think at the end ... he envied us." Shaking off the somber moment, she gave him a mischievous grin. "Care to know what heaven looks like?"
"Naw." He just gazed into his wife's lovely face, into her beautiful blue eyes. "Hell, I already know."
And the adventurer took the librarian into his strong, tired arms, and they shared a long, hard, passionate kiss worthy of a Knight Templar and an Egyptian princess.



Note: I made a post listing the differences between the film and its novelization, as well as include some information that the audience doesn’t know about the characters, and/or scenes.

[Megan Cheang · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this book a lot and am tempted to keep it with me. But I don't really want to read it again so there would be no point to that. Hence I am donating it to the library exchange corner, where I first found it, in the hopes some other Mummy movie fan can enjoy it.
The novel follows most of the film's plot. There are some key differences.
1) It explores the backstory of Anck Su Namun and Nefertiri. While it is never explained why the former hated the princess, it is understandable that Nefertiri should be enraged that her late mother be replaced with a common concubine.
2) Imhotep seems to be indulgent of Alex, never allowing physical harm to the boy, and even punishing Lock-nah for his escape instead of Alex himself. He even seems reluctant to end the boy's life. But of course his desire to cause Rick pain outweighs that and he allows Lock-nah to end the boy's life in any painful method.
3) There is some way to prove you are a servant of the scorpion king. By removing your scalp. Both the curator and Imhotep did this. The part that had me giggling was when Rick butchered the pronunciation for "I am your disciple" to "My fat ass."
4) It is revealed that Meela threw the Book of the Living into the pit of scarabs so that Imhotep could not be killed that way again.
In this novel, we see how the feud between Imhotep and Rick, and Evy and Anck Su Namun involves both hatred and respect.
I felt kind of sorry for Imhotep. He sacrificed his position and friend for love, and that love not been so true after all. But I also get that the situation was different at the end.
Rick did not want Evy to die and ordered her to keep back. Evy, who obviously had a pleasant afterlife experience (why would she be in hell?), was not afraid to die again.
Imhotep had died a gruesome death and did not want to die again. He pleaded for his beloved to save him. I believe she did love Imhotep, but like how I believe Nefertiri had a good afterlife, I am pretty sure Anck Su Namun had a taste of hell and did not want to risk it either.

[Petra Rozkopalová · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mumie a Mumie se vrací

Netušila som, že existuje knižná verzia týchto filmov (ktoré patria k mojim obľúbeným a sú fakt vysoko v rebríčku). A teda, keďže knihy sú podľa filmu, netreba sa baviť o tom, či sú lepšie alebo nie.
Každopdáne sa príbehy Ricka O´Conella a Evelyn Carnahanovej čítajú dosť dobre.

V prvej kníhe (Mumie) máme trochu viac rozvinutý dej z filmu, je tam podopĺňaných o niečo viac informácií, ktoré sa do filmu zrejme nedostali. Ale je to pekne obrazné a vlastne ten kto pozná film, ho má celú dobu pred očami. Zachovaná je veľká väčšina hlášok (možno s pár odchýľkami vzhľadom na dabing), a mňa to čítanie celkom dosť bavilo.

V druhej knihe, je viac popísaný príbeh kráľa Škorpióna, ale potom to už sviští skoro filmovou rýchlosťou. Na rozdiel od prvej časti tu dej nie je príliš doplnený o ďalšie informácie. Ale v zásade, tým, že je to napínavejšie, tak je to aj také akčnejšie čítanie.

Celkom som rada, že som tieto knihy našla, a ešte radšej, že som si ich doplnila do knižnice. Teraz si už len dopozriem filmy zase raz po dlhšej dobe.

[Azhar Khan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think if you are not a fan of the movies, this book is not for you. I toiled to look for this book just because I love the movies. The book is an easy read, something you would probably spend reading on the bus or while waiting for a friend.

However, the exoticism of Egyptian and Arab, thr conflation of all the cultures, the idea that Muslims would resort to such idolatry is very jarring for me. It sends out a wrong idea that Ardeth Bay, while not said specifically that he was a muslim, would invoke Allah's name while at the same time believe the Egyptian Gods and believe in Reincarnation to be real.

I find that conflation to be troublesome. BUT apart from this, the whole book was as enjoyable as the movie, I love it. But the belittling of the Religion Islam is blasphemous for me. But what would I expect from American writers?

[Alex Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my personal opinion, this sequel adaption was better than the original in the sense that I would rather reread the book than rewatch the movie - again, for personal reasons. Simply for the characterization differences between the movie and the novelization, The Mummy Returns novel is more satisfying, to me. I absolutely adore knowing more than the films tell us, and all of the little details that we wouldn't know otherwise just make me incredibly happy.

[Nyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a much faster read than the novelization of the previous movie but the quality wasn't there. There were a lot of silly mistakes in the writing which, years later, I talk about more than the actual book or movie.

[Denipreet Kaur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seemed slow in the beginning but it massively gains pace in the middle and ends with a bang. I don't remember the movie well, but this bit about Evy being Nefertiti kind of annoyed me, because it wasn't historically accurate and felt a little too far fetched.

[Gemma Martín · Rating 4 out of 5]

Al igual que en la primera novelización, lo único que no me ha acabado de convencer es el trato de los personajes en comparación a los de la película pero todo lo demás es perfecto, tanto los pequeños detalles como las descripciones emocionales de los personajes.

[Sara Aouichi · Rating 5 out of 5]

<3 amazing <3

[Lee Bartholomew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like the movie alot of fun to read.

[Heids Van · Rating 4 out of 5]

I kind of pity the mummy

[Shana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un bel continuo, amo i film e ho apprezzato molto la lettura di entrambi i libri.

[Cindy Fauconnier · Rating 4 out of 5]

pg 77

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you loved reading The Mummy (and found the film version of the The Mummy Returns a little lacking), you will enjoy getting lost within the ancient annexes of this book. You will find that your imagination paints an even better picture than the film, with the masterful literary guidance of one of the greatest romanciers of our time.

[Maxi Bolongaita · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was pretty excited to read this, but sadly, my expectations were for naught. The writing style was juvenile as well as having an over abundance of reused adjectives. A little on the poor side, I would rather watch the movie.

[Joana Rodrigues · Rating 4 out of 5]

LOVE ITTTTTT. There are some parts different from the movie but thats normal. And I wish that some parts or quotes in the book were in the movie. Specially some parts in the end of the book. But i love itttt.

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok but it wasnt the French version or whatever this is.

[Christopher Au · Rating 5 out of 5]

As good as the movie itself !

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book though portions of it is not like the movie.

[Ozma]

it was…………………………………………………………………………………





AMAZING

[Book Vamp Jade Williams]

So I've added this to my DNF shelf, this is EXACTLY like the film word for word sigh.

[NEMEHKBAYAR]

yes