Sinai

by William Smethurst

An unusual time-warp thriller, in which the events of 1300BC, the Biblical Exodus and flight of the Israelites from Egypt, led by Moses, became intertwined with a drama of high technology and modern welfare, and an exploration of space and time. From the author of BUKHARA EXPRESS.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Since starting his career as a BBC journalist William has been an award-winning writer of plays for radio, television, the cinema, and the theatre. In his thirties he was a highly successful editor of the BBC’s “The Archers”, and executive producer of serial drama for Central Television. Running his own production company he devised and produced the sci-fi serial drama “Jupiter Moon” which sold to over 20 countries round the world.
He wrote the non-fiction Sunday Times best seller “The Archers - the true story”. His novels include the award-winning satire “Jennifer’s Friends”, and the highly-acclaimed sci-fi time shift trilogy of “Sinai”, “Pasiphae”, and “Woken’s Eye”.

He and his wife Carolynne spend their summers cruising Europe in their boat, and their winters in Devon.

Reviews

[Jessie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. I read it about 25 years ago when my father borrowed it as a new release out of the library. I saw it in his pile and borrowed it from him!

I looked for it 25 years later but couldn't remember the author's name or even the exact title - after much searching I finally found it again and I'm delighted that I did.

It's science fiction, history, time-travel.

There are mainly 2 different sets of characters in 2 different timelines, the first is about the Jews leaving Ancient Egypt with the Pharaohs men in hot pursuit, and, the second is set in modern day (This novel was written in the 1990's but the technology is almost the same as now, mobile phones etc.).

Don't worry about the physics, as you don't really need to understand it in an in-depth way except that the different time lines COULD converge.

I have read this several times and the plot really made me think which is what I love in a story.

Great characters and William Smethurst does a great job of advancing the story, plot development, character development and moving seamlessly between 2 vastly different timelines. Some of the questions raised in both past and present are tied together and are explained really well at the end.

William Smethurst was a great author RIP and I'm sorry I never got to tell him how much I enjoyed his wonderful book.


It's a similar idea to Kate Mosse Labyrinth. However this book was written about a decade before.

[Lanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love this book. I've read it quite a few times since it was published, even after all the pages fell out of my old paperback.

The characters are what makes it for me. They are memorable, individual and sympathetic, especially Ruth and her group. So full of character.
The author creates memorable and three dimensional people with just a few lines. A marvelous talent.

The plot, especially the modern day part, is very complex and I don't try to make sense of the physics, I just enjoy the story.

A map of Sinai would be nice.
Or at least it would have been nice when I first read it. Now I can look it up on the internet.


This is one of my 'go to' books. I just love it.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a German tourist dies of dehydration in the Sinai desert in only hours, Dr. Richard Corrigan begins to suspect something odd is going on. He joins forces with an American scientist, who shows him the body of an Egyptian boy recovered in 1973 but believed to actually come from the time of the Biblical exodus. Thus Richard begins to look for answers.

If you ever wanted a da Vinci Code involving physics then this is your book. It's lacking a little in terms of chills and thrills, though it has its moments. Mostly what holds this book back are the ancient Egyptian scenes. These weigh the narrative down considerably and for what they contribute to the end, it could have been compressed into a prologue. Really, we didn't need to hear the entire Exodus when all that mattered was what happened around Mount Te.

Another problem was the author clearly did not reference his military aircraft. At one point he mentions an American Sabre going down; Sabres became obsolete by the mid-1950s. Another point someone is flying in an SR-71 Blackbird; the last of those was retired in the 1990s. Then he mentioned something being tested on a Phantom; I'm pretty sure the Israeli's stopped using those a while back as well. In this age of Wikipedia it's pretty easy for an author or editor to research details like that. And as I always say, if you don't get the little things right, it worries me about the big things, especially in a book that involves so much history.

Anyway, as I said if you liked the da Vinci Code and like physics then this will be a great book for you.

That is all.

[Mirrani · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the idea behind this book when I requested it through the Early Review program, but once I picked it up I found myself really struggling. I couldn't quite understand the point behind the book at all. At first I blamed it on my mind being too cluttered with normal, every-day life, so I started over, then I blamed it on the really unpleasant writing style, but in the end I just gave up trying to understand where it was trying to take me. That helped a little, but to be honest, I still don't know what happened with the multiple plot points this story offered. It was just that jumbled.

I felt that the characters were all exactly the same and had difficulty keeping them straight in my mind, especially since the dialogue was often a one line quote followed by someone's answer, which was also a one line quote or a simple action. There were points in my reading where I actually made note of some interesting things, like the first vending machine being made in Egypt. And I looked in to those things, which turned out to be true, so the research earned the book points where the grammar, spelling and punctuation did not.

I did finish this story, but it was only because I have a policy to never put down a book without completing it, out of respect to the hard work an author puts in to create it. This was far too much trouble to read, even with the interesting plot ideas behind it. The story could have been so much more, it was sad to see the concepts wasted on uninteresting writing, bad editing, and confusing plot points.

Note: Though this book was a free gift from the author, the content of my review was in no way influenced by the gifting. The book speaks for itself and my review would have been worded just this way even if I'd gone out and bought it. I also give bonus points for Text To Speech enabling on Kindle format.... but that also wasn't a factor in the above review.

[Jack Sakalauskas · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Sinai" is actually two books, the first is about the Exodus and the second is about the same area in present time. A time warp is involved with the author hoping it all comes together in the last chapter. I found the first chapter confusing and I think the "book' on the Exodus could have ben done in one chapter. Losing interest, I started to skip paragraphs so I could finish.

[Debra Chapoton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great premise, deep research, intriguing. But the time travel payoff just wasn't there. Otherwise it was a pretty good story though at times difficult to follow. R rated language.