There is a lot to like here for fans of the
genre; it’s got ancient secrets, historical mysteries, fabulous treasure, acts
of courage and hairsbreadth escapes. But there is something a little bit
off about this book, and I can’t decide if it hinders the book or makes it
innovative in some way. In the acknowledgments, the author states that this book
was a work of ten years’ passion and dedication, and this is clearly evident
with the amount of meticulous research and historical information on display.
Where this falls short however, is that at points the book feels more
like a history lesson with a tacked on narrative than a ripping adventure with
historical mysteries, seeming like a paper on Ptolemaic Alexandria with some
people doing some things just thrown in.
“Some people” is a perfect way to describe the
characters in this book, who the author tries desperately to get us to care for
with pretty flimsy and transparent emotion bait that feels like RPG backstory thrown on a character sheet to give at least some weight to the
relationships therein. None of the characters feel like they do much, which is
a problem in a genre that is built on pulpy tropes of good and evil. Daniel
Knox, whom later books are eponymously associated with never seems to act heroic,
rather he is acted upon and seems like a passenger borne along by the actions
of others. This calls into question whether the other books bearing his
name will include him learning new skills, and improving as a heroic character
which is a very interesting thing to do, though in this tale he falls a bit
flat. With every hero comes a villain, and the principle villain in this
book doesn’t actually do anything villainous, merely acts with singular drive
toward his goal (which is debatably a noble one) with no regard as to its
effects, which ultimately lends a nice air of realism to the book. The
secondary villain is definitively a scum bag that ends up not being stopped; in
fact he ends up coming out the other side with even greater power and influence,
adding realism to the book, because as we all know villains are never actually
stopped in real life, they just accrue more power and influence after they
escape justice.
This book was published in 2007, though some of the social attitudes feel a bit older, with the women either being rescue bait or coded as volatile and mean simply because they are career focused and driven toward their goals. There is also a tiny bit of completely needless homophobia in here as well, though I think it was inserted to give a character a bit of depth, though it just felt gross and dumb rather than any type of deep characterization. What was pleasant to see however, was the way the Muslim characters were handled. Because the book takes place entirely in northern Egypt, several principle characters were Muslim, and the author avoided treading on precarious ground quite well, never having characters dip into stereotypes or uttering buzzwords or catchphrases that made them feel like bad pantomime.
The singular greatest strength of this novel lies in its absolutely breakneck pacing. Three main story threads are snap cut from one to the next in such a well executed way as to leave you with a cliffhanger on nearly every other page, driving you to hustle on through the story to see what happens next.
I can’t decide if this was a novel of high adventure that just missed the mark or a clever piece of genre subversion that just missed the mark. I would definitely recommend it to someone looking for more grounded adventure, as it has zero elements of the fantastic or weird. No wild ancient technology, no ancient curses, no secret societies desperate to conceal ancient secrets; just people caught up in a treasure hunt. A very fun read, if not excellent or wildly exciting.
-Z.S. Reynolds-
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