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Average Customer Rating:

paranormal romance

Customer Rating:

I really wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I've had a love/hate relationship with Anne Rice's books. I loathed Interview with a Vampire, but people kept telling me to try more, and so I did, and each book I liked a little better. Mind you, I've only read the first half dozen or so of her vampire chronicles, so the recent controversies don't come into the equation yet. Surprisingly, The Mummy is more like a paranormal romance than a horror novel, and probably would have been shelved in the romance section if not for two things: 1) it was written in 1989, before paranormal romance became a hot genre, and 2) it's by Anne Rice, and she's known for horror, so that's where it goes. Julie Stratford's father was an archaeologist. Shortly after he discovered the mummy of Ramses II (Ramses the Damned), he was murdered by his nephew Henry. Back in London, Henry tries the same trick on Julie so he can gain control of the family fortune, but Ramses comes to life and stops him. Ramses is immortal because of an elixir, but he can also lie dormant for a time. It just takes sunlight to awaken him. Julie and Ramses fall in love, and there are quite a few light-hearted scenes with them trying to explain his sudden presence and to prevent word from leaking out about the mummy come to life. The romance is complicated by Ramses's betrayal by his first love, Cleopatra, and by Julie's assumed betrothal to Alex, whose father, coincidentally, is the one man who has figured out who Ramses is and is determined to get his hands on the elixir. There's also quite a lot of serious reflection about immortality. Rice had obviously given the subject a lot of thought (unsurprising, since she'd written about angsty immortals before), and the descriptions of the elixir's effects were very dramatic and believable--what happens, for example, if you use the elixir on crops? The subject comes to a head when Ramses finds Cleopatra's mummy and despite his misgivings, uses the elixir to restore what ends up being a murderous fiend. One of my favorite things about this book is the ending. It's also a rather open-ended... er... ending. Whether that's to leave room for a sequel, or just to allow the reader's imagination to continue the story, I'm not sure. I suppose I'll look it up eventually.

Not your everyday Anne Rice!

Customer Rating:

This was one of her earlier novels and probably my favorite. There is little to no horror elements in this book but a good amount of suspense, adventure and romance. Ms. Rice's twist on a classic ideal of horror is wonderful. She gives the story of Ramses the Damned a whole new view that keeps you drawn into the tale from start to finish. Whether you are a Rice fan or not, you should read this book. This one goes on my list of re-readable novels. I have read it twice and will probably read it again sometime in the future. If you like supernatural suspense, adventure or romance books, you will like this book.

REALLY ENJOYABLE!!

Customer Rating:

i really liked this story- i still think about it a lot and long for a similarly interesting egyptian read- (haven't been able to find one yet unfortunately- if anyone knows of any, let me know please in the comments section- thanks)- anyhow, i miss the characters and the setting- great descriptions- i could have done with a little less sexuality and the homosexualtity parts didn't quite make sense i thought- still i really liked this book, thought it was very well-written and can't seem to forget the characters and setting she so vividly described-

Do the chosen deserved being chosen?

Customer Rating:

A novel of love, not horror. A novel of supernatural marvel, not of fantastic gore. Anne Rice is best in her literature when she tells a love story. Here she is able to have a three or four layer love story. Deep in the past the love story is that of Ramses and Cleopatra as opposed to Antony and Cleopatra. The former should be a love story of eternal wisdom true in all times and that no one can evade, the latter a love story of mortal passion that leads to death and dies. The former becomes a passion of hatred, hateful (full of hate) love, of hate-oriented love. The latter becomes a love affair of undying passion because mortal, of undying passion because doomed. The next layers are the successive love affairs in the main two families, the Rutherfords and the Stratfords, two families that know how to cross difficulties, the rivers of life, as their names indicate. Elliott and Lawrence a long time ago. Elliott and Henry twenty years later. Alex and Julie in the present time. The genius of that is to resuscitate both Ramses and Cleopatra in those families in the 20th century. They invade this world with their old hatreds and love-affairs and invest a new layer of love affairs in this modern world. Cleopatra is the archetype of the victim of society and of history, but also of her capricious childish being that chooses to love the only man she mustn't choose, the one who is only going to be defeated by society and she will then suffer the insufferable dilemma between love and life, love and death, death and life. Ramses brings into this picture the possibility to be eternal, the detention of a power that is greater than all that mankind can imagine, the power to survive one's own mistakes and to survive in spite of one's own shortcomings, hence the necessity to become perfect in spite of the impossibility to even dream of that concept. Project such love and such power into human frail society and even frailer individuals and you have a cocktail that can only lead to a catastrophe, and it does. Then Anne Rice becomes the genius we expect her to be and she turns that human catastrophe, that human tragedy into a violent confrontation of simple material forces like a car versus a train, or the addiction to gambling and the hunger for winning in order to lose in order to re-experience the pleasure of winning leading to the exquisite pain of losing again. This absolutely masochistic dimension of human nature goes beyond human understanding and Anne Rice is the best author to express this lack of intelligibility in the intelligence of human beings. It is then a beautiful novel that deserves our attention and that should make us aware of the absolute folly of trying to go beyond our limits. Altogether Anne Rice produces a deep feeling of satisfaction with our own fate, our own lot in life. The end is surprising though because she unevenly distributes the honor of being regenerated and then we wonder why one person is left out and why the chosen two are taken out of the tragedy they deserved entirely to suffer and experience. Isn't that pure cruelty from Anne Rice, pure cruelty and undeserved advantage. Or is there another deeper pattern? Out of the three men who had had some homosexual contacts, two are killed and one is chosen. The only man in that group of four English men who had had no homosexual contact nor desire is left alive but un-chosen. It sure closes the novel on a feeling of unfairness. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

Anne Rice at her Best

Customer Rating:

I can't think of a more perfect book. the only flaw is that it might be nice to get a sequel, but I think it's too late now. The Mummy is a fantastic adventure story, with some romance thrown in for good measure. Ramses is found and he's not actually dead. He finds himself in early 1900's Cario, and what happens next is awesome. Even if you've never read any Anne Rice, you will not be lost, this is a stand alone novel. My husband read this book and also thought it was great, so don't be put off if you are male. Read it - you'll like it!