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A review by saltycorpse
The Mummy or Ramses the Damned by Anne Rice
3.0
In many ways The Mummy is atypical of Anne Rice, and yet totally typical. I love that it taps into a genre of film especially that is culturally familiar and tells this engaging story about immorality and history.
That being said, I read this for the first time when I was pretty young, and I don't recall disliking Ramses or Julie as much as I did this time around. I understand that Julie is a woman of her times - and supposedly ahead of her times - but she just irritates me. Her mewling suitor Alex isn't much better, and Ramses is entirely a hedonistic narcissist, which makes he and Julie's sudden monogamy strange.
It's also a bit irritating that Rice glosses over the colonialism and cultural invasion that is pretty inherent in the 'exploration' of Egypt, and 'discovery' of Pharaoh's tombs during this time. She seems to just decide that's a blind spot she can live with, and not even nod to, even though it would've given the novel a lot more depth and added interest - especially with Ramses awakening into an entirely new world - his feelings about Egypt's changes are pretty superficial, and since he's supposed to be this highly intelligent, philosophical immortal man, it seems strange he'd just basically have an emo spell after seeing "modern" Egypt (which is pretty much fixed by sex, of course).
Basically everyone in this novel is annoying as hell, with maybe the exception of Elliott, especially given his romantic partners of the past, and his bizarre half-dead/rotting sex scene with the newly risen Cleopatra.
This is a book that is great for Anne Rice fans. I'm lukewarm on Anne Rice but I really do love her contribution and even foundation-laying of the paranormal/vampire genre.
That being said, I read this for the first time when I was pretty young, and I don't recall disliking Ramses or Julie as much as I did this time around. I understand that Julie is a woman of her times - and supposedly ahead of her times - but she just irritates me. Her mewling suitor Alex isn't much better, and Ramses is entirely a hedonistic narcissist, which makes he and Julie's sudden monogamy strange.
It's also a bit irritating that Rice glosses over the colonialism and cultural invasion that is pretty inherent in the 'exploration' of Egypt, and 'discovery' of Pharaoh's tombs during this time. She seems to just decide that's a blind spot she can live with, and not even nod to, even though it would've given the novel a lot more depth and added interest - especially with Ramses awakening into an entirely new world - his feelings about Egypt's changes are pretty superficial, and since he's supposed to be this highly intelligent, philosophical immortal man, it seems strange he'd just basically have an emo spell after seeing "modern" Egypt (which is pretty much fixed by sex, of course).
Basically everyone in this novel is annoying as hell, with maybe the exception of Elliott, especially given his romantic partners of the past, and his bizarre half-dead/rotting sex scene with the newly risen Cleopatra.
This is a book that is great for Anne Rice fans. I'm lukewarm on Anne Rice but I really do love her contribution and even foundation-laying of the paranormal/vampire genre.