Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.09 AVERAGE
3.09 AVERAGE
I don't know what I was expecting, but this nonfiction "thriller" from James Patterson and Martin Dugard wasn't it. The book is written in three parts, but changes from part to part by chapter. That can be a bit annoying. The parts are "who killed King Tut, how, and why", "Howard Carter overcomes tremendous obstacles to discover Tut's tomb and gets himself kicked out of Egypt", and "the story of how I 'solved' a 3,000 year old mystery." Yawn. The story of Tut, the boy pharaoh, was interesting when he was placed into the history, especially the religious history, of Ancient Egypt. However, the conjecture--yes, I know that they looked at research and x-rays, etc.--about his death was far-fetched. The most interesting part of the book was the story of how Howard Carter devoted his life to study and excavation in Egypt. In fact, he considered World War I to be a personal inconvenience in that the was drafted and had to leave Egypt for several years. He had failed mission after failed mission in the famed Valley of the Kings and convinced his sponsor to give him one last digging season. And during that season, Tut's tomb was discovered. The portion of the book devoted to James Patterson's great idea to research and write this book and the process that he went through was a fluffy ego piece. All in all, an interesting concept, but the execution was lacking.
adventurous
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
I'm so confused. This is supposed to be a "nonfiction" book about "unraveling the mystery" of King Tut's death. The conclusion, or the unraveling, is a mere sentence at the end of the book AND COMPLETE SPECULATION. Patterson actually goes on to claim that he knows exactly who killed the child king and why. This makes no sense. Wouldn't a professional author know the difference between fiction and nonfiction? The entire book is written like a fiction story, complete with conversations between the ancient Egyptians.
It wasn't a terrible book, but it was more of a fiction story for teenagers interested in knowing a little bit about King Tut. All the research Patterson claims to have put into this book is pretty much nonexistent.
It wasn't a terrible book, but it was more of a fiction story for teenagers interested in knowing a little bit about King Tut. All the research Patterson claims to have put into this book is pretty much nonexistent.
From my glowing review of The Heretic Queen, you have probably guessed I love everything involving Ancient Egypt. With that being said, I wanted to love this book but it fell incredibly short of expectations.
I started out so hopeful when, during the prologue, the Patterson stressed how much research he had done for the book. I’m certainly no Egyptologist but I was frustrated when, barely into the story, I started to notice several historical errors. For example, in Akhenaten’s death scene, Nefertiti makes some comments about how she will miss her husband’s “brain” as though that is the seat of his thinking and soul. Patterson rightly corrects this later by noting that Egyptians believed the seat of the soul to be housed in the heart but the damage was done.
That was just one of my gripes about this book and relatively minor in comparison to my largest problem with the book–I got more than a third of the way through and Tut had been mentioned in ONE of the scenes that took place in Ancient Egypt. ONE scene? Isn’t the book titled the Murder of King Tut? Patterson spent so much time setting up the family history there was barely any space left to actually discuss the reign and murder of his main character.
The book also has a frustrating format; the narrative has two separate tracks–one set in Ancient Egypt and the other during the time of Howard Carter (the eventual discoverer of Tut’s tomb. I have no idea why Carter’s story was included in the story; Carter is an interesting man and worthy of his own biography but it added very little to the book.
Even if I had ignored the poor format and historical errors, the story just isn’t compelling and never really takes off. All in all, this book was a serious disappointment. If you are looking for a good historical narrative set in the times of Ancient Egypt, look elsewhere because this book contains too little focus on the main characters. If you are looking for a good examination of the Murder of King Tut and the theories and facts involved, you should read Bob Brier’s work on the subject–The Murder of Tutankhamen–it is a much more academic look at the subject.
This book unfortunately falls into the “didn’t finish” category. I wanted to struggle through and finish but I hate to waste precious reading time on a book I find inaccurate and poorly written.
Audiobook Details
The reader, Joe Barett, does an adequate job. He isn’t an incredibly engaging reader but I don’t want to judge him on this book–I’m afraid I’m holding the poor quality of the book against him when it clearly isn’t his doing.
Run time: 5 hours, 59 minutes
I started out so hopeful when, during the prologue, the Patterson stressed how much research he had done for the book. I’m certainly no Egyptologist but I was frustrated when, barely into the story, I started to notice several historical errors. For example, in Akhenaten’s death scene, Nefertiti makes some comments about how she will miss her husband’s “brain” as though that is the seat of his thinking and soul. Patterson rightly corrects this later by noting that Egyptians believed the seat of the soul to be housed in the heart but the damage was done.
That was just one of my gripes about this book and relatively minor in comparison to my largest problem with the book–I got more than a third of the way through and Tut had been mentioned in ONE of the scenes that took place in Ancient Egypt. ONE scene? Isn’t the book titled the Murder of King Tut? Patterson spent so much time setting up the family history there was barely any space left to actually discuss the reign and murder of his main character.
The book also has a frustrating format; the narrative has two separate tracks–one set in Ancient Egypt and the other during the time of Howard Carter (the eventual discoverer of Tut’s tomb. I have no idea why Carter’s story was included in the story; Carter is an interesting man and worthy of his own biography but it added very little to the book.
Even if I had ignored the poor format and historical errors, the story just isn’t compelling and never really takes off. All in all, this book was a serious disappointment. If you are looking for a good historical narrative set in the times of Ancient Egypt, look elsewhere because this book contains too little focus on the main characters. If you are looking for a good examination of the Murder of King Tut and the theories and facts involved, you should read Bob Brier’s work on the subject–The Murder of Tutankhamen–it is a much more academic look at the subject.
This book unfortunately falls into the “didn’t finish” category. I wanted to struggle through and finish but I hate to waste precious reading time on a book I find inaccurate and poorly written.
Audiobook Details
The reader, Joe Barett, does an adequate job. He isn’t an incredibly engaging reader but I don’t want to judge him on this book–I’m afraid I’m holding the poor quality of the book against him when it clearly isn’t his doing.
Run time: 5 hours, 59 minutes
fast-paced
informative
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Fun read. Read it in less than 24 hours.
I found this intriguing. The book worked because Patterson skipped though time. There was no time to get bored because he would switch up time periods pretty frequently. However, he did this in a way that worked. I did find myself wondering what was fact and what was the conjecture of a great thriller author. It was a quick and easy ready that renewed my love for all things Egyptian.