Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.09 AVERAGE
3.09 AVERAGE
It was bad. Patterson just isn't a good writer. So clunky and self congratulatory.
adventurous
informative
mysterious
fast-paced
I am just not sure what to think here - many parts intriguing mixed with the raising of one eyebrow question mark.
A quick and easy read, but a disappointment none the less. For one thing, if you are reporting conversations between people 3000 years dead, you're not writing a "nonfiction thriller", you're writing an historical mystery novel. Also, in the portions set in ancient times, the authors telegraph who the villain of the piece is. The portions set during Howard Carter's archeological explorations are less fictionalized (likely because there is substantially more documentation for that period). Patterson/Dugard have the bare bones of a decent historical novel but not much more.
My advice--if you want mysteries set during the period of European archeological explorations of Egypt, try Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody mysteries. If you're interested in mysteries set in Tutankhamen's court, Lynda Robinson's Lord Meren novels might fill the bill
My advice--if you want mysteries set during the period of European archeological explorations of Egypt, try Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody mysteries. If you're interested in mysteries set in Tutankhamen's court, Lynda Robinson's Lord Meren novels might fill the bill
adventurous
dark
sad
fast-paced
I think Patterson attempted to write both a fictionalized vision of Tut's life and a non-fiction (using the world loosely, I suspect) account of Tut's death and discovery.... all in a little over 300 pages. In the end, I don't think he does either particularly well; I would have preferred he choose or the other, or write two books: one a fictional telling of his life, the other a nonfiction exploration of the idea that he was murdered. I think trying to do both, especially in such a short span, was unsuccessful.
This book was kind of all over the place (what ever happened with the tomb robber that Carter thought he was on to, I ask you?!), but I still loved it. It was completely fascinating!
James Patterson gives an interesting look into the life of King Tut, the possible ways that he died, and the people around him.
Great read, I loved this one! I whipped through this one in a day!
Great read, I loved this one! I whipped through this one in a day!
James Patterson, just because you're famous, does not mean that you're a good writer. This book was horrid. It seemed as if all of his research was thrown up on the pages, colored in metaphors and fancy diction, to make himself seem smarter than he really is. His "facts" were incorrect, the writing was awful and there was no story at all. What he has written was almost like it had been copied out of a textbook's bad interpretation of historical events. Also, by the way he included his own voice in the "novel", you would have thought that he was the founder of the murder conspiracy. Trust me buddy, you're not. Stop writing Patterson, or at least stop writing historical fiction.
Couldn’t finish this horrible, horrible book. Let’s disregard the fact that the author did the least amount of research possible and focus on the fact that he felt the need to put in sex scenes and rape scenes involving minors. What the actual fuck. So disgusting. I don’t care if it’s historically accurate that people got married going in the past, you don’t have to go into details about minors having sex. Fucking gross gross gross.
I like Patterson's fiction but I wasn't sure how that would translate to non-fiction. I found myself really enjoying the book. It read like fiction and kept his same fast pace, short chapter style. I'm not sure of the validity of his research or his conclusions but it made for good reading. I think most people are curious about King Tut and it was interesting to read more detail of what his life and death might have been like.