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3.1 AVERAGE
3.1 AVERAGE
Es un libro sencillo, mucho mas de lo que aparenta. La historia esta bien hilada, con buenos personajes pero con un final muy flojo. Este libro es muy diferente a la saga Alexandros.
Pharaoh was an all right book. It combined a few different elements that you wouldn’t think would necessarily work together, especially in a book that only just scrapes over the 300-page mark, but Valerio Massimo Manfredi has wound it together in a way that seems to work.
Naturally, there is the Egyptian side of things: Pharaohs, archaeology, tombs in the desert. The main character, William Blake, uses dialogue as a way to express his clear knowledge on the subject without overwhelming the reader with technical jargon or the feeling that he’s just showing off. Otherwise, he’s not that much of a notable character: he’s lost his job and wife, but this story is more plot based than anything.
He grows close while working with Sarah, who isn’t much of a stand-out character either. She seemed too two-dimensional.
Then this book throws in another element: the tension of war, nuclear weapons, terrorism. Somehow this works alongside the idea of the tombs of Pharaohs, complimenting the novel as a whole and winding together in the one plot. In addition there is some questioning of monotheistic religions in here, relating due to evidence found in the tomb and the fact that the Middle East is on the brink of another holy war. So somehow this all works together and makes the book more interesting than your standard book on either of those three general topics. That said, I think that if the author, with his obvious knowledge (he's a classical archaeologist after all), had written this book purely focussing on things like a tomb, unknown Pharaoh, and archaeological discovery, for example, it could have turned out as something very different, but potentially better.
Naturally, there is the Egyptian side of things: Pharaohs, archaeology, tombs in the desert. The main character, William Blake, uses dialogue as a way to express his clear knowledge on the subject without overwhelming the reader with technical jargon or the feeling that he’s just showing off. Otherwise, he’s not that much of a notable character: he’s lost his job and wife, but this story is more plot based than anything.
He grows close while working with Sarah, who isn’t much of a stand-out character either. She seemed too two-dimensional.
Then this book throws in another element: the tension of war, nuclear weapons, terrorism. Somehow this works alongside the idea of the tombs of Pharaohs, complimenting the novel as a whole and winding together in the one plot. In addition there is some questioning of monotheistic religions in here, relating due to evidence found in the tomb and the fact that the Middle East is on the brink of another holy war. So somehow this all works together and makes the book more interesting than your standard book on either of those three general topics. That said, I think that if the author, with his obvious knowledge (he's a classical archaeologist after all), had written this book purely focussing on things like a tomb, unknown Pharaoh, and archaeological discovery, for example, it could have turned out as something very different, but potentially better.
There was this time when Dan Brown had been the patron saint of best selling novelists everywhere. The time period between Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons had made his books sell like crazy and people everywhere were scrambling after every single thing the man had written. An offshoot of his success was that anyone who wrote archaeological thrillers was now in demand and authors racked their brains about every old civilization out there. Soon you had fictional professors, archaeologists, relic hunters, mercenaries and so on trampling all over the lands of the Incas, the Aztecs, the Indus Valley, the Persians and the Egyptians among many others. Pharaoh seems to be the product of that gold rush period for in many ways it is written with a Hollywood summer blockbuster in mind.
There is a kernel of a very interesting story somewhere in this book but it is like a flicker that goes by before you have even noticed it fully. William Blake is a washed out archaeology professor whose career is dead in the water and he has nothing to lose while accepting a fly-by-night assignment with a group of thugs out in the middle of nowhere. Blake however finds that he has bitten off more than what he could chew and realizes that he is caught in the middle of a game where he cannot even fathom the repercussions of a wrong move. He discovers a tomb and the person interred in the tomb is someone you least expect to be there. This is the good part of the story and in parallel to this there is another storyline featuring the Mossad, Arab terrorism, Nuclear Armageddon and America saving the World again (surprise ! surprise !). This plot device has been used so much that even evoking its memory is now a cliché.
I’ll let everything slide but you cannot expect me to take a book seriously when the commander of the US Army’s response team goes by the name of General Hooker ! I mean….how hard is it to think of a name for a character ? Oh and also in one of the scenes, General “Hooker” and his team are pinned down by enemy fire and in walks our badass archaeology professor who tells a battle hardened commando how best to finish off a terrorist ( the commando obeys and guess what our professor was right !). There is only so much that you can suspend disbelief and beyond a point you stop caring. After quite a while, I crossed that line with this book. Also, the identity of the buried man was certainly explosive but was it good enough to bring entire nation states to a standstill ? That’s what the back jacket blurb states but then it doesn’t make that much of logical sense.
My recommendation : meh !
There is a kernel of a very interesting story somewhere in this book but it is like a flicker that goes by before you have even noticed it fully. William Blake is a washed out archaeology professor whose career is dead in the water and he has nothing to lose while accepting a fly-by-night assignment with a group of thugs out in the middle of nowhere. Blake however finds that he has bitten off more than what he could chew and realizes that he is caught in the middle of a game where he cannot even fathom the repercussions of a wrong move. He discovers a tomb and the person interred in the tomb is someone you least expect to be there. This is the good part of the story and in parallel to this there is another storyline featuring the Mossad, Arab terrorism, Nuclear Armageddon and America saving the World again (surprise ! surprise !). This plot device has been used so much that even evoking its memory is now a cliché.
I’ll let everything slide but you cannot expect me to take a book seriously when the commander of the US Army’s response team goes by the name of General Hooker ! I mean….how hard is it to think of a name for a character ? Oh and also in one of the scenes, General “Hooker” and his team are pinned down by enemy fire and in walks our badass archaeology professor who tells a battle hardened commando how best to finish off a terrorist ( the commando obeys and guess what our professor was right !). There is only so much that you can suspend disbelief and beyond a point you stop caring. After quite a while, I crossed that line with this book. Also, the identity of the buried man was certainly explosive but was it good enough to bring entire nation states to a standstill ? That’s what the back jacket blurb states but then it doesn’t make that much of logical sense.
My recommendation : meh !
Ierusalim, anul al optsprezecelea al domniei lui Nabucodonosor, ziua a noua din luna a patra. Al unsprezecelea rege al Iudeii, Sedechia.
Profetul îşi îndreptă privirile către valea în care se zărea o mulţime de focuri şi, apoi, către cerul pustiu, după care suspină. Tranşeele înconjurau fortificaţiile Sionului, berbecii şi maşinile de asediu ameninţau bastioanele cetăţii. În casele dărăpănate, copiii plângeau, cerând pâine şi n-avea cine să le-o dea; bătrânii se târau pe străzi, sleiţi de postul fără sfârşit şi-şi dădeau sufletul pe pieţele oraşului.
― S-a terminat, spuse către omul care-l însoţea peste tot.
― S-a terminat, Baruh. Dacă regele nu mă ascultă, nu va exista nicio posibilitate de salvare a casei sale, nici a casei Domnului. O să mai vorbesc cu el pentru ultima oară, dar nu-mi pun prea mari speranţe în asta.
Îşi continuă drumul pe străzile pustii şi se opri după puţin timp pentru a lăsa să treacă un grup de oameni care duceau, păşind în grabă şi fără să plângă, un sicriu. Doar trupul mortului se putea distinge în întuneric datorită giulgiului de culoare deschisă în care era înfăşurat. Îi privi câteva clipe cum coborau aproape alergând către un cimitir înfiinţat din porunca regelui, lângă zidul cetăţii, şi care de la o vreme nu mai putea primi cadavrele din ce în ce mai numeroase din cauza războiului, a foametei şi a lipsurilor de tot felul.
Profetul îşi îndreptă privirile către valea în care se zărea o mulţime de focuri şi, apoi, către cerul pustiu, după care suspină. Tranşeele înconjurau fortificaţiile Sionului, berbecii şi maşinile de asediu ameninţau bastioanele cetăţii. În casele dărăpănate, copiii plângeau, cerând pâine şi n-avea cine să le-o dea; bătrânii se târau pe străzi, sleiţi de postul fără sfârşit şi-şi dădeau sufletul pe pieţele oraşului.
― S-a terminat, spuse către omul care-l însoţea peste tot.
― S-a terminat, Baruh. Dacă regele nu mă ascultă, nu va exista nicio posibilitate de salvare a casei sale, nici a casei Domnului. O să mai vorbesc cu el pentru ultima oară, dar nu-mi pun prea mari speranţe în asta.
Îşi continuă drumul pe străzile pustii şi se opri după puţin timp pentru a lăsa să treacă un grup de oameni care duceau, păşind în grabă şi fără să plângă, un sicriu. Doar trupul mortului se putea distinge în întuneric datorită giulgiului de culoare deschisă în care era înfăşurat. Îi privi câteva clipe cum coborau aproape alergând către un cimitir înfiinţat din porunca regelui, lângă zidul cetăţii, şi care de la o vreme nu mai putea primi cadavrele din ce în ce mai numeroase din cauza războiului, a foametei şi a lipsurilor de tot felul.
mysterious
medium-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes