Reviews

Joan Hess proves herself as a master story teller picking up where Elizabeth Peters left off after her tragic demise. Not many writers could capture the humour, practically and recklessness of Amelia Peabody. Thank you Ms. Hess for keeping the Emerson clan alive for one more story!

ewil6681's review

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

rlse's review

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2.0

Definitely a few weird characterization errors by Hess here, but I’m grateful she has finished off the series.

alrey's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

lydaalexander's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I put off reading this book forever, because I know it's the last one. :( Kudos to Joan Hess for picking this up and helping deliver the last episode to us. I didn't find this one as enjoyable as some of the previous volumes, and I'm unsure whether it's because there was less Egyptology in this one, the tone was slightly different, or because I just really like the later volumes where

Nefret and Ramses are together

cleaper's review

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3.0

I love Amelia Peabody and I can't imagine giving any book that she is in less than 3 stars. That said, the characters seemed like shadows of themselves. Every once in a while, Peter's version of Amelia would peek through and I would get warm fuzzies, but for a lot of the book, the characters seemed off.

biblioholic29's review against another edition

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1.0

I've loved this series for years, so when I found out that the final book was finally being published, I was ecstatic. I knew it had been finished posthumously, but didn't know how much had been completed prior to Peters' death. The answer seems to be not much. The author does seem to make a valiant effort to emulate the style, but falls far short. None of the characters I've loved for 15 years acted like themselves. Furthermore, some egregious errors were made in describing several secondary characters (Daoud does NOT have many wives and children that's Selim. Kat has NOT known Ramses since he was born - that's Evelyn). I don't necessarily blame Joan Hess (who finished the book) for these problems, they are things that should have been caught by a good editor. In fact they were so bad I wondered if they had a different editor in addition to a different author. The plot and resolution were standard Amelia Peabody - it's all the little things that make reading and rereading these books feel like visiting family that were wrong. Unless you're an extreme completest, I'd recommend any fan of Amelia pretend this one hasn't happened and reread your favorite instead.

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