Customer Reviews

Into the Mummy's Tomb

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With last years' very good movie and the sequel coming out shortly, mummies are popular. This collection centers on mummies and will surprise the reader with its vast range of tales. Then again, the fourteen authors contributing short stories read like a college literature book. If nothing else grips the audience, notables such as Twain, Doyle, Alcott, Williams, Lovecraft, Christie, Haggard, Poe, Kipling, Stoker, Bradbury, Rohmer, Rice, and Peters have entries. Also included are commentaries by archeologist Howard Carter of Tut fame, an ancient Egyptian Priest, Egyptologist and Carter peer Arthur Weigall, and other noted Egyptologists. This anthology is excellent for its fiction alone, but turns ultra-superb with its enlightening look at real mummies, their tombs, and their "curses". INTO THE MUMMY'S TOMB is a great collection that horror readers and fans of Ancient history will enjoy in one sitting.

Harriet Klausner

This proved out to be a very entertaining book. It combines historical facts with horror fiction and mystery.

For the horror fan, there are several stories of this genre. The best of them, in my opinion, is the one by Lovecraft. Very original and very creepy.

For the mystery fan, there's Agatha Cristie's story. I believe she needs no introduction for this small masterpiece.

And after you've read the fiction stories, after you've seen the famous movies, there's a chance to learn the facts. This books gives you the chance to read some real mummy hauntings as well as another view on the mummy curses, dispelling many of the myths around them.

I really enjoyed this book, and I think so will you.

This volume is one of those rare anthologies that collects different genres of literature together dealing with the subject of mummies and ancient curses. We have horror (Lovecraft), detective stories (Christie and Peters), travel literture (Twain), history (Williams) and archaeology (Carter and Weigall). Many other contribution make this an interesting book.

Also included are abridged versions of Kipling's "Dead Kings", Rice's "Ramses the Damned" and Stoker's "Jewel of the Seven Stars." "Jewel of the Seven Stars" certainly deserves to be read in its entirety, so I hope readers unfamiliar with that novel pick it up.

I particularly enjoyed the contribution of Arthur Weigall. Aside from being present at some of the most important finds made in Egypt, he was a wonderful writer. His descriptions of experiences he had with curses and mummies were a highlight of this book. I have been seeking out his other books on Egypt and ancient history. All in all, this is a volume of discovery of our fascination with mummies.

This is an interesting anthology of short stories by prominent writers of diverse genres. Anne Rice, Bram Stoker, Tennesse Williams, Ray Bradbury, Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain and the likes, take the curious reader by the hand into the mummy's tomb. Although the names are famous - masters and mistresses of horror, mystery, thriller, science fiction, action and adventure - the stories are mostly their less-known work. But that does not render this collection any less interesting, as the subject is one of great intrigue to all readers alike. If mummies make you tingle, or raise your eyebrows, or trigger a curiosity in your mind, this book is definitely your canopic jar of tea.