The Mummy: Dark Resurrection [Paperback]

Michael Paine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 13, 2007

Josh and Stephanie Brandt's father and grandfather disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Each went to Egypt in search of the lost crypt of the fabled priestess Ankh-es-en-Amun. And each man went missing - forever. When news arrives that a dig Josh is financing has uncovered the sealed tomb, it sets off a chain of events that brings him up against the mysterious Ardath Bey, a mystic with secret knowledge about the fates of all those who would pursue the priestess. Bey's remarkable powers seem almost supernatural, and for good reason: they are. Bey is the living Mummy Imhotep, cursed to eternal life for daring to love Ankh-es-en-Amun. Now the tomb is open and unexplainable deaths begin to occur. Can Josh and his sister stop Imhotep before he implements a plan of almost unspeakable horror? Chills and adventure abound in this luridly entertaining thriller, which continues a saga that has thrilled audiences since 1932.

Product Details

• Paperback: 275 pages
• Publisher: Dark Horse (November 13, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595820523
• ISBN-13: 978-1595820525
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,417,075 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A worthy addition to anyone's Universal Monsters library, December 3, 2007

By 

Douglas S. Vandiver (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mummy: Dark Resurrection (Paperback)

This book is the fifth in a series of six Universal Monsters tie-in books. The previous four -- Frankenstein, Dracula, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Wolf Man novels -- each take place after the events of their respective movies, acting as sequels to the events of those movies. Plus, the Frankenstein book not only acknowledges the events of "Frankenstein," but also "Bride of," and hints at some of the characters and situations in a couple more of the classic Frankenstein movie series.

I mention this because "The Mummy, Dark Resurrection" breaks with the pattern set in those previous books, and a reader's expectations should be adjusted accordingly. Michael Paine's story retcons the whole plot of the 1932 film "The Mummy" -- he takes only the backstory of Imhotep (plus the concept that his modern identity is named Ardath Bey) and uses it to build a new story that is irreconcilable with the classic movie starring Boris Karloff. Bottom line: don't expect this to be a sequel to "The Mummy;" forget what you remember from that film and let this book build The Mummy's story anew for you.

As to the story Paine writes -- very, very good. Characterization is done in a style I found breezy and compelling. The cast of characters mostly consists of the Brandt family, each carefully constructed, and it's a shame to read some of the horrible things that happen. And this is not a book that's short on horror. You get violence, you get fright, you get mystery. The pace of the book starts slow but tantalizing, quickening and becoming more explanatory as the story progresses, yet still leaves some parts to your imagination.

I would give a book 5 stars if there was no way to improve upon it. As much as I enjoyed "The Mummy, Dark Resurrection," I had some minor quibbles. Scenes would change with undue abruptness at times, shifting to a previously unseen Brandt family member, and it became obvious really quickly that this meant something shocking was about to happen regarding that character. But some of the shock dissipates when you can predict it from a pattern like this. In addition to that, the hero undergoes a sudden theological shift based on very little, in a climactic scene near the end, and it struck me as a hastily written solution to the problem.

All in all, here is a fine adventure any "Mummy" fan should at least give a try. Revive Boris Karloff as the Mummy in the movie-screen of your mind with this fine horror yarn.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "But then the infant moved, and he could see that on its bird's body was the head of a human child.", August 7, 2010

By 

Mark Louis Baumgart (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mummy: Dark Resurrection (Paperback)

He's gotten to that period in his life where Josh Brandt (of the Pittsburgh Brandts) can do something that he's been wanting to do for a long time. This is to fund an archeological dig. He's funding a dig for the tomb of Princess Ankh-es-en-Amun, the beloved of Imhotep. As the book opens, he's planning a trip to Egypt to visit his dig, which is being run by Professor Walter Siemens, with the duel purposes of checking Siemens' progress, and to find out what had happened to both his grandfather and his father. Both of whom disappeared while on their own privately funded archeological digs way back when. This trip is met with much negative fanfare from his immediate family.

Amongst those who don't want him to go is his younger sister. Stephanie is a woman who hasn't been the same since witnessing the fate of her father. Stephanie is suffering from having multi-personalities, and she has not only recently developed a bizarre new personality who speaks in a foreign tongue, but believes that Josh will die if he goes abroad.

Josh is upset by these negative reactions, but he doesn't let them deter him from going, and when he gets there he finds that there is some positive progress in finding and excavating Ankh-es-en-Amun's tomb. He also meets the mysterious Ardath Bey, a man who is hostile to the Brandts, and their exploratory excavations.

Then Josh is drugged and looses a night, and Ahmed Maqmir, a cultural representative from the Egyptian Antiquities Service takes him on a nightmare trip through Egypt's national museum. Then the dying starts.

Michael Paine is really Pittsburg author John Michael Curlovich, and it is no surprise that everything that happens here in the States is set in his hometown. Those that are familiar with Paine/Curlovich's previous works know that he gradually develops his characters and build his settings only to then let loose hell on earth for an explosive ending. With this novel, he does something different. This novel is much more violent than any of his previous ones. Once Bey starts the killing of the Brandt clan, at about the halfway mark, it bloodily continues on a regular basis until the ending.

While the dead WILL walk, this is not really a zombie or living mummy novel, this is more a novel of supernatural horror, resurrection, possession, and revenge, and it will not end well for anybody, not even the villains, as both the innocent, and the guilty will suffer. Like most of Paine's novels, the ending will not be really horrific, but will crush you with its melencholyness.

This is not really a sequel of any of the Universal Mummy movies, but more of a novel using some of the characters from these movies while giving it a more current twist.

Like all of the Paine/Curlovich novels, "Dark Resurrection" is chock full of cheeky social observations and satire, with Paine/Curlovich's humor being more in the satiric dry and wry school than the sloppy humor that seems to invest many modern dark fantasy novels. This is evident from the very first page as we get such Mark Twainisms like "The Brandts had known their share of madness and sorrow, and most of them expected that they would know more. The one optimist among them was Josh Brant who, at thirty years old, was young enough not to have learned better."

There's more to the novel than ritual slaughter, such as the sub-text of Paine/Curlovich taking a look at decadence. He constantly compares how both Egypt and the Brandts have fallen into their own form of decadence. The Egyptians once built things, and ruled the world, and the Brandts once built their fortunes, and created something, and they have also fallen into decay, (much like Poe's Usher family), such as alcoholism, drug use, sexual misuse, and madness. And both Bey and Brandt are trying to resuscitate the honor of their "families".

Paine/Curlovich also continues his use of having a passive character as his novel's hero. Josh Brandt is constantly befuddled by what's going on around him until about the halfway mark, and then his cousin Jim Huntingdon enters the picture to carry on the tradition as Josh wises up. One of the things that brings the novel down a star is the inherent unlikability, and denseness of virtually all of the characters, they are just obtusive obnoxious gits that you don't want to spend any real time around. Having just read Paine/Curlovich's first novel "Cities Of The Dead" you can really see the difference in his writing styles between these two books, as his first was very methodical, while this one is often very sensationalistic. "Dark Resurrection" may even be considered a quasi-sequel to "Cities Of The Dead", as in that book, rich kid Henry Larrimer (of the Pittsburgh Larrimers!), could be thought of as the Grandpa Brandt who has disappeared (in Egypt) in this novel. Even that family of rogues the Abd-er-Rasuls show up for some important scenes.

"Dark Resurrection" is the third of Paine/Curlovich's loosely related Egyptian trilogy. "Cities Of The Dead" was the first and took place during the nineteen teens, "The Colors Of Hell" took place during the thirties, and "Dark Resurrection" takes place in modern times. This book gets docked one star because of the unlikability of most of the characters, although, that may be the point.

I have reviewed for Amazon the following Paine/Curlovich books:

Cities of the Dead
The Colors of Hell
Steel Ghosts
Stage Fright
The Night School
Triptych of Terror: Three Chilling Tales by the Masters of Gay Horror

Paine/Curlovich doesn't write big thick doorstoppers. This book is only three hundred pages long, and doesn't have as much filler as most horror fantasies. I was never bored, even if some of the deaths here were redundant. Paine/Curlovich makes good use of Egyptian mythology. This book was published in 2007, and it's about time for a new novel. Dark Horse regular cover artist Steven Youll gives us another great, if misinformative, cover.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Seriously Flawed Zombie Story, December 31, 2007

By 

Jason F. Johnson "comicbook devotee" (Duluth, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Mummy: Dark Resurrection (Paperback)

Firstly, this is the only recent novel based on the Universal monster flicks that doesn't reference the film in any substantial way. That's neither a positive or a negative, but that should be noted.

Credit where it's due: The first 2/3rds of the novel is well-written. I was genuinely involved with it, despite its flaws (noted below), and I didn't know where it was headed plot-wise. I give Paine kudos for his ability to establish character, mood, and setting.

But lord, this book is flawed. In the first place--and I realize this is a personal gripe of mine, not necessarily a literary flaw--is that this isn't really a "mummy" story. It's a zombie story, as Imhotep uses animated corpses to do his gory work. And I've really had my fill of zombies; they make boring villains, as they are here. Also, it's never really explained how they're able to make such a grizzly mess of their victims. Presumably, they have super-strength, though we're just left to infer that. In one particular scene, the zombies are described as having torn [so-and-so] to shreds, even before people in the next room could respond to the screams. Um, how, exactly? They pulled off his arms? Tore open his ribcage? And they just (comically, in my mind) dropped suddenly to the floor as soon as the door opened? Those scenes require some kind of explanation, as that kind of gruesome death in so short a time defies the suspension of disbelief I usually give to mummy/zombie stories.

And when Imhotep finally takes an active hand himself, how does he kill the victims? Well, basically, he points at them and they drop dead. Strangely, by making a character so omnipotent, it makes him unengaging, because you can't see any plausible way for the hero to take him on(and why the protagonist isn't killed 12 chapters earlier is also left in question). In fact, the dreaded phrase "deus ex machina"--used here in the most literal sense--jumped to my mind in the novel's concluding chapters. It was a staggeringly amateurish job from such a polished writer, I have to wonder if some high-school kid came in and substituted a different final chapter. And while I don't mind a few loose plot threds, this one leaves the whole ball of yarn.