Customer Reviews

The Mummy: Dark Resurrection

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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.

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.

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.

I love the universal monsters. Thats why I didnt hesitate to pick up this book, and although I plan to read some of the other universal monster books I really wish I had left this one alone. Stephen Sommers horrible CGI mummmy movies were more entertaining than this (and thats saying something) because it actually had mummies in it. This had...oh I dunno 1 scene with an actual undead mummy in it? I guess the author thought talking about the mummies behind all the museum glass counted or something.

I gave this one 2 stars because the only thing I usually give 1 star is something I cant finish. This was JUST entertaining enough that I finished the whole thing. I found it funny yet aggravatingly annoying that the back of the book tells yous right off the bat that the character in the book Ardeth Bey (who I obviously pictured as Boris Karloff)is infact Imhotep although the book waits to the end to make that shockingly obvious reveal. You meet Ardeth Bey towards the beginning. So old Imo has already been around for a long time and is already human. So great, no actual mummy. Unlike what the cover art tries to convince you of. They find Imo's girls tomb so you think oh cool a mummy, but no. She just possesses somebodies body. I want something with an actual mummy in it, apparently most authors aren't really into that considering I dont see it that much.

Ardeth brings dead people back to life so they can kill other people. And while its cool in certain spots, its pretty dumb in most. And another thing that bothered me. If I read one more chapter ending with our main character Josh having "bad dreams" I was gonna scream. Thats just bad writing. Its not bad writing to put that in there, but it is bad writing to keep doing it over and over again in hopes that your convincing people your being creepy and foreboding. The characters here are also annoying. With the acception of a few you can kinda tell author has a bad opinion of people. Cuz most the people in this book are jerks. And the ending??? Wow its just horrible, I mean horrible. And I mean in every way. Horrible and dorky. So I guess im still looking for a good mummy book with an ACTUAL MUMMY IN IT. Cuz this one sure aint it.

There's a lot going on in THE MUMMY: DARK RESURRECTION, but little of it has to do with any kind of "sequel" or continuation of the classic Karloff movie. Instead it seems as if Michael Paine (real name: John Michael Curlovich) decided instead to cross George Romero and H.G. Wells into a hybrid ZOMBIE / ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU / ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT mish-mash, because what we have here are no mummies, but zombies returned from the dead. Returned with a purpose perhaps, but still zombies.

I stuck with this book because Paine can write and his set peices and scenes of violence are done very well, and had this been a straight up zombie book then I would have given it one extra star. But as this is supposed to be a celebration of THE MUMMY, I found that page after page is thrown away on a plot that has almost nothing to do with the formula. Paine loads the opening with the usual stock and trade mysteries out of Egypt, alongside the "cursed" family of Brandt, and we do get the finding of the expected lost tomb and first death, but after that... the book literally grinds down in your typical sitcom like send up of a family in crisis. The mother is a witch of a drunk, the grandmother is the wise sage, the sister has all the "crazy" and the brother wears his heart on his sleeve and is totally clueless as to what's happening.

You can't help but laugh when Josh Brandt (the clueless hero here) is suddenly surrounded by one death after the next all in the matter of hours... people are dropping like flies here and Josh is simply more worried about getting the party started to really put two and two together. But, when he does, then Paine drives right back into Egypt and tosses in as much hash as he can about elder gods, mummies and the standard grasp for the brass ring by the forces of darkness for control of the destiny of the world.

It's been done before and done better, so it is a disappointment that at least more of the original MUMMY did not make it into this book. Every author is a writer, but few writers ever become authors and Paine's "paid to a set page count" shows his lack of passion for the material.

A disappointment. Read for the surprising hybrid of styles, but be warned... no mummies here.