Customer Reviews

Napoleon's Pyramids

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Here's a new throw of the thriller dice that's fairly entertaining despite its flaws. Others have praised it, so let me focus on the problems if you like books that are well-written as well as well-constructed. There's too much anachronistic writing all the way through, like mentioning that Ben Franklin liked to "party" with the ladies or having characters from late 18th century France say, "Don't even think about it!" The author hasn't made much effort to give you a sense of another time through the dialogue, though he works hard at the other period details. It's also filled with repetitious phrasing within sentences or from one to the next; a basic lack of vocabulary awareness so that there's no sense that "shinny" and "shimmy" are not the same word; and full of obvious errors. For instance, the French flag is not red, white, and blue. Then there are the too-obvious references to Indiana Jones and even The Lord of the Rings, and some action sequences that you have to re-read because the description isn't unclear. Likewise, his hero's attraction to the hotty heroine seems awkward, cooked up and a plot device. What real man says, "I'm fond of women" or "I have a weakness for women?" Maybe a type of woman, perhaps. The narrator seems to be trying to convince us that the hero is attracted to Astiza, and doesn't seem to know how to go about it, doesn't make it authentic. He should try reading some really good thrillers, like the early Ken Folletts (Lie Down with Lions, would be a good start). Overall, the writing is undistinguished and too often full of series of similarly-patterned sentences: subject, verb, direct object. And then there are the preachy long-winded stretches of expository dialogue. The book cries out for a writing workshop at these basic levels, or at least good editor and copyeditor. However, the author does do well in cooking up a highly improbable plot and making you curious to follow what happens. His battle scenes are terrific, and he can keep the ball rolling. I did not find this propulsive reading and wished it had been a bit shorter, but I suspect most thriller readers will gloss over the flaws and just follow the treasure trail where it leads since the book clearly points to a sequel. I'll skip that one.

Imagine a young man who had worked with Benjamin Franklin - a hero who found notoriety in Paris. Ethan Gage, living in Post Revolution Paris, won a mysterious medallion during a poker game. Others in the game tried to get the medallion from Gage, but he keeps it in his possession. He's framed for a murder he didn't commit, and he runs. Ultimately to Napoleon Bonaparte's Egyptian campaign. Bonaparte is not only bringing troops to conquer the ancient land, but savants to learn and glean the knowledge of this once formidable country. Soon Gage is up to his eyeballs in danger and intruige in Egypt. He has a great sense of humor and even in the midst of danger, he says something to make you laugh.
The action is amazing - vibrant accounts of naval battles with Nelson - literally puts you there on the ship, as well as land battles. Gage seeks knowledge about the medallion and finds scholars that start him on a path that the medallion is more than a pendant, but perhaps a key to a lost society and greater knowledge. Along the way, he falls in love. The action in this book is nonstop - there is romance, historical figures vividly shown, ancient cities explored. Ethan soon finds himself in constant danger from the men who want that medallion - possibly the key to powers so great, the owner could literally rule the world.
The end seems open to a sequel, and I hope it does - this is a wonderfully presented historical, action book that you'll be begging for more after you read it. You will enjoy Napoleon's Pyramids.

William Dietrich is a historian, and it shows. There are enough dates and facts in this novel to excite any historian. Unfortunately, it also reads like a history text at times. And therein lies my problem with this book.

While the ultimate story was good, even intriguing at certain points, there were several things that put me off this book. The first was the use of first person point of view. Though not unusual, it seemed limiting and forceful in this story. I have read many books written in first person and enjoyed them, but it did not work for me in this one.

The second problem was Dietrich's tendency toward lengthy diatribes dumping dry information on the unsuspecting reader. These passages reminded me uncomfortably of a dry history lecture. I was forced to sit through them in my college years; I don't want to have to do that when reading a book for enjoyment.

The third problem for me was the ending. No, I will not reveal the outcome, but the ending chapter made it quite obvious there will be a sequel. The lack of a conclusive end is something I loathe in modern books. It is a marketing ploy thought up by bean counters. While it forces readers to purchase the next book in the series, it does not generate fans. Though the ending here was very good, it was not satisfying.

Now, all that being said, I did enjoy parts of this story. It is reminiscent of Indiana Jones stories in that it concerns an adventurous American, a mysterious medallion and a beautiful woman and is set against the mystical background of Egypt. Throw in Napoleon and his attempt to conquer Egypt and Africa and you have the basis for a good adventure.

I will honestly admit that I did enjoy the ending much more than I did the beginning. If I hadn't been forced to read this book for review, I would probably have stopped after the first chapter. But I did read on. It took me a month to read the first five chapters and less than an evening to read the last five. If you can get through the history lessons in the beginning, you may actually enjoy this book.

If you don't mind lectures and books that will lead you to the next in the series, by all means pick this one up. If you want an adventure and action, you might be disappointed with the beginning, but the ending is well worth the read.

Reviewed by Vicky Burkholder
06/22/2007

Bill Dietrich is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist whose fiction books have thus far taken his readers from the Roman Empire (Hadrian's Wall, The Scourge of God) to futuristic Australia (Getting Back) and Antarctica (Ice Reich).

In his novel, Napolean's Pyramids, Bill combines Napoleanic history and Egyptology with a fictional American adventurer (and assistant to Ben Franklin) named Ethan Gage. The result of this combination is a fast-paced action and fact filled novel paralleling and involving Napolean's invasion of Egypt in the 1790's.

I read this novel in three consecutive nights. It is one of those "difficult to put down" reads.

Ethan Gage wins a mysterious medallion in a card game in Paris just after the revolution. Many people covet it, and one thinks it worth murder, as Ethan gets framed for the murder of a call girl. Forcibly enlisted into Napolean's army of savants heading to Egypt, Ethan and his fellow Mason's embarq on a quest to help Napolean unlock the power of the pyramids, to aid in his quest for global domination. Ethan, who has until this point meandered aimlessly through life, is forced to decide what he believes in, and if he discovered the secrets of the Pyramids (with the help of a mysterious woman, the savants and Egyptian sages), will he hand over the secrets to Napolean for his uses, or keep them safe from the hands of men?

My favorite parts of this novel are the historical descriptions: the filth and beauty of Paris of that time; the terror of the sea journey with Napolean across the Mediterranean; the annihilation of the French fleet docked near Alexandria by British Admiral Nelson; and the well written mathematical decriptions of the pyramids and the puzzles surrounding them (Fibonacci number sequences in an action novel? you bet!).

Napolean, Nelson and other historical figures are woven into the story seamlessly, breathing them to life through their interactions with Gage.

Highly recommended.

Ever since reading "Hadrian's Wall" four years ago William Dietrich has been on my list of authors I've been interested in. After reading "The Scourge of God" earlier this year I fell in love with the way he writes and the stories he tells. So naturally I wanted to read his newest historical books.

So I picked up "Napoleon's Pyramids" in spite of the fact that it was written entirely in first person (unlike the previous books of his I read which were at least in part in third person.) I expected to enjoy it based on the fact that it was about ancient Egyptian magic and theories on the pyramids, secret societies and the French invasion of Egypt. But as the back of the book says this book is a lot like Indiana Jones, in fact it is so much like a cross between Indiana Jones, the movie the Mummy (the second one) and the movie National Treasure that it seems like it was written solely for the purpose of making it into a movie one day.

Ethan Gage is a man without purpose or drive, living in post revolution France and making money by demonstrating electricity (he was Franklin's assistant) and gambling. But his life takes a drastic turn when he wins an ancient medallion in a card game one night and soon people are turning up dead as a poor, secretive and Egyptian obsessed count tries to obtain the piece-by any means possible. To escape his reach, and the French courts who believe that Gage killed a prostitute (who was in reality killed by those seeking the necklace) Gage is signed on as a savant on the Egyptian expedition, helping Napoleon use electricity to understand the pyramids.

But trouble fallowed Gage to the country of pharos, magic and man made stone mountains. Soon he is facing the entire Egyptian Right, an enemy army and an increasingly skeptical Napoleon, as well as a slave girl/priestess who knows more about the necklace and its purpose than anyone alive...except for the count.

I'm not saying this book doesn't have it good parts-it is entertaining and in an overly fantasized action/mythic movie sort of way but it is just so formulaic that I had a hared time staying interested for more than a page or two at a time. And while the book has its funny, romantic and active parts its very clear exactly what purpose each extremely stereotypical character has from the moment they're introduced-the comic relief, the mysterious love interest, the villain bent on world domination, the warrior, the scholar....

All in all I enjoyed this book some what, especially towards the end and the plot was interesting enough for me to want to read the sequel I still think the book was written as a prequel to a movie script and while the descriptions in the book were excellent and the action scenes respectable, almost all the characters and the romantic elements could have been written much better. And overall I just enjoy this author better when he writes in third person.

Three stars for the plot, two for the writing. Two and half total but I'm still going to read the sequel "The Rosetta Stone" when it comes out in mass market paperback.

In the turbulent days of post-revolutionary France, American Ethan Gage, a protege of Benjamin Franklin, finds himself behind in his rent and unable to purchase food. He cobbles together his subsistence by demonstrating the wonders of electricity, taught to him by Franklin and is considered by the various savants (scientists) of France little more than a street magician.

One evening he finds himself indulging his favorite vice, cards. In one particular hand he duels with a French army officer. The officer has confidence in his hand, but his lack of funds causes him to produce a large gold medallion, which he claims is very old, ancient in fact and once belonged to a notorious Italian Egyptologist. Gage wins the hand and the medallion. And immediately encounters the mysterious Count Allesandro Silano, who offers to purchase the medallion for as much as twice what Gage won in the hands of cards.

Gage refuses and here starts an odyssey that will send Gage fleeing from the Parisian police, the French army and into the hands of Napoleon Bonaparte, who is in the process of launching his famous expedition to Egypt in 1799. With the help of friend and journalist Antoine Talma, Gage secures passage in Bonaparte's corps of civilian scientists and sails to Egypt.

Upon landing, Gage and Talma witness first hand the storming of Alexandria and the taking of Egypt's only port city on the Mediterranean. Upon entering the city next to Bonaparte, whom has now become personally interested in Gage, his medallion and the potential secrets it will unveil, Gage saves the petite general from assassination, Gage also meets the mystical Astiza, a Greek slave girl and naturalized Egyptian who will join him on the journey to uncover the medallion's powers.

William Deitrich places the reader in the most prominent spots of all the skirmishes and major land and sea battles that were fought in the French invasion of Egypt. You're in the middle of a French infantry square facing Mameluke cavalry at the battle of the Pyramids, and on the quarterdeck of L'Orient facing Horatio Nelsen and the English fleet at Abukir Bay.

Armchair Interviews says: Exquisitely written and wonderfully detailed. Your summer reading list has a winner!

This here is a very entertaining men's pulp adventure. Nice clean and clear prose, tight plotting, good characters and a dash of history. Some plots lines left hanging for a sequel and am looking forward to reading more adventures of Ethan Gage and his friends. Recommended.

I absolutely devoured this book! The story starts off quickly paced and doesn't really let up until the end. In addition to a well paced action story, William Dietrich also fills the pages with tons of great information regarding the knowledge of the earth and heavens in ancient civilizations and the religious practices associated with it. I also truly enjoyed the portrayal of Napoleon in the novel. Dietrich did not paint him in a negative light but rather as an ambitious, intelligent and inspiring leader. How else could he have led so many men for so long and in such harsh environments as the Egyptian desert? The man was obviously very charismatic and for a long time many men were proud to march with him. I look forward to reading the sequel as well as going back and reading Mr. Dietrich's other works.

Seventy pages in, I did something I rarely do with a novel -- I gave up. The archaic writing style, apparently done to give the novel a "period" feel, is wordy and meanders, distancing the reader from the action instead of drawing him in. And it's very difficult to get over the feeling you've seen or read this all before, either in a Indiana Jones or National Treasure movie, or in the better written and faster-moving historical science-fiction/fantasy of Tim Powers. While Dietrich gets points for doing his historical research, the characters are uninvolving and the writing style affected. It might get better after the first 70 pages, but it's hard to say if it's worth trying.

Napoleon's Pyramids took me forever to read because I couldn't stay awake. I didn't like his style of writing which managed to make a fairly interesting premise into a painfully dull book. The only parts of the book that were fairly well written were the battle scenes, which for my tastes, could have been left out of the book.

After the non-ending, I seriously doubt I will read the next installment of this series.