Helpful Score: 4
I read 100 pages and just didn't feel the pull to continue reading. There were parts of the book that were really promising and made me want to continue, but those parts were alongside some that just didn't feel like they belonged in the book and bogged it down. With so many other books to read, I decided to move on to another book and hope this one finds a better home.
Helpful Score: 3
This is the another novel along the lines of The Da Vinci Code, but this time the story line is about an ancient mystery, contemporary scholars, rare documents, greedy collectors, and a quasi-academic American Egyptologist living in London who's got less than a week to unlock the secrets of the Stela of Paser, a funerary stone from ancient Egypt whose references to a "third way" of deciphering the hieroglyphics inscribed on the stone have teased, tempted and eluded would-be translators for centuries.
Helpful Score: 3
I just couldn't get into this story. Another Davinci code wannabe novel. Just too much information and not enough action or character study.
Helpful Score: 3
The reasons I thoroughly enjoyed this book may make it undesirable to some. The author describes in detail aspects of Egyptian culture by way of the main character going on an internal rant. There are also lofty descriptions of surroundings and emotions that the main character is seeing and feeling. Unless you are a fan of Egyptian culture and emotional rants, you might not enjoy this book as much as I have. I couldn't put the book down, what with it's mystery, history, and Egyptian tidbits.
Helpful Score: 1
Piecey and fragmented tale of a lost, lonely soul. This was my first Bondurant read, I was not overly impressed. The book has a few exciting moments, but the content between them is long and boring. Most of the Egyptology data is highly scientific and not easily understood by the lay person, even those whom are well read on the subject.
