Thursday, July 12, 2012

The Mummy by Anne Rice

Title: The Mummy or Ramses the Damned
Author: Anne Rice
Publication Date:
Length: 416 pages

Anne Rice's tale of The Mummy is very different from any other version I've seen. Nowhere in this book will you find a dead body, raised by a curse, walking slowly and clumsily towards people who scream, rather that simply walking quickly away. Instead, Ramses the Damned is a charming, sexy man, who took an elixir that made him immortal. After having himself wrapped like a mummy and sleeping in a burial chamber for several thousand years, he awakens when exposed to the sun by an English Egyptologist.

I'd almost describe The Mummy as a romance novel rather than the horror story I expected. It's a love story between Julie Stratford (the daughter of the Egyptologist) and Ramses, and between Ramses and his long-dead love, Cleopatra. Oh Ramses, such a ladies' man.

Of course, this story also examines the idea of immortality, which I always enjoy. In this case, immortality is especially terrifying, as it's not the you-could-die-in-a-fire-or-the-light-of-the-sun kind of immortality, or the you'll-live-forever-as-long-as-you-keep-drinking-this kind. It's the kind where you could sink to the bottom of the ocean and have no choice but to just keep on living. Theoretically, the sun could explode, and bits of your body could just float through space forever, still feeling. *shudders* Anywho.

4 stars. A good Anne Rice novel.

This book counts towards the Read Your OWN Library! Challenge (hosted by The Beauty of Eclecticism) for May (again, a little delayed in posting). For June, my book for the challenge will be The Visitor (Animorphs #2) by K.A. Applegate. This book also counts for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge and the 2012 Anne Rice Challenge.

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