- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: Harper (Jan 25 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0060848324
- ISBN-13: 978-0060848323
- Product Dimensions: 23.3 x 16.1 x 3.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 612 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #421,932 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. At the start of Dietrich's superb historical thriller, his swashbuckling hero, American Ethan Gage, who's living in Paris during the waning days of the French Revolution and was once apprenticed to Benjamin Franklin, wins a curious Egyptian medallion in a card game. Soon after, he's set upon by thieves, chased by the police, attacked by bandits, befriended by Gypsies, saved by a British spy and then packed off to join Napoleon's army as it embarks on its ill-fated Egyptian campaign. There the story really heats up. Once in Egypt, Gage finds himself beset by evildoers bent on stealing the mysterious medallion. As in previous novels like Hadrian's Wall and Scourge of God, Dietrich combines a likable hero surrounded by a cast of fascinating historical characters. Riveting battle scenes, scantily clad women, mathematical puzzles, mysteries of the pharaohs, reckless heroism, hairsbreadth escapes and undaunted courage add up to unbeatable adventure rivaling the exploits of George Macdonald Fraser's Harry Flashman. Readers will cheer as the indomitable Gage floats off in a runaway hot-air balloon, hard on the trail of his next exotic undertaking. Author tour. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–What if people didn't have to die…? For an individual…that would make him master of all other men. For armies, it would mean indestructibility. Dietrich takes an actual event, Napoleon's 1798 invasion of Egypt; creates an amiable protagonist in the person of American gambler/adventurer Ethan Gage; hatches a plot focused on the enduring mystery of the Egyptian pyramids; and scores with a kinetic tale that expertly combines entertainment with intelligence. Augmenting his poor pay with his luck at cards, Gage acquires an ancient gold medallion one Parisian evening. Intrigued by its indecipherable etchings, perforations, and two long arms, and suspicious of the interest expressed by Count Silano, a French-Italian aristocrat rumored to participate in the black arts, Gage keeps the artifact. This act unwittingly sets him on a perilous quest from Paris to the Egyptian desert, encountering Gypsies, Freemasons, spies, assassins, Bonaparte, land and sea battles, treachery, and love along the way. The final climactic scene within the Grand Pyramid of Giza is not to be missed, and the ending promises that Gage's adventures will continue. The Da Vinci Code comparisons may seem automatic, but similarities go only as far as seeking the solution to a historical puzzle. Dietrich's work is more cerebral while sacrificing neither suspense nor action; think Indiana Jones meets the Discovery Channel. Fans of historical fiction, action adventure, and thrillers will clamor for this one.–Dori DeSpain, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Everything but good writing,
By
This review is from: Napoleon's Pyramids (Mass Market Paperback)
Want violent adventure? This book's got the Battle of the Nile and the Battle of the Pyramids. Want sleazy romance? This book's got a chained slave girl in flimsy robes. Want an unlikely hero? Try a tomahawk-wielding American scientist/adventurer in Napoleonic Paris. Want evil villains? We have leering Arabs, murderous aristocrats and a tyrannical Bonaparte. Do you have a hankering for Da Vinci Code type codes? Check."Napoleon's Pyramid's", in fact, has everything that a thrilling historical mystery should have -- except decent writing. This is a laboured, far-too-talkative, cliché-riddled mess of a book. Those who like it will be pleased by the prospect of sequels. I, for one, will looking elsewhere.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating mixture of Napoleanic historical fact and adventure fiction,
By
This review is from: Napoleon's Pyramids (Hardcover)
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.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Indiana Jones style action , a century prior,
By citizen jon (Winnipeg, Manitoba) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Napoleon's Pyramids (Mass Market Paperback)
Napoleon's pyramids follows American swashbuckler Ethan Gage from Paris to Egypt during the Mediterranean campaign of 1798. Gage comes across a medallion that gives him no end of trouble as he becomes one of Napoleons savants in Egypt.I picked up this book after learning that it follows a French perspective during the (or right before)the Napoleonic wars. The action was great, particularly the battle of the pyramids, with the French squares and the hoards of Mamelukes. Pros- wonderful action, great story, many twists and turns. Cons- Dietrich trying to explain the math that was involved in building the pyramids. I recommmend all the Ethan Gate adventures to all fans of historical military novels and adventure readers.
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