The Passion of Cleopatra

November 6, 2017
In this slick sequel to The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned (1989), immortals gifted with virtual indestructibility scheme as nastily against one another as the similarly endowed characters in Anne Rice’s celebrated Vampire Chronicles. Having imbibed a life-prolonging elixir, pharaoh Ramses the Great is still alive in 1914, when he poses as the dashing Reginald Ramsey and takes his fiancé, Julie Stratford, on a tour through England and other interesting locales. The resurrected corpse of the former empress Cleopatra is likewise wandering the globe. Separately, Cleopatra’s soul has been reincarnated in Sybil Parker, an American writer of historical romances that are patterned unconsciously on events from the lives of the immortals (and that read much like this novel). Then the ancient empress Bektaten, who first discovered the immortality elixir, enters the picture, along with her conniving former prime minister, Saqnos, who for centuries has been trying to wheedle the formula out of her. Cleopatra, Ramses, and Saqnos vie against one another and Bektaten in their quest to understand and control the magical potion. In their first literary collaboration, the Rices, mother and son, configure these subplots into an entertaining soap opera replete with romantic alliances, betrayals, and ends left tantalizingly loose as grist for sequels. Fans of both authors’ work will enjoy this one and agree with Sybil’s observation that “stories of romance and adventure and magic helped us to imagine a better world into being.”

October 15, 2017
Ramses, once an Egyptian pharaoh, then an English Egyptologist, is no longer damned. His fiance, Julie, and his friend, Elliott, now both immortal, as is he, are at his side. His decades of loneliness have ended. But beings like himself, their intentions nebulous, have been called to Edwardian London. There's the beautiful Bektaten, creator of the immortality serum, who arrives seeking revenge. There's Saqnos, Bektaten's former adviser, whose endless jealousy has driven him to awaken from his long stasis. Finally, there's Cleopatra, Ramses' former lover, newly revived and slowly losing her mind. These mysterious forces swirl together to create a new and exciting story for Ramses and Julie, thrusting them into a magical world within the one they've grown so accustomed to. Rice (Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis, 2016) continues the tale begun almost 30 years ago in The Mummy (1989) with the help of her novelist son, Christopher (The Heavens Rise, 2013), and it has been worth the wait. This thrilling read blends historical fiction, fantasy, and romance into a book readers will not be able to put down. HIGH-DEMAND BACK STORY: Readers will line up for this enticing return to a favorite character by the best-selling mother-and-son Rice duo.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)