The world changes for Ethan Gage—one-time assistant to the renowned Ben Franklin—on a night in post-revolutionary Paris, when he wins a mysterious medallion in a card game. Framed soon after for the murder of a prostitute and facing the grim prospect of either prison or death, the young expatriate American barely escapes France with his life—choosing instead to accompany the new emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, on his glorious mission to conquer Egypt. With Lord Nelson's fleet following close behind, Gage sets out on the adventure of a lifetime. And in a land of ancient wonder and mystery, with the help of a beautiful Macedonian slave, he will come to realize that the unusual prize he won at the gaming table may be the key to solving one of history's greatest and most perilous riddles: who built the Great Pyramids . . . and why?

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 43 reviews)

Post-revolutionary Indiana Jones-type adventure with Napoleon in Egypt - good fun

William Dietrich has written a terrific yarn with "Napoleon's Pyramids," replete with action and humor, with just enough historical detail to be sufficiently authentic.

Dietrich's novel revolves around one Ethan Gage, a former disciple of Benjamin Franklin now gambling and womanizing his way through revolutionary Paris. If you were casting Ethan Gage, you would definitely choose a young Harrison Ford or Michael Douglas, or today's Matthew McConaughy rather than Daniel Day Lewis or Ralph Fiennes. Armed with his long rifle, tomahawk, and endearingly self-deprecating charm, Gage is a fun, occasionally bumbling protagonist.

The plot commences with a card game where Gage wins a mysterious medallion that hints at ancient Egyptian mysteries. Gage isn't the most intellectually-curious soul out there (raising the question of why Franklin semi-adopted him), but since others seem to want the medallion badly, Gage keeps it for himself. Shortly thereafter, Gage learns that these men will quickly stoop to more than a little murder and mayhem to regain the medallion.

To escape, Gage attaches himself as a "savant" to Napoleon Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt. Like Alexander the Great, Napoleon believes in bringing scholars along with him to help advance the cause of learning as he conquers other cultures. But the men who want the medallion are also on the expedition, and Gage doesn't know whom he can trust.

Without giving much away, it's safe to tell that Gage jumps from frying pan to fire with each chapter as he attempts to discover the true meaning of the mysterious medallion. Dietrich cleverly incorporates the mysteries of the Egyptian pyramids into the tale, and one gets caught up in the attempt to decipher the mathematical clues left behind by one of the world's most fascinating cultures.

Look for derring-do, battlefield carnage, a bit of romance, and lots of clever mysteries and riddles as the pages fly by. Sure, many of the scenes are contrived and don't stand up to much scrutiny, but who cares? This is a good old-fashioned adventure story, and a fun one at that. Readers will eagerly dive into Dietrich's sequel, "The Rosetta Key," to continue the Ethan Gage adventure.
November 01, 2008

a mixture of Indian Jones and Flashman

This book is about Ethan Gage, an American assistant to Benjamin Franklin, a bit adventurer and commodity trader, who is rather unsuccessful in his business endeavors, but happens to win in cards an Egyptian medallion, old and interesting enough, to bring him problems and path of destruction, leading him and all important characters of the book to fabled Egypt. The book is quite fascinating, mixing a bit energy of Indiana Jones movies with farcical adventures of `Flashman' by George MacDonal Fraser. Ethan Gage who exhibits some hero type qualities is also sometimes simpleminded and just simply silly. He follows the secrets of the ancient artifact with help of beautiful Astiza, priestess of Isis, and his Egyptian companions. The mystery is also sought by ghastly count Silano, who lost all his properties to the French revolution, but creates illusion of friendship with no other than Napoleon Bonaparte who also believes in ancient mystery bringing more power to his invasion of Egypt and start of Alexander the Great - like campaign. The book is also exciting because it tries to feed some stirring if not bizarre explanations about the creation of Pyramids. The story continues in "the Rosetta Stone" and I hope the author will entertain us with more outrageous Ethan Gage's adventures in books to come.
September 29, 2008

A safe bet

Dietrich is a skilful author. Readers will appreciate the consistent yet unobtrusive references to Revolutionary French society throughout "Pyramids". More cerebral inclusions such as the famed "Fibonacci sequence" (de rigueur, you might say) is well handled.

Most problematic are several archetypical characters; there is the Cleopatra-clone love-interest; the deadly "Moorish" assassin (Achmed not Ahmed!?); a band of mysterious gypsies; the stubborn Parisian land-lady; the bearded and zealous scholar, etc. On the other hand, the colossal figures of Nelson and Napoleon are deftly woven into the narrative along with Alexander Dumas - father of the renowned author. The gaudy and comical "orientalist" named Silano makes an appropriately detestable antagonist.

And then there's the narrator, Ethan Gage, himself. ("Gage" is likely a thinly-veiled onomastic reference to the French "to wager" or "to bet"). The charisma of this brash American adventurer is a touch unpersuasive. Gage is a crack-shot with a rifle but is also an amateur scientist and card-playing sleuth who claims not to enjoy deciphering puzzles!?

Nonetheless, Gage's enigmatic is surely intentional. C'mon, you tell yourself. It's an adventure story. We happily play along.

All in all, Ethan Gage is a genuinely fun character to hang out with for the duration of a fascinating glimpse of history.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one and will probably read "Rosetta Key".

September 17, 2008

A fun novel in the grand tradition of H. Rider Haggard and Edgar Rice Burroughs!

It was actually William Dietrich's newest historical novel, The Rosetta Key, which caught my attention and caused me to buy the prequel, Napoleon's Pyramids. I love the Indiana Jones movies and the old serials from the forties and fifties, so a story that deals with an adventurer in search for the Egyptian Book of Thoth and the Ark of the Covenant in Israel during Napoleon's invasion of 1799 was right up my ally, but first I needed to read Napoleon's Pyramids. I picked up a copy of it and found myself quickly immersed in an adventure that was written in the style of H. Rider Haggard and Edgar Rice Burroughs. What flaws the novel may have had didn't concern me as long as my interest was held, and it was straight to the last page.

Napoleon's Pyramids opens up with Ethan Gage living in Paris in 1798 after the death of his mentor, Benjamin Franklin, and the aftermath of the French Revolution. He wins an old, strange-looking Egyptian medallion in a card game and soon discovers that it's cursed. In less than twenty-four hours, he's beaten and his room is trashed, he's accused of murdering a prostitute, he finds himself hiding in a horse drawn carriage on its way to the French coast where Napoleon's army is being boarded onto ships for the planned invasion of Egypt, and the villains are still hot on his trail. The person who truly desires the medallion is the evil Count Silano, and he has a following of thugs who are led by a cold-hearted killer who worships and handles poisonous snakes. Managing to squeeze his way into Napoleon's good graces, Gage soon finds himself in the land of the ancient pyramids fighting in hand-to-hand combat with the invading French army. It isn't long before he's acquired a fierce Arab warrior as his slave and a beautiful, alluring priestess, who knows more about the secrets of the medallion than she lets on. Through one peril after another, Gage is eventually led to the Great Pyramid of Giza and finds his way inside to the hidden tomb of the Pharaoh and the ancient mysteries of Egyptian magic and the medallion and perhaps a power strong enough to enable a human being to rule the world.

Because of the book's sequel, we know going in that Gage survives the countless dangers of Napoleon's Pyramids. This, however, didn't hinder my enjoyment of the story. While filled with tons of interesting historical information and anecdotes, what makes this novel so good is the character of Ethan Gage and his rogue-type personality. You have our hero, plus the evil villains who are bigger than life, the beautiful female that the hero falls in love with, but doesn't know if he can really trust her, the constant dangers that arise and which he barely survives, and the array of actual historical figures that color this vast canvas. I found Dietrich's writing to be excellent and his story-telling reminiscent of past times, bringing back the pleasures of reading such wonderful stories from my earlier years. This tale of action and intrigue also gives you a stark look at what Napoleon's campaign in Egypt was like and the hardships that were faced by his troops and commanding officers. The desert definitely took its toll on all involved.

Napoleon's Pyramids is a novel for those of you who enjoy the magic of adventures to far-distant lands with dangers lurking around every corner and a hero who's flawed, but manages to come out ahead at every turn of the dice. An excellent summer read!

August 30, 2008

(2.5 stars) Filled with poorlly written charcaters and seems it was soley written to be a movie; this book still has its moments

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.

August 22, 2008

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

The Rosetta Key: An Ethan Gage Adventure
by William Dietrich

The Book of Air and Shadows: A Novel
by Michael Gruber

Hadrian's Wall: A Novel
by William Dietrich

The Scourge of God
by William Dietrich

Mistress of the Art of Death
by Ariana Franklin