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Title: Guardian of the Horizon by Elizabeth Peters ISBN: 0-06-621471-8 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 30 March, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.88 (16 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Quite disappointiung with regard to Ramses
Comment: Especially after having recerntly re-read Children of the Storm, the characters in this book all seem so flat compared with their usual panache. Also, Ramses having meaningless sex with a new stranger while everyone else in peril, including his beloved Nefret, is the height of bad taste and not true to the character at all. Daria has no redeeming features and the psychobabble to explain Nefret's supposed frigidity is just too terrible for words.
Really, I want to see them solve mysteries, have adventures, not their romantic troubles. And making Sethos the master criminal toothless is just to silly for words, and also foreshadows the friendships between the characters which chronologically comes way later in the series.
If she is going to go back in time, why not to the good old early days with Ramses as a baby/child!! Instead of making them all seem so puerile when they are in their 20s.
Rating: 5
Summary: Another Excellent Expedition with the Emersons
Comment: I am an unabashed Elizabeth Peters fan, so like most rabid fans I just like this book. GUARDIAN OF THE HORIZON is another excellent expedition with Emerson, Peabody and the whole gang. If you read the editorial reviews you know they go to the Lost Oasis of the Holy Mountain, which is where they first met and rescued Nefret 10 years earlier (in the novels' chronology). They encounter the usual unusual suspects, have hilarious encounters with their friends and enemies, and attempt a counter-coup to get their friend Tarek back on the throne. It's all really fun!
But you know I have some caveats about the book. Well first, it is like going over ground that's already has been covered. We know these characters. We know what happened to them. I personally want to see the characters advance both in time and life. If that is not possible then stop writing these books. That's like horrible to say, like sacrilegious, but you know sometimes characters and stories have a shelf life of their own. Maybe Peters could make the Sethos - John Smythe connection in a Vicki Bliss mystery? Just let me dream, okay?
Some people seem to be up in arms about Ramses's liason with Daria, because most of us who read these books are hopeless romantics. Did it bother me? A little. But then I thought. Hello, this is a healthy 20-year-old guy with an unusual upbringing, and he is frustrated, because he believes the woman he loves is out of his reach. He transferred his love to the next available woman. Let me make this clear, Ramses was not really in love with Daria, but his romantic and sexual frustrastions misled him into believing he was in love with her. Psychologically more realistic. Possibly this was too much realism for hopeless romantics. Daria, literally a street-smart woman, knew he was not in love with her, and thus makes very wise choices.
All in all though as adventure and fun, this is an excellent novel.
Rating: 4
Summary: I'm torn on this one
Comment: Usually, when I finish a new Amelia Peabody novel, it either leaves me horribly depressed or giddy as a 5-year-old. This one definitely left me feeling depressed.
Overall, I liked this book. It was great fun to read, especially the sections dealing with Amelia and Emerson's antics. The two of them are absolutely priceless in this story, having fallen once more into the role of "magicians" fighting for the common good.
The problem I have, like others, is with the character of Ramses. The affair with Daria just seemed so out of character for him that it made me uncomfortable to read it. Maybe it's a little too idealistic to entertain the notion that he was still a virgin when he finally won Nefret. But it's like being married to someone for ten years or so and suddenly finding out that they were married once before, but had neglected to tell you. It just doesn't fit.
First, I can't imagine him sleeping with a woman he barely knows, much less claiming to love her; and even if it's as simple as a case of transference, it'd be as bad as hiring a prostitute in order to vent some of his frustration, something we know he'd never do.
Second, the whole affair begins and ends too easily. Just think, if Nefret had come to the window instead, perhaps he would have run off with her. (Or hell, one of the other handmaidens, perhaps? If he can sleep with Daria, then it would seem he doesn't need to know more than her name and that she's easy.) And the end of the affair isn't nearly traumatic enough for someone who believes they're in love. I want him to throw the flowers at her. I want him to rail and rage and break down and cry, not just kiss her and walk away.
Third, why wouldn't there be any other mention of her? Unless E.P. plans to do some serious wrapping up in future books, this won't work for me. If Ramses believed he loved her, I can't imagine that he'd simply never think about her again, or at least mention her to David. There'd have to be an emotional struggle. If he really isn't sure what love is anymore, then he'd have to spend a lot of time sorting out his feelings. I don't think he could go on loving Nefret with the same intensity after such a world-shattering event as falling in love with Daria.
Also, perhaps I'm reading too much into things, but when Ramses is catching up with Tarek's people late in the book, he mentions that he's unmarried and childless - "to the best of his knowledge." Are we to take it, then, that Daria isn't his first affair? Who else is there? The mind boggles; perhaps that summer with the sheik found our boy acting like a bit of a cad, after all. Or maybe Layla (or did she come in later? I'm too confused to remember).
I still love the book, and highly recommend it. It's a lot of fun. But if you've got a horrible crush on Ramses (as I have ever since Seeing a Large Cat), proceed with caution. Our hero is not exactly what he always seemed to be.
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Title: Amelia Peabody's Egypt: A Compendium by Elizabeth Peters, Kristen Whitbread ISBN: 0060538112 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 21 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The Game by LAURIE R. KING ISBN: 0553801945 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 02 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: Children of the Storm by Elizabeth Peters ISBN: 0066214769 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Whisker of Evil by RITA MAE BROWN ISBN: 0553801619 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 30 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Shifting Tide by ANNE PERRY ISBN: 0345440099 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 27 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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