Napoleon's Pyramids (Ethan Gage Adventures)

Seventy pages in, I did something I rarely do with a novel -- I gave up. The archaic writing style, apparently done to give the novel a "period" feel, is wordy and meanders, distancing the reader from the action instead of drawing him in. And it's very difficult to get over the feeling you've seen or read this all before, either in a Indiana Jones or National Treasure movie, or in the better written and faster-moving historical science-fiction/fantasy of Tim Powers. While Dietrich gets points for doing his historical research, the characters are uninvolving and the writing style affected. It might get better after the first 70 pages, but it's hard to say if it's worth trying.

Napoleon's Pyramids begins as a good, solid historical adventure yarn. Those aren't exactly in vogue these days, so William Dietrich dressed his story up with some Indiana Jones/Da Vinci Code inspired stuff about ancient Egyptian artifacts and the pyramids. Even the cover looks like it's a story about biblical codes or templars or Illuminati or some other quasi-mystical junk.

The setting is very interesting. I can't recall any other books set during Napoleon's invasion of Egypt. Dietrich uses this setting to make some sly jabs at modern events occurring between the Christian and Arab world today. Dietrich is a master of writing mass battle sequences. His depiction of the Battle of the Pyramids is one of the best scenes of this kind I have ever read.

However... Ethan Gage is just not that interesting a character. While reading this, I could not help but recall the Flashman novels written in the 70s-90s by the late George MacDonald Fraser. These were a long series of Victorian adventure novels written as the supposed diaries of a cad and rogue of the Victorian era named Harry Flashman, who was a minor character in Tom Brown's School Days. Dietrich's Gage is similar in some ways; he's supposedly a rogue and a ladies' man, he gambles, he's not above fighting dirty, etc. But Ethan Gage is no Flashman and William Dietrich is no George MacDonald Fraser. Ethan Gage is basically a watered down, lukewarm Flashman offshoot. I think part of the problem is that Dietrich is trying to write about a cad and a bounder within the limits of modern politically correct sensibilities, which is impossible.

If you have never read the Flashman books, Napoleon's Pyramids will probably appeal to you much more than it did to me. As a Flashman fan, however, this story was disappointing by comparison. I still liked it, but it was kind of flat and Ethan Gage never seemed like much more than a cardboard hero. Reading Flashman felt like you were hearing the story from the lips of an actual living man. Napoleon's Pyramids feels like a very well done computer simulation of Egypt of 1798. Informative and interesting, but kind of dry and soulless.

I find that authors of the last couple of generations really can't do historical adventure like the old timers did. Maybe there's just too much distance. Maybe it is hard to write about past centuries on a 21st century computer surrounded by modern influences, I don't know. It just seems like there haven't been any really convincing historical novels since the generation that produced authors like Fraser and my other favorite historical fiction author, Gary Jennings passed away. There are either too many anachronisms or simply no real feel for the period.

Although my enthusiasm for the plot faded a great deal over the last third of the book, I'll probably still read the rest of this series. It's better than all the FBI Serial killer thrillers, the legal thrillers and those mystic secret thrillers (that this book tries to disguise itself as) and all the other bad fiction of the current time. It's not Flashman no matter how hard it tries, but it's pretty good for a 2000s book. To quote from Sam Peckinpah's film, The Wild Bunch, "It ain't like it used to be, but it'll do."

Napoleon's Pyramids took me forever to read because I couldn't stay awake. I didn't like his style of writing which managed to make a fairly interesting premise into a painfully dull book. The only parts of the book that were fairly well written were the battle scenes, which for my tastes, could have been left out of the book.

After the non-ending, I seriously doubt I will read the next installment of this series.

I love a great airplane read, some nice adventure fiction to reads quickly and makes the long plane ride bearable. I picked this up at the airport based on the description on the back and it seemed fun. Sadly, it wasn't so much. It was a little boring and the lead character was someone things happened to, instead of him instigating the action. He was also on the dumb side, which got tedious as the book wore on. Seriously the only thing he seemed to care about was bedding women, and even them he didn't know much about. Alas, the book ended on a cliff hanger, meaning there is a follow-up, that I will not be reading.

William Dietrich is fun to read if you suspend all types of belief. His prose is fluent, his imagination is exuberant, and he knows how to put the reader in the midst of a battle. You can go through hundreds of pages of bloody encounters, impossible escapes, and Indiana Jones silliness, amused by it.
The main character is not quite interesting, his historical details are picturesque and freely altered, but they are just an excuse to give the novel a modicum of coherence--this guy takes a tomahawk to Napoleon's wars, for Christ's sake!
The plot goes all over the place, and no place in particular. If you are a history buff go read James Michener. If you want pulp fiction go ahead and read this one.

E.C.Brierfield

Personally I am not into inconclusive novels that end with a "cliff hanger", a cheap gimmick to force you to buy the next novel if you want to know what is going to happen to the hero and/or heroine... Had I known that in advance, I would not have begun reading this book...

As for the writing, it is a bit too much "Indiana Jonesy" at times, there is in fact a passage that seems to actually have been taken from "Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade"! If you are into epic "battles" however, you may, unlike me, enjoy the other passages in which the author rambles on in his description of both naval as well as land confrontations between the French army and their enemies...

Unfortunately I may be a victim of not leaving things unfinished and feel forced to purchase and read the sequel: "The Rosetta Key", hoping with Napoleon out of the picture there will be less "battle" descriptions, and that this will truly be the last book with a grand finale!!

I like a variety of historical novels. This series has Ethan Gage as protagonist and follows him from Paris to Cairo, with many stops. Everything from the Battle of the Nile on. Enjoyable book that is well written. Check out Dietrich's "Hadrian's Wall" also. I read that a few months ago and really enjoyed it.

Item arrived quickly and was just as described

We were glad to get this for our collection

Great history book