Napoleon's Pyramids

I had high hopes for Napoleon’s Pyramids. It promised a lot: a swashbuckling hero, a mysterious medallion, an evil count, and an Indiana Jones-esque adventure to unlock the secrets of the pyramids. I’ve learned to be skeptical though about stories that sound too good to be true. There’s always something wrong. The hero is unlikable, the Maguffin is dull, the villain is unbelievable, or the adventure is a bait-and-switch that promises much more than it ever intended to deliver. Napoleon’s Pyramids has none of these problems. It’s exactly what it claims to be and so much more.

Ethan Gage is a fantastic hero. He’s an American living in France in 1798. He’s the former apprentice of Benjamin Franklin and a Freemason. He’s a much better former apprentice than he is a secret society member though. He barely understands the origins of the basic Masonic symbols, much less posses any real secrets. His big flaw is that he has no purpose. He doesn’t believe in anything, so he flits from whorehouse to card game and back again. Which is really a cool place for a charming rogue to begin his story, but many authors would fear to let him grow out of that. I know because I’ve read their books. Not Dietrich though. Gage’s journey changes him as much as it thrills his readers.

Valley of the Kings (1954)

Valley of the Kings wasn't everything I'd hoped it would be, but it came a lot closer than I had any right to expect. I'm always looking out for movies that'll scratch that Raiders of the Lost Ark itch, so I was immediately interested in this story about an archeologist and his teacher's daughter searching for lost treasure in Egypt. That sounds a lot like the plot for Raiders, but I'm not suggesting that Raiders ripped it off. It's really a very different story.

Religion plays a big part of Valley of the Kings too though. More so, in fact, than it does in Raiders. In Valley of the Kings, Eleanor Parker (The Baroness from The Sound of Music) plays the daughter of an archeologist who recently died before completing his life's work. His quest was to find the tomb of the Pharaoh who ruled during the time of the Biblical Joseph. Picking up her father's work, Ann hires one of her dad's former students, a rough character named Mark Brandon (Robert Taylor from Ivanhoe). Along with Ann's new husband - who may or may not have his own reasons for wanting to find the tomb - they follow clues around Egypt and it's great fun watching them do it.

They begin by tracing Moses' path across the Red Sea to a secluded monastery at Mt. Sinai where Ann's father ended his search. After that, they visit quaint little curio shops in Cairo, meet mysterious strangers in taverns, sail the Nile, ride camels, take refuge in ruins from a sandstorm, meet desert bandits, fight villains on top of enormous statues, and yes, explore lost tombs. Plot-wise, it's everything you want in an Egyptian adventure story.

What it lacks, after the break.