 WHAT LIES BENEATH A NEWLY DISCOVERED ANCIENT EGYPTIAN TOMB? AN UNLUCKY BUNCH OF 1930S ARCHAEOLOGISTS ARE ABOUT TO FIND OUT  At first glance it would be easy to presume you might have been around this block before with Brian Moreland’s superb Tomb of Gods, as the plot may sound a tad familiar….. “Archaeologist goes exploring in ancient Egyptian tomb, blah, blah, blah and encounters a world of pain….” Shelve that initial thought and kick it way into the long grass, as this very entertaining novel is considerably more than that. Within a few chapters you will quickly shake off any lingering feelings of déjà vu as Brian Moreland takes you deeper and darker than you have ever been before. I’m a huge fan of fiction which takes place underground, to the extent that in 2018 I wrote ‘Going Underground: Horrors Which Lurk Below’ for Ginger Nuts of Horror. If Tomb of God had been published around this time it would have easily mixed with the best on the list, including Scott Sigler’s Earthcore and my all-time favourite The Descent by Jeff Long. Check the article out here should you want to go exploring, but beware, there is no guarantee of a return journey: The prologue of Tomb of God takes us back to Egypt 1250BC with Commander Tarik presiding over the mummification and burial of his recently deceased pharaoh, which also means the deaths of everybody involved in the burial being enclosed within the tomb with their emperor. After a few of Tarik’s soldiers have committed suicide and other terrified slaves have taken flight further down the tomb in fear of their lives the Commander realises there is something else in there with him. Something very dangerous and let’s just say there is no need for him to take his own life. Tomb of Gods impressed me so much that upon completion one of the first thing I did after reaching the breath-taking climax was download another of Brian Moreland’s novels! It completely knocked me out from beginning to end, with some of the sequences so unrelentingly fast moving it was very hard to put down. Set in the mid-1930s, imminent British archaeologist, Dr Harlan Riley, vanishes inside a recently discovered Egyptian cave whilst looking for a famous and fabled tomb. A year later, the doctor returns covered in mysterious scars, which look like tattoos and is completely disorientated. He has seemingly lost his mind and is sent to a mental hospital but is rumoured to have uncovered a valuable tomb which promised both great riches and the opportunity to solve some of the mysteries of the ancient Egyptians. In true Indiana Jones style, the hunt to find the tomb and decipher Riley’s cryptic diary is on. Egyptologist Imogen Riley is the granddaughter of Dr Harlan Riley, the man covered in the strange markings, and soon she joins the expedition to advance his research and heads below with Dr Nathan Trummel, who is leading the expedition. Before long, it looks like the dig is cursed after a series of deaths with the party descends deeper into the underworld, through a series of newly discovered levels. Soon they realise there are even deeper layers to the tomb and as they descend further, realise they are not alone. But what lies beneath the pyramid? That is when things really begin to kick off, when the book begins to move into an entirely unexpected, but very cool, new direction. I was a big fan of main character Imogen Riley, a spunky young woman holding her own in a world which would have been dominated by men. In contrast, Nathan Trummel was a nasty piece of work who would have been at home in one of those Indiana Jones films I mentioned earlier, trying to steal the treasure and sell to the highest bidder. Another refreshing element was the avoidance of clichés you might expect with a horror novel set in an Egyptian tomb; there are no mummy’s coming back to life or creatures jumping out of catacombs. The beings the explorers encounter are much nastier than anything from the world of creaky clichés. This was an outstanding horror novel featuring some of the best underground descriptions I have read in a good stretch. Also, the mythology explored in the second half of the story was simply outstanding expanding into unexpected supernatural and theological directions. You could cut the atmosphere with a knife and taste the claustrophobia as the party went deeper and deeper, including an outstanding scene where a soldier is crawling in a very narrow tunnel and is certain something is behind him and starts screaming when he is dragged backwards. But by what? This was terrific page-turning stuff. Tomb of God was a book of two halves, both were excellent, the first sets the scene in the tomb, but the second goes completely mental and is unrelentingly unhinged. Imogen soon finds herself in a world of pain as everything spirals out of control, with old superstitions spooking her team, the journey for lost riches becomes an exhilarating battle for survival. Highly recommended. 5/5 Tony Jones   the heart and soul of horror book reviewsComments are closed.
|
|
|
|