Great cover! Not much else. ( )

blah, not my thing. ( )

With the pretty unique premise of looking at a world in which the old Egyptian gods vanquished all the other belief systems and lived into the current day and age, I simply could not resist picking up this book. It is a great example of creating an alternative reality, and the element of adding some interesting perspective from the point of view of the gods as well as contemporary humans who face a very different reality form our own, made this a fascinating, compelling, and very thought-provoking read for me.

As unlikely as the world James Lovegrove created here may be in light of our current reality, it was consistent and had some interesting political and religious points to make. Even science was explained in light of the gods' powers and the focus here was on weapons technology. That was the one message throughout the book: with gods warring amongst themselves for pretty much all of eternity, the result for humans who follow those gods would be the same thing: eternal strife with no way out. Even worse: the reason for the fighting is not even human-made in this world, the factions and what goes on is entirely god-determined. High priests are in charge of reading the gods' will, pass it on to human governments (if you can even call them that), then mindlessly executed.

What a nightmare vision!

The one ray of hope for humans to escape this mess is the faction of the "Lightbringer" that evolves in 'Freegypt' - the only place on Earth that has no gods. I loved the explanation for this: the gods could not agree who should rule over their original place of power on Earth, so none of them got it. Interestingly, the Lightbringer has a whole host of issues himself and as the main character, Lieutenant David Westwynter, gets to know him, the revelations are as fascinating as the whole concept behind this book.

What I liked best was the ending: not a definite answer by any means, it totally fit the question. Human self-determination is a work in progress, and the degree to which we can free ourselves from real or imagined spiritual and religious influences will determine what happens to us - both individually and as a species.

I really liked this book, and recommend it for anyone interested in alternate realities, religious questions of an unusual nature, and a love for the old mythological gods of Egypt. ( )

Nowhere near as interesting nor as engrossing as Lovegrove's "The Age of Zeus." The story feels pointless since nothing is resolved and nothing changes by the conclusion. The only good thing was that I gained a better understanding of Egyptian mythology. ( )

Let me start with "I don't get it" and then try to redeem myself. I get the concept, sort of. I know Egyptian history and ancient religions, and I love sci-fi so I can suspend belief and accept a modern type society in an alternate universe. I think where I got lost (and lost interest) was when we were taken to the world of the gods and listening to their bickering.

So, this wasn't a book for me. But there are thousands more out there just waiting for me to find them. And thousands of people just waiting to find and love this one. Happy hunting to us all. ( )