http://geekpronblog.blogspot.com/2017/12/review-ramses-damned-passion-of.html

Do you know what occult means? It means secret knowledge. The novel is occult in that it is about an elixir that only a select few know how it is made. Ramses is one that knows how to make it. He took it and became immortal..he falls in love with a human, Julie and she becomes immortal After taking the elixir, the eyes turn a vivid blue. Ramses gives the CleopAtra mummy the elixir who returns to life but there is a problem and Ramses runs from her. Why? Julie and Ramses are given a party to celebrate their engagement by Julie's former fiancé, Alex. Why? As plans are made Mr sides taken an immortal has revenge on his mind as he holds a grudges that is very old. What does he plan to do? There is another immortal that Ramses meets but will not spoil it by saying anything more. I've probably told you too much as it is but it difficult not too.

This novel is amazing. When I was not reading it, I would think of the story and wondered what was going to happen next. There is more than enough action so I never got bored reading it. Personalities are explored as well as myths of Egypt. It is a story that held my attention to it even though I find it difficult to explain. I guess I can only say it consumed me! Don't miss out on reading this fantastic novel!

Well... I don't think i've ever waited so long for a sequel. Was it worth the wait? Well, yes actually, it was. This novel picks up immediately after the events of the first book, so if like me you read that around 20 years ago you might want to have a quick reread of that one first, otherwise it can be a little difficult to orient yourself back into that world.

This adventure revisits the old characters (of course!), but also introduces a few new ones, and I really hope that they can be explored further in future novels, especially the enigmatic Bektaten, but I won't say any more about her here as I wouldn't want to spoil anything for new readers.

The characters were all well imagined, and reveled in the luscious, sensual language and settings typical of both Anne and Christopher Rice's novels, and I really felt for Cleopatra, forced to exist against her will and at the mercy of encroaching madness, her relationships with other characters were so well handled and the ending brought tears to my eyes. Really hoping that we get to revisit this world again soon... please not such a long wait next time!

Thanks to Knopf Doubleday and NetGalley for my advance copy in return for an honest review.

I LOVED the first book of Ramses the Damned that came out years ago, so when I saw this one I was really excited. What I had forgotten because it was so long ago that I read this is that the Ramses character is what made that book so awesome! Cleopatra, not so much. I never really liked the way her character was portrayed as a sort of flaky, user. With this book being predominately about her, I had a lot of trouble with it. A lot of picking it up and putting if down. Hard to stick with it but the story line was actually pretty good.

This book picks up right where the first one left off. For those who didn’t read the first installment, they give you a quick synopsis in the beginning of the book on the events which took place in the previous novel. The resurrection of Ramses, the awakening of Cleopatra, and the trail of bodies left behind by the two in their journeys.

Now, Ramses is traveling back to England with his future bride, Julia, in order to begin preparations for their wedding. Strangely enough their engagement party is being planned by Julia’s ex, Alex, who is still not fully…well…mature in his actions. Cleopatra, on the other hand, is not having much positive events happening. All her memories of her former life have disappeared.

The book jumps from one plot point to the next and keeps you guessing in what the next turning point will be in the story. We are introduced to a large variety of new characters that to be honest gets a tad overwhelming at times. We found out the origins of the magic elixir and the woman behind it all.

For those who have waited over twenty years for this sequel, it’s completely worth the wait! Will there be a book three? Please! Please! Please! We must have one! Something tells me if we don’t get one, there will be problems in the Anne/Christoper Rice fan community.

Editor's note: This review will appear in print and online in Mountain Times (Boone, NC) ... www.mountaintimes.com on Nov. 23.

Even when you’ve mastered your craft as has Anne Rice, a good collaborator should make you better. Especially when that collaborator knows you as well as does your own son. Or is your own son, as in the case of “Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra” (Anchor), the sequel to Rice’s 1991 release “The Mummy or Ramses the Damned.”

Co-writing with her son, Christopher Rice, an award-winning novelist in his own right, Anne Rice’s newest is the continuation story we’ve been waiting almost three decades for. Spoiler alert: If you haven’t read “The Mummy,” you’ll want to invest in that first if you have any inkling that you’ll want to begin at the beginning. “Ramses the Damned” can stand on it’s own, but it’s just more fun if you’ve wrapped up “The Mummy” first.

Not that the Rice duo planned for the new novel to be simply fun. It is that, if you like a good “ancient queen coming back from the dead after drinking the elixir of life” type of story, but it’s also dark and dreary in all the good ways a horror novel should be. It’s got the Edwardian feel that we’ve come to expect of Anne Rice’s best novels, and it’s got something more.

Writing with her son, the prose of “Ramses the Damned” shines a bit brighter, a bit more polished than what we’ve had in the past, approaching that seldom trod ground, at least recently, of literary horror.

Under the pens of this pair, the loneliness and desperation that drives Ramses to reawaken Cleopatra is manifest. The once lush and fertile Sahara springs to life and the magic and mystery of the lone queen who knows many things otherwise unknown, including the secret of the elixir, is both haunting and hunting.

Tying feudal pasts with modern passions, Anne Rice and Christopher Rice have crafted a supreme sequel — even if we did have to wait more than 25 years to unravel the story.

This was my first book of Anne Rice (I know shocker!) and I did enjoy it. The book had wonderful imagery written in to make it feel like you were at each location when it was described in the book. The spin on the characters was fantastic but I feel like it also honored them in its own way but not making it seem like satire almost if that makes sense. As it is the second book in the series and I jumped in assuming it was a first in the series I was able to follow along without too much confusion so it can definitely be read as a stand alone, although I do plan on going back to read the first so I have a better idea of Ramses full story from the start- in her books/world/series.

Reviewed by Sarah of the GothicMoms Review Team

Starting out this story grabs your attention and make a you wonder about things. Everyone always do fees about Cleopatra and this story was so amazing I still have chills! If you're craving mystery, drama and excitement this book has that and more within its pages. I never wanted it to end...speaking of endings.... nah I'll let you guess lol. Really great story overall. Characters were pretty dang amazing too and honestly it would make a great movie!

Slow start, with a complicated plot and many so characters to follow. It was intriguing enough to keep me invested in reading but I was thinking it just an okay read... And then right around 60% the fruition of the build-up came together and BOOM, I was completely and utterly hooked.

I received this ARC copy of Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra from Anchor. This is my honest and voluntary review. Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra is set for publication November 21, 2017.

My Rating: 4 stars
Written by: Anne Rice
Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Anchor
Publication Date: November 21, 2017
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1101970324
ISBN-13: 978-1101970324
Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Scifi

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Ramses-Damned-...
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rams...

Reviewed for: http://tometender.blogspot.com

12 likes

I have loved Anne Rice books for a while now, I loved reading them in my youth and I have loved reading them in my adulthood too, so I jumped at the chance to getting my hands on this.
I was so excited about reading this that I totally overlooked the fact that this is a sequal to 'Ramses the Damned' of which I have not read.
Thus my review of this book is going to be short.
I made the decision that to give this book the proper attention that it - hopefully deserves - I stopped reading after several confusing chapters.
I have heard some say that even though this is a sequal, it can be read without reading the first, but, for me, on this occasion, I do require the first book.
So, alas, this has to go into my DNF section, but I am hoping that it will be redeemed next year :)
Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the chance to read this, but it is reviewer error that has made this unsuccessful.
....sigh

I received a complimentary ARC copy of The Passion of Cleopatra (Ramses the Damned #2) by Anne Rice & Christopher Rice from NetGalley in order to read and give an honest review.

I read the first book, The Mummy (Ramses the Damned) about twenty years ago and was surprised to find out about a sequel. Although I chose not to reread The Mummy, The Passion of Cleopatra works well as a stand-alone which is saying a great deal about the authors’ abilities to craft an engaging series.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Passion of Cleopatra (Ramses the Damned #2), it did take me a while to get into, however, after a few chapters it grabbed me and I devoured it in a day. Although there seemed to be quite a few characters, I feel they all added to the story and it slowly unfolded into an amazing adventure that kept me turning the pages. Multiple intertwining plotlines run throughout the book and join at the end for a thrilling and very satisfying conclusion.

The story opens in Jericho 3600 B.C.E. then jumps everywhere from Cairo in 1914 to Edwardian England. Not to give too much away, the story’s focus is on the consequences that arise as a result of a magical elixir which grants immortality. The main plotlines all have this elixir at their core, albeit for different reasons. Although there are quite a few characters, they are all unique and dynamic, each helping to drive the plot along. Reginald Ramsey also known as, Ramses the Great and his fiancé Julie, are involved in a life or death battle after Ramses uses the elixir to raise his former lover, an already dead and mummified Cleopatra. What extended the life of both Ramses and Julie reacts very differently on the already deceased Cleopatra, especially when her soul has passed on to another…which, we get glimpses of in another plotline. The author also gives us a battle between two very ancient powers, one the originator of the elixir and her nemesis who holds a corrupt version but ruthlessly hunts for the original formula in order to create a kingdom of immortals.

All in all, this book was a great read and I would definitely recommend it. I really enjoyed the collaboration between Anne Rice and her son Christopher and I hope to see book three in the not too distant future.

I was putting off reading this because it has been a while since I read the first book and honestly, I didn't remember it very well. Fortunately, the authors did a good job of including just enough information from the previous book that I was not as lost and confused as I feared.

It was an excellent story, I really felt transported into another time and world. I did have trouble keeping up with the characters in the beginning a quarter of the way through it all came together for me and I was able to enjoy the story.

This was very good. I read the first book a long, long time ago, so I can't vouch for the complete veracity of my memory, but I seem to remember liking the first book a bit better. I definitely should have re-read it before approaching this book, as it is not quite a stand-alone.

That being said, this is still an excellent story, and a lovely addition to my "Riceopedia." I enjoyed Christopher's addition to the writing quite a bit, I have never read anything by him before but now I am definitely going to look into it.

I was a little hesitant to read this installment as I was not a big fan of some of Anne Rice's other novels. This one however was not a disappointment. As a fan of all things "Ancient Egypt" this was a real treat. I just wish I had read the fist book in this series closer to the time I read the second.

It's been so long since the first was published that I did not think it would be an actual follow-up sequel. That being said, I did not read the first, (really this would be my first Anne Rice book) that was a bit of a problem. While I did manage to more or less figure everything and everyone out I couldn't care for any of them.

“Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra” is a worthy successor to Anne Rice’s “The Mummy.” Anne and Christopher Rice did a masterful job of combining their voices. It is difficult to distinguish which author wrote what part.

While it has been 28 years since the release of “The Mummy,” the “Passion of Cleopatra” picks up where its predecessor ended. As “The Mummy” is this reviewer’s favorite Rice book, it was optimistic for the sequel; the optimism was justified with “Cleopatra.”

Many questions were answered in this sequel. Notably, the origin of Ramses' elixir. It has always been a mystery as to how Ramses took the formula from the Hittite Priestess. A formula that apparently no other human had tried. How did the priestess derive the formula for Ramses to steal?

As “The Mummy” is this reviewers most re-read work of Rice’s, the sequel was equivalent to greeting old friends. If you are fans of Anne, or of “The Mummy” in particular, I believe you will be satisfied with the sequel. Anne and Christopher make a great collaborative team. I look forward to reading more of their future collaborations.

Note: An ARC was received from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I love Anne Rice so there was only the very smallest possibility that I did not enjoy this book. I had read the very first book in this series a very long time ago and as such had to reread it before this newest addition. The first book was titled The Mummy or Ramses the Damned. I love how quickly the reader gets sucked into the world of Ramses and his long lost love Cleopatra. I will admit that I liked this 2nd book much better than the first. Anne Rice and Christopher are so descriptive in their storytelling that I can't help but imagine the amount of research that went into this book. I would recommend reading the first book so you have a better idea of what is happening and who everyone is in book 2. There are some new immortals in this book that add a different and somewhat darker element to the story. I would say this was a solid 4/5 fro me just simply because it was a bit confusing at the beginning and dragged but once I was through chapter 1, I was hooked. The release date for this novel is set for Novermber 21. Maybe a good Xmas gift for the reader in your life?

This new installment of Anne Rice did not disappoint.. I have been reading her books since the mid 80s and I am still hooked on her Vampire stories. If you love vampires and Anne Rice books this will be a must read.

Curiosity got the better of me on this collaboration. Once upon a time I loved reading Anne Rice's early vampire books and I've enjoyed one book by Christopher Rice (Vines) despite being written in present tense (the ultimate sin).

So, I started reading and my first impression was that it had the tone of those early vampire books and that perhaps the collaboration with her son was what Anne needed to get back on track. I started having some doubts when it became overtly sexual and the emphasis on gay sex started to impede the story flow. I don't object to gay sex, but I generally don't want to read about a lot of sex in general. It also dragged in a few places.

It's the story of Bektaten (totally fictional) who developed a formula to attain eternal life. The formula comes to Ramses and then the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra, making them both immortal. Each of them shared their immortality with a few favorites and conflicts ensue.

This isn't, as I had assumed, a new vampire novel. No blood drinking has taken place. The immortality elixer is a new thing, not explored in any previous books I've read by either author, though there are some Ramses books by Anne Rice that I haven't read so this might be a series I just wasn't aware of. The Egyptian theme seems to be a favorite of hers.

The important thing is that I was drawn into the story and began to get to know the characters and all their foibles. My sympathies were naturally with Cleopatra, as she's a favorite historical figure, though not the nicest person in this story. I had some problem with keeping secondary characters in context as they weren't as well-defined as they needed to be, but it all fell into place near the end when the significance of their roles comes to fruition.

I found it interesting how the story explored concepts of reincarnation and afterlife, encompassing a few different belief systems within the plot and the beliefs of the main characters. The end seemed to drag out a long time, but the loose ends were all tidied up while still leaving room for some of the characters to appear in a new story.

Ramses the Damned, #2 The Passion of Cleopatra was really everything I expected it to be as I have always loved Anne Rice and this book is also co-authored by Christopher Rice, her son and they work excellently as a team. This book starts two months after Ramses the Damned #1 ends, and I suggest you read the first book to get the most out of this book and all the characters besides the many new ones.

This is definitely a thrilling read, so much goes on and the passion of the authors of this book show through as well as their talent for writing gothic or horror tales. It has been awhile since I read Anne Rice and I was glad to see that she as well as her son have created the perfect second read in this series, as it was published in 1989 (The Mummy) so we have waited a while for this sequel. I never am disappointed by anything Anne Rice has written, and am glad that is still true now!

I gave this book 4 Stars, and recommend it!