Ramses the Damned

December 20, 2021
The Rices, mother and son, pick up the thread of their last collaboration, Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra, with this rousing blend of adventure, romance, and the supernatural featuring pharaoh Ramses II, resurrected as an immortal in Edwardian England. It’s 1914, and with Europe careening toward war, Ramses’s queen, Bektaten, has ordered him (in the guise of the dashing Egyptologist Reginald Ramsey) and his lover, Julie Stratford, to America to prevent the immortals from intervening in the impending conflict. Their plans are curtailed when they discover a plot to kill them and others who have consumed their elixir of immortality by assassins unaware of their invincibility. Clues lead back to disgruntled Russian nationalist Nikolai Vasilev, a former acquaintance of Julia’s archaeologist father who has stumbled upon an ancient weapon so formidable that even Ramses and his fellow immortals might be unable to prevent its use in combat. Though the Rices endow their characters with outsize superhero powers, they also give them an appealing introspective side that humanizes them throughout their challenging adventures. The authors have found a winning formula that ensures more entertaining installments to come. Agent: Lynn Nesbit, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc.

December 15, 2021
Full of dazzling scenery, powerful immortals, and the rebirth of ancient magic, the latest addition to the Ramses the Damned series (after The Passion of Cleopatra, 2017) ties up loose ends in a gratifying way, ensuring that longtime readers will be left happy and very hungry for more. With Europe on the brink of a world war, Russian assassins are sent to destroy anyone who loved deceased Egyptologist Lawrence Stratford, the father of Ramses' new bride, Julie. The assassins wield a stolen and unaccountable magic that awakens long-forgotten memories in Ramses and brings terror to fellow immortals. While tracking down the mastermind of the assassination plot, Ramses discovers answers to secrets that have haunted him for millennia and is given an intoxicating glimpse at a life that could be his for a terrible price. Building on the solid foundation of two previous books, the authors are able to delve deeper into an incredibly diverse world, fleshing out relationships, throwing new light on the alchemy of immortality, and showcasing a clever type of magic that will impress even the most seasoned fantasy reader. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Readers have been waiting since 2017 for the continued story of Ramses from the mother-son Rice duo.

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January 1, 2022
In the wrap-up to his trilogy, Ramses the Damned is part of a band of immortals with an important mission. As readers of the preceding installments--The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned (1989) and Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra (2017)--will know, the one-time Egyptian pharaoh is now going by Reginald Ramsey and is married to Julie Stratford, the daughter of a dead Egyptologist. The two are among the recipients of a letter from an immortal queen named Bektaten, warning them to resist the urge to get involved in the great war which is about to engulf the planet and inviting them to come hang out at her manor in England if they need a refuge. The group of people who receive the letter has significant overlap with those on a hit list carried by Russian assassins, each of whom has been equipped with an amber gem that brings statues to life, after which they can be controlled like avatars in a video game. When Ramsey and Julie are attacked, he has a vague, millennia-old memory of seeing the stone at one of his pharaonic initiation ceremonies--but feels a little awkward about bringing it up since he was tripping at the time. In any case, after the first three assassination attempts are foiled (that's immortality for you), everybody does indeed head to the manor to plan next steps. In addition to offering what sounds like an orgasmic experience of healing when stabbed or shot, immortality has many other benefits. The immortals have vast appetites for food and sex and can eat constantly with no ill results. Since the authors are mother and son, the seeming paucity of sex scenes is probably for the best. We get a brief three-way including Cleopatra, her young British lover, and an American novelist who receives and experiences Cleopatra's emotions "like a symphony across a telephone line." The other one involves the male lover of the dead Egyptologist, who is not quite himself when restored to life from his coffin but is more fully revived by a hand job. Only you can know if you want to read this book. Follow your instincts.

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November 6, 2017
In this slick sequel to The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned (1989), immortals gifted with virtual indestructibility scheme as nastily against one another as the similarly endowed characters in Anne Rice’s celebrated Vampire Chronicles. Having imbibed a life-prolonging elixir, pharaoh Ramses the Great is still alive in 1914, when he poses as the dashing Reginald Ramsey and takes his fiancé, Julie Stratford, on a tour through England and other interesting locales. The resurrected corpse of the former empress Cleopatra is likewise wandering the globe. Separately, Cleopatra’s soul has been reincarnated in Sybil Parker, an American writer of historical romances that are patterned unconsciously on events from the lives of the immortals (and that read much like this novel). Then the ancient empress Bektaten, who first discovered the immortality elixir, enters the picture, along with her conniving former prime minister, Saqnos, who for centuries has been trying to wheedle the formula out of her. Cleopatra, Ramses, and Saqnos vie against one another and Bektaten in their quest to understand and control the magical potion. In their first literary collaboration, the Rices, mother and son, configure these subplots into an entertaining soap opera replete with romantic alliances, betrayals, and ends left tantalizingly loose as grist for sequels. Fans of both authors’ work will enjoy this one and agree with Sybil’s observation that “stories of romance and adventure and magic helped us to imagine a better world into being.”