Thursday, December 19, 2013

Space archaeology, drones... the impact of new technology on archaeology in my Egypt fiction

How long before drones impact on Egyptology and archaeological discoveries, revealing the signatures of lost tombs, temples and sanctuaries hidden under the sands?
(Use the 'drones' link above to see stunning drone's-eye view footage of the pyramids and Sphinx.)

Ancient Egypt and modern technology come together in my Egypt novels, especially in my series featuring renegade, independent Egyptologist Anson Hunter - novels such as 'Egypt Eyes' and 'The Anubis Intervention'... in fact across the whole series, beginning with The Smiting Texts...

 
Eyes in the sky revealing the ancient past


Discover the impact of today on the past, and the impact of the past on today - Amazon Kindle and paperback.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Season's Greetings. A refreshing take on Egyptology, as always.

A season's greeting card I received from UK artist David Arthur. A refreshing take on Egyptology, as always.

An author's "endlessly satisfying" passion for ancient Egypt

A passionate interest that's hard to shake

I've written a shelf full of Egypt-based novels, filled my own shelves with far too many volumes on Egyptology and ancient Egypt, haunted the great Egyptian museum galleries of the world, explored the length of Egypt and still I can't shake it.
I suppose that's what an endlessly satisfying passion does to you.
I hope you'll both feel and see that passion in my range of adventure novels, along with mystery, secrets, hidden dangers from the ancient past, and spread over all, a peculiar lustre of eternity.
 

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Ancient Egyptians' love of codes, puzzles, even crosswords features in my fiction...


Coded name of Rameses - rebus statue (wikipedia)


(Scene with my independent archaeologist Anson Hunter and US Homeland Security)

“How did you people come by this note?” Anson said to the Homeland Security man Bloem.

“That doesn’t matter.”

“Did you spot the code in here?”

Bloem and Gemma exchanged looks.

Anson took out a pen.

“The ancient Egyptians enjoyed puns, wordplay and crosswords. In fact, there’s a fiendishly clever and witty stela composed in honour of the goddess Mut, housed in the British Museum. You can read it in three different directions, across, down and around the outside edges.”

Anson used his pen to circle several letters in the text. “This one involves an acrostic. The Egyptians considered such wordplays to be powerful tools, which suggests that its author was aware of the sacred practices of the ancients and wanted to do things in a ritually significant manner.” He held up the piece of paper.

(H)istory will soon be made. (A) new dawn for Humankind approaches. (T)he beginning of the end for today’s world order is at hand as a force of hidden power will emerge and precipitate the fall. (H)ear this prophetic warning to all the nations. (On) this day, the roots of the old ideology will wither and die and a new order of the ages will commence. (R)ise to a new illumination.

A hidden word - a name - made up from the first letter of each of the sentences jumped out.

H-A-T-H-O-R

“The goddess Hathor. Of Hathor-Sekhmet fame.”

“That’s quick,” the academic, Melinda, said, respect in her eyes.

“You don’t disappoint,” the English girl said.

Bloem’s tone was dismissive.

“Our people figured that out.”

Melinda gave a smile.

“Yes, but it took them considerably longer.”

“Now you see why we need your help,” Gemma said.

Excerpt from the Anson Hunter investigative archaeology series - The Hathor Holocaust.




See on Amazon Kindle

Friday, December 6, 2013

Look into the Roy Lester Pond Egypt fiction collection now on Kindle and in Amazon paperback

click here
Roy Lester Pond has spent a lifetime studying Egyptology and has made numerous research trips to Egypt.
He is the author of the Egyptian adventure thriller series featuring the British archaeological detective Anson Hunter who investigates hidden dangers from the ancient past and modern day conspiracies that take their impetus from ancient Egypt.


(In paperback and KINDLE)
'THE SMITING TEXTS' 
'THE HATHOR HOLOCAUST'
'THE IBIS APOCALYPSE'
'THE ANUBIS INTERVENTION'
'EGYPT EYES'
'THE FORBIDDEN GLYPHS'
'THE GOD DIG.'

'ARTEFACT'
'DEATH IN EGYPT LIVE'

Look into the Roy Lester Pond Egypt fiction collection now on
 

Stand alone novels on Amazon Kindle include:

Saturday, November 30, 2013

The Mummy - with a difference. An Egypt novella by the author of The Smiting Texts

New, tender life emerging out of death. 'Green Osiris'
The Curse of the Corn Mummy.

A mysterious Osiris corn mummy is discovered buried in the desert outside a remote Egyptian oasis.

Symbol of the cycle of death, resurrection and renewed vegetation.

Its finder, Gaia, a young historical climatologist, dreams of saving the planet.

But what has she released into the world? Death strikes and fear grows as a violent sandstorm traps the archaeology team and throws a heavy responsibility on her admirer, young American archaeologist Bradley, second in charge of the project.

It grew in darkness in the tomb… and spread terror from Egypt’s magical past.

Friday, November 29, 2013

The Grain God Mummy.... "Godseed Resurrection'

It grew in the darkness of the tomb... terror from Egypt's magical past




Horror and intrigue in an enthralling novella.

A mysterious Osiris mummy impregnated with seeds is discovered buried in the desert outside a remote Egyptian oasis.

Symbol of the cycle of death, resurrection and renewed vegetation.

Its finder, Gaia, a young historical climatologist, dreams of saving the planet.

But what has she released into the world? Death strikes and fear grows as a violent sandstorm traps the archaeology team and throws a heavy responsibility on her admirer, young American archaeologist Bradley, second in charge of the project.

It grew in darkness in the tomb… and spread terror from Egypt’s magical past.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

"Favourite" Egypt fiction... "A furious pace keeps the reader engrossed."

Amazon Kindle

"Roy Lester Pond joins my favourite Ancient Egypt authors like Christian Jacq". The Ra Virus ****stars Goodreads


"THE RA VIRUS" - Goodreads reader review:

"This is a novella set in Ancient Egypt with a twist. Lucas Burrows is an epidemiologist who is is in Modern Day Egypt assisting an archaeological team. Lucas is at the archaeological site along with his girl friend, a well known Egyptologist Giulietta.

While exploring the site, Lucas disappears through a trapdoor and is presumed lost. But Lucas is mysteriously transported to the same site, now in Ancient Egypt is a bit of going through a temporal warp or simply, time travel. If you cannot handle this, go no further and seek other genre of books.

If you are reading this, I presume you can handle a little bit of SciFi and give the author some literary leeway.

One day, a modern day message appears at the dig site apparently from ancient times. The message warns of an ancient pathogen likely to create havoc in modern times as well. There is a possibility that the message was from Lucas trying to warn folks in the modern day.

This novel is all about Lucas's adventure in ancient Egypt. The author maintains a furious pace all through... keeping the reader engrossed. Very readable... Roy Lester Pond joins my list of favorite authors dealing with Ancient Egypt like Christian Jacq."





See Roy Lester Pond's complete Egypt fiction collection on - Amazon Kindle

Sunday, November 10, 2013

THEY INTERCEPTED him as he came out of Baltimore-Washington Airport



THEY INTERCEPTED him as he came out of Baltimore-Washington Airport, two men wearing suits and an air of officialdom like a brisk cologne.
“Mr Anson Hunter, the British Egyptologist?” 

“SORRY, ANSON. Your search for the stela ends here!”



The voice of the woman funnelled down the underground passage, the echoes fluttering off the stone like startled bats.Anson Hunter, alternative Egyptologist and theorist, felt a chill as the words reached his ears. It was caused as much by the emotional separation in her voice as by its distance. Her voice was startlingly removed. It was also hard and cold. A few minutes earlier she had been a companionable presence at his shoulder. Now this. She had deserted him, stealing back up the ramp of the passage. Why?

THE IBIS APOCALYPSE - Amazon Kindle 

Egyptian tour guides will tell you that it’s good luck to walk in a complete circle around the Step Pyramid of Saqqara.





It’s even luckier if you’re able to run, Anson Hunter thought after two bullets in quick succession spat dust from the ground at his feet. The independent Egyptologist felt his skin tingling in shock like the effects of a close lightning strike.

THE GOD DIG Amazon Kindle 

\

The archaeologist Anson Hunter plummeted, tumbling uncontrollably into darkness.


Was it a tomb shaft he was plunging down, he thought, feeling the darkness rip past his body?
Yet instead of sliding walls of stone, he flew down a pit of glowing green perspective lines that converged at the point of infinity.
He saw a woman, depicted in graphic green mesh-lines of light, watching him drop.
The strands of her hair were like strings of binary computer code, a rainfall of green ones and zeroes and her Egyptian eyes were bright points of light.
When he hit bottom, a place where the darkness coalesced into crushing density, even his mind went dark,
After an eternity, he opened his eyes.
He was seeing stars.
But they were not stars in a night sky, instead they were leopard skin spots on a tight body gown worn by the ancient Egyptian goddess Seshat, Mistress of Knowledge. The spots transformed into stars and then into electronic green spangles against a darker green sky and in her headband appeared a crowning star with seven brilliant points and a downturned crescent above it.
He was either dead or had entered her realm.
Seshat spoke in a thrilling whisper that made his body quiver. It was the voice of the infinite, yet was as gentle and fluttering in his ears as a breeze



A female mummy from ancient Egypt lay outstretched inside a hospital scanning machine.

The British Museum had brought the mummy to St. Thomas’ Hospital for a non-invasive examination of the body beneath its wrappings.
“We’ll begin by doing the head and neck in two millimetre slices. I’m just relieved that nobody will have to give this patient the bad news that she’s terminal.”
The radiologist had made the joke to bridge the jarring disconnect between ancient death, wrapped up in magical spells, and the modern day machinery of medical imaging. 
The radiation scan - at a dose lethal for the living - blasted through the linen windings. It was like a penetration of sunlight warming the bones after the ache of the desert night.

Saturday, November 9, 2013

THE SMITING TEXTS UK Kindle Countdown Deal - Begin series at next-best thing to free!


UK Kindle Countdown Deal £0.99. Until Nov 15

Enter the world of renegade Egyptologist Anson Hunter - a world of hidden dangers from the ancient past in this popular Egyptian archaeology adventure thriller series.

At Amazon Kindle. The Countdown clock will be ticking down... 

Thursday, November 7, 2013

12 Kindle Egypt thrillers - the most mysterious adventure setting under the sun

12 Egypt novels now also on Kindle

THE SMITING TEXTS 
THE HATHOR HOLOCAUST
THE IBIS APOCALYPSE
THE ANUBIS INTERVENTION
EGYPT EYES
THE FORBIDDEN GLYPHS
THE GOD DIG

THE RA VIRUS
THE MUMMY ISIS
THE DOOR OF THOTH
THE DELTA DILEMMA
HUNTING HATHOR



Thursday, October 10, 2013

A cardinal, a mufti and a rabbi walk into a hotel... conspiracy Egypt thriller 'The God Dig' *****5-star Goodreads


A cardinal, a mufti and a rabbi went into a hotel.
It sounded like the beginning of a joke rather than an ambush, Anson thought as he was shown into the dimness of a curtained meeting room inside the Cairo Mena House Hotel at the foot of the pyramids.
But it was no joke.
There they were, ranged like an interview panel behind a long table inside a hotel meeting room and the room was as devoid of levity as it was of sunlight and if there were any floating motes of good humour in the air they were sucked away by the three unsmiling emissaries.
One came from the Vatican, one from Cairo’s Islamic University and the other from Jerusalem, representing all three book-based religions.
What kind of religious crisis had forced such ecumenism?
“Thank you for coming. Please sit down Mr Hunter and hear us out.”
The cardinal, a tall cathedral of a man, spoke first, making a fine steeple of his fingers.
He was the President of the Vatican Committee for Historical Science. “We represent the faith of more than half of the world’s population, 3.8 billion people, the most volatile of them based in the Middle East, as you would know. And here is something else you know – history that has a familiar ring in this age of Egyptian protests and rioting. In A.D. 391, the Alexandrian bishop Theophilus, who dedicated himself to stamping out heresy and idolatry, found himself at the head of a riot of Christians who set fire to the temple of Serapis and its library. Thousand of scrolls and parchments were burnt, among them what is said to be the records of the secret ancient origins of today’s faith religions and the belief in a life to come. In other words, so-called proof that all Abrahamic faiths and ideas about a Judgement Day and an afterlife began in ancient Egypt.”
That shook Anson.
He swept the three in a glance.
He was no stranger to such ideas, but he never expected to hear an acknowledgement of them come from the lips of a Prince of the Church, especially with the tacit assent of Jewish and Islamic leaders sitting beside him.
The wiry South African-born rabbi, spoke next.
“Worryingly, it now seems that some of this so-called evidence survived the ancient destruction and clues to its location have turned up in the chaos and looting of the Egyptian revolution. A search for it is now underway, as you know. It is the reason why you are here in Egypt.”
“Do you expect the evidence to be legitimate?” Anson said.
“By no means,” the cardinal said. “A diabolical trick. If scripture is spirit-breathed, then this is the breath of evil.”
“Of Shaitaan himself,” the Islamic leader said.
“Then why be afraid of it?” Anson said.
The mufti, a square man with a square beard to match, said in a reasoned tone:
“We must always remember that others may not have our strength. They need to be protected. This so-called evidence would be like a weapon of mass destruction to their faith.”
The mufti’s presence among the religious dignitaries surprised Anson most of all. Yes, the Islamic religion, as much as Christianity and Judaism, revered the patriarch Abraham as its spiritual father, he reasoned, but weren’t Muslim believers a bit too radicalized to be deflected by any new historical revelation? Unless of course Islam had been spooked by the secular backlash that had struck against the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt’s Revolution.
“And what do you want from me..?”

Excerpt from 'THE GOD DIG - The ancient Egyptian Afterlife Conspiracy' - on Amazon Kindle and paperback

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Ancient Egypt’s Lost Library of secrets and technology. Trigger for a dangerous new age.

Hidden ancient library of dangerous secrets - Kindle Fiction

 
 The FORBIDDEN GLYPHS

Egypt’s Lost Library of secrets and technology. Trigger for a dangerous new age.

Imagine a cache of glyphs of unthinkable power.

Renegade Egyptologist Anson Hunter does. In fact he has a controversial theory that somewhere in Egypt lies the Lost Library of Thoth, guarded by his consort the goddess Seshat.

In legend, this library contained all the forbidden knowledge of ancient Egypt, both human and divine, including secrets of lost technology that built the pyramids.

Anson’s theory throws him into conflict with international seekers who have dangerous agendas for the world.

To save a loved one, Anson Hunter must seek the forbidden glyphs in an ingenious lost sanctuary guarded by traps set by the calculating goddess Seshat.



Wednesday, October 2, 2013

"Particularly beautiful" - the Hathor tale first appeared in 'The Smiting Texts' archaeology thriller

“This tale of an ancient hunter's fate to recapture the goddess of devastation in order to save Egypt is particularly beautiful.” THE TRUTH ABOUT BOOKS


This story first appeared as a tale within a novel in the archaeological adventure thriller ‘The Smiting Texts’, but is released here in a separate edition for lovers of mythology and ancient romance.  

Hathor-Sekhmet was the goddess with two faces, one, Hathor, the Sweet One, goddess of sexual love, joy, music and intoxication, the other, Hathor-Sekhmet, the terrible lioness of annihilation, sent by Ra to destroy humankind for their rebelliousness.
In her marauding stage they called her The Confused One in the Night.
Were there times when Hathor slipped from one state to another? One phase, goddess of love, shining in her beauty, and the next a wild and dreadful lioness of destruction? What would it have been like to come across Hathor, the young woman, and not know that she hid another side?

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Trigger for a dangerous new age. The Forbidden Glyphs

Hidden dangers
The Forbidden Glyphs: Egypt's Lost Library of secrets and technology. Trigger for a dangerous new age.

Imagine a cache of writings of unthinkable power.

Renegade Egyptologist Anson Hunter does. In fact he has a controversial theory that somewhere in Egypt lies the lost library of Thoth, guarded by his consort the goddess Seshat.

In legend, this library contained all the forbidden knowledge of ancient Egypt, both human and divine, including secrets of lost technology that built the pyramids.

Anson's theory throws him into conflict with international seekers who have dangerous agendas for the world.

To save a loved one, Anson Hunter must seek the forbidden glyphs in an ingenious lost sanctuary guarded by traps set by the calculating goddess Seshat.


THE ANSON HUNTER SERIES

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Can world beliefs survive the Egyptian afterlife conspiracy? 'The God Dig' New Fiction.

Is there god, an afterlife?

Renegade Egyptologist Anson Hunter investigates the most dangerous secret of all in the sands of Egypt.

New - Amazon Kindle

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Flight of Egypt's gods after Christian Rome's pagan ban... but where were they hidden? Egypt adventure fiction

A quest to find the last gods of Egypt - and a dangerous secret



A rag-tag mob surges through the streets like a flood overwhelming a city.

As they run, they shout in anger, their faces burning like the torch flames in their hands. A bearded, white-robed figure, carrying a Gospel, runs at the head of the mob like an ancient warrior of light.

Now a twenty-first century man in a khaki suit steps into the edge of the screen as if stepping into history and he speaks to the camera in a murmur like a presenter in a wildlife documentary, a sardonic gleam in his eye.

“This is an Alexandrian mob in Egypt. But it’s not revolutionary Egypt in the twenty-first century. No, this is Roman Egypt in the year 291 of the Common Era and the Roman Emperor Theodosius has just passed decrees overturning pagan worship in the Empire. The instigator of this mass frenzy?” He points. “That figure over there at the head of a mob of Christian zealots and mad monks. He is the Roman-appointed Bishop Theophilus, today known as the patron saint of arsonists.”

The speaker is Stephen Croxley, a celebrated English atheist and iconoclast, delivering his on-the-spot-narration to the camera.

“The mob rushes through the south-west quarter of the city on its way to the Egyptian quarter and the temple of Serapis, a deity combined with Osiris, god of the afterlife, and Apis the bull. The temple was built by Ptolemy III and is one of the largest and most beautiful in the ancient world. Swept along by religious zeal, the mob lays violent siege to the temple, smashing walls, idols, statues and treasures, and they burn the structure to its foundations. More importantly, as far as the bishop is concerned, they burn down the library that adjoins it, a daughter library of the Great Library of Alexandria. It contains fifty thousand rolls of papyrus and parchment – heretical knowledge of the ancient world that in the bishop’s mind stands in the way of acceptance of the Bible…” The narrator pauses for effect. “Tragically, knowledge and enlightenment in this city of Alexandria, the so-called birthplace of the modern mind, is going up in flames…


"Soon after,” the narrator continues, “another Alexandrian 
mob like this one will rise and lay hands on a different repository of knowledge, this time in the form of the beautiful Greek luminary Hyaptia, the female mathematician and astronomer. Led by the Christian bishop Cyril, they will kill Hypatia, using oyster shells to scrape off her skin and flesh, after which they will burn her along with her books. Cyril will be made a saint for that.” The narrator raises an eyebrow. “The Dark Ages are under way…”


(Excerpt from 'The God Dig' - an Anson Hunter novel)

Monday, September 23, 2013

Opening sentences 'THE GOD DIG' Egypt adventure

Opening - The GOD DIG The Egyptian afterlife Conspiracy


AMAZON PAPERBACK AND KINDLE

Latest in the ancient Egypt archaeology adventure series - 'The GOD DIG - The Egyptian afterlife conspiracy'

The God Dig. New. Controversial. Out on Kindle



Read this controversial novel of adventure and archaeology and decide… was ancient Egypt the root of religion and belief in the afterlife?
When a friend and radical theorist is murdered, independent Egyptologist Anson Hunter is torn between wanting to discover the truth and dreading the answers.
Was his friend right about a conspiracy to suppress an ancient secret and is the explosive evidence hidden somewhere in Egypt?
Anson faces a convergence of hostile elements - emissaries of the three book-based religions, antiquity thieves, radical Islamists and former government officials as well as New World Order conspirators.
A secret archaeology investigation in Egypt. A suppressed ancient secret that threatens the world’s stability and belief systems.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Fiction's Egyptologist relishes the puzzle of ancient Egypt


 The ancient Egyptians loved puns, puzzles wordplay and crosswords.

“How did you people come by this note?” Anson said to the Homeland Security man Bloem.
“That doesn’t matter.”
“Did you spot the code in here?”
Bloem and Gemma exchanged looks.
Anson took out a pen.
“The ancient Egyptians enjoyed puns, wordplay and crosswords. In fact, there’s a fiendishly clever and witty stela composed in honour of the goddess Mut, housed in the British Museum. You can read it in three different directions, across, down and around the outside edges.”
Anson used his pen to circle several letters in the text. “This one involves an acrostic. The Egyptians considered such wordplays to be powerful tools, which suggests that its author was aware of the sacred practices of the ancients and wanted to do things in a ritually significant manner.” He held up the piece of paper.
(H)istory will soon be made. (A) new dawn for Humankind approaches. (T)he beginning of the end for today’s world order is at hand as a force of hidden power will emerge and precipitate the fall. (H)ear this prophetic warning to all the nations. (On) this day, the roots of the old ideology will wither and die and a new order of the ages will commence. (R)ise to a new illumination.
A hidden word - a name - made up from the first letter of each of the sentences jumped out.
H-A-T-H-O-R
“The goddess Hathor. Of Hathor-Sekhmet fame.”
“That’s quick,” the academic, Melinda, said, respect in her eyes.
“You don’t disappoint,” the English girl said.
Bloem’s tone was dismissive.
“Our people figured that out.”
Melinda gave a smile.
“Yes, but it took them considerably longer.”
“Now you see why we need your help,” Gemma said.

Excerpt from the Anson Hunter investigative archaeology series. See on Amazon Kindle