Wednesday, October 30, 2019

HALLOWEEN-MOOD READS - 3 mythological mysteries with the twist of ancient Egypt

AMAZON Kindle and paperback
A unique investigative team of Jennefer, a museum curator, and Jon a London antiquities detective - two very different people who work in 'kindred professions'...

- THE EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY MURDERS
A mummy named Isis is taken to a hospital for a non-invasive imaging scan… so begins a mystery and a string of deaths.
An ancient cycle unfolds in modern day London - and a search for eternal love.
Can Jennefer, a young trainee museum curator and Jon, a police antiquities unit detective, stop the killings in time before a terrible culmination of events? 

*****5-STAR AMAZON UK "Love this genre"
 
- THE OBELISK PROPHECY One Egyptian obelisk is the key to saving civilization

- THE EGYPTIAN CROCODILE CURSE An Egypt exhibition, a series of mythological murders
 

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

"The Ra Virus"... an ancient tomb graffiti warning... for a dig team today.

Opening grab from THE RA VIRUS
In Paperback and Kindle

Stand alone
THE RA VIRUS

In a collection
THE DOOR OF THOTH

3 MYSTERY ACTION ADVENTURES across Egypt's boundaries of time
- The RA Virus (Text messages from eternity)
- Virtual Egypt
- Egypt Jump


"A furious pace keeps the reader engrossed... Roy Lester Pond joins my favourite Egypt authors like Christian  Jacq." (Goodreads)
http://amzn.to/oWVTPV

Monday, October 28, 2019

Passport through ancient Egypt's underworld - a young princess is lost without it


The Princess Who Lost Her Scroll of the Dead


Action adventure, history and fantasy story with images of ancient Egyptian relics.



Her priceless Book of the Dead is swapped for a blank one by a greedy royal scribe... How can Nefera find her way through the
dangerous gateways and guardians of the Egyptian underworld without her magical spells - her passport to the world beyond?
And who is the boy tomb robber Ipy, sharing her journey?
Is he alive, or dead?
Can he help save her?
For young and young at heart readers 
Amazon Kindle and paperback

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Can you spot the REAL NEFERTITI in the Berlin Neues Museum?


It's remarkably easy to spot and remarkably hard to copy ancient Egyptian artistry, as this side-by-side comparison shows.
On the left is a model in the Berlin Museum, insipid beside the captivating original Nefertiti bust on the right.
Perhaps because art wasn't art to the Egyptians. It served more than a decorative, ephemeral purpose.   
A sculpture like Nefertiti's was a magical stake in eternity. 

As Anson Hunter, my fictional independent Egyptologist, observes in 'The Smiting Texts" adventure novel:

"Statues were imbued with life, which explains why they called the Egyptian sculptor: 'he who makes to live’. There was no art for art’s sake. Nothing was fashioned for its sheer aesthetics. Everything was fashioned for a magical purpose and charged with the purpose for which it was made. That’s why their work defies reproduction. And that’s why their art holds such a fascination. It is imbued with heka, magical force, the animistic, motive power of the universe. Jewellery was not just jewellery, but prophylactic charms, statues were never vanity portraits, but houses for the soul, tombs were not painted to brighten the darkness of the underworld but to harness the power of heka...."

UPDATE: EGYPTIAN TREASURES of the Neues Museum, Berlin, today


The formidable features of Queen Tiye
Striking 5th Dynasty Male Head
Sublime Nefertiti - these days you can only photograph her from the doorway of the cupola display

(Excerpt from my novel The Ibis Apocalypse)
Neues Museum, Museum Island, Berlin


“WHAT THE GERMAN people have, they keep,” Adolf Hitler famously responded when Egyptian authorities suggested that the famous bust of Queen Nefertiti in Berlin ought to be returned to Cairo.


Anson was standing among other admiring visitors in front of the bust of the iconic queen in a long gallery at the north cupola of the Neues Museum, when he recalled the Fuehrer’s response. The suggestions from the Egyptian authorities had risen to the level of rancorous clamour in recent years, yet there were still no signs that Nefertiti was going back to Egypt anytime soon. The queen’s image was everywhere, on postcards, in books and on publicity posters. Nefertiti had the pulling power of a superstar.


Was it James Bond’s creator Ian Fleming who’d remarked that the ancient queen of Egypt could make an entrance today in a designer gown and give the beautiful people a run for their money?


I never thought I’d agree with Hitler on any subject, Anson reflected, shaking his head in wonder at her beauty. The timeless elegance, lovely neck and airborne eyebrows produced a powerful effect on the beholder. If I had Nefertiti I wouldn’t part with her either.


Yet it was not always true that ‘what the German people have, they keep’ when it came to Egypt’s treasures, Anson thought, if there was any truth in the German informant's story about his grandfather’s returning of the Stela texts to Egypt.


A museum visitor moved in and stood beside Anson at the glass case, directing a jaded stare at Queen Nefertiti.


“Personally, I think she’s overrated,” the man said. He had a tired face and spoke with a lazy drawl. American.


“Stars never quite look the same off camera,” Anson consoled him.


He saw a movement reflected in the glass surface and looked around. A glimpse of a blurred head vanished behind an entranceway.


Was this his anxious and mysterious informant? He left the display case and went to see. No sign of Reiner Faltinger. Anson looked at his watch. How much longer do I give him? His eyes drifted back to Nefertiti. She was fine company, but he was beginning to feel a twinge of unease.


The tired man at the display case looked back at him and appeared disappointed. Perhaps he’d been hoping to strike up a conversation.


I’ve waited long enough, Anson thought. Coming to this meeting on an impulse had been a long shot. He could ill afford the time, let alone the cost.


Two men in dark suits, museum staff he assumed, intercepted him. “Please come this way.”


“What’s the problem?” They guided him to an elevator. “I didn’t book the guided tour.”


“No trouble,” the other said.


The doors slid open. They guided him inside. One pressed a button and the door closed, sealing him inside. They were contained men, yet they crammed the elevator like a crowd.


Anson had a sinking feeling.


“This isn’t the tour, is it?”


The one brushed aside his coat to reveal a handgun stuck in his belt.


“No trouble… from you.”


They shepherded him out of the lift and walked him to a storage area. His prospects grew dim, like the lighting inside. The place was a vault crammed with crates and with the cast offs of ancient Egypt; also with the casts of its former glories. A vast, brooding statue of the freakish pharaoh Akhenaten with his swollen hips and mad, sunken eyes overlooked the scene and several Nefertitis reared their slender necks on shelves. Plaster casts. They seemed dingy and old. Were they relics from the original museum’s decoration before it was bombed in the Second World War?


Museum store rooms were historical netherworlds, places of dusty shedding where unsightly things lived, broken things that were not meant to be seen any more, pieces of mummies, their heads, hands and feet, shattered statues, ugly magical figurines, cryptic fragments of writing on pottery shards, the remains in stone, wood and clay of gods pharaohs, men and creatures.


This place was an even more unnerving place in the company of the two, intent men who moved in closer to him.


“Okay, you’ve persuaded me,” Anson said. “I’ll take your explanatory tour. Starting with an explanation of what’s happening here.”

(An earlier Nefertiti image taken at the Neues)
 


*Excerpt from The Ibis Apocalypse - 3rd in the 9 investigatory adventure thriller series. Amazon - Paperback and Kindle

Saturday, October 26, 2019

“WHAT THE GERMAN people have, they keep,” Adolf Hitler famously responded... (The Ibis Apocalypse)

Nefertiti - Berlin's Neues Museum

Neues Museum, Museum Island, Berlin

“WHAT THE GERMAN people have, they keep,” Adolf Hitler famously responded when Egyptian authorities suggested that the famous bust of Queen Nefertiti in Berlin ought to be returned to Cairo.

Anson was standing among other admiring visitors in front of the bust of the iconic queen in a long gallery at the north cupola of the Neues Museum, when he recalled the Fuehrer’s response. The suggestions from the Egyptian authorities had risen to the level of rancorous clamour in recent years, yet there were still no signs that Nefertiti was going back to Egypt anytime soon. The queen’s image was everywhere, on postcards, in books and on publicity posters. Nefertiti had the pulling power of a superstar.

Was it James Bond’s creator Ian Fleming who’d remarked that the ancient queen of Egypt could make an entrance today in a designer gown and give the beautiful people a run for their money?

I never thought I’d agree with Hitler on any subject, Anson reflected, shaking his head in wonder at her beauty. The timeless elegance, lovely neck and airborne eyebrows produced a powerful effect on the beholder. If I had Nefertiti I wouldn’t part with her either.

Yet it was not always true that ‘what the German people have, they keep’ when it came to Egypt’s treasures, Anson thought, if there was any truth in the German informant's story about his grandfather’s returning of the Stela texts to Egypt.

A museum visitor moved in and stood beside Anson at the glass case, directing a jaded stare at Queen Nefertiti.

“Personally, I think she’s overrated,” the man said. He had a tired face and spoke with a lazy drawl. American.

“Stars never quite look the same off camera,” Anson consoled him.

He saw a movement reflected in the glass surface and looked around. A glimpse of a blurred head vanished behind an entranceway.

Was this his anxious and mysterious informant? He left the display case and went to see. No sign of Reiner Faltinger. Anson looked at his watch. How much longer do I give him? His eyes drifted back to Nefertiti. She was fine company, but he was beginning to feel a twinge of unease.

The tired man at the display case looked back at him and appeared disappointed. Perhaps he’d been hoping to strike up a conversation.

I’ve waited long enough, Anson thought. Coming to this meeting on an impulse had been a long shot. He could ill afford the time, let alone the cost.

Two men in dark suits, museum staff he assumed, intercepted him. “Please come this way.”

“What’s the problem?” They guided him to an elevator. “I didn’t book the guided tour.”

“No trouble,” the other said.

The doors slid open. They guided him inside. One pressed a button and the door closed, sealing him inside. They were contained men, yet they crammed the elevator like a crowd.

Anson had a sinking feeling.

“This isn’t the tour, is it?”

The one brushed aside his coat to reveal a handgun stuck in his belt.

“No trouble… from you.”

They shepherded him out of the lift and walked him to a storage area. His prospects grew dim, like the lighting inside. The place was a vault crammed with crates and with the cast offs of ancient Egypt; also with the casts of its former glories. A vast, brooding statue of the freakish pharaoh Akhenaten with his swollen hips and mad, sunken eyes overlooked the scene and several Nefertitis reared their slender necks on shelves. Plaster casts. They seemed dingy and old. Were they relics from the original museum’s decoration before it was bombed in the Second World War?

Museum store rooms were historical netherworlds, places of dusty shedding where unsightly things lived, broken things that were not meant to be seen any more, pieces of mummies, their heads, hands and feet, shattered statues, ugly magical figurines, cryptic fragments of writing on pottery shards, the remains in stone, wood and clay of gods pharaohs, men and creatures.

This place was an even more unnerving place in the company of the two, intent men who moved in closer to him.

“Okay, you’ve persuaded me,” Anson said. “I’ll take your explanatory tour. Starting with an explanation of what’s happening here.”


- Excerpt from The Ibis Apocalypse - 3rd in the 9 investigatory adventure thriller series. Amazon - paperback and Kindle

Friday, October 25, 2019

Ever felt a flicker, like a memory, when you gaze at ancient Egypt?


 Sometimes it's more than just a flicker, and it's hard to explain away... especially in young children.

A child obsessed with the ancient past, a young mother who discovers adventure…
“I remember Egypt,” Cooper said gravely. “Long, long ago.”
Her little boy was gorgeous, she thought, but his imagined past life could be a bit hard to take. Especially at 8.30 in the morning, when she was busy having a this-life crisis, running late for work and her eight-year old was about to miss his school bus.
Then young single-mother Catherine meets a past life researcher and also a mysterious Egyptologist Simon Priestly and she and Cooper are off to Egypt on an extraordinary quest to follow a young boy’s dreams… or are they actual memories of the ancient past?
What will they find and what will Catherine find as she warms to the impressive British Egyptologist as they uncover a shattering secret from Egypt’s past?
Disturbing and intriguing adventure fiction with a twist of the unknown.


"One Day I'll Tell You Something." 

AMAZON PAPERBACK - and Kindle


Ancient Egyptian PRINCESS LOSES HER PASSPORT


AMAZON PAPERBACKS & Kindle

The Princess Who Lost Her Scroll of the Dead

Action adventure, history and fantasy story with images of ancient Egyptian relics.


Her priceless Book of the Dead is swapped for a blank one by a greedy royal scribe... How can Nefera find her way through the
dangerous gateways and guardians of the Egyptian underworld without her magical spells - her passport to the world beyond?
And who is the boy tomb robber Ipy, sharing her journey?
Is he alive, or dead?
Can he help save her?

A Traveling Antiques Show appearance of an Egyptian 'cursed heirloom' opens a mystery thriller – ARTEFACT



AMAZON KINDLE & PAPERBACK
An Anson Hunter Egyptian Archaeology thriller in the series - Amazon Paperback and Kindle.


A traveling antiques show at an English castle...
A rich young aristocratic heiress reveals a mysterious, haunted heirloom from Egypt’s past... an ancient Egyptian curse visited on her family... tragedy... unexplained deaths...
Independent renegade Egyptologist Anson Hunter is called in to help her break a family curse in the strangest archaeological hunt of his life... to find the lost hiding place of a dangerous artefact in Egypt... and rebury it.
But unknown forces are against them and death is never far away.
And what is meant by a threat picked up Intelligence: 'Death will be sent to the west from the ancient land of Egypt’?





http://amzn.to/oWVTPV

Friday, October 18, 2019

Egyptomania: IS IT REALLY "ALL ABOUT THE GOLD"?



(National Geographic - quintessential gold imagery)


A popular Egyptologist and book writer quipped on social media: “It’s all about the gold, folks.”

She made a point about the popularity of Egyptian exhibitions, and I agree.
On a certain level, all that shining bullion certainly is a lure for anyone.

And yet... it’s also about a bit more than the gold, as I am sure the Egyptologist in the quote would admit.

What really compels us, on a deeper, less conscious level, to draw physically close to Tutankhamun’s golden treasures at an exhibition - or to the Great Pyramid at Giza, for that matter?

What compels us to journey to be in their presence?

It’s more than the preposterous display of ancient power and riches, although that’s a large part of it.

It’s a desire for proximity to this magnificent ancient past.

For proximity between us now, and Egypt then.

These artefacts overwhelm our senses, and yet they also engage us with a deeply personal issue - the ‘first great mystery’ - death.

A thrall comes over our senses when we, in our modern age, stand in the presence of the Egyptians’ magnificent obsession with eternity and their monumental rejection of death.


As Carl Jung asserted:  "The unconscious psyche believes in life after death."


I think that is perhaps why I prefer to concentrate on writing my series of modern, archaeological thrillers that explore this frisson of characters brushing against the ancient past, rather than setting my fiction purely in the past.
We want to feel ourselves in its presence.

AMAZON paperback and Kindle


It’s all about ourselves.

Roy Lester Pond's fiction is available at Amazon.

Saturday, October 5, 2019

Paperback for young Egypt readers - THE PRINCESS WHO LOST HER SCROLL OF THE DEAD

AMAZON PAPERBACKS

The Princess Who Lost Her Scroll of the Dead

Action adventure, history and fantasy story with images of ancient Egyptian relics.


Her priceless Book of the Dead is swapped for a blank one by a greedy royal scribe... How can Nefera find her way through the
dangerous gateways and guardians of the Egyptian underworld without her magical spells - her passport to the world beyond?
And who is the boy tomb robber Ipy, sharing her journey?
Is he alive, or dead?
Can he help save her?

Friday, October 4, 2019

NEW. The future's most dangerous weapon - from ancient Egypt

The latest Anson Hunter archaeological adventure
NEW ON AMAZON KINDLE AND PAPERBACK 


'Death in Egypt LIVE' The Egypt Thriller

A live tomb-opening event broadcast to the world... at Egypt’s remote Siwa Oasis, in the Western Desert, site of the legendary Temple of the Oracle.
But who could predict the turn of events?
A panel of experts, ‘modern day Oracles’ - historical theorists and Egyptologists – gather to make astonishing predictions about the contents of a mysterious tomb.
Including Anson Hunter, independent Egyptologist.
He fears the discovery of the most powerful, and dangerous, military weapon in history. The Oracle Stone - source of infallible prophecy that inspired arduous desert treks by Alexander the Great, Lysander the Spartan, Hannibal... and just possibly by Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps?
Alternative scenarios - and mysteries - thicken and swirl like a violent dust storm as deadly crisis strikes.