The Buried Pyramid

The Buried Pyramid (2004) Jane Lindskold

I spent the first two thirds of this book mildly wondering why it was classified as a fantasy. Then the fantasy kicked in, but I’d given up caring whether it was fantasy or historical fiction long before. I just wanted to know what happened.

Jenny Benet has been orphaned, and so is being set across the ocean where her uncle–whom she has never met-is to become her new guardian. unbeknownst to Jenny, Neville Hawthorne has been planning a return to Egypt, where on several occasions he was threatened and even harmed for taking an interest in historical sites.

One thing I particularly liked is that Jane Lindskold directly addressed the fact that many of the archaeological sites in Egypt (and elsewhere for that matter) were looted by the west, sometimes in the name of history, but often in the name of making money. Even today many of these relics still remain outside of Egypt.

The other thing I particularly liked was the fact that the characters were not black and white but were instead shades of gray. I have found that I am becoming more and more annoyed by books where the antagonist is menacingly evil seemingly for the sake of being evil. Life isn’t like that, so it’s nice to read books–even fantasy–that match the realities of human nature as we know it.

The characters ranged from strong and week. I figured out one of the “big secrets” relatively on, but I didn’t see that Jenny or the others would have figured out this secret, so I didn’t mind them being taken by surprise when the secret was revealed, even though I’d known it for the past couple hundred pages. Some of the characters were better developed Stephen, but I really liked Eddie, and wish we’d have been able to see more of his wife.

As I said, the first three quarters of the book was pretty much historical fiction sent primarily in Egypt, then the fantasy kicked in with a vengeance, and I have to admit that I thought the fantasy was the weakest part of the story. I’m not sure that the characters would accept the fantastic elements as quickly and as easily as they did, all things considered. It did make the story flow better, and would have been harder to resolve if they hadn’t, but it seemed to me that they were just entirely too accepting of the surreal events happening around them.

It could also be that I felt the fantastic elements would have been easier for the reader to accept if they had been introduced earlier, but this is just a theory.

Regardless of when the fantastic elements were introduced, I still throughly enjoyed the story, and was sorry to see it end. Although some things were expected, other events went in an unexpected direction, which was a pleasant surprise.

If you’re looking for an hisotrical fantasty, then you may want to check out The Buried Pyramid.
Rating: 7/10

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