I read River God and absolutely loved it! This book however I can honestly say is nowhere near the caliber of it's predecessor. It reads like a screen play of a bad Indiana Jones movie script. I was forced to skip page after page of uninteresting blather just to get to the story line. My interest was held in the first hundred pages, and then the last hundred pages. I truly feel that this writer is hoping to make a movie out of these two novels, and if someone good took him up on it, I think it would be GREAT! For just the read though don't expect the great story that River God told. Really a big disappointment after River God. Dang. ( )

I really love Wilbur Smith's novels. The Seventh Scroll is dense with enjoyable details about modern day Egypt and Africa as well as ancient Egypt. The adventure part of the story is well developed and suspenseful, and I especially appreciate that the Smith lets his characters struggle with challenges and the solutions are believable. No super-heros in this book -- just competent, hard-working, passionate people. ( )

This one follows after River God. It is stand alone, but I recommend reading them in order - it will help to understand, who is in that tomb and how he got there. Adds to the fun.
I did not like it quite as much as River God, although the hunt for the lost tomb was very well written and suspenseful. ( )

It might help to have read River God prior to tackling The Seventh Scroll, but I hadn't, and much of the story in River God is explained in this book, so it's not too much of a loss. Duraid al-Simma and his wife Royan are archaeologists, living and working in Egypt - Duraid is older than his wife, and she is half-English. They are also colleagues at the museum where Duraid is the director. The story of their fabulous find, a hoard of ancient scrolls which tell the story of the pharoah Mamose, his queen Lostris and other notables, was fictionalised in the self-referential "River God", the publication of which is now giving collectors ideas.

As a result of which, Duraid is attacked and murdered, Royan escapes two attempts on her own life, and all their researches on the scrolls are either taken or destroyed. She flees to England, and the home of her mother, survives another ham-fisted assassination attempt, and attempts to persuade a wealthy English amateur archaeologist, Sir Nicholas Quenton-Harper, to finance an expedition to find and excavate Mamose's tomb. This done, the intrepid pair fly to Ethiopia, where Royan is convinced the tomb lies hidden, and the search begins.

This book would be excellent, for the narrative drive is superb, and the excitements are many and varied: however, the lazy and unbelievable characterisation does tend to spoil it. For example, Von Schiller is an almost stereotypically multi-millionaire megalomaniacal Bond-villain. Quenton-Harper is so knowledgeable and self-assured about everything you want Royan to hit him, and his token "grieving" for his wife and children is so perfunctory one feels that Smith would have done better to make him a bachelor. Smith does better with Royan, who is sympathetic and driven, and altogether a less annoying character (though her only fault is, inexplicably, to find Quenton-Harper attractive). Some of the prose is evocative, sometimes brutish and violent; Smith tends also to re-use expressions rather too frequently, and I dislike authors putting themselves in their own books.

So, it's a ride full of thrills and spills, but don't read it for the cardboard characters. ( )

Noted Egyptologist Royan Al Simma escapes an attempt on her life, but her husband, Duraid, is not so lucky. This husband-and-wife archaeological team was immersed in unraveling the secrets of the "seventh scroll." Written in a type of shorthand, the scroll dates back to the Hyksos invasion of Egypt and was recently discovered in the tomb of Queen Lostris, whose story is told in Smith's River God. Grieving over the loss of her husband, Royan engages Sir Nicholas Quenton-Harper, a wealthy English collector, to assist her in completing the work she and Duraid had begun by locating the tomb of Pharaoh Mamose the Eighth, husband of Lostris. Through collective teamwork, Royan and Nicholas travel to Ethiopia, at great peril to themselves, as they try to uncover a 4000-year-old secret.

I suggest reading The River God before this as it will definitley help in understanding the background.

I found the novel to be full of suspense and at times a 'page turner'. It isn't my favourite of Smith's but it ranks pretty high. ( )