Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra

Ramses the Great, now known as Reginald Ramsey, has turned his beloved Julie Stratford and his best friend Elliot Savarell into immortals with his elixir. Ramses and Julie prepare to marry while Elliot goes on an extended vacation to make money and live how he's always wanted to live. In the meantime, Cleopatra still lives and plans revenge on Ramses and Julie. Bektaten, an ancient and enigmatic empress, fights against Saqnos, her equally ancient rival who seeks out the true elixir and his attention draws to Ramses to get it. Will Ramses and Julie get their happily ever after or will one of their foes succeed in destroying their happiness?

The Passion of Cleopatra is the long awaited sequel of The Mummy or Ramses the Damned, published in show more 1989. I loved this book and never dreamed there would be another. I read the first book years ago and didn't have time to reread it before starting this book. The narrative does a good job of filling in pertinent details of the first book and moving forward from there. The beginning is extremely slow and plodding, reminding about old characters and introducing all the new characters. It takes quite a while to establish everything before the story moves forward. It also has the problem that most vampire shows or films have. They are said to be so rare, but they also seem to be everywhere! This elixir has a specific composition that almost no one knows, but now there are two immortals in addition to the 3 Ramses has created and the dozens of corrupted immortals that follow Saqnos. There are 3 ancient grudges between them, 2 romances, and a lot of drama.

The elixir and its effects are interesting in addition to the newer magic. Immortals obviously live forever as young as they were when they took it. Their bodies beocme stronger and heal from any chronic problems or ailments they previously had. Their stamina is limitless and they never tire. After years, they don't require sleep anymore. The drawbacks are few. They always feel hunger, never being truly satisfied by any food. Drinks and drugs have little effect on them. And of course all the general drawbacks of immortality like outliving one's family and having to hide and change identities. We get to see people go from human to immortal. Julie and Elliot in particular no longer care about what society thinks of them. Julie is free to wear out of fashion clothes and be with Ramses. Elliot, on the other hand, lives the lifestyle he wants, taking men as lovers more freely and gambling his way to wealth across continents. He no longer has to pretend to be straight as Edwardian society expects.

Once I waded through the drama and got used to the many characters, subplots, and romances, I started to truly enjoy the story. I remembered why I liked the first book and grew to like a few of the new characters. Sibyl is the human caught up in this whole thing and with a connection to Cleopatra. It was a bit of relief to read about a normal human instead of a supernatural creature plus I liked her kind nature and confidence at the end.. Bektaten was the best character, set up to be sort of a villain and proves to be so much more. She thought more about the world as a whole and made decisions to preserve it instead of doing whatever selfish, arrogant thing she wants like Ramses. I expected the end to be a huge fight or battle, but because of Bektaten, it was much different and unexpected.

The Passion of Cleopatra isn't a perfect book, but I found it enjoyable after the awkward beginning. I did find it odd that Cleopatra was more of a peripheral character than anything despite the title. There are tropes galore and melodrama along with some surprising elements I didn't expect to find. It's a good follow up to the first story and it makes me want to reread the first book to compare the stories so many years apart. I recommend this if you liked the first one. show less

Ramses and Julie are poised to begin their immortal lives together and a marriage seems like the most appropriate way to go about it. However, Ramses' old love whom he impulsively raised from the dead with the immortality elixir is still on the loose and likely hunting them.

Meanwhile, an American author is traveling to England in search of the source of her powerful dreams of ancient Egypt. She has dreamed of Ramses and is now viscerally connected to Cleopatra.

As all players converge at Julie's engagement party the immortals find themselves under attack by a mysterious ancient queen. She is the discoverer of the immortality elixir and she also has a poison potent enough to kill an immortal. She has come to confront Ramses with his show more crimes in raising Cleopatra and to offer sage advice about immortal life. But can Ramses agree with her, or will it be war?

This book is so bad. I read the first one when I was a teenager and loved it. This is really not a story that needed to be continued. All the characters are wooden and indistinct from one another. There was no tension or character development. And the book just dragged on and on. It was unfortunately pretty typical of most of Anne Rice's later writing. show less

Mistress (and son) of schlock and cheese delivers the goods.

For starters, this is the followup to Anne Rice's 1991 book, The Mummy or Ramses the Damned. This book consistently and opaquely refers to events from the earlier work, and will thus be a difficult read for many who aren't familiar with the previous book. Ms. Rice (and son) however, still write a rip-snorting fantasy cheese-fest of immortals gone bad and good.

This has the typical Rice-ian touches such as exquisite attention to the attire on characters (derby hats that were too small; diaphanous robes, etc.), occasional perfunctory sex scenes, and a plot that meanders all over the place. The thing is, she (and son) do this well enough to create a very entertaining read. show more

Character development depends heavily on the earlier novel. Herein the main characters are pretty much already well formed. Ramses is the wise immortal trapped by his conscience; Cleopatra is the tortured beauty brought back from the dead by the elixir of life (earlier novel again); historic romance novelist, Sibyl Parker, is the embodiment of Ms. Rice herself; immortal characters abound and get offed in gruesome ways; etc.

Cheesey? You bet! Schlocky! Yep. A well written fun ride to while away the Summer doldrums? That gets 4 out of 5 stars from me. I like my cheese frothy and complex and Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra delivers! show less

Ramses The Damned, The Passion of Cleopatra: Great for fans, other buyers.. maybe not as much

In the mid-1990's, I was an adolescent mess. I wore a studded dog collar and wallowed (happily) in angst. I listened to a lot of Joy Division and Nine Inch Nails; I had eyeliner tattooed on and wrote shitty poetry I believed was groundbreaking. I was young and frequently drunk off cheap liquor; pumped full of testosterone and teenage idiocy.

The stereotype you are surely forming of me is probably spot on, so it is no surprise I also read a lot of Anne Rice and Poppy Z Brite books. I distinctly remember picking up a copy of 'Interview with a Vampire' and was blown away by its existence, never realizing it was close to twenty-five years old at that show more point.

More relevant to today’s topic, During this same window I picked up a copy of 'The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned'. Unlike other Anne Rice novels, as I aged and my eyeliner faded, The Mummy stayed fresh in my mind. While still a fan, I grew out of my Anne Rice phase. Over the years, The Mummy showed staying power, sticking out in my longterm memory. It seemed to be underappreciated and infrequently read in my circles. This was a shameful fact as my opinion held it in high regard even as the vampire chronicles became passe and ignored.

Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra (Anne Rice, Christopher Rice)
416 pages
Anchor publishing
ISBN-10: 1101970324
ISBN-13: 978-1101970324

PREORDER! November 21st Release date.
Buying a copy through this link supports this site but cost you no extra money.
Put it in the closet for an awesome x-mas gift.

This book was pretty good, but I have to recognize that my brain is applying some of the enjoyment thanks to nostalgia. This novel is categorized as "Good not great". I am not sure as to the details regarding the co-authorship via Anne and her son Christopher. Were they equal partners in the writing? Was he writing and only simply using her as a data source/sounding board? Was she dictating the entire thing and he was simply a keyboard transcription monkey? Unfortunately, though enjoyed, this was probably one of the least successful Rice novels I have read. It had areas of clumsy prose and it was guided by repetition. Interesting regardless.

The Rice duo are still bound to make a killing on it from folks in my generation. Rice fans will find this to be on par with other novels and will find this to be readable/variations of worthwhile. It was deeply detailed and verbose. Per the norm, the novel spends a great deal of time talking about clothing, food, and backstory. I know this is how Anne writes and it was not a big deal, though this is one reason why I have stayed away from her works in general over time. I have never read Christopher and have no experience with him to judge against.

If you are not an Anne Rice fan, this book is probably not going to be a great choice for you. Reading the original novel should be a prerequisite for any new readers. The Passion of Cleopatra should not be considered standalone, you will probably be driven nuts if you have to work through the knowledge gap organically via the inline character conversations. These same conversations (included to help allow this to be standalone) added fuel to some contrived language and lead by the nose plotline. The combination left very little to the imagination and was instead a tourist guide to the Ramses world.

Some spoilers follow as there is context needed in reference to the original novel.

The Passion of Cleopatra picks up where the original leaves off. The difficult bit is that the original novel is 28 years old. The Passion of Cleopatra is intended to rebuild that world and take the reins dropped back in '89.

In the 1989 novel, Ramses the Great, immortal and in love, shares his secret elixir with Julie Stratford causing her to also become immortal. They both collect sunlight like plants and will live as long as the sun shines on our Earth.

An insane Cleopatra, raised from a corpse by Ramses during a moment of utter idiocy, has been immolated in a fireball caused when two trains heavy-handedly crush the car she is driving. Everything is wrapped in a semi-nicely wrapped package and we are all left annoyed by lack of continuation, but satisfied. None of us believed there would ever be a sequel to it, though we believed one would be awesome. A sequel was probably highly requested but not long-term in the planning.

This new book rekindles the universe, bringing a different tale and a potential for more books to follow. For better or worse, I will likely read them. I won’t be able to help it.

Several months after the train accident, Ramsey and friends find that Cleopatra has survived the train crash and continues to lose her mind. Her homicidal tendencies appear to be mellowing as she begins to more firmly root in the new century. She is a creature without a home, out of time, and failing to gain or retain a sense of identity.

Introduced in this novel are a couple new faces:
1) Bektaten is an immortal queen of 6000 years and the elixir originator. She is what the Vampire novels "Queen of the damned" wishes she could have been. She is an imposing and regal character. -side note- Rice has named too many "damned" characters, this is not one of them, but there are tangential correlations and templatization that can be felt.

2) Anne Rice herself seems to be making an appearance as a key character named Sybil Parker. She has several chapters dedicated to her. Sybil is an American author known for writing complex and deeply detailed stories about ancient Egypt. It is a bit Meta, but this seems to be a thing for authors these days, so climb aboard.

3) Best characters, Bektaten's 6k-year-old servant/lovers. They are badasses, neither gets the page time they deserve.

Other characters in this novel are asinine at best. They could be deleted. In any follow-up novels, either Rice author may easily abstain from even mentioning them:

** Ramses spends the entire book chatting in circles and over explaining things. He fails to do anything of importance.

** Similarly, Julie Stratford is just scenery to help drive other story elements. The most fascinating thing about her is that she has fully adopted menswear against the turn of the century norms.

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Disclosure:
This book was provided for review purposes by the publisher. Similar to when the dentist asks what you do for a living while they are wrist deep in your mouth, the review process requires some drool and blood to communicate successfully. I am well brushed and cavity free, gently pushing the tools aside with my tongue to tell you that more nitrous is needed. If it hurts or feels good, I will advise. Remember to floss, kids. show less

Sigh. This book was absolutely better than the other ones penned as of late, but it feels like Anne Rice called it in for this book as well. I loved the first book and was hoping to rediscover some of the magic in here after being disappointed in the latest installment of the Vampire Chronicles... and there is a bit of magic left. Not much, though.

Sigh. I used to love Anne Rice so much, that I can't help but wonder if I have simply outgrown her, or her writing has become worse. If you liked the Mummy, you might like this one, if nothing else than for completion's sake to find out what happens to characters from that book.

This was a very good book! The characters were wonderfully developed, likeable, and some were to be feared! So much to absorb in this book and so wonderfully written. The ancient world, the even more ancient world that only few remember, and the present (1910s) are all wonderfully described and brought to life. Speaking of being brought to life, that is what this book is all about. Ramses brings Cleopatra back to life and this story tells the tale of what transpires after he does so. Excellent read.

Ramses the Damned The Passion of Cleopatra by Anne Rice, Christopher Rice
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Was given to me through Negally. I was one of those people that actually went back and read The Mummy because I wanted to see how the two stories were connected. This review is my honest thoughts on how the story progresses.
This book continues two months after The Mummy, giving the reader enough time to realize that the biggest change is Julie’s eyes, they have been changed by a Fever or so everyone who asks her has been told but it’s the sign of immortal life. Julie and Ramses are now engaged while her almost husband Alex mourns the mysteries death of the women he met in Cairo. While some readers may complain that there are a show more substantial number of new characters to contend with I myself enjoyed seeing them weaved into the plot. I enjoyed reading the story and being lost in the locations and the dialogue and the agony depicted both between Ramses and Cleopatra both looking for Immortal Life and Immortal Love. I loved the character of Sybil the writer who was able write the history of Cleo while living her memories with her. I recommend this book to all die-hard fans and anyone who has read the first book and enjoyed it. This is my first read from Christopher Rice and I have to say they work together very well. If they plan on writing more please don’t wait another 30 years. show less