Book Review - Resurrection by Arwen Elys Dayton

I really enjoyed this story, it was a mix of classic science fiction, ancient history and a modern thriller. I’m not an expert on the Egyptology, but what there was worked very well for me as a story and was plausible. It managed to avoid being too Erich von Däniken in its approach, and the way that the locals never grasped the technology was completely believable.

Another aspect that I liked was the interplay between the metal poor and biotech rich Kinley (humans from a planet 8 light years away) and their enemies who used cloned Kinley to spy on them. This provided some of the science fiction backdrop for a modern day thriller, with the two racing to recover the lost secret of faster than light travel (the prototype lost in the time of the ancient egyptians as the enemies initiated an apocalyptic war that almost wiped them both out).

The story flitted between the ancient survey team who had used their prototype FTL drive to reach Earth and the modern day search to recover their technology. This worked well, showing the pre-war splendour and achievements in small pieces as the protagonists work out where the survey team have got to. The original team are also shown as dysfunctional and fragmented as their egos get in the way of working together to return home. Mostly this is down to a couple of self-centred characters working against the best interests of the team.

So it has an interesting set of characters who develop (and some die) over the course of the story. There is more than one plot, characters seem to act in a reasonable way given their motives and preferences (including a couple of unreasonable irrational characters, their mental instability comes across well). There are some clever explanations for some of the ancient egyptian behaviours, including a novel explanation for how and why the great pyramid was built!

Overall well worth reading.

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