“Quest One: The Golden Scarab” by S.W. Lothian
Genre: Middle Grade Fiction, Adventure, Fantasy
Source: The Author [Thank you!]
Summary from Goodreads:
Imagine you’re 12 years old and you always dream of greater things. Then imagine that you discover a way to pass through time to a place that you have only ever seen in books and movies.
All is not well in Ancient Egypt and heroes are needed. The peace is set to be shattered by an evil God and a magical amulet is the key to his evil plan. It’s the only thing that stands in his way. JJ Sterling and his friends Linc and Rani are thrust back in time to Ancient Egypt on a daring quest to save history. Back to a time full of action, adventure, mystery and danger – where statues are alive!
In this amazing race against time the three heroes from the future embark on a desperate quest full of deadly challenges with danger every step of the way. Will they escape the nasty Uberdiles that pursue and try to stop them?
The Golden Scarab stands up decently against the other action adventure books out there. You’ve got quests, myths that turn out to be true, and danger. What else could you want? I thought it was interesting that the author took a different style of narration. Many MG books tend to have a juvenile narrator. There’s nothing wrong with that but it can be a bit off if the author isn’t quite able to capture the right voice. In The Golden Scarab, the author chose to avoid the juvenile narrator route. Instead he treats the reader like an adult. He doesn’t talk down to them but instead treats them as an equal. It’s hard to find that in books.
There was lots of good information about ancient Egypt in the book. I don’t know a ton about Egypt but it seems to me that the author did his research and presents the information in an easy to read and true way. He doesn’t take the Percy Jackson route and twist mythology around to make it easy to understand.
Sadly I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I wanted to. It’s no fault of the author though. It did have some action, mystery, and a bit of history, all of which I love. I had the same problem with this book as I did with The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan. For whatever reason Egypt mythology don’t hold my interest at all. Because the Egypt stuff didn’t stick with me, I couldn’t completely “click” with the story or the characters.
The bottom line? It’s a fun story. Recommended for fans of the Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan!
The Cheap Reader 
I think it’s got to be Egyptian mythology. I mean… to me… it’s just not interesting. It’s so dark and kind of cruel, not the kind of mythology stories I can wholly get into.
Glad it’s not just me. It’s weird though…when I go to history museums I always love checking out the Egyptian exhibits/displays. I guess reading about it just doesn’t hook me.
Pingback: Planning History for Homeschool « On Planting Seeds…
Pingback: Review 3 of ‘The Cursed Nile’ – 5 stars « swlothian | author
Pingback: Review 4 of ‘The Cursed Nile’ – 5 stars « swlothian | author