university graduate France Leighton has been hired by archeologist William Stanton to assist him on a dig near Luxor, Egypt.
Taking her beloved cello and a few belongings, France heads off for what she hopes will be a great adventure.
Needless to say, France gets far more than she bargained for through the handsome and enigmatic Adam Dexter, On many levels, things arent what they seem in Eygpt, which creates startling revelations that endanger France,
Set in, this is a delightful story filled with lovely descriptions as well as plenty of intrigue and tension.
France is what a heroine should be: curious, brave, and determined to solve problems, despite selfdoubt and challenges, She does take big risks, but given the supernatural elements she encounters, she has little choice, Fans of adventure stories set in Egypt will really enjoy this one,
Ive always found allthings Egypt utterly fascinating, so this book had a massive tick before Id even started, The writing is polished, which makes the reading experience extremely enjoyable, France Leightons story of travelling to Egypt with her cello and all that follows is strange, which fortunately is precisely the point.
For me, there was a slight imbalance between the first third or so of the book and the latter stages where most of the action takes place.
This setup phase could have been shorter, leading the reader into the glorious weirdness sooner! If you enjoy Lovecraftian tales and Egypt, then this book is for you.
Audrey Driscolls She Who Comes Forth if a finely crafted supernatural mystery adventure set in the Egypt of, The storys narrator is France Leighton, a young woman of, with a brand new BA in history, She accepts a position with an archaeological project more or less on a whim, Or was it her ordained destiny Accompanied by her cello, Eudora, an inanimate friend, or perhaps a familiar, which she plays to focus her thoughts, she sets out for Egypt.
There she finds a mix of gritty reality her position turns out to be much less important than she was led to believe and the strange allure of Egypts apparently dead past.
A past that, at least in her experience, isnt as dead as one might believe, In the old tombs she experiences strange visions of the lost glory and pageantry of Egypt, Driven by naivety, curiosity, determination, and the allure of a mysterious man, France slowly becomes dangerously entwined in a hidden supernatural conflict between the old gods of Egypt, who may themselves be the plaything of even older gods.
She Who Comes Forth is suspenseful novel in the Lovecraft tradition, While it is a standalone novel, France Leighton, has ties to characters in Audrey Driscolls novels and stories of Herbert West that are set decades earlier and can be further explored in those books.
Lovecraftian stories of mystery and horror by many authors are enjoying a renaissance these days and while I would not call this a horror story, it is a fine example of the weird and mysterious world of Lovecrafts imagination.
This book grabs you at the beginning and keeps you reading, because its not a book with any clues I found it impossible to guess what might happen in the end.
Just like France Leighton and her talking cello, this book is something special, I particularly liked the conjunction of the Egyptian mystique and the minutiae of everyday modern life, France may accomplish wonders, but that doesnt keep her from feeling pain, getting sick, and having doubts and second thoughts.
Shes both human and hero,
If youre fascinated with ancient Egypt and its grotesque and alien mythology, youll love this piece, Ive never gotten hooked on Egyptian mythology, probably because Im basically a rationalist with a scientific bent, Greek mythology has always appealed more to me, because its flawed gods are extrapolated from humanity, based on what we experience every day.
That may be why western civilization developed from Greek culture, and the Egyptians faded into the fabric of history and became only a subject for esoteric study.
I can understand how people can believe Egypt was influenced by extraterrestrials, because they had such strange concepts of the nature of the spiritual world and what was needed to ensure eternal life.
This book has feminist undercurrents its the goddesses who have the real power and there is also a subtext involving a condemnation of our scientific/technological civilization.
Science becomes a tool of the gods to destroy more than it will ever create,
I must say a
few words about what a fine writer this author is, especially in her descriptive talents.
She really makes you feel and smell Egypt in thes, even though she states in an afterword that she has never been there.
Ill close with a few examples:
“The sweet smell of cedar wood mingled with whiffs of turpentine, lamp oil, and ancient stone.
”
“The shape of his lips as they formed words fascinated me, like watching a timelapse film of a flower opening, or a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis.
”
And, finally, something to make you chuckle: “Below us lay a field of temple ruins the Colossi of Memnon looked small and ridiculous, like constipated stone trolls on matching stone toilets.
”
I heartily recommend this book as a uniquely compelling story, I would also suggest reading the authors Herbert West series first, since She Who Comes Forth refers often to prior events and characters.
Audrey Driscolls She Who Comes Forth is a very enjoyable summer read, Set in Luxor Egypt you can feel the heat come off the pages, When Francesca turns, she takes destiny into her own hands she changes her name to France Leighton, takes a job as an assistant to an acclaimed archaeologist and goes to Egypt, leaving her illegitimate past behind.
She takes with her the legacies handed down to her from her unknown grandfather and her beloved Uncle Charles her cello, named Eudora, and an emerald ring.
The mysterious and etherealEgypt is a perfect backdrop for this story of a “fish out of water” with supernatural twists and turns.
France soon discovers that “Egypt was a mans world, despite a billboard showing a sophisticated woman drinking Cocacola, ” And she must fend off advances from the leering males on the site, including her boss, That is until she meets the charismatic Adam Dexter but are his motivations honest Adventure and romance in the heat of Egypt are bound to intrigue and captivate! Highly recommended.
Whether you are young or can remember setting out in life on your own, you will connect with France our heroine in this ripping yarn.
She is the new girl and nothing in Luxor, Egypt is as she was expecting, France finds herself with a complex set of colleagues and like anyone new does not know what is going on.
But with her trusty cello by her side she does not let much daunt her, Although this novel is a fantasy, it portrays real people at an interesting time in history, We are not sure at first what is truth, what is France's imagination or what part others have played in the strange happenings.
Then events start to happen fast and there are terrifying page turning moments as Frances life changes forever,
What an amazing journey from cover to cover, France Leighton takes advantage of a once in a lifetime job offer by accepting a position at an archaeological dig in Luxor, Egypt.
Her high expectations are quickly dashed when due to her lack of experience she is relegated to menial labor sorting stones in the oppressive heat.
With her beloved cello named Eudora, she searches for adventure and romance, She's young and sometimes reckless but full of daring while attempting to solve various mysteries surrounding the myths and legends of the area.
Wellwritten with richly detailed descriptions, I enjoyed Frances story and felt her joys and sorrows as she tried to connect with those around her.
It was difficult to figure out who she could trust, Set in the earlys using the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cold War as a backdrop, the story flows well and is highly recommended.
She Who Comes Forth is a novel about a young EnglishAmerican woman who has just finished a degree in Ancient History and has taken a job at an archaeological dig site in Egypt.
The first two thirds of the novel are focused on the minutiae of her life at the dig site as she tries to navigate the politics of the dig site.
Mainly she wants to avoid being assaulted by the creepy professor at the head of the archaeological dig and try to find useful things to do because she's not really that useful at the dig site among all the other much more experienced archaeologists.
I found this part to be relatively interesting and in particular I enjoyed the section with the musical performance and the character's preparation for it.
I also enjoyed the little hints of magic and power that were interspersed throughout the first half of the novel.
For me, as someone who reads stuff that is much more steeped in magic, the source of this power was pretty obvious from the first hint, but I still enjoyed watching the character slowly begin to notice these "powers".
And then the second half of the novel, where the character gets fully immersed in these Ancient Egyptian powers and mysteries happens and it's such a huge shift in tone that it feels like a completely different story: one that I found both extremely boring and problematic.
The writing, which had been so smooth before suddenly became extremely vaguely flowery, There was page after page of fluffy nonsensical prose that I think was meant to be "cool" or "aweinspiring" or something.
It didn't have that effect on me at all, I found it hard to follow and stay awake for and also just sillysounding, But I've never really found the whole pyramids, mummies, and ancient tombs stuff interesting so I was prepared to chalk it up to this just being not my type of thing.
And then the "big showdown" of the novel happened, Where the heroine, France, has to face her role in all these weird things and take control of her powers to face the bad guy.
She is supposedly doing this to save the world from some kind of nuclearstyle apocalypse, And this is what I found extremely offensive and degrading to the character that I had been following for so many pages and to female leads in general.
Several pages more of meaningless fluff prose followed after which the character emerged from this experience back into the real world and we were back to the same novel from the first part of the book to watch her attempt to explain her "experience" with a mixture of lies and halftruths because she obviously can't tell the whole truth.
Honestly, I would have much preferred this book if the whole experience she had was just written as if it was some type of druginduced hallucination.
In the end I struggled with the rating of this book because for the first/of it I was clearly going to give it a solidstar rating and then it just fell apart into something so different and so not enjoyable to me that I considered bringing the rating down to a.
I settled onstars. If you're more into the type of book which blends the otherworldly tales of "Gods" and legends in with this world and if you like tombraider or Indiana Jones type stories you might be fine with the last third of the book.
You may even enjoy it, Just be warned there's a random graphic sex scene that comes out of literally nowhere, .
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Audrey Driscoll