The Mummy
by Max Allan Collins
Our Price: $35.00
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Max Allan CollinsEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1999-05-01
ISBN: 0425169480
Number of pages: 208
Publisher: Berkley
Book Reviews of The Mummy
Book Review: "It Speaks of the Night and of the Day..."
Summary: 2 Stars
Universal Pictures' "The Mummy" was a great little film; exciting, funny, action-packed, with a dash of romance, and it got away with all this because it didn't take itself too seriously. It knew it wasn't a `thinking' movie, just a bit of fun, and it catered to its intended audience well. A novel tie-in was inevitable considering the amount of money the film made, and Max Allen Collins was given the task of adapting the screenplay to book-form.
I can't see anyone reading this novel who hasn't already watched (or is at least familiar with) the movie, so perhaps a synopsis is redundant, but here we go: in 1,290 BC the high priest Imhotep and his lover Anck-su-namun murdered the Pharaoh and were punished accordingly. Anck-su-namun committed suicide with the belief that her lover could resurrect her from the dead, but before the ritual could be completed, the body-guards of the Pharaoh - the Med-jai - interrupted and placed Imhotep under a curse. Mummifying him alive, they decreed that should he ever arise again he would be a plague upon mankind, bringing forth the ten plagues of Egypt (why anyone would place someone under a curse that potentially held so much danger to themselves is as unclear here as it was in the movie - it's best not to question it).
Thousands of years later in the 1920s, a group of treasure-hunters come together in the hopes of finding Hamanaptra, the City of the Dead, and the treasures hidden within. Evelyn Carnahan and her ne'er-do-well brother Jonathan enlist the help of legionnaire Rick O'Connell, who has been to the City before and agreed to take them back. But before they even get to the City, they run up against a gun-slinging group of Americans led by O'Connell's slimy ex-comrade Beni who are also looking for Hamanaptra, and a group of mysterious desert-folk led by one Ardeth Bay, who are intend in driving away the treasure-hunters.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the mummy is accidentally resurrected and begins to unleash havoc, as he tracks the necessary tools to bring back his dead-love Anck-su-namun; choosing Evy as his chosen sacrifice. From there comes the quintessential heroic quest: stop the monster, rescue the damsel in distress and save the world.
It all makes for a fun movie-watching experience, but how is it as a book? The main problem is that "The Mummy" was predominately an action-movie, and action simply doesn't translate well from the screen to the page. Watching Brendan Fraser fight a handful of mummies will always be more thrilling than *reading* about Brendan Fraser fighting them, and since most of the movie involves fighting, shooting, stabbing, running, brawling and killing, most of the book must cater to trying to make these sequences as exciting as possible. Collins' solution is a rather annoying one - to write certain passages entirely in italics to convey tension, rounding them off with exclamation marks.
I also felt that the three main characters were much more likeable on the screen than in the book; perhaps it was the charisma of the actors, perhaps it was refinements to the script; but Collins' renditions of O'Connell, Evelyn and Jonathan pale in comparison to what we saw on the screen. O'Connell comes across as arrogant and swaggering, Evelyn is stiff and uptight and Jonathan has lost most of his hilarious one-liners. One may argue that this is the way they are presented in the movie, but I tend to disagree: Brendan Fraser's O'Connell had bravado, but also a kind of goofy charm; Rachel Weisz's Evelyn was a tad nerdy, but also competent and sincere, and John Hannah stole the show as Jonathan - here he's just a periphery character. I'm not saying that any of these three characters were examples of fine character-studies, but they had a likeability that seems to have gone missing when captured on the page.
However, there are some nice touches in the book; the Egyptologist, the Warden and Evy's cat all get names, and there is some clarification on the rituals that Imhotep performs, something that was brushed over in the movie and so a tad confusing. It wasn't until reading this book that I realised that the warrior-mummies that Jonathan calls forth were the mummies of the Med-jai warriors and that Anck-su-namun's gold skin was body-paint put on her to ensure that no one but the Pharaoh touched her. Collins certainly did a lot of research into Egyptology, which brings puts the story in a solid context and adds a number of little details, as well as explaining some of the stuff that Imhotep got up to in the prologue.
But other things are just plain silly. Are we really meant to believe that a proper Englishwoman like Evelyn would creep into O'Connell's tent at night for "cuddling" because she was cold? How is it that O'Connell can call out to Evelyn to hurry up the deal with the Warden whilst he's being hung? (No, I haven't tried it personally, but I'm sure it's quite impossible to speak whilst being strangled in hangman's noose). Why does O'Connell keep calling Evelyn `baby', a term that wasn't used in such a way in the early 1920's? There are lots of these silly little mistakes (along with the aforementioned use of italics and bad characterisation) that can get annoying, and more obvious as the book goes on.
Yet on the other hand, perhaps this book should be approached in the same way as the movie - not at all seriously. For all I know Collins was commissioned to write the novelization and had very little control over what went in, and perhaps hard-core "Mummy" fans won't mind the mistakes too much. For me however, I'd recommend sticking to the movie.
Movie Tie-Ins Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Movie Tie-Ins Books
Primary Justiceby William Bernhardt
Ballantine Books; Published: 1995-01-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.00
Price in other shops:
Sacrifice (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, Book 5)by Karen Traviss
Del Rey / Ballantine; Published: 2007-05-29; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.12
Price in other shops:
Eye of the Beholderby Marc Behm
Ballantine Books; Published: 1999-12-07; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $36.54
Notting Hillby Richard Curtis
Hodder & Stoughton; Published: 1999-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $39.44
Crazy in Alabamaby Mark Childress
Ballantine Books; Published: 1999-09-07; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.49
Price in other shops:
Atonementby Ian McEwan
Anchor; Published: 2007-11-27; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.00
Price in other shops:
The Time Machineby H.G. Wells
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2010-06-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.48
Price in other shops:
Less than Zeroby Bret Easton Ellis
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1987-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.99
24 Declassified: Cat's Clawby John Whitman
HarperEntertainment; Published: 2006-12-26; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.78
Price in other shops:
Everything Is Illuminatedby Jonathan Safran Foer
Harper Perennial; Published: 2005-08-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.00
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
The Mummy Collector's Set (The Mummy/ The Mummy Returns/ The Scorpion King)UNI; Release date: 2005-11-29; DVD
Best price: $11.08
Price in other shops:
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (Underworld (Pocket Star Books))by Greg Cox
Pocket Star; Published: 2008-12-30; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.54
Price in other shops:
The Mummy ReturnsRelease date: 2010-10-01; Amazon Instant Video; Movie
Best price: $2.99
Evolution (Underworld)by Greg Cox
Pocket Star; Published: 2005-12-27; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.68
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (Widescreen)Universal Studios; Release date: 2008-12-16; DVD
Best price: $3.84
Price in other shops:
The Mummy (Widescreen Collector's Edition)Uni; Release date: 1999-09-28; DVD
Best price: $4.92
Price in other shops:
The Scorpion Kingby Max Allan Collins
Berkley; Published: 2002-03-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperorby Max Allan Collins
Berkley; Published: 2008-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.50
Price in other shops:
The Mummy Returns scrapbook: An Insider's Guide to the Movie and Ancient Egyptby John Whitman
Yearling; Published: 2001-04-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $39.55
The Mummy Returnsby Max Allan Collins, Stephen Sommers
Berkley; Published: 2001-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.89
Price in other shops: