Rating: 
Summary: Far from her best effort.
Review: I was looking forward to this book, as I do with all of EP's works. I was so disappointed with this book, I had to read it again just to make sure I hadn't imagined it. It felt as if she had written most of this book some time ago, got stuck, and decided later to slap an ending onto it and release it for publication. As another reader noted, there was no reference to the events in this book in any of the other books that followed this one chronologically. I thought that odd, since surely Amelia would have told Emerson at some point later that Sethos was the 'friend'.The idea to return to the Lost Oasis was a good one, but the execution left something to be desired. Unlike other readers, I was not shocked nor disppointed with Ramses' involvement with Daria (he is human, after all) but I thought her character was not developed enough for me to care about her one way or the other. A little more information on her history would have helped there. I also thought Nefret acted out of character; she is more strong-willed than this book would indicate. Go ahead and buy this book if you have the rest of the Amelia Peabody series. If you pick and choose only the best of Elizabeth Peters, you can safely skip this one, as it adds nothing to the overall series.
Rating: 
Summary: if this is the best you can do...
Review: I was very disappointed in this book. For the last several books, she's been getting farther and farther away from the flavor of the Emerson books that appealed to me: they were clever, funny, light, and rather innocent- even the villains had scruples. The world she created was an alter universe that was very appealing. It's not real life, but if I wanted that I'd read the newspaper.
I've been tired of the references to Ramses' sex appeal and prowress for a while, and now she's fleshed him out as a full-blown, immoral tramp. The Emersons failed miserably in their parenting, and Nefret probably had trouble conceiving because of what they called at the time a "social disease" given her by Ramses, picked up from his consorting with various prostitutes (although he didn't have to pay for it!)At least now we know why she didn't trust him in "Falcon at the Portal!"
Peters has taken her characters in all the wrong directions, as far as I'm concerned. Her last great book was "He Shall Thunder in the Sky." After having read the customer reviews for this one, I wasn't thrilled to read it, but I did for the same reason I saw "Jaws 4- The Revenge": I wanted to see just how bad it was. I don't think I'll bother with the next Emerson book. Peters is a great writer, but maybe she should write a new type of book, and freshen up her idea fountain. She can just do much better than she's been doing.
Rating:
Summary: We Know Where You're Heading
Review: I've been a fan of the Peter's series for a long time and have read them in chronological order. And for a while, I felt that she was moving her characters along too quickly timewise. When one first met Amelia Peabody and her archeologist husband Emerson, they were in their twenties, and were, thus, in their prime to battle the arch-thief Sethos. Then the books appeared to have been set in the 1880's. Books in the middle of the series carried them along in time and gave them a loquacious son Ramses who turned into a taciturn man a few books later. But by her last book, "Children of the Storm," the family had passed through WWI, the teenagers were grown, married, had children of their own, and Peabody and Emerson must have been pushing sixty. Therefore, it seems that Peters felt that she needed to return to a period when everyone was younger for this book and its adventures. It was kind of a let down to read because, since I had been following the series, I knew that the lovestruck Ramses would finally win the love of his seemingly indifferent stepsister Nefret. When you know that everyone is going to come out all right, what's the suspense?
Rating: 
Summary: "Conquer by confusion, I always say"
Review: There comes a time in every series that covers a large number of years when it isn't possible to go further without the main characters discovering the secret of eternal life. Elizabeth Peters' Emersons - Egyptologists, amateur sleuths, and eccentrics par excellence - have reached a point where the era they chronicle is gradually coming to a close. Trust Peter's to find a solution, though, a new cache of papers that document the 'missing years' of the family's madcap career across the tombs and monuments of Egypt. Set just previous to the blossoming of Ramses' relationship with Nefret, 'Guardian of the Horizon' documents the return to the 'Lost Oasis,' a last hidden survival of ancient Egypt - the Meroitic civilization that the Emerson's first discovered in the Sudan ('The Last Camel Died at Noon'). Readers will recall that the Holy City was where the Emerson's found Nefret, whom they late adopted. Now, ten years later, Merasen, a young noble, appears in England with a message from Tarek, king of the Lost Oasis, and a close friend of the family. There is illness in the Sudan and it threatens the survival of this hidden civilization. Amelia, Emerson, Ramses, and Nefret quickly set out. For Amelia and Emerson, setting out on a secret journey means that only half of Egypt knows that something is up. As soon as word gets out that they intend to return to the Sudan to 'excavate,' a whole host of shady characters a drawn by the legends of hidden treasure that are rumored to be at the Lost Oasis. Of course, that means trouble, and the journey to the Sudan is marred by violence, intrusion, and countless twists and turns as the Emerson's carry out one elusive maneuver after another. When they finally arrive at their destination they discover that nothing is as they expected. Instead of a sick king, they find themselves embroiled in a series of adventures that mix politics, religion, and, of course, just a bit of treasure. While a bit slow in developing, the book builds to a classic Peters' finish, with the Emerson's concocting on scheme after another as they try to extricate themselves unharmed and save the kingdom at the same time. Elizabeth Peters does a fine job of returning the reader to the Emerson's past without recreating what was originally one of the family's most irritating periods. Instead, the writer allows Amelia and company just enough additional maturity to keep the story interesting without the extreme vaudeville that marked her work at that time. While any reader knows that a certain amount of the experience of reading one of the Emerson stories is rolling one's eyes at some of the more hysterical displays, that has been kept to a low roar. I enjoyed the book, and think that any other fan will do so as well.
Rating: 
Summary: A Poor Shadow of a Book
Review: This book is an attempt to return to the success of "The Last Camel Died at Noon" but Peters has lost the characters and their voices. Nefret, normally a strong-willed, competent young woman becomes a frightened, timid creature. Sethos, our charming, masculine, romantic hero becomes a very minor character and fairly impotent in terms of heroism. Commonly used expressions by Peabody and Emerson are replaced with expressions they don't use in other books. There are a variety of disconnects with facts as they appearin later series books--this book doesn't really fit well. If you are not a die-hard Peabody fan, this book may be sufficiently entertaining. To one who is a Peabody fanatic, this book is very disappointing--what did Peters do with the real Emerson clan that we know and love?
Rating:
Summary: Interesting addition!
Review: This series has long been one of my favorites and, while this is not the best of her works, it's a good addition. I've known the characters for so long that it is always a pleasure to read more about their lives; like welcoming back old friends. Contrary to how a few other reviewers feel about Ramses, he was always one of my favorites and I love the way the series has evolved to include more of him and of the rest of the cast of characters instead of staying moribundly the same year after year. No real person lives in a vaccuum and, thankfully, Amelia doesn't either.
As to Nefret not being herself in this book; unfortunately for her she doesn't seem to have a very stable personality. She acts against established character in Falcon At The Portal, as well; a book that nearly put me off reading more of the Emersons' adventures for good and which I know has in fact put others off the series altogether. Here, Peters tries to explain where some of her personality flaws come from and, while the explanation isn't entirely convincing, I love the series enough to let it go at that.
Ramses and Daria's relationship made sense to me. They were attracted to each other (and you can be attracted to people other than the person you love) and so they got together. Would Ramses have done that if he had been with Nefret? No. Was Ramses betraying Nefret? No. He loved her, but she thought of him as her brother; at this point they had nothing between them and were not likely to, so no harm there. Did Ramses really love Daria? In as much as he is a well brought up young man of his class and he had already given the best of his heart to another, yes he did. He had to; he had compromised a young woman over whom he had power -- totally unacceptable to him, if to no one else, otherwise. It was another display of Ramses as a human who can make mistakes and yet is person enough to do what was right, rather than the godlike Ramses that can do no wrong that other readers complain of. Thank goodness they didn't marry.
On the whole, I thought the book was quite good and definitely worth the read. As to why this visit to the Lost Oasis never showed up in books that happened after this period -- It hadn't been written yet. Not every writer carefully maps out every last little thing about the books they are working on before they write them. Within the universe of the characters, they put the trip out of their heads as completely as they could for reasons of secrecy and were too busy with their lives to bother with it. Has Amelia told Emerson that Sethos was the "friend"? How do we know she hasn't? Just because it hasn't been written?
Rating:
Summary: Good except for Ramses
Review: While I found Guardian of the Horizon one of the better recent books in the series and closer to the charms and cheekiness of the earliest books, I still don't like Ramses. Why did Peters let this series become the Ramses Adventure serial? The end of chapter 11 made me put the book down for a good half hour of eewing. I don't want to know about Ramses love life. I'd rather he be seen and not heard. He's never been a well written or likeable character but had fortunately been nicely toned down for most of this book. I just wish that Peters had resisted the urge to write those "document H" fragments. The series is written from Amelia's POV and it should remain that way. Nothing is accomplished from those smoochies with Daria unless to spawn a "son of Ramses" book in the future. I shudder at the thought.
So for the good bits version -- the tongue and cheek jabs at the state of Egyptology in the early 20th centure were delightful to read. I've noticed in recent Egyptology books/movies (ever since Stargate) that Budge has gone from demigod to pariah and this book takes the pariah stance. I really must find a biography of him to make up my own mind.
Then there's the extreme silliness of Sethos -- another character that I'm not sure the series needs but I tolerate him. He's sort of there to poke fun at the dastardly villains of books from the turn of the 20th century. He's just there for the "Scooby Doo" ending although it would be fun to just once have a different villain.
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