Rating: 
Summary: An Intriguing Mystery Teeming with Authentic Touches
Review: "Just when the Editor believed she was nearing the end of her arduous task of editing the Emerson papers, a new lot of them turned up. They include most of the journals from the so-called missing years..."If you have been following the adventures of Amelia Peabody and husband Radcliffe Emerson, you will realize the excitement these papers have stirred up. Their lively chronicles thus far have omitted 1907 and 1908, but Ms. Peters has now filled in the gap. In the spring, Emerson, Peabody, their son Ramses and foster daughter Nefret were on an archaeological hunt in Egypt. But Emerson's famous temper --- the very one that earned him the moniker Father of Curses --- got them not only evicted from their site, but evicted with the stern order not to return. While figuring out how to spend their time back at home in England, a young messenger who claims to be their friend Tarek's brother arrives with an urgent plea for help. Tarek, from the Lost Oasis, is in desperate need of medical treatment for a mysterious illness that has afflicted his son. Despite some misgivings, they cannot say no. Once they put together their supplies and gather their trusted hands, they set out on a treacherous --- and, unfortunately, not so secret --- trek back to the Lost Oasis. Traveling at first by boat, tension mounts with a series of "accidents." Days later, while riding the rails in an effort to throw off any suspicious types, they loudly discuss plans to explore farther south and then quickly abandon the train at an early opportunity. Through blowing sand, riding cantankerous camels and avoiding marauding ambushers, they make their way, led by the stranger calling himself Tarek's brother. But as one might fear, all is not what it appears. Emerson, Peabody and their entourage meet with disheartening deceit and betrayal. When they left a decade before, Tarek ruled the land. Now, they are not sure what to expect. Once in the holy city, they find themselves fighting for their old friend, their ward Nefret, and their very lives. To complicate matters, Ramses is behaving like a lovesick puppy. Amelia Peabody is an infinitely spunky woman. A gutsy man of around 20 and a chip off the old block, Ramses marvels at his mother's ability to find excellent solutions to seemingly impossible problems. He has no qualms about carrying out her plans. Quite the opposite, he intrepidly embraces action over inaction --- at least, when he's not pining over the girl. And Emerson, undeniably no coward, boldly goes wherever he wishes, blustering and swearing his way through any and all blockades. Between them, they keep their enemies busy. Elizabeth Peters writes an intriguing mystery teeming with authentic touches. Her Ph.D. in Egyptology makes her story come alive. And her sense of adventure jumps out from every page. --- Reviewed by Kate Ayers
Rating: 
Summary: I did not want it to end!
Review: Absolutely wonderful, with all the elements that makes this series special: adventure; strong female characters; droll humor; ancient Egypt, mystery, and dashing male protagonists. This book is highly recommended to anyone who has enjoyed the previous books and to anyone who wants to start a new series that is fun, charming, and impossible to put down. I eagerly await the next installment.
Rating:
Summary: Great as always
Review: After being thrown out of the Valley of the Kings at Luxor due to Radcliffe's Emerson's temper, he and Amelia Peabody return to their home in Kent, England. Merasen, one of the king's sons arrives stating that King Tarek and his heir are very ill and need medical help. Amelia, Emerson, their son Ramses and their foster daughter Nefret immediate make plans to return to the Lost Oases, a civilization hidden from the rest of the world. Nefret, now a doctor, spent much of her life there as the high Priestess of Isis; Tarek helped her escape and return to England. She loves Tarek like a brother and intends to do all in her power to save the king and his son but on their journey they attract the attention of some very unsavory characters. Once they reach the Lost Oases, they find that Tarek has been deposed by Zekare but his power base is very shaky. With the return of the high priestess, he believes he can gain the support of his people. Emerson and Peabody are determined to stop him and put Tarek back on the throne or die trying. Though a stretch, the concept of a lost advanced civilization (think Atlantis) is not so impossible to believe in 1907 Sudan where "civilization" has not reached the entire area and transportation is almost non-existent. It is always a joy to read a New Amelia Peabody book and GUARDIAN OF THE HORIZON is especially exciting as readers are reunited with characters they have come to regard as friends. Although this story took place over a century ago it is reminiscent of the Lara Croft and Indiana Jones movies. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Not her best effort by far
Review: As a fan of this series, I found this work extremely disappointing. It reads more like a short story than a novel; barest outlines of events and characters, some outright errors in continuity within the book's lesser characters, lack of the usual careful filing in of local (historically accurate?) color. Truthfully, not worth reading as it adds nothing to the series and is cetainly a poor example of Ms. Peter's work. I sincerely hope doesn't continue in this vein with this series, which previously was one of the best. If so, she will lose a great segment of her audience.
Rating: 
Summary: A little disappointing
Review: Don't get me wrong, this book was as riotously funny and exciting as readers have come to expect from this series. But it felt to me like Peters was still trying to find her characters between the periods of their lives that she's chronicled before. The result was shaky, I often found myself hunting in the (chronologically) later and earlier books to get a feel for whether a character would have said that or acted that way, at this point in his or her development. Partly because the events of this book were never mentioned in chronologically later books, as Amelia so frequently does, it came across as sort of marooned in time and place. Yes, the book hadn't been written yet, but it didn't feel to me like part of the subtext of the series. I would hate to think the series were running out of steam, but I have to wonder, with so many tidy happy endings made and enemies killed off or reformed, what's left? If Peters plans to continue these forays into the past, I'll look forward to the next books-- but with some reservations.
Rating:
Summary: Quite disappointiung with regard to Ramses
Review: Especially after having recerntly re-read Children of the Storm, the characters in this book all seem so flat compared with their usual panache. Also, Ramses having meaningless sex with a new stranger while everyone else in peril, including his beloved Nefret, is the height of bad taste and not true to the character at all. Daria has no redeeming features and the psychobabble to explain Nefret's supposed frigidity is just too terrible for words.
Really, I want to see them solve mysteries, have adventures, not their romantic troubles. And making Sethos the master criminal toothless is just to silly for words, and also foreshadows the friendships between the characters which chronologically comes way later in the series.
If she is going to go back in time, why not to the good old early days with Ramses as a baby/child!! Instead of making them all seem so puerile when they are in their 20s.
Rating:
Summary: The Last Camel Died at Noon Is Reprised
Review: Guardian of the Horizon is a jolt back into the past for fans of Amelia Peabody and her family. The action takes place in 1907-1908 and precedes the timing of the more recent books in the series. Ramses is 20 and Nefret is 23 in this book.
If you have not yet read the outstanding book, The Last Camel Died at Noon, I strongly urge you to read that book before this one. Otherwise, that wonderful book will be spoiled for you.
A mysterious visitor brings a message from Tarek, ruler of the Lost Oasis, saying that Tarek and his son are dying of a disease that cannot be treated. The Emersons are urged to come immediately to see what they can do. But soon, something seems fishy when the messenger acts like he's out to have a good time more than to get back to the Lost Oasis. Despite their misgivings, the Emersons race back to the Middle East and do their best to throw off those who want to follow them.
I was eager to read this book (having read all of the others in the series to date). I was even more eager when I realized that the book involved revisiting the Lost Oasis that was featured in The Last Camel Died at Noon.
Perhaps my high expectations are the problem . . . but I found this book to be far from the usual Peters standard for this series. The archeology angle, for example, is essentially missing. The fiendish opponents aren't so much fiendish as they are incompetently venal. The "mystery" aspect of the book is very transparent. With a few exceptions, the action scenes are of limited interest.
But the biggest disappointment to me was that the lead characters were portrayed in about as uninteresting ways as could be possible. They just didn't seem to be themselves. I also thought that the relationship between Daria and Ramses wasn't really in character for Ramses.
The situation in which the Emersons find themselves seems to be contrived rather than truly threatening. I felt like I was reading a costume drama much of the time rather than a typical Amelia Peabody book.
The book, however, will be greeted with enthusiasm by those (like me) who are tired of the vast numbers of characters in the books that immediately preceded this one. At least the number of characters was kept in some sort of bounds.
I suspect that many readers will like this book better if they read this book after The Ape Who Guards the Balance rather than in the order in which it was written. The events described here fit chronologically into the continuing story line at that point.
If you are a fan of the series, you should read the book. Keep your expectations low as you begin, and you will probably like the book better than I did.
Rating:
Summary: No sex please we're Victorians
Review: I agree with many posters that Ramses relationship with Daria makes no sense. Actually, for a normal healthy 20 year old male to be able to resist a beautiful woman throwing herself at him in a deserted space overnight, that would be hard to believe. so I can buy that he caves into temptation. but I don't buy that he would leave Nefret and not rescue her along with Daria and end up in that situation in the first place!! Where's his mother's famous laudenum, smuggled to Daria to put the handmaidens to sleep the following night when Ramses returns to rescue both girls? Why does Nefret go from a headstrong, fiercely independent woman to a cowering pathetic creature incapable of any planning or action? Is she really being drugged? One of the things I love about the Peabody series is the feminist spirit-Nefret's being so similar to Amelia and therefore difficult to control as she wants the same freedom and latitude that the boys enjoy. For her to act so out of character was a major turnoff.
For Ramses to sleep with someone else when he supposedly is so in love with Nefret is unthinkable. I liked that we never knew much about Ramses experience with women prior to Nefret-that's part of the Victorian charming reticence of these novels-just as we never knew exactly what Emerson had been up to in his pre-Amelia days. I HATED that we had to know so much about Nefret's inexperience-we're expected to believe that she marries someone becuase she's so upset at Ramses but never sleeps with the husband? that in that day and age a husband would agree to that (even if he is occupied with dastardly schemes)? and we have to be told this-why? so we'll know for sure it was Ramses baby she lost and justify their being seperated even longer or so that Ramses will know no other man has been with her and she is still worthy of him? which makes me go ewwwww, especially given that we now know for sure he has a sexual history. Why should she wait for him if he didn't wait for her? Granted it would be too much for a Victorian era characters to come out and openly say that they don't embrace the doublestandard still hanging on today-that men can have sex with anyone they want, as much as they want and still marry virgins. but since the Peabody's like shaking up other conventions like inter-racial marriage and adopting the daughter of a prostitute, etc. EP could have shaken that standard up a bit. at the very least she could have left Nefret and Ramses' sex lives alone.
and what was up with the trance stuff and Nefret's supposed inability to love or give up her "maidenhood"? perhaps she's never loved because most men of that era are chauvinists who treat her like she's an idiot. and unconsiously she's in love with Ramses which is so clear in her actions in the books prior to "Guardian" chronologically. this makes more sense than some absurd promise a young girl would have made to her father when she wouldn't even have understood what he was talking about.
I was disappointed that this story was going back to the time when Ramses and Nefret weren't together yet as that part of the series dragged for me. watching Ramses wallow in indecision is not appealing.
That was the main part of the book that irritated me. I agree with the poster that it would be fun to return to the earlier years when Ramses was much smaller and less annoying-give us more mysteries set in England, maybe in Kent during the summer and let us see Amelia and Emerson and various household members in action. a bit more of Evelyn and Walter, David and Lia would be fun.
Sethos behavior seemed in character-having learned of the lost city as Cyrus, it is perfectly logical that he would go there and secure treasures for himself-explains where he's been for the last book. However, Amelia's behavior towards him is not appropriate for where they are in their relationhip. Having just lost Abdullah to Bertha's attempt to kill Amelia, I think she would have a few things to say to him about that.
all that said, I'm still delighted that EP has written a new book in the series and if she wants to return to a different time that's her prerogerative. especially given how large the family is now and I imagine it's dueced difficult to keep them all occupied in one adventure. Perhaps these apparant out of character bits will be explained in future novels, but please let's go back to a bit more subtlety when it comes to the sex. I prefer to not always know for sure what Amelia's referring to than to have it spelled out for me. If I want graphic reality and double standards I'll read a trashy novel.
Rating:
Summary: Is this really an Amelia Peabody?
Review: I am a devoted Peters' Peabody fan and was sorely disappointed by Guardian of the Horizon. It doesn't taste like a Peabody book. The dialogue, the action, even the personalities of the characters seem dimmed and faded. I realize Peters was attempting to convey the psychological hardship the family endured, but what happened to the Emerson family spunk? "Newly-discovered journal" books spliced into a series after-the-fact hardly ever satisfy a reader, and this is an example of such.
Rating:
Summary: Another Excellent Expedition with the Emersons
Review: I am an unabashed Elizabeth Peters fan, so like most rabid fans I just like this book. GUARDIAN OF THE HORIZON is another excellent expedition with Emerson, Peabody and the whole gang. If you read the editorial reviews you know they go to the Lost Oasis of the Holy Mountain, which is where they first met and rescued Nefret 10 years earlier (in the novels' chronology). They encounter the usual unusual suspects, have hilarious encounters with their friends and enemies, and attempt a counter-coup to get their friend Tarek back on the throne. It's all really fun!
But you know I have some caveats about the book. Well first, it is like going over ground that's already has been covered. We know these characters. We know what happened to them. I personally want to see the characters advance both in time and life. If that is not possible then stop writing these books. That's like horrible to say, like sacrilegious, but you know sometimes characters and stories have a shelf life of their own. Maybe Peters could make the Sethos - John Smythe connection in a Vicki Bliss mystery? Just let me dream, okay?
Some people seem to be up in arms about Ramses's liason with Daria, because most of us who read these books are hopeless romantics. Did it bother me? A little. But then I thought. Hello, this is a healthy 20-year-old guy with an unusual upbringing, and he is frustrated, because he believes the woman he loves is out of his reach. He transferred his love to the next available woman. Let me make this clear, Ramses was not really in love with Daria, but his romantic and sexual frustrastions misled him into believing he was in love with her. Psychologically more realistic. Possibly this was too much realism for hopeless romantics. Daria, literally a street-smart woman, knew he was not in love with her, and thus makes very wise choices.
All in all though as adventure and fun, this is an excellent novel.
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