Mask Of The Sphinx

Rating:
Summary: Very cool indeed!
Review: 'Mask of the Sphinx' is more like it! This is pure classic Outlanders, full of exotic places, colorful characters, mystery, action, humor, babes and mummies!

All the cool and competent characters we know are back and no "liberties" are taken with them.

The Cerberus crew find a city modeled after ancient Egypt hidden in the California desert, ruled over by a babecilious telepathic queen. There's a revolution going on and she wants the help of both the Cerberus crew and the forces of Sam the imperator to defeat it. The reader never knows if she's playing one side off against the other to gain her own ends.

And when mutants patterned after Egyptian gods show up as well as walking mummies--Yeesh!

'Mask of the Sphinx' is one very cool book!



Rating:
Summary: The Return of High Adventure and High IQs!
Review: Mask of the Sphinx is a very loose sequel to the excellent Deathlands novel by Mark Ellis, Nightmare Passage but the reader does not have to be familiar with that book to enjoy this one....and believe me, Mask of the Sphinx is a very enjoyable book on every level.

The contrast between the previous book, Sun Lord and Mask of the Sphinx couldn't be sharper particularly with the emphasis on the action-adventure aspects and the characters, who are presented in the classic Outlanders mode-tough, mature, professionals with high IQs. All of the deficiencies of Sun Lord have been fixed in Mask of the Sphinx.

In Mask of the Sphinx the Outlanders heroes are back in character, caring about one another, making smart-ass remarks and thinking their way through situations to turn the tables on their enemies.

The Outlanders series has always been about character development, and in Mask of the Sphinx, the core characters (Kane, Brigid, Grant, Lakesh, DeFore and Domi) are the focus as they try to find a way to help Quavell, the pregnant hybrid who has been part of the Cerberus crew for a couple of years but whose existence wasn't so much as referred to in Sun Lord.

As part of the quest, they find themselves in Aten, the city based on ancient Egypt hidden in a canyon in the desert. This city was introduced in Nightmare Passage, and it's interesting to see how it has changed since then as well as the character of Nefron, now the super-telepathic queen of the kingdom. Her motivations keep the reader guessing. It's not until near the end of the book that the Cerberus warriors find out if she is friend or foe.

They also meet the Ahkakhu, genetically engineered creatures based on the pantheon of Egyptian gods. There are very few of these `gods', all kept in a complex under Giza and the Sphinx in Egypt.

They, along with some human allies are trying to take over Aten so they can then conquer the baronies. These are some scary but pretty cool characters that you even feel sort of sorry for.
Erica Van Sloan shows up as the ambassador of Sam the Imperator, trying to cut a deal with Nefron so it's a very touchy political situation all the way around the Cerberus warriors find themselves involved in.

Mask of the Sphinx weaves everything together that has made Outlanders such a great series over the years-terrific characters, colorful and vivid settings, imaginative and fascinating plots and a very smooth narrative flow. There is nothing at all dumbed-down about this book and even though it's a "smart" book it's not confusing either. It moves at a headlong pace from beginning to end.

And we are even treated to a great mini-adventure on Thunder Isle which features rampaging dinocelphians, Tong pirates, samurai and best of all--Shizuka, the beautiful Tigeress of Heaven!

There is also a couple of hints, foreshadowing events yet to come as well as some unfinished (and unexpected) business from years ago finally being to put to rest.

The core of the Outlanders series success has always been action, characterization, suspense and imagination and all those qualities are presented in equal measure in Mask of the Sphinx.

A great read!


Rating:
Summary: Masterful Storytelling
Review: Mask Of The Sphinx is an engaging new episode in the Outlanders series. I was a little prejudiced against this book because it has a tie-in with a Deathlands novel, Nightmare Passage.

Even though I read Nightmare Passage several years ago and liked it, I am angry with Gold Eagle for what seems like the "Deathlandization" of Outlanders with the two very substandard entries by another writer over the last year.

But Mask Of The Sphinx is a truly excellent book with vivid, vibrant characters, a great storyline and an exotic locale full of mystery and intrigue. Quite fortunately, the Cerberus heroes--who I buy the series to read about, not substitutes, take note, Gold Eagle!--are back in full character. I enjoyed seeing everyone getting out into the field.

The jumping-off point for the plot deals with helping Quavell, the pregnant hybrid who has been living in Cerberus for quite some time, and who oddly, wasn't mentioned as even existing in what I read of the previous book, Sun Lord.

It was a nice change to see the characters embarking on a mission that was basically benign for once...even though circumstances changed pretty quickly--as usual!.

It was also interesting to see Kane forced to exercise his new diplomat's muscles, particularly when he comes face-to-face with an old enemy--who actually shows she's not quite as one-dimensionally evil as the Cerberus warriors thought.

Although Mask Of The Sphinx won't make my top five favorite novels in the series, it's still a masterful piece of adventure storytelling, full of all the qualities that have made Outlanders so praiseworthy over the years.



Rating:
Summary: This reads like The Mummy meets The Outlanders!
Review: One of the all-time best of the series. I would give it a 10 + if I could. A must read for action/adventure fans who want a little more than just the same 'ol same 'ol.

Why cannot Hollywood turn this series into a major motion picture, which has multiple, endless sequels, is beyond me.

Rating:
Summary: The heart and soul of Outlanders returns
Review: The latest in the Outlanders series keeps the reader enthralled and guessing. While the plot has Kane, Brigid, Grant and their companions on the run in a bizarre and exotic setting, "Mask Of The Sphinx" is pure Outlanders, not like the distorted version as presented in "Sun Lord", authored by a fill-in writer.

I don't think "Sphinx" is one of the top ten of the series but at least it doesn't seem like it takes place in an alternative reality as in the previous book and that earns it a lot of points as far as I'm concerned.

The threads of continuity as woven by Mark Ellis has been one of the more enjoyable points of reading Outlanders for all these years. It's always enjoyable to find the recurrence of locales, good guys and bad guys from the past. In "Mask Of The Sphinx", we have a couple of returnees.

It was also great to find that the plot basically revolved around Quavell, the pregnant hybrid who has been a resident of the Cerberus redoubt for a couple of years at this point--but who was mysteriously missing from "Sun Lord".

"Mask of The Sphinx" also had enough mayhem to satisfy action fans, but without the gross misogyny so often used in this genre, particularly by the fill-in author "Sun Lord".

All the female characters are portrayed as multi-dimensional, suprisingly even a returning one who up to this point was depicted as a scheming, narcissistic witch.

There are no bimbos or sluts in "Mask of The Sphinx", only intelligent women who the reader has to decide are good, bad or somewhere in between.

I won't give the details away, but "Mask of The Sphinx" works on every level, from fast-paced adventure, violence, suspense, mystery, vivid characterizations and most importantly--the heart and soul of the Outlanders series has been returned to it.



Rating:
Summary: The biggest problem - I couldn't put down!
Review: This is the first book of the Outlanders series that I have read and I enjoyed it very much. The characters generally acted intelligently and actually had personalities. It was refreshing that characters, which were known to be enemies, could interact with each other without trying to kill each other. Not that there wasn't violence, because there was plenty of that. It's just that the mayhem was a tool to further the plot and not just there for its own sake. The tidbits of character background sprinkled through the book, made me want to read the other books of the series so I could get to know the characters better. This went for the good guys as well as the bad. I only hope that the rest of the books in the series are as good as this one.