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Channeling Cleopatra

Channeling Cleopatra

List Price: $6.50
Your Price: $6.50
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Enchanting
Review: Another well researched and lovely book by E. A. Scarborough. I was completely impressed by this, reading her books is always a joy, but this one goes to the top of the list along with Healer's War, and the Songkiller Trilogy as being my favorites by her.
Fantastic characters you can sympathise with, I really liked the main character's father Duke. He reminds me a bit of my own dad.
The story flowed, with puns and verbal plays throughout, but also moments of darkness. Whimsical, thoughtful, wonderful.
I would recommend reading the anthology, Past Lives, Present Tense first, but it's not truly necessary. It just gives more information about Chimera.
Thank you E. A. Scarborough, for another wonderful book!!!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Channeling Cleopatra
Review: Didn't like the book much, the author tried to be too girlish with her main character, and the technology was too easily believed by the other characters. Read about 1/3 and skimmed through the rest to see how it ended.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Channeling Cleopatra
Review: Didn't like the book much, the author tried to be too girlish with her main character, and the technology was too easily believed by the other characters. Read about 1/3 and skimmed through the rest to see how it ended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: innovative speculative fiction
Review: Ever since Leda Hubbard was a young girl, she wanted to be an Egyptologist and join an important dig there. She enlisted in the navy to obtain her education because she couldn't afford to pay for it any other way. By the time she left the military, Leda had a Ph.D. in forensic anthropology. She was adjusting to the idea that she would never fulfill her dram when she receives a mysterious ticket to attend the International Conference of Egyptologists.

At the conference, she meets a friend Chimera who recruits her to work for a corporation who is sponsoring a dig in Egypt. The company, led by Chimera, found a way to incorporate the genetic and cellular memory of a dead person using their DNA, into a living person. In essence, two people would inhabit one body. Leda's job is to find out where famous people are buried in Alexandria so the company's rich clients can buy the cellular memory of the person they wish to coexist with. For Leda, problems arise when the wrong people want to get their hands on the technology and use it for their own ends.

CHANNELING CLEOPATRA is a bright, sometimes humorous, often dark, but always innovative speculative fiction. The heroine is feisty, bright and sparkling so that readers can't help but like her and root for her when she lands in trouble, which is quite frequent. Elizabeth Ann Scarborough is always a treat to read but with this novel, she takes readers where nobody has gone before.

Harriet Klausner

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: innovative speculative fiction
Review: Ever since Leda Hubbard was a young girl, she wanted to be an Egyptologist and join an important dig there. She enlisted in the navy to obtain her education because she couldn't afford to pay for it any other way. By the time she left the military, Leda had a Ph.D. in forensic anthropology. She was adjusting to the idea that she would never fulfill her dram when she receives a mysterious ticket to attend the International Conference of Egyptologists.

At the conference, she meets a friend Chimera who recruits her to work for a corporation who is sponsoring a dig in Egypt. The company, led by Chimera, found a way to incorporate the genetic and cellular memory of a dead person using their DNA, into a living person. In essence, two people would inhabit one body. Leda's job is to find out where famous people are buried in Alexandria so the company's rich clients can buy the cellular memory of the person they wish to coexist with. For Leda, problems arise when the wrong people want to get their hands on the technology and use it for their own ends.

CHANNELING CLEOPATRA is a bright, sometimes humorous, often dark, but always innovative speculative fiction. The heroine is feisty, bright and sparkling so that readers can't help but like her and root for her when she lands in trouble, which is quite frequent. Elizabeth Ann Scarborough is always a treat to read but with this novel, she takes readers where nobody has gone before.

Harriet Klausner

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A good premise, but little substance...
Review: I think the plotline is interesting, but the characters seemed really flat. And the interaction between them was stilted and unrealistic. The "bad guys" barely get walk-on roles, and it's hard to really dislike someone you see so little of.
There are lots of opportunities for interesting byplay between Leda and her father, between Duke and Gretchen, between Gabriella and her aunts, between Pete and Leda, but they get treated like scenery, moved around to forward the plot, but never fleshed out in except in the most backhanded sense. It mentions Gabriella's work with the oppressed/abused women offhandedly, but never lets us know how badly they are treated or give the reader any first hand knowledge of the problem. Leda and Gabriella's first meeting was such a poorly written scene, it was painful. And the foreshadowing was about a subtle as a Mack truck.
I found it hard to feel any empathy for the characters because there was so little "character" to them. But the plot line had so much potential! It annoyed me to see it wasted this way.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A good premise, but little substance...
Review: I think the plotline is interesting, but the characters seemed really flat. And the interaction between them was stilted and unrealistic. The "bad guys" barely get walk-on roles, and it's hard to really dislike someone you see so little of.
There are lots of opportunities for interesting byplay between Leda and her father, between Duke and Gretchen, between Gabriella and her aunts, between Pete and Leda, but they get treated like scenery, moved around to forward the plot, but never fleshed out in except in the most backhanded sense. It mentions Gabriella's work with the oppressed/abused women offhandedly, but never lets us know how badly they are treated or give the reader any first hand knowledge of the problem. Leda and Gabriella's first meeting was such a poorly written scene, it was painful. And the foreshadowing was about a subtle as a Mack truck.
I found it hard to feel any empathy for the characters because there was so little "character" to them. But the plot line had so much potential! It annoyed me to see it wasted this way.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: (3.5) Interesting Mythos Book
Review: I'm glad to see that there is books in the world that try and use mythology in more modern aspects. I found this book an enjoyable read to take my mind off of the world. It was an intreguing book that one wanted to finsh.

The characters where perhaps they could have been better, the plot kept you wanting to know what happens next. It might follow a tipical Sci-Fi idea, this book adds some twists and turns in it that are not atypical.

I would recommend anyone with an entrest in the genra to pick this one up and read it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Cloned or infected???
Review: I'm not sure which one you'd call it. In a distant future, Nucor Technologies has invented a 'personality transplant.' Donees are implanted with the personalities of famous and infamous people from the past.

Naturally, many women want Cleopatra.

Forensic scientist and closet anthropologist Leda Hubbard and her father Duke, an ex-cop with a lot of ex-wives, are hired by Nucor to find Cleopatra. She discovers quickly enough that this isn't the safe assignment she'd expected. Many people want a transplant without Nucor's controls.

Scarborough is always fascinating whether she's writing Medieval, current day, or futuristic fantasy. She's created a world and a cast of characters that I can't fail to cheer for. The novel takes some interesting twists that leave you laughing--and thinking about what makes up a person.





Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A good premise, but little substance...
Review: Scarborough's forte lies in creating books with intriguing plots, believable main characters, and lots of humor. This book is no exception. The idea of genetically-stored memory that can be downloaded into someone else's personality is an updated version of an old SF plot device, but the author takes the concept and makes it her own. The main character, Leda Hubbard, a forensic anthropologist and wannabe Egyptologist is a classic Scarborough heroine--an ordinary woman, competent and a little dissatisfied with her life. The other characters range from the delightful (Duke, Leda's macho philandering father) to the repulsive (Mr. Rasmussen, the true villain). Some of the characterizations are a little thin, and the plot could have been fleshed out in spots, but there are enough wonderful moments to make this book a rewarding read. Duke's fate alone is worth the price of the book. As with Scarborough's "Fairy Godmother" books, everyone gets their just desserts at the end, and there is an element of "they all lived happily ever after." Perhaps a bit pat, but that's part of the pleasure.


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