Brian Moreland has a reputation for great horror in historical settings. He’s in fine form with this latest offering.

What starts off as a standard mummy horror story set in the 1930s soon transforms into something much more surreal and interesting. The suspense never lets up and the dangers the explorers face as they move from level to level in the tomb are scary and creative. Someone needs to turn this into a video game.

Great characters and dialogue. Even the early victims have enough depth and back story that you hate to see them go.

If you liked Mr. Moreland’s Shadows in the Mist and The Devil’s Woods, you’ll devour this.

It’s 1935 and a group of archaeologists vanish inside an Egyptian cave. A year later one man returns covered in mysterious scars. After his death his granddaughter joins an expedition that will try to follow in his footsteps. What they find is beyond understanding, a technologically advanced relic and a maze of tunnels.

They enter a realm that lies between the living and the dead. “It connects to all the continents through caves that contain secret portals. The Dark Realm contains an infinite number of levels and gates.” Puzzles must be solved to open these gates so they can proceed through the levels.

This one is exciting, riveting, action packed, and has Egyptian Gods! The expedition is besieged by creatures from different realms and the underworld! Who will make it to the final level and behold the creators of the tomb? I really enjoyed this story! It held me captive from the time I read the title “Tomb of Gods” to the last sentence! I need to read more from this author!

Mid 1930s and another Egyptian mummy/tomb with mysterious guarded secret - sounded familiar and it started off well. Plenty of detail about the various Egyptian gods and their peculiarities which I liked. The British team were an eclectic mix - pompous alpha male Trummel, intelligent female archaeologist Imogen, journalist recording a story and various ex soldiers on protective detail plus the locals to do the carrying and digging of course - of its time. Plenty of action, enough back story to each of the characters (to determine that none was especially likeable but some very much less than others!) and plenty of archaeology. I was thinking that we were rounding towards the end and then saw that I was only at 48%. From then on we went deeper and deeper into the tunnels, down and down to the underworld with more and more bizarre happenings and definitely into the scifi world. Is the author a Star-Gate SG1 fan I wondered?. At each level one of the overall team (most of the locals having run away or been killed by now) was forced to relive traumatic and/or gruesome aspects of their lives while the others fought off various demons/beings/whatever. Very Dante meets Stargate at this point. The survivors had their hearts weighed at the end to see whether they lived or moved elsewhere - back to Egyptian mythology - and, of course, we had giant aliens. As a result I have mixed feelings - the first half was interesting enough in itself for a light read, the second half ramped up the speed but also the repetition which, to be honest, dragged on rather. Two or three characters meeting their fate is enough; 6 or 7 nope. Thanks to NetGalley and Flame Tree Press for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Ancient Egypt once again proved too irresistible of a lure. Then again that’s exactly what dragged the book’s protagonists into the nightmarish mess they ended up in. Treasure hunting on a grand scale and all that. When a respectable Egyptologist disappears for a year upon finding a secret tomb and later found mad and raving, his skin completely covered in strange symbols…well, that certainly attracts enough attention to merit a second mission. This time, presumably more prepared, the man’s niece, an Egyptologist in her own right, joins a former flame and his team to uncover exactly what secrets the ancient tomb might be hiding. The the terrifying truth about the underworld they discover proves to be as fascinating as it is deadly. A purgatory of sorts, it brings back the worst most traumatic experiences for everyone on the team, judging past choices and the subsequent guilt in an often lethal manner. Weighting souls opposed a feather can be a dangerous business, but it mgt be the only way to get through. So there’s plenty of adventure, oodles of terrors and some (really cheesily done) romance even. The underworld is a genuinely horrific creation and should delight most genre fans. The descriptions are first rate against the creepily claustrophobic settings. The book takes place during the golden age of discovery, before the devastation of WWII. And certainly long before most legal rights of origins were set up, so the era of discovery and pillaging, the time of tomb raiders. It’s just that this time the tomb they find will go to great lengths to protect its treasures. In fact, for a lot of the story, it’s essentially a survival tale and the odds aren’t great for anyone who trespasses the secret realms of the pharaohs. For me, the Egypt angle completely sold it, and with some ancient aliens thrown in for good measure…yes, please. In movie comparisons, this isn’t as much fun as the original Tomb Raiders or the Mummy ones from 1999 and 2001, but then again not much can live up to fighting Mummies with young Rachel Weisz. And at any rate comparing books to movies isn’t entirely fair. Suffice it to say, though, that this book was a lot of fun in its own right. Also, it might very well be the best book I’ve read by the author thus far. The writing was much more impressive overall, the character development and descriptions were very well done. And it had a good share of thrills too, a genuinely exciting ride. The middle somewhat slower than the rest, but quite dynamic on both ends. Plus, you know, Ancient Egypt, you just can’t go wrong. Well, obviously, you can, the book’s characters in fact do just that, but from a reader’s perspective it’s just a purely entertaining mythical mystical adventure. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

5 stars

This book is set in 1936 Egypt.

Imogen Riley is the granddaughter of famed archeologist, Harlan Riley. Harlan was on a tomb exploration dig in Egypt when he and his party disappeared. He emerged from the desert a year later, the only survivor of the team. He is covered in strange seemingly undecipherable markingas and only intermittently coherent. Locked away in a mental asylum, he finally commits suicide.

Imogen is devastated at his death for her grandfather raised her from age eleven. She swears to him that she will finish his quest for the lost tomb. She gets an opportunity to join a new expedition led by Nathan Trummel. Nathan is both a colleague and former lover of Imogen's. She jumps at the chance to finish her grandfather's quest.

Nathan Trummel is an archeologist who finally shows his true colors about halfway through the book. Caleb Beckett is a National Geographic photographer. Trummel calls him “my photographer” much to Caleb's ire. The team is also joined by a group of mercenary soldiers under Trummel's absolute control. There are of course, porters, diggers and so on and then there is the surprising and enigmatic Bakari who plays the part of an Egyptian porter who is so much more than a mere porter.

The dig is beset by problems and then there are the mysterious deaths. What lies in store for the intrepid gang is action, adventure, horror, terror and betrayal.

This book is exciting and action-filled. I was loath to go to bed at night; I was so entranced. There are great descriptions of the demons and the surrounding tough terrain and scary atmosphere. The characters were colorful and true-to-life, if a little predictable. I liked the addition of the Egyptian mythological stories to the text. Mr. Moreland writes very well with a commanding assurance that the reader will believe everything he is describing. I truly enjoy his writing style. It has been far too long since I have read one of his books and I was very glad to be reintroduced to him.

I want to thank NetGalley and Flame Tree Press for forwarding to me a copy of this absolutely creepy (in a very good way!), book for me to read, enjoy and review.

Brian Moreland's "Tomb of Gods" totally blew me away and the first thing I did after reaching the breath-taking climax was download another of his novels! It completely knocked me out from beginning to end, with some of the sequences so unrelentingly fast moving it was very hard to put down. Set in the mid 1930s, imminent British archaeologists vanished inside an Egyptian cave. A year later, one man returned covered in mysterious scars. They had uncovered a tomb within a pyramid which promised both great riches and also the opportunity to solve some of the mysteries of the ancient Egyptians.

Egyptologist Imogen Riley is the granddaughter of the archaeologist who is covered in the runes and after his suicide she joins the expedition to carry on his research and heads to the tomb with Dr Nathan Trummel and a host of other experts. Soon it looks like the expedition is cursed after a series of deaths as the party descends deeper into the tomb. Soon they realise there are deeper layers to the pyramid and as they go deeper and deeper realise they are not alone.

This was an outstanding horror novel and features some of the best underground descriptions I have read in a long time and mythology developed was quite simply outstanding. And what lies beneath the pyramid? Wow. Totally breath taking, with a host of engaging characters, action sequences and very clever horror. Highly recommended.

Tomb of Gods is the third book I've read by Brian Mooreland. When i saw it was on NetGalley, I jumped on the opportunity to read it early. It starts out slow, building and introducing the characters. We meet Dr. Harlen Riley, archaeologist. He is leading a team in search of the tomb of Nebenteru. Something goes terribly wrong and the team vanishes. Dr. Hareln reappears a year later. He has strange markings covering his body and has went completely mad. He spends the rest of his days in an insane asylum, rambling nonsense.
One year later Harlen's granddaughter, Imogen joins with a team hoping to uncover what Hareln's team found. The team will travel through Hell and back to learn the mysteries of the tomb of Nebenteru.
The story was good but a little slow. The characters were ok, i didn't love any of them and disliked the ones i was supposed to. I liked the Egyptian setting for the book and the realms the team travels through. It was great reading some of the Egyptian mythology worked into the story. I liked that. This wouldn't be my favorite from Brian Mooreland but it was by no means bad. I plan on reading more of his works in the near future and i'm very thankful for the opportunity to read this early.