Great I guess ending to a trilogy. I have not read the first two but it is on my TBR list to do so. I agree with others that this story definitely should be adapted to a series of some sort.

The third and I assume final (unless Christopher takes over full writing duties, since Anne Rice has passed) book in the Ramses series. The first written only by Anne, the second like this one co-written with her son. I am a fan of both authors, and together they work well and did not disappoint. I love Ramses, Cleopatra, every single person involved. The settings, the conflicts, everything is so exciting and easy to read. While the book is complete, any book by Anne or Christopher leaves me wanting more. May Anne rest in peace.

Ramses the Damned: The Reign of Osiris is the third and final book in the Ramses the Damned trilogy and the last book published by the great Anne Rice before her passing.
The book narrates the last adventure of Ramses, the great pharaoh and one of the Immortals, who faces a mysterious adversary with the power to manipulate statues and give them life. This enemy wishes to annihilate all those who loved Lawrence Stratford, the father of Julie, Ramses' fiancée, or Reginald Ramsey, archaeologist, as he is known to the world after being awakened from his millennia-old sleep.
A story of excellent quality, with a plot that captivates the reader, in which the mummy is not the typical deformed being of classic movies, but a man who suffers and loves and who is also immortal. We could not expect less from Her Majesty, Anne Rice!
I thank the authors Anne and Christopher Rice, Anchor Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this story. The opinion I have expressed above is based solely on what I think and feel about this book.

The full review of this title appeared on Pages and Pictures.

Reading this title was a bittersweet experience. It's a beautiful tribute to a legendary author. Christopher Rice brilliantly continues his mother's legacy. The Rameses trilogy is one of Rice's most underrated collection. In many ways, this final entry proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that this series should be adapted for the screen.

Ramses the Damned: The Mummy was probably my favorite Anne Rice book that I read in the 90s. I recently received an advance copy of the third book. So I read book#2 The Passion of Cleopatra which started off a little slow and then the action amped up. I was a little disappointed with book#3 The Reign of Osiris. The story was a little convoluted with Ramses and the gang fighting statues that come to life. There's a lot of mythology. However, several main characters in book#2 were thrown to the wayside in The Reign of Osiris. This book just wasn't as fun as the other two.

3.5 stars

I've been a fan of Anne Rice for years, and I have read the prior books in this series, but it's been some time. (I'll likely go back and re-read them now.) This book does make sense on its own, and it's filled with interesting characters that bring the story to life. Vivid descriptions make the reader feel a part of the story. That said, there were a large number of characters, which made things a bit challenging at times. The world building was quite what I expected, but this was an enjoyable read overall.

I am a great fan of Anne Rice since her first novel. She wrote about witches and vampires from different perspectives. This novel was written with her son. Rather, mostly by her son.
It lacks the depth of characters and plot that I usually associate with Anne.
That said, it is worth a read.

Looking at the ancient Egyptian Ramses (book three is this series) who is the leader of powerful female rulers such as Cleopatra, we see battles against evil, including the advent of WWI.

If you enjoy the series and Anne Rice you may well want to read it. This book was an ARC from netgalley. I am not sure that I would have read it otherwise.

Thanks to the publisher for a digital ARC of this book.

This was a hard book to read with Anne Rice's recent passing. I have been a long-term fan since finding her books in 1996 while I was in high school. I devoured the first book in this series, The Mummy, when I discovered it years ago. I really wanted to love this story and tried my hardest, but Julie and Ramses just seemed to fall a bit flat this time. I had a hard time following Ramses's storyline with as much interest as the past. Really tried to fall for this story but just could not.

I highly recommend reading the first book in this series before reading this if you haven't already.

It's bittersweet to finish Anne Rice's last book and rate it with just 4/5 stars. But as much as I love her writing and the phenomenal character that was Ramses, I can't help but feel like the spirit of what made the original Ramses story, The Mummy, so phenomenal got buried under unnatural speaking patterns and the late Rice's later-in-life passion for exploring the idea of death and God.
All the things I've always loved about a Rice story are present in the varied cast and deep emotions that get explored over what starts out as an action-packed story that fizzles slightly into a more philosophical exploration. I still enjoyed it and certain chapters were total page-turners, yet some of the magic that I associated with Ramses is missing here.
Perhaps it was too many characters getting inadequate page time to fully explore their part in the plot beyond just getting a call out because they were in past books or maybe it was the introduction of new characters that don't get the chance to be fully developed or even just the plot that was too big for the page count leading to a rushed feeling over everything, all I know is that even though this is an enjoyable book it just doesn't have the magic that I associate with an Anne Rice book.

Very happy thanks to NetGalley and Anchor for the page-turning read!

Superb

The gilded adventures of Ramses the Damned, iconic creation of the legendary Anne Rice, continue in this breathtakingly suspenseful tale of a titanic supernatural power unleashed on the eve of war. 

A pharaoh made immortal by a mysterious and powerful elixir, Ramses the Great became counselor and lover to some of Egypt's greatest and most powerful rulers before he was awakened from centuries of slumber to the mystifying and dazzling world of Edwardian England. Having vanquished foes both human and supernatural, he's found love with the beautiful heiress Julie Stratford, daughter of Lawrence Stratford, the slain archeologist who discovered his tomb. Now, with the outbreak of a world war looming, Ramses and those immortals brought forth from the mists of history by his resurrection will face their greatest test yet.

Russian assassins bearing weapons of immense power have assembled under one command: all those who loved Lawrence Stratford must die. From the glowing jewels at their necks comes an incredible supernatural force: the power to bring statues to life. As Ramses and his allies, including the immortal queens Cleopatra and Bektaten, gather together to battle these threats, Ramses reveals that the great weapon may have roots in an ancient Egyptian ritual designed to render pharaohs humble before Osiris, the god of the underworld. The resulting journey will take them across storm-tossed seas and into the forests of northern Russia, where they will confront a terrifying collision of tortured political ambitions and religious fervor held in thrall to a Godlike power. But the true answers they seek will lie beyond the border between life and death, within realms that defy the imagination of even an immortal such as Ramses the Great.

I am both stunned by the beauty of this novel and also heartbroken that it is published posthumously for Anne Rice. I am certain Christopher Rice will carry on the series but in my heart it will not be the same but I am glad I had the opportunity to read this second in the Ramses the Damned series. 

It is simply superb. I remember the original, “The Mummy” and this novel not only carries forward the story but is infused with all the originality and expressiveness as that first book. It is a delight revisiting the old characters and a joy meeting the new characters. Ramses or Ramsey is as elegant and powerful a character with Julie his equal. I found Alexander, Cleopatra and the rest equally engaging, each with their own place in the story and their own voice. It follows directly on the footsteps of the last novel and does not leave out a single character from “The Passion of Cleopatra”. 

As much as the characters is how the plot sweeps you up, the narrative occasionally switching viewpoints but only to add additional insight into the story and the characters. Those changes are easy to follow and only serve to make the novel even more engaging. The language is a pleasure to read and the way mortality and the afterlife is explored is unique. Anne and Christopher Rice use Egyptian religion and spirituality to explore how the soul survives and what it might mean if we could live forever. Is immortality a curse or a blessing? It is up to the reader to decide. I also think the unique form of immortality, so different from vampirism is what pulls me into the story and keeps me coming back for more. It is unique and the beauty of the novel is moving. 

If you love any of the other works of Anne and Christopher Rice, especially “The Mummy” or “The Passion of Cleopatra”, I would recommend this book. I especially am glad I got the chance to read Anne’s words in what might be her last novel. If you want a change from her vampires, these are the novels that truly change up that dynamic and are unique. Yet, the characters and plot explore many of the same questions so if you like the Vampire novels, you will most likely love this as well. 

Rating: 5 out 5 immortals.

THE REIGN OF OSIRIS is a respectable sequel to one of my favorite Anne Rice tales. Sad that this was her last novel, but happy that it was written so well. It feels more like Christopher Rice's book than Anne Rice's, but that's just a guess based on the style. There are a lot of characters and moving parts that tend to overwhelm the story at times, but otherwise it was a very enjoyable read. I enjoyed it and would recommend it to any fan of Anne Rice's work.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Oh Anne! Oh Christopher! I’ve anticipated this book for quite awhile and was not disappointed! Mother & Son are both masters of their craft and together they are phenomenal. Reading this book was cathartic and bittersweet. I couldn’t put it down but I didn’t want it to end because this is the last one … love and light - fly high Anne!

What has the power to terrify an immortal? Only a god…. An ancient Egyptian king comes face to face with his one great fear in this latest installment of the Ramses the Damned series. Back in 2017, I reviewed The Passion of Cleopatra, Anne Rice’s first co-writing project with her son Christopher and an unexpected sequel to her 1989 novel The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned. Anne and Christopher Rice teamed up again for a third book in the series, The Reign of Osiris, which came out last week. Notably, The Reign of Osiris is also the first posthumous book to be published after Anne Rice passed away in December.

At the end of The Passion of Cleopatra, the immortal queen and creator of the elixir, Bektaten, asserted her benevolent authority over all those to whom the elixir had given eternal life. The Reign of Osiris opens with Bektaten writing a letter to her newfound immortal subjects. In this letter, Bektaten warns of the impending Great War and forbids any of the immortals from meddling. Though he chafes at answering to a higher authority, Ramses can’t help admitting that it’s not a terrible idea to leave the turmoil of Europe behind and go adventuring in America with his lover Julie. Just as they finish making preparations, however, Ramses and Julie are attacked by a Russian assassin with the mysterious ability to bring stone statues to life. This ability seems to to be granted by an ancient relic that Ramses recognizes from his mortal life, one which was once part of a powerful ritual meant to humble the pharaoh before the gods. To truly get answers, Ramses and his allies will need to venture deep into the frozen forests of northern Russia and confront a political and religious fanatic whose plans for the war go far beyond “medding.” But will Ramses be ready to face these answers when he finds them?

The Reign of Osiris explores deep questions about the nature of death and immortality and the existence of God(s). Ironically, death, in particular, is an unavoidable topic for the immortals. While Ramses, Julie, Bektaten, and most of the other immortals were given the elixir while alive, Cleopatra was brought back from the dead after nearly two thousand years. Her resurrection was marked by madness, confusion, memory loss, and a strange bond with a mortal woman who was initially thought to be Cleopatra reincarnated. As Ramses and Julie contemplate whether to resurrect Julie’s father in the hopes that he can shed some light on why assassins are targeting his loved ones, they must weigh the questions that were first raised by Cleopatra’s awakening: Where does the soul go after death? Is it reincarnated, or will a resurrected body bring its soul back with it? What role does memory play in the identity of the soul? Is it morally good, or bad, to snatch a soul from death’s realm and bring it back to the world of the living?

And of course questions about what happens after death inevitably lead to questions about God. Specifically, about the god that presides over death. The characters in The Reign of Osiris blend together Christian and ancient Egyptian beliefs, concerning themselves only with the Egyptian god Osiris and considering him to be just another way of understanding the aspect of the Christian God that judges deceased souls. In this way, the deeply religious Dmitri Vasilev is able to justify invoking the powers of an Egyptian deity as part of his plan to turn Russia back toward God. Similarly, Julie uses Christian language to describe the climactic encounter between Ramses and a powerful being that inhabits a statue of Osiris. But is this understanding of God and death correct? And in that case, would that mean the existence of an immortal is an affront to a god whose primary purpose is to preside over dead souls? The Reign of Osiris encourages us to question everything we think we know about death, the afterlife, and the divine.

This was an interesting sequel with some of the same character who I really like. Love the book cove and the story of the necklace. I feel that this world is full of future stories. Sad that it is Anne Rice's last book.

Yeah, I think I’ve outgrown Anne Rice. I enjoyed the last Ramses book, but this was a slog to get through and at 30% in nothingwas happening. Okay, that’s not exactly true, things were happening, but it was nothing that I cared about. Also, there are WAY too many POVs happening in this book. As of the time I stopped, I think we were up to 6 POV characters. Sorry, that’s way too many to keep track of.
I tried really hard to get through this, because it’s from NetGalley and I feel like I should power through and always finish them, but I just can’t. It isn’t holding my interest at all and life is too short to struggle with subpar books.

It's sad to think about my excitement upon receiving this ARC. Anne Rice has always been one of my favorite authors ever since Interview. In Ramses the Damned: The Reign of Osiris, Rice and Rice return to the story of immortal Ramses and his found family.

My complaint about the previous book in this series is that Julie was underused, seeming more of a side character rather than a main. I think they manged to rectify that here. Julie becomes more present in this novel and she has much more page time and stronger decisions. I found this book to be less steamy than the previous one and also way less dramatic, but I think the latter is certainly a good thing, seeing that I was annoyed with the SENSE OF URGENCY in almost every scene in Cleopatra. The storytelling is also tighter here. One thing I did want to say is that I love Anya, Give me a tortured crazy girl who clings to innocence, and you've sold me on that character, That was Anya for sure. I would have liked to have seen more of her.

With Anne's passing, it makes sense that the younger Rice not continue this story. I hope that's his decision. The ending didn't really need to be followed by another.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC. This review was definitely bittersweet for me to write.

Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for my honest response.

I have been an Anne Rice fan for years. Since I discovered Interview with a Vampire. I've followed all of the stories and always enjoyed them. That being said, I feel like this was more her son's book than hers. Way too many characters and plot and world building that dragged on. In the end, I wanted to love it. but ended up only liking it.

RIP Anne rice.

"I recognize it (the Eye of Osiris)...because I once wore it briefly, when I was King."
I am honored to have been selected to read and review a novel written by the great Anne and Christopher Rice, and at the time that I am reading this, she has passed away. Ramses The Damned was the first Anne Rice novel that I have read. Ms. Rice was well known for her dark writing and I am looking forward to reading this novel. I have always meant to read her novel, especially "Interview With a Vampire", which has always been one of my favorite films. I have not read the previous two Ramese novels, which puts me at a disadvantage, as a result, my review will be exclusive to the third installment.
At the fiftly percent mark of the novel, I am having trouble following the plot, which was mainly because this was number three in a trilogy, so this was creating gaps in the story. The first novel was published in 1991, the second installment's publishing date was 2017, the final novel comes out in Feburary. This novel is not a stand alone, so the reader was at a disadvantage having not read the the previous two novels.The writing was fabulous, it is descriptive, which made it easy to to image the characters and historical ladmarks.
Ramese was brought back to life in Edwardian England during the period just before the first World War. Rameses fell in love with Julie Strafordand and it was her father, Lawrence that discovered Ramese's tomb and brought him back to life.I found it humorous reading Ramese The King driving a car. I appreicated the opportunity to read this novel by Anne and Christopher Rice, NetGalley, and the publisher and in return, I wrote this honest review. Even though, I had difficulty following the plot, there is no doubt that this is a five star novel.

“ Ramses the Damned. The Reign of Osiris” is Anne Rices’ final book written with her son Christopher Rice and a long awaited sequel to “ The Mummy”.
As the mortal world is poised on the brink of world war, Bekatan, the Queen of the Immortals calls together her subjects to come to Brogdon Castle, make it clear that they will not use their influence in mortal conflicts and to form an alliance.
When her letter reaches Julie Stratford and Ramses in London, Ramses bristles at what he feels is Bekatans’ mothering but Julie soothes him and convinces him it is time to form an alliance.
The group will face an old foe from Julia’s’ fathers past and a mysterious relic that has powers that have been buried for thousands of years, along with creatures who may not wish to be wakened.
I love Ann Rices’ books although I felt her early stories were her best. I did feel this one was more Christopher than her. It had too many characters and back story, plot/world building before anything happened. You are 42% into the book before the plot moves forward and then it is pretty slow. I wanted to like this more than I did but I am happy to see I am in the minority. Thank you #netgalley and the publisher for the e-copy in exchange for my honest opinion.
RIP Ms. Rice and thank you for years of happy days lost in your worlds.

I first discovered Anne Rice back in the mid-80s. Vampire Lestat had just released and was getting a ton of press and so got me interested in the series. Read Interview with the Vampire over a couple of days and instantly became a massive fan of Anne’s work. Then in ’89 The Mummy came out and I absolutely loved it and when I got the end I was thrilled to see a message saying that the adventures would continue. Well I waited…and waited…and waited. It was just shy of two decades before Anne made got on that promise and delivered The Passion of Cleopatra. By the time it released I had read and re-read the original many many times and I’ll be the first to admit my excitement and expectations for the sequel were unrealistic. That being said, it was a pretty good book in its own right, though of course the original is still my favorite.

And after reading the newest book in the series: The Reign of Osiris, the first book is still my favorite, though fans of the series will not be disappointed. Now I must admit I had trouble writing this review, trouble being objective because Anne Rice passed away while I was in the process of reading Reign of Osiris. I waited a while before attempting this review but I still find it hard to be objective. Like the previous book, Anne wrote this one with her son Christopher. While I don’t know which of them took the lead on writing this one and perhaps it’s merely silly sentimentality on my part, but it felt very much like classic Anne Rice with vidid characters and a rich and complex storyline.

I’d like to thank Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Anchor, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an eARC of Reign of Osiris.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-reign-of-osiris-anne-rice/1140778654?ean=9781101970492&bvnotificationId=8f018f6d-837c-11ec-82d4-0adf43cff453&bvmessageType=REVIEW_APPROVED&bvrecipientDomain=gmail.com#review/199728901

https://www.amazon.com/review/R3PTGLLHWFFZJF/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv