Tomb of Gods by Brian Moreland — thoughts and reviews and stuff

Apr 14

Apr 14 Tomb of Gods by Brian Moreland

Ten Second Review: Fun and fast paced, Moreland’s story manages to immerse you in the world of 20th century explorers. With a nice balance of history and fantasy, this is sure to keep everyone happy.

I grew up as one of those kids fascinated with ancient Egypt. Between regular visits to The British Museum , and plenty of books and cassettes about the secrets of ancient civilisations, I would easily lose myself exploring these worlds (albeit from a geographical and temporal distance). In Brian Moreland’s new book, the characters have at least managed to negate the geographical distance that I suffered in my childhood “research”.

Opening in 1935, the book details the explorer Dr Harlan Riley’s expredition to uncover one of the greatest secrets of the ancient world. When he returns a year later, alone and crazed by what he has seen, only his colleague, Nathan Trummel, and grand daughter, Imogen, are able to talk to him. With digging team in tow, the pair set off to rediscover what Harlan had found, but the deeper they get the more demons they’ll have to confront.

There’s always a delicate balancing act to navigate when writing fiction with a historical bent. The danger is that you sacrifice history for fantasy or fantasy for history. What Moreland manages to do here is produce a novel with all the intrigue of historical fiction without losing the fun and engaging qualities that fantasy can bring. Even in the depths of the story, the touch points from ancient history and the acknowledgement of some of the more theoretical beliefs that some characters hold, grounds this novel in a way that makes it feel justified in both its historical and more fantastical sensibilities.

Some of the darker sections of the books really worm their way into your psyche and you’ll find yourself quickly intrigued by characters that may at first appear a touch one note or uncomplicated. As the party journey deep into the tomb, each character becomes a little more fleshed out and you really start to engage with them as opposed to just enjoying the already intriguing story. A little horror and a little mystery help to give each character their own arc and not just focus on the protagonist’s story.

While highly enjoyable to read, the writing is not without fault. I feel as though the language reads a touch too modern for characters in the 1930s and, while I will defer from including any spoilers, I do have some qualms with the final portion of the book. It should be said that these are mostly aesthetic and therefore largely personal to my taste, and overall they didn’t greatly affect my enjoyment of the actual story.

I could easily see this book being optioned for a film, it has that cinematic quality written into its core storytelling and would be great fun to watch. If you’re looking for some escapism during these times then be sure to pick up Tomb of Gods, I’m sure it’ll do the job!