The Last Pharaoh (novel)
The Last Pharaoh was the first novel published by Thebes Publishing and premiered their Erimem series. The series was licensed and edited by Iain McLaughlin and is set following the events of The Bride of Peladon.
Publisher's summary
After a freak electrical storm that seems to happen indoors, a young woman is found in the Egyptian exhibit of a London museum, and she seems to look exactly like the face on the death-mask of the uncrowned Pharaoh Erimem...
What is she doing inside the exhibit? How did she get there? Is she really a Pharaoh from 1400 BC? And just who is willing to search time and space to find and assassinate her?
The Last Pharaoh is the first in a series of novels and short story anthologies taking Erimem, a former companion of the 5th Doctor, on a new set of adventures travelling to the past, the future and into deep space. The Last Pharaoh takes Erimem and a group of 21st century students far into the past, to Actium in Greece where Erimem meets the famed Cleopatra VII on the eve of a vital battle which could end Egypt's existence as a free country and condemn it to life as a Roman province. Two great rulers of Egypt come into conflict over what Egypt needs to do in order to survive, and both Erimem and Cleopatra face their own personal battles for survival.
Plot
to be added
Characters
- Erimem
- Ibrahim Hadmani
- Helena
- Tom Niven
- Andy Hansen
- Anna Whitaker
- Cleopatra
- Mark Antony
- Thutmose III
- Lansing
- Arthur Booth
- John Quinn
- Olinda
- Raymar
- Archibald
- O'Reilly
- Llewellyn
- Charmion
- Iras
- Leon Davis
- McInespie
- Dawson
Worldbuilding
- Andy expected Cleopatra to look like Elizabeth Taylor.
- Ibrahim's bullet wound causes him to think about the American crime dramas his girlfriend enjoys watching, CSI and NCIS.
- Ibrahim drove a Land Rover.
- Smenkhare was a female pharaoh.
- Cleopatra VII looked more Greek than Egyptian.
- Ibrahim liked to watch Sky Sports.
- Andy explained to Erimem that "a Scooby" was contemporary slang that meant "a clue," derived from Scooby Doo.
Notes
- This book contained a foreward by Caroline Morris, the actress who played Erimem in the Big Finish audio stories.
- With this depiction of Cleopatra Iain McLaughlin said this: "We (Iain and Claire Bartlett) did a bucketload of research into Cleopatra before writing The Last Pharaoh, reading up on the descriptions of her and checking out the coins with her face on from when she had moved into middle age. She had a big nose and a turkey neck. Nothing wrong with that, either. She was noted as being ordinary to look at but extraordinary to talk with. Intelligent, witty and charming. When I sent out the brief for that cover to Paul, I asked for the real take on Cleopatra rather than Liz Taylor (or even Amanda Barrie, who was, of course the definitive Cleo).
Continuity
- Erimem remembered "some place called America". (PROSE: Blood and Hope, The Gangster's Story)
- Before Erimem was teleported to the London Museum of History and Antiquities she was "far away" in a metal corridor. Erimem remembered that she "had a purpose there, Something important". (AUDIO: The Bride of Peladon)
- When Tom asked Erimem who she was, she responded "I am the one trying to keep us all alive...", mirroring the Tenth Doctor's statement in TV: Voyage of the Damned.
- When asked by Mark Antony where she learned her skills in combat, Erimem mentioned General Antranak. (AUDIO: The Eye of the Scorpion, PROSE: The Coming of the Queen)
- Andy referred to Cleopatra as "Cleo." Mickey Smith said the Tenth Doctor also called her by that nickname. (TV: The Girl in the Fireplace)
- Andy was shocked to discover Cleopatra was nowhere near as beautiful as history and movies seemed to suggest. The Tenth Doctor previously told Donna Noble that her beauty was greatly exaggerated as well. (PROSE: Ghosts of India)
External links
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