Valley of Kings

If Alex and Ren are going to stop the Death Walkers, they must find the powerful Lost Spells. So, they head to the Valley of the Kings, deep in the Egyptian desert — where they discover that Egypt is in the grips of madness. Voices in the air whisper dark secrets and flashes of light burn across the night sky. Plus, their hunt for the Spells keeps getting sabotaged. Every step they take, The Order is hot on their trail. There’s no dodging, no hiding. Is someone leaking their secrets? Is there anyone they can trust?

With the help of his best friend, Ren, and his cousin, Luke, Alex continues his search for his mother. When they get to Egypt, The Order – “a criminal cult that had haunted Egypt for thousands of years” – is on their trail, leading to many action-packed chase scenes. Soon, the three kids are heading to the Valley of Kings. While there, their search for clues proves fruitless.

Along the way, the kids meet King Tut, who is looking for his heart. King Tut’s appearance adds some much-needed humor and teaches about ancient Egyptians. While the kids do fight a Death Walker, most of the story is focused on keeping away from The Order. In the end, the Death Walker’s demise is anticlimactic because he rarely appears and his strange powers are never explained. 

Valley of Kings is a disappointing installment in the TombQuest Series. Alex and his companions spend too much time running away from thugs and not enough time investigating his mother’s disappearance. The Order ramps up the violence and shows that they are willing to kill innocent people to gain power. But by the end of the story, Alex is no wiser and has no new information about his mother or the Order. In addition, there is a shocking betrayal that will leave readers confused and heartbroken. King Tut is the one bright spot in the story. However, readers interested in learning about King Tut and Ancient Egypt’s culture would do better to wrap their hands around The Curse of King Tut’s Mummy by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld. 

Sexual Content 

• None

Violence 

• A man who works for The Order takes a new employee named Abdel to a warehouse. Abdel opens a door, “releasing a rush of stinking air and a swarm of dark whispers so strong that Abdel could feel them, like snake tongues on his skin.” Abdel sees an “abomination.” The other man pushes Abdel into the room and locks the door.
• After being locked in a room, Abdel hears “ten thousand whispers combined. . . Unleashed, the heavy whispers cut into him, no longer tongues but teeth! Each one grabbed a piece, tore it off, gobbled it down. It wasn’t his body they were devouring; it was his soul.” The man dies as his body “was torn to bits, devoured.”
• When Alex and his friends get to Egypt, a cab driver tells them about a doctor who “heard voices and then attacked a patient with a metal crutch.” 
• When Alex sees an Order thug, he “gripped his amulet tighter with his left hand as his right shot up and unleashed a spear of concentrated wind that knocked the man back against the wall. . . his head hit the bricks and his eyes fluttered closed.” Then, “a flash of crimson light lit the Egyptian dusk and people began to fall to the ground.” Alex and his group run and hide.
• The Order tries to find Alex and his group. They break down a door and Alex “turned just in time to see the last figure in line glide silently into the house: a very thin woman wearing a pale white mask — the skull of a lioness. . . As she disappeared inside, the doorway lit up red. The Order had followed the wrong trail and someone else had just paid the price.”
• Peshwar and other members of The Order break into a museum to kidnap Alex and his friends. Tired of running, Alex grabs his amulet and “his right hand shot up, his fingers spread slightly. . . a column of desert air rose up and rushed forward. . . the lioness [Peshwar] staggered backward a few steps. . . A heavy main door slammed shut. A thick crunch and a pitiable wail could just be heard over the shipping winds as the forearm of the man about to enter was pinned in place. . .”
• Peshwar goes on the offensive. “Alex looked up in time to see a red glow sprout from Peshwar’s closed right hand and form itself into something like an icicle: A jagged, uneven shard of crimson light. . . The glowing energy dagger flew through the air.” To save Ren, Alex jumps in front of her. “The blood-red slice of light pierced the elbow of Alex’s outstretched left arm.” The light causes pain, but no lasting damage. 
• As Alex and his group flee, Alex hears “the thick whisper of a silencer — Frummp! — and then a bullet plinked off the heavy stone sarcophagus.” No one is hit.
• Hessan, the museum curator, helps Alex and his friends escape. As a diversion, he goes to fight Peshwar and her group. Alex “heard the sharp sound of a pistol handle to the skull and the dull thump of Hessan’s stocky body hitting the floor.” Alex and his friends escape through a secret tunnel. The chase scene is described over seven pages. 
• While on a train, The Order drugs Alex and tries to kidnap him. When a man tries to zip tie Alex, Luke “clocked the intruder in the head with a shiny new ten-pound dumbbell . . . the man collapsed heavily to the floor.” The two boys “dragged the guy out into the hall” and push him off the train. “They watched the man tumble limp-limbed down a sandy bank.”
• Alex and his friends discuss King Tut. “A lot of people think he was murdered. His heart was missing when they found him. And my mom says there was a hole in his head.”
• Alex and his friends go into an Egyptian tomb and find grave robbers. When Alex questions them, he hears the cock of a gun. The grave robbers threaten them but then leave.
• In King Tut’s tomb, Alex finds human bones and “scraps of scorched uniforms; the remains of a pistol, its melted barrel drooping down like a water faucet; two skulls, two large rib cages.”
• While in the Valley of Kings, a Death Walker tries to kill Alex and his friends. “A pulse of pure white light flashed out from the man’s eyes. All three friends called out in pain and surprise. Every inch of exposed skin had been suddenly and severely sunburned. . .” 
• The kids run from the Death Walker, who creates a “rolling ball of fire” and prepares to throw it at Ren. Alex uses his amulet. “A wind more powerful than Alex expected rose instantly and swept across the floor of the valley. . . Alex saw the glow of the flaming orb smothered completely. . .” The kids escape. The scene is described over eight pages.
• Peshwar and her goons steal ancient sacred stones. “A few men tried to get in front of the truck as it pulled away. A warning shot was fired in the air. There were angry shouts, but in the end the men moved. . .. “
• While walking at night, an adult friend of Alex is attacked when by a random man. The man stepped out and “Todtman saw a kitchen knife in his hand. The blade flashed out fast—but not fast enough. The man was already spinning up and away, tossed through the air like a Frisbee. He hit the pole of the streetlight. . .” The man dies.
• The story ends with a multi-chapter face-off between Alex, his friends, and the Death Walker. The Death Walker, Akhenotra, creates a fire ball. “Alex swung his head back around and flame filled his vision. The Walker had released his fire ball, and it was rocketing toward him. . .” Alex holds up a book which the fire hits. “Alex was left shaking his burned fingers.” 
• The Death Walker tries to destroy Alex and his friends so he can eat their souls. “Akhenotra’s jaw suddenly dropped open. Flame poured from his open mouth. Alex lurched to the side and tried to fall back out of the way. . .he screamed as he felt the searing flames burn through his shirt and bite into the soft flesh of his left shoulder.”
• Akhenotra tries to kill Tut by throwing a fire ball at him. “But Tut merely pressed both hands together in front of him as if praying. The flames broke on his hands like a wave splitting against a pier. Tut was shrouded in fire, but uninjured.”
• During his life, Akhenotra stole Tut’s heart in order to use it as an offering to the sun God. Now, Tut attacks to take his heart back. Tut brought “his sword down hard only to have it blocked by the thick handle of the mace. He brought his sword up and down four more times in quick succession, each blow blocked. . . The heavy curved blade of Tut’s khopesh [sword] cut clean through the handle of the mace and sunk deep into the Death Walker’s chest. Both halves of the mace thunked to the floor.” However, the Death Walker cannot be killed because he’s already dead. 
• Alex reads a spell from the Book of the Dead. Afterwards, Alex looks up to see “Tut was standing with his own bronze sword buried deep in [Akhenotra’s] chest, the blade no longer aflame but still sizzling slightly. . . And Akhenotra—Alex gazed at the space in front of Tut—Akhenotra wasn’t standing at all.” 
• When Alex is in Tut’s tomb, “the crack of a rifle and the ping of a bullet jarred him back to brutal reality. . . An energy dagger exploded into the sandy ground at Alex’s feet with a vicious crackle. . . A chorus of rifle fire followed, and the two remaining friends dove for cover.” 
• Alex and Ren try to hide. Ren sees “the toe of a boot poke out from the side of the altar. One of the gunmen had reached them. . . [Ren] brought the sword up and down. . . blood rushing out the chopped-off end of his boot.”
• To escape The Order, Luke runs into the desert. “The valley floor in front of him lit up rose-red. . . The energy dagger sank into his back with a dull crackling sound and a pain more intense than he’d ever imagined possible. He fell to the hard desert ground, full-speed and face-first, like a gazelle gunned down mid stride.” Luke dies.

Drugs and Alcohol 

• None

Language 

• The Order drugs Alex, who “tried to get up but his body felt so heavy that the best he could do was roll out of his bunk. . . his numb body barely registered the impact.” Both his mind and body become numb.
• When asked to use her amulet, Ren thinks that it isn’t like “freaking Google!”
• Luke calls Ren and Alex “nerds” and “Goofball-ese.”
• The Death Walker calls Alex a “little heretic.”

Supernatural

• Alex’s amulet “was a symbol of resurrection in ancient Egypt, and his amulet dealt with life, death, and rebirth.” It gives Alex the ability to control wind.
• While walking in the Valley of Kings, Ren sees a man change. “His loose clothing shimmered and faded away, gone just like the heat haze that had surrounded him. In its place, an ancient outfit: a white tunic laced with golden thread. . . the face beneath it was dark tan . . . and horribly blistered.” The man was a Death Walker. Later, the Death Walker changes shape again.
• “The ancient Egyptians believed that if they had a statue of themselves built before they died, they could, like, inhabit it in the afterlife. Their spirit could take on its shape.”
• The Death Walker has the ability to create fire balls.
• Alex and Ren run through a false doorway that leads into the afterlife and then pop out in some unknown location.

Spiritual Content 

• The Egyptians believed that after someone dies, they must pass the weighing of the heart ceremony — “a test to get into the afterlife.” The Death Walkers were “beings evil enough that they knew they would fail the test. . . they had clung to the edge of the afterlife, in between life and death, waiting for an opportunity to escape.” 
• During the heart ceremony “the god Thorth stood by to record the result: Would the heart be weighed down by guilt or Ibe destroyed forever?”
• After meeting King Tut, Luke describes him as a “total dive.” Alex explains Tut’s behavior: “Pharaohs were told they were living gods. I could see that going to your head.” 
• King Tut appears in the Valley of Kings. He tries to pet Pai, but when the cat hisses, Tut said, “Fine, you little beast, flea receptacle. All I did was restore the worship of the old gods, your master included. All I did was rebuild their temples.” Later Tut explains that his father “banned the old gods, worshiped the sun — my whole childhood I was sunburned from praying to the thing.”

• Inside a tomb, the chamber has the Aten on the walls. “The sun disk—the symbol of the pure light religion imposed by Tut’s father.”
• During mummification, the Ancient Egyptians always left the heart in the body. “Tut was the only pharaoh ever discovered without one. . . Without the heart, Tut couldn’t go through the heart ceremony to gain entrance into the afterlife. He would be forever between worlds.”