(Cover picture courtesy of The Bibliophilic Book Blog.)

Ancient artifacts like nothing ever discovered before are uncovered in Egypt. They are manufactured by a technique unknown to man and defy all attempts at analysis. A few individuals acquire these items including two top intelligence operatives from Russia and the United States. They are instantly endowed with god-like abilities. But as everyone knows absolute power corrupts absolutely and even with strong national loyalties how will these men react? The American intelligence freelancer, Cord Devlin, is susceptible to temptation at least in the estimation of his friend and handler, Paul McMaster, at the CIA. Still when one is fighting a war against a gifted opponent one cannot afford to be picky about using one’s own assets. Thus a new cold war is born with men and weapons that make a nuclear deterrent look quaint. The one thing that gives Cord an edge is also the thing that makes him immature in Paul’s eyes. Cord’s deep and abiding love of all things Star Trek and the lessons it inspired will also help him deal with an otherworldly threat whose sole purpose is to indefinitely continue the conflict.

[Full disclosure: Michael J. Foy sent me a free ebook in exchange for an honest review.]

Ghosts of Forgotten Empires definitely has an interesting premise, but I have pretty mixed feelings about it.

On one hand, there’s the awesome idea behind it and the fast-paced plot.  The idea of a malignant alien technology being sentient and controlling humankind for millions of years is interesting, to say the least.  Not a lot of time is spent on the technology itself, but the glimpses we see of it throughout the novel are just enough to satisfy a bit of our curiosity.  Ghosts of Forgotten Empires also has a very fast-paced plot, which fans of thrillers and mystery novels will appreciate.

However, characterization was sacrificed in the name of this fast plot.  To keep up such a fast pace, Michael Foy changed points of view.  A lot.  At times it was extremely confusing and although things were sort of tied together in the end, I was beyond caring.  Characters make the book for me and the constant head-hopping made it hard to really relate to any one character.  So on the other hand I didn’t enjoy Ghosts of Forgotten Empires as much as I could have.

One thing that really impressed me was Michael Foy’s attention to detail when it came to the science part of his science fiction novel.  I’m not going to pretend I understood even half of the scientific explanations that appeared in the novel, but I’m guessing fans of hard science fiction will love them.  If you don’t mind head-hopping and a large cast of characters and like to focus on science and plot, you’ll like Ghosts of Forgotten Empires.  It just wasn’t for me.

I give this book 3/5 stars.

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