Postmodernism

Postmodernism
Seeing is not always believing and believing is more than seeing

Friday, August 30, 2013

PHARAOH NOVEL



PHARAOH

A novel, by Julian Tyler

 • Sci-Fi • Historical Fiction  • Thriller •

From ancient myth to modern legend... the story of the Great House.

Book One: Conception

The Pharaoh was said to be a living god, and ruler of all the world. The word 'Pharaoh' is a Greek word which in Egyptian meant 'great house'.  Legend has it the 'Great House' of the Pharaoh started human civilization from Egypt. After several thousand years, and a global cataclysm, the Great House relocated to Babylon, and became the Persian empire.  When the Greek King, Alexander the Great, defeated the Persian Empire in 332 BCE, the Great House returned to Egypt.  Greek, Egyptian, and Persian wisdom and culture merged in the newly founded city of Alexandria, to create Hellenism.  From within the most incredible library and institution of higher learning ever built, the Library of Alexandria, the idea that wisdom is supreme evolved. Alexandria became the center of the world, and the new home of the great and powerful Pharaoh. They gathered and assimilated all wisdom known to man, the brilliant minds and writings from every corner of earth. The geniuses of Alexandria built computational machines and clocks, they discovered the world is round and circumnavigated the globe, and even experimented with electricity over a thousand years before the Europeans would later claim to have made these discoveries.  From Alexandria, the Court of the Pharaoh laid the foundation for the world as we know it today.   It was said the Pharaohs had the technology of the gods and power beyond what most can comprehend...

What if the Great House never actually ended?  What if the house of the Pharaoh continued to the present day in secret, and never lost its technological edge?

#PHARAOHNOVEL

The first book in the Pharaoh Novel series centers on the modern descendant of the Pharaoh Alexander the Great, the young prince Alexander the 30th -- titled 'Alexander XXX of America'.  The novel begins in the year 2000, when Alexander turns eighteen and is finally allowed to taste freedom and go out and explore the world.  As a prince of 'The Order' -- the modern construct of the Crown of the Pharaoh, the secret cabal that rules the world from behind the scenes of history -- he has unlimited financial resources to play with, and technology decades ahead of even the most advanced in the US government.  But with this money and power comes great responsibility, and the close watch of tyrannical elites.  Alexander learns the hard way that freedom isn't free, and revealing who he is to people, will get them killed.  Alexander's diabolical father, Darius XIV of America, is a true American psycho, and after he kills Alexander's friends to teach him a lesson about what it means to be a part of the Order, Alexander realizes his destiny is to take on the corrupt establishment of his father.  Alexander seeks greatness through freedom from his father.  He must defeat his father, and save the world.  And to do so he must learn what it means to be a hero, and a Pharaoh.

Growing up in the Order, Alexander had access to the most advanced technology on earth, and taught himself to be the world's best computer hacker.  He created what we now know of as the internet, and develops the first Artificial Intelligence system.  Darius doesn't know that Alexander is a computer genius, and when he seeks Alexander's skills to help him and take over the world, only Alexander can save the world from being taken over by a sinister, alien influenced manifestation of Artificial Intelligence...


***

Who was Alexander the Great?

Alexander the Great was a descendant of Hercules as well as Egypt's last native Pharaoh.  The Egyptian Priesthood crowned Alexander Pharaoh of Egypt after he defeated Darius III of Persia, and liberated Egypt from centuries of Persian rule in 332 BCE.   

As Pharaoh, Alexander ruled the known world, and united the East and West into one global Republic. In Alexandria, Alexander ordered the construction of a Library whose myth and legends are the subject of great mysteries and intrigue, which created the Hellenic age, and changed the course of human civilization forever. At its height, the Library of Alexandria was a globally connected and attuned depository of knowledge, with teachers of ancient wisdom, science, and arts from every corner of the globe.  The Great House of the Pharaoh was centered in Alexandria, and from this fabled city, they ruled the world with wisdom and had the most advanced technology on earth, including computational machines and electricity over a thousand years before they were later 'discovered' in Europe...


Who was Cleopatra?

The Pharaoh Cleopatra was a descendent of Alexander the Great and also worshipped as living god".  Wealthy beyond the wildest dreams of most in the world at her time, she was the super-star celebrity of her day.  The luxury and riches, the knowledge and technology of the Ptolomies, the rulers of the Great House, was legendary.  Educated in the Library of Alexandria, Cleopatra was one of the brightest minds there ever was.  Her skills in war, language, power, art, and pageantry are un-matched to this day.  She too changed the world, and inspired Shakespearian epics, and legends for centuries to come.  Cleopatra was a genius, and her court was a force to be reckoned with, and brought Rome to its knees.  Her army of artists, craftsmen, engineers, architects, warriors, spies and academics gave her near total power over the Hellenic world.  Her Priests and high initiates of Alexandria were the wizards of their day, and had the most advanced technology the world had ever seen.  She was, in every way, a Pharaoh.


What happened to Cleopatra's child with Caesar?

Caesar came to Alexandria and met and fell in love with Cleopatra. Caesar was probably crowned as a Pharaoh in an Egyptian temple ceremony.  And soon Cleopatra had a child with Julius Caesar.  After Caesar was murdered in Rome, Cleopatra had him venerated as a god.  He became a god to the Hellenic world.  History tells us this child of Caesar and Cleopatra, Caesarion, was killed after Augustus took Egypt.  Anthony and Cleopatra killed themselves in their romantic Shakespearian 'Romeo and Juliet' fashion, and Caesarion was sent to safety with some of the royal court and half it’s treasure.  Augustus was told he had been killed.  Legends say this 'last Pharaoh' escaped to India... This Pharaoh, the ‘living god’ would eventually returned to Egypt had children and the house of the Pharaoh lived on unbroken, but kept a secret from the world.

The Pharaoh is said to be the "living god", the king of kings, King of the world, entitled to the supreme Roman title of Pontifex Maximus.

The Scion of this bloodline lives.  This ‘great house’ was taken underground.  The secrets of the Pharaoh were hidden from Rome, and hidden from history.  This Scion is the modern day Pharaoh...  He is wealthy beyond imagination, has the technology that is thousands of years more advanced than the public, and he rules the world via a secret global secret society and Order.

When the discovery of the most ancient and powerful secret of the Pharaohs is found, the Aton, an artifact with a power so great it can destroy the world… It tears apart the global order.

And now someone has to save the world.

The world needs a hero.

PHARAOH


Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Pharaoh Novel Update - 8/8/2013


I'm excited.

I'm at 74,000 '74k' words on my novel already, but I'm only on Chapter 12 of my original 20 chapters.  I am aiming for about 95k words in total for the book, which is standard length. I'll probably write about 130K and then I'll have an editor to help me pare it down.  The story is also very top heavy, and the second half is already moving much faster than the first half of the story, since you don't have to explain everything.

I'm very much enjoying the experience of writing this novel.  Turning a screenplay that I have worked on since 2008 -- five years and counting -- into a novel, fleshing out the story completely on the page, explaining everything in detail, in hopefully enjoyable prose and subtly wonderful humor and emotion as possible, using many perspectives so the story can be more complete in the picture it creates and the interpersonal relationships and how they underpin the events better seen, has actually been very creatively challenging and highly intellectually stimulating.

It's a pretty big story, and I wanted it to be informative and well researched.  I want the story based in fact, grounded in reality, so that it can explore the "too fantastic to be true" science fiction and 'modern day fairytale' fantasy and what the unknown secrets of history tell us.  The basic premise is:

What if there was a modern day Pharaoh?  If there was a secret "king of the world", what would he and  his family be like?

What happens when machines become as smart as people?  Will people merge with machines and what does that mean?  How does Artificial Intelligence come to be?

'Pharaoh' is Shakespearean high drama -- Hellenic and romantic, Machiavellian characters, with the highest stakes, power, control, betrayal, family drama and the greatest moral and ethical questions of man, mind and God -- a detailed story set up around factual events, and historical characters like Alexander the Great (a Pharaoh) to make the story be more grounded, feel more 'plausible' and be more engaging and intriguing.  It's a science fiction story that resonates stronger because it feels like it could be true.  I explore the grey area between fact and fiction, the "Top Secret" world of science fiction that is actually fact or could one day actually be fact, in fact.  I researched many elements of the story extensively, for years, I wanted to incorporate actual history and useful information, and interesting philosophical and topical discussions about the future of technology, Supercomputers and cyber war, spying, Artificial Intelligence, human intelligence, and the wonders of nature, true love and the human soul.  I wanted to make the story "neoreal" or incorporating a new sense of "neorealism" that incorporates cutting edge theories about history and the future.

I excited to have written a novel.  It's an amazing feeling.  I can see it completed.

I hope it's good.  I think you'll like it.

I think it's a cool story, otherwise I wouldn't be so interested in developing it for so many years.  I wanted it to at least be fun and interesting for me to read since I will have to read it over and over again.  I have little patients for poorly conceived stories and I wanted mine to be really deep and make you think.  I want it to be entertaining, interesting and fun to read.

I've really enjoyed writing it, so hopefully people will enjoy reading it!