Celebrated author Anne Rice is known best for her vampires, witches, and ghosts, not to mention her Sleeping Beauty S/M erotica books that make the 50 Shades of Grey novels look like Sesame Street. But back in 1989, Rice released a supernatural novel based on Egyptian legends called The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned.

The book featured historical figures King Ramses II and Cleopatra as immortals who drink a mysterious “Elixer of Life” that allows them to live through the centuries. Though the novel ended with the teaser “the adventures of Ramses will continue,” a follow-up novel never came to be, despite fans asking for one at just about every signing and public appearance Rice made over the years.

Now, over a quarter century later, Anne Rice is delivering on her promise for more adventures with Ramses and his friends with the announcement of Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra. But this long awaited novel comes with a twist, as she has co-written it with her son, fellow novelist Christopher Rice. This book would be the first collaboration between the two, and the first collaboration for Anne Rice, period.

Now the folks at Entertainment Weekly have released our first look at the cover, as well as the first excerpt from the book, which picks up where the last novel left off, with Ramses reawakened in the year 1914, and living in London as Dr. Reginald Ramsey. In this sequel, both Ramses and Cleopatra will face off with an ancient Egyptian queen who is even older and more powerful than they are. You can read the excerpt and see the cover image here.

The Rices recently announced that they are collaborating on bringing the adventures of the Vampire Lestat and his immortal companions to life once more in a new Vampire Chronicles television series, which will hopefully go into production sometime this year. Could Ramses and Cleopatra follow suit on the small screen? In a recent Q&A announcing the novel, the pair wouldn’t rule it out. Now, if we could only get the Mayfair Witches from Rice’s Witching Hour trilogy on television as well, that would be amazing.

Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra will be released on November 21.

Are you excited to read this long awaited follow up to The Mummy? Give us your thoughts down below in the comments.

Images: Anne Rice

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