BEFORE YOU BUY/READ THIS NOVEL:1. Avoid most reviews, they're full of spoilers without warnings.2. Imhotep is a stand alone book that spurred three sequels. There are also two more books after that, but I'm not sure how they relate, I'm on book two (The Buried Pyramid) at the moment.3. This is a long read, note the picture demonstrating the size of the book, which is just over 400 pages, followed by two chapters of the next novel (at least if you buy the paperback edition that I have)4. It's not a magical fantasy novel, even though time travel is a central device that gets the story moving forward. Outside of time travel there is nothing magical going on and the portrayal of Old Kingdom is both immersive and relatively realistic. I've been interested in ancient Egyptian history, culture and religion since I was six years old and I didn't cringe at any obvious inaccuracies. The only part that stands out is the frequent use of camels which, as far as we know, weren't widely used in Egypt until thousands of years later, but it didn't bother me, just picture that they're donkeys on those two occasions when they make an appearance. The author clearly conducted extensive research into the subject and does a great job painting realistic interactions between institutions and individuals in ancient Egypt.5. The story is at times light and humorous, but carries several serious messages along and explores in-depth both sides of humanity. It's both an adventure story that keeps you wondering what will the next page bring as well as a treatise into the human psyche. Motivations and individual philosophy of every character is explored and developed, at times interwoven with various religious beliefs of the times and considerable doubt. There are moments of serious contemplation, action scenes, comedic episodes, sex and love, political intrigue, horror and human growth. The novel doesn't seem to be directed at any one specific audience. It becomes increasingly more serious and dark towards the end.6. Imhotep is not the most exciting novel, it's more like a decent wine that you want to savor, it wouldn't work in any other setting than Ancient Egypt. I think the author wanted it to be more of an action packed adventure than it turned out to be, you can tell that he wanted to show us the smells, the sights, the cultural and human warmth of the ancient Egyptians which evidently hold a dear spot in his heart (which I can personally relate to) and the balance is not always perfect, but it works.7. Some more sensitive readers might be disturbed by some of the violent scenes and/or sexually active 13 year olds who are considered to be adults of prime age at the time. These scenes aren't central to the story and you can skip them if you want without losing much flavor of local authenticity, so to speak.8. I'm definitely reading the rest of the series and recommend it to anyone interested in Ancient Egypt. A bit bummed out that they're all Kindle ebooks, I never got into e-readers, but I guess it's time.9. This novel is SEVERELY underpriced. Just buy it.COMMENTS WITH SPOILERS & LIGHT CRITICISM:1. The priestesses all seemed a little too good to be true, they were similarly attractive and intelligent. I could barely tell Tama and Hephernebti apart.2. Wish there was more insight into Tim's contemplation over his predicament, especially as he was becoming directly involved with the shaping of history.3. Could've done with fewer descriptions of the time spent on the boats and more exploration into the language difficulties, especially various expressions that might be difficult for modern humans to grasp at first.4. Once Tim ran out of the antibiotics and what other meds he had, I don't quite see how he would remain being a great healer. Any experienced doctor of the time would be more capable than a random modern day guy. I suppose he could teach the importance of boiling water, cooking food and cleaning hands, but we don't have that record of ancient Egypt. It's possible that he could've learned and proceeded to become a decent physician by those standards, but seems a stretch.5. I found it implausible that Tim would simply destroy the portal inscription realizing its dangers. Humans are curious creatures and he would more likely want to carefully study the phenomena. I understand his fears of mutually polluting effects, but a simple text that spurs a time portal implies our complete lack of understanding of the space-time physics and almost anyone, I think, would be dying to explore various implications.6. If the novel is ever edited/rewritten, I think adding more imperfections to all lead characters would bring the story closer to perfection. Brian needs some sort of a deviancy and character flaws, he's just too great of a guy.7. Why did Meryt have to be 13? Adding a few years would've made the whole thing a lot more comfortable while the reader could have still been introduced to the "everyone matures faster here" concept. For instance, Meryt could have been 16-17 and beginning to worry that she hasn't been married off yet.8. Absolutely loved the artists' family, would have liked more exposure to them, not sure in what context though -- maybe learning more about Egyptian art and how artists are trained and/or chosen. Hope to meet them again in the next novels.9. Would have liked to "see" more of the palace and cities, not just the temples. I understand that we have 1000 times more information on the temples, because they survive, but there's still a good amount of research into both palatial complexes and urban life in general, that it could have been explored more.10. Didn't like the whole divinity angle to Djoser. Kings have generally been considered to be divine long before him, in fact the fanaticism of devotion to their king was more profound in the earlier dynasties and has subsequently subsided as the Egyptian civilization matured. In the first dynasty living servants were sacrificed to be transported with the deceased king to the West (afterlife), a tradition that has evolved into the well-researches shabti phenomena later on. In general, the earlier the king - the more 'divine' authority they had, at least that's what I gather from my casual reading into the Egyptian history.My overall rating is 4.6, I rounded it up to 5 and hope that the author will continue to write on the subject of ancient Egypt.