A wonderfully exciting and educational book taking the reader to Egypt. Lots of adventure to please both boys and girls mixed in with helping children learn to cope with loss. It's an attention holding book for adults as well. Great writing! A book for every child's library shelf.
Evelyn Horan - teacher/counselor/author
Jeannie, A Texas Frontier Girl Books One - Three

"The Story of Bes" was a brilliant book. Not only did was it witty, but also educational. This book would not only be good for kids, but grown-ups as well. I found it to be extremely clever. Shelli Wright Johnson is a magnificent new author. I hope there are more books where this came from. Get writing on those sequels!

"The Story of Bes" was an amazing book. It was brilliant and witty. I think this book would be enjoyable to people of all ages! Shelli Wright Johnson is the hottest new author. I hope she writes sequels. Everyone should buy this book. Its not only entertaining and enjoyable, but educational. And not in a boring way. Plus it teaches kids that everyone goes through changes in their lives, but they don't all have to be bad.

If you want a guide book with more than the basic superficial run of the mill tourist info this book is for you.

Lots of maps, tips and explanations of the deeper meaning behind the sites you're visiting.

I'm bringing this book with me on my trip!

Now in a updated and expanded new edition, John West's The Traveler's Key To Ancient Egypt continues to be the definitive guide to all of the sacred places of ancient Egypt. The ideal traveler's guidebook is enhanced with maps, diagrams, and photos to accompany the history and spiritual significance of Egypt's art, architecture, mythology, religion, and ritual practices. From the Pyramids of Giza to the Valley of the Kings, this traveler's guide reveals the hidden meaning of monuments, ancient city sites, as well as new research on the dating of the Sphinx. Travel tips include tour information, Nile cruises, what to bring and what to wear, shopping advice, as well as information on money, hotels, and restaurants. If you are planning a trip to the Land of the Pharaohs, beginning with a thorough perusal of John West's The Traveler's Key To Ancient Egypt!

This book is essential for any traveller to Egypt with a mind that is even slightly ajar, let alone open.

West gives an alternative account of the meaning of the monuments and antiquities to be seen in Egypt, more esoteric (though certainly not more difficult to understand) than that which is usually presented in guide books. He points out the details which brought him to the conclusion that the Giza Sphinx is in fact closer to 13,000 years old than the 4,500 years old that has been traditionally believed, and has a different viewpoint to the orthodox school in many cases. He presents both sides of the argument, and gives the information necessary to make up one's own mind based on observation of what is actually there to be seen.

On my first visit to Egypt, my companions and I felt rather sorry for tourists in groups with official guides, because they seemed to be missing out on at least half of the story, and in many cases the whole point.

I was particularly impressed with West's analysis of the architecture of the Temple of Luxor, based on the work of Schwaller de Lubicz, and once it was pointed out how the whole building maps onto a plan of the human skeleton, I found it very difficult to refute.

Whilst I did not always agree with his conclusions on every occasion, it cannot be disputed that West has raised thoroughly pertinent questions which conventional Egyptology has either glibly brushed under the carpet or failed to address at all.

"Serpent in the Sky" is primarily concerned with popularizing the otherwise inaccessible work of R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz, who spent a great deal of time making exhaustive measurements of the Temple of Luxor and subsequently incorporated his findings into a comprehensive reinterpretation of ancient Egypt known as "Symbolism." A final chapter and a pair of appendices summarize West's investigation of an offhand comment of Schwaller de Lubicz that the Sphinx appears to be weathered by water, with the conclusion that such weathering necessitates a redating of the Sphinx's carving to at least 5000-7000 BCE and perhaps much further in the past. As tracts of alternative archaeology go, this is not an easy read, and so the casual reader should be forewarned. The content of this book falls rather neatly into "good, bad and ugly" classifications.

On the good side, I found the application of "Symbolism" to the Egyptian hieroglyphics intriguing. West shows rather nicely (though I would like to see more conventional views in their original context) how literal translations of Old Kingdom pyramid texts seem like complete gibberish, and most likely do not do justice to the people who wrote them. The symbolic translation appears more believable.

On the bad side, West is not reticent about engaging in rants against what he terms the "Church of Progress," meaning the belief in technological and scientific advancement as the measure of human accomplishment, and the depradations of modern society (which, he boldly asserts, is not a civilization) on the human soul. One does not have to be a Luddite to have some sympathy with this view, but its application to studies of ancient Egypt, with the conclusion that this long-lost civilization was far more advanced (in a non-technological sense) than our own, seems misplaced. It is odd, after all, that after castigating modern Egyptologists for the "flimsy" reasoning behind, for example, the conventional dating of the Sphinx, West should use evidence even more flimsy to claim that the ancient Egyptians were healthier than "Western" man, or that they had knowledge of pi, phi, and the zodiac. At best, West's harping on the "Church of Progress" is simply annoying. At worst, he seems unable to recognize when his own prejudices are coloring a too-rosy picture of the past for which there is no evidence.

As for the ugly, West's creationism prompts him to unleash several baseless attacks on Darwinian evolution. Usually, his rants concern the application of evolutionary principles, which were really only meant to apply to the origin and extinction of species over great spans of geological time, to human societies. Certainly, Darwinian evolution has been overextended in non-biological arenas, but the fact of evolution is simply not contestable on rational grounds. West's scientific credentials are compromised further by his claim that astrology has some basis in observable phenomena. It is in these subjects that "Serpent in the Sky" degenerates into complete drivel.

When I returned from my first trip to Egypt in May, 1998, I voraciously read everything I could get my hands on. Before I read Serpent in the Sky, I had viewed John's emmy-award-winning documentary, so I was prepared for excellence in thinking and new ideas about ancient Egypt. Although John West writes with great flair and articulation, his summarizing of Schwaller de Lubicz was tough going. West makes some good points of his own, but some of de Lubicz's theories are too esoteric for me. West acknowledges he's not a mathemetician and much of de Lubicz's theories are based on sacred geometry, and was beyond my scope as well. I found that the quotations on the sides of the pages detracted from the main body of work. It's very apparent that West thoroughly loves ancient Egypt and has devoted many years to study, discussion and leading tours there. I had the good fortune to be with him on a second tour to Egypt in Nov, 1998. I enjoyed the foreword by Robert Masters regarding Sekhmet, as I had some extraordinary experiences with Sekhmet myself both while I was in Egypt and when I returned. All in all, I would recommend reading Serpent in the Sky. John still leads tours to Egypt.

John Anthony West has done the world an enormous service with this bold, brilliance, beautifully written and thoroughly engaging book. He extends the work of Alsation philospher and mathematician, R.A, Schwaller de Lubicz, making it not only comprehensible to the lay reader, but the only plausible explanation for the grandeur and magnificance of ancient Egyptian culture. West is anything but a New Age flake, and he takes some fairly tough-minded positions on the absurdities of modern scholarship. Yet he has the advantage over most orthodox Egyptologists in that he can (a) write -- and write superbly -- and (b) he has a sense of humor, which makes even his most vitriolic attacks on those who persist in ascribing the monuments of Egypt to a race of egomaniacal barbarians the work of a rational giant in a world of Lilliputians. His grasp of the entire sweep of Egyptian history is extraordinary, and his ability to render even the most complex accounts of Pythagorean geometry or symbolism in the hieroglyphs is something every would be academic should take notes on. Besides all this, the book is magnificently illustrated on every page. Without any question, this is one of the best books I have ever read

It was a good book, though boring at times.