Tomorrow's Sphinx

by Clare Bell

Two unusual black cheetahs share a mental link, one cat coming from the past to reveal scenes from his life with the young pharaoh Tutankhamen, and one struggling to survive in a future world ravaged by ecological disaster.

Genres: Fantasy, Animals, Science Fiction, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Young Adult, Cats

292 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1986

About the author

I've been really busy with the Ratha's Creature Graphic Novel project! The idea of adapting Ratha's Creature as a graphic novel is now moving much closer to reality. Our Kickstarter is 75% funded, with 5 days left.

http://bit.ly/rathakick

Tod, Dani, Ian, and Sheila have put together a real treat for Ratha fans -- a music video about how the artists are developing and visualizing Bonechewer for the Ratha graphic novel.

See it here at: http://youtu.be/CTJ_UilUX2A




















To promote it, project artist Tod Wills
is doing a Livestreaming art marathon:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/icon-day

His info headquarters for the livestream is:

http://djinni.livejournal.com/475140....

Here is a graphic you are free to use to link to the kickstarter:
http://todwills.deviantart.com/art/Ra...

Quick Kickstarter link

http://bit.ly/rathakick

If you like what you see, please pledge on Kickstarter.

A sample page from the Graphic Novel and the promo image are in my Goodreads photos, so take a peek.

I've put more info in the blog below:

If this graphic novel takes off, I will also be further inspired to write more Ratha books!



















Another good thing is happening! Imaginator Press and I are exploring the possibility of doing a Ratha's Creature graphic novel! To measure reader interest, we have a survey here, so please participate.
http://imaginatorpress.wufoo.com/form...

By filling out the survey, you'll be entered to win a $25 gift certificate from the offline or online bookstore of your choice. Help us out and perhaps win something nice to read.

Many good things have happened since my last update. The first, and best is that Sheila Ruth of Imaginator Press worked with me to get all of the Ratha books back into print. You have probably seen them on this site, in trade format, and gorgeous new covers by artist Lew Lashmit, re-copyedited (though not word of the story changed!) and lovely new interior and graphic design by 1106 Design.

The books are also available in many formats from E-Reads, Amazon, and other sites. I've set up an online bookstore on my webpage so that people can by autographed editions.

I've been publicizing the series by attending many conventions and events. Sheila and I also ran a Ratha fan art contest on the Facebook series fan page ( http://www.facebook.com/rathaseries ) and Wildfire, which was great fun and the artists enjoyed it. We also showcased about 10 artists by posting interviews and images on my upgraded webpage, http://wwww.rathascourage.com.

Even though many of these activities took me away from Goodreads, I'm glad to be back and to support Imaginator Press's Ratha's Creature giveaway.

I've also been reading lots of good books and I will be cataloging and commenting on those as well.

Clare Bell
11/7/2011




Wow, it has been a great Spring 2009!

From March 14 to May 9, I posted an experimental Ratha novelette on Twitter, entitled "Ratha's Island", which kept me very busy. You can find the entire story archived here:
First archive for Ratha's Island on the Forum http://forum.rathascourage.com/index....
While visiting the Forum, check out the Named role-play at: http://forum.rathascourage.com/index....

Ratha's Courage was a finalist for the Ursa Major Awards, and is still in the running for the ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Award/

In January, I attended Further Confusion 09 in San Jose as a Guest of Honor and had a great time. I plan to go again to FurCon 2010.





Ratha's Courage is on the Ursa Major Awards Recommended Reading List for Novels. The Ursa Major Awards are the furry/anthropomorphic community's equivalent of the SF world's Hugo Awards http://www.ursamajorawards.org/ReadLi...

Ratha and the Named on Twitter! See the ClanChirps, http://www.twitter.com/rat

Reviews

[Samantha (AK)]

Read this when I was a kid; It had a tremendous impact on my tiny self's imagination, and I've lost count of the number of times I tried (and failed) to find it in libraries after that first read.

Might see if I can track down an actual copy at some point to see how my memory's held up over the years.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book countless times growing up, but it's been long out of print, and probably 20 years since I last had a copy. I bought one used online, and it's a library book with the check-out slip still inside, stamped with dates from the 80s and 90s, back when I was also borrowing this book. I am glad that I still enjoy it just as much as I did then. A wonderful mix of fantasy, history and science-fiction, told through the eyes of exceptionally intelligent cheetahs. It is technically juvenile fiction, but doesn't feel childish. A forever favorite.

[Icer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found out about this book a long time ago via some book list on the internet, whose synopsis was something like 'time travelling cheetahs' and I could never find it, although it did lead to me reading that author's more famous book, Ratha's Creature. In fact I was a bit scared to finally read Tomorrow's Sphinx in case it was a letdown. Well, I wasn't disappointed, in some ways it's better than Ratha's Creature. I think I would have enjoyed it even more when I first started looking for it. Not sure of the exact target audience but it's probably "YA". If you are interested in a book from cheetahs' POV and/or a fantasy set in ancient Egypt you may like this book.

The start of the book is a bit hard to get into, it's a bit like those 'realistic' depictions of animals in the wild where everything is a struggle for survival and horrible. When I first found out about the book I assumed 'time travel' meant to the future, but it seems the travel is an ancient cheetah to/from the past, in Ancient Egypt. As soon as the book started being from the POV of the cheetah in Ancient Egypt it was much more interesting. In fact the author seems to have written the book 'inspired by' some actual ancient Egyptian artefacts. These include ones that definitely depict cheetahs and also black artefacts that have variously been interpreted as either cheetahs or leopard. The author even breaks the 4th wall by having some characters call the main character a 'black leopard' as an insult.

Now this isn't a fantasy, domestic cheetahs really did used to be a thing. Unfortunately for cat lovers, they didn't really continue as a popular pet. The only speculation I have read elsewhere about why is that they were relatively difficult to breed in captivity and could not fully adapt to domestication. So I think this is a bit of a speculative what if story, about the cheetahs that through selective breeding were more friendly and domesticated. And as we know from other domesticated animals, they are often appearing in other colours like black, and so do most wild cats although only a few actual black cheetahs have been recorded in contemporary times.
If you think it would have been great to have a friendly domestic cheetah, the book is a bit bittersweet.

As for the other cheetah in the future who is returned to in the final section of the book: well I won't spoil the ending, I think you will enjoy the book more if the plot isn't spoiled.
As soon as I finished the book I felt like it had put a different perspective on the first parts of the book so I wanted to re-read it. This book loses points in that the start of the book wasn't engaging when I first read it. Someone might like it, but it was a bit of a chore for me. It's actually hard to rate the book, it is amazing. Yet it feels like something is slightly off about the writing and parts of it needed to be rewritten slightly differently, I'm not exactly sure what it is. Not being perfect doesn't detract from the book's overall impact when you read the entire thing though.

[Thistle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could review this book fairly. It's by my favorite author, and most of what I could read of it was good, but it was such a challenge to read. Long, long since out of print, physical copies are really expensive (lowest I saw was $56, most in hundreds of dollars range), and I can't read physical books anyway (font too small). So hunting around a lot, I found a copy online through a library lending system.

Unfortunately, unlike books from Amazon or elsewhere, you can't remove the DRM protection from a library book, so I had to read it on my computer. I really, really do not enjoy reading books on my computer. I can't concentrate on them, and it's not relaxing to me.

Worse than that, the book was scanned in, so large sections of it were completely unreadable.

I really liked about half of what I could read of the book. It was completely in Clare Bell's voice, and I would recognize it anywhere. She's a wonderful writer of "talking animal" stories -- one of the best in the world. So the parts about the cheetah character in the wild were wonderful.

Unfortunately I'm not really into ancient Egypt, so those parts of the book were less to my taste.

All in all, unfortunately I can't say I enjoyed reading this book, but it wasn't at all the story's fault. Maybe one day every book that has ever been printed will be available as a good-quality ebook...

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finally read this! It’s been on my shelves for yeaaaaaars and boy... I really don’t know how I feel about it.

The basic premise is a cheetah who was born differently from the others discovers a key to her identity from a cheetah from ancient Egypt. Add in space crafts, telepathy, and you have Tomorrow’s Sphinx.

I really liked this premise, it was unique from other fiction written about animals, and usually if science fiction has animals in it it’s usually Dolphins, so that was a nice change. But the execution was not handled that well, it felt as if a bunch of shit just kept happening and happening until we finally get to the end where it ends in an info dump and then it’s over. I feel like the book could’ve been longer (like literally closer to the end I was like how is this going to end? Even though I had an idea... but ehhh), and maybe more fleshed out since we just started to get to know the characters and it’s over. Plus, it would’ve been nice to see how Menk and Kichebo fair since their powers seemed stronger than Tut and Asu-Kheknemt.... maybe this would’ve been better as a series? 🤷🏼‍♀️

So basically what I’m trying to say is I liked it, but at the same time I didn’t.

[Yasmin Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

This a strange book, an interesting blend of animal-fiction, science-fiction and post-apocalyptic. It reminds me a bit of Stephen Baxter’s book “Icebones” where we have a cross-genre story of an animal, in this case a black cheetah, surviving in a post-human world. Yet, threaded amongst the story of Kichebo growing up and trying to survive despite the difficulties caused by her strange coat colour, we also have the story of Kheknemt, another black cheetah, but one who lived alongside Tutankhamen thousands of years previously. As the story progresses past and future begin to be weaved ever more tightly together as the mystery builds as to who or what Kichebo is and why is she is being pursued by humans in their flying machines.

Yet again, I am amazed at the skill in which Clare Bell has brought her felines to life. I loved her Ratha series and this book certainly is of the same calibre. Such a shame this book is now quite rare and expensive to find. Here’s hoping that one day Clare Bell will be able to re-publish it as she has the Ratha series. It certainly deserves a second chance to see the sun.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in Egypt at somepoint in the future with a drying climate and vegetable disappearing to close to the Nile, the protagonist is a young black with gold markings female cheetah, Kichebo, who is different from her kind by both color and mental abilities who is trying to make her way in this declining world and pursured by advanced space traveling humans. She is able to form a mental bond with a very young female human, Menk, who she rescued from a burning crashed ship. If this isn’t unusual enough, Kichebo is able to share a mental link with another cheetah like her, Asu-Kheknemt, who lived thousands of years ago as the companion of King Tut and who relates his experiences from that period.

A different story in that it is told from the viewpoint of the cheetahs. The end is a bit on the too good to be true side along without much of an explanation as to who the people are and their background.

[Lauren Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

Loved this book, can't really put into words why. I'm always a sucker for time travel or just time as a mechanic in literature, and media in general, and combining that with xenofiction is just perfect for me.

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember reading this book at a very young age and it stuck with me. Stunningly imaginative.

[Vici · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first time I read this book, I was... oh, about ten or twelve. It came in a large pile of five-cent books at a flea market and was missing both the covers, so I had no idea what I was getting into when I opened it. All I knew was that it said "Tomorrow's Sphinx" on the spine, with this itty bitty icon of a black cheetah face with gold tearlines, and a gold pharaoh's burial mask.

I read it once. Loved it. Read it again, still loved it. Moved, lost it, moved, found it, moved, lost it... I'm twenty one now, found it again, and read it again. I still love it, though not as much as I did when I was a kid.

It's frustrating at parts because I'm old enough to over-analyze it. I try a little too hard to figure out exactly what it is that's being described; but a cheetah that's never seen a two-legger or their machinery before, is not going to have a word for propellers or wheels or any other artificial things, so it's a rather pointless endeaver to try and figure out if that "shiny giant not-a-bird thing" is a plane, or a helicopter, or a flying saucer. If you can just sit back and enjoy the narrative without trying to make everything fit into a template of your own level of knowledge understanding, it'll go much easier.

The info-dump at the end could have been handled better, but the story itself is still a good one. The characters are very good, the mythology is great, and the chance to look at the world through the eyes of a sentient animal is still something I greatly enjoy.

I highly recommend this!

[Erica]

Whelp... I can't rate this book. Its utterly befuddles me. Im sure it wasn't good, but it also wasn't bad, it was just... wow. I started reading because I though, "Time traveling space cheetahs? LOL gotta read this" but what I got was not time traveling space cheetahs but self-aware, future cheetahs that used telepathy with cheetahs from the past that were King Tuts pets. I honestly have no real idea what the plot was, things just kind of happened and the ending didn't seem like much of an ending at all. Its basically a book with al this crazy nonsense happening for no good reason and then in the last two pages you're told whats going on. I don;t know, I guess it makes sense because your getting the cheetahs perspective but still, it seemed more like a 300 page introduction than an actual story. The characters are interesting and there are some plot points that are cool scattered amongst all the ludacris ones so it's definatly not a terrible book. To conclude, if you wanna be left scratching your head and just sorta baffled, read this book.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yet another creative and well-spun tale from Clare Bell. "Tomorrow's Sphinx" was a very interesting book. The whole time I was reading it I was thinking about how original the whole thing was.
I got confused a few times, though. For some reason I had trouble focusing most of the time I was reading it, which was more just happenstance than because the book was boring or something. It happens from time to time. If I'd read it at more opportune times, I would probably give it all five stars. But, even if I did get confused, I read it well enough to tell that it was a very well-thought out story, and it kept me interested, even amazed, the whole time. This book definitely derserves a reprint!

[Maren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I clearly remember adding this book to my "books read" list way back in junior high when the creation of any list still involved a paper notebook and a pencil. I also clearly recall adding the mark I used for "re-read," as well as the one for "want to own" - yeah, even as a kid, I was creepily organized.

That said, I did reread it a year or two later. I never got around to owning it, though, but the fact that it still sticks with me more than 15 years later kind of speaks for itself. I can't imagine it would be nearly as awesome at 28 as I thought it was when I was 13, but you never know. I can, however, tell you that at age 13, it was quite possibly my favorite book.

[Carrie-Lea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this one up because of my love of her previous works, and am fascinated by cheetahs.
Usually if someone puts a little personal spin on history, I find it needs a delicate balance between believable and outright silly. I found that Clare Bell did a good job in adding her own flair to an existing story in history (and I say story because of how old the characters are in our history).

And of course, she again does a wonderful job of creating a main character that you can feel a twinge of empathy for.

[Chelsea Malcolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have loved to have owned a wild animal as a pet when I was young so this book was especially awesome to me. Clare Bell has written some super good books from an animal perspective and this is one of them.

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have tried to enjoy this book repeatedly.The premise is excellent/ I love, love big wild cats, and ancient Egypt.I do nor think I have ever finished it. Clare Bell is hard to find, so get it if you find it. It just might be me.

[Daisy-Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book when I was in middle school and now at age 31 I still remember it. That should say something about it. I'm a sci-fi buff though and LOVE ancient cultures so it blended my two loves into one fantastic tale. I rated it a 3 cos for an adult it might be a frustrating read.

[Brynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this in middle school and it was one of the few books I actually finished at the time. Absolutely adored it. Still think about it from time to time... I wonder if it's as good now as it was back then

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was an adolescent favorite, I had forgotten how often I reread it until something recent triggered a dusty memory. Thank heavens for Google, I couldn't remember the title or author, but "Egyptian black cheetah book" was a winner.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book set both in Ancient Egypt and the far future. As with other books by Ms Bell, the book is about acceptance and growing.

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't remember much because i read this in high school or even earlier, but i remember loving this book....

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been trying to remember the title of this books for years!! Finally!

[Maddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

One I loved as a tween. Sentient black cheetahs bred for hunting, witness King Tutankhamen's rise and fall. What's not to love??

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember absolutely loving this book. Too bad it's severely out of print, though.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-read.