Tagged: pauline gedge
The Best and Worst of May
I’m going to try something new here. On the first of every month, I’ll recap my most viewed and least viewed posts in case you’re curious as to what people are actually looking at on my site. So here are the five best posts last month:
1. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
2. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
3. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
4. Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman
5. Specials by Scott Westerfeld
I’m actually not at all surprised this time, aside from the fact that Flowers for Algernon has surpassed my popular cheat-sheet on allusions for The Hunger Games novel study. But it’s not really all that surprising since Flowers for Algernon is another popular novel study book. It probably won’t stay on top in June because school is going out. Now, here are the worst posts of May (excluding site announcements):
1. Run Like Jager by Karen Bass
2. Scroll of Saqqara by Pauline Gedge
3. The Many Diseases Found in Fiction (YA Fiction in Particular)
4. The Seven Songs of Merlin by T. A. Barron
5. Seer of Egypt by Pauline Gedge
Again, not really surprising, but notice that two out of the five books are by Pauline Gedge. I guess both she and ancient Egypt aren’t nearly as popular as I thought.
The Eagle and the Raven by Pauline Gedge
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
She was the flame-haired Boudicca, Queen of the Britons, whose passion and pride lit up the mysterious world of the ancient Celts. From the valleys and mountains of still barbaric Britain to the classic grandeur and corruption of Claudius’s Rome, here is the unforgettable drama of a warrior queen torn between love and destiny.
When I read this book I was, of course, expecting it to be about Boudicca. The blurb and the cover made me expect it to be an epic saga about the warrior queen who led the doomed rebellion against Rome. Yet out of the 892 pages of my edition of The Eagle and the Raven, I would say that less than 200 of them are actually about Boudicca. Most of the novel is about Caradoc (usually called Caratacus), the man who led a failed rebellion before she did. Boudicca’s actual rebellion doesn’t start until the last 100 pages, which requires some creative pace-changing on Pauline Gedge’s part to get through all of the rebellion in such a short amount of page space.
I truly would not recommend this novel. It’s one of Gedge’s early novels, but it does not match the quality of Child of the Morning at all. She does not do as well with ancient Britain as she does with ancient Egypt, so I can certainly see why she returned to ancient Egypt after she finished this novel. The Eagle and the Raven is long and meandering, without any hint of the tension that is present in all of her other novels. I truly had to struggle to finish this novel, something that I don’t do often, no matter how boring the novel is.
The main characters in The Eagle and the Raven are very well-developed. Caradoc is believable and grows through the novel and despite her brief appearance, Boudicca develops in an incredibly short amount of time. However, secondary characters are somewhat neglected, especially Aricia, who had the potential to be a really amazing villain but ended up coming off as your cliché evil seductress. Venutius just came across as an idiotic, brow-beaten man, but there were obvious attempts to give him depth, which failed spectacularly in my eyes.
My overall impression? I’m sticking to Pauline Gedge’s Egyptian novels.
I give this book 1.5/5 stars.
House of Illusions by Pauline Gedge
(Cover picture courtesy of eBookXP.)
All Egyptian soldiers know that when they pass through the village of Aswat they must avoid the woman who tends the temple of Wepwawet. She rushes at them, begging them to take a manuscript to Pharaoh. She’s obviously crazy, accusing powerful men of nefarious deeds. But one young soldier, Kamen, takes pity on the woman and reads the manuscript. What he reads is so convincing that he believes a terrible injustice has been done. Without telling the woman of Aswat, he takes the manuscript back to Pi-Ramses and shows it to his general, Paiis. A chain of events was thus set in motion, a drama of revenge and punishment, miraculous disclosures and unexpected vindication.
In House of Dreams, the beautiful Thu was trained to be the perfect concubine to Pharaoh. But unbeknownst to her, it was all part of a plot to give her the power and proximity to poison her lover. Despite the involvement of many highly placed men and women, only Thu’s part of the conspiracy was uncovered. Unable to sentence his beloved to death, Pharaoh exiled Thu to her home village, Aswat, where for seventeen years she has written down her story and dreamed of retribution.
Unexpectedly, through the actions of Kamen, Thu finds herself in the position to achieve her dream. She watches as the schemers are brought to justice. But what of the mastermind of the plot—Hui, the brilliant seer, her teacher and one-time lover? Thoughts of Hui bring confusion, and as she sees the fulfillment of her dreams of revenge she begins to wonder if the deaths of these conspirators will bring the satisfaction she craves.
Call me cold-hearted, but I actually liked the tragic ending of House of Dreams. It was realistic and stayed true to the less than happy tone of the novel. But I guess Pauline Gedge just couldn’t let it end there and wrote House of Illusions to give Thu her revenge.
There is only one word to describe this sequel: cliché. The plot is more like that of a Hollywood movie and Pauline Gedge had to do some serious fact-changing to write this novel. After all, the real Thu and her grown son (he was not an infant at the time of the plot) were executed for their parts in the huge conspiracy to kill Ramses III. Archaeologists speculate that the so-called “Screaming Mummy” (not for the weak of stomach!) was Ramses’ son, Pentawere and that he was executed by drinking poison, which accounts for the gruesome expression that gives this mummy his name. The real Thu certainly didn’t get a happy ending and I don’t like how much the facts were changed to give her such an ending.
But if you like Hollywood-esque tales of retribution, you’ll love House of Illusions. All of the people who manipulated Thu into poisoning Pharaoh are finally caught, tried and handed out their gruesome punishments. Thu learns the fate of the infant son who was taken away from her when she was banished to Aswat and they both live happily ever after.
With a medium-paced plot and the promise of retribution, House of Illusions is a decent enough novel. I guess that it’s just not for me.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars.
The Horus Road by Pauline Gedge
(Cover picture courtesy of mcnallyrobinson.com)
Using subtle means of political power and economic control, a foreign power known as the “Rulers of the Upland” has taken over Egypt to plunder its riches and eradicate its religion and culture. In The Oasis, the stunning second volume of Pauline Gedge’s Lords of the Two Lands trilogy, Kamose, the son of Seqenenra, continued his father’s fight for the freedom of Egypt and his family.
In this riveting final volume of the trilogy, Ahmose, the brother of Kamose, vows to continue the struggle that has been so catastrophic for his family. He knows that the time has come to lay siege to the Setiu capital, but he realizes that military might alone will not be enough to breach the city’s walls. He will need no less than a miracle from Amun. And he cannot imagine how devious Apepa will be in his attempt to rob the Tao family of its chance for total victory.
Okay, we all know that Ahmose ends up liberating Egypt from the Hyksos. The appealing part of The Horus Road is the journey to victory, not so much the victory itself. Will Ahmose be able to continue on and finish what Seqenenra and Kamose died for? Of course he will, but nothing will ever be the same again in the Tao family.
Ahmose is a three dimensional character, but after reading The Oasis, which is in Kamose’s perspective, he seems pale in comparison to his brother. Yet, throughout the novel, Ahmose steps into the large footprints left by his father and brother and eventually outshines both of them. Ahmose is a great character, but Pauline Gedge has not neglected secondary characters like the resourceful Ahmose-Nefertari or the tragic Ramose. She only gives us hints at the great woman Ahmose-Nefertari would become, but it is enough to make her steal every scene that she’s in.
Since the end of the war is drawing near, the plot moves along at a fantastic pace that makes you never want to put this book down. Cities burn, kings run from danger and betrayal happens on both sides…what more could you ask for in the conclusion to this stunning trilogy? The ending is not a perfectly happy one, but it is satisfying and the characters stay true to themselves.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
The Oasis by Pauline Gedge
(Cover picture courtesy of Amazon.)
Using subtle means of political power and economic control, a foreign power known as the “Rulers of the Upland” has taken over Egypt to plunder its riches and eradicate its religion and culture. In The Hippopotamus Marsh, the stunning first volume of Pauline Gedge’s Lords of the Two Lands trilogy, the family of the last true King of Egypt chose to end 200 years of submission to King Apepa, and attempted to resurrect a dynasty. Seqenenra Tao began a courageous and tragic revolt that almost led to the destruction of his family.
In this thrilling second volume, Seqenenra’s surviving son Kamose refuses an inheritance of failure, and chooses instead to continue his father’s fight for the freedom of Egypt and his family. He begins his desperate sweep north, collecting fighting men from the loyal towns and villages he passes. Will his savage brilliance bring him victory of defeat? And will his acts redeem him or drive him to the brink of madness?
With his father (Seqenenra) and his twin (Si-Amun) dead, you would think Kamose would be ready to give up. But instead of standing by and watching his family torn apart by the Hyksos king, Apepa, he decides to fight. After all, he has nothing to lose and everything to gain. Kamose’s decision to fight irrevocably changes both himself and the fate of Egypt.
Faster paced than her later work and filled with memorable characters, The Oasis is my favourite book in the Lords of the Two Lands trilogy. Of course I am biased because I love reading about ancient warfare, but Pauline Gedge has still penned a wonderful novel. Told mostly from the point of view of Kamose, she gives us greater insight into the man behind the ruthless reputation. His motivations are very believable and his internal struggles with the war are heart-wrenching, which makes him a very three dimensional character.
“This trilogy is dedicated to Prince Kamose, one of the most obscure and misunderstood characters in Egyptian history. I hope that in some small way I have contributed to his rehabilitation.”
I truly believe that Pauline Gedge has contributed a lot to the rehabilitation of the infamous Kamose Tao, in much the same way Marcus Crassus was rehabilitated in my eyes by Andrew Levkoff. Her trilogy certainly changed my perception of the great leader and I hope it changes yours as well.
I give this book 5/5 stars.