Tagged: akhenaten
Kiya: Mother of a King by Katie Hamstead
(Cover picture courtesy of The Writerly Exploits of Mara Valderran.)
Nefertiti has forced Naomi to flee Amarna with Malachi and the three children. But even under the protection of Naomi’s family in Thebes, Nefertiti still hunts her and Tut. Nefertiti sends assassins to kill them, and while Naomi fights to protect the children, Malachi fights to keep her safe.
With three children in tow, one of which isn’t her own, she is labeled the harlot outcast wife of the pharaoh and is shunned. She isn’t safe among her own people, and flees from being stoned to death. Although her family protects her, she must find a way to survive.
While Naomi struggles to keep herself and Tut alive, old adversaries return as Smenkhkare takes advantage of Akhenaten’s ailing health. Naomi must rely on Horemheb’s promise to protect Tut’s birthright, but her feelings for Malachi could cause more problems with Horemheb than she expects.
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.]
Somewhere around a third of the way into the book I told myself, “Just finish the chapter, then you should go to bed. You’re working tomorrow.”
Then at around 50% I told myself, “You should really go to bed now. It’s one in the morning.”
By 75% I told myself, “Ah, screw it. You’ll be tired tomorrow anyway so you might as well just finish the book!”
And so, at 2:30am I finished Kiya: Mother of a King and didn’t regret a thing. I was very tired the next day and still had no regrets. That’s how good this book is.
The thing is, Mother of a King is very different from Hope of the Pharaoh, the first book. Away from the scheming of the royal court, we get to see Kiya’s nurturing side as she finally gets to marry the man she loves. She’s back in her hometown with her family and working on starting a new life for herself, away from Akhenaten and the schemes of Nefertiti. Finally, Kiya is gone and Naomi is back in her familiar Hebrew neighbourhood. Not everything is perfect as she’s accused of being a harlot but she faces the adversity well.
There is so much character development in this story. Naomi/Kiya is allowed to flourish for once and be herself. In addition to that, I love seeing Katie Hamstead’s take on Tut, especially his transition from royal life as the only heir to the throne to humble boy in a poor section of town. Just like with Hope of the Pharaoh I was really impressed with Horemheb’s character. He certainly has his faults (his ruthlessness) but in the end you can tell he still loves Naomi, totally and utterly. Even if she’s married to Malachi. I’m a sucker for the tragic unrequited love angle, I know.
I can’t in all honesty call the plot fast-paced, but that isn’t a bad thing. The truth is that I love that the plot slows down. It gives so much more time for character development. It’s never boring (thus the staying up until two in the morning) and it really did pick up at the end. You can really tell the third book is going to be exciting but I did love this little change of pace for the series.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Kiya: Hope of the Pharaoh by Katie Hamstead
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
When Naomi’s sisters are snatched up to be taken to be wives of the erratic Pharaoh, Akhenaten, she knows they won’t survive the palace, so she offers herself in their place. The fearsome Commander Horemheb sees her courage, and knows she is exactly what he is looking for…
The Great Queen Nefertiti despises Naomi instantly, and strips her of her Hebrew lineage, including her name, which is changed to Kiya. Kiya allies herself with Horemheb, who pushes her to greatness and encourages her to make the Pharaoh fall in love with her. When Akhenaten declares Kiya will be the mother of his heir, Nefertiti, furious with jealousy, schemes to destroy Kiya.
Kiya must play the deadly game carefully. She is in a silent battle of wills, and a struggle for who will one day inherit the crown. If she does bear an heir, she knows she will need to fight to protect him, as well as herself, from Nefertiti who is out for blood.
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
First off, please don’t judge Kiya: Hope of the Pharaoh by the tacky cover. The story is so much better, I promise.
Since so little is known about the real Kiya (we don’t even know if she really was Tutankhamun’s mother), I’m willing to suspend my disbelief at the premise of her being Hebrew. Okay, fair enough. Most theories place her as Nubian, but they’re just theories and I thought the whole premise of Naomi offering herself to Akhenaten to save her sisters was just too good to pass up. After being presented with an Egyptian name, Naomi embarks upon a dangerous journey through the intrigues of a dysfunctional court and an even more dangerous harem.
Now, this great premise would have been ruined if Katie Hamstead’s characterization wasn’t as strong as it is. Naomi/Kiya carries the whole story on her shoulders as she learns to feel affection for and maybe even love Akhenaten, a man she was always taught was evil. She also makes friends and enemies in the harem, the most notable being her rival, Nefertiti. Or rather, Nefertiti considers Naomi her rival and the lengths she goes to in order to preserve her place as Great Royal Wife are incredible. Whenever I picture the real Nefertiti, I can’t help but imagine her as the vain, ridiculously beautiful, scheming woman Katie Hamstead has portrayed. Other notable characters of the time like the ruthless, but oddly considerate Horemheb feel spot-on to me. The characters don’t always appear to be consistent, but the big reveals throughout the story show that they were acting believably the whole time.
The details of ancient Egyptian life are generally accurate, although Katie Hamstead used the modern name of Amarna to refer to Akhetaten. But Akhenaten’s fits, the fact he discarded the old religion in favour of one god and his utter lack of desire to make war are well documented and I couldn’t spot any glaring factual errors. In writing about Akhenaten, Katie Hamstead had quite a bit of leeway as there are very, very few records from the time. Still, I can’t complain about the historical accuracy.
As for the plot, it was quite fast-paced for historical fiction and kept me reading into the early hours of the morning, far past when I should have gone to bed. It was really that good. Naomi was just a fascinating character and her confusion about Malachi and Akhenaten, her hot-cold friendship with Horemheb and the constant threat of Nefertiti’s jealousy kept me on my toes the whole time. Some of the plot twists were predictable, but others (especially at the end) I didn’t see coming. Especially the big reveal at the end involving a certain male character.
It’s that big reveal that makes me want the next book this instant. Although we know generally what happens to Akhenaten and Naomi’s son Tutankhamun from history, I just can’t get enough of Naomi. She’s definitely one of my new favourite characters and I’ve just found a new author to watch because if Kiya: Hope of the Pharaoh is any indicator, we can expect great things from Katie Hamstead.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Nefertiti by Michelle Moran
(Cover picture courtesy of Michelle Moran’s website.)
Nefertiti and her younger sister, Mutnodjmet, have been raised in a powerful family that has provided wives to the rulers of Egypt for centuries. Ambitious, charismatic, and beautiful, Nefertiti is destined to marry Amunhotep, an unstable young pharaoh. It is hoped that her strong personality will temper the younger ruler’s heretical desire to forsake Egypt’s ancient gods.
From the moment of her arrival in Thebes, Nefertiti is beloved by the people, but she fails to see that powerful forces are plotting against her husband’s reign. The only person brave enough to warn the queen is her younger sister, yet remaining loyal to Nefertiti will force Mutnodjmet into a dangerous political game—one that could cost her everything she holds dear.
To put it bluntly, Nefertiti was disappointing.
I honestly don’t know what I was expecting, but I was hoping to at least have the story told from Nefertiti’s own point of view, not her half-sister’s. Mutnodjmet to me at least, had no backbone and remained woefully naïve about the political machinations of the court throughout most of the novel. When a conspiracy was uncovered, it was either her servant, mother, father or Queen Tiye who revealed it to her. She was not a very proactive narrator, instead reacting to events as they came her way.
Mutnodjmet was incredibly reluctant to be part of the royal family, which I can understand, but she still allowed herself to be pushed around. It was rather frustrating that she was so innocent that she had never told a lie (since she understood the laws of Ma’at) until she was thirteen. Nefertiti, who was supposed to be the subject of the novel, came off as shallow, petty, vain and…a bitch. There was really not one sympathetic bone in her body and although I loathe swearing, there is really no other word that can describe her. And maybe, you know, Nefertiti was like that in real life and was just as power-hungry as her husband, Akhenaten. However, she must have had at least some redeeming qualities, right?
The plot of Nefertiti is relatively slow-paced, but when you’re a regular reader of historical fiction, that’s usually not an issue. Michelle Moran stuck mostly to the facts, even though not as closely as she did in Cleopatra’s Daughter, and did include a historical note explaining why she changed things where she did. Perhaps it was just me who didn’t like the characters because I do tend to lean toward strong, rather cynical types. Or, perhaps, I will have to do what I’ve been threatening to do for a year now and write a novel from Nefertiti’s point of view.
Now that is most definitely wishful thinking.
I give this book 3/5 stars.
The Twelfth Transforming by Pauline Gedge
(Cover picture courtesy of Teen Ink.)
Akhenaten…the powerful, the pious, the infamous. Raised in the heat of the palace harem, mated to his beautiful, dangerous cousin Nefertiti, the young Pharaoh soon turned his passion heavenward. His love of the sun god Ra seared his being and consumed his worldly attentions. As Akhenaten’s rule soared to its finale, ancient Egypt teetered on the edge of a cataclysm, and his family’s curse became an empire’s downfall.
Pauline Gedge is one of the best writers of historical fiction set in ancient Egypt and The Twelfth Transforming proves it.
Set in the (in)famous 18th Dynasty of Egypt, this novel chronicles the entirety of the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten’s reign through the eyes of his domineering mother, Queen Tiye. Tiye is a ruthless woman by virtue of being Great Royal Wife to pharaoh Amunhotep III (Akhenaten’s father), and as such, is not always a sympathetic narrator. But she is so three dimensional that she commands your attention and you miss her forceful personality near the end of the novel when she dies.
Pauline Gedge paints a vivid picture of the 18th Dynasty and fills her novel with authentic historical details. Most of the events in the novel are correct, however there are gaps in history that she fills with the most salacious and dramatic explanations. But readers also have to keep in mind that The Twelfth Transforming was written in 1984 and reflects the information she had available at the time. If you do not mind tiny historical inaccuracies (most of which are only noticeable to fanatics like myself), then this is certainly the novel for you.
I give this book 4/5 stars.