Tagged: pauline gedge
Scroll of Saqqara by Pauline Gedge
(Cover picture courtesy of Pauline Gedge’s website.)
Prince Khaemwaset is a powerful man. The son of Ramses II and a revered physician, he is respected for his wisdom throughout Egypt. But Khaemwaset harbours a strong and secret desire—to find the mysterious Scroll of Thoth and receive the power to raise the dead.
When Khaemwaset hears of the discovery of a hidden tomb on the plain of Saqqara, he is quick to break its seal and take its secrets—secrets that he soon learns he should never have disturbed.
Richly detailed with the exotic realities of Ancient Egypt, Scroll of Saqqara is a compelling tale of power, lust, and obsession.
Scroll of Saqqara is one of the few novels that has truly managed to surprise me. I thought it was going to be another slow-paced novel that chronicles the life of a famous ancient Egyptian, but I was very, very wrong. Scroll of Saqqara is a relatively fast-paced novel that chronicles the life of a virtually unknown (and fairly unimportant) son of Ramses the Great.
It starts out with Khaemwaset inspecting a tomb that he has ordered opened. The strange thing is that he himself has been digging in the sacred hills of Saqqara—a resting place for the dead that was already ancient in his time—looking for the Scroll of Thoth. It is Khaemwaset’s obsession with finding this legendary scroll that will bring a curse on him and his family.
Scroll of Saqqara is an historical fiction novel, but it could also be categorized as a horror novel because of the tense undercurrent running throughout it (especially in the last 200 pages). Pauline Gedge brings all of her characters to life, especially Ramses, who makes a brief, but memorable appearance. Each character is very well developed and readers will understand them, if not completely sympathize with them. Because of its sexual content, I would recommend Scroll of Saqqara for older teens and adults.
I give this book 4.5/5 stars.
Upcoming Reviews
Here are reviews you can expect this week and which days they will be posted:
Sunday: City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
Monday: Scroll of Saqqara by Pauline Gedge (plus an extra article dealing with the YA genre!)
Tuesday: The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong
Wednesday: Conqueror by Conn Iggulden
Thursday: Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
Friday: Eldest by Christopher Paolini
Saturday: The Magician by Michael Scott
All of these are by authors I’ve reviewed before, but only 5 of them are the second books in their respective series. Next week, you can expect a lot of book reviews of Conn Iggulden books since I’ve recently re-read his two series. I’m also planning something special for my 42nd review. Fellow geeks can probably guess which book I’ll review that day!
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.
The Twice Born by Pauline Gedge
(Cover picture courtesy of Amazon.)
Young Huy’s family is thrilled when his uncle offers to pay for the boy to attend a prestigious school at Iunu. Thanks to his generous benefactor, the farmer’s son will now have a chance at a better life as a scribe. But one away at school, Huy is unprepared for the jealousy his easy success stirs in fellow pupils, and he becomes the victim of a vicious attack that leaves him dead—or so it would seem.
His inexplicable return to life makes Huy a pariah, ostracizes him because of his visions of the deaths around him. But priests believe his powers could be the key to interpreting the Book of Thoth, and Huy’s newfound fame attracts the attention of Pharaoh Amunhotep. It’s only then that Huy begins to realize that his power is not granted to him, but owns him, for he is no longer his own master. He is the King’s Man.
Well, here it is: the book that started my obsession with ancient Egypt. I received this book on a bitterly cold Christmas Day and the lure of a story in a nice, warm climate was too hard to resist.
When I first began reading The Twice Born, I tried to take what little I knew about ancient Egypt and apply it to the novel. But then I let go and surrendered myself to Pauline Gedge’s slow but compelling narrative. The novel opens when Huy is four years old, a selfish and spoiled child, but drops hints as to his future: “When he was an old man, feared and worshiped by the whole of Egypt, wealthy beyond the dreams of any save the King himself, Huy would find himself pondering those words.” (Pg 14)
The Twice Born is an excellent story, rich in historical details and wonderful character development, but it is not a book for those who love fast-paced plots. It follows Huy from the time he is four years old until the time he is eighteen, with very few interesting events in between (aside from when he is twelve years old). You simply have to sit back, enjoy the wonderful scenery and the realistic characters and let go of your preconceived notions of what ancient Egypt was really like.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
House of Dreams by Pauline Gedge
(Cover picture courtesy of Barnes and Noble.)
In the tiny hamlet of Aswat, far to the south of the royal capital, a beautiful young girl wants more than the meagre prospects her village offers. Determined and resourceful, she is quick to leap upon an opportunity when the great seer Hui, who is also physician to Pharaoh, visits Aswat to commune with its god, Wepwawet.
Taken under Hui’s wing to become a healer, she has no idea of his real plans for her—plans that will bring her close to Pharaoh as his favourite concubine, but will ultimately enmesh her in court intrigue of the most dangerous kind.
House of Dreams is a powerful story of passion and jealousy, rich with details of Ancient Egyptian life.
The last line of this blurb is very, very true. House of Dreams explores the darker side of the land of the pharaohs, the side that is usually ignored by amateur and even professional historians and archaeologists. Life was not all beauty and luxury, especially for peasants, which is demonstrated in great detail in this book. Not only is House of Dreams mostly historically accurate (except in the timing of certain events at the end of the novel), it is well-written and emotionally resonant.
Thu is a highly believable, interesting and sympathetic character. All she wants in her life is more than what life in her tiny village of Aswat has to offer. She is an ambitious and intelligent child who, under Hui’s careful supervision, grows into a beautiful, intelligent and ambitious young woman. These three factors contribute to her rise in the harem of Ramses III.
Filled with palace intrigue, sex and passion, House of Dreams is an unforgettable novel. I have read all but two of Pauline Gedge’s books (both of them not set in Egypt), but I must say that this is by far her best book. I would recommend it to anyone, even if they have no interest whatsoever in ancient Egypt because it has such a good plot and well-developed characters.
I give this book 5/5 stars.