King And Goddess

Cover

Title King And Goddess

Author Judith Tarr

ISBN 0-812-55084-6 (Paperback)
0312860927 (Hardcover)

Publisher Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.

Category Historical Fiction

Shira's Rating

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What It's About

Meet Hatshepsut, the woman who dared to declare herself Pharaoh. This historical novel based on her life incorporates known facts about Hatshepsut, her family, and the key officers of her court, and weaves them into a narrative that brings these historical figures to life.

The book opens when Hatshepsut was a girl of around 10 years old, but already Queen. It traces her troubled marriage, her loves, her sources of grief, the great works she performed that were recorded in the annals of history, and finally her decision to defy all tradition and claim the title of Pharaoh for herself.

Its Good Points

The book takes historical figures like Hatshepsut, Thutmose II, Thutmose III, Senenmut, and Nehti and turns them into believable, realistic human beings. It gives them families, personalities, and frailties that are consistent with the acts recorded on their behalf in the historical records.

It seems so easy to believe the motivations that the author has accorded to the acts that history recorded. The people described in this book did some rather amazing things while they were alive. Although the author had to guess at why they did them, her guesses seem very plausible and make for an interesting story with well-developed characters.

After reading this book, I felt I knew a lot more than I did before about the culture of ancient Egypt--not just its rulers, but the everyday life of its people, its social structure, how its royal succession worked, etc. It was a lot more fun to learn it by reading historical fiction than it would be to tackle a textbook. Then, when I actually did travel to Egypt, it was fascinating to stand in the Cairo Museum and look at the mummies of characters who were part of the book. Seeing the mummies drove home that these weren't just fictional characters from some remote time--they were people who actually lived and for whom there was still tangible evidence of their existence!

On The Negative Side....

At times, the book seemed to drag a little. It didn't totally absorb me. I enjoyed it enough to keep reading all the way to the end, but it didn't draw me in the way some books have. The humorous parts made me smile, but didn't get me to guffaw. The tragic parts made me think "That's too bad," but didn't draw a tear from my eye. It's pleasant reading, and I'm glad I did read it, but it's not a book I'm likely to go back to and re-read in the future.