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Help! Need good HF book on Egypt

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Divia
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Help! Need good HF book on Egypt

Post by Divia » Fri November 28th, 2008, 8:23 pm

So my mother got a hold Ms. Moran's books and loved them! She's wants Cleopatra's Daughter to which I said, mother it isnt not out yet. Well she got huffy with me like its my fault.

Anyway, she has always loved Egypt and she likes HF too (though not as much as me) Can anyone suggest a good HF book that takes place in Egypt?

Thanks :)
Last edited by Divia on Sun November 30th, 2008, 4:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Margaret
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Post by Margaret » Sat November 29th, 2008, 12:29 am

There's a whole section for books set in Ancient Egypt at my historical fiction website, here. Novelists whose writing styles are probably most similar to Michelle Moran's would include Karen Essex (Kleopatra) and Pauline Gedge (Child of the Morning is about Hatshepsut and looks pretty interesting).

I'd stay away from Naguib Mahfouz's Akhenaten, Dweller in Truth, even though he's a Nobel prizewinner. It's in the form of interviews by someone curious about the truth after Akhenaten's death, and I found it so dry I didn't finish it. Sometime I'll try one of his novels set in early 20th century Cairo, instead - those are listed on the Africa page.
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Divia
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Post by Divia » Sat November 29th, 2008, 3:48 pm

Kleopatra seems awful expensive for a paperback book! Still, it is what she's looking for. Maybe I'll pick up a used copy.

Thanks. :)
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Leyland
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Post by Leyland » Sat November 29th, 2008, 10:00 pm

Thanks for the heads up on Child of the Morning, Margaret. After discovering that I am Hatshepsut ('What historical queen are you?' quiz), I'd like to know more about her story. Gedge's novel sounds fairly good per the Amazon reviews so I'll go for it. I've never read Gedge before.

I'm currently reading Michelle's Nefertiti and loving it, so I'm kinda mirroring Divia's mother in the search for a bit more Egypt.

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Telynor
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Post by Telynor » Sun November 30th, 2008, 1:28 am

Out of all of the various books on Egypt, my favourite HF writer on the topic remains Pauline Gedge. I've yet to read a truly bad novel by her, and she has taken some of the more unusual stories and times from then to write about.

Some of her titles:
Child of the Morning (Hatshepsut)
The Twelfth Transforming (Tiye, Akhenaten and the rest)
Mirage (also published as the Scroll of Saqqara) (Khaemwaset, son of Ramses II)
The Hippopotamus Marsh, The Oasis, The Horus Road -- a trilogy about the start of the 18th Dynasty
Lady of the Reeds and House of Illusion -- the Harem Conspiracy of Ramses III, very romanticised.
The Twice Born and Seer of Egypt

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Margaret
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Post by Margaret » Mon December 1st, 2008, 5:18 am

Hatshepsut was really interesting. She was the most successful and longest-reigning woman pharaoh - there were two or three others who didn't reign very long. I've always been rather taken with the detail that she wore a fake beard as one of the symbols of her power. After her reign (as with Akhenaten) references to her on Egyptian monuments and temples were defaced as if to expunge her from the historical record. Wikipedia has an interesting entry about her here.
Last edited by Margaret on Mon December 1st, 2008, 5:26 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Carine
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Post by Carine » Mon December 1st, 2008, 6:58 am

A few years ago I read Christian Jacq's Ramses series (5 books) which I quite enjoyed.

Pauline Gedge is on my TBR pile :)

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donroc
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Post by donroc » Mon December 1st, 2008, 12:38 pm

Oldies mentioned before:

The Egyptian by Mika Waltari
Prince of Egypt (the likely basis for the screenplay of Heston's 10 Commandments) -- I have forgotten the author's name, but her first might be Gladys.

For controversial non-fiction books I recommend:

Moses and Monotheism by Sigmund Freud
Oedipus and Akhnaton by Immanuel Velikovsky.
Image

Bodo the Apostate, a novel set during the reign of Louis the Pious and end of the Carolingian Empire.

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Ludmilla
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Post by Ludmilla » Mon December 1st, 2008, 2:21 pm

If you want to remind her in the spring, Jo Graham's Daugthers of Isis comes out in March (IIRC). Her novel, Black Ships, might be of interest, too. It's billed as historical fantasy, but almost straight-forward historical, about the Sibyl who journeys with Aeneas after he escapes from Troy. They have a stop-over in Egypt which actually makes it topical.

Gedge has come highly recommended to me. I have one of her books in the TBR, so I hope to read her at some point when I'm in the mood to return to Ancient Egypt.

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Volgadon
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Post by Volgadon » Mon December 1st, 2008, 3:38 pm

Are there any about the early Egyptologists, well apart from that peculiar Balzac tale.

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