THE FOWLER’S SNARE by @CMTStibbe #AncientEgypt #HistFic #Bookreview @tmsanders2014 @readreviewroom

The Fowler’s Snare: A Novel of Ancient Egypt by Claire Stibbe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Fowler’s Snare is book #2 in this ancient Egyptian trilogy. Two sons, attempted to poison their father, King Ibada of Alodia, they escape to Egypt with a small army and plot to take over Thebes.

Pharoah Kheper-Re discovers that Kanjo and his men are more than mere merchants, he suspects they are Princes on the run and decides to test them in a dangerous challenge facing great hardships across the desert. A team lead by his commander Shenq will race Kanja and his selected men.

This period of history revolved very much around the gods, seers, prophets and dreaming with magic and omens believed at every turn. Many a priest or sorcerer lost their life if they didn’t predict the right outcome. In this book everyone’s lives revolve around the predictions.

There is a large cast of characters, twenty five helpfully named at the beginning of the book which is useful as many are hard to pronounce. I did struggle to keep them all separate as, for me, few had distinguishing dialogue which made them stand out.

I do like the book cover artwork and I enjoyed the first half of the book, the descriptions of the ancient world were very enjoyable. However I felt the race across the desert was too long and drawn out and lacking in connection back to the Pharaoh and the original story theme, it didn’t keep my interest in the storyline, instead it introduced yet more characters who diluted the race plot. A few times there was a bit of head hopping leaving me wondering who was talking and sometimes action seemed to jump in time from one paragraph to the next with no real page break in the storyline. It may have been just the formatting of the book I read, or it may need another check with editing.

All in all a good story premise, but a good trim of the number of characters allowing the reader time to form a relationship and empathy with the main ones, a check on the dialogue to make each person really stand out as an individual so that the reader can clearly picture them. And content, for instance, Pharaoh conveniently having Kanja’s army all slaughtered on the night of the race, with no fight, comebacks or survivors, and making sure every person or action takes the story forward at a good pace.

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I reviewed this book for ReadersReviewRoom

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Shiri by D.S. Taylor @DSTaylor1#Bookreview #wwwblogs #AncientEgypt

Shiri by D.S. Taylor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Shiri is a historical romance set in Ancient Egypt. It tells the tale of a humble man whose wife was stolen by the Pharaoh, driven by his love for his wife he was determined to rise up against the Noble House and free her. They called him the Shepherd King and long after the loss of his wife he sought freedom for the people from the Gyptos.

We meet his grown son Josef in a small rural village where he is seeking support for a rebellion, he rallies the men to go with him to support the Shepherd King and he leaves the village unprotected and vulnerable. Prince Amenhotep and his warriors sweep through the village maiming, killing, raping and taking slaves on their way to destroy The Shepherd King. A young girl out checking the sheep escapes, but not before she sees her parents violated and murdered. She stumbles ahead of the war party to warn the rebels, but they have little time to gather their forces.

With the battle lost Josef makes a drastic decision to save his life and in doing so he plays a role where he can save others too. He disguises himself as Yuya of Heliopolis and vows he killed the Shepherd Prince himself. He rescues Shiri before she is bought in the slave market and together they travel to Heliopolis. Here Josef discoveries he is heir to the high sun priest and is betrothed to his daughter. This presents an opportunity to gain access to enough wealth to buy his people who have been sold as slaves and treat them well. It’s a daring move under the noses of the Pharaoh’s and the warring nobles and one which needs clever details to keep the secrets safe.

This Ancient Egypt setting was very well done. The details of the setting and the characters were very believable. The level of violence, and sexual scenes are no more than you would expect from a time of warring factions, slavery, sacrifice, multiple wives and fear of the Gods. These were ruthless times with power, corruption, disloyalty and death going hand in hand with love and devotion as they still do today.

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The Osiriad by Sue Vincent

The Osiriad: Isis and Osiris, the Divine Lovers by Sue Vincent

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a delightful book which looks at the role of stories throughout history and their purpose in explaining day and night, the seasons and life and death. By looking at the Egyptian Gods, Sue retells the birth of the Egyptian world through the eyes of the God Isis. The Egyptians are known across the world and the stories of their Gods are echoed in many other religions. In fact Sue adds her own thoughts at the end of this book about the importance of stories and their use in explaining life through pictures and images. She draws together beliefs that we still learn from stories if we can engage with the writing and share the messages. In fact a story can be a many layered article depending on the reader. I really enjoyed my own lessons from the book, it was a delight to read about the Gods in a short easy to read style and then to think about the messages that the Egyptians were giving their people and handing down to future generations to come.
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