This novel is an historical dramatisation of the life of a young Ramses the Second. It is also the first book in a series of five that chronicles his life.

The early part of the book deals with Ramses last few days at school, and introduces us to his friends, who will develop into life-long companions:

Ahsha - who is interested in diplomacy and wants to join the government
Setau - who is interested only in magics and snakes
Ahmeni - who pledges to follow Ramses without question
Moses - who fears that his future will lead him away from his childhood friends

Pharaoh Seti spends much of the book challenging Ramses in one way or another, which leads Ramses to believe that Seti will name him as successor. But that is impossible, as his older brother Shanaar has already been named successor to the throne.

As the story progresses, the young Ramses finds himself surrounded by friends and enemies, and by plots and intrigue.

The young Ramses becomes a Royal Scribe, and, in his new role, he uncovers what he believes to be a trivial matter: someone is passing off substandard ink as top quality merchandise. The investigation into this leads to an attempted murder and the unearthing of a surprising enemy.

This is a simple book to get into, and is an easy reader.

Despite Christian Jacq's many credentials when it comes to Egytology, the book is not bogged down in the minutiae of ancient Egypt.

There is enough Egyptology to whet people's appetite, but do keep in mind that this is a dramatisation, and there are many things that Jacq has taken a large amount of "poetic license" with (mostly on the interactions of the royal family, and some of Ramses contemporaries from other countries).

The amount of poetic license that Jacq took. I for one would have loved there to have been more detail in this book.

There is also the rather lacklustre dialogue and narrative. But this is possibly attributable to some poor translation from the original French.

Christian Jacq is a French author and Egyptologist. He has written several novels about ancient Egypt, notably a five book suite about pharaoh Ramses II, a character whom Jacq admires greatly.

Jacq's interest in Egyptology began when he was thirteen, and read History of Ancient Egyptian Civilization by Jacques Pirenne. This inspired him to write his first novel. He first visited Egypt when he was seventeen, went on to study Egyptology and archaeology at the Sorbonne, and is now one of the world's leading Egyptologists.

He and his wife later founded the Ramses Institute, which is dedicated to creating a photographic description of Egypt for the preservation of endangered archaeological sites.

If you like historical dramas without worrying too much about how factual the details are, then you will find this an enjoyable read.

This book is also a nice way to pass a long journey or for a bit of light bedtime reading.

If you want complex characters, historical detail, and a plot to keep you guessing, then you won't want to read this book.

The book would be rated XGC under WDC's rating system for a brief sex scene involving two minors. The scene is brief and predominantly "off camera".

This is a book that you will either like or hate. I noticed on Amazon that the review ratings for this book are spread fairly evenly from one star to five stars.

This is a book that you are going to just have to read and decide for yourself if you like it or not.

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Created Feb 25, 2018 at 2:31pm • Submit your own review...