Certainly a must for Egyptophiles; transcends its historical genre and is sure to delight anyone who has ever heard of Tut,...
Coffey’s debut historical novel traces the lives and events during the 18th dynasty of Egypt from the time of Pharaoh Amenhotep to Ramesses.
Machiavellian intrigue is mere child’s play compared to what went on in ancient Egypt. Rival gods, powerful priests, opium addiction, jealousy, war, incest, pederasty, summary executions, unchecked ambition, and spying from behind curtains are just a few of the royal shenanigans in this epic envisioning of Pharaonic Egypt. Coffey has a knack for turning historical figures (even those with unpronounceable names) into living people the reader can love, hate, or feel ambivalent about. The story opens with the two sons of Amenhotep—Tuthmosis and Teppy. They are mischievous and rely on each other to navigate the strange world of adults. Teppy is shy, deformed, and plagued by nightmares; his brother, strong, brazen, and protective of Teppy. Their mother, the ever-scheming Queen Tiye, defies her husband and sends Tuthmosis to the Nubian front, where after saving his father, he is killed. Tiye maneuvers Teppy onto the throne after the death of Amenhotep. Teppy becomes Pharaoh Akhenaten, marries Nefertiti, and leaves the god Amun’s city of Thebes to found a new capital, Amarna, under the god Aten. They give birth to King Tut, who is forced to return to Thebes after the death of his parents and whose own death paves the way to the 19th dynasty. All the while there are wars, alliances, and betrayals, good priests vs. evil priests, conniving relatives, curses cast, murderous jealousies, plagues, and famines. Coffey not only creates empathy for and breathes life into historical figures, but he inhabits his narrative with a cast who, like real people, are neither good nor evil, but a confused mixture of motive, belief, upbringing, and circumstance. His characters act according to these various drives and needs to realistically propel the action forward.
Certainly a must for Egyptophiles; transcends its historical genre and is sure to delight anyone who has ever heard of Tut, Nefertiti, pharaohs, pyramids, or mummies.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Kindle Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
