Out of the Black Land
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- £2.99
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- £2.99
Publisher Description
Eighteenth Dynasty Egypt is peaceful and prosperous under the dual rule of the Pharaohs Amenhotep III and IV, until the younger Pharaoh begins to dream new and terrifying dreams.
Ptah-hotep, a young peasant boy studying to be a scribe, wants to live a simple life in a Nile hut with his lover Kheperren and their dog Wolf. But Amenhotep IV appoints him as Great Royal Scribe. Surrounded by bitterly envious rivals and enemies, how long will Ptah-hotep survive?
The child-princess Mutnodjme sees her beautiful sister Nefertiti married off to the impotent young Amenhotep. But Nefertiti must bear royal children, so the ladies of the court devise a shocking plan.
Kheperren, meanwhile, serves as scribe to the daring teenage General Horemheb. But while the Pharaoh's shrinking army guards the Land of the Nile from enemies on every border, a far greater menace impends.
For, not content with his own devotion to one god alone, the newly-renamed Akhnaten plans to suppress the worship of all other gods in the Black Land.
His horrified court soon realise that the Pharaoh is not merely deformed, but irretrievably mad; and that the biggest danger to the Empire is in the royal palace itself.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Australian author Greenwood, having made a name for herself with the lighthearted Phryne Fisher series (Cocaine Blues, etc.), succeeds brilliantly with this gripping thriller set in ancient Egypt. In 1335 B.C.E., the ascension of a new pharaoh, Akhnaten, sends the country into turmoil. The ruler, who holds the heretical religious view that there's only one god, acts to spread this idea by banning the worship of the traditional deities. Two charismatic figures Ptah-hotep, plucked from obscurity to become the Great Royal Scribe (who acts "as auditor for the whole of the nation"), and Mutnodjme, Akhnaten's sister-in-law display a gift for surviving palace intrigue. The author is especially good at conveying the nitty-gritty details of life at the time. For example, Ptah-hotep is advised to keep an eye out for tax cheating concerning fish and turtles. If not quite in the same class as Nick Drake's mysteries set in ancient Egypt (Nefertiti: The Book of the Dead, etc.), this is close enough to make historical fiction fans hope that Greenwood isn't done with this period.
