Review: Seer of Egypt, Volume Two of The King's Man Trilogy by Pauline Gedge

This has really been a slow month for me, hardly any posts for January. I have had the book blogging blahs, I've been avoiding the computer like the plague. Has this happened to anyone else out there in blogland? I've been reading instead (which I love) and now I have quite a pile of completed books stacked up and no desire to write a review. What's up with that? Aaargh. Here's hoping I can pull myself out of my doldrums and get those reviews rolling again...



This series fictionalizes the life of Huy, who was a famous seer and healer in Ancient Egypt. He was born into a peasant family from a small town in Egypt's fertile Delta region. Volume One of this series, The Twice Born, relates Huy's childhood and the shocking event that would shape his entire life to come. As a small boy his wealthy Uncle paid for Huy to attend a well known school. While he was there, Huy was taunted by some of the other students due to his peasant birth. One day a fellow student hit Huy in the head with a throwing stick. Huy was knocked out and fell into a deep pool of water. He drowned. While he was unconscious (make that dead), he had a strange dream in which the Gods of Egypt asked him to read and understand the Book of Thoth, Ancient Egypt's spiritual text, that was closely guarded by the priests. He awakens five days later in the house of the dead. His body has been awaiting the embalmers and his whole family is in mourning for him. The Gods have exacted a terrible price for Huy's life, they have given him the "gift" of seeing the future and healing the sick. Use of his "gift" leaves him with a terrible headache and has made him permanently impotent, but Huy does his best to put his new talent to use for the benefit of the poor people of Egypt.

When Seer of Egypt opens, Huy has moved into a small estate that Pharaoh has given him. He lives with his childhood friend, Ishat, who he has trained as his scribe. Huy is deeply in love with her but can never be a true partner to her, or give her the children she longs for. Together they care for the huge amounts of people who come seeking Huy's help and advice.

Huy has built a nice life for himself, with good friends and trustworthy servants. But he is not happy, he cannot have a true life partner and he worries constantly for the future of Egypt. Ishat eventually leaves his home to marry his best friend. Huy is heartbroken but goes on as best he can in his solitary, lonely, but successful life.

Eventually Huy realizes that he is shirking his promise to the Gods to understand the Book of Thoth. He hasn't even thought about it in many years, indeed he has done his best not to think of it at all. But he is beginning to see patterns in his visions. There are several occasions when he has a vision of danger to a friend or loved one. When he warns the person and encourages them to avoid the danger, the scenario always plays itself out anyway, but another innocent life is affected instead. The Gods always extract their due. He sees dire portents for the land of Egypt, too. He struggles, trying to decide what it is that the messages are trying to tell him.

Years pass and Huy is entrusted with the second Prince's education for a few months each summer, at Huy's estate. He grows to love the boy, who is like the son that Huy will never have. When the Price becomes Pharaoh, Huy is ordered to the Palace to be at the new King's right hand. With his future assured, Huy is in position to become one of the most powerful men in Egypt.

I have been a Pauline Gedge (and an Ancient Egypt) fan since I read her novel, Child of the Morning, many years ago. She was my first taste of Historical Fiction set in Ancient Egypt and I have loved it ever since. I have read all of her previous books and was thrilled to receive this one for review. I did enjoy it but I found it to be a little bit slow in places. It is like a bridge between the breathtaking events of The Twice Born and the concluding volume that will deal with the later years of Huy's life, when he gained great power and renown. While this novel has the author's wonderful descriptions of Ancient Egypt, from the peasant towns of the Nile to the palaces of the Pharaohs, it covers a period of over twenty years of Huy's life and there are sections where not very much is happening.

I do recommend it, as well as the rest of the Egypt novels by Pauline Gedge. But definitely read Volume One first so you have Huy's whole story and then you won't mind accompanying him through his middle years, probably the last peaceful time that he will have in his long life. (Did I mention that his "gift" also seems to keep him from aging? It is very sad for him to see his friends and loved ones aging, sickening, dying, while he stays looking like a fit twenty-something.) The author has created a fascinating character in Huy and I felt for him in his continuing struggle with a "gift" that is both a blessing and a curse. I'm looking forward to the final volume in this interesting series.

If you would like to try a Paulie Gedge book that stands alone, I would point you to Child of the Morning, my favorite of all her books, or Lady of the Reeds, another wonderful novel.

Visit the website here.

Seer of Egypt is published by Penguin Canada. ISBN 978-0-14-305293-7

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Order The Twice Born from Amazon

Order Child of the Morning from Amazon

Order Lady of the Reeds from Amazon

Review: The Victoria Vanishes: A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery by Christopher Fowler

Something terrible is happening in the old pubs of London. Women are being gently killed in the middle of crowded and noisy nightspots. The first couple of deaths are not tied together right away. But then the similarities are noticed by Arthur Bryant of the Peculiar Crimes Unit and the hunt for a murderer begins.

Bryant and his partner, John May, are an unusual pair. They are in their eighties and have been solving London's oddest crimes for years. They are an anachronism, solving cases the old fashioned way (with Sherlock Holmes-like detection) rather than with modern technology. The Home Office has been trying to close their unit for years.

While walking home from a gathering, Bryant sees what turns out to be one of the victims leaving a pub, The Victoria Cross. When they later go back to investigate, there is no pub there. The property in question is now a grocery, the Victoria Cross has not existed for eighty years. This does not bode well for Bryant's employment status, the Home Office will definitely use his apparent hallucination as a reason to disband the unit. The case must be solved satisfactorily to preserve the PCU.

The entire team at the PCU is quirky and interesting. They work together well despite their totally divergent personalities. There is a creative mystery that has a satisfying resolution.

Embedded in the narrative is a lovely homage to the classic old London pubs, which are fast disappearing due to high property values and development schemes.

"The pubs of London are taken almost completely for granted by those who drink in them. Every single one has a unique and extraordinary history...these places hold the key to our past, and therefore present. They're and unappreciated indication of who we are, and a sign of all we've lost and remember fondly."

This is the sixth, and I think final, entry into the Bryant & May mystery series. I'll be going back to read the first five, this last one peaked my interest. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the adventures of these unusual detectives.

My thanks to the Library Thing Early Reviewers program for sending me this book!

The Victoria Vanishes is published by Bantam Dell. ISBN 978-0-553-80502-4

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