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(More customer reviews)I have just finished reading, Amenhotep, Son of Hapu: A Tale of Egypt! What an adventure into a relatively unknown, or forgotten past! From the first few paragraphs, to the last word, I was transformed back in to time to Ancient Egypt...and in my opinion, as a historian, one of the best interpretations of the subject I have read in years. Better than Mika Waltari's The Egyptian....and I would put Mr. Willey's writing style up there with Mary Renault.
I could "see" the motionless sweaty dark bodies of the scribes, waiting patiently for the "old man" Amenhotep to continue his telling of his life's story an eventual attempt to save his life and eternal soul...... From the miniscule detail of the birds flying in the sky to the ranting of very spoiled priest who sees the child Hapu as a nuisance and a threat....the vision of young children giggling the crowd over the tax collector's discomfort to their life on the Nile or the simple pleasure of having your stomach finally full....
Mr. Willey has successfully transported the reader back to an Egypt that few realize existed. It is not the Egypt of "The Ten Commandments" with blue eyed Egyptians....it is a true representation that Egyptians were African...a fact that the public is not aware and one that Mr. Willey portrays with such elegance and an obvious talent for the written word....it's as if the spirit of Amenhotep has come through in his writing...."just to make sure it is done right!"
I was drawn into the pages, hanging on every word....and very disappointed it had to end....and so relieved to realize that this is but Book One and am anxiously waiting to continue the journey of Amenhotep.........to enjoy his triumphs...cry at his disappointments and to experience the talent of Mr. Willey......and hopefully through this book there will be a renewed interest in the value of good, accurate and entertaining historical novels. If I could I would give it 10 stars!!
Click Here to see more reviews about: Amenhotep, Son of Hapu: A Tale of Egypt: Book II: Scribe's Duty
Scribe's Duty is the second novel in the Amenhotep, Son of Hapu: A Tale of Egypt series. Here the aged scribe and chief of recruits continues the account of his rise through the ranks of the ancient Egyptian bureaucracy only to find himself overwhelmed by forces he can no longer control. In this gripping depiction of life during the age of the pharaohs, Amenhotep tells how he surmounts all obstacles in his path to power, including bloody dynastic squabbles, the jealousy of older, more noble families, conspiracy, threats of foreign invasion, and seemingly impossible feats of construction, organization, and engineering he is commanded to oversee. At the height of his influence, Amenhotep is quickly enmeshed in events he himself set in motion, but now seem likely to ruin everything he sought to achieve. In Amenhotep's eclipse and demise, he witnesses the disastrous, inevitable impact of change on an essentially changeless society.
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