River God: A Novel of Ancient Egypt
by WIlbur Smith
Author’s website
Wow, this is two new authors in a row that I really like.
Wilbur Smith has been writing novels for a lot of years, and I guess he has quite a following, but he’s new to me.
Bottom line: I really like his writing and his storytelling.
This is a story set in the time of Egypt when the Hyksos invaded and conquered the country, introducing the chariot to the Egyptians. In doing a little googling, I was able to identify quite a number of folks who weren’t happy with Mr. Smith’s adherence to actual historical events. As a lover of historical fiction, I like it a lot when a story follows the line of known history pretty closely, but have to say that the fact that this one may have strayed quite a bit from accepted history doesn’t bother me much.
The major events that underpin the story seem sound to me. The Hyksos invaded and conquered Egypt, the Egyptians learned from them, Egyptian culture may have been weak and full of corruption at the time. From that, Mr, Smith weaves a wonderful tale in the voice of a highly respected slave and eunuch, one that is quite an inventor, politician, thinker, and leader.
His characters are really well formed and crafted, and it’s quite easy to fall into complete empathy and understanding of each of them as the story unfolds. This is one I listened to from Audible, and the narrator was really quite good as well.
His subsequent stories in this series haven’t been rated as highly as this one, but I loved this one enough that I’ll try the next one or two anyway.
I’d like to give this 4.5 stars, but will err on the high side since the narration was so good as well.
