Seer of Egypt (The King's Man, #2) By Pauline Gedge
I was born in Auckland New Zealand on December 11 1945 the first of three girls Six years later my family emigrated to England where my father an ex policeman wanted to study for the Anglican ministry We lived in an ancient and very dilapidated cottage in the heart of the English Buckinghamshire woodland and later in a small village in Oxfordshire called Great Haseley I grew up surrounded by countryside that I observed played in and grew to know and love passionately and I wrote lyrically of its many moods. My father had his first parish in Oxford so in 1956 having passed the eleven plus exam a torture now fortunately defunct I attended what was then the Oxford Central School for Girls I was a very good student in everythin I was born in Auckland New Zealand on December 11 1945 the first of three girls Six years later my family emigrated to England where my father an ex policeman wanted to study for the Anglican ministry We lived in an ancient and very dilapidated cottage in the heart of the English Buckinghamshire woodland and later in a small village in Oxfordshire called Great Haseley I grew up surrounded by countryside that I observed played in and grew to know and love passionately and I wrote lyrically of its many moods. My father had his first parish in Oxford so in 1956 having passed the eleven plus exam a torture now fortunately defunct I attended what was then the Oxford Central School for Girls I was a very good student in everything but mathematics Any academic discipline that is expressed and interpreted through words I could conquer but math was bewildering and foreign a maze of numbers and ridiculous symbols with which I had nothing in common I liked chemistry because I was allowed to play with pretty crystals and chemicals that behaved as if they had magic in them I studied the violin an instrument I struggled over and gave up after two years and the piano which I enjoyed and continue to play along with the recorders Music has always been important to me. Then in 1959 my father accepted a parish in Virden Manitoba and the family left for Canada After three months at the local high school I was sent to a boarding school in Saskatchewan It was the most dehumanizing miserable experience of my life In 1961 I began one inglorious year at the University of Manitoba s Brandon College I did not work very hard and just before final exams I was told that my sister Anne was dying I lost all interest in passing. Anne wanted to die in the country where she was born so we all returned to New Zealand She died a month after our arrival and is buried in Auckland The rest of us moved down to the tip of the South Island where my father had taken the parish of Riverton For a year I worked as a substitute teacher in three rural schools In 64 I attended the Teachers Training College in Dunedin South Island where my writing output became prolific but again my studies suffered I did not particularly want to be a teacher All I wanted to do was stay home and read and write I was eighteen bored and restless I met my first husband there In 1966 I married and returned to Canada this time to Alberta with my husband and my family I found work at a day care in Edmonton My husband and I returned to England the next year and my first son Simon was born there in January 68 In 1969 we came back to Edmonton and my second son was born there in December 1970. By 1972 I was divorced and I moved east of Edmonton to the village of Edgerton I wrote my first novel and entered it in the Alberta Search for a New Novelist Competition It took fourth place out of ninety eight entries and though it received no prize the comments from the judges and my family encouraged me to try again The next year I entered my second attempt a bad novel that sank out of sight Finally in 1975 I wrote and submitted Child of the Morning the story of Hatshepsut an 18th Dynasty Egyptian pharaoh which won the competition With it came a publishing deal with Macmillan of Canada and the rest as they say is history site_link Huy has risen from lowly origins to become the Seer of the King Yet Amunhotep s patronage is both a blessing and a curse to Huy who feels imprisoned by the gift Thoth has imposed on him and by the life he must live to keep it Though rewarded with wealth and influence Huy longs for the pleasures of those he sees around him especially love which seems forever lost to him But when the King calls for his help Huy has no choice The life he knew is coming to an end but his contribution to Egyptian history is just beginning Seer of Egypt The King s Man 2 The second in Gedge s compelling trilogy about ancient Egypt s most famous and enigmatic seer English We see of Huy in this second instalment Now an adult Huy is catering to the needs of the poor with his special gift He makes friends with the servants he employs to serve in his ever growing household Ishat decides to move on and Huy finds that his life has drastic changes in store for him The King appears to have forgotten him for years until he is called to discuss a prophetic dream And finally Huy is put in charge of a surprising young Prince whom he had predicted would be king. The details are what makes this book a delight to read The story provide some twists and turns in this one Even though we follow Huy most of the time we get to see the other characters in a deeper way I found this second book much better than the first though there is still a lot of philosophising But religion takes a backseat as Huy goes about his daily life trying to help the common people The only thing I didn t like is the monologues Huy has with himself This is where I find the writing lacking This device was boring because it meant constant repetition of Huy s thoughts which were going around in circles anyway I agree with the other reviewers that repetition was a big problem in this book and ended up being filler in many parts While I liked Seer of Egypt better than The Twice Born I am giving both of them three stars because Seer of Egypt does not manage to rise above that and The Twice Born is not bad enough for a lower rating But I still insist Seer of Egypt is the better book English Gedge s Seer of Eygpt is of a character study than an actualy adventuring book There is not much in the way of action There is however much about cost and life choses and the penalities of those choices It is a look into questions surronding fate. Update March 2013 Still like it and I find myself enjoying the small things in the book Ishat is one of the coolest characters ever English There is a great deal of continuity between this second instalment in the trilogy and its predecessor For my review of the first book The Twice Born I commented on a few aspects that marked it out from Pauline Gedge s other novels and here in Seer of Egypt it really feels like she took those strands and ran with them I don t just mean the obvious that Huy a commoner is our protagonist of course But the focus on daily life for the non royal Egyptian and the deep delve into ancient Egyptian theological thought is stronger than ever It was a notable feature of the first book but if anything those themes are even intense here This may be because this is the middle book covering Huy s middle years The first book had some alternate focus during Huy s childhood on scribal training and in imagining the extraordinary event which goes on to shape his life Here Huy is living with the consequences and the new fame that his gifts have brought him. I can t help but notice what other reviews are saying about this trilogy and that reception is generally ambiguous than it usually is for Gedge s books and I do think there s something to this and that it has to do with these themes Gedge has made her mark for vividly and deftly bringing to life the dramatic lives of Egyptian royals the politics on an international scale and the gripping battles which changed the course of nations The King s Man trilogy has such a different perspective The royals feature but mainly as background to Huy s life and work at least thus far though hints are that it will change in the third book Gedge also mostly plays her historical fiction straight Scroll of Saqqara being the notable exception and here too she departs from her usual stomping ground to bring us a historical fantasy I can easily understand how this series has attracted criticism of boredom filler and parts that drag Fascinating as ancient Egyptian daily life and theology is and as well as Gedge renders it with her usual attention to detail and writing skill it s probably never going to be as exciting as the political manoeuvrings of monarchs or have the intense frisson of a good battle scene We re on a much less bumpy ride here and while Huy s life is extraordinary he was not a typical ancient Egyptian by any means much of it does adhere to typical concerns All the so because in this book Huy seems to be shunned by the pharaoh meaning long stretches where he has no part in the affairs of the court and which must instead be filled with something else his daily life his theological ponderings and his personal conflicts and relationships Because he is not a key member of court there is a sense that Huy has less agency than any of Gedge s other protagonists and that can feel frustrating at times Social histories in general have a hard time matching the interest that Big Person histories generate for these very reasons. And I have to admit I empathise with that perspective I haven t read the third book yet but with two books down I can say that this trilogy probably won t be my favourite from among all Gedge s works And yet I know that judgment is purely down to personal interest in the subject matter I cannot fault Gedge here for the detailed research nuanced characterisations and quality of writing are just as consistently high as ever they are. One thing s for sure in the final book we ll be hurtling towards events that will tie together this trilogy and The Twelfth Transforming and I am eager to see the culmination of all these plotlines begun in The Twice Born. 9 out of 10 English Pauline Gedge can do no wrong Her writing is simply wonderful and her research painstaking English
| Seer of Egypt (The King's Man, #2) By Pauline Gedge |
| 0143052934 |
| 9780143052937 |
| English |
| 504 |
| Paperback |
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