|
The Eye of Horus |
||
|
Carol Thurston |
||
|
From the beginning, the reader is entranced by the intertwining stories. One is the story of Kate, a medical illustrator at work on a mummy known only as Tashat. The other is the story of an ancient Egyptian sunu - physician- whose life is changed forever in one night. Both stories are captivating, but the one set in ancient Egypt is ever more so. The physician, Senakhtenre, is called to help a priest's wife give birth. The woman is Nefertiti, famed Queen of the Heretic Pharaoh, then rumoured to her own Pharaoh, masquerading as a man known as Smenkhkare. Though the priest, Ramose and the daughter, Aset are both fictional, the story is as engaging as any true. Though Thurston's writing is sometimes spare, at other times it is full of rich descriptions. The characters and their tongue-twisting names are often confusing, so there is a list of major characters and a family tree for those who are curious to the incest that went on in the royal family of Egypt. She also provides many interesting theories for the deaths of the Pharaohs, especially that of Tutankhamen, famed boy-king. All told, it is a suspenseful book in which Thurston has created an ancient Egypt that we can know as well as her characters.
*Note: Though the story is fictional, the enigmatic mummy Tashat does exist, and her coffins are painted as Thurston writes. The strange man's head that lies between her legs is also real, and is also a point of considerable confusion for scholars as to its origin and meaning. |
