Julie Bettendorf Presents Fascinating Historical Novel, Luxor: Book of Past Lives...

1324 B.C.
The large white ibis floated languidly on the smooth surface of the Nile, its feathers, silhouetted brilliantly by the morning sun. The bird stabbed his long, slender beak down underneath his wing, to scratch an early morning irritation.
A dusky brow ox walked down to the water's edge, his ears flipping valiantly at the flies already beginning to gather for their daily feast on his blood...
It was very early morning, and yet it seemed no one was sleeping. All life along the Nile was in an eternal race to start the day before being beaten down by the merciless sun.
Karnak Temple, the Ipet Isut, that most esteemed of places stood out from the simple scene, its many decorated columns standing as silent sentinels over the people walking underneath them. It is the largest religious house known in the world, upon which the mount of creation began.

...It is the second month of the great Nile flood, Akhet, the time of the inundation. Waset is preparing for the Beautiful Festival of the Opet, and the romantic scent of the lotus blossoms float in gentle currents of warm air. The sound of a woman's laughter punctuates the silence as she drops her basket of pomegranate fruit.
Ipet Isue is full of workmen busily preparing for the sacred procession from Ipet Isue to the Sanctuary of the Southern Opet and back again... These ceremonial boats will hold the golden effigies of the triad of gods, Amun-Ra, the most powerful god of the sun, and his wife Mut, and their child, Khonsu...
The festival will be a symbol of the bond between Tutankhamun and the gods. So important is the Opet festival, that Tutankhamun has commanded the festival to be lengthened from eleven days to twenty-seven, in honor of his alliance with Amun-Ra...


Luxor: Book of Past Lives

By Julie Bettendorf

Julie Bettendorf has taken her readers traveling before--to Egypt and to France with Anthony Ant! If you haven't checked out her children's books, click over to my reviews before you leave...

This time, however, the author who is a world traveler with a background in history and a degree in archaeology, has written an adult story of ancient history, based upon the the Lives of those who lived in Egypt during two time periods--first in 1324 BC and then in 1874 AD. Bettendorf has chosen to write about the everyday ancient man, but in this story, they are all involved in the fascinating business of...death... Not how they died...but how they prepared their dead for the afterlife... or later destroyed their tombs...

There was no doubt in the minds of ancient Egyptians that there was life after death. The entire process of preparing for death, especially for the pharaohs, who were considered almost gods with a connection to the gods that they worshiped, Amun-Ra, being the most powerful god of the sun. There was no real discrimination regarding the process itself--only the location and the after-life preparations for specific individuals, mostly based upon wealth of that individual.

Nebamun held the pages of bound papyrus,
known as the Book of Coming Forth by Day
protectively in his hands. It was the book given
to him by his uncle, and passed down from his
family of priests, all the back back to when it
first came in to being. As he opened the
ancient pages, the sweet smell of lutus wafted
into the embalming tent.
"Nastra, thou and thy daughter, Amunet shall
reap the eternal harvest from the fields of
Iaru, and from the fields of paradise that shall
be nourished forever."
~~~

There are two main male characters for each of the time periods. The irony of it is that the two living in 1324 are priests who prepared the dead...

While the two in 1874 are grave robbers, desecrating the bodies and stealing anything of value that were placed with the bodies of the deceased...

Such a tragedy...

"Whom shall they be called?" the high priest asked, pointing to the lifeless woman and small girl lying on the embalming table. The high priest, Nebamun, rubbed his bald head with lotue oil, in preparation for the mummification rites.
He was a tall, striking man with large black eyes, black as the underworld, made ever larger and blacker by a masterful application of black mesdemet powder eyeliner. His solid chin made him look fierce, but there was softness about his smily which revealed his true nature. He was a kind, just man, and he was chosen when he was a small boy to be taught the rites of Anubis.

He picked up the heavy black mask and
noted with satisfaction the beautiful gold
work on the eyes, and edges of the ears. It
seemed alive. He felt comforted by the
exquisite costume, to be worn to honor
woman and her daughter.
~~~

Today, Nebamun would become Anubis, the jackal- headed god, he who is in the place of embalming, the god of mummification and guardian of the dead. He would preside over the forty day ceremony of cleaning, embalming and drying out ot eh bodies. After the bodies were completely desiccated, they would be wrapped completely in many lengths of soft linen made of flax fibers.
In total, it was a seventy-day process, after which the dead would live life in eternity, in peace and contentment forever. It was a long proces, but over the years, Nebamun had grown accustomed to it. He rubbed his head once more with oil and dried his hands with a linen cloth...

~~~

Each of the time periods are essentially a separate adventure, except that there are parts that cross where the later group is involved in bodies that had been prepared by the priests. The book moves from time period to time period so that readers begin to see the great honor given to the dead by the Egyptians...

She reached inside and pulled out a wad of dark brown
rags, stiff with resin. "These will do just fine, the darker
the cloth, the hotter the fire," she said as she threw them
on the ground. "Do you have anything for me too, Abdul?"
she asked, looking at Abdul with distrust.
"I hate burning these, mother," Abdul said, handing her
cloth sack; "almost as much as I hate the shopkeeper
grinding the bones down to dust. These people were alive
once, like we are now."
"Don't be even more foolish than you already are, Abdul.
They are dead now. Why shouldn't we use them as we can,
to make our lives better. If we don't use them,
someone else will," Satre said.
~~~

Only to see later generations care nothing about the dead except as it may be used to make money! The town of Gourna had been built on top of many of the tombs of the past.

"Mother, see what money we have made," Karim yelled out. His voice fell flat against the walls of their small whitewashed home.

...Karim and Abdul lived in the small village of Gourna, at the foot of the Theban hills, along with their mother Satre. It was a desolate place, where people scraped by doing whatever they could to make their lives bearable. The villagers would look out across the Nile at the bustling city of Luxor and dream of a better world...

On one of your trips, I'm coming with you," Satre said suddenly.

"What are you talking about, where?" Karim asked.

"When you go into the tombs, I want to come with you."

"Why?" Abdul asked.

"Fool. Why do you think?" Satre said...I think you two are cheating me. I want to find out just how much you bring back in a day..."

Karim and Abdul each poured a bit of the barley into their respective millstones, picked up their pestles and began to bring the full grains into fine powder. Satre and her sons grew silent once again, as they focused on their work of making bread and beer, the two main forms of sustenance to keep their family alive for another few days.

They were so focused in fact, they paid little attention to the common millstones they were using; millstones that were hewn from temple blocks cast aside long ago.

If Karim would have looked closely, he would have seen the small figure of Akhenaton, carved in elegant relief, the original colors long since destroyed, and the carving weathered by time.

There was Akhenaton, father of Tutankhamun, in all of his battle gear, holding the heads of his captives, ready to smite them with his upheld sword.

The brothers could have sen the last vestiges of Akhenaton, from his temple destroyed centuries earlier, if only they had looked...

~~~

There is much historical data supporting the stories created by Bettendorf, and, of course, we are all aware of the reality of how the tombs of those who lived in the past were treated. However, the realism of facts combined with a fictional story of main characters involved with how bodies of those in the past have been treated, makes the book worthy of any lover of historical novels, fiction or not.

Every once in awhile, the author slides in several short scenes that will stop you cold, wondering what it was that had been found... or, to listen as Anubis chastises a priest for becoming "too involved" in his work with the body preparation. All in all, this certainly brings readers a totally different perspective of the ancient times in Egypt and some truths about Tutankhamun that have recently been confirmed through autopsy...

Given the continued interest in Egyptian history and all that it entails about past pharaohs, I believe this will be a must-read for some of you. I must admit I've always been intrigued by the architectural beauty in the country, but this novel certainly brings history to each and every reader in a unique and quite satisfying manner. Highly recommended


GABixlerReviews

Julie Bettendorf is a world traveler, with a background in history and a degree in archaeology. It is her dream to make history come alive for the reader - not just the history of the famous, but the history of the forgotten as well.  When she is not traveling, she lives in Portland, Oregon...

Desert God by Wilbur Smith -- Historical Fantasy and Adventure Never Better Merged!

Standing behind me was a sailor. He elbowed me to
one side and stepped into the staff. He went to one
of the crowned women sitting there.
"I call upon you to pay your debt to the goddess,"
he challenged her, and he tossed a coin into her rap.
She looked up at him dispassionately as he pulled
his kilt up above his waist and with his free hand
worked... His belly was protuberant and covered
with a dense carpet of black hair. The woman
grimaced as she removed the floral crown from her
head and lay back on the mattress, letting her
knees fall apart...
The spectacle of sordid little people performing a
grotesque parody of something so essentially
beautiful inclines me toward melancholy rather
than pleasure.
~~~

Suddenly I became aware of the fact that I was being observed. I turned quickly toward the high temple ziggurat that stood beside the palace. The spiral terrace that rose from ground level to the top of the temple passed so close to where I stood that it seemed I might easily have lobbed a small stone across the gap that separated us.
On the temple terrace opposite me stood a cloaked and hooded figure. I could not see the eyes in the shadow of the hood, but I could feel them focused on my face. I felt perfectly at ease under this scrutiny, but intrigued by the identity of the stranger. I am fully aware that except for the injuries that were inflicted on me so long ago, my body is tall and exceptionally well formed. My musculature is honed by hard riding and exercises at arms. Modesty usually prevents me from employing the word beautiful when describing myself but honesty requires me to do so in this instance. 
Both the stranger and I stood calmly studying each other. Then slowly the cloaked figure raised both hands and lifted the hood off its head and let it drop in folds around its shoulders. Perversely I had presumed that the stranger was a man, but now I was faced with abundant evidence that I had been mistaken.
This was a woman who stood before me, a woman lovely beyond my most extravagant dreams of beauty. Her face was so divine that it caused me exquisite anguish to look upon it. I searched for words to describe it, but all the superlatives of our glorious language paled and were rendered trite and mundane before it. I have never before experienced such soul-rending emotion. Here was all that I have ever hungered for and been denied, everything of value that a cruel fate has placed far beyond my reach for all time. Here was all the glory of femininity embodied.
Slowly I reached out my hand toward her, understanding that it was a forlorn gesture, knowing full well that such magnificence would remain always far beyond my reach, but that it would also remain preserved entirely in my memory to haunt me through all eternity.
She smiled at me sadly, an expression of sympathy for my plight and deep regret for having brought it upon me. Then she covered her head with the hood of her cloak, turned from me and glided away into the precincts of the temple, leaving me bereft...

I have seen the bodies of many beautiful women during my long life, but Inanna far surpassed any of them. Her hips were voluptuous but above them her narrow waist emphasized their elegant contours. Although she was as tall as I am her limbs were so delicately smooth and sculptured that I could not prevent myself reaching out to stroke them. Lightly I ran my fingers up her arms from her wrists to the curve of her shoulders. Her skin was silken but the muscles beneath it were adamantine...
The light grew sronger still and I realized that we were standing in the Hanging Gardens high above the city of Babylon. The masses of shrubbery and flowers that surrounded us were wondrously lovely, but they were rendered mundane by Inanna's beauty. She took my hands from her shoulders and she kissed them one after the other. I shivered at the sensation that pervaded my whole being.

"What do you want of me, Inanna?" It did not sound like my own voice that said it."
"I propose to unite with you..."
~~~

Desert God:

A Novel of Ancient Egypt

By Wilbur Smith

Omar Sharif as Taita!
It is a simple matter for me to tell the
difference between these two races.
My Egyptians are a handsome people
with lively and intelligent faces,
high foreheads, large widely spaced
eyes, and finely etched features. In
short, one is usually able to tell at a
glance that they are a superior race.
~~~

This exceptional story has already been signed for making into a movie! It is an epic history war tale, but, for me, and maybe many other female fans, it is or will be also one of the most erotic stories I've ever read...  

Taita is the main character and one who quickly won my esteem. He is the first character I have enjoyed who was not only brilliant in his tactical activities and decisions, but was also sympathetic and just in dealing with...most...of his enemies...

Egypt's major enemy was the Hykos who had come from foreign lands and taken strategic areas which hampered the activities of the latest Pharoah of Egypt. The tragedy was mostly caused by the fact that the Hykos were a cruel and avarice people who totally destroyed both the people and buildings of any place they invaded. The result was that now Thebes, which is now Luxor, was landlocked.

Taita was special, that's all I'll include in my review, other than that he was at least 90 years

Suddenly I heard the unmistakble sounds
of a moving vessel coming up the channel
from the seaward direction of where we lay,
and I cautioned my companions to silence.
The creaking of the rigging, the voice of the
seaman chanting the soundings in the bows
and the thud of the oars in the rowlocks
increased in volume until suddenly an
enormous seagoing vessel appeared around
the bend in the channel.
I had never seen a ship of this type or size
before; however, I knew from descriptions
that my spies had sent me that this was a
Cretan trireme. She was both a cargo vessel
and a warship. She was triple-decked, with
three banks of oars...
The chances of me arriving at Tamiat at
exactly the same time as the treasure
convoy was so remote that it must have
been arranged by divine intervention...
~~~

old. He had been an advisor for more than one pharaoh and had been like a father to the present Pharaoh and his two sisters. Now Taita advised the present Pharaoh Tamose and had presented to him a plan to begin the restoration of Thebes to power of all Egypt. His plan was ingenious and was just the first step in moving forward... The result: unbelievable bounty for the treasury! I must say that this was my favorite adventure for Taita. His cunning and imagination, as well as his willingness to call upon his god, as needed, make him the type of hero anybody would follow...

It took me several hours of tactful mani-
pulation before I could convince him that
the danger of leaving Egypt without a
leader at such a crucial point in our history
far outweighed the glory or other benefit
that he could hope to win from a successful
capture of the Minoan fortress at Tamiat and
the treasure it contained...
However, before he dismissed me Pharoah
Tamose placed in my hands the royal hawk
seal. This was Pharoah's means of delegating
all of his powers to the bearer...
!!!

Now that they had money, the next part of the plan began. Taita had already created a major block for the Hykos desire to build a liaison with Crete, the richest country at that time. With Taita obtaining information from other lands, he had learned that both of his maidens would be considered an appropriate gift to merge Egypt and Crete--but that merger, which is near the end of the book, did not happen as expected! But it certainly does made for an explosive ending!

According to Amythaon he is a
splendid and imposing figure
who is always masked when he
appears in public. The mask he
wears is in the shape of a bull's
head fashioned out of pure silver.
None of his subjects have ever
seen his face...
"He has a hundred wives,"
Amythaon went on and looked at
me to be impressed. I adopted an
expression of awe. "The Supreme
Minos received wives from all the
other kings of the city states across
the islands that dot the Aegean Sea.
Four times a year, on the festivals
which mark the changing of the
seasons, they are sent to him in a
form of tribute."
..."That adds up to 182 each year...
"That is correct, my lord."
"Then can you explain to me how
the number of his wives remains at
one hundred, as you asserted at first?"
~~~

To make the trip from landlocked Thebes required that they travel across the desert on to Babylon and Sumeria and then, with ships acquired there, sail on to Crete. This trip was fraught with danger, as well as some interesting interplay between soldiers with the princesses who would be given in marriage Crete. The two girls have Taita wound around their fingers, as most princesses would, especially with their great beauty. I must admit that I was quite satisfied with how the ending occurred... especially since the individual to whom they were to marry appeared only with a mask fashion after the head of an auroch bull! In fact, Taita, had already encountered one of the real ones during his time on Crete. And this is just another strange incident that readers will encounter one after the other...

This is my first time reading Smith and I'm certainly happy to have had the opportunity to thoroughly enjoy my first time with him. He is a well-known historical novelist, with Stephen King declaring him the best. Of all history, the ancient times were always my favorite--the times seem so extraordinarily thrilling, even though we know now that much of what is written is mythical. Still, the stories of the various gods and how they were selected as "favorites" was intriguing, yet implied that there was some response to the humans who worshiped them. At least in the case of Inana, I was happy to learn of her story and her own decision to not interfere with the life Taita had been condemned to. Personally, I'd loved to see followup of how Taita and Inana shared a future life in that ancient land of Egypt...

Smith's writing pulled me back into the language of our past and he does a fine job in ensuring readers that we are aware of the time period into which we've escaped. The book itself has those small additions such as edged pages, relevant graphic chapter headings and a sensational map of the ancient lands as covered in the novel. I found myself referring to it often, especially as Taita and a large entourage, including the two princesses, left Thebes on the Nile, into the Red Sea, through the desert of Arabia and then on to Babylon, sailing then on to the small island of Crete. Readers have the opportunity to follow the map as each town was reached and to ponder the challenges of the amazing journey upon which Taita was leading his people. A truly fascinating tale, even though I have no idea how the percentage of fantasy and adventure stands against the realism of the historical accounts. But then, that can probably be said for much of the information for the time period, right? I admit to being surprised at how much I enjoyed the book, since I'm not a historical fiction fan, especially of wars. However, Taita was exactly the character to have allowed me to marvel at all he had done and accomplished for his beloved country, Egypt. 

If you love adventure merged with fantasy, whether historically based or not, I highly recommend you take a look...and don't wait for the movie!


GABixlerReviews

Wilbur Smith is one of the world's most popular novelists, with more than 125 million copies of his books sold worldwide in twenty-six languages. A native of central Africa, he divides his time between Cape Town and London. 
www.wilbursmithbooks.com