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 Great story strong characters 504 An excellent book Though it dragged a bit and there was a lot of repetition it was an amazing read 504 This series fictionalizes the life of Huy who was a famous seer and healer in Ancient Egypt He was born into a peasant family from a small town in Egypt s fertile Delta region Volume One of this series The Twice Born relates Huy s childhood and the shocking event that would shape his entire life to come As a small boy his wealthy Uncle paid for Huy to attend a well known school While he was there Huy was taunted by some of the other students due to his peasant birth One day a fellow student hit Huy in the head with a throwing stick Huy was knocked out and fell into a deep pool of water He drowned While he was unconscious make that dead he had a strange dream in which the Gods of Egypt asked him to read and understand the Book of Thoth Ancient Egypt s spiritual text that was closely guarded by the priests He awakens five days later in the house of the dead His body has been awaiting the embalmers and his whole family is in mourning for him The Gods have exacted a terrible price for Huy s life they have given him the gift of seeing the future and healing the sick Use of his gift leaves him with a terrible headache and has made him permanently impotent but Huy does his best to put his new talent to use for the benefit of the poor people of Egypt. When Seer of Egypt opens Huy has moved into a small estate that Pharaoh has given him He lives with his childhood friend Ishat who he has trained as his scribe Huy is deeply in love with her but can never be a true partner to her or give her the children she longs for Together they care for the huge amounts of people who come seeking Huy s help and advice. Huy has built a nice life for himself with good friends and trustworthy servants But he is not happy he cannot have a true life partner and he worries constantly for the future of Egypt Ishat eventually leaves his home to marry his best friend Huy is heartbroken but goes on as best he can in his solitary lonely but successful life. Eventually Huy realizes that he is shirking his promise to the Gods to understand the Book of Thoth He hasn t even thought about it in many years indeed he has done his best not to think of it at all But he is beginning to see patterns in his visions There are several occasions when he has a vision of danger to a friend or loved one When he warns the person and encourages them to avoid the danger the scenario always plays itself out anyway but another innocent life is affected instead The Gods always extract their due He sees dire portents for the land of Egypt too He struggles trying to decide what it is that the messages are trying to tell him. Years pass and Huy is entrusted with the second Prince s education for a few months each summer at Huy s estate He grows to love the boy who is like the son that Huy will never have When the Price becomes Pharaoh Huy is ordered to the Palace to be at the new King s right hand With his future assured Huy is in position to become one of the most powerful men in Egypt. I have been a Pauline Gedge and an Ancient Egypt fan since I read her novel Child of the Morning many years ago She was my first taste of Historical Fiction set in Ancient Egypt and I have loved it ever since I have read all of her previous books and was thrilled to receive this one for review I did enjoy it but I found it to be a little bit slow in places It is like a bridge between the breathtaking events of The Twice Born and the concluding volume that will deal with the later years of Huy s life when he gained great power and renown While this novel has the author s wonderful descriptions of Ancient Egypt from the peasant towns of the Nile to the palaces of the Pharaohs it covers a period of over twenty years of Huy s life and there are sections where not very much is happening. I do recommend it as well as the rest of the Egypt novels by Pauline Gedge But definitely read Volume One first so you have Huy s whole story and then you won t mind accompanying him through his middle years probably the last peaceful time that he will have in his long life Did I mention that his gift also seems to keep him from aging It is very sad for him to see his friends and loved ones aging sickening dying while he stays looking like a fit twenty something The author has created a fascinating character in Huy and I felt for him in his continuing struggle with a gift that is both a blessing and a curse I m looking forward to the final volume in this interesting series. If you would like to try a Paulie Gedge book that stands alone I would point you to Child of the Morning my favorite of all her books or Lady of the Reeds another wonderful novel 504 I think this is the third time I ve read through this trilogy and every time I love how Gedge brings to life the common world of ancient Egypt One thing that irks me in the first book Huy is given one jasper and moonstone earring by Anuket He then uses it to pay the whore he tries to lose his virginity to She keeps the earring despite him not being satisfied In this book it mentions how he offered the one earring one not two Anuket had given him for his 14th birthday to Khenti kheti in honour of her death saying he kept it wrapped in linen in his cedar box Oops storyline dropped Regardless I still love the imagery this book conjures up in my mind Gedge is a master at rendering the world of ancient Egypt to life in the modern era 504 If eye rolling was an Olympic sport this book would ve made me a champion. The pacing is horrendous the first part of the book is a slow slog of Huy and Ishat s domestic life I know you love her Huy you don t have to remind us every other sentence Reading was a physically painful experience and I think I memorized Ishat s signature perfume because obviously her perfume is important than the plot. After the grueling and patience sapping first part the book plunges into the second after a 10 year time skip Everything is confusing the writer hardly explains what went on in the period Huy s parents kicked the bucket he still pines for Ishat and Anuket because yes we have to revisit the first book in excruciating detail in case we miss the event where one of his classmates killed him with a throwing stick and he died before coming back to life. As for the new scribe Never ever will she replace Ishat Huy reminds us every second paragraph He curses the gods for his power he tells us every chapter He s addicted to poppy and the gods have something great for him he teaches us But he doesn t want to be special He says for the I lost count. Good God what a whiny main character I m having a hard time believing he s past fifty and blessed by the Gods 504 The second in Gedge s compelling trilogy about ancient Egypt s most famous and enigmatic seer 504 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 10 504 Pauline Gedge can do no wrong Her writing is simply wonderful and her research painstaking 504 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 504 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 504
Seer of Egypt (The King's Man, #2) By Pauline Gedge |
0143052934 |
9780143052937 |
English |
504 |
Paperback |