Customer Reviews

A God Against the Gods

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Much, of course, has been written about ancient Egypt in non-fiction and in the past two decades an increasing interest in the fictional world of Egypt has spawned a number of excellent novels, especially mysteries. Allen Drury's "A God Against the Gods," published in 1976--timed well with the King Tut craze associated with the world tour of the late king's funeral treasures--undoubtedly is the "father" of this subject/genre.

And well it should. Drury takes the time of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, some 3300 years ago, and proceeds to tell the story of this "horse-faced" king, husband to the beautiful Nefertiti and brother to the young King Tut.

The time of the pharaoh is rife with struggle--and plenty of problems. Against the advice of many of his advisers, Akhenaten proceeds to change the Egyptian theological concept of multi-gods into a monotheistic concept. Needless to say, this does not go well with his subjects. Changing the tenor of the religion, however, is only one concern Akhenaten faces. With Drury's renowned patience for detail and historical research, the novel examines the numerous aspects of the pharaoh's life, especially his relationship with Nefertiti and of his zeal to produce an heir. He doesn't, of course, and therein lies many of his problems.

"(Akhenaten) was perhaps the most human and touching of all the Pharoahs, for he greatly tried, and greatly failed, to bring to humanity a universal symbol of love." And it is the trials--and these failures--so poignantly presented that makes this book well worth the read, not just to Egyptologists, but to the layperson as well. Granted, not all authorities agree on Drury's interpretations (Drury points that out in his introduction), but the author's research and theories are academically acceptable, although there is disagreement in familial structure, relationships, pronunciations/spelling that experts may (or may not) recognize. Regardless, Drury's skill as an outstanding author carry the book along at an amazingly fast pace--almost if you were riding the current of the Nile itself. "Fascinating" is, indeed, an apt description of this book.

(Billyjhobbs@tyler.net)

The late Pulitzer Prize winning author Allen Drury in this novel, (and its sequel, "Return to Thebes") moves radically away from the genre which made him famous (the Washington Political Novel), and shares with his readers an historical novel based on the events of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt -- when the concept of monotheism was (possibly) first seriously considered. Readers of Drury's political novels will recognize his characteristic style of writing, character portrayal, and the like -- but the subject is one totally foreign to most Americans. Drury makes it come alive.

I have no idea what possessed Mr. Drury to write this novel -- but I'm glad that he did.

I cannot say that I enjoyed A God Against the Gods as much as I did Return to Thebes. Indeed, I came close to giving up at several points in this book. But, when Drury is good, he is very good. At the critical times during this book, such as Akhenaten's founding of Akhetaten's altar. His descriptions are always excellent, and his historical accuracy is unquestionable. I did feel a connection to the characters, although Drury's style made me feel as if I was reading letters that they were sending me. He puts the treader on an equal level with the characters, and does not talk down to the reader. To Jeffrey Li, I must ask, "If this book was so bad, why did you read the sequel?"

A well researched book but not nearly as well written as the classic "The Egyptian" nor as entertaining as some of the non-fiction books that cover this era. The first book "Birth of a God" is a very slow read and very confusing. It took me until the end of that book (or chapter) to realize that each chapter title would tell me the POV of that section.

You are wrong to think that this book is not important to the cause of Akhenaten and his own personal Egyptology, especially for its faithfulness to the available facts. This Middle Kingdom house had many problems, not the least of which were religious in nature. But, possibly owing to some poor politics, Akhenaten's life may have been something more like Mr. Drury had believed. Anyways, his images really WERE defaced.
What makes me cringe is the possibility that this book not be thought by all as one of our greatest.

I agree that it doesn't read well as an "entertaining story", but I'm an Egypt nut and love reading anything about the 18th dynasty. I thought the book presented some interesting ideas about the historical period, the motives of the people involved in the "heresy upheaval", and so on. I liked "Return to Thebes" for the same reason. Not a great book, but certainly not "trash"

Once in a while any reader will encounter a true terror of a book. This inevitable fate came to me in the form of A God Against Gods and its almost as bad sequel, Return to Thebes.

Most apparently appalling and offensive is the pomposity, the pretentious ways that the characters of the bizarre Amarna end of the illustrious XVIIIth Dynasty are portrayed. Pharaoh Akhenaten's mysterious, romantic vision is reduced to screaming hysterics and overblown dramatics. Princess Meritaten, who aspires to be the next Queen Hatshepsut, is even worse. She is a plaster cast of a person, and unfortunately for the reader the plaster begins cracking from the start. Characters to and fro are so weak, so distorted, and worst of all, so detached from the reader that I was tempted to hurl the library copy of the book across the room.

Drama is wonderful in books. In fact, for historical novels portraying the odd Royal Family of the late Egyptian 18th Dynasty, drama is a must. But in this blasphemous, stuffed with chaff work, drama is the worst enemy of the book, the plot, and the reader. Everywhere the characters only talk to themselves. "Presently I shall take poison", "Oh, they are dead!", "I am so nervous", all of these show the fatal cracks of Allen Drury's bilogy. It is clear to the reader that unfortunately the author is incapable of bringing forth true emotions at many times, especially when he must have the character say explicitly just what he or she is feeling.

But don't worry, prospective readers. There are some meritorious things that partially bring back this horror from the clutches of literary Tartarus. For example, the death scenes of Meritaten, Smenkhkara, Nefertiti, and the birth scenes of Ankhesenamun's children are very descriptive, and though too fanciful for some people's taste (i.e. though it is possible, the public murders of Nefertiti and Akhenaten do not completely reflect history) they are worth reading, the shafts of light that penetrate this overdramatic, even operatic novel. But you may also find the book almost worthless, like I did.

The final great crack in this book is the detachment of the characters. The reader cannot identify with the characters at all, even though the characters reflect and talk to themselves extensively (which is usually the most effective way of conveying personality to the reader). I had hoped that in their conversations with themselves the protagonists would reveal more of their bland, hidden characters, but instead they distance themselves from not only the plot and other characters but the reader.

Read A God Against Gods and Return to Thebes...if you have nothing better to do except scrub mildew off of your bathtub.

I expected more from a Pulitzer Prize winner. When I laid down this book I said to myself, "This is the worst book I have ever read in my entire life." I love historical fiction and if this had been the first one I had ever read I would never read a historical novel again. Drury's historical accuracy is good. I will give him that much credit-- at least as far as Egypt is concerned. As far as his ancient Mesopotamian accuracy, he could have at least consulted a general book and he would have found that Mesopotamians did not believe in a wonderful afterlife like the Egyptians and their cities were far from small-- they were immense! Being a student of Assyriologists, I almost quit the book there. He had a good idea of presenting the point of view from the eyes of many different people. But there was no sympathy with the characters. I hated when the high priest of Amon was executed. "Oh no. . ." "Ahhhh . . ." That was absolutly absurd and even comical when it was supposed to have been a tense moment. There was no climax to this story. Oh, I apologize, there was, but there was nothing that built up to it so when the climax did happen-- I said to myself, "And. . ."

Sorry Drury. I won't read the sequel.

This is absolutely the the most vicious, untruthful and disgraceful piece of literature I have ever read. It is one of the few books that you can open to absolutely any page and find something unbelieveably hateful. First off, where is this man's (meaning the author, of course) concern for mankind? He is more than just unduly making remarks about Akhenaten's looks, which are completely irrelevant as to who he is as a person and something no one can help, Mr. Drury is just being downright rude! And he does this every chance he gets! Second of all, and probably most importantly, he tries to make Akhenaten, a truly wonderful person in every respect, seem like some kind of egotistical raving-maniac-schizo, in love with his own relatives! He even ends the book, after a number of comic-book-like, laughable, immature exclamations along the way with Akhenaten saying that he thinks that he is going to live for millions of years. If that is true, than why, I'd like to know, did he arrange to have his own tomb built, in real life? Another one of the almsot countless offences this unfortunate book introduces into the minds of the populace, is that Drury continually mocks Akhenaten's steadfast religousness as, like all else he writes, some form of insanity, which is just downright cruel for anyone to do. It's all quite pathetic, esspecially when he takes the liberty of giving on his opinion of Akhenaten's supposed imperfection in the bibliography. But to top off all that, he actually "dedicates" the book to, as he puts it, "THEM", meaning the various people he's openly putting down. (Post-mortem suing, anyone?) I gave this book one star for showing how totally wrong many of the theories are. This book is really nothing more than an excuse to be vicious, by unrightfully besmirching the names of innocent people. (I cringed when I heard of a sequel.) I can tell that Mr. Drury is an intelligent person, and all, but he really should know better than to write at the expense of people he doesn't even have the right to speak as though he knows that much about. My sub-message of this review: Don't read this book. It's very depressing, and in no way worth it.