Shades of Memnon [Paperback]

Gregory L. Walker (Author), Joe R. Lansdale (Preface), Bill Duke (Foreword)

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Seker Nefer Press (January 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966237404
• ISBN-13: 978-0966237405
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #625,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Shades of Memnon, my thoughts, October 8, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Shades of Memnon (Paperback)

I am a fan of fantasy adventure novels. Mainly reading a lot of the conan series. The thing is that in many of those books the heros aren't people of color. And when people of color, black people in particular, were brought up in the books their portrayal was ... well somewhat WACK. The protrayal in those books captured and grew out of the sterotypes that the European and American society has of Africa. For this book the author (a black man)spent 10 years studying anthropolgy, myth, and history so that his portral would be coming from a base of knowledge in the culture of ancient Kamit. Refrences are made throughout the book to Kamitian legends, concepts, and spritual culture. These references are in a little glossary at the begining of the book, so the reader can easily follow along. I enjoyed reading this book and finished within the week that I recieved it. The character of Memnon was well developed along with the plot. The author did not over glorify balck people while making villanins and savages out of white people. A mistake I was worried about when pruchasing the book. Instead the book tried and succeeded in presenting a story where Memnon found both friend and foe in both shades. The fight scences are pretty damn sweet. And I look forward to Memnon who has just aquired some knew weapons rippin' it up in the up coming books. This is the frist review I have written and I have been shoping here for a while so I was quite pleased. But I feel I should mention somethings I didn't like about the book. I felt the way in which Memnon came into captive the second time was type corny. It was just too easy. I think that is all i can say without giving the story away. So nuff Love. Peace and Blessing. ---Rain [e-mail]

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful book, February 4, 2002

By 

Ronald T. Jones (Chicago, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shades of Memnon (Paperback)

Shades of Memnon is a spellbinding, exciting, intriguing,mesmerising first book in a tale of epic proportions. It has all of the elements peculiar to the sword and sorcery genre: a gallant hero, nubile beauties, an evil wizard and benevolent fairies. The author, however, maximizes these elements through superlative storytelling that submerges the reader in a world he captures in stunning detail. The hero is no cardboard cutout with stock muscles and a sword, but a figure whose full humanity is conveyed even as he undergoes a transition from an ordinary youth to a warrior of superhuman strength and endurance. This book is a thrill ride of an adventure from beginning to end.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Out of Europe. Grade: C+, January 29, 2011

By 

The Djeli (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shades of Memnon (Paperback)

Though often considered an example of African historical/fantasy fiction, this book deals little with Africa. Only in the beginning of the text is the protagonist even in Africa. The story quickly places him in Arabia and Ancient Israel. That being said, the bulk of the novel takes place in Europe (While the Memnon of the Iliad fought in Asia Minor, not Europe). The great majority of the mythological images are derived from European traditions: satyrs, centaurs, werewolves, etc. The author continually makes reference to the sun as Aten's disk, making it seem like it is the only thing he knows about Ancient African worldview. To give him credit, he does provide some interesting concepts about Ancient Kemet, but most of this is only in the beginning of the text and not a part of the main story. The author goes to great lengths to make sure his book is not seen as an anti-European novel by making inaccurate claims about the advanced nature of West Asia and Europe around 1200 bce, when the novel takes place. He suggests that the architectural grandeur of Mecca was equal to Kemet at this time (possibly to placate the large percentage of Islamic believers in the black community). However, Mecca was a city of dust and nomads during Kemet's 19th-dynasty. It would not be until 1,800 years later that it gained any significance on the world stage. He also tries to make Petra an equal to the cities of Kemet. Petra was not signifant during the 19th-dynasty, gaining prominence some 1,200 years later under the Romans. The fact is, that in 1200 bce (and much of the Ancient Age) no civilization in the world could rival the monumentality of the Kemetians. We must not forget, the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza stood as the world's tallest building for at least 4,600 years! It was not surpased until the 20th-century!

Furthermore, the novel makes ludicrous claims that Europeans (his European hero is suggested to be Greek) possessed metallurgy superior to Kemet around 1200 bce. This is absurd. Even if one argues that iron spread in West Asia before Kemet--that is not Europe. Furthermore, iron was known if Africa, it just was not used as much. Contemporary iron is stronger than bronze, yes, but ancient iron was not stronger than bronze. Its power over bronze was in its ability to be manufactured easier, allowing more people access to strong metal, unlike bronze, which required more than one metal to create. The author also places Viking looking races in the story, running around Kemet and Arabia causing havoc. There is no historical evidence for any European being in Africa or Arabia at this time, save for possible the people of Crete. The Minoans of crete left vivid paintings of themselves, their phenotype being more similar to modern South Arabians.

I REALLY wanted to like this book, but I cannot support it for its nonsensical attempt at historical/fantasy fiction. There is little historical about it, it is purely fantasy fiction. As fantasy fiction it is mediocre at best.

Its primary value is in the fact that the protagonist is African, something not commonly found in this genre of literature. Outside of superficial occasional references to Kemet's goddess Sekmet (who is almost demonized) and the sun/aten disc, this is a poor example of what African historical/fantasy fiction could be. Perhaps the following books of this series are better, but this one is definitely not the book we've been waiting for.

Africa is so ridiculously rich in its own traditions of the supernatural that I am lost as to why the author was so dependent on European traditions to create his mythical world. His worldview is exposed in the protagonist's view of beauty. He argues that an Indian woman is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. This is not to say that non-African women cannot be beautiful, but the most beautiful? After growing up in Ancient Kemet? This corresponds to contemporary black male views in popular culture who only admire light-skin and straight hair. There was no mention of a beautiful African woman in the text, the only real character being his sister who is kidnapped. Her beauty is not mention, her role being strictly as his sister. No wonder Brother G dropped the "brother" and is simply Gregory Walker. I am not criticizing him for being open-minded to all races, there is certainly beauty and honor found in all of humanity, but with such a drought of positive images about Ancient Africa, the beauty of natural African women, etc, he forgot the reason he was writing the book. It is clear to me that his audience was not black people, but curious whites who he wanted to include him in their worldview, not bring to light the Ancient African worldview.