Customer Reviews

Throne of Isis

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

 

 

Throne of Isis is an interesting book about Egypt during Cleopatra's reign. There are a lot of things the book can be faulted for, but it is neither a bad story nor is it poorly written. The key is to remember that it is not trying to tell Cleopatra's story, but about the time and circumstances surrounding when she lived.

The main character, Dione, is a remarkable woman, a priestess known for her ability to be the voice of the goddess Isis and her commitment to Egypt and its illustrious queen. Cleopatra's relationships with Caesar and Antony provide the background for the story: the ancient empires and their inner conflicts. These conflicts include the problems of expansionism, the values of the different societies, war, and the role of women (valued in Egypt and considered property in Rome).

With this in mind, Dione's story comes is that of a woman, mother, wife, and priestess who must reconcile all of these aspects as the historical events unfold around her. She is a daring feminist who breaks social rules when she marries a Roman, Lucius Sevillius.

Many aspects of this story are touching, and reveal Judith Tarr's understanding of human nature. Many of the situations and emotions the characters experience are just as vivid in the novel as they are today. Dione is as amazing as she is unusual for her time--with the exception of the strong, calculating Cleopatra. And to Tarr's credit, her descriptions of Antony's battles on land and by sea are well-researched and thoughtfully written.

This book deserves a chance. No, it is not THE defining book on Cleopatra. Rather, it is a story of hope, love, miscalculation, and beats with the heart and spirit of ancient Egypt. It is not a book that will appeal to all and probably not to Egyptologists, but it will appeal to anyone looking for a decent piece of feminist historical fiction. The book will not disappoint, but the reader cannot place too many expectations on the author to resurrect Cleopatra on paper.

I differ strongly with the negative reviews I have read in this column. I have read numerous books on Cleopatra and believe her to have been one of the most interesting, enigmatic and mysterious women of all time. I believe Judith Tarr did a fabulous job of showing the clash between the elegant (if not treacherous) Hellenistic world with that of the less civilized and more militant Roman world. She shows how Antony was caught between the two worlds and how he tried to be a Roman when his

Roman subordinates reviled him because of his love for Cleopatra.

Cleopatra was not a beautiful woman, but she knew how to be glamorous and seductive using her charm, intelligence and wit. That to me is more stimulating than a super model with nothing interesting to say....at least in the long run.

At any rate, this book is well worth reading and gives us just a glimpse at a fabulous world lost in a daring gamble for supreme dominance.

Judith Tarr writes well. Her language flows, and that's what keeps this book readable.

On the other hand, to me what keeps it from being a really good book is the fact that very little of interest (to me, anyway) happens. Romances and the upbringing of children take up a vast portion of the lengthy text. Battle scenes get only tantalizing hints. The portrayal of magic is intriguing but too often veers into the silly (as in the childbirth scene, which I found laughable).

I'm not an expert on the period; what I see here seems accurate enough to me. I think it's important to remember that even though characters portrayed in historical fiction are "real people", in the context of literature, they're still fictional characters--and Cleopatra's ugliness or beauty is a matter of great indifference to me. The characters as written here are sufficiently vivid; the problem is that they don't get more active roles to play.

When I first read this book, I was fresh off of LORD OF THE TWO LANDS (and this was billed as the sequel, although it takes place 300 years later), so perhaps that influenced my initial impression of this book. Despite some serious flaws, I actually enjoyed this story because the main characters are so likable that the reader is drawn in and carried by them to the end, no matter how frustrating that journey might be.

As another reviewer stated, Tarr's vision of Cleopatra is a fair one: she's capricious, vindictive, smart, passionate---in other words, very human and relatable. Dione, the protagonist, on the other hand, is so sweet-natured, independent, and yet somehow even-tempered that one can't help but fall in love with her, yet at the same time, not quite believe in her as a real person. She's almost too perfectly balanced.

Where the plot grows thin is, oddly, in nearly all the same aspects that LORD OF THE TWO LANDS shone brightest. While the characterizations are good, (with the exception of Dione's ex-husband, Apollonius, who remained a blank all the way through) the exotic description of Tarr's previous effort is missing here. We are treated to just the briefest sketch of Cleopatra's world, without any detail, and the story suffers for it. I caught no real sense of time and place in this novel and was left wondering: what is Dione's house like? What was Quintus Dellius's impression of Alexandria? How does it compare to Rome? We're given none of these insights that make a good novel sing.

More importantly, where as the magic/mystical elements of LOTTL worked very well in that novel, in Throne of Isis, they fall utterly flat. Isis is the goddess of choice here, the all-powerful ally of Cleopatra and Dione who protects and nurtures them throughout the novel, only to abandon them at the end. We're given no explanation for this, other than a half-hearted reference to time and fate. So what is it? Did the goddess betray our protagonists? Were the Roman gods more powerful? It becomes obvious that the author herself never thought this through, and it renders the whole journey a rather pointless exercise. There`s no mystical resolution. History takes over and leaves the reader as clueless as Judith Tarr obviously was when she wrote this story.

Overall, the characters make for some enjoyable reading, the story is familiar, but there are a lot of missing elements that left this reader mildly dissatisfied.

I read this book about a year ago. Ever since then it has entraped me to Cleopatra. I have read many books since then about her. Many people know her for her love affairs with Marc Antony and Julius Cesar. But they do not know all of the good she did for Egypt. The libraries and colleges she built. She was an amazing woman in a world ruled by men. The only reason she was an enemy of Rome was because she was a WOMAN! Men condemed women that ruled because they ruled men! With that in mind they continued to hate her, due to the powerful men she was able to seduce. I don't know much about the author but I think it was an amazing book. And I believe Cleopatra was an amazing woman, a BEAUTIFUL woman, a buisness woman. In my eyes there will never be another, greater than, Cleopatra!

The best written portrayal of Cleopatra I've ever read, the standard by which I measure all others. Neither angel nor devil, but powerful and impressive and brilliant, there's a realism to her portrayal at Tarr's hands through the eyes of her cousin Dione (the narrator), but Tarr still maintains the magic and fantastical elements of the culture we've romanticized.

Tarr is a wonderful writer with a beautiful vocabulary. This book is no exception. My only complaint is that I think it is badly named. The title, Throne of Isis is fine, what I have trouble with is the sub-title, A Novel of Cleopatra. Although that title probably sells more books than the Throne of Isis title does, Cleopatra really is a minor character in this book. If you are looking for a book that gives life to Ancient Egypt under Cleopatra and Anthony, then you will like this book, but if you are looking for a historical novel about Cleopatra, you will probably be disappointed.

Judith Tarr should be placed under arrest, tried and convicted for the first-degree murder of an historical figure via a fictional account of that person's life!

Judith Tarr's portrayal of the legendary Cleopatra VII was at the very least a mockery of the very life she sought to do honour through fiction.

Ms. Tarr seems hung up on the "ugly-Cleopatra" idea probably because she has not seen any portraits of Cleopatra VII other than on coins. Admittedly, the minted portraits of Cleopatra VII are horrendous, but by all other historical accounts of Cleopatra's time, she was not an ugly woman - the statuary and inscriptions bear witness to this as well. If Tarr had truly done more thorough research, for example outside of her own public library or a quick Netsearch - one can only surmise she would have seen fit to write this book better than she did....if not out of the sheer guilt of honoring the memory of probably History's most powerful awe inspiring women of all time.

I can only say that the only worse book on Cleopatra that I have ever read outside of this one is called "That Egyptian Woman!" written during the fifties. (I cant even remember the author it was so bad!) A book with the description and dialogue that sounded like it came right off the set of "I Married Joan."

I wouldnt recommend Judith Tarr's book even as doorstop. Tarr, like a literary Lizzie Borden has performed a nightmarish hatchet job on the Queen of the Nile.

I hated this book. I liked the one she wrote about Alexander the great, the imagery was beautiful but this one was just awful.