Customer Reviews

The Woman Who Would Be Pharaoh: A Novel of Ancient Egypt

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I am appalled by this book. I have never in all my years read a book so distasteful. I want to warn anyone who thinks this is a historical fiction book. I think it should be sold as erotica or in that category. I am not saying it doesn't have historical facts, however it has incest and so many sex scenes in it that it takes away from the historic value. The worst part is the copulating dwarfs and the very explicit description of the male dwarf's genitals. ( I have to wonder what the author was aiming for there.. wishful thinking on his part or something else?) The treachery of these people is unreal. The women are all harlots at one time or another. This could have been a good book. It has suspense, a love story, and history. Too bad it had to be ruined the way it was. The Harlequin romance novels are called smut. I have news for those that think that. The romance in those novels are done very tastefully compared to this book. I read all most every page, I skipped a few towards the end.

As far as I was able to gather (I made it to page 110), this story is about Princess Ankhesenpaaten who at fifteen is set to marry nine-year-old Pharaoh to be Tutankhamen. According to the book jacket, she is eventually widowed there is a big power struggle with lots of nasty deeds and family treachery. In the first pages, the Princess is more interested in men, sex and drinking at the local tavern - she escapes from the Royal Palace and meets up with the young set (I am not kidding) and heads for the local tavern and gets royally soused and does the hurdy gurdy in front of everyone (no, I am not kidding) and incites the men to drool after her. There is then some kind of attempt on her life and our intrepid hero saves her and voila (!!) they end up at some lake or river and do the nasty and presto-chango, they're madly in love and our snotty child abusing heroine (more on that shortly) is the sweetest thing since honey on bread. And I'll buy that bridge in Brooklyn.....

As if bad writing and lack of continuity in a storyline wasn't enough to send the book flying the copulating dwarfs most certainly did - let alone what our Royal Princess did to young Tut (remember now he's just nine) when she and her handmaidens attacked him in the bedroom and raised his night shirt......

Sorry but this is Amazon so I can't quote it here but it is truly disgusting and unless there is some historical basis that this princess went around molesting young boys I can't see any reason for it other than a feeble attempt to titillate the audience. Eeew, eeew, eeew. Get it from the library if you must, I'm glad I did. I must go and wash my brain out thoroughly with soap and water. This book deserves no stars and is a serious waste of a tree.

This is going to appear out of place among all these 5 stars reviews, I know, and I am seriously questioning whether we all read the same book. There are some things in this novel that I feel some readers may want to be warned about.

First of all, the story is about Tutankhamun's widow (and if one does their research, it is said she is also his half sister as well as Nefertiti's daughter) , Ankhesenpaaten and her struggle to retain her throne against her aunt, Mutnedjmet (Nefertiti's sister). There is court drama and intrigue as each woman tries to "one up" the other. A "cat fight" so to speak. They each have their allies, and unfortunately, they both sleep with their allies.

Both women are portrayed as very "loose." In the first 50 pages alone, Ankhesenpaaten does nothing but party, drink, make fun of her future husband's sex organ, and throw herself at a complete stranger. Mutnedjmet, tho older, is not much better as she crawls in bed with a priest of Amun, Simut.

When copulating dwarves entered the picture (they literally copulated for people's entertainment at a party) that was it for me.

Also of note is some rather odd phrases that I think could have been reworded. When Simut is thinking to himself about a recent conversation he had with Mutnedjmet, I quote, "He had gained a powerful ally, and she could pee all over him for all he cared."

I was under the impression this was a historical fiction novel, not erotic. It will not be for everyone. I recommend Nefertiti: A Novel for a historical novel that takes place in same time. It is from the viewpoint of Mutnedjmet and it manages to have scandal and history both, but with more likeable ladies.

Hoping for some interesting historical insights, I only met a modern teen sneaking out of the palace to go clubbing with her friends in the Nile version of a hiphop club. Poor character development, wildly anachronistic elements of plot, and lackluster writing make this book a waste of valuable reading time.

This was a terribly written book. Seemed like a junior-high schooler wrote it. Poor language skills. Stilted dialogue. Plenty of typographical errors on top of everything else. After three chapters, I quit reading it and returned it for my money back!

ALERT ADDED ON DECEMBER 9, 2009! Be aware that if you give this author a negative review, he will search out your other reviews on other books, and give your review a scathing critique, criticizing your grammar and your choice of words. When I accused the author of being "junior-high" in his writing of this book, I did not realize he was also "junior-high" in his need to get payback! Talk about a thin skin!

I am someone who really, really loves the Amarna time period, so I can say I have a fairly good knowledge of the time, although I'm not an Egyptologist.

Let me list the things I liked about this book:
- Great cover
- Very readable print

Things I didn't like:
-Ankhesenpaatan. While I truly believe you can detest a main character but still like a book, it just didn't work out that way for this book. She was just so unbelievable. Not only was she an unlikeable character, but she acted far too out of character for the time period and for who she was.
-To many things that didn't make sense. As far as I know, there weren't "candles" and "wall sconces" in ancient Egypt. Also, as soon as one pharaoh dies, another becomes pharaoh. There is no regency period without a pharaoh, as there was for 2 years while Prince Tut waited to crowned and Aye ran the kingdom. Granted, Aye probably _did_ run the kingdom, but Tut was the pharaoh. (I won't get into what happened between the time Tut died and Aye became pharaoh in history, this isn't the place for it.)
- I hated all the gratuitous sex. Had I known that the book would be like that, I wouldn't have bought it. I regret that I had it in my to be read pile for almost year, during which most of the reviews on Amazon were posted. I wonder if I can still return it. I sure feel cheated!

I know that I tend to leave negative reviews when I do leave a review - usually I just give a book a star(s). Books that are great tend to stand on their own, and usually it's my intense disappointment that causes me to leave a negative review. I'm very disappointed in this one. I couldn't finish it. I hung in there through about page 70, or whenever the dwarf sex scene happened. That's when the book hit the wall - a wall banger.

I always figured that if other people enjoyed a book the chances are that I would also. So, I have become a sucker for positive comments by readers. I can't tell you how often positive critiques turned out to be as phony as a three dollar bill. I haven't yet read any comments on "The Woman Who would Be Pharaoh", but I remembered Waltari"s, "The Egyptian" which I enjoyed and being someone who loves great historical fiction, I purchased the book. What an enjoyable read. It's loaded with memorable characters that live on long after I turned the last page. I know the term "page turner" has become a worn out cliche, so how can I tell you in all candor how good a novel this really is? Let me say simply that it is a gripping, fast-paced adventure filed with the color and the sound of an ancient world. folks, it's a darn good read. You will enjoy.

This book is a page turner. Although it is set in ancient Egypt, it is easily related to modern times dealing with family, love, revenge, murder, deception and has many twists and turns. I love the writing style and I look forward to my commute home so I can read more. I highly recommend this book to any reader....

I've always been fascinated by ancient Egypt and this novel combines great research on Egyptian life with a page-turning intensity that was most satisfying. I will have to re-read the last 50 pages because I raced through them to find out what happened to the characters whom I had come to love (or hate!) during the course of the book. Once you find yourself in the midst of the young solar princess's daily life, you're hooked. I highly recommend it.

A well researched and colorful historical novel has always been my favorite form of literature. With "The Woman Who Would be Pharaoh", William Klein has spotlighted from ancient Egypt a 12 year period, 1342 -1330 BC, which captivates all the senses. The novel swirls around the power struggles of Ankhesenamun, the queen, then widow, of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. But for me, what entranced were the graphic descriptions of the people, whose needs and desires collided treacherously;royalty, priests, tradesmen and slaves. I could envision and smell the cities of Thebes and Memphis and experience travel between them floating along the Nile. The highest compliment I can give when completing an historical novel is that a sense of the time and place has stayed with me. Mr. Klein deserves the compliment. One regret. I wish a regional map had prefaced so I could better follow Menkhara's grueling mission of survival for Queen Ankhesenamun.