tabulaxrasa (tabulaxrasa) wrote in egyptology, @ 2007-11-29 17:12:00 |
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Current mood: | cold |
Book Review: Year of the Hyenas
I just finished reading Year of the Hyenas by Brad Geagley. It's a mystery novel set around the Harem Conspiracy of Ramses III. It also deals heavily with the residents of Deir el-Medina, tomb builders for the Pharaoh.
The residents of DeM are all involved in a massive tomb robbing conspiracy, the purpose of which is to fund Tiye's coup (she wants to kill the king and the crown prince to put her own son on the throne).
I've been considering reading this for some time, although I have very hazy memories of a sarcastic review in KMT. It was much better than I expected, with few nitpicky things, none of which seriously offended me. The worst one was the mention of water wheels; I'm confounded how those showed up when there's a working shaduf in the Field Museum and they're still used quite commonly in Egypt today. However, that was no where near as bad as some flubs I've seen (Coins! Camels! Paul Doherty, I am looking at you!). Towards the end the overuse of papyrus, instead of the use of ostraca, annoyed me too.
The narrator, Semerket, is obviously supposed to be noir-ish but really just comes across as emo. Luckily, as soon as he gets his commission he (mostly) gets over it so it actually doesn't end up being too annoying. The best part is he gets for a sidekick a Medjay named Qar, which is brilliant because the Medjay are awesome. There should be loads of books about the Medjay, but there aren't. (The Medjay were a troop of select Nubian soldiers who started out as a special archery troop and developed into special police, sort of like the FBI.)
I decided I didn't know much about Ramses III apart from the Sea Peoples, the Deir el-Medina strike, and the bare facts of the Harem Conspiracy, and of course that Ramses III was the last Pharaoh whose title meant something. I try not to pay attention to the Ramessids if I can help it. :p So before I hit the last few sections of the book, I pulled out Complete Royal Families, Chronicle of the Pharaohs, and even Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (although the relevant chapter was written by van Dijk, and I cannot seriously respect anyone who insists the KV 55 mummy is Ahkenaten).
Of course, the Sea Peoples, the strike, and the Harem Conspiracy are about it for Ramses III, so I didn't learn much I didn't already know. I was right to think the tomb-robbing plot odd, since the great state-sanctioned tomb robbings came at the end of the 20th Dynasty-- so all those riches must have still been in their tombs. Although I suppose you could assume all the stolen objects are recovered and returned to their rightful places. It still seems really odd they had the tomb robings perpetrated by DeM inhabitants but no strike.
So then I pulled out the books on DeM. Now, I knew prefectly well Paneb and Neferhotep were real-- the crimes of Paneb are great favourites among Egyptologists because it's such entertaining reading. But I was also pretty sure they were NOT from the time of RIII, and I was quite right, they were alive starting RII. Of course, Paneb was also the adopted son of Neferhotep. Neferhotep was killed during the civil war between Seti II and Amenmese, and Paneb bribed his way to being foreman during the reign of Siptah. He was indeed accused of tomb robbery, among other charges, but the list of things he stole is considerably different: stones from the top of the tomb of Seti Merenptah to use as columns in his own tomb; the spike of Pharaoh and the hoe for work in his own tomb; a goose [probably a model] from Queen Henutmire; and from the tomb of the workman Nahktmin a bed and "the objects which one gives to a dead man." There were plenty of adultery charges as well. Paneb was definitely removed from office and probably executed.
The two mayors of Thebes in this book, Paser and Pawero, were also real, but their great feud (over tomb-robbing, indeed) took place in Year 16 of Ramses IX, so some time later.
(Good info about all of this is in Bierbrier, Tomb Builders of the Pharaohs.)
The only copy of the court transcripts I have are in Breasted, so I went and suffered through those. The names of several of the conspirators were separated from them, which is absolutely the worst punishment in Ancient Egypt, because if your name is gone so is your afterlife. You die a second time. Although Pentaweret, the name for the prince involved, is certainly not his original name, it's not a rude name, either. Of course Geagley calls this prince Pentwere, but then he says in the beginning he's simplified names.
The biggest change, really, is setting the story in Hundred-Gated Thebes instead of Pi-Ramesses where it almost certainly took place. In order to get into DeM, of course, it had to be in Thebes. And by Geagley's own admission he finds the name incredibly romantic. Ha. (This is his reason for using "Thebes" instead of "Waset.")
Geagley has a very literal deus ex machina, except for the machina part. Considering how important magic was in the original trial, why not? So that part didn't actually bother me at all.
Overall, it's not a bad read. It's well-written and pretty well researched, for a layman. :p The ending's nicely morbidly prophetic, too. Ramses III is dying, and as Semerket "...gazed out into the blackness of Thebes it seemed to him that Egypt had been plunged into an eternal night."