Thu 12 Nov 2009
A Review by Walter Albert: PAUL DOHERTY – An Evil Spirit Out of the West.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[4] Comments
PAUL DOHERTY – An Evil Spirit Out of the West. Headline, hardcover/trade paperback, August 2003; pb, April 2004.
Doherty just keeps turning out his historical mysteries, with Evil Spirit the first in a trilogy narrated by Mahu, a commoner who becomes the protector and confidant of Akenaten, the heretical Pharaoh who replaced the traditional religion that honored many gods with a monotheistic system.
This first novel details the rise and fall of Akenaten, with the the succeeding volumes The Season of the Hyaena and The Year of the Cobra continuing the saga with the beginning of the reign of Tutankhamen and then, the sudden, unexpected return of his father.
Mahu is the center of this first novel, the intelligent commoner and adviser who seems to be something of a staple in the Egyptian mysteries I’ve read, and he will apparently continue his role with the reign of Tutankamen, although how he will manage to serve two masters in the third volume intrigues me.
The Spies of Sobeck, the seventh novel in Doherty’s series featuring Amerotke, the Chief Justice of Thebes, was published in April and is available from Amazon. I’ll just note the publication here, since I don’t plan to do a detailed review.
As long as Doherty keeps writing Egyptian mysteries, I’ll keep on reading them. They’re uniformly well done, and my assessment is that if you like one you’ll want to read all of them. And with that, I rest my case.
November 12th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
I’ll have to look into these. I’ve read several of the Lord Meren and Lt. Bak mysteries, and even the modern Mamur Zapt books and Egypt proves a natural setting for murder and mystery. I’ve read Doherty’s other books and these sound like fun.
November 12th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
The Mamur Zapt books by Michael Pearce are great fun, but while there was one series of mysteries taking place in historical Egypt that I enjoyed — no loner being published — the others, for the most part, have always been too “alien” too me.
That’s not quite the right word, but “foreign” isn’t what I mean, either.
But one of the joys of posting other people’s reviews on this blog is discovering authors and books and series that I’d not known about before, and giving them a try.
I’ve read enough of Doherty’s other books, under both his name and his many other ones (*), that if I come across one of the books in his various Egyptian series, I’ll at least look more closely at it than I would have otherwise.
(*) Vanessa Alexander, Anna Apostolou, Michael Clynes, Ann Dukthas, C L Grace, Paul Harding.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Steve
For some reason some of these Egyptian series — especially these set in ancient Egypt recall the Judge Dee books for me. The society and culture is alien and yet human nature remains the same — most of the time. At the same time I think alien is a good choice of words to describe the divide between that world and ours. Even Christie’s Egyptian novel has that feeling despite being a domestic mystery.
Most historical series take place in worlds where despite the remove of time and place the human motives are easily understandable to us, but that isn’t always true of Egyptian society where motives and actions can be truly alien. The best of these writers like Robinson and her Lord Meren series manage to capture both the human motives and ones alien to us.
The funny thing is that these books probably come closer to creating a believable alien society than much science fiction does.
November 12th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
Yes, you’ve captured the essence of what I was muttering about earlier. For what it’s worth, I’ve not been able to read a Judge Dee book, either.
And you’re right on the money regarding the Lord Meron books. That’s the ancient Egyptian series that I have read and enjoyed.
I’ve often considered the writing of historical fiction much like science-fictional world construction, as you say. If done right, it’s probably harder. Historical fiction has to ring true in two ways — to today’s ears, but also (if it could be done) to the ears of people in whatever time period the story takes place in.
Inconsistencies in SFnal and fantasy world are not going to be noticed, except by the most fanatical readers — of which there are undoubtedly quite a few, however! If J. K. Rowling were ever to have mixed up a few “facts” in her Harry Potter series, I’m sure she would have heard about it.