The Hippopotamus Marsh

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ALL THREE BOOKS BEFORE YOU BEGIN!! If you love historical fiction with its intrigues, plots, regal characters, and faraway times, get ready for a fabulous reading experience. And if Egyptian history is your thing, you'll be pleased with this investment.This is the first book I have read by Pauline Gedge, and what a find. It certainly will not be the last. She has a wonderfully fluid writing style and the ability to breath life into her characters. You can't help but feel the intensity of their convictions. Very entertaining and fast-paced. I have no need to retell the story...just make the time and soar into ancient times.

The three volumes of Gedge's latest series are all equally delightful. Set at the end of the 17th dynasty, and the beginning of the glorious 18th, Gedge's well-informed prose illuminates another era of Ancient Egyptian history. Her characters are always believable, and fully-fashioned.There is a lot of fiction written about this fascinating ancient civilization, but it is rare for the reader who is informed about the actual history to feel comfortable. Gedge never fails to create an authentic atmosphere. There is never total agreement among Egyptologists about specific events and the time is so remote as to be almost incomprehensible to a modern person, Gedge is seldom criticized for historical inaccuracy. I have always felt comfortable in her Egypt.

Pauline Gedge has been granted a gift. She has the ability to bring civilizations, long dead, to life through her words. Imagine that you are the ruler of a specific region of a country and that you receive a letter from your king, who lives several hundred miles away, which states that the noise made by the Hippopotami who inhabit your marsh are keeping him awake at night. What a ridiculous notion! Yet Seqenenra Tao must deal with a king who is just this irrational. Add to this mixture the fact that the king is a foriegner, a Setui or Hyksos as we know them today, and that in Seqenenra Tao flows the blood of the rightful pharoahic line of Egypt and The Hippopotamus Marsh, Gedge's masterful tale of revolt in Ancient Egypt, is begins. Truly, I couldn't put this book down until I finished it and I am finding the same thing to be true of the Oasis, which I am reading now. These characters are so well developed that the reader invests much in their lives.

This book is a must for any Egpyptophile. Thoroughly researched, in this book Pauline Gedge brings to life the architechs of the the New Kingdom. Starting with the historically documented demand of Aposis to silence the loud hippotami at Thebes, the story moves rapidly into into the series of events that lead to rebellion of the native Egyptians against the foreign opressors of the Hyksos dynasty. There is the high drama of Sequenenere Tao hacked to death by the Hyksos on the battle field as his mummy testifies to when discovered in modern times and the pathos of the homecoming of his body to his family in Weset (Thebes). I can't wait for Volume 2.

I liked the first two books of the new series Hippopotamus Marsh and Oasis)- they are well researched and touch upon the least known period of the Egyptian history. This series may seem a little dry (no romance whatsoever) than Ms. Gedge's other books (Child of the Morning, Lady of the Reeds). But for those who are more into history and less into romance, this would be a treat! Can't wait for the conclusion