The Shepherd Kings

by Judith Tarr

Book Overview

The Kingdom of Lower Egypt has been occupied for a hundred years by the Shepherd Kings, the Hyksos, conquerors from the East who came with horses and dreadful war chariots to crush the foot soldiers of Pharoah. All of Lower Egypt is occupied by foreign lords, including the ancient household of The Sun Ascendant, where a young woman named Iry was once the lady of the holding and is now a slave. But there is a change in the wind-the holding has passed to the son of a woman of a Far-Eastern tribe, a Priestess of Horse Goddess, and with him comes the living incarnation of the Goddess, the White Mare. The Mare has driven her people to Egypt in the wake of the foreign kings and, to the horror of the invaders, chooses Iry to be her Servant and Chief Priestess. And now the Pharoah Ahmose, who still rules the Upper Kingdom, will move to take back the Lower Kingdom by making a two-fold alliance: with the seafaring empire of Crete, and with Horse Goddess herself.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312874227
• ISBN13: 9780312874223
• Release Date: December 2001
• Publisher: Forge
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.9" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Incredible!!

This book is wonderfully written with action,suspense, and love. I highly recommend it to any one who loves a well developed story with realistic characters, a must read.

Chariots of Fire

Set in one of the most exciting times in Egyptian history, the end of the Second Intermediate period, The Shepherd Kings is a vivid and well written novel. The Egytpians have suffered under the yoke of Hyksos invaders who control their country and enslave their people. The unmitigated insult to a nation with such an exalted history can be borne no longer. Under the direction of the Pharoah Amose a revolt begins, using the Hyksos' own weapons, horses and chariot, against them. Rather than focussing on the exalted, Ms. Tarr has chosen to illustrate her story using common people: a slave, a horse-breeder, a soldier and a priestess are her main characters, and they are exceedingly engaging. The novel is historically accurate (to be expected of an author with a degree in history) but the setting is secondary to fine gem of a story. This is the best of Ms. Tarr's novels to date and a must-read for anyone who enjoys a rollicking good story.