Scarab: Horemheb (The Amarnan Kings, #5) A Novel of Ancient Egypt by Max Overton

Scarab: Horemheb (The Amarnan Kings, #5) A Novel of Ancient Egypt Reviews

• 
  Dyana

  I am sure this book is classified as historical fiction, but I would classify it as alternative history as the emphasis is definitely on fiction. This book is a continuation of the stories of the last pharaohs of the 18th dynasty in Egypt - this one being about Horemheb. The thread that runs throughout the series is the no-name daughter of Amenhotep III and sister to Akhenaten, Smenkhkare, and Tutankhamen. She ends up with several names - Scarab, Beketaten, Lady Khepra, and Eye of the Geb. It's definitely well-written with detailed descriptions that put a person in time and place - landscapes, people and tribes, cultural differences, religions, battle scenes, famine, exodus, etc. The book begins with a "Who's Who and What's What in Scarab - Horemheb". It really helps explain why the author uses different names from those we are familiar with such as Khabirus for Hebrews, Kemet for Egypt, Waset for Thebes, King for Pharaoh, Ta Mehu and Ta Shemau for Lower and Upper Egypt, etc.
  
  The books always start with a prologue that takes place around 1960 in a little side valley of the Orontes River in Syria. A group of British archaeologists headed by Dr. Dani Hanser have found a cave with three chambers covered with paintings and hieroglyphs which happens to be the tomb built for Scarab. Dr. Hanser is translating the account of the Amarnan sun-kings of Egypt (that has not been written in the history books!). Ahmed Bashir, Under Minister of the Syrian Ministry of National History is virtually keeping the team under house arrest as he is looking for the location of King Smenkhkare's hidden treasure chamber. He needs their translation to find it. He also has not brought in the Egyptian authorities about this find. Dr. Hanser has found a Golden Scarab amulet which she is keeping hidden from him.
  
  The story returns to ancient Kemet where a blind old man and his daughter Merye are wandering around the desert. Note the alternative history in this plot line. They are searching for someone and end up in the town of Serabit. Surprise - they are revealed to be the former king Akhenaten who founded the city of Amarna, tried to establish monotheism during his reign by worshipping the sun god, and was supposedly left in the desert to die; his daughter Meryetaten; and former Queen Nefertiti as the old woman. He goes off by himself, has a vision, regains his eyesight, and is reborn as Yahmose of the "I Am" God. He has discovered that God is not the sun god Aten but the sun reflects the one true God.
  
  In the meantime, the story picks up 20 days after King Ay's death. In 50 days, a new king will be crowned in Waset. General Horemheb wants that privilege, but he is not of the royal bloodline. The only way to be King is to marry Lady Khepra/Scarab who is the sole surviving female member of the royal family of Amenhotep. Once on the throne, he plans to kill her. She must escape, wait him out, and put her son Seti on the throne. Her attempts to escape fail because she has lost the Golden Scarab amulet and her connection to the nine gods of Iunu who gives her magical powers. Horemheb sends out Paramessu, the father of Scarab's son, to quell unrest and stamp out claims to the throne. One threat is Menkure who was Tjaty to Smenkhkare and wants to put Smenkhkare's half Nubian son, Kashtare, on the throne. Another is Nebamen and Raweret who are the older sons of Amenhotep who think they have a claim to the throne.
  
  Scarab sends out The Pillar, a paramilitary force of Shechite tribesmen who are sworn to safeguard Scarab. They vow to find the lost Golden Scarab before Scarab has to marry Horemheb. Then she will have magical powers to escape. They miraculously find it and lose it again to an Amorite General on patrol. Jebu decides to ransom the amulet to the "witch woman" Scarab. The Amorite spymaster, Ashraz, is also looking for the amulet to use it as a bargaining tool. There are plenty of battle scenes between warring factions for the throne; but in the end, Horemheb marries Beketaten in the sight of the people, priests, and nobles to claim the throne. She is NOT allowed to attend his coronation, is NOT made queen, and he does NOT acknowledge her as wife after that.
  
  Horemheb erases all mention of the past four kings, wins a major victory in the North and destroys the Amorite invaders, and Seti goes to see his mother, Scarab, and asks why she abandoned him. He's 13, and in parting with her, he gives her a gift he found on the battlefield - a Golden Scarab!!! Scarab finally escapes, and the rest of the book is about Yahmose, now named Mose, trying to release the Khabiru from their bondage in Kemet. All the plagues happen (blood, frogs, gnats, flies, disease, hail, locusts, darkness) except for the plague on the firstborn and the Passover. King Horemheb, who is now an old man, asks Paramessu to co-reign with him and help take over the problem with the plagues and the persistent Mose. Paramessu will rule under the name Ramesses. Of course, Scarab accompanies her brother Mose, now Moses, each time he goes to see the Kings and to persuade them to "let my people go". The final Red Sea event is described as a big tidal wave or a tsunami. The exodus is not like the one described in the Bible for sure! - totally different with Scarab using her magical powers supplied by the nine Kemet gods of Iunu and Moses proclaiming the one true God of the Khabiru. Everything else about the Exodus is different too including why the Kings will not let the people go.
  
  The Prologue provides an interesting twist as Dr. Dani Hanser finishes up the hieroglyphic translation of the story of Scarab. There is also a chapter entitled "The Main Characters and Places in Scarab - Horemheb", "Gods of the Scarab Books", and "About the Author". Most of the battle scenes were engaging, but toward the end of the book it became slow reading and totally veered away from the well-known story of the Exodus. I really struggled between 3 or 4 stars. I finally gave it four stars after reminding myself this is fiction, even though I wasn't happy with the Exodus version, but well written. Hope the last book in the series is not too farfetched.
• 
  Paul Burnette

  Golden Scarab bewitches us! Scarab, previously known as a no-name child of King Nebmaetre of Egypt's Middle Kingdom, then named Beketaten, who in previous books of Overton's series came of age (Bk 1), fought against her usurping Uncle Ay on the side of her brother Shmenkhkare (Bk 2), continues the battle alongside her older brother Shmenkhkare against the cruel and ambitious Ay and her younger brother Tuthankamen (Bk 3), finally falls under the power of King Ay's adopted son Nakhtmin, then turns the tables on her worst enemies, clearing the way for Horemheb to come to power and her ex-lover Paramessu to become Horemheb's successor and eventually her son Set to sit on the throne of Egypt (Bk 4). In The Amarnan Kinds Book 5: Scarab - Horemheb, Overton combines his story with the Biblical story of the Hebrews' escape from Egypt, with former King Ahkenaten resurfacing as Yahmose (Moses) aided in the Hebrews/Khabirus' exodus from slavery in Egypt by Jesua, a warrior follower of Scarab. This tale has been 'read' to us from the beginning by a British female archaeologist Dani, who has found Scarab's tomb, apparently, in modern-day Syria, on the walls of which the aging Scarab had recorded her life story. It emerges at the end of Book 5 that Scarab is not buried in the tomb in Syria, as we had thought all along, but that her husband Khu had taken her body to her brother Shmenkhkare's hidden tomb in Egypt and secretly buried her there. So the stage is set for Book 6, where archaeologist Dani, apparently a descendant of Scarab's, is going to wield the golden scarab she found in the Syrian excavation, to assist her as she deals with unearthing her ancestor's body and story and fending off the efforts of a Saudi Arabian official who threatens the lives of the British archaeologists as well as the integrity of the history of Scarab. If this sounds a bit far-fetched, it is to the credit of the storyteller Max Overton that it all goes down smoothly, and delightfully, as Scarab's marvelous resilience and resourceful character grow slowly from the little girl playing with a dung beetle in Book 1 into the queen wielding the power of the gods of Egypt in Book 5. She restores Ma'at, the balance of justice and peace, to her country, just as any good fictional heroine should. We wait on Book 6 of The Amarnan Kings: Scarab - Descendant to see if Dani can do as well as her ancestor against the greed and ambition of present-day despots!
• 
  Grampy

  Reviewed by Lee Ashford for Readers' Favorite.
  
  “Scarab – Horemheb: Book 5 of the Amarnan Kings” by Max Overton is another exciting and action-packed episode in the life of the – presumably – fictional Scarab, a daughter, sister, niece, mother, wife, and grandmother to various Pharaohs of ancient Egypt. This chapter in her life continues to narrate many and varied adventures and misadventures with which she had to cope.
  
  Overton writes as if he himself were present during the life of Scarab. He draws upon a wealth of knowledge about ancient Egypt, and communicates such detail as to make it necessary to keep reminding oneself this is fiction. In a masterful touch, Overton incorporates Biblical accounts from the book of Exodus into his fictional tale, adding another layer of authenticity to the entire series. Scarab experienced numerous acts of supernatural intervention in her life, as did her brother, Yahmose, from different gods of the time, also consistent with many Biblical records.
  
  Overton’s ardent devotion to the authentic depiction of ancient Egyptian royalty, and the incessant threat of subterfuge, deception, and disloyalty even among family members, rings so true one can scarcely understand how he could come by his knowledge.
  
  This story, and this series, is not some mediocre fictional account cultivated from some dream he had; rather, this reads like a true historical presentation told in such a way as to consume the reader’s full attention, and place him in the thick of the action. It may well instigate sleep deprivation in the reader, owing to an unquenchable need to continue reading until he reaches the end. Everyone with an inkling of interest in ancient Egypt must read the epic tale of Scarab and the Amarnan Kings.
  
• 
  Holly

  This entire series was an amazing way of looking at the 18th Dynasty as opposed to what we know from the history books. Why couldn't Smenkhare and Tut have died at the same time? There are so many other "why couldn'ts" and "what ifs." So many times throughout the first five books, and caught myself smiling at the in-depth research and story telling of these "what ifs." I would absolutely recommend this series to anyone who loves ancient Egyptian culture or anyone who loves court intrigue and epic story telling!
  
  This book had a major twist that I was NOT expecting. It bothered my at first, having grown up in a Christian household. What's funny is, I no longer follow those beliefs, and have a very scientific approach to religion, yet I found myself saying "That's not true." The beauty of this book is it could have been true. And even if what Overton writes is not true, it's opens your mind to so many alternate histories that could be out there from what we are told. How he interwove the Bible and Ancient Egyptian culture...and sort of brought both down to earth really got me in the end. I absolutely loved it.
• 
  Sekhar N Banerjee

  A very good story
  
  Without any compromise with known history, an excellent narration of the end of 18th. Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. Some Egyptologists have already theorized that Akhnaten and Moses are the same person.
• 
  Stephanie

  I needed to read this to just finish the story and see what happens in the end.