Scarab: Smenkhkare (The Amarnan Kings, #2) A Novel of Ancient Egypt by Max Overton

Scarab: Smenkhkare (The Amarnan Kings, #2) A Novel of Ancient Egypt Reviews

• 
  Amanda

  2.5 stars
• 
  Dyana

  This series of six books is historical fiction about the last pharaohs of the 18th dynasty. This period of time is sketchy because later kings obliterated all records of these pharaohs. The story opens with a modern day British archaeological expedition led by Dr. Dani Hanser returning to Syria to explore a tomb they discovered a year previously. It appears to be the tomb of Princess Beketaten A.K.A. Scarab who was the sister of Akhenaten, Smenkhkare, and Tutankhamen. These stories are told by her through Dani who reads the hieroglyphics that cover all the walls of her tomb.
  
  This books follows the 1st in the series about Akhenaten who is called the heretic king, who changed everything by overthrowing the gods, who established a religion serving only the one god Aten, who created a new capital city, who is now half blind and demented from staring into his God's eye (sun), and who has been forced to co pharaoh-ship with his brother Smenkhkare who is 19 years old. He only reigns over his beloved city of Akhet-Aten (Amarna), while his brother Smenkhkare rules over Waset and is bringing back the worship of all Gods. Tjaty Ay who is the father of Nefertiti (Akhenaten's wife), is brother to queen Tiye (Beketaten's mother), and who is the Divine Father and advisor to the Pharaoh engineered this co-regency in the hope of maintaining his failing grip on the power of the king. Ankhkheperure Djeserkheperu Smenkhkare has been ruling three years and now wishes to be married soon to his sister, Princess Beketaten, to insure a pure continuation of the royal line. He disappears during a hunting expedition to kill a lion that is terrorizing some outlying villages. It appears that he has been attacked and eaten by a crocodile. The succession is immediately turned over to young Tutankhaten.
  
  Scarab must flee and live among her mother's people who were Khabiru or Jewish. Of course Tjaty Ay instigated the hunting expedition and disappearance of Smenkhkare, because he has aspirations of ruling Egypt himself. To do this he installs nine year old Tutankhaten as Pharaoh, marries him to Ankhesenpaaten (Akhenaten's daughter) who is twelve, making himself supreme advisor and thus ruling over Egypt.
  
  Scarab's traveling companion is Khu, a farm boy and one of the King's Councilors. Ay has all the councilors killed except four who escape. Scarab falls in love with Paramessu who is a friend of General Horemheb, leader of the armies of Egypt, and who becomes a general of the Northern army when Horemheb returns for the coronation of Tutankhaten. Scarab discovers that her brother may be alive and has been building an army in Nubia. He is determined to get his crown back and is racing to Waset with his army while Horemheb and his army are chasing him trying to beat him there to save the day. Scarab hurries south to Waset with Khu and physician Nebhotep to intercept her brother. They all arrive at the same time and battle ensues. Will Smenkhkare get his throne back?
  
  This book is full of detailed battle scenes, the weather, landscape, and people that pull you into time and place. There are also many battles scenes between the Amorites and Egyptians. There are also chapters entitled Who's Who and What's What in Scarab - Smenkhkare", "The Main Characters and How to Pronounce Their Names", and "Gods of the Scarab Books". The pronunciation chapter really helps with all those difficult names. This is an excellent book for all interested in the history of Egypt even if it's a fictional interpretation of what might have happened. Well worth the read.
• 
  Paul Burnette

  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!
• 
  Lance McMurchy

  Well I like it for the information factor; but for the story itself - i was a bit disappointed. It just seemed to drag. You know its not a great book when you are constantly looking forward to finishing the book, rather than enjoying the story as it reaches its climax. It was a more cohesive book than the last one, but just had too much packaging with little substance. Not sure that i will read the next one.
• 
  Stephanie

  I couldn't wait to continue the series. Knowing the historical succession of the Egyptian pharaohs, it was interesting to see where the story would go. I liked what he did with it, in making Smenkhkare a separate person from Nefertiti whom some historians believe it to be.
• 
  Kathy

  I do not know if I'll be able to finish this series. It's not my cup of tea! I don't recommend this series from what I have read this far. Okay, I gave up. Just awful, boring , And character development terrible.
• 
  Sekhar N Banerjee

  Good Story
  
  A very readable anecdote based on ancient Egypt. Why the author took Nefertiti out of the main drama, is not fully understood. There is archeological evidence that Nefertiti was with Akhnaten even in the 16 th. year of his reign.