Book Review: Hand of Isis
Dec. 4th, 2008 03:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakJust got my advance copy of Hand of Isis by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jo_graham, which the rest of you will be able to read and enjoy in March next year. While its predecessor, Black Ships, was among many other things a unique reinterpretation of the Aeneid, Hand of Isis takes on one of the best known stories of the ancient world, the last queen of Egypt, Cleopatra. Who is not the main character of this novel, though she is an important one. The great strengh of Hand of Isis and the reason why this isn't just another retelling you could skip lies in the ingenuity of two of its premises: the point of view character is Charmian (whom people familiar with Cleopatra's life might recall as one of her favourite handmaidens), and Charmian, along with Iras, the other favourite handmaiden, are Cleopatra's half-sisters, their mothers slaves of Ptolemy Auletes. The core relationships of the novel and its emotional heart are the bond between the three sisters. Which isn't to say the usual supects - Caesar and Antony - aren't there, both skilfully drawn, plus jo_graham comes up with two original characters, the Jewish-Greek scholar Dion and the legionary Emrys Aurelianus, who are incredibly endearing, but this really is the sisters' story.
Alexandria, the main location, and the unique mixture of cultures that constituted Egypt at that time - the Ptolemies weren't Egyptian in origin, remember, but Macedonian - are lovingly described. As are events like theatre productions (a soft spot of mine - it's so rare a writer manages to bring something like performances to life, let alone ones held two thousand years ago under very different conditions) or religious ceremonies. It can be read as a standalone, but it will make you want to read the earlier novel - and look forward to the not yet written later ones, since the tapestry the author weaves of events and characters echoing and constrasting each other through the centuries is very rich.
If you're looking for a take on Egypt that contrasts the non-stop-orgies cliché started by Augustan propaganda (and surviving well into the present in some versions) without making the mistake of falling into the opposite extreme of presenting the Romans as vile beyond redemption, a story that doesn't forget how deeply the Herods and Judea were involved with Egyptian and Roman politics and renders said politics in their exciting complexity, this is it. If you're in the mood for a novel in which the love and loyalty between family and friends are even more important than ones between lovers, this is it as well. Enjoy! I certainly did.
jo_graham, which the rest of you will be able to read and enjoy in March next year. While its predecessor, Black Ships, was among many other things a unique reinterpretation of the Aeneid, Hand of Isis takes on one of the best known stories of the ancient world, the last queen of Egypt, Cleopatra. Who is not the main character of this novel, though she is an important one. The great strengh of Hand of Isis and the reason why this isn't just another retelling you could skip lies in the ingenuity of two of its premises: the point of view character is Charmian (whom people familiar with Cleopatra's life might recall as one of her favourite handmaidens), and Charmian, along with Iras, the other favourite handmaiden, are Cleopatra's half-sisters, their mothers slaves of Ptolemy Auletes. The core relationships of the novel and its emotional heart are the bond between the three sisters. Which isn't to say the usual supects - Caesar and Antony - aren't there, both skilfully drawn, plus jo_graham comes up with two original characters, the Jewish-Greek scholar Dion and the legionary Emrys Aurelianus, who are incredibly endearing, but this really is the sisters' story. Alexandria, the main location, and the unique mixture of cultures that constituted Egypt at that time - the Ptolemies weren't Egyptian in origin, remember, but Macedonian - are lovingly described. As are events like theatre productions (a soft spot of mine - it's so rare a writer manages to bring something like performances to life, let alone ones held two thousand years ago under very different conditions) or religious ceremonies. It can be read as a standalone, but it will make you want to read the earlier novel - and look forward to the not yet written later ones, since the tapestry the author weaves of events and characters echoing and constrasting each other through the centuries is very rich.
If you're looking for a take on Egypt that contrasts the non-stop-orgies cliché started by Augustan propaganda (and surviving well into the present in some versions) without making the mistake of falling into the opposite extreme of presenting the Romans as vile beyond redemption, a story that doesn't forget how deeply the Herods and Judea were involved with Egyptian and Roman politics and renders said politics in their exciting complexity, this is it. If you're in the mood for a novel in which the love and loyalty between family and friends are even more important than ones between lovers, this is it as well. Enjoy! I certainly did.
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