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A review by jayfr
Queen of Kings by Maria Dahvana Headley
5.0
What do you get when you cross Ancient Egypt, The Roman Empire, Plutarch and Bram Stoker?
The answer is this wonderful book.
"The death of Cleopatra is portrayed in Plutarch as a locked room mystery, the queen and her maids discovered dead, with the only mark visible on Cleopatra a couple of pinpricks. No suicide assisting asp was ever discovered, and Plutarch himself seems suspicious that this was what happened. As time passed, death by asp became the accepted version. It was a small leap of imagination to imagine a different prelude to Cleopatra's "death", and a different explanation for the fang marks on her body."
I didn't expect much from this... boy was I wrong.
Bloody and dealing with ancient sorcery, religion, augury and mythology this story mixes fact with a degree of imagination rarely seen.
This is one of the few books I would willingly give 10 stars to and recommend that anyone who likes history and mythology to read.
Mark Anthony, Augustus, Marcus Agrippa and of course Cleopatra herself feature heavily as well as a supporting cast of Egyptian and Roman gods, Norse seiokona, witches, oracles, historians and snakes.
So many of the characters really existed and the author has done her research well, admittedly intersecting a little extra to make the timeline fit.
In short this joins the very select list of books that I would class as amongst the best I've ever read.
The answer is this wonderful book.
"The death of Cleopatra is portrayed in Plutarch as a locked room mystery, the queen and her maids discovered dead, with the only mark visible on Cleopatra a couple of pinpricks. No suicide assisting asp was ever discovered, and Plutarch himself seems suspicious that this was what happened. As time passed, death by asp became the accepted version. It was a small leap of imagination to imagine a different prelude to Cleopatra's "death", and a different explanation for the fang marks on her body."
I didn't expect much from this... boy was I wrong.
Bloody and dealing with ancient sorcery, religion, augury and mythology this story mixes fact with a degree of imagination rarely seen.
This is one of the few books I would willingly give 10 stars to and recommend that anyone who likes history and mythology to read.
Mark Anthony, Augustus, Marcus Agrippa and of course Cleopatra herself feature heavily as well as a supporting cast of Egyptian and Roman gods, Norse seiokona, witches, oracles, historians and snakes.
So many of the characters really existed and the author has done her research well, admittedly intersecting a little extra to make the timeline fit.
In short this joins the very select list of books that I would class as amongst the best I've ever read.