Return to Thebes

Amarna #2

by Allen Drury

EGYPT...
In 1362 BC, it was a civilization both advanced and overripe. For three millennia it had endured -- now the corruption of its gods, the seeds of internal rebellion, and the mad dreams of a King threatened to topple the Royal House of Thebes and the golden empire they dominated...

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Egypt, Historical, Ancient

319 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

In late 1943, Allen Stuart Drury, a 25-year old Army veteran, sought work. A position as the Senate correspondent for United Press International provided him with employment and insider knowledge of the Senate. In addition to fulfilling his duties as a reporter, he kept a journal of his views of the Senate and individual senators. In addition to the Senate personalities, his journal captured the events of the 78th & 79th Congresses.
Although written in the mid-1940s, his diary was not published until 1963. "A Senate Journal" found an audience in part because of the great success of "Advise and Consent," his novel in 1959 about the consideration in the Senate of a controversial nominee for secretary of state. His greatest success was "Advise and Consent," was made into a film in 1962. The book was partly inspired by the suicide of Lester C. Hunt, senator from Wyoming. It spent 102 weeks on the New York Times' best-seller list. 'Advise & Consent' led to several sequels. 'A Shade of Difference' is set a year later. Drury then turned his attention to the next presidential election after those events with 'Capable of Honor' & 'Preserve & Protect'. He then wrote two alternative sequels based on a different outcome of an assassination attack in an earlier work: 'Come Nineveh, Come Tyre' & 'The Promise of Joy'. In 1971, he published 'The Throne of Saturn', a sf novel about the 1st attempt at sending a manned mission to Mars. He dedicated the work "To the US Astronauts & those who help them fly." Political characters in the book are archetypal rather than comfortably human. The book carries a strong anti-communist flavor. The book has a lot to say about interference in the space program by leftist Americans. Having wrapped up his political series by '75, Drury began a new one with the '77 novel 'Anna Hastings', more about journalism than politics. He returned to the timeline in '79, with the political novel 'Mark Coffin USS' (tho the main relationship between the two books was that Hastings was a minor character in 'Mark Coffin USS's sequels). It was succeeded, by the two-part 'The Hill of Summer' & 'The Roads of Earth', which are true sequels to 'Mark Coffin USS' He also wrote stand-alone novels, 'Decision' & 'Pentagon', as well as several other fiction & non-fiction works. His political novels have been described as page-turners, set against the Cold War, with an aggressive USSR seeking to undermine the USA. Drury lived in Tiburon, CA from '64 until his '98 cardiac arrest. He'd completed his 20th novel, 'Public Men' set at Stanford, just two weeks before his death. He died on 9/2/98 at St Mary's Medical Center in San Francisco, on his 80th birthday. He never married.--Wikipedia (edited)

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Return to Thebes is the second part of Allen Drury's two-part series on Akhenaten and the Amarna period. It's quite an interesting concept that Drury uses, where multiple points of view are used to narrate and drive the story. It's something that I think can work really, really well with the forceful figures from the Amarna period and the peculiarities of the history.

I did feel like it was a step up from A God Against the Gods, because each POV felt more active and involved in the plot, rather than just delivering exposition. That said, at the start of Return to Thebes there were about 5 lengthy POV sections all telling us that these characters were going to have a meeting and that it was going to be significant before we actually had the meeting.

Published in the 1970s, the books show their age as far historical accuracy is concerned, and tend to follow the standard Amarna tropes (or some of the more famous ones). Keeping that in mind, the books are enjoyable but, for me, still lack the feeling of authenticity.

One of the things that I liked is that the two chief antagonists are so wildly different from each other, and Akhenaten inadvertently fashions his own downfall in Horemheb. Granted, I found the characterisations tended to be heavy-handed in showing how ~evil both Akhenaten and Horemheb were, but Drury also stepped back and allowed us to see the sympathetic or honourable side of these two at times.

Return to Thebes is a satisfying conclusion to Allen Drury's Amarna series, though one I have a few niggles with. That said, I found it easy to sit back and enjoy the story for what it was.

[Darnoc Leadburger · Rating 3 out of 5]

In *Return to Thebes*, Allen Drury takes us back to the dunes of Amarna for the concluding volume in his Egyptian historical fiction duology. I took me years to read *A God Against the Gods* after buying it at a library sale, but I didn't wait very long to order and read book two. I'm pretty happy with this choice, since *Return to Thebes* surpasses book one (which accrued a solid 7/10) in just about every way. Don't get me wrong, I liked book one, but it just wasn't dynamic or conclusive enough. This book, thankfully, fixes those issues.

*Return to Thebes*, like its predecessor, is told from a variety of different first-person perspectives and in a variety of different "chunks" of time. Basically, each time we skip a few years, we get all of our principle characters' recaps of what happened in the gap years. We start off still mired in the reign of Akhenaten and his brother, leading to his uncle Aye, mother Tiye, and cousin Horemheb condemning him for wanting to install murals of him and his brother instead of him and his wife, Nefertiti, onto tombs. The three of them ask Nefertiti for assistance, but when she doesn't give it, they journey to the mad king's chambers alone. Akhenaten refuses to hear them out and strips them of their royal powers. In response, the infiltrating head priest of Amon-Ra (remember the conflict between "him" and Amen-Ra) poisons Akhenaten's fair and beloved brother-lover. This sends him into a year-long crisis which is finally ended when Nefertiti approaches him with an offer to run away and restore their power from a different part of Kemet. He accepts, but as they're leaving, Horemheb finds them and kills Nefertiti (against his father Aye's wishes) before hunting down Akhenaten and ending his crooked reign in the only way it ever could've ended.

This leads us to the reign of King Tut and his wife, which takes unexpected turns when we learn that he liked his brother Akhenaten and would like to keep a true balance between the Amon and Aten, which leads to conflict with Hasuret and Horemheb, who don't believe the Aten-Ra should be acknowledged. This leads to confrontations between Tut and Hasuret, like when the Pharoah stops him from brutalizing a little village and gives our beloved peasant Amonemhet a direct line to his throne. That direct lines loses value when Horemheb has Hasuret kill Tut and then kills Hasuret in order to rid himself of guilt. Tut's wife believes she has no choice left but to send for a husband from among the king of the Hitties' sons in order to escape taking Horemheb's hand in marriage. She sends her husband's beloved Amonemhet on the job, and it's crushing when he gets killed, along with the Hittie she was supposed to marry. When things come to a head, Tut's wife marries Aye, which keeps Horemheb off the throne for five years but gives way to his marrying Aye's daughter and becoming the last Pharoah of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The book closes with our scholar Amenhotep, Son of Hapu, looking at Horemheb and speculating the the Nineteenth Dynasty will begin with his soldier friend Rameses I...

If you can't tell, this book is a lot more dynamic than *A God Against the Gods*. People kill other people and deals are forged and beliefs ebb and flow and overall it's just a more satisfying narrative. The characters of book one bleed into the next generation very well and it felt like a realistic turning of the tides. I do have issues with the dramatis personae in the front of the book which spoils everyone who will become Pharaoh because it robs us of any surprise that the narrative could've supplied, but... I guess it is what it is. The ending is also a bit anticlimatic and, dare-I-say, undeserved, but I see that Drury was working with historical restraints and therefore won't get too bent out of shape over the lack of retrospective ending that the conclusion cements. Still ,the spoilery front of the book is probably my biggest issue with the novel.

The writing remains good, bit is is a bit monotone despite its starkly different personalities. It's not blockbustery, but it's sure not literary; perhaps the best descriptor is "Educated Workman's Like." The one narrator with a clearly different voice in not just subject matter and opinions was definitely Amonemhet, the peasant who just wanted to make more babies with his wife. His passages, especially the earlier ones, were as close to great fun as you'll get in these books and put smiles on my face. It's funny to me that the more distinctly written parts of this book are about a historical figure who isn't even, as far as we know, real.

How much of this book's story really was, as I'm inaptly putting it, "real"? Well, that's a bit hard to tell for a non-Egyptologist like myself. Some Wikipedia browsing taught me that Drury's lines of succession were pretty spot-on and that the letter that King Tut's wife sends is actually based on a real recovered letter (the most surprising element to me), but I don't know how much of the nitty gritty is to be believed or not. Obviously every personality in this book is completely conjectured, and the common thought behind Akhenaten's state of disease has changed since the 70s, but all in all... what do I know? It's ain't horrible and it ain't great.

Thankfully, a story doesn't have to be too precise to be a good time, so *Return to Thebes* gets an above average 7.5/10 from me. I would definitely consider reading more Drury in the future if I stumble across him at another library sale, and I'd like to read more books of Egyptian interest, of both the fiction and nonfiction varieties. I don't know when that'll be because I've accumulated so many books this year (the goal is to take in *less* than what I read, but you know...). As you're reading a review of a kind of obscure book on Goodreads, you can probably relate in some way, shape, or form. Thanks for sticking it through with me and have a great rest of your day, and think of this book next time you see... I dunno. Insert something clever here.

[Vicki Cline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Akhenaten has become quite extreme in his worship of Aten and some powerful people in the court are trying to remove him, in particular Horemheb, who used to be his friend, but who believes he is destroying Egypt. As in the previous book, the story is told by alternating narratives. In particular I liked the ones by Amonemhet, a humble villager who shows up in a few surprising places. The book has a sad, but expected, ending with the death of Tutankhamon. Altogether these two books gave me a feeling of what life might have been like back then.

[Lucy Beale Partridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sheds a different light on my preconceived notions of exotic Egypt. These folks were nutty and inane. And fascinating. There was nothing noble or patriotic about this family.

[Becky Mathews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Confusing to read due to age of book. Published in 1977, and so much has been discovered about the rulers of Egypt and where and how they lived and died.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Great Piece of Historical Fiction

Drury brings ancient Egypt to life with a telling of his tale from the point of view of all his characters.

[S.G. Benson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found it an interesting read. I like the approach of looking through the eyes of the characters.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read it straight after the first part, "A God Against the Gods". Really enjoyable. The multiple points of view are a success, again, creating little ironies and making the reader feel like a friend who follows and observes the drama. I liked the tiny appearance by Supiliuluma, grumbling to himself that the Kemet lot go in for that millions of years nonsense but taken in all the same - they are the super power after all. Again, Drury places very modern mindsets into this Ancient World/Kemet setting and it works, especially because he uses it to interpret archaeological and historical knowledge (such as it was in the 1970s). The prose can be too anachronistic at times, I think deliberately. There is a delicate avoidance of imposing modern ideas of madness, for example, so when a really modern concept appears it isn't by accident. As with the first book I did find the repetitions quite tedious. Yes, we know Akhenaten fell ill, or that Nefertiti was beautiful, no need to remind us in every chapter. The story is very well told despite a painfully slow start leading up to a Big Family Meeting that should decide the fate of the misguided rulers (well, he did write this during Watergate). There are a lot of such Big Meetings, in fact, to the point where I wondered why these devious characters needed to consult and obtain clearance quite so systematically from each other ("I am going to murder Pharaoh, you OK with that?"). Surely a quick word with the gods would have sufficed. On this front, Drury's version of the ancient world is strictly secular, the gods are political objects, and the key symptom of Akhenaten's difference is his wish to have a faith rather than an observance. When priests defend the interests of Amon it is spelt out that this is about their own power and Amon is not asked for his opinion.
The chief weakness for me is that a lot is left for the reader to imagine. Drury was probably thinking of a style that is epic, formulaic, incantatory, leaves a lot unsaid (golden barges, golden clothing, big palace, little palace), but more contextual detail would have helped. I have read a lot about the Amarna revolution so I could fill in the gaps but I am not sure I would have been able to follow some actions without that prior knowledge.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I encountered this forgotten volume while going through the room within which reside my books of and about fiction. Having recently read several nonfiction volumes about the 18th Dynasty I thought it might be interesting to supplement them with a imaginary reconstruction of the period, particularly seeing that author Drury had had help from a renowned--and to me, familiar--English Egyptologist.

This is the second of two books. The first, A God Against the Gods, details the rise of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. This one covers the end of his reign until the end of Horemheb's. I have not seen the first volume, nor, happily, was it necessary to have read it beforehand.

Drury treats his material through first-person narratives, jumping from one (mostly royal) character to another. The book is weak on description, strong on characterization. Although there is no evidence for such a thing, Drury drives the narrative by the regnal ambitions of Horemheb, ambitions which lead to multiple murders and which provide a bit of suspense. The struggle between the adherants of Amon and those of Aten was real enough, the murders are invention, albeit plausible ones.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've come to the conclusion that I really don't like books written from multiple points of view. There are some absolutely compelling scenes hidden amongst the pretentiousness. The worst written chapters are the ones from the servants' points of view. While I appreciate that Drury was probably trying to show their awe and reverence for the various nobility and royalty, the extra words spent on groveling and self deprecation turns simple thoughts and plot progressions into multiple page passages of wasted words. The book is much smoother if the servant scenes are skipped all together.

[bkwurm · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sequel to “A God Against the Gods”, this continues from where the earlier book left off and provides a compelling tale of how Akhenaten’s reign might have ended and how the Eighteenth dynasty ended. I would have liked it better if the author had not chosen to make Horemheb a member of the ruling family but understand that this was necessary for the story. But still a good read despite recent evidence suggesting that Tutankamun might have died from an accident, rather than murder and DNA evidence showing that he was Akhenaten’s son, not brother.

[Kristyn Jensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got through this book in a matter of two days. That to me is a good book. This book Had a very clear villain, but from how it looks in history it made sense. He created horemheb in a way that made me despise his character, which I believe was the author's intent. Overall a very well written story.

[Lorraine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting perspective on Egyptian history, though hard to follow due to the author's use of many voices. I think he is trying to indicate that this Pharaoh was trying to guide his people to the Judeo-Christian/Muslim God, but his intention is a bit murky.