Sravika's Books - Reviews and Other Trivia

The Memoirs of Cleopatra By Margaret George Rating 5/5 Genres : Historical fiction, ancient egypt, Cleopatra, Julius Ceasar,  Marc Antony, Octavianus Caesar It is little secret that I am obsessed with famous personages from Egypt. Starting with the notorious Akhenaten, Nefertiti and to Cleopatra, I never tire of reading different versions of their histories by different interpreters. Like all historical fiction based on actual living person from the past, this book is part fiction and part factual. But on the whole, it is very engrossing and gripping.  I took much longer to finish this than other books but I was savoring every part of its sweetness and mystique of Egypt it contained. Julius Ceasar and Marc Antony are two roman generals and leaders who fall completely and desperately in love with the mighty queen of Egypt, Cleopatra.  She was very young when her mother died and her father is not strong in character - being depicted as a dionysian with exub...

The Egyptian  By Mika Waltari Rating 5/5  Genres : Historical fiction, classics, Ancient Egypt, Akhenaten, Sinuhe, 2021-read, reviewed  This book is a masterpiece!! Just like any masterpiece, it is thorough, has depth and is fantastic. And also like most historical fiction,  it is based on few facts and rests itself on much conjecture/imagination of the author. Whoever tells it and however they tell it  - its the same story - story of the reign and ruin of Akhenaten,the false prophet and king of Egypt - at the core with only some details altered. But what makes this such a good read is the depth of the story  and the complete picture  that is conveyed to the reader through the eyes of a head physician to the Pharoah,  Sinuhe. I had great respect for him till the end when he gets himself embroiled in the affairs of kings and mixes politics into his former unbiased treatments there by using his potions to kill. He uses his noble professi...

 Akhenaten : Dweller in Truth By Naguib Mahfouz Genre : Historical Fiction, Ancient Egypt, Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Biographical Fiction,2021-read Rating : 3.5/5 Akhenaten was a heretic king that took Egypt by storm. He with his wife had denounced all the existing gods and tried to establish a new religion with Sun God Aten as the supreme. Akhenaten made himself a prophet and priest in Aten's command. He created a new city Akhetaten where only Sun God is worshipped. He passed decrees ordering the  demolishing and closing of  temples for other gods(Amun) all across Egypt also stripping the powers of Amun priests. But his attempts to crusade for this new religion of "love,peace and equality" fails to sustain when internal strife in the form of civil wars and external threats in the form of enemy attacks rock the country. Instead of raising to meet the occassion as befitting a king, Akhenaten chooses to remain shrouded in his faith hoping "love" would conquer "wa...