River God

I always find Egyptian culture and history facinating. Whenever there is an archelogical documentary on the television about Egypt, I would watch it. I was recommended this book by a colleague who found it very interesting.

The story is set in ancient Egypt, the time of the great pharaohs. It evolves around three main characters:
Taita- a eunuch with expertise in medicine and technology, kind of like the Michaelangelo or Da Vinci of his time

Lostris- proteges of Taita, the daughter of noble Lord Intef, the most beautiful maiden of the time
Tanus- a young army general, only son of a deceased noble Lord

It was a time of turnmoil when Egypt was divided into the upper and lower kingdoms. The pharaoh was in great trouble from the outside and inside of the country and he longed for a male heir.
The ambitious Lord Intef, the person behind the downfall of Tanus' father, offered his daugher to him and promised a son. However, this didnot stop the love between the star-crossed lovers Lostris and Tanus. Having lost the woman he loved and power, Tanus, with the insider's help from Taita, decided it was time for his revenge. And this forms the first part of the story with Tanus preparing and getting everything in place for his big plan.

Nearly half way through the story, Lostris 's father was killed for what he did and she became the mother of the Crown Prince, who was actually fathered by Tanus. Tanus on the other hand, became the most trusted general of the pharaoh. This leads to the second part of the story when the upper kingdom was facing invasion from the foreign babarians. They decided to leave the country and went into a long exile. After years of wondering into interesting places and adventure, they finally defeated the invaders and went back.
I think this is a very enjoyable read and the author made a lot of effort in descibing to us the way of life at that time. You will understand the culture and religion especially of that time. It is a fantastic tale of sex, war and revenge, very well written with interesting characters. I would highly recommend this to everyone. This is the first book of a triology and having read this, you can then move on to read the Seventh Scroll and the Warlock.

.River God (0/0 people found this helpful)

this book was brought for my wife ,from the day it arrived it hardly left her hands, arter she had read it she said thank you it was better than she throught it would be ,she as read this authors books before@ she whanted to read this one.
in fact she as read it again since

Exciting, emotional and brilliant (0/0 people found this helpful)

I have read around 7 Wilbur Smith books and for me his stories are very hit and miss. This is very much a hit. I would consider it my favourite only just beating the wonderful Elephant Song. Other reviews talk about the story, so I will state what I consider good and bad. The bad points: At the start of the book you feel sorry for the slave Taita and feel he should be running Egypt. Wilbur Smith however goes to far, making Taita an expert in everything and inventor of all things new in Egypt. The result is a superhuman who is unbelievable. As the story is told through the eyes of Taita you can forgive how his mistress Lostris is described as the perfect woman as in his eyes she is. During the play at the start of the book she sings bringing tears to the eyes of everyone in the audience including Pharaoah himself. This made me cringe as moments before, the audience rejoiced in seeing a man chopped to pieces and I found the whole idea of a girls voice being so beautiful far fetched and unbelievable. The good news is that these faults are easily forgiven as the rest of the 650 pages are brilliantly written. The story always maintains an exciting pace making it hard to put the book down. A masterpiece with a couple of small flaws. I would like to finally add that the authors note at the end suggesting the story is based on fact is made up. It's as fictional as the story itself.

Perhaps my favourite book! (0/0 people found this helpful)

I have reviewed quite a number of my recent reads but felt I had to add my tuppence worth about River God even although it was some time ago that I read it. My reasoning is based on this probably being my favourite book of all time! The style of the narration was difficult for a few chapters as Smith gave the narrator a unique voice. After this initial 'settling in' period the story was simply stunning as was the narration. To this day, I feel as though I know Taita personally. I will also never forget the historical insight I gained from reading River God. The story is wonderful but the style of writing is even better. I can think of other novels with amazing stories such as Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth (another of my favourites) but none can rival the quality of writing. I think it is a rare thing to find excellent writing coupled with excellent storytelling. I have tried to read a few other of Wilbur Smith's books and didn't enjoy them but this is fantastic! Read it please and comment on how much you enjoyed it.

An Ancient Egyptian 'War and Peace' (0/0 people found this helpful)

Oh boy, this is a long book, like the river that flows through it, a very long and winding story which follows some of its characters virtually throughtout their lives. It quite easily could have been chopped into three novels, but as it is it kept me going right through last winter!

It plods a bit in parts, and contains plenty of excruciatingly lip-smacking descriptions of sex and gore, but is worth sticking with for some truly exciting, un-putdownable parts and the way in which it brings new insights into life in Ancient Egypt. It's a bit tiresome to have a main character who is brilliant at everything he turns his hand to, which is just about anything you care to name, and the main female is so sugary and unbelievably gorgeous/sweet/talented that she becomes too good to be true.

However, this is a remarkable book - it packs in a lot of detail and as a fan of archeology and Ancient Egypt, I enjoyed it. It is a very different prospect from my favourite of Smith's, Eye of the Tiger, which was written in a much more 'spare' way. It's like comparing War and Peace to one of Ian Fleming's 'Bond' novels.

Wilbur Smith

Reader Reviews:

The River God by Wilbur Smith (0/0 people found this helpful)

.River God (0/0 people found this helpful)

Exciting, emotional and brilliant (0/0 people found this helpful)

Perhaps my favourite book! (0/0 people found this helpful)

An Ancient Egyptian 'War and Peace' (0/0 people found this helpful)

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