Book Review #14 - Desert God by Wilbur Smith

Good Day,

Desert God

by Wilbur Smith

"Desert God" by Wilbur Smith is a historical fiction from the deserts of Ancient Egypt yielding all the charm, pomp and culture of the time.

Summary:

An adroit Egyptian eunuch, a former slave and now a chief adviser to Pharaoh Tamose  named Taita is perplexed with the task of reclaiming parts of Egypt which have been usurped by Hyksos. He plots to create discord between Hyksos and Minoans. After which he would secure alliance by offering hand of Princess Tehuti and Princess Bekatha to Supreme Minos leader of Minoans.

Will Taita be able to administer his stratagem to conquer the lower Egypt?

Review:

Novels starts with Taita and Anton(another eunuch just like Taita) playing a strategic board game like checkers called "Bao Board", Taita from the very beginning of the book manages to gloat about his dexterity throughout the book which has been an exasperating experience. Story is ordinary, nothing out of the blue. In my view author has ruined the climax for the scope of sequel to this book. You wont be satisfied with the end, further it fails to entice you to read the sequel. 

Books lacks in proper ending and has mediocre story but makes it up with how the book is written. To make this more clear I will give a slightly exaggerated analogy. Suppose there's a song whose lyrics are written by Badshah but it is composed and produced by A.R.Rahman.

Sometimes how the story is told matters more than the story. This is one such book, it is exceptionally well written it has some of the most dreamy descriptions of female characters. You may make the face Leonardo DiCaprio made while talking to his father(about how things are at home) in 'The Wolf of the Wallstreet'. Fighting sequences have been immensely eloquent in describing the even the most minute details, they even include why a particular move was made by the fighter. Then you have aesthetic descriptions of monuments, especially of those in Ancient Sumeria, they are extremely well written. Author has included a medical procedure in the book, astonishing part was that he has written so lucidly that you may actually learn something about human anatomy but you wont get nausea(may depend from person to person).

                     

All those who are infatuated by Egyptian history  will love this book as it provides moderately detailed insight to the lifestyle, hierarchy, mentality, army, rituals and many other things of people of that time. It is a well known fact  that in ancient times pigeons were used to send messages. This book has explained that whole process properly.

This book strongly suggests to keep a positive attitude and persevere through hardships as everything can be solved.

By the way that caption was a clickbait.... PSYCHEEEE

My opinion: You can definitely read this book to kill time and if you happen to be interested in history.