Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde, MyShelf.com
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At last the first part of Pauline Gedge's Egyptian trilogy is available in the UK!  First published in 1998 as The Hippopotamus Marsh this is the story of Egypt under the heel of the Hyksos people, also called the Setiu, and the rebellion of the true Egyptians.  Seqenenra Tao is the true ruler of the Two Lands but instead he has to bow to the usurper King Apepa and live his life quietly in Weset far from the Court.  When the king demands that his hippopotami are too noisy and must be killed it is the last straw - he will
give into these petty demands no longer and rebel against the foreign ruler. But in doing so he risks losing everything he holds dear and this is principally his family.  But determination can sometimes win through and this family of Davida are determined to slay their Goliath.

Gedge's recreation of Egypt has the true feel of an ancient civilization with cruelty and decadence alongside the glamour and knowledge that made it great.  Here is the story of a people living as second-class citizens in their own country and their attempts to rectify the situation.  They are human beings with the same depth to their passions as modern folk but there the similarity ends and at no time did I think that I was reading about modern people in a historical setting - a frequent fault with historical fiction.  Its all here - the sand, the monumental buildings, the pantheon of deities, the lapis and the lotus.  Gedge makes history come to life and I look forward to reading the next two books.
 
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