The Shepherd Kings

by Judith Tarr

Reviewed by Coral

Conquered and split in two by foreign invaders, Egypt still fights to be free. In Upper Egypt, Pharaoh Ahmose sends his trusted man, Kemni, to Crete in order to secure an alliance that will give the Egyptians a naval advantage. While in Lower Egypt, his cousin Iry, a slave to the foreigners, unexpectedly finds herself in a position to help free Egypt once and for all.

Judith Tarr has always been a very hit and miss author for me. I haven’t enjoyed a lot of her fantasy books, mainly due to characterization reasons, and have been disappointed that her historical fiction novels where it seems like the main historical characters are relegated to the background (although, despite the fact Alexander seemed more of a secondary character, I really enjoyed her Lord of the Two Lands). I feel like this book has both problems.

The Hyksos/Shepherd Kings/Retenu are never really explored in the books. The main non-Egyptian characters we get are a family from the author’s fictional horse-tribe who have married into the Retenu. I think it takes something away from the story by having these characters be non-Egyptian but non-Retenu at the same time, because it takes away a lot of potential conflict. It was also the primary reason for how the book ended, which I thought was far-fetched and too neatly wrapped up.

I think the author also used this made up tribe as a kind of crutch, to explain away the parts of the story that didn’t make any sense otherwise. Why would the Retenu allow an Egyptian woman to become a high priestess with overwhelming power and influence? Made up reasons. Why would the Retenu care about the Mare’s religion when it wasn’t their own to the extent where Iry was brought before their King? Made up reasons.

The author acknowledges in her notes at the end that archaeological evidence in Avaris (the Hyksos/Retenu) capital has influences from Crete, which suggests trading or even an alliance. So I wish that there had been more of an exploration of why Crete sided with Egypt in the war.

I didn’t like how every woman Kemni met wanted to sleep with him. At a certain point, reading about his sexual exploits got quite repetitive.

Iry’s relationship with Khayan, son of a Retenu father and a horse-tribe mother, was both predictable and a little creepy. I can’t get over the fact that he had slept with her mother previously.

There was one plot twist that caught me by surprise. I wish more time had been spent leading up to it.

My main feeling about this book is one of disappointment. The Hyksos have always interested me (they pop-up, invade Egypt, are thrown out and then seem to disappear) and I had been looking for this book for a long time. Maybe I had built up my expectations for it, but a part of me thinks I would have found the book disappointing regardless.

Grade: C