The Place of Truth is the final book in the Stone of Light series. When I started this series, I thought of reading something light before sleeping at night and sleeping with Egypt on my mind. Of course, it was interesting that as the series progressed, I didn’t want to sleep to read it.
Since The Place of Truth is the last book, I can say that everything was finally resolved, and precisely because of this, it was the most exciting book. Despite the appearance of the traitor in the Place of Truth, the events against the plans of General Mehi and his wife Serketa, and all the turmoil in the country’s administration, everything fell into place.
In fact, this series can only tell limited things about Egypt compared to the author’s other series because it is primarily set in the Place of Truth, the village where the Stone of Light is located. Despite this, The Place of Truth tells a lot about the country, from the culture of the people to their eating and drinking habits. When this is the case, of course, the reader is almost forced to plan a trip to Egypt. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a bit empty after this last book. From now on, I would like to start another Egypt series, though not only Christian Jacq’s. If you have any suggestions, I look forward to them!
The Place of Truth (Stone of Light, #4)
The Place of Truth: Christian Jacq, the author of the international triumph Ramses, brings the people and the passions of ancient Egypt to life in an enthralling epic novel in four volumes
Volume IV: The Place of Truth
The beloved Master of the Place of Truth has been savagely assassinated, and the artisans of the magnificent, hidden village are deep in mourning. But even in their grief, their devoted work on the tombs of the Pharaoh continues under the leadership of a heroic new Master. Entrusted to protect his family as well as the village’s mystical secrets, Paneb the Ardent enters the inner circles of power, in the royal court of a queen. But an unknown traitor undermines the security of the Place of Truth. Will Paneb reveal the culprit in time?
Christian Jacq
Christian Jacq is a French author and Egyptologist. He has written several novels about ancient Egypt, notably a five-book series about pharaoh Ramses II, a character whom Jacq admires greatly.
Born in Paris, Jacq’s interest in Egyptology began when he was thirteen when he read History of Ancient Egyptian Civilization by Jacques Pirenne. This inspired him to write his first novel. By the time he was eighteen, he had written eight books. His first commercially successful book was Champollion the Egyptian, published in 1987. As of 2004, he has written over fifty books, including several non-fiction books on the subject of Egyptology.
Jacq has a doctorate in Egyptian Studies from the Sorbonne. He and his wife later founded the Ramses Institute, which is dedicated to creating a photographic description of Egypt for the preservation of endangered archaeological sites. Between 1995 and 1997, he published his best-selling five book suite Ramsès, which is today published in over twenty-five countries. Each volume encompasses one aspect of Ramses’s known historical life, woven into a fictional tapestry of the ancient world for an epic tale of love, life and deceit.
Jacq’s series describes a vision of the life of the pharaoh: he has two vile power-hungry siblings, Shanaar, his decadent older brother, and Dolora, his corrupted older sister who married his teacher. In his marital life, he first has Isetnofret (Iset) as a mistress (second Great Wife), meets his true love Nefertari (first Great Wife) and after their deaths, marries Maetnefrure in his old age. Jacq gives Ramses only three biological children: Kha’emweset, Meritamen (she being the only child of Nefertari, the two others being from Iset) and Merneptah. The other “children” are only young officials trained for government and who are nicknamed “sons of the pharaoh”.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
