The Wise Woman is the second book in The Stone of Light series. After the first book, Nefer the Silent, this book progressed a bit slowly, and since I wasn’t too excited to read it, I finished it much longer than necessary. Still, I couldn’t help but think that it was an enjoyable book to read for several hours straight. However, this is entirely due to my weakness for Egypt and history; otherwise, I don’t consider The Wise Woman a book that everyone will read with pleasure, unfortunately.
The Wise Woman progressed a little slower than Nefer the Silent, but there is actually more action in this book. Ramses’ son Merneptah, who succeeded Ramses after his death, is a king with a warrior spirit, but his age is well advanced. Despite this, he manages to save the country from many uprisings and attacks. Meanwhile, he does not neglect to give new works and tasks to overcome to the employees in the Place of Truth.
But of course, those who are jealous of the Place of Truth and want to destroy this village are more determined and stronger than ever. In the face of the intrigues and assassinations that took place in the village, the Wise Woman Ubekhet, her husband Nefer the Silent and Paneb the Ardent try to stand together, but they soon realise that the traitor lives with them inside the village. This is a massive disappointment for the village because all the artists living here have heard and answered Maat’s voice. If you have trouble sleeping at night, The Wise Woman is a book that will take you away from the worries of everyday life and into Egypt and the past. Enjoy!
The Wise Woman (Stone of Light, #2)
The Wise Woman: They built a civilization ahead of its time, and dominated the ancient world. They defined an era of war, love, passion, power, and betrayal. They were a people of mystery whose secrets have turned to dust — but who inspire our awe and wonder even to this day…
The ancient Egyptians
They showed us how to live. And how to die.
Christian Jacq, 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. The Wise Woman is the second book in the series.
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:
