old blog...The Eye of Horus was one of those "I randomly picked this book off of the fiction shelf" finds, that claimed to be a "novel of suspense" on the front cover. By picking a book about which I knew nothing of the author, I took the risk of getting a crappy writer, and I wouldn't say she was the best. I can't even remember her name. The plot and scope of the book was great. It had tons of nerdy information and speculation about Ancient Egyptian dynasties and religion and medicine, etc. The story centers around the character of Aset/Tashat, whose mummy is x-rayed in a museum and found to have a whole bunch of broken bones, something mysterious wrapped around her left hand, and a male skull between her legs. Pretty intriguing stuff. So there are two stories, shifting back and forth between the modern characters who are trying to piece together Aset's story (and meanwhile fall in love and suffer an interminably long period of sexual frustration). The second story is from the point of view of Senakhetenre, an innovative physician who lived during the 18th dynasty, who saves Aset's life when she is a little girl from a fever. This was definitely the juiciest of the two stories. Saving Aset, who is the daughter of the high priest who is currently fucking Nefertiti -who is Aset's mother and also the wife of the ex-pharoah, wins Senakhetenre the position of house physician to the high priest's family and servants. The story becomes very complex, with palace intrigue and many people wanting to kill Aset simply for being Nefertiti's daughter and being alive. Senakhetenre cares for her like a daughter, which makes it really fucked up when she turns 15 and is all budding and they wind up getting married and escaping North up the Nile and have a really hot sex scene on the boat on their wedding night. I guess if you want to know about the quivering members of Egyptians, this is your book. Anyway, I wouldn't call it a novel of suspense, but it is a good mystery and is especially interesting if you have a nerdy interest in Egyptian culture and mummies. This book could have been a million times better, however, if the author knew how to introduce characters. I was frustrated often because she wouldn't describe what the people looked like. Sometimes not at all, or at other times she would wait several chapters before mentioning the main character's hair color. Also, I think the complexity of the Egyptian court intrigue and all the names and pseudo-names that people went by then (everybody seemed to have at least two names) demanded some more explanation and planning than she provided, and got to be confusing. The English major in me kept thinking about how it could have been so much better, but it was still entertaining.
I really, really wanted to like this book. Everything about the plot and settings drew me in. Forensic science, museums, ancient Egypt, court intrigue, murder, and a little bit of love are all the perfect makings of a rollicking read, right? Wrong. For starters, the book is simply too long. The story took too much time to get through, and a lot of editing would have been appreciated. By the time I was 300 hundred pages in, I was more than ready to read the conclusion. Part of the problem stemmed from the really terrible characters. The scenes set in Ancient Egypt were confusing, and I often had trouble understanding who was who and what exactly was going on. The writing was also too clunky, and characters (especially Kate and love interest Max in the modern-day chapters) were constantly spouting big blocky paragraphs of forensic and Ancient Egyptian trivia. It's one thing to fill a book full of interesting facts, it's another to have every character sound like an encyclopedia every single time they open their mouth. (view spoiler)[ It's amazing Kate and Max ever got together, given that the only thing they seemed to ever do was monologue about Tashat and Egypt. (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about The Eye Of Horus (2001)?
Uneven writing occasionally threatens to lesson Carol Thurston's masterfully researched story of forensics and Egyptology.The book is a murder mystery with two settings--Ancient Egypt and the present. An intriguing premise, filled with fascinating detail. Where the story runs into problems is in the relationships, ancient and modern, between the heroes and heroines. Stilted dialogue and over-labored internalizations threaten to mire the characters in fretful introspection rather than passion. It's also at least 200 pages too long. But fans of Egyptology and forensic medicine will probably like it.
—Judith
Possibly my favorite novel EVER. I've read this book more times than I can remember and I swear, ever time I read it, I am swept away by the mystery waiting to be solved, the passion in both the past and present story-lines, the fascinating portrayal of daily life for a doctor in ancient Egypt during political turmoil, the sweet innocence that Kate epitomizes while learning to not only love but also learning about her disability. Was a well-rounded story fleshed out nicely with character arcs, story-lines that keep you captivated, and worlds written so you feel you could walk down the street using all senses! Highly Recommend!
—Roseanne
I've had this book on my bookshelves for probably going on a decade. When I finally got around to reading it after so long I discovered I had already begun it at some point as there was a bookmark in the book at around 10 pages. This should have tipped me off-I clearly did not care to continue years ago, then entirely forgot I ever started the book. Nikki now agrees with Nikki years ago--this book was dull, so very very dull.A mystery surrounding a real Egyptian mummy written in fictional form with present-day and Ancient Egyptian storylines? Sounds like a winner, especially for someone who adores all things Ancient Egyptian. But the writing made the book so very boring and made me want to take a nap instead of reading each time I picked it up (and I never fall asleep reading). The characters are uninteresting and dully written. The book could have been much shorter had the unnecessary ramblings been omitted. Thurston's writing style even made Ancient Egypt uninteresting and I did not care for the voice of the physician at all. I wish the Ancient Egyptian side of the story had been told from a different perspective. Overall, I gained nothing from reading this book (including enjoyment) and I feel as though I need to read a really good Egyptian book to get this bad taste out of my mouth.
—Nikki
