Hiya, this is Heather posting today. When we received an email asking us to review a book about a
time travelling Egyptian cat, I basically begged the other two to let me do
this one, and I was not let down.
Author: Maria Luisa Lang
Published: November 2016
Publisher: Self-published
The Eye of Nefertiti does act as a sequel to The Pharaoh’s
cat, but can be read as a stand-alone novel without leaving the reader lost or
confused since the book refers back to any vital events. No surprises here -
the protagonist is a time travelling kitty from the Egyptian era named
Wrappa-Hamen, accompanied by the High Priest with his partner Elena and their
son. They occupy Elena’s home before zipping over to England for Elena to work
in Bath. This book is filled with all the classics of a fantasy book:
prophecies, a dysfunctional family, a bit of humour and the fast-paced,
dialogue packed writing style that still lets us visualise what’s happening
without any confusion. Since this week has been far too chaotic, I’m doing this
review in a simpler way than I normally do – things I loved and things that
could have been improved.
I really liked how the author included snippets of Egyptian
history in the book, much like Sutcliff’s novel The Eagle of the Ninth, the
reader can become enthralled with learning about ancient history as they follow
the story. I’m pretty sure at least half of my knowledge of Ancient Greece is
based from the Percy Jackson series. The relationship between Wrappa-Hamen and
the High Priest was cleverly constructed, with both of them sharing amusing experiences
and covering for each other to keep their deviances from Elena. Their bond from
being from Ancient Egypt means they show trust between each other. I found
Elena to be another great character and would have liked to have seen more of
her, she proved herself to be a nice contrast between the more comedic and
clumsy others with her smart, earnest and caring qualities. There were several
settings within the book, but the clarity of writing meant this was not
puzzling. The most confident and vivid descriptions were certainly the ones of
Egypt, particularly when they visit the market. The final part I'd like to praise is the front cover, I only have this in a pdf version but isn't it beautiful?!
Whilst I must stress that this book was very much an
enjoyable read, I do confess that I had a few qualms. Firstly, Wrappa-Hamen was
a little bit too humanised for me – this is a purely personal view, but I found
that the charm of having a cat protagonist less apparent when he was able to
make a peanut butter sandwich, develop feelings for a woman and drink alcohol
as well as talk. It is very clear that the novel is fantasy, but regardless I
would avoid animals consuming alcohol in literature, even some adults can be
stupid enough to dismiss the fantasy label and give their cats alcohol (I know
a family that gave their dog chocolate, which is a crazy risk to take
considering it’s poisonous). I was not quite certain of the target audience for
this book, the style reminded me somewhat of Rick Riordan; it was light-hearted,
educative and descriptive but not overly so. Thus, I was startled to see words
like ‘womb’ pop up and mention of testicles and breasts, changing my perception
of the audience to at least over 13s. To be honest, I think this book would
rise a lot in popularity if the author had left out these bits and made it more
PG to attract a pre-teen audience. Especially since the protagonist is a cat,
which is a pretty dignified animal, the talk of testicle size is a little
uncomfortable.
Any fans of fantasy novels with elements of comedy and history
mingled will find this book appealing. There were a few minor aspects that I wasn't too keen on but this is based on my opinion so don’t let it sway you away from
reading this; the majority of the book is a charming read.
To buy this book, order it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Eye-Nefertiti-Maria-Luisa-Lang/dp/0996335218/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480706159&sr=8-1&keywords=maria+luisa+lang
No comments:
Post a Comment