Daughter of the Crocodile. Duncan Sprott

by Duncan Sprott

The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt are powerful; irresponsible; dangerous. It's 279 BC and Ptolemy Philandelphus finds his wife ousted by his reptilian sister, who wants to marry him herself. A generation... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 057122623X
• ISBN13: 9780571226238
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Length: 464 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A fine series continues

I have always hated history in school, where it was presented as a meaningless jumble of dates peppered with brainless, arrogant blowhards (much like today's political climate). However, a book like this will absolutely blow away all preconceived notions of 'boring' ancient history - and is both a terrific read and an absolute revelation as to how things REALLY were in the so-call Classical civilized world. This is precisely detailed, comprehensive and yet tremendously interesting work, the second book in Ptolemys quartet. Like the first book in the series, this is a bloody, sacrilegious, and fascinating saga, this time covering the period of Egyptian history during the reigns of the children of the first Ptolemaic pharoah. Also like the first book, it is 'narrated' by an Egyptian deity, this time Sheshat, goddess of architecture and mathematics. Her tone is considerably milder than the bombastic oratory of her husband Thoth, narrator of the first book, which is probably a good thing - Thoth was fun, but overbearing, and I'm not sure I could take another long work narrated by him. In any case, read this book slowly - you'll want to get every juicy detail of this wild and wooly tale. I also recommend that you refresh your knowledge of the first book in the series, the Ptolemies, (also sold under the title House of Eagles)if it's been awhile since you've read it; the details of the first book are important to this second. Especially as pertains to the women of the Royal House, who end up being married off to various allies and enemies as hostage brides; some are killed, and some will return to Egypt to make further serious mischief. The saga continues, and I can't wait for the next installment. Not the least of which is wondering which Egyptian deity will be the narrator next time around... Some quibbles with the publishing / availability of this book: I bought the first Ptolemies book overseas, under a different title, years ago, and have been haunting US bookstores ever since looking for the sequels. I finally found Daughter of the Crocodile on the Internet two years after its original publication date. I cannot understand why this fine series is not promoted or made widely available in the US. Books of this quality should not be so difficult to find. I also question the first two reader critiques in this file, which are exactly the same reader critiques shown under the first book of this series, The Ptolemies. Is this a mistake somewhere?