The Valley of the Kings - Softcover

Holland, Cecelia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312868626 ISBN 13: 9780312868628

Publisher: Forge Books, 1999

Synopsis

It was a time of religious and political upheaval--the heretic Pharaoh Akhenten's religious reforms had been defeated by the power of the Priests of Amun, and the young boy King, Tutankhamun, had been placed on the throne. There was a famine in the land, and ongoing deadly intrigue in the Court as different factions maneuvered to gain control of Egypt. It ended in the mysterious death of the young king, and his hasty, secret burial.

Nearly thirty-five hundred years later, in the 1920s, a young British archaeologist named Howard Carter becomes obsessed with finding Tutankamun's tomb. But he must struggle with more than the secretive nature of the ancient Egyptians--his world cannot go on without the approval of the modern Egyptian bureaucracy or without continued financial support from the British peer who is looking for treasure more than knowledge.

About this title

From the Publisher

"[Valley of the Kings] is a must for Holland fans, and solid fare for everyone else." --Publishers Weekly

"Cecelia Holland moves through history like a sorceress with a time machine." --Richmond Times-Dispatch

"Cecelia Holland's novel VALLEY OF THE KINGS deftly re-creates the Egypt of Howard Carter in the early twentieth century as that single-minded archeologist searches for the tomb of King Tutankhamun. . . . With Carter as her narrator, Holland describes the heat, dust, thievery, and bureaucracy of the time. Her evocative prose is vivid and exotic, allowing the reader to hear the buzz of tropical flies and feel as sweat-soaked as her characters." --The Cleveland Plain Dealer

About the Author

Cecelia Holland has been writing since she was 12, and spends a good deal of every day writing. She chose to write historical fiction, because, being 12, she had precious few stories of her own, and history seemed to her then, as it still does, an endless fund of material.

She was encouraged to write by the poet William Meredith and the short story writer David Jackson. Her first novel was The Firedrake, and it was published by Atheneum in 1966. Since then, Cecelia has written a lot, read a lot, and raised three daughters. She lived in northern California, in the country. Once a week, she teaches creative writing at Pelican Baystate Prison in Crescent City, and, every day, she takes care of a small menagerie of little animals.

About this edition

• Publisher: Forge Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0312868626
• ISBN 13: 9780312868628
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240