Akhenaten: Son of the Sun

INTRODUCTIONThis story is based on the brief but remarkable reign of Akhenaten in Eighteenth Dynasty Egypt, circa 1353-1335BC. It is told as if by a contemporary of his, Djehuti-kheper-Ra. The whole Akhenaten period is still a matter for conjecture and careful detective work by archaeologists and Egyptologists. I have sought clues in books and museums and in Egypt itself, studiously researching where I can, and accepting my intuition where I cannot. In the end I have followed J R Harris and Julia Samson in believing that Nefertiti herself reigned briefly after Akhenaten’s death, taking the throne name Smenhkhare. As far as I know, this is the first novel to incorporate this new research. Though I have made this novel as close to history as is possible on the evidence we have, and have described the political machinations of the time, I have also traced the spiritual journey of the protagonists, the journey on which we are all engaged whether we know it or not. The story begins with the suffering of a boy oracle, or medium, about to be sealed alive into a pyramid chamber for three days so that he may “astral-travel” to the realms of the gods and plead for the waters of the Nile to rise, bringing life-giving silt to the farmlands. The story follows him through his lonely despair until he becomes the honoured companion of a king and an important figure in an extraordinary revolution. At this time the high priests of the god Amun, brought to prominence by the female pharaoh Hatshepsut about a century before, are rich and powerful enough to challenge a king...