Pauline Gedge - The Seer of Egypt

Praise for Volume One, The Twice Born

Gedge is meticulous in her research If you want to be immersed in the life of ancient Egypt, this novel will delight you.

Calgary Herald

Readers looking to immerse themselves in a strange and ancient culture will find much to savour in The Twice Born , [which] wears its scrupulous research proudly. From daily life in boarding schools and the homes of rich and poor alike to sacred rituals and courtly protocols, Gedge paints a completely convincing portrait of an utterly alien world Reading this book will delight newcomers to ancient Egypt and satisfy ardent amateur Egyptologists.

Edmonton Journal

Gedge has a great talent for building atmosphere. Her description of the buildings and people along the Nile are evocative, and details such as food and clothing are meticulously researched and integrated into the story Most vivid of all in The Twice Born is the texture and substance of ancient Egyptian religion and theology. Gedge fuses the remnants of sacred texts neatly with imagined interpretation and priestly analysis Gedges research and descriptive writing are the stars of The Twice Born .

Winnipeg Free Press

Gedge brings history to life with a tale inspired by the curious story of a peasant-born boy who gained a reputation as an infallible fortune teller and healer and died a more powerful man than the pharaoh himself The Twice Born is another dramatic portrait of a fabled time and civilization along the Nile.

The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)

Praise for Pauline Gedge

[Gedge] paints prose poems of astonishing beauty that fill House of Dreams with Egypts glorious sunlight, crystalline air, cool fragrant breezes, turquoise skies

Toronto Star for House of Dreams

Gedge makes the past so accessible. You can imagine walking between the pillars into a magnificent hall and watching it come alive with the smell of the fresh paint on the frescoes.

The Globe and Mail for The Horus Road

Simply magnificent.

Huddersfield Daily Examiner, for The Oasis

Rich with characters whose destinies are entwined in love and hate, peace and war, hope and despair, this giant story sweeps on at an unflagging pace to its dramatic and haunting conclusion.

Cambridge Evening News (U.K.)

for The Eagle and the Raven

A compelling and human story without a single dramatic lapse.

San Francisco Examiner for Child of the Morning

Gedges strengthsimagination, ingenuity in plotting, and convincing characterizationare here in abundance.

Books in Canada for House of Illusions

Gedge has brought Egypt alive Laid over a complex plot, well-crafted characters, and the shining splendour that was Egypt, Scroll of Saqqara is a simple and heartrending story of human frailty.

Quill & Quire fo r Scroll of Saqqara

A definite winner The fast-moving and thrilling action carries us along effortlessly With its firm, confident control, light easy style, and strong characterization, this is perhaps the best piece Pauline Gedge has written.

Edmonton Journal for Hippopotamus Marsh

PENGUIN CANADA

SEER OF EGYPT

PAULINE GEDGE is the award-winning and bestselling author of twelve previous novels, nine of which are inspired by Egyptian history. Her first historical novel, Child of the Morning , won the Alberta Search-for-a-New-Novelist Competition. In France, her second novel, The Eagle and the Raven , received the Jeanne Boujassy award from the Socit des Gens de Lettres, and The Twelfth Transforming , the second of her Egyptian novels, won the Writers Guild of Alberta Best Novel of the Year Award. Her books have sold more than 250,000 copies in Canada alone; worldwide, they have sold more than six million copies and have been translated into eighteen languages.

The Twice Born and Seer of Egypt, the first two novels of Gedges new trilogy, have been placed for publication in French, German, Spanish, and Hungarian. The final novel, The Kings Man , will appear in 2010. Gedge lives in Alberta.

Visit her website at www.paulinegedge.com .

Also by Pauline Gedge

Child of the Morning

The Eagle and the Raven

Stargate

The Twelfth Transforming

Scroll of Saqqara

The Covenant

House of Dreams

House of Illusions

LORDS OF THE TWO LANDS

Volume One: The Hippopotamus Marsh

Volume Two: The Oasis

Volume Three: The Horus Road

THE KINGS MAN

Volume One: The Twice Born

SEER

OF

EGYPT

PAULINE

GEDGE

PENGUIN CANADA

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Canada Inc.)

Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.

Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi 110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

First published in Penguin Canada paperback by Penguin Group (Canada), a division of Pearson Canada Inc., 2008

Published in this edition, 2009

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (OPM)

Copyright Pauline Gedge, 2008

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

Publishers note: This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Gedge, Pauline, 1945 Seer of Egypt / Pauline Gedge. (The Kings man trilogy ; v. 2) Sequel to: The twice born.

ISBN 978-0-14-305294-4

I. Title. II. Series: Gedge, Pauline, 1945 . Kings man ; v. 2

PS8563.E33S44 2009 C813'.54 C2009-904640-7

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Visit the Penguin Group (Canada) website at www.penguin.ca Special and corporate bulk purchase rates available; please see www.penguin.ca/corporatesales or call 1-800-810-3104, ext. 477 or 474

AUTHORS NOTE

H uy, Son of Hapu, later known as Amunhotep, Son of Hapu, was born of a peasant family in the modest Delta town of Hut-herib, where he lived until he was middle-aged. Yet between his late forties and late fifties he had become more powerful than Egypts Pharaoh Amunhotep the Third, and by the time he died in his eighties, he was already worshipped as a god of prescience and healing. How did such a man, a commoner, acquire so much authority so quickly? Ability alone, even genius, would not have been enough in an age full of well-educated, highly capable men. Something extraordinary must have singled him out.

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