You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
There aren't many books that I absolutely cannot get enough of, but Graham consistently writes them. This is the second in her series and probably my favorite so far. The characters are amazingly real and the storytelling draws me in. Graham is definitely proving to be one of my favorite authors.
This is the sequel to [b:Black Ships|2192272|Black Ships (Numinous World, #1)|Jo Graham|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266621797s/2192272.jpg|2198000] and it's a worthy successor. This is yet another story of Cleopatra but told from her handmaiden's point of view. The stories dizzied my head as I thought back to the epic [b:The Gates of Rome|330947|The Gates of Rome (Emperor, #1)|Conn Iggulden|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1313874666s/330947.jpg|1808829] and the magical [b:Lily of the Nile|8413892|Lily of the Nile (Cleopatra's Daughter, #1)|Stephanie Dray|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1281454009s/8413892.jpg|13275554] (two historical novels I loved).
The book is longish and she has A LOT of characters to the story. If this book was made into a book 1 and book 2, I might have considered it a 5 star book.
The author appends a teaser of her third book and I would much like to see what she can do there and shed some light in aftermath of Alexander's death.
If I hadn't read [b:Black Ships|2192272|Black Ships (Numinous World, #1)|Jo Graham|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266621797s/2192272.jpg|2198000] before this one, I might have given Hand of Isis three stars, but coming after Jo Graham's powerful first novel, this one was a disappointment.
I think part of the problem lies in the fact that Cleopatra's story has been told and retold so many times by so many people, it is hard to find an original voice. While Black Ships was revolutionary, Hand of Isis is nothing new.
Black Ships was written with a powerful, wistful poignancy; a story about those who have lost everything trying to find a new home. In comparison, Hand of Isis felt vaguely trashy and soap opera-ish. I was also disturbed by the graphic non-consensual and borderline consensual sex in the book, as it was uncomfortable and unpleasant to read.
The fact that most of the characters were supposed to be reincarnated from the characters in Black Ships was also forced, ridiculous, and unnecessary. It was distracting, and added nothing to the story.
Hand of Isis demonstrated meticulous research, and had its points of interest, but it was sadly lacking in comparison to the author's first book.
I think part of the problem lies in the fact that Cleopatra's story has been told and retold so many times by so many people, it is hard to find an original voice. While Black Ships was revolutionary, Hand of Isis is nothing new.
Black Ships was written with a powerful, wistful poignancy; a story about those who have lost everything trying to find a new home. In comparison, Hand of Isis felt vaguely trashy and soap opera-ish. I was also disturbed by the graphic non-consensual and borderline consensual sex in the book, as it was uncomfortable and unpleasant to read.
The fact that most of the characters were supposed to be reincarnated from the characters in Black Ships was also forced, ridiculous, and unnecessary. It was distracting, and added nothing to the story.
Hand of Isis demonstrated meticulous research, and had its points of interest, but it was sadly lacking in comparison to the author's first book.
Could have used more historical detail, focused on alternative charters to much. Note that some content in this book may not be suitable for all readers.
Jo Graham's Hand of Isis is a story of ancient Egypt as seen through the eyes of Charmain, a young handmaiden and half-sister to Cleopatra. Exiled into the Black Lands as girls, Charmain, Cleopatra, and a third sister named Iras, devote themselves to the goddess Isis, vowing to be her hands and avatars on earth, and to love and protect the people of Egypt. Isis rewards the girls for their devotion by setting into motion the events leading to Cleopatra becoming Queen, while Iras and Charmain remain Cleopatra's most trusted handmaidens and mistresses of her home. Hand of Isis chronicles the lives of the three sisters while as stewards of the land of Egypt and her people, they interact with various other key figures of ancient history such as Julius Caesar and Marcus Antonius.
Hand of Isis was not a "can't-put-it-down" read for me in the beginning, but once I gave it a little time, I quickly fell in love with it. The story is told as Charmain recounts her past deeds to Isis and Osiris in the Halls of Amenti. Charmain has come to Amenti to have her heart weighed against the feather of Ma'at to see if she may enter the afterlife, or if she will be judged as evil and her heart devoured by the demon Ammut. As she tells her story, the reader is devastated by Charmain's losses and cheered by her devotion to her sisters and Isis. It is impossible not to be emotionally connected to the characters in this enjoyable novel.
Hand of Isis is a highly-readable account that offers a fresh perspective to the history and legend of Cleopatra. The mystery of ancient Egypt comes to vivid life through Jo Graham's imagination. The details of the ancient world are dazzling and fantastic, making for a compelling and entertaining story. Hand of Isis is an inspired mixture of intrigue, mystery, and romance, liable to delight most fans of historical fiction.
Just one further note:
When I picked up Hand of Isis, I did not realize that Jo Graham had previously written another novel of the ancient world, Black Ships. While Hand of Isis is not really a sequel, it does contain characters which are the reincarnated souls of characters from Black Ships. I don't think I lost anything in not reading them in the order they were published, but you may want to pick up Black Ships first - I would have if I had known, but I fully intend to rectify this situation just as soon as some other excellent patron of the Fort Bend County Library System returns the only copy.
Hand of Isis was not a "can't-put-it-down" read for me in the beginning, but once I gave it a little time, I quickly fell in love with it. The story is told as Charmain recounts her past deeds to Isis and Osiris in the Halls of Amenti. Charmain has come to Amenti to have her heart weighed against the feather of Ma'at to see if she may enter the afterlife, or if she will be judged as evil and her heart devoured by the demon Ammut. As she tells her story, the reader is devastated by Charmain's losses and cheered by her devotion to her sisters and Isis. It is impossible not to be emotionally connected to the characters in this enjoyable novel.
Hand of Isis is a highly-readable account that offers a fresh perspective to the history and legend of Cleopatra. The mystery of ancient Egypt comes to vivid life through Jo Graham's imagination. The details of the ancient world are dazzling and fantastic, making for a compelling and entertaining story. Hand of Isis is an inspired mixture of intrigue, mystery, and romance, liable to delight most fans of historical fiction.
Just one further note:
When I picked up Hand of Isis, I did not realize that Jo Graham had previously written another novel of the ancient world, Black Ships. While Hand of Isis is not really a sequel, it does contain characters which are the reincarnated souls of characters from Black Ships. I don't think I lost anything in not reading them in the order they were published, but you may want to pick up Black Ships first - I would have if I had known, but I fully intend to rectify this situation just as soon as some other excellent patron of the Fort Bend County Library System returns the only copy.
How did we end up here
Back when Borders was liquidating their stock, I trolled their shelves looking for anything that may catch my eye because, you know, cheap books. Who doesn’t like cheap books? At the time I hadn’t quite given in to the call of the romance section so I most likely found this one in the sci-fi/fantasy area just kind of hanging out. It’s set in ancient Egypt, you say? Cleopatra is all up in this? Yes, please.
Ancient Egypt is just too much of a draw for me to pass up.
It fills me with chagrin that I stopped reading this one. It really does. From a history standpoint it’s all well and good (despite some of the liberties Graham took). Too bad this isn’t a history text. It’s fiction. So despite my love of this era of history if I pick up a book that’s supposed to be fiction I NEED to have relatable characters, an intriguing plot and something I can latch on to other than my obsession with the past.
Graham knows her stuff. And she makes sure you know it too judging by the inordinate amount of minutiae that gets spit out in this book. Just random facts that a lover of the era would know but are otherwise irrelevant to the plot and whose only purpose is to show how much the author knows. Glorious.
And then there’s Charmian. A character that just rides the wave of the plot like a damn surfboard. I don’t like plots that bend to a character’s will. It just ends up coming off as so contrived and fake that it’s hard to read. What’s equally difficult to read is a plot with a character that does absolutely nothing, that just moves along because time runs its course and she has no choice but to move with it. She doesn’t do much of anything, she doesn’t have all that profound of an effect on the characters (Cleopatra, yes, only because Charmian was actually her body slave according to history) and she doesn’t serve a purpose other than telling a piece of history through barely different eyes.
The story is about Cleopatra. Charmian’s life revolves around her so it’s pretty hard to get away from that. But it feels like the author really wanted to write a book from the perspective of Cleopatra but, you know, EVERYONE’S done that so let’s try something different. Except Cleopatra is such an overwhelming presence that to attempt to write what is basically her story (because Charmian doesn’t really have her own) from the eyes of a slave who is around her almost constantly is going to be a little difficult. Charmian is just a mouthpiece for the tale and comes off as little more than that.
I did start to get a little interested when a more mystical element was introduced but it came and went pretty quickly and I was dropped back into a story that was riding Cleopatra’s coattails. I really tried to keep reading and I got halfway through but I just got so bored with it. If you’re going to give me a history text, give me a history text. But if you’re going to give me a work of fiction then stop relying on history to be your motivating premise and shoving your characters into the mix like some random piece of historical fanfiction.
And to do next to nothing with it . . . the short excerpts with Charmian at the gates waiting to be judged were interesting but nowhere near enough to keep me invested in the story. If you’re going to talk history at me don’t cloak it in “fiction” and pretend you wrote an awesome story. You didn’t. This is history with a hand puppet. It’s not a backdrop where greater, more plot-centric and original events took place. It is the book and the more I think about it the angrier I get. It doesn’t have much of anything original in it and is wholly dependent on what happened in history in order to further the plot. If you remove it, you don’t have a story. I’ve read other historically set books that use the setting as just that, a backdrop for a nominally related story. This is taking history and going, OMG look what I wrote! No. You didn’t write this. History wrote it. You just decided to write some fanfiction on it but ended up doing little more then reciting the events as they happened.
I need to stop or I’ll just keep ranting. There’s a difference between historical fiction with the backdrop of history and original elements for the plot and simply regurgitating history from the point of view of a random person in the thick of the event in question and calling it a novel.
Back when Borders was liquidating their stock, I trolled their shelves looking for anything that may catch my eye because, you know, cheap books. Who doesn’t like cheap books? At the time I hadn’t quite given in to the call of the romance section so I most likely found this one in the sci-fi/fantasy area just kind of hanging out. It’s set in ancient Egypt, you say? Cleopatra is all up in this? Yes, please.
Ancient Egypt is just too much of a draw for me to pass up.
It fills me with chagrin that I stopped reading this one. It really does. From a history standpoint it’s all well and good (despite some of the liberties Graham took). Too bad this isn’t a history text. It’s fiction. So despite my love of this era of history if I pick up a book that’s supposed to be fiction I NEED to have relatable characters, an intriguing plot and something I can latch on to other than my obsession with the past.
Graham knows her stuff. And she makes sure you know it too judging by the inordinate amount of minutiae that gets spit out in this book. Just random facts that a lover of the era would know but are otherwise irrelevant to the plot and whose only purpose is to show how much the author knows. Glorious.
And then there’s Charmian. A character that just rides the wave of the plot like a damn surfboard. I don’t like plots that bend to a character’s will. It just ends up coming off as so contrived and fake that it’s hard to read. What’s equally difficult to read is a plot with a character that does absolutely nothing, that just moves along because time runs its course and she has no choice but to move with it. She doesn’t do much of anything, she doesn’t have all that profound of an effect on the characters (Cleopatra, yes, only because Charmian was actually her body slave according to history) and she doesn’t serve a purpose other than telling a piece of history through barely different eyes.
The story is about Cleopatra. Charmian’s life revolves around her so it’s pretty hard to get away from that. But it feels like the author really wanted to write a book from the perspective of Cleopatra but, you know, EVERYONE’S done that so let’s try something different. Except Cleopatra is such an overwhelming presence that to attempt to write what is basically her story (because Charmian doesn’t really have her own) from the eyes of a slave who is around her almost constantly is going to be a little difficult. Charmian is just a mouthpiece for the tale and comes off as little more than that.
I did start to get a little interested when a more mystical element was introduced but it came and went pretty quickly and I was dropped back into a story that was riding Cleopatra’s coattails. I really tried to keep reading and I got halfway through but I just got so bored with it. If you’re going to give me a history text, give me a history text. But if you’re going to give me a work of fiction then stop relying on history to be your motivating premise and shoving your characters into the mix like some random piece of historical fanfiction.
And to do next to nothing with it . . . the short excerpts with Charmian at the gates waiting to be judged were interesting but nowhere near enough to keep me invested in the story. If you’re going to talk history at me don’t cloak it in “fiction” and pretend you wrote an awesome story. You didn’t. This is history with a hand puppet. It’s not a backdrop where greater, more plot-centric and original events took place. It is the book and the more I think about it the angrier I get. It doesn’t have much of anything original in it and is wholly dependent on what happened in history in order to further the plot. If you remove it, you don’t have a story. I’ve read other historically set books that use the setting as just that, a backdrop for a nominally related story. This is taking history and going, OMG look what I wrote! No. You didn’t write this. History wrote it. You just decided to write some fanfiction on it but ended up doing little more then reciting the events as they happened.
I need to stop or I’ll just keep ranting. There’s a difference between historical fiction with the backdrop of history and original elements for the plot and simply regurgitating history from the point of view of a random person in the thick of the event in question and calling it a novel.
medium-paced
The story of Cleopatra, as told by Charmian, handmaiden and half-sister to Cleopatra. It was very nice to read the story from a different point of view than is typically portrayed.
I took my time reading this because it's the last one of the Ancient cycle of Numinous World that's out there. I did shed a few tears while reading the last chapters, as I knew I would. Even if I knew the ending and who doesn't know the ending of the tale of Queen Cleopatra and her fair city of Alexandria.
I liked most of everything in this. How it paints Octavian as the bad guy when Augustus is, well, known as well the Pax Romana guy. It's fitting from the Numinous World point of view that his legacy (Tiberus, Caligula, Nero) kinda destroys Rome.
Charmain, Iras, Cleopatra are all strong women, all Companions in that always evolving world. One of the fun things in reading these books is figuring out who was who and who will be who.
It's a wonderful series to discover and to enjoy. I read Hand of Isis last because when Stealing Fire came out it was chronologically before Hand of Isis and since I'm always getting a book in reserve, Hand of Isis sat in my to read pile until now but since [b:The General's Mistress|13547511|The General's Mistress|Jo Graham|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1339798574s/13547511.jpg|19112651] is out I was delighted to finish 2012 by reading Hand of Isis. It was good thing.
I liked most of everything in this. How it paints Octavian as the bad guy when Augustus is, well, known as well the Pax Romana guy. It's fitting from the Numinous World point of view that his legacy (Tiberus, Caligula, Nero) kinda destroys Rome.
Charmain, Iras, Cleopatra are all strong women, all Companions in that always evolving world. One of the fun things in reading these books is figuring out who was who and who will be who.
It's a wonderful series to discover and to enjoy. I read Hand of Isis last because when Stealing Fire came out it was chronologically before Hand of Isis and since I'm always getting a book in reserve, Hand of Isis sat in my to read pile until now but since [b:The General's Mistress|13547511|The General's Mistress|Jo Graham|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1339798574s/13547511.jpg|19112651] is out I was delighted to finish 2012 by reading Hand of Isis. It was good thing.
Some Spoilers ahead!!
This time around, Gull comes back as a girl, Charmian, who is Cleopatra's half sister and handmaid. So we follow Cleopatra's story through the eyes and ears of her handmaiden.
Charmian felt different than Gull and Lydias. She was a girl who enjoyed the company of men, who liked pretty things, who was very proud of serving Cleopatra. Again she found someone who she could follow to the end of the world (first Neas, then Hephaistion/Ptolemy, and now Cleopatra-who is Ptolemy) - but this time she is no common slave, she belongs to one of the greatest kingdoms and is important to Cleopatra.
This time, the book had more women - three sisters were the focus of the story. Of course, the wind through the world - Caesar - appears and also our other friends, Xandros and Neas - who are now Emrys and Agrippa.
As always, I was excited for Gull and Neas to find their way to each other and be happy ever after. It was sad that didn't really happen...I felt bad for Agrippa when Charmian refused him. Obviously he was stupid of asking her to give everything up, but he was a young boy and he didn't mean to offend her, I guess he didn't really think it through. Charmian was a bit too radical I think...especially because she had been thinking of becoming his hetaira and then all of a sudden exploded on him. And then when he became her enemy (actually Marcus Antonius enemy who by association became Cleopatra's enemy but ok) I understand that she was mad because of the kids, but again, he tried to do what he could and she was really mean. I felt like this was to be some kind of karma that she would carry to her next life lol
Emry and her was nice and all and the open relationship or three-people-marriage they had with Dion was nice and all, but I am more of the undying kind of love person :) this thing of being in love with several people at the same time is not something that I could work out and Xandros/Emrys always seems to love Gull along with being in love with other people. Feels like Gull is never his number one, it's like they're best friends who really love and respect each other. And it's really nice but I also would like a romance that was complete and focused only on Gull. Why hasn't that happened yet...people always loved someone else too, or more than her (Xandros loved Neas, Hephaistion and Bagoas loved Alexander, Sati didn't really appear much, Emrys loved Dion). I hope she'll have her one true love story soon.
This time around, Gull comes back as a girl, Charmian, who is Cleopatra's half sister and handmaid. So we follow Cleopatra's story through the eyes and ears of her handmaiden.
Charmian felt different than Gull and Lydias. She was a girl who enjoyed the company of men, who liked pretty things, who was very proud of serving Cleopatra. Again she found someone who she could follow to the end of the world (first Neas, then Hephaistion/Ptolemy, and now Cleopatra-who is Ptolemy) - but this time she is no common slave, she belongs to one of the greatest kingdoms and is important to Cleopatra.
This time, the book had more women - three sisters were the focus of the story. Of course, the wind through the world - Caesar - appears and also our other friends, Xandros and Neas - who are now Emrys and Agrippa.
As always, I was excited for Gull and Neas to find their way to each other and be happy ever after. It was sad that didn't really happen...I felt bad for Agrippa when Charmian refused him. Obviously he was stupid of asking her to give everything up, but he was a young boy and he didn't mean to offend her, I guess he didn't really think it through. Charmian was a bit too radical I think...especially because she had been thinking of becoming his hetaira and then all of a sudden exploded on him. And then when he became her enemy (actually Marcus Antonius enemy who by association became Cleopatra's enemy but ok) I understand that she was mad because of the kids, but again, he tried to do what he could and she was really mean. I felt like this was to be some kind of karma that she would carry to her next life lol
Emry and her was nice and all and the open relationship or three-people-marriage they had with Dion was nice and all, but I am more of the undying kind of love person :) this thing of being in love with several people at the same time is not something that I could work out and Xandros/Emrys always seems to love Gull along with being in love with other people. Feels like Gull is never his number one, it's like they're best friends who really love and respect each other. And it's really nice but I also would like a romance that was complete and focused only on Gull. Why hasn't that happened yet...people always loved someone else too, or more than her (Xandros loved Neas, Hephaistion and Bagoas loved Alexander, Sati didn't really appear much, Emrys loved Dion). I hope she'll have her one true love story soon.