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Content snapshot
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Violence
Very heavy
Ancient warfare depicted with graphic violence; mass slaughter in battle; the Hyksos conquest involves atrocity
Language
Barely any
Mild language
Sexual Content
A lot
Adult sexual content in the ancient Egyptian court; Taita's observations are frank; some explicit scenes
Substance Use
Barely any
Period drinking and feasting
Emotional Intensity
Some
The psychological complexity of being a slave with great power and no freedom; surviving centuries of catastrophe by being indispensable
What this book is about
Taita is a eunuch slave—also a physician, engineer, philosopher, linguist, and spy—who serves the Egyptian Pharaoh and his daughter Lostris during the Hyksos invasion of Egypt in 1780 BC. Wilbur Smith's vast historical epic follows the Egyptian court's defeat, exile, and eventual war of reconquest, narrated by Taita's brilliant and unreliable voice. The novel's ancient Egyptian setting is richly realized; its violence is extreme and its adult content frank.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Extreme ancient warfare violence; mass slaughter in battle
Explicit adult sexual content throughout
Adults only; historical epic with no sanitizing of the period
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