• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525952179
• ISBN-13: 978-0525952176

Synopsis:

Once there was a queen of Egypt…a queen who became through magic something else…

The year is 30 BC. Octavian Caesar and his massed legions are poised to enter Alexandria. A messenger informs Queen Cleopatra that her beloved Mark Antony has died by his own hand. Desperate to save her kingdom and resurrect her husband, Cleopatra turns to the gods for help. Ignoring the warnings of those around her, she summons Sekhmet, goddess of death and destruction, and strikes a mortal bargain. But not even the wisest of Egypt’s scholars could have predicted what would follow…

In exchange for Antony’s soul, Sekhmet demands something in return: Cleopatra herself. Egypt’s queen is possessed, transformed into a vampiric creature of mythical proportions, an immortal shapeshifter with superhuman strength—at once ferocious and seductive. Fighting to preserve something of her humanity, Cleopatra pursues Octavian back to Rome: she desires revenge, she yearns for her children…and she craves human blood.

Clashing against witches and monsters, gods and warriors, Cleopatra journeys from the tombs of the Pharaohs to the great amphitheaters of imperial Rome to the ancient underworld—where she will meet her love once again, and where the battle between man and beast will determine the fate of the world.

Blending history, mythology and the darkest of fantasy, Queen of Kings brings the timeless story of Cleopatra to life like never before in this stunningly original and spellbinding debut.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnTUiy-sG4w[/youtube]

When I read the dust jacket of this book I’m not quite sure what I expected. I’ve read and loved many historical fiction novels. The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell are always my go-to example of excellent historical fiction that walks that fine line between history and fantasy. While magic is sort of implied in those stories, it’s up in the air on whether or not it’s real.

Queen of Kings doesn’t walk that line. Maria Headley smashes barriers mixing and mingling all the elements of fantasy and history into a very potent, very wonderful story about the obsessive nature of love, and the lengths a person will go to to protect it and avenge its loss. She takes a very familiar story and turns it into something unfamiliar, which is no easy feat.

I was suspect about the vampire elements of this story and how they would really fit in here, but Headley deals with them very nicely. She never comes out and calls Cleopatra a vampire, which I liked. Personally, I’m sick to death of vampire stories. That being said, Headley allows you to infer what she is and then moves on to telling the story. And she has a lot of story to tell. The Roman histories concerning Antony and Cleopatra paint them as shallow and self-absorbed nuisances to the greatness of Octavian’s legacy; they probably have one of the most embarrassing endings a love story could have, the way the Romans tell it. Headley doesn’t play the Roman game though. Antony and Cleopatra are two people who are deeply in love, and want what is best for Egypt. You want them to succeed even though they are doomed to failure. You really sympathize with Cleopatra; her actions are borne of love for her family, and when they are taken from her, that love becomes a vengeful wrath that you feel is completely justified.

Aside from the well known story of Cleopatra, Marc Antony, and Octavian Augustus, Queen of Kings is a novel of schemes within schemes. Every character has an agenda, and Headley deals with all of these story lines cleanly. Her narrative is rich mythology borrowing elements from Egypt, Rome, Greece, Libya, and Nordic myth; this book is a stage for an amazing host of characters. Each of whom is fully realized, without slowing down the pace of the story.

It’s really hard to categorize Queen of Kings, which is part of it’s charm. It’s a vampire novel, but it’s not. It’s love story, but it’s not. It’s a fantasy, but it’s not. It’s historical fiction, but it’s not. It’s all of these things and something altogether new. And it’s amazing.

I give Queen of Kings Five Out of Five Stars.

 

 

Pick up a copy of Queen of Kings from Amazon today!

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