'INTRODUCTION
This story is based on the brief but remarkable reign of Akhenaten in Eighteenth Dynastie Egypt, circa 1353-
1335BC. It is told as if by a contemporary of his, Djhuti-kheper-Ra.
The whole Akhenaten period is still a matter for conjecture and careful detective work by archeologists 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 as I know, this is the first novel to incor-
parate this new research.
Though I have made this novel as close to history as is possible on the evidence we have, and have descri-
bedje political machinations of the time, I have also traced the spiritual journey of the protagonists, the jour-
ney 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 cham-
ber 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 honored companion of a king and an important figure in an extraordinary revolution.
Atthis 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 ...'.