- Paperback: 260 pages
- Publisher: Starbooks (March 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1891855549
- ISBN-13: 978-1891855542
- Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 14 x 2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 386 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,914,432 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
What an Intriguing Tale!,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Eunuch Neferu (Paperback)
I could not believe how easily I slipped through the sands of time to find myself in the world of Egypt in the first century BC! The story flowed flawlessly and it was incredibly easy to read, however, VERY difficult to put down. Mr. Marsche seems to have been very concerned for the evolution of his characters! Kebryn arrives from out of the desert with virtually no social grace and then rises to become an equal in the eyes of his lover! The Eunuch Neferu really brought to life for me a time and place I would never have thought to venture. It gets a little steamy here and there, but steamy in the sense of what we all do in real life without talking about it. I can't give away any of the details without feeling as though I've revealed the entirety. This book will capture, enrapture and seduce its readers and I say hats off to Daniel Tegan Marsche - and thank you as well. The Eunuch Neferu truly touched my heart and I believe I will be reading it again and again.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.0 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews) 9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
interesting premise, poorly executed,
By faolin - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Eunuch of Neferu (Paperback)
The story is promising and nicely conceived: a comely peasant boy comes to the attention of a handsome Roman general in Roman-ruled Egypt. This kind and indulgent benefactor elevates him as his companion - and sweeps him into his bed. The boy pays a price (castration) for his good fortune, but rapidly grows into his new role.I wanted to like this book, but it wouldn't let me. The author's enthusiasm is obvious, though the details gleaned from his background research often slow the pacing as much as set the scene. The story is engaging, despite generally turgid writing. Readers who become distracted by authorial carelessness will find problems. Punctuation and paragraphing are eccentric, and there are maddeningly frequent errors of the bare/bear, lie/lay variety. "Wanton" and "gush" are used so often that they warrant a drinking game. Anachronistic language ("anal retentive", "defense mechanism", "okay", "Zen", French phrases) clashes with the antique tone the author aims for. I say "aims for", because the end product is often stilted. A representative sentence (p. 180): "The experience could only be described as fulfilling and I could not help but to wonder why these feelings of such completion and contentment could not be sustained in a manner, which would implement them as the constitutional foundation of my constancy." The writing is bloated and unnecessarily ornate, leading to many obscure and outright inappropriate word choices, my favorite being "the north... was festooned with barbarians". A festive image, but bizarre in context. Lack of precision ripped me out of the narrative so often that halfway through I began skipping anything that did not bear directly on the plot. This would be forgivable in an amateur's work found at on the web, but it's a serious flaw in a book for sale. A simpler presentation would have served the story better than a thesaurus-driven quest for the flavor of ancient times. Only for forgiving, uncritical readers. 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
What an Intriguing Tale!,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Eunuch Neferu (Paperback)
I could not believe how easily I slipped through the sands of time to find myself in the world of Egypt in the first century BC! The story flowed flawlessly and it was incredibly easy to read, however, VERY difficult to put down. Mr. Marsche seems to have been very concerned for the evolution of his characters! Kebryn arrives from out of the desert with virtually no social grace and then rises to become an equal in the eyes of his lover! The Eunuch Neferu really brought to life for me a time and place I would never have thought to venture. It gets a little steamy here and there, but steamy in the sense of what we all do in real life without talking about it. I can't give away any of the details without feeling as though I've revealed the entirety. This book will capture, enrapture and seduce its readers and I say hats off to Daniel Tegan Marsche - and thank you as well. The Eunuch Neferu truly touched my heart and I believe I will be reading it again and again.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
A brave attempt,
By WriterWench - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Eunuch of Neferu (Paperback)
'Novice Egyptologist and history buff' says the back cover of this book, of the author. And it shows. Painfully.Like another reviewer, within two chapters I was skipping the long paragraphs of Egypto-Roman historical detail which were evidently shoehorned in to give the book some sense of scholarly research. The basic storyline was mildly interesting, but with hugely unlikely features. I'm afraid my credulity was strained to breaking point by the very premise that an Egyptian boy, bought from the fields to settle a tax debt, would then be considered 'free' - especially once he became a eunuch. Credulity crumbled on page 14 with the Roman's shy confession of love for the peasant boy. Oh, purleeze. As if a high-ranking Roman would have been able to watch the boy unobserved in the first place, and to be so besotted? Later, there is mention of Neferu eating a baked potato - a food unknown outside the Andes until a good 1500 years after this period. Wrong continent, wrong century. The general style is tiresomely self-conscious, obviously an attempt to create a formal, courtly language. Unfortunately, because of early flaws, I found it very difficult to rouse any real interest or sympathy for any of the characters, but I read on out of sheer determination. The final action was ludicrous. A slave eunuch would NEVER have been permitted to carry it out, and the whole 'I feel so dirty and stupid' winge just irritated me. The character of Neferu has an extraordinary air of naivete throughout, whereas in reality he would have been very thoroughly schooled in Courtly manners and the ways of men of power within weeks of being plucked from the fields. The very idea that a Roman nobleman would alter his will so that his eunuch would inherit vast estates in preference to his own son, his bloodline, is also ludicrous, as are the various references throughout the book of the master publicly declaring his feelings for his eunuch servant, and making him his social equal at the end. This book seems to me a homoerotic fantasy that has been given the semblance of a plotline, clumsily padded out with the results of some research into the relevant period of history, and as so often happens the author couldn't decide how to finish it satisfactorily, so turned to a particularly over-dramatic and silly act to provide some kind of conclusion. Mary Renault's book 'The Persian Boy' deals with this type of story with far more scholarly and literary merit. |
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