Deborah's Journal

I'm particularly delighted to see that Judith Tarr's Lord of Two Lands has been released in ebook format from Book View Cafe.

Years ago, I was putting my life back together and facing the inevitability of having to work full time, being yet too raw for anything too harsh and finding my marketable job skills sadly out of date. I was on my way to an interview for a position that sounded like it might be a great entry, and this involved driving north on Highway 1 from west Los Angeles to Malibu. I had allowed plenty of time, but what I hadn't counted on was the traffic congestion due to post-winter-mudslide road repairs. We stopped. And went a little. And stopped -- actually, there was a long section where we stopped a whole lot more than we went. I so much did not want to be on that highway, and there was nothing I could do about it.

As fortune would had it, I'd just been to the library and checked out Lord of Two Lands. Every time we'd stop, I'd read a paragraph, bracing the book on the steering wheel so I could see when traffic began to move again. I was probably breaking a dozen laws, even though I was careful to put the book down before taking my foot off the brake. Perhaps this seems like damning with faint praise that I was able to put it down, but those long stretches of being in Egypt instead of going-nowhere-on-a-highway kept me calm and happy.

(Eventually, I made it past the congestion and up to Malibu. And got the job, which turned out to be a great fit for me and me for them, and gave me readily salable skills when I moved north.)

I loved the book so much, I went out and got my own copy. And now you can, too, although I don't recommend reading it while stuck in traffic. Here's the skinny:

In 336 B.C., Egypt lies under the yoke of Persia. But from the north a spirit of fire moves across the world. His name is Alexander, and he is the destined conqueror of the Persian Empire--and the king foretold of Egypt. Meriamon, daughter of the last Pharaoh, journeys out of Egypt to find him and bring him home. From the battlefield of Issus to the siege of Tyre, from the founding of Alexandria to the divine revelations of Siwah, Meriamon both leads and follows her divine charge, who becomes her friend and her chosen king.

If that isn't inducement enough, Lord of Two Lands was nominated for the World Fantasy Award.