So little is known about the Egypt of the Hyksos conquest that authors can arrange their plots pretty much as they choose, around a few known historical persons. Here Tarr has connected with Egypt's adoption of the horse and war chariot, which had been used by their foreign conquerors, to in turn drive the conquerors out of Egypt. Tarr, whose love of horses usually finds its way in some important way into her novels, gives us Iry, the Mare's servant chosen by the Horse Goddess. Iry is an Egyptian, a slave, singled out by the Mare revered by the foreigners. The choice creates a political crisis just as Upper Egypt is gearing up to reconquer the Delta.Tarr rarely strays far from the personal and human, which makes her stories so vivid and alive. Iry, her cousin, their Cretan allies, and several members of a conquering family, meld in spite of the conflicts of loyalty caused by the transfer of the Mare's favor to Egypt.My favorite novel read of 2011
