A Muggle's Magical Book Blog: Review: Egypt: The Uprising

Egypt: The Uprising (The Battle for Maat, #1) by Amira Aly

Published June 1st 2011 (first published May 31st 2011)
Ebook, 125 pages (178 Paperback)
Source: Received from the Author for a honest review

"A debut novel like no other-- touches on the apocalyptic flavors of the times and tells of a history that transcends the past.

Why is the Arab world in turmoil? What instigated the Spring of Freedom?
There is more to the story than meets the eye...
The very fabric of the world is at stake.

And , believe it or not, your fate lies in the hands of one book-loving Egyptian teen with an extraordinary heritage .

Aya is an Egyptian teenage girl trying to mind her own business and take care of her brother. As their country is swept by the tides of a revolution against a tyrant nicknamed the vile pharaoh, Aya tries to stay adrift. But her blood has something different in store for her.

Learning what the Ancients have always known, She joins a battle for truth and freedom-- a battle for Ma'at."

- From Goodreads

4/10

This novella started out with the uprising in Egypt like we saw in the beginning of the year. I thought this was very interesting, as the Author took these events and gave them mythological meaning. The Egyptian mythology used in this novella was very intriguing and I can see that the author did extensive research. Having done my degree in Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Culture (Egypt) a lot of the topics discussed were fascinating.

Here and there I found I disagreed with an interpretation of a myth, but nothing too serious. But by saying this I have to mention that sometimes the “fantasy” of this novella went too far. At quite a lot of times I thought the novella was jumping the metaphorical shark. Some things were just too out there and I couldn’t wrap my head around these things actually happening.

One other complaint I had was that it felt like the Author recently received a thesaurus and was using it on every single word that was too mundane (I can do it too). Sure there was lots of science and intricate mythology involved, but it was too high brow (once again).

Also the novel was too short and felt rushed. So much information is thrown at the reader, and I’m sure that someone that doesn’t know about Egypt and its culture would feel lost.
At some point the main character goes under the Sphinx into a “chamber” of sorts. I think this was fascinating! But I fear here is where the novella went off track.

The character clearly likes a young man she meets under the Sphinx, but she doesn’t understand why he doesn’t like her, when she is mean, bossy and thinks she is better than him. I thought she hated him, until it suddenly became clear that she liked him, it was all very confusing.

I think Amira Aly has talent and clearly has a great vocabulary and I wish her all the best in her future endeavors.