Judith Tarr
Lord of the Two Lands
Tor, c1993, ISBN 0312853629
historical fantasy / mainstream
 

Judith Tarr began her career as a writer of fantasy and historical fantasy, but in recent years has spread out into mainstream historical and "women's fiction," though many of her mainstream novels still have a touch of the fantastic about them. Lord of the Two Lands was her "straddle" book, and was nominated for the World Fantasy Award.  It is, in my opinion, one of her best.

Tarr, like Renault, is known for her ability to take the reader into the past without overwhelming him or her with facts and details.  She hangs onto good story with one hand and good history with the other.  It should come then as no surprise that Ms. Tarr is also Dr. Tarr, with a Ph.D in medieval studies from nothing less than Yale University.  Her writing style is clear and clean and rather sparse; she cuts her characters quickly and doesn't forget to paint the landscape around them, either.  If readers would have a nit with her approach, it would concern the amount of romance present.  She rarely writes an historical which does not include a romance of some kind (Ars Magica is an exception).  This has led her to be categorized as much as a writer of "women's fiction" (high-brow romance and other stories in which women protagonists play pivotal roles), as a writer of mainstream or fantasy historicals.  Some readers consider the romance a plus, some consider it a minus:  a reflection of personal taste.  But even for those who are not great fans of romance in their history, Lord of the Two Lands is not a book to miss.

It follows Meriamon, an Egyptian priestess and pharaoh's daughter, sent to bring back Alexander to Egypt, where he will oust the hated Persians and become pharaoh himself.  Tarr deliberately avoided taking on a period of Alexander's career which Renault had treated in her trilogy.  This book covers only about two years Alexander's life -- which is still plenty for a novel.  (He did enough for ten novels.)  Meriamon's love interest and the secondary protagonist is Nikos, the (fictional) younger brother of Ptolemy.  Nonetheless, Alexander has a high profile (though never as a point of view character); so, to a lesser degree, does Hephaistion (who is a point of view character).  In fact, Alexander had a higher profile in the story than Tarr originally intended, and Meriamon's (non-romantic) friendship with him is one of the more charming aspects of the book.

But the most ingenuous aspect is Tarr's deft use of magic.  Rather than resort to generic spells and firebolts, she utilizes the historical mythology and magical beliefs of the Egyptian people.  And while her magic ostensibly works, its appearance in the story is historically appropriate and should not offend those readers who have a categorical dislike of fantasy novels.  In that respect, this novel is not quite fantasy, even while it is not quite mainstream, either.

Her historical accuracy is high (although I am better able to judge the Greco-Macedonian aspects than the Egyptian), with only a few small errors:  Alexander drinks his wine mixed instead of akratos (unmixed) as was the Macedonian fashion.  But these are extremely minor details to complain about and, along with Renault, Tarr's Lord of the Two Lands is one of the best historical novels to be found on Alexander.

In 1994, she published a semi-sequel, Throne of Isis, which takes place several centuries later during the antics of Antony and Cleopatra.  It follows a descendent of Meriamon.  Lord of the Two Lands is, however, the better book both in its thematic cohesion and its plot construction.