Let's Get Out of Here, Far, Far, Far Away: Son of Ishtar; Bronze Age Historical Fiction

     . . . .  Son of Ishtar (2019) by Gordon Doherty.

www.gordondoherty.co.uk

It appears to be self-published. If so, it’s still a professional and sophisticated production, well copyedited, and better written than quite a few other Ancient World historical fictions put out by trade publishers.

Son of Ishtar is the first volume in Empires of Bronze series, featuring the Hittite Empire, starting in 1313 B.C. Presumably there will be other empires in the following books, advertised as Egypt, Assyria and Ahhiyawa – the latter seemingly a loose confederation of Achaean states and Mycaneae. At the Hittite High King’s court we meet an arrogant Egyptian delegation's ambassador, who pays the expected price, the same price the Egyptian pharaoh had extracted needlessly from a Hittite delegation. (Egyptians are not the heroes here -- apologies, Egyptologist amigas / amigos!). In contrast there is a Trojan delegation led by their king, with whom the High King shares real friendship. About all of which, and others, we’ll presumably learn more, if in These Days, there are any following books, that is. Sigh.

Someone, whom I don’t know, and who wasn’t me, has observed:

Quote:…the bronze age was over before most of the Bible was written, so our world view of antiquity generally misses the 1800-odd years when bronze was the major metal.

This is the first fiction I have been able to immerse in, in a long time.

More about Son of Ishtar here:

https://www.ancient.eu/article/1443/author-interview-son-of-ishtar-by-gordon-doherty/