DAY OF THE FALSE KING by Brad Geagley - FIRST EDITION BOOK

Simon & Schuster NY: 2006 First edition, first printing, mint, new/unread in a flawless dustjacket. Review copy materials laid-in. Day of the False King continues the story of Semerket, Egypt's Clerk of Investigations and Secrets. The time is approximately 1150 B.C., and the conspirators who plotted the overthrow of Pharaoh Ramses III have been tried and executed. But the old pharaoh has succumbed to the wounds inflicted by his Theban wife, Queen Tiya it is his firstborn son who now rules Egypt as his chosen successor, Ramses IV. Geographically placed at the center of the old world, where East literally meets West, Babylon has forever been the crossroads for conquering armies and adventuresome merchants, and the prize of dynasts. From cruel tyrants to far-seeing visionaries, an ever-changing set of rulers have claimed Babylon's throne as their own. But they were not god-kings as in Egypt in fact, there was no term for "king" in any of the Babylon's languages. Instead, they were called simply "Strong Man" or "Big Man." Then as now, only martial strength determined who ruled. Strangely, or perhaps inevitably, the rights of the individual were first codified and set down as laws here. Around the time that Day of the False King takes place, the Middle East is undergoing - just as it is today - a tortuous, protracted transformation. The old regimes have vanished, setting the stage for the aggressive emergence of the new nations of Phoenicia, Israel, and Philistia it is the fourth of these new peoples, the Assyrians, who will achieve dominance in the years ahead. Babylonia in particular has suffered a series of cataclysms. The old Kassite Dynasty, themselves invaders from the north, has been toppled. The nation of Elam (soon to be known as Persia) has launched a massive war to conquer Babylonia from the southeast. Native tribes in the country also see this moment as their own chance to evict the foreigners and re-establish a dynasty of their own.