⋙ [PDF] Free Lily of the Nile Cleopatra Daughter Trilogy Stephanie Dray Books

Lily of the Nile Cleopatra Daughter Trilogy Stephanie Dray Books

Download As PDF : Lily of the Nile Cleopatra Daughter Trilogy Stephanie Dray Books

Lily of the Nile Cleopatra Daughter Trilogy Stephanie Dray Books

It's difficult to read this book and not draw comparisons to Michelle Moran's 'Cleopatra's Daughter', which I read back in March. Not only do they cover the same subject matter, they do so for almost exactly the same timeframe -- from the death of the famous Cleopatra to just before her daughter's wedding. Cleopatra Selene is taken to Rome, paraded in Augustus's triumph, and forcibly adopted into the imperial family. She has to deal with adjusting to her new life and status, with her rebelliously inclined brother, with political threats and personal trials, and with the dubious legacy left to her by her parents. The story has the same basic shape in both books.

Dray definitely gives the story a new angle, though; she positions the life of Cleopatra Selene in relationship to the Cult of Isis. For most of the book, this is fascinating. It gives Selene a wonderful sense of mystery, something that marks her out from her surroundings and from the Roman attitudes she's pressured to adopt, and I like that it's a little bit brutal. Isis's messages to Selene appear as bloody hieroglyphs, literally carved into Selene's skin in moments of emotional distress. Faith isn't easy or painless, and that's definitely part of the message behind what Selene has to learn. The connection also has political implications, as Augustus accuses the Isiacs of plotting sedition against him, intending to make Selene and her less-compliant twin Helios the figureheads of a new rebellion. Selene learns how to plot and how to negotiate, striking deals with the loathed emperor in order to keep her people safe, even if it means personal sacrifice. The magic in the book is tangibly real, in a very religious way, and treated as such, which keeps the book from wandering into fantasy territory, and it definitely adds a new and exciting element to the story.

On the other hand, there are times when it definitely wanders into preachy territory. When Selene starts educating anyone else about the Isiac cult and sacred femininity, it sort of grinds the story to a halt, because the reader is then, too, getting lectured. It feels, at times, a lot like Marion Zimmer Bradley's 'Mists of Avalon', only not quite as deftly handled (and MoA is itself far from flawless in that regard). The explications often stick out awkwardly from the rest of the story, and it hindered my enjoyment.

'Lily of the Nile' is an inventive tale, and Dray fills out the gaps in Selene's story admirably, expanding her life past the scraps that history hands down to us. She also makes some different choices regarding interpreting the historical record. The twins' younger brother, Philadelphus, lives long past when most historians seem to think he probably died. One of Antony's other sons, Iullus, gets a bit of stage time, and Antyllus gets a mention. Julia starts her love affairs early, and Octavia and Agrippa suffer unfulfilled passion for each other (and I have to wonder if HBO's 'Rome' inspired that bit of invention). I'm glad that Dray felt the freedom to play around with some of the historical question marks and ellipses. And yet, there was something that didn't quite grab me as strongly as I'd hoped it would. I think it was that so many characters felt glanced at, rather than fully fleshed out. The imperial household had so many great personalities in it, but quite a few of them get rather short shrift, hardly mentioned at all, or downgraded to pretty two-dimensional characters. This is often a trouble in first person narratives, and it's why I'll take a good strong shifting-third any day of the week -- but that's down to personal preference. Since we only see what Selene sees and know what she knows, there's a lot left missing from the rest of the story.

I did enjoy the read, despite some mixed feelings, and I'll definitely be picking up the sequel, which will actually follow Selene through her adult life as Queen of Mauretania. I've felt cheated out of that before, so it's nice to know we'll be getting the rest of the story from Dray.


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Lily of the Nile Cleopatra Daughter Trilogy Stephanie Dray Books Reviews

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it's better than the book Cleopatra's daughter. On the other, it's a teenaged girl's account of tragedy and magic, which comes across the way it sounds a little juvenile, like, perhaps, a Twilight in ancient Rome.

I don't usually go for fantasy elements in books, but they were limited in this case, and it truly didn't bother me. There's a heavy emphasis on religion, and while the author uses the word "magic" to define some of the things that happens, I would tend to prefer the use of the word "miracles." She provides some interesting insight into "female-centric" religions, but I'm not sure this book is going to win any adherents to the cause.

I did like the book more as it went along. The voice in the novel seemed to age along with the protagonist, and I would frankly prefer to hear an adult's views more than those of a child to such historic events.

I do think this book is a little too expensive. It's short, almost ending before it begins. It's Berkeley's way of making you pay $33 for a book instead of ten or eleven dollars. I'm not sure I'm going to pick up the rest of the series.
I've read several stories by Stephanie Dray but I hadn't actually picked up her debut novel, Lily of the Nile. I had some minor doubt about a story because a story about the daughter of Cleopatra is one I've read before and I was worried it would be too similar but I worried for nothing because it was actually really amazing. I ended up being instantly hooked by the story and I want the read the other books in the trilogy as soon as possible.

It's actually a little strange that I waited so long with purchasing this book because I adore anything related to ancient Egypt. Most of the book is set in Rome but it is about the daughter of Cleopatra and Mark Antony who's named Cleopatra Selene, so it did manage to sate my desire to read anything about the time it's set in.

The story starts in Egypt when Cleopatra famously commited suicide by snake bite. After that Selene, her twin brother Helios and younger brother Philadelphus are taken to Rome to be raised in Emperor Octavian's household. For the most part Selene struggled with coming to terms with being in Rome after losing her parents the way she did and taken away from her beloved Egypt, not wanting to lose her connection to her country and the goddess Isis. She eventually makes friends with the other children in the household and there's even a hint of romance forming with her tutor Juba. Hopefully there's a little more of that in the second book.

One thing I definitely hadn't expected and what was maybe my favorite thing was the magical aspect that the story and Selene had because of her connection to Isis. It mixed historical fiction with magic and myth. I loved every single part of it. I also loved how complicated most of the characters and their the relationships were. Especially the relationship between Octavian and Selene. There were hidden depths within everyone.

Overall, Lily of the Nile by Stephanie Dray was as fantastic as I thought it would be. The writing took me back to the fascinating time and political intrigue of ancient Rome. I would highly recommend it.
It's difficult to read this book and not draw comparisons to Michelle Moran's 'Cleopatra's Daughter', which I read back in March. Not only do they cover the same subject matter, they do so for almost exactly the same timeframe -- from the death of the famous Cleopatra to just before her daughter's wedding. Cleopatra Selene is taken to Rome, paraded in Augustus's triumph, and forcibly adopted into the imperial family. She has to deal with adjusting to her new life and status, with her rebelliously inclined brother, with political threats and personal trials, and with the dubious legacy left to her by her parents. The story has the same basic shape in both books.

Dray definitely gives the story a new angle, though; she positions the life of Cleopatra Selene in relationship to the Cult of Isis. For most of the book, this is fascinating. It gives Selene a wonderful sense of mystery, something that marks her out from her surroundings and from the Roman attitudes she's pressured to adopt, and I like that it's a little bit brutal. Isis's messages to Selene appear as bloody hieroglyphs, literally carved into Selene's skin in moments of emotional distress. Faith isn't easy or painless, and that's definitely part of the message behind what Selene has to learn. The connection also has political implications, as Augustus accuses the Isiacs of plotting sedition against him, intending to make Selene and her less-compliant twin Helios the figureheads of a new rebellion. Selene learns how to plot and how to negotiate, striking deals with the loathed emperor in order to keep her people safe, even if it means personal sacrifice. The magic in the book is tangibly real, in a very religious way, and treated as such, which keeps the book from wandering into fantasy territory, and it definitely adds a new and exciting element to the story.

On the other hand, there are times when it definitely wanders into preachy territory. When Selene starts educating anyone else about the Isiac cult and sacred femininity, it sort of grinds the story to a halt, because the reader is then, too, getting lectured. It feels, at times, a lot like Marion Zimmer Bradley's 'Mists of Avalon', only not quite as deftly handled (and MoA is itself far from flawless in that regard). The explications often stick out awkwardly from the rest of the story, and it hindered my enjoyment.

'Lily of the Nile' is an inventive tale, and Dray fills out the gaps in Selene's story admirably, expanding her life past the scraps that history hands down to us. She also makes some different choices regarding interpreting the historical record. The twins' younger brother, Philadelphus, lives long past when most historians seem to think he probably died. One of Antony's other sons, Iullus, gets a bit of stage time, and Antyllus gets a mention. Julia starts her love affairs early, and Octavia and Agrippa suffer unfulfilled passion for each other (and I have to wonder if HBO's 'Rome' inspired that bit of invention). I'm glad that Dray felt the freedom to play around with some of the historical question marks and ellipses. And yet, there was something that didn't quite grab me as strongly as I'd hoped it would. I think it was that so many characters felt glanced at, rather than fully fleshed out. The imperial household had so many great personalities in it, but quite a few of them get rather short shrift, hardly mentioned at all, or downgraded to pretty two-dimensional characters. This is often a trouble in first person narratives, and it's why I'll take a good strong shifting-third any day of the week -- but that's down to personal preference. Since we only see what Selene sees and know what she knows, there's a lot left missing from the rest of the story.

I did enjoy the read, despite some mixed feelings, and I'll definitely be picking up the sequel, which will actually follow Selene through her adult life as Queen of Mauretania. I've felt cheated out of that before, so it's nice to know we'll be getting the rest of the story from Dray.