I received a complimentary ARC copy of Egypt’s Golden Couple; When Akhenaten and Nefertiti Were Gods on Earth by John and Colleen Darnell from Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press to read and give an honest review.

"…Definitely a labor of love, the authors’ passion for the subject evident in every sentence…"

I’ve always been interested in Egyptology and always strive to learn more. Authors John and Colleen Darnell well established in the field, have crafted this well written and extensively researched book about Akhenaten and Nefertiti who reigned in Egypt during the Eighteenth Dynasty from 1352-1336 BCE .

Every chapter contains vignettes recreating dramatic scenes gleaned from artifacts from the time of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, offering the Darnell’s interpretations of translations in the form of fiction-like vignettes on Akhenaten’s unique place in Ancient Egyptian history. The book seems somewhat chronological, starting with the reign of Amenhotep III, Akhenaten’s father, and ends with the death of his son Tutankhamun.

All encompassing, the Darnell’s discus various aspects of Egyptian life including culture, death, rituals, religion, art and family. Akhenaten boldly changed the polytheistic Egyptian religion to a monotheistic one that making an indelible mark in Egyptian society.

I enjoyed this book and will definitely be rereading it as it was such an intensive dive into Akhenaten and Nefertiti ‘s reign. Definitely a labor of love, the authors’ passion for the subject evident in every sentence. My main issue with Egypt’s Golden Couple was that I often found the fiction like narrative a bit distracting from the archaeological evidence.

While I love history, I don't consider myself particularly knowledgeable about ancient Egypt. So I was looking forward to learning a little more in Egypt's Golden Couple about Akhenaten and Nefertiti- probably best known (if known at all) as the parents of King Tutankhamun. I knew vaguely that Akhenaten had tried to change Egypt's religion into a more monotheistic focus towards the sun god Aten, but that was all I knew beforehand.

I definitely appreciated that, as Egyptologists themselves, John and Colleen Darnell stuck to physical and written evidence in their interpretation of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. What does the archaeology tell us about their reign? What do writings show about how that might have changed? And, interestingly, what could be put in the context of other pharaohs like Hatshepsut to give us a feel for what would be considered 'normal' versus 'unique'? With rulers as controversial as Akhenaten and Nefertiti, this seemed like a good way to get as much of a feel for them and their world as we are likely to get over 3,000 years later.

The book is written with three styles to it, which took some getting used to. Each chapter starts with a fictionalized imagining of a scene, then moves on to a nonfiction research explanation, archaeological interpretation, or most often a hieroglyph interpretation of another aspect of their rule. I was not a fan of the fictional scenes. I guess the idea was to make things more "real" or "relatable" for the reader, but they really put me off. Much of the rest of the writing was dense, more written for scholars than a layperson like me. The detailed explanations of how the authors interpreted the hieroglyphs as they did was very interesting and certainly made me feel like they knew what they were doing, but went way too much "into the weeds" for my understanding. It was like a lot of the time the book couldn't decide if it was written for scholars and fellow Egyptologists, or for the lay reader to introduce them to Egyptology in general and Akhenaten and Nefertiti in particular, and so tried to do both. The result was often repetitive, frequently interesting, but just as often a dense read.

A book I'd recommend more for people already well versed in Egyptology than the general reader

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Fascinating and best of all, approachably well written. This reads as much like a novel as it does a terrifically researched look at two of the icons (for want of a better word) of their age. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A must read for fans of Egyptology.

This is an extensive presentation of research into the parents of King Tutankhamen, Nefertiti and Akhenaten. Queen Nefertiti is considered to be a beautiful , strong figure and her husband was thought to be a controversial rebel. There is a lot of information packed into this book, which I found simultaneously interesting and a bit overwhelming,

This was a well written, well researched, informative book. It didn’t feel like non fiction in some of the passages in the book and was written more in story form in those areas. I like that aspect because it keeps the book from feeling too text bookish. I love that they went to great lengths to breakdown and explain everything in such great detail. At the very beginning of the book, they even include a cast of characters. It explains who everyone was and helped me to see how they were tied together. I have recommended this book to several friends who are interested in ancient Egypt. Great read!

While likely not a breeze for the casual reader, anyone who is ravenous for a glimpse into the daily lives of the dynastic rulers of the Nile will eat this up like candy. Alternating between anecdotal imaginings of interactions between the rulers and their subjects, relying heavily on historical record and a grasp of the foibles of those still all too human, we also are treated to the incredibly detailed narrator-as-docent lecture on monuments, hieroglyphics, pottery and all the other ennui of life in this incredible time period.

I would love to have the knowledge and experience of this Egyptologist team. But the closest I can come is reading their books and watching them on various documentaries. Their work is outstanding, and the knowledge gained from their discoveries is monumental.
In this thoroughly researched book, the famous couple brings to life the history of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Almost to a day-to-day routine, we understand who they were, how they lived, and how they transformed Egypt under their reign. Being the proud parents of Tutankhamun (King Tut) is one of their greater known feats, but there is so much more than that to this historical pair. And the preservation of their history is amazing. For a generation of people who lived over 3,350 years ago, the writings and paintings that have survived have shed light on so much detail.
This book reads almost like a history textbook but is written in a manner that breathes life into its characters. You don’t have to be a student of Egyptian history to enjoy this, but reading it will certainly pique your interest.
Sincere thanks to St. Martin’s Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date is November 1, 2022.

The boy King Tutankhamun’s tomb artifacts included a stunning bust of his mother, Nefertiti. While a lot is known about the boy king, not as much is known about his parents. Was his father, Akhenaten, aka King Amenhotep IV, the first Egyptian king to believe in a single god? Or was he an incestuous megalomaniac? Or a bit of both? Egypt’s Golden Couple is both his and his wife’s story.

The plot is told in two timelines, in ancient Egypt and in modern day. The ancient tale is pieced together from the few remaining fragments of the time. However, the modern story is how Egyptologists piece together a history far far away from us now.

I personally preferred the modern tale. It was fascinating to feel like a history detective dealing with so many disparate elements, and gaping holes of knowledge. And those holes are my main issue with the ancient tale. By its very nature, it is speculative. It seems strange to have a book that is both non-fiction and something like a docudrama.

If you love all things about ancient Egypt or want to see how a modern Egyptologist works, you will adore Egypt’s Golden Couple. While the writing is very formal, almost textbook-like, the story within is entertaining. Unfortunately, my issue with its speculative nature lowers its rating to 3 stars.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.

This was a really interesting book. Everybody knows about King Tut, but the rest of the names kind of get jumbled up, based on what we might remember from school and what we see in movies and read on social media. It all seems larger than life, almost unbelievable. But the authors, celebrated Egyptologists John Darnell and Colleen Darnell, take what could have been either too fantastic with an action movie vibe or a dry, confusing, stultifying recitation of historical facts and instead turn it into a readable, fascinating, can’t-put-down story. It’s still larger than life, because what about Ancient Egypt isn’t, but Akhenaten and Nefertiti become more than just a footnote and King Tut’s parents. We see their ambition, cunning, and ruthlessness as well as their fear, affection and desire to be remembered in a positive light. They transformed Egypt in ways never seen before. The authors take us through their lives, describing possible feelings, motives and relationships, and document their spectacular successes and monumental failures.

Egypt's Golden Couple: When Akhenaten and Nefertiti Were Gods on Earth is skillfully written and holds your attention from beginning to end. It stops short of being dry and textbook like but contains enough detail and depth to feel like more than a sensationalized book of highlights. The lives of Akhenaten and Nefertiti have always been controversial. Egypt’s Golden Couple presents what they tried to accomplish, what aided them and what stood in their way, and how they were ultimately remembered. They are not always presented in a positive light but they are always spellbinding.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press for providing an advance copy of Egypt's Golden Couple: When Akhenaten and Nefertiti Were Gods on Earth via NetGalley for my reading pleasure and honest review. I admit the book seemed a little daunting at first, but the authors established an easy rhythm, transitioning smoothly from facts to anecdotes to supposition and back around to keep you engaged throughout. I highly recommend this book. All opinions are my own.

I'll confess that I have not been that great about reading a lot of nonfiction this year. I keep making grand promises to myself, only for them to fall through. However! I did get around to reading Egypt's Golden Couple, written by John Coleman Darnell and Colleen Manassa Darnell.

As the title suggests, Egypt's Golden Couple is a deep dive into the lives of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. I've heard lots of snippets about their history over the years. Some of it is true, others wild speculation. This made me curious to sit down and read a comprehensive look at their story.

Even if you know next to nothing about Egyptian history, you can likely cite three names: Nefertiti, Tutankhamun (King Tut), and Akhenaten. But if you want to learn more about this couple, you will want to pick up this book (or another of similar depth).

There is a veritable ton of information crammed into these pages. So it took me a little longer than normal to get through it – but I'm still so happy I did so! I feel like I learned so much about their history.

My only problem is that I feel like Egypt's Golden Couple blurs the lines slightly between fact and fiction. I've seen this done before in historical novels, and I'm not the biggest fan of the practice. Essentially, this novel contains chapters that envision how their story unfolded, fleshing out the details and portraying (potentially real?) scenes.

While that may sound more interesting, it does make things more confusing. Where does the embellishing end? How much truth went into those chapters? I certainly don't know – and I doubt I'll be the only reader confused about where that line is.

On the bright side, I did enjoy the more informative chapters. There's real depth here, with lots of interesting facts. Those chapters alone made Egypt's Golden Couple worth reading, as far as I'm concerned.

Two celebrated Egyptologists bring to vivid life the intriguing and controversial reign of King Tut's parents. Egypt's Golden Couple by John Coleman Darnell and Colleen Manassa Darnell is an insightful look into the lives of Akhenaten and Nefertiti through excavations, museums, hieroglyphic texts, and stunning artifacts. The book is filled with drawings and photographs. If you love ancient Egyptian history or want to start learning about it, this is a great book to read!

An amazing resource that looks I to the history of ancient Egypt 's golden couple. As a former history teacher, I would have loved to have this immersive and engaging resource on my shelf. Fascinating!

I received an advance reading copy (arc) of this book from the publisher and NetGalley.com in exchange for a fair review. Ancient Egypt has always been a source of fascination for me. The tombs, the mummies, the artifacts are always a source of intrigue. Archeologists and authors John and Colleen Darnell witness these spectacular finds up close and personal. I was really hoping to learn a lot about King Tut's parents, Nefertiti and Akhenaten. Instead I found a text-book style of writing that was very dry and uninteresting. From what I could glean, Nefertiti and Akhenaten were sunworshippers and believed themselves to be gods. They lived a lavish life centered around Aten the sun god. They built extravagant temples, tombs, and living quarters. Their story, however, seemed to be pieced together by a lot of assumptions and educated conclusions, much of which we just don't know for sure. I was disappointed in the way their story was told and I don't feel I know much more about ancient Egypt than I did before I read the book. If you are an Egyptian scholar, you might like this one. If you are a average reader like me, you might find it difficult to get through.

If you know only one Egyptian Pharaoh, it’s probably “King Tut” (thanks either to the treasures of his fabulous un-plundered tomb or the musical stylings of Steve Martin). This book offers an opportunity to meet his father, the enigmatic “heretic king” Akhenaten as well as Akhenaten’s principal wife, Nefertiti. The book opens with two radically different portraits of Akhenaten: enlightened sun-worshiping monotheist vs. incompetent, nation-destroying pedophile. The authors attempt to sift through these sorts of dramatic claims and produce a believable portrait of this couple, grounded in primary sources.

One big thing that I took away from this book is just how much of Egyptology is painstaking comparison that fuels semi-speculative interpretation of fragmentary, ambiguous writing/art. The portrait that emerges from the authors’ research and interpretation seems balanced and genuinely based on evidence rather than driven by an agenda to present a specific portrait.

As far as writing style, I could have done without the “TV docudrama” style chapter intros and random insertions of “now let us describe one of our field expeditions,” but those may add interest for some people. Overall, Akhenaten’s odd artwork and henotheistic religious reforms are a fascinating part of Egyptian history, and this is a nice balanced take on them. Highly recommended for those interested in Egyptology!

This is the right amount of background of Egypt necessary for me to enjoy it. The authors do a good job of not talking down to their readers, while also being clearly enthusiastic about the subject material. It can be a bit confusing at times; however, it is worth the payoff.

I’ve always been fascinated by ancient Egypt, so I was drawn to this book. While their son Tutankhamun is probably more famous, Akhenaten and Nefertiti are known for remaking traditional Egyptian religion at the time to focus on one god. Then his successors destroyed his name and monuments to put things back the way they were.

Nefertiti is also famous for her great beauty, thanks to a bust of her that has survived thousands of years. When talking about Egyptian history, the massive timescales are astonishing. The pyramids at Giza were already over 1,000 years old when Akhenaten and Nefertiti reigned. They were also very young. We’re talking about people in their early 20s who ruled an empire and transformed their society.

Each chapter of the book starts with a vignette of life at the time. It was an interesting way to begin, putting the reader right in the time period. The text is very detailed, and I learned a lot. Since I was reading an advance e-copy, it didn’t have the photos that will be included with the final copy. I was googling a lot!

Overall, if you have an interest in this time period, I think you’ll like this book. I did! Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for my copy.

Several disclosures before I start this review. The first is that I read an advance copy of this book which did not include any images or photographs. The second is that, while I have a minor in anthropology and have read multiple books on Egyptology, I do not have a degree in anthropology, let alone specifically in Egyptology. That being said, I think this book is best suited for people that have a strong interest in Egyptology, specifically the period when Akhenaten was pharaoh. This is, of course, the subject of the book, but it is so mired in obscure details from that particular reign that it is unlikely to maintain the interest of many others. I love anthropology and I found myself getting bored and struggling to maintain interest in the book. The authors (and anthropologists themselves) work very hard to avoid making presumptions about Akhenaten and Nefertiti, relying mainly on actual artifacts to build evidence. This is admirable, because objectively quickly goes away when an anthropologist has physical evidence and creates a whole backstory to explain it. The problem here is that Akhenaten pissed A LOT of people off with the concept of monotheism and Aten, and throwing off the multiple gods Egyptians had worshipped. The result of this was mass destruction of anything associated with Akhenaten and his reign, leaving limited clues behind. Instead of getting a more comprehensive history of the pharaoh, his family, and events that occurred during his time on the throne, we get interpretations of his religion over and over again, and translations of hymns, cartouches and tomb texts. While little of this can be debated, it’s repetitive and not exceedingly interesting for those not specifically interested in Egyptology. Adding to the murkiness of the book is both the repetitive and multiple names of Egyptian royalty (not the authors’ fault) and that the book is told in multiple perspectives (completely the decision of the authors). It is difficult to keep names straight, and then the book is relayed three different ways-retelling history as it took play, recounting it from a current textbook format, and as first person observers of artifacts and features. I wanted to enjoy this book, but think it is most likely to be enjoyed by a smaller niche of Egyptology lovers, rather than the general public. A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I really like learning about ancient Egypt, so the description of this book grabbed my attention and I couldn’t wait to read about King Tut’s parents. Perhaps I should have done more research on the authors’ backgrounds before getting excited about this book. I expected it to be more like those of Erik Larson and David McCullough, but was disappointed.

This book read more like a college-level textbook than a book for those with a casual (not academic) interest in Egyptology. While it was well-researched and well-documented, I had a hard time staying interested in what was being discussed. Fortunately, more than 25% of the book was taken up with its appendix, bibliography and notes, so the actual text of the book turned out to be less than 300 pages.

I did glean a few new things while reading, but I doubt I will read more by these authors.

I sometimes wish I could go back in time and observe history as it happened, especially really ancient history shrouded in mystery. As an archaeologist, John Darnell makes it feel like I was able to actually spend time during the reign of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, a Pharaoh that is often overlooked, and as the story unfolds, can see was quite purposely eradicated from Egyptian history.

I loved the snippets at the beginning of each chapter that felt so authentic. This is the kind of history that captivates me and makes me want to read more and more.

There seems to be a resurgence of quality literature on Ancient Egypt, and this book is an excellent example. Taking readers back a generation from the 'boy king' that almost everyone seems to have heard of, this book instead focuses on the power dynamics involved in the reigns of King Tut's parents. Nefertiti is presented as a powerful figurer in her own right, which a refreshing change from the previous trend of sidelining all except the Pharaoh himself. Akhenaten is shown as the Pharaoh who was arguably ahead of his time; flawed, but not the 'bad guy' he is often presented as. Overall, a refreshing update to older histories, and I look forward to seeing what books the Darnells write next.