House of Dreams

by Pauline Gedge Book 1 in the Thu’s Houses series.

First published 1994

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4.4(110)

Thu, the intelligent daughter of a village midwife, attracts the attention of the physician Hui and leaves Aswat to be trained in medicine, etiquette and the arts of the royal court. Her beauty and ambition eventually carry her into the household of Ramesses III, where access to the pharaoh promises influence but makes every private choice politically dangerous.

Thu becomes entangled with Queen Tiye and Prince Pentawer in the conspiracy to remove Ramesses and change the succession. What she first sees as a route to power becomes a system of surveillance, sexual bargaining and betrayal, forcing her to confront the cost of ambition inside a court where private desire and dynastic politics cannot be separated.