Children of God

Richard C. Smith is a professor in the Classics Department of the
University of Alberta.

Philip Loren’s first novel is set in Canaan (particularly the area of
Gaza) during the 18th Dynasty of Egypt in the late Bronze Age, and
follows the hopes and schemes of the region’s inhabitants who fall
under Egyptian rule.

The novel’s reasonably fast-paced plot depicts the courtship and
marriage of Yaffia (a shepherd maid) and Zadok (Gaza’s prince); the
Egyptian invasion and conquest of Canaan; Yaffia’s need to flee the
amorous attentions of Pharoah Thutmosis, leaving her daughter behind
with Zadok; Yaffia’s rebirth as a Canaanite “Joan of Arc”;
Zadok’s struggle to stay alive as various Egyptian nobles, as well as
a second wife he has been forced to take, secretly scheme to destroy
him; Zadok’s daughter’s escape; the death of Pharoah Thutmosis; and
Yaffia’s return.

Though the characters are fairly superficial, life in Canaan is
interestingly portrayed, with only a few historical details adjusted to
the needs of fiction: domesticated camels were not present in Egypt
during the Bronze Age; Thutmosis was not the son but the son-in-law of
the previous ruler; Thutmosis II is ignored so that Hatshepsut’s
“rule of peace” can begin immediately upon the death of her father.
However, the cover illustration—a tomb painting from Thebes c.1400
BCE—presents a problem, since it represents a different place and
century.