Lord Meren discovers that Akenaten ordered murder of Nefertiti

I've really enjoyed the Lord Meren series.. up until the last 2 books, that is. The writing, which had previously been assured and engaging seemed to go rapidly downhill like a lumber truck with a brake problem. I found myself cringing, wondering whether the series was going to conclude successfully or end up in flames at the bottom of a ravine. (It did the latter, unfortunately.)

It's as though the author suddenly got sick of Meren and company and simply went into a rush job ending in the last 2 books. It's a shame because these characters have been nicely developed over the course of the series.* We know how smart they are, or how smart they should be. However, the major mystery arc of the series gets wrapped up in such an unsightly and ramshackle way, that it absolutely requires the characters we know and care about to drop a bunch of IQ points all at once. Especially poor Meren, who we've followed faithfully all this time. He ends up looking like a chump and the author treats the readers like chumps too. We all deserved a bit better than that.

* Except for some of the same annoying stock female characters which seem to be on a rotational basis. ( )

Another case, another hussy.

From time to time, Robinson will introduce an appealing female character into this series, but by gosh, they always turn out to be either stupid, evil or dead, unless of course they are all three. I was wondering if Meren's middle daughter, who was looking pretty good in the last book, would turn out to be a spymistress for Egypt's enemies, but maybe Robinson is saving that for the oldest sister.

Until the last couple of books, this series had been excellent in terms of creating a vivid setting, interesting stories, and appealing main characters. The one serious flaw was the maddening streak of misogyny. Well, that remains constant, but unfortunately the plotting is going down hill. Meren and Kysen need a long vacation, because they don't seem to be thinking too clearly in this book. Among their least intelligent decisions: Meren, recuperating from an assassination attempt and knowing that someone who is extremely clever and ruthless is out to get him, goes for an early- morning walk by himself, and is, of course, attacked again. Discipline seems to be breaking down within his crack team of charioteers, too. One of the few surviving potential witnesses has been taken into protective custody in his home, and his guards let her wander off with equally predictable results.

I don't want to say too much about the ending, but it creates as many questions as it answers. Maybe Robinson should take a break from this series; I certainly intend to. ( )

Awful. The plot was one where no one could realistically guess, although a piece of it became obvious at the end. Clues suddenly appeared out of whole cloth. Character names were so similar it was difficult to keep them separated. Peripheral characters were introduced in the last 25 pages. What a mystery that someone who supposedly knows so much about Egyptology doesn't know how to construct one.