Empire of darkness. Christian Jacq. 2002.

17th Century B.C. Egypt is a shadow of its former self.

An army of barbarians from the north-east has swept through the Empire on horse-drawn chariots (the Egyptians had never seen horses before, destroying everything in its path. Known as the Hyksos, the leaders from foreign lands', the invaders have reduced the land of the pharaohs to slavery.

Only one city resists: Thebes, where the widow of the last pharaoh, Teti the Small, still reigns. But Teti knows it's only a matter of time before her men succumb to the cruelty of the Hyksos with their invidious methods of torture, summary executions and the penal colonies from which no one returns.

But Teti has an eighteen-year-old daughter, Ahotep. Fierce, beautiful and courageous, Ahotep will never accept defeat. And so she decides to re-ignite the flame of Egyptian resistance - all by herself.