Moses Prince of Egypt Author:Howard Fast How might a boy raised as a prince in Ramses II's palace become the Moses who led the Jews out of Egyptian slavery? That's the question addressed by Fast in this extraordinarily rich novelization of his early life. The answer is thru patient nurturing & love from friends, thru hard personal lessons learned from adventure, love, loss, hate & war.... more » Being the writer he is, Fast make the friends of Moses' youth--his mother, a priest, a builder, an old soldier, a doctor & an Egyptian general--real people, each with strengths, weaknesses & ambitions. These are people who themselves have been shaped by the struggle to survive in the imperial court--& often by unfulfilled hopes which almost died upon the death of a previous Pharaoh. That was the heretic Akhenton, who'd tried to overthrow the old polytheistic religion focusing on death & afterlife, & replace it with a simpler religion worshiping one god who honored life & knowledge. Many of his friends--who aren't all selfless--see Moses both as a possible successor to Ramses & a restorer of Akhenton's wise rule. The adversaries the young Moses must deal with are themselves complex people, each compelled to act out their own mixture of ambitions, strengths, fears & weaknesses. At the head of the list is the great Ramses himself, who can order anyone's death & has countless wives & children, but in fact both fears Moses & wants his friendship. A man who Moses recognizes as "the loneliest man in Egypt." In the background is a vivid evocation of ancient Egyptian life, from the hushed throneroom, to the harsh & beautiful desert facing an Egyptian army marching along the upper Nile on a expedition to the land of Kush, to the pitiful homes of the enslaved Bedouins, the Children of Israel, in the Land of Goshen, in the Nile delta« less