Ayesha (4)

In this heart-stopping sequel to the classic novel “She,” Allan Quatermain discovers a lost kingdom in the heart of Africa, ruled by the mysterious Ayesha. A haunting story of love and enchantment that spans the centuries to defy death and time. As to be expected from Haggard, this book is full of adventure – a great avalanche, a chase by the death hounds, Ayesha’s reincarnation, and of course the ultimate battle with Kalloon…there’s even Ayesha’s meeting with her “servants” – that is shadows and ghosts from beyond and the past. Not to be missed by Haggard fans.

Allan Quartermain – our hero – and Ayesha (that is, She Who Must Be Obeyed) share the limelight in this great adventure, but oddly enough considering the stars on stage, it’s Umslopogaas the Zulu who steals the show. A supernatural fantasy thriller featuring a magic token, telepathy, powers of the occult, and a people lost to time in the depths of ancient Africa.

In the fourth and final book in the sequence, the beautiful and immortal Ayesha tells her tale of power, wisdom, love, and deception, in her own words. Arabian by birth, Ayesha’s natural beauty was the cause in her father’s kingdom of many wars and conflicts between jealous princes and suitors, leading to a rumor that she was cursed. Swearing an oath of celibacy, to serve Isis the Goddess of the Spirit of Nature and turn away from Aphrodite the Goddess of Love, she seeks to protect herself, until Greek soldier of fortune Kallikrates comes to her for sanctuary and her resolve weakens. But Kallikrates does not arrive alone—he is pursued by the Pharaoh’s daughter who is wildly jealous of Ayesha’s beauty and vows to destroy her. Only by staying true to Isis does Ayesha survive, and as a reward Isis leads her to the hidden kingdom of Kôr in Africa, to herald in a new Golden Age. The kingdom of Kôr hides many secrets, including The Flame of Eternal Life where ultimately Ayesha’s vanity, obsession, and desire lead to her downfall.

Ayesha is She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, a 2,000-year-old queen who rules a fabled lost city deep in a maze of African caverns. She has the occult wisdom of Isis, the eternal youth and beauty of Aphrodite, and the violent appetite of a lamia. Like A. Conan Doyle’s Lost World, She is one of those magnificent Victorian yarns about an expedition to a far-off locale shadowed by magic, mystery, and death.