River God is one of the best-loved historical novels of the last half century, and it launched a series that now runs to ten books. Wilbur Smith’s Egyptian novels follow Taita, a brilliant slave, healer, engineer, strategist and, eventually, a magus, through the wars that nearly destroyed ancient Egypt and the struggle to win it back.
The series is also one of the most confusing to read in order. The books were not written in story order, one of them is set in the twentieth century, and a newer four-book sequence has been added since Smith’s death. This guide sets out the Egyptian series by Wilbur Smith in publication order, in chronological order, and in the order we recommend, so you can pick the path that suits you.
Whether you are coming back to Taita after years away or picking up River God for the first time, here is everything you need to know.
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Quick Series Facts
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Author | Wilbur Smith (later books with co-authors) |
| Number of Books | 10 |
| First Book | River God (1993) |
| Latest Book | House of Two Pharaohs (2025) |
| Setting | Ancient Egypt, Nubia, Crete and beyond, around 1700 to 1550 BC, plus one novel set in the 1990s |
| Main Character | Taita, slave, adviser and magus |
| Genre | Historical adventure, with fantasy elements in later books |
| Series Status | Ongoing (new books still being published) |
Egyptian Series Books in Publication Order
Publication order is a good way to read the Egyptian series, and it is the order we recommend for first-time readers, with one small adjustment explained below. The series falls into three parts:
- The original Taita novels: River God, Warlock, The Quest, Desert God and Pharaoh.
- The modern-day sequel: The Seventh Scroll, set in the 1990s.
- The New Kingdom sequence: The New Kingdom, Titans of War, Testament and House of Two Pharaohs, written with co-authors after 2020.
Here is every book in the order it was published.
1. River God (1993)
Setting: Egypt, during the reign of the fictional Pharaoh Mamose
Summary: Taita is a slave, but a slave of extraordinary gifts: physician, poet, architect, musician and the most cunning mind in Egypt. He belongs to the powerful and corrupt Lord Intef, and he has raised Intef’s daughter, the beautiful Lostris, who is in love with the young soldier Tanus. When Lostris is chosen for a royal marriage, all three are drawn into the dangerous politics of Pharaoh’s court.
Then Egypt itself is threatened by the Hyksos, invaders from the east who fight with a weapon the Egyptians have never seen: the horse-drawn chariot. Told in Taita’s own voice, River God is an epic of love, loyalty, war and exile, and it is the book that made the series famous.
2. The Seventh Scroll (1995)
Setting: Egypt and Ethiopia, the 1990s
Summary: Thousands of years after River God, a set of ancient scrolls written by Taita is discovered, and one of them holds clues to the location of a lost royal tomb and its treasure. The Egyptologist Royan Al Simma teams up with the English adventurer Sir Nicholas Quenton-Harper to follow Taita’s riddles to the gorges of the Blue Nile in Ethiopia.
Rivals who want the treasure for themselves are close behind. The Seventh Scroll is a modern treasure-hunt thriller rather than a historical novel, but its puzzles are built on the world of River God, and it contains major revelations about that book. Read River God first.
3. Warlock (2001)
Setting: Egypt, a generation after River God
Summary: Taita is now old, wise and feared as a magus with powers that go beyond ordinary knowledge. When a crisis at the heart of the royal family leaves the young prince Nefer Seti in grave danger, Taita takes the boy under his protection and must prepare him to claim his birthright against enemies who want him dead.
The story moves from the court at Thebes to the desert and the lands of the Hyksos, where Nefer’s fate becomes tangled with that of a Hyksos princess. Warlock is where the series begins to lean into magic and the supernatural, which later books take much further.
4. The Quest (2007)
Setting: Egypt and the African interior, after Warlock
Summary: Egypt is dying. Plagues sweep the land, and the Nile itself has stopped flowing. Pharaoh sends Taita, now more than a century and a half old, on an expedition into the unknown heart of Africa to find what has blocked the river at its source.
With his loyal friend Meren and a small army, Taita travels far beyond the edge of the known world and into a realm of witchcraft and ancient evil. The Quest is the most fantasy-driven book in the series. Smith himself described it as an adventure further into the realms of witchcraft and magic, and some readers love it while others prefer the more grounded earlier novels.
5. Desert God (2014)
Setting: Egypt, Arabia, Babylon and Crete, a few years after River God
Summary: Smith returns to Taita in his prime. Egypt’s Pharaoh is determined to drive the Hyksos out of the north, and he needs powerful allies to do it. Taita devises a plan: to escort two young Egyptian princesses, Tehuti and Bekatha, on a long and perilous journey to Crete, where a marriage alliance with the Minoan king could turn the war.
The route takes them through Arabia and Babylon and across the Mediterranean. Desert God is a return to the historical adventure style of River God, with less magic and more intrigue, and it slots into the story between River God and Warlock.
6. Pharaoh (2016)
Setting: Egypt, after Desert God
Summary: Egypt faces the Hyksos in a decisive war for the kingdom’s survival, and Taita is once again at the heart of the struggle. But the greater danger may come from within, as rivalries inside the royal family threaten to tear apart everything he has worked for.
Pharaoh continues directly from Desert God and completes the story of Taita’s middle years. It is the last Egyptian novel Smith wrote without a co-author.
7. The New Kingdom (2021)
Co-author: Mark Chadbourn
Setting: Egypt, during the Hyksos wars
Summary: Hui is the favoured son of the ruler of Lahun, destined to take his father’s place, until his scheming stepmother and half-brother bring about his father’s downfall. Cast out and captured by the Hyksos, Hui learns to fight and drive a chariot among Egypt’s enemies while planning his revenge.
His path leads him to a much bigger war and to two legendary figures from River God: the general Tanus and the mage Taita. The New Kingdom opens a new sequence with a new hero, and it works as an entry point for readers who have not read the earlier books.
8. Titans of War (2022)
Co-author: Mark Chadbourn
Setting: Egypt, the Mediterranean and Mycenae, during the Hyksos occupation
Summary: The Hyksos have ravaged Egypt for fifty years. Piay, a talented spy trained by Taita himself, is sent on a desperate mission north through enemy territory and across the sea to the Greek kingdom of Mycenae, to find allies who could help Egypt turn the tide.
Titans of War introduces Piay, who becomes the lead character of the rest of the New Kingdom sequence. It is a fast-moving espionage adventure with Taita as a mentor figure in the background.
9. Testament (2023)
Co-author: Mark Chadbourn
Setting: Egypt, in the years after the Hyksos wars
Summary: Egypt’s two kingdoms are united, but years of Hyksos rule have left the country drained, and new threats are rising from within. Taita asks Piay to solve an ancient riddle whose answer could secure Egypt’s future, but followers of Seth, the god of chaos, are hunting for the same secret.
Testament moves the sequence from war to mystery and intrigue, as Piay and Taita race to stop a plot that could plunge Egypt back into darkness.
10. House of Two Pharaohs (2025)
Co-author: David Churchill
Setting: Memphis and Lower Egypt
Summary: Piay has risen to become governor of Memphis, and he is working to restore the city after the long years of Hyksos occupation. When a scribe is found murdered in a locked vault, with the mark of Anubis written in blood, Taita is called in to investigate.
The trail leads to a hidden criminal mastermind who wants to become Egypt’s “Dark Pharaoh” and who has marked Taita for destruction. House of Two Pharaohs is the latest Egyptian novel and the first written with David Churchill.
Upcoming Books
No new Egyptian novel has been officially announced as of September 2026, but the series is ongoing. Since Wilbur Smith’s death in 2021, his publishers have released a new book under his name roughly every year, alternating between the Courtney, Ballantyne and Egyptian series, and the New Kingdom sequence has been left open for more adventures with Piay and Taita.
We will update this page when the next Egyptian novel is announced.
Chronological Order vs Publication Order
The two orders are very different. Here is the story in the order events happen, as far as the books make it possible to tell:
- River God
- Desert God
- Pharaoh
- Warlock
- The Quest
- The New Kingdom (runs alongside the Hyksos wars, with Tanus and Taita)
- Titans of War (during the Hyksos occupation)
- Testament (after the Hyksos wars)
- House of Two Pharaohs (after Testament)
- The Seventh Scroll (the 1990s)
A note on the New Kingdom sequence: the four newer books have their own timeline, which overlaps with the original Taita novels and does not always fit neatly around them. The easiest way to handle them is as a separate series that shares a world and some characters with the originals. Read them in their own order, from The New Kingdom to House of Two Pharaohs.
Our Recommended Reading Order
For most readers, we suggest a hybrid order:
- River God
- The Seventh Scroll
- Desert God
- Pharaoh
- Warlock
- The Quest
- The New Kingdom
- Titans of War
- Testament
- House of Two Pharaohs
This keeps The Seventh Scroll right after River God, which is how most readers first experienced it and where its revelations land best. It then follows Taita’s life in story order through the next four books, avoiding the jump from the elderly Taita of Warlock and The Quest back to his younger self in Desert God. Finally, it treats the New Kingdom sequence as its own series.
Prefer publication order? That is also a good choice, and it lets you see how Smith’s style developed. The only drawback is the time jump backwards between The Quest and Desert God.
Companion Novels and Short Stories
There are no novellas or short stories in the Egyptian series. All ten books are full-length novels.
- The Seventh Scroll is sometimes treated as a companion rather than a core book, because it is set in the modern day. It is essential if you want the full story of River God, but it can be skipped by readers who only want historical fiction.
- The New Kingdom sequence has its own heroes, Hui and Piay, and can be read as a separate series.
- Smith’s other series are not connected to Taita’s world. The Courtney and Ballantyne novels are African family sagas set in later centuries.
About the Egyptian Series
Series Overview
The Egyptian series is set in the Second Intermediate Period, the troubled era when the Hyksos ruled northern Egypt and native pharaohs held out in the south. Across the original books, Egypt is invaded, divided, besieged and threatened from within, and the struggle to drive out the invaders and reunite the kingdom gives the series its backbone.
Smith uses fictional pharaohs rather than historical ones, which lets him shape events freely, but the broad story of foreign conquest, resistance and eventual recovery follows the history of the period.
Taita: The Heart of the Series
Taita is the reason people love these books. A eunuch slave who is also a genius, he can heal the sick, design weapons, train horses, write poetry, read the stars and outwit anyone at court. He is also vain, funny and fiercely loyal, and in River God he tells his own story with a mix of brilliance and self-regard that makes him one of the great narrators of historical fiction.
Over the series, Taita ages from a young man into a figure of legend. By Warlock and The Quest he is a magus with powers beyond ordinary men, and in the New Kingdom sequence he becomes the mentor and guiding hand behind a new generation of heroes.
Themes and Appeal
The series is about love and loyalty, above all Taita’s devotion to Lostris and to the family he serves. It is also about the fate of a nation, as Egypt is invaded, fights back and rebuilds.
And it is about adventure. Smith fills the books with chariot battles, river voyages, hunts, sieges, puzzles and escapes, and the later novels add magic, mystery and espionage to the mix.
Smith’s Approach
River God was a deliberate change of direction from Smith’s African family sagas. He combined careful research into Egyptian daily life, religion and warfare with his own gift for bold, cinematic storytelling.
As the series went on, Smith allowed more of the supernatural into Taita’s world. The later co-written books, with Mark Chadbourn and David Churchill, keep the adventure and intrigue while bringing new heroes to the foreground.
What Makes the Egyptian Series Special
- Taita: One of the most memorable characters in historical fiction, and a narrator readers never forget.
- A vivid ancient world: Temples, palaces, the Nile, the desert and the everyday life of Egypt brought to life in rich detail.
- Epic warfare: The Hyksos invasion and the chariot battles that followed are some of Smith’s best action writing.
- A modern treasure hunt: The Seventh Scroll adds a present-day adventure built on Taita’s own riddles.
- Something for different tastes: Grounded historical adventure in River God and Desert God, fantasy in The Quest, spy thriller in Titans of War, and mystery in House of Two Pharaohs.
- An ongoing series: New Egyptian novels are still being published.
Where to Start with the Egyptian Series
New to the Series?
Start here: River God
River God is the foundation of everything that follows, and it is widely regarded as Smith’s masterpiece. It introduces Taita, Lostris, Tanus and the world of the series, and it is a complete, satisfying novel in its own right.
If you love it, read The Seventh Scroll next to see how Taita’s story echoes into the modern day, then carry on with Taita’s life in Desert God and Pharaoh.
Can You Start Elsewhere?
Yes, with some care.
- The New Kingdom is the best alternative starting point. It has a new hero and a self-contained story, and Taita and Tanus appear as legends rather than as characters you need to know.
- Desert God can be read without River God, since it has its own quest, but it refers back to earlier events and is richer if you know them.
We would not start with The Seventh Scroll, which gives away major events of River God, or with The Quest, whose heavy fantasy elements are not typical of the series.
If You Only Read One
Read River God. It stands alone, it has a proper ending, and it is the book that most readers still name as their favourite Wilbur Smith novel.
About the Author: Wilbur Smith
Wilbur Smith was born in Broken Hill, Northern Rhodesia (now Kabwe, Zambia), in 1933, and grew up on his family’s ranch. His first novel, When the Lion Feeds, was published in 1964 and began the Courtney series, and he went on to sell more than 140 million books worldwide. He died in Cape Town on 13 November 2021, at the age of 88.
River God was a turning point in his career. After three decades of African adventure and family sagas, Smith took a bold step into the ancient world, and the book became one of his biggest bestsellers. He returned to Taita several times over the next twenty years, writing six Egyptian novels on his own before the series was continued with co-authors.
Mark Chadbourn co-wrote The New Kingdom, Titans of War and Testament, and David Churchill co-wrote House of Two Pharaohs. Smith’s publishers have continued the series since his death.
More by Wilbur Smith:
Historical Context: Egypt and the Hyksos
What Was Happening
Around 1650 BC, a people known as the Hyksos, a name that comes from an Egyptian phrase meaning “rulers of foreign lands,” took control of northern Egypt. They were of western Asian origin and ruled from their capital at Avaris in the Nile Delta. Meanwhile, native Egyptian kings held on in the south, based at Thebes.
Historians call this era the Second Intermediate Period. It is exactly the world of Smith’s novels: a divided kingdom, a foreign power in the north and a Theban court determined to take back the whole country.
The War of Liberation
The Theban kings of the late Seventeenth Dynasty began the fight against the Hyksos, and the war was completed by Ahmose I, who captured Avaris and drove the Hyksos out of Egypt around 1550 BC. His victory founded the Eighteenth Dynasty and began the period historians call the New Kingdom, Egypt’s age of empire, which gives the newer sequence of books its name.
The Hyksos are traditionally credited with bringing the horse-drawn chariot and new kinds of bronze weapons into Egypt. Whatever the exact truth, the Egyptians adopted the chariot and made it their own, and chariot warfare runs through the whole series.
How Accurate Is the Series?
Smith’s pharaohs are invented, and his timeline is his own, so the novels should not be read as a record of real reigns. What he gets right is the texture: the importance of the Nile and its floods, the religion and the gods, the court, the army and the long struggle between a native Egyptian south and a foreign-ruled north.
The later books, especially Warlock and The Quest, bring in magic and the supernatural, so they are best read as historical fantasy rather than straight historical fiction. The New Kingdom sequence returns to a more grounded style while keeping Taita’s legendary status.
Learn more: Best Ancient Middle East Historical Fiction
Similar Series You’ll Love
If you enjoyed Taita’s adventures, these books and series offer the same combination of ancient worlds, heroic adventure and political intrigue.
1. The Ballantyne and Courtney Series by Wilbur Smith
If you want more Smith, his two great family sagas are the next step. The Courtney series spans more than three centuries of African and world history, and the Ballantyne series follows a family through the founding and fall of Rhodesia. Both share the Egyptian novels’ sense of scale and adventure.
2. The Egyptian by Mika Waltari
Mika Waltari’s 1945 classic follows Sinuhe, a physician in the court of Akhenaten, through the upheavals of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Like River God, it is narrated by a brilliant, flawed observer at the heart of power, and it is one of the great novels of ancient Egypt.
3. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Madeline Miller’s retelling of the Trojan War is set in the Bronze Age Mediterranean world that Taita visits in Desert God and that Piay reaches in Titans of War. It shares the Egyptian series’ mix of history, myth and emotional depth.
4. Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield
Steven Pressfield’s novel of Thermopylae is set a thousand years after Taita, in the Greek world, but it has the same focus on loyalty, warfare and a narrator looking back on extraordinary events. Readers who love Smith’s battle scenes will find the same intensity here.
5. The Emperor Series by Conn Iggulden
Conn Iggulden’s novels about Julius Caesar, beginning with The Gates of Rome, bring the same page-turning pace to the ancient world. Caesar’s affair with Cleopatra also takes the story to Egypt, many centuries after the Hyksos. Iggulden’s Nero Trilogy is a more recent option.
6. More Ancient World Fiction
For a wider selection of novels set in the ancient Near East and Egypt, see our list of the Best Ancient Middle East Historical Fiction.
Adaptations
In 1999, The Seventh Scroll was adapted as a television miniseries, which also drew on elements of River God.
No other Egyptian novel has been adapted, and there is no film or series of River God in production as of 2026, despite regular calls from fans for a big-budget version.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many books are in Wilbur Smith’s Egyptian series?
There are ten books: River God (1993), The Seventh Scroll (1995), Warlock (2001), The Quest (2007), Desert God (2014), Pharaoh (2016), The New Kingdom (2021), Titans of War (2022), Testament (2023) and House of Two Pharaohs (2025).
What is the correct reading order for the Egyptian series?
We recommend River God, The Seventh Scroll, Desert God, Pharaoh, Warlock and The Quest, then the New Kingdom sequence in order: The New Kingdom, Titans of War, Testament and House of Two Pharaohs. Publication order also works well.
What is the chronological order of the Egyptian series?
In story order, the Taita novels run River God, Desert God, Pharaoh, Warlock and The Quest. The New Kingdom sequence follows its own timeline alongside and after them, and The Seventh Scroll is set in the 1990s.
Do I need to read the Egyptian series in order?
It helps, but it is not essential. Each novel has its own complete story. However, The Seventh Scroll gives away important events of River God, so always read River God first.
What is the Egyptian series about?
It follows Taita, a brilliant slave who becomes a powerful adviser and magus, through the Hyksos invasion of ancient Egypt and the long struggle to reclaim the kingdom. The newer books follow younger heroes, Hui and Piay, with Taita as their mentor.
Is The Seventh Scroll a historical novel?
No. It is set in the 1990s and follows modern characters searching for a lost tomb using Taita’s ancient scrolls. It is a treasure-hunt thriller that builds on River God, rather than a story set in ancient Egypt.
Is Wilbur Smith’s Egyptian series historically accurate?
It captures the setting and the broad history of the Hyksos period well, but the pharaohs and many events are invented. Several books, especially Warlock and The Quest, include magic and supernatural elements.
How long does it take to read the Egyptian series?
Most of the books run to 450 to 700 pages, so the full series is well over 5,000 pages. River God alone takes most readers one to two weeks, and the full series several months.
Is the Egyptian series suitable for young adults?
The books are written for adults. They include violence, torture, sexual content and mature themes. Mature older teenagers may enjoy River God, but parents should be aware of its content.
Will there be more books in the Egyptian series?
Probably. New books have been published under Wilbur Smith’s name almost every year since his death in 2021, and the New Kingdom sequence is open-ended, but no new Egyptian title has been officially announced yet.
Did Wilbur Smith write all the Egyptian books himself?
He wrote the first six alone. The New Kingdom, Titans of War and Testament were written with Mark Chadbourn, and House of Two Pharaohs with David Churchill.
Can I read the Egyptian series on Kindle or as an audiobook?
Yes. All ten books are available in paperback, ebook and audiobook editions.
Has River God been made into a film or TV series?
No. The Seventh Scroll was adapted as a 1999 miniseries that included elements of River God, but there is no dedicated film or series of River God.
What should I read after the Egyptian series?
Try Mika Waltari’s The Egyptian for another great novel of ancient Egypt, or move on to Smith’s Courtney and Ballantyne family sagas for more of his adventure writing.
Conclusion: Your Egyptian Series Reading Journey
Wilbur Smith’s Egyptian series gave historical fiction one of its greatest characters in Taita, and it remains one of the most rewarding adventures in the genre. From the love story and wars of River God to the modern treasure hunt of The Seventh Scroll and the newer adventures of Hui and Piay, there is a lot of Egypt to explore.
Do not let the complicated order put you off. Start with River God, and the rest will fall into place.
Ready to begin? Start with River God and meet Taita, Lostris and Tanus on the banks of the Nile. With ten books and more on the way, you have a long and magnificent journey ahead.
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