The Star of Babylon

Book excerpt: While from the north, the mighty Medo-Persian army threatens the very existence of the great Neo-Babylonian Empire; within the city of Babylon, a secretive and defiant resistance movement has set itself against the reckless overindulgent King, Belshazzar, and is collaborating with the Persians against him. Amidst the subterfuge and the stringent measures taken by the king to quell this rebellion, the princess and her lover Eli, a Hebrew, are struggling to make sense of a relationship marred by the huge social and religious gap which separates their two cultures and religions. They find themselves caught between the resistance and the invading Persians, and only manage to escape the chaos with the help of two dissonant palace officials and the leaders of the Hebrew community. Their escape, however is hampered by the injuries Eli has sustained at the hands of the palace guards and the princess is forced to leave Babylon without him. Later he sets out on the camel trail to find her, and after running the gauntlet between the desert and the Bedouin bandits, he eventually meets up with her on the camel trail to Jerusalem and their new adventure is about to begin.