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Sure thing! Well, two books about my favorite pharaoh Ramses II (who ruled in the 1200s ish) are Ramses II by Christiane Desroches Noblecourt (if you can read French, I'd recommend reading it in that but there's an abridged version in English by the same author if you can't) and Ramses II: Egypt's Greatest Pharaoh by Joyce Tyldesley. My favorite book that covers general ancient Egyptian history is also by her called The Pharaohs. I don't have a specific book about the 1300s (which was the time of Akhenaten if I'm not mistaken) but this general book covers it wonderully. If you want more about king Tutankamen (who ruled after Akhenaten) I recommend just reading Howard Carter's book. Dry, but really the best source for what it really was like when he was discovering the tomb.

Hope that helps, I literally have an entire bookshelf with nothing but books on Ancient Egypt and am always happy to recommend them! Feel free to ask about anything else too, I love talking about this stuff!

Most people start learning Middle Egyptian, and Allen is pretty much the standard English grammar book that most universities use these days. My only problem is that Allen is, in my opinion, not very well suited to learning on your own. It's a great reference book, but the way the lessons are presented is a bit obtuse, and the self-guided exercises are kinda awful. Granted, I used the second edition, and it's now in third, so some of the issues I had may have been corrected. Jim Allen has also released a companion volume of a sort of "greatest hits" of Middle Egyptian texts, and being able to learn and practice by diving right in to actual stories is helpful, I think.

If you want to start with Late Egyptian, I recommend "The Language of Ramesses" by Neveu which is a new-ish (2015) grammar, and it's pretty fantastic, and easy at least compared to the older Late Egyptian grammars that were available (like Junge). I find Late Egyptian easier, and more rewarding, to read, personally. The grammar rules are easier and better defined (from a modern perspective, at least), and there's a TON of literature in all genres in Late Egyptian.

Ah, finally I meet someone (albeit on Reddit) who's followed Bob Brier on the incredible journey he takes the listener through, in his course. It is hard to believe that it has been nearly 17 years since the course first came out. I have followed Prof. Brier's course religiously over the last 16 years, and through his evocative, imaginative and illustrative language, rediscovered Ancient Egypt over and over again. In fact I find myself consulting my notes on his lectures from time to time. Needless to say, I am a huge fan of Prof. Brier, and visiting Egypt with him (on one of his tours) is on my bucket list.

That said, I too was in the same boat after having finished his course. What next? He did give some pointers in his last lesson on what to follow and where to go to get more information. Nowadays with the advent of Facebook, one can follow these channels their official Facebook pages. But that wasn't your question.

Personally, I found this book to be quite informative, and I would recommend it highly. Toby Wilkinson - Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt. It is written in an easy to read format and I found that it filled in many gaps in Prof. Brier's telling of the story of Egypt, especially during the first and second intermediate periods. Coming from Prof. Brier's course, it really felt like the next logical step.

From there, it gets a little more difficult. Recent developments have been slow - owing to the unrest in Egypt. Off-hand, I am not aware of any significant compendium of recent knowledge that has emerged in our field of interest. There are bits and pieces to be found, and I find that the Subreddits do a good job of compiling the same.

That said, if someone does know of more recent books, please do enlighten me. Hope that helps!

Maybe Erik Hornung's "The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife" could help?

http://www.amazon.com/The-Ancient-Egyptian-Books-Afterlife/dp/0801485150

It's got a chapter on the Amduat (Eg. Imy Duat, I think? lit, "The Things of the Underworld"), and a chapter on the Book of Gates. From what I understand, they're kind of similar, in that the Book of Gates follows the progress of a soul through the underworld after death, where the Amduat follows the journey of Ra through the underworld each night, dividing the journey into twelve hours, each hour being a different district of the underworld. It actually looks like a pretty comprehensive overview from the ToC shown on Amazon.

Plus, as a special bonus, you get the Litany of Re, the Book of the Heavenly Cow, and the Book of Traversing Eternity. Fun reading!

Silverman's Coffee table monster Ancient Egypt is a great resource and may be what you are searching for...it's insanely cheap used on Amazon!

I know this is not what you are after, but Mcdowell's "Village Life in Ancient Egypt: Laundry Lists and Love Songs is a wonderful resource for learning about the daily life of some of the Egyptian builders and workers (it's about the village of Deir el-Medina, which housed the builders of the tombs of the kings and queens during the "New Kingdom" era.). This book helped me envision (along with "Red Land, Black Land") Egypt in ways that I had not before and provided me with a more human connection to the region than I had previously.

I just pre-ordered a new book;

http://www.amazon.com/Egyptian-Book-Dead-Integrated-Full-Color/dp/1452144389/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421361562&sr=1-2&keywords=book+of+going+forth+by+day

It is a new version of the same book, which you could likely get at less cost. Has the whole papyrus published above the English. Pretty good. Fun to read, and fun to use if you are also learning M. E. grammar.

Edit: Searching for information on the "Book of Going/Coming Forth by Day" will get you better results.

You're probably seeing clips from his courses from The Teaching Company, the people that put together The Great Courses. See an example course.

The material is not free, but it's popular and IMO good quality. I have the linked course and another about Pharaohs that he did, both of which I really enjoy.

edit: fixed link

Hey there!

Well, I own a copy of the earlier edition of this book. You're in luck, this new edition is very recent. It's paperback, however, and I'm not entirely sure if there's a hardcover version. It's the Faulkner translation. I'm sure there are more recent translations, but Faulkner's, as you probably know since you named him in your title, is very respected. The plates are stunning, and for that alone it's worth it. Some pages are even fold-in in order to not compromise the scenes. The book is rather tall, so you can see detail, and the translations are under the pertinent plates.

I did set the bar quite high when looking for a Book of Coming Forth by Day and this version is one I quite like. I'm yet to hear negative feedback about it, although I'd appreciate it. The only downside for me so far is that it's paperback.

As someone who routinely uses both Egyptian and Java, I can say categorically -- I like Egyptian a lot better. :)

If you're just writing games, you don't necessarily need the most current research -- anything in the last few decades is fine for your purposes. Unfortunately, there's a tremendous amount of material being printed still that goes back to the 19th century in Dover reprints that needs to be avoided at all costs. Also, remember that you're talking about almost three millennia of religious belief -- the differences between Old Kingdom and Roman period are far far greater than the differences between Upper and Lower Egypt.

In any event, here's a modern translation of the Book of the Dead (not Budge!):

http://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Egyptian-Book-Raymond-Faulkner/dp/0760773092/

The BotD isn't the greatest intro to the theogeny you may be looking for, but it's well known.

These are both current, but I don't know them:

http://www.amazon.com/Egyptian-Mythology-Goddesses-Traditions-Ancient/dp/0195170245

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Gods-Goddesses-Ancient-Egypt/dp/0500051208

Avoid anything not written by an actual academic in the field -- there's way too much 'Egyptology' that's actually modern spirituality misusing ancient texts, and as noted, lots of reprints of Budge and Petrie that are now way out of date.

Last thoughts: If you're looking for thematic ideas for a game, there may be some good mythology childrens books that will hit the points and iconography you want (but will lack some of the more anatomically correct aspects of Egyptian divinity), and if you can, go through a real book store rather than Amazon :) If you're near Boston, Schoenhof's may have some of these.

A good recent one is the BBC's "Life and Death in the Valley of the Kings".

Another good BBC documentary on Tutankhamun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXk-NbSWDs8

"Egypt" on Amazon Prime and (I think) Netflix is pretty well regarded: https://www.amazon.com/Egypt-The-Complete-First-Season/dp/B00FM1ON0A

The most recent translations aren't going to be free and available online. I'd suggest going to your library or ordering a copy via Amazon. This is an excellent version, but there are less expensive, earlier editions available as well.

That course is really good.

This link worked better for me.

https://www.amazon.com/The-History-of-Ancient-Egypt/dp/B00DTO53ME/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520209094&sr=8-1&keywords=history+of+ancient+egypt+bob+brier

You mean Graham Hancock who wrote this?
Really? An advanced civilization living on Mars?
The guy is in the business of selling books and making money. Neither Hancock or West ( RIP) is an Egyptologist. This is an absolute insult to true Egyptologists who hav spent decades of their lives digging in the sun baked desert to uncover the truth about ancient Egypt. GTFO here with this pseudoscience garbage.

How is this any different from books like Jaromir Malek's Egyptian Art? I feel like we need yet another random catalogue of Egyptian artifacts about as badly as we need another television special on King Tut.

Thanks. Stole it from Dr. Redford's book

Though awesome, the Book of the Dead is focused more on ritual spells associated with preparation for the afterlife. There's also a number of different versions, none "canonical." This book, Egyptian Mythology by G. Harris, seems to cover the basics of Egyptian myth, and includes more "Gods and Godesses" type stories:

http://www.amazon.com/Egyptian-Mythology-Goddesses-Traditions-Ancient/dp/0195170245/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

If she's just starting, Gardiner is quite dense. Try Collier & Manley's How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs, it's used in a lot of university courses:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Read-Egyptian-Hieroglyphs-step-step/dp/0714119105

Here's a big one:

http://www.amazon.ca/The-Mars-Mystery-Connection-Between/dp/0609802232

In my book on the deities of Egypt. Set's iconography is very... indirect, there is little anthropomorphic representations symbols of him, outside of his; "curved head, tall square-topped ears, and erect arrow-like tail". He was more tied to animals everyday Egyptians found symbolically noxious; antelope, ass/donkey, goat, pig, hippopotamus, crocodile, and certain fish. That probably comes from his fight he had with Horus, where they both assumed different animals at one point.

Interestingly, in the 1st millennium bc the Seth animal disappeared from art and writing, and the god was subsequently depicted more as an ass with a knife in its head to render it harmless.