In 1971, Drury published "The Throne of Saturn", a political/science fiction novel about the first attempt at sending a manned mission to Mars in competition with a similar Soviet effort. With the historical novel "A God Against the Gods" (1976) and its sequel "Return to Thebes", Drury explored the reign and fall of Pharaoh Akhenaten of ancient Egypt. The novels are based on extensive reading about the Amarna Period and, in the introduction to "A God Against the Gods", he thanks at length the greatest Egyptologist of the time, Cyril Aldred, for his guidance on research. He disagreed with Aldred's view that Akhenaten's religious innovations were accepted by the supplanted religious authorities. Drury wrote, "I am afraid my own view, conditioned by some years as a political correspondent, is much more cynical concerning the lengths to which human beings, of whatever era, will go in order to get, and keep, power."