The Sea King's Daughter

This retro read stars recent college graduate Sandy Frederick. She has been raised by her mother and stepfather in Florida and has almost forgotten that her father is an archaeologist. When she is contacted by her father who wants her to help him with his current search for Atlantis.

Sandy is eager for the adventure, but she has questions about diving alone in waters that she doesn't know. She finds herself in the middle of a situation that has its roots in the past. Her father and some of his fellow scholars were assigned to the same island where they are now during World War II as part of the underground efforts against the Germans. The main characters of that time period have gathered again.

But Sandy is also having dreams about the show more long distant past where she is Ariadne, and the minotaur is active. I really liked the vivid descriptions of Sandy's dreams. All the descriptions of the land and characters were vivid.

There is also a romance. Sandy meets Jim who is a budding archaeologist who is working for her father's rival. The two of them have all sorts of adventures ranging from a mob of believers to a volcanic eruption.

This was an entertaining story. Written as a contemporary romantic suspense title in 1975, it has aged into a nice historical romantic suspense story. show less

I enjoyed this book much more than I did my mother's copy, which was the paperback with Ariadne "Sandy" Frederick standing in the water with the filmy skirts of her white dress billowing about her. That's because this time I knew that this book should have come out under Ms. Mertz's other pen name of "Elizabeth Peters". On the whole, the supernatural element tends to be stronger in the books published under her "Barbara Michaels" pen name. Keep that in mind and you're not likely to be disapointed, as I was before. Do look up the Herakleion (also spelled "Heraklion") Archeological Museum online to see images of the items Sandy saw. They're well worth the time.

Sandy Frederick’s father is a scatterbrained archeologist and someone she’s never actually met in person. Until he shows up on her door step at the end of her senior year of college and offers her a chance to work for him as a diver on the Greek isle of Thera. She needs the job and the money so she accepts, but when she steps foot onto Thera she can’t shake the feeling she’s been there before and the feeling that she’s meant to be there now. Soon her stay begins to unearth some old legends from a long dead past and to stir up some unpleasant memories from her father's past as well.

Again, I liked the setting of this book, but I didn’t really feel the mystery. I also wasn’t too keen on the hero of the story. I can’t even show more remember his name any more, but he was kind of blah. The father was interesting, but I could see where the relationship between him and Sandy was going and predicted how the climax would conclude. This is a good one for die hard Michael’s fans, but I’d stay away from it otherwise. show less

Maybe I liked this as I read just prior to my own trip to Greece or maybe because I have a soft spot for Archaeology, but I found this to be a darn good read.

Sandy has a normal life. She was a mid-grade student through school. The only unusual things that have happened to her are discovering a sunken Spanish galleon and occasionally receiving packages from the absent minded archaeologist father she’s never met. Unfortunately, finding a sunken ship does not make one rich. Which is why, when Sandy’s father shows up in her dorm and offers her a job for the summer she finds it difficult to refuse. Then he tells her that the job consists of conducting illegal underwater archaeological excavations in Thera off the coast of Crete. When she arrives it turns out that things are stranger than she had supposed. Sandy’s real name is Ariadne, named for the Minoan princess from Mythology. When she show more sets foot in the palace at Knossos she suddenly remembers parts of Ariadne’s life. Then there are the events that happened around Crete during World War II. The German occupation and the Cretan resistance left scars on the people and the island. Thera is alive with memories of the past; both ancient and recent. And some memories can be deadly. show less

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