Queenmaker

I really enjoyed this novel. When I first came across it, I thought the queen in question was Bathsheba as she was the mother of Solomon, but this was a nice surprise. The author really manages to nicely capture the flavor of this era, as well as bringing depth to the Biblical stories centering around David.

Things were really different back then, and some readers might see certain actions here as vicious, and I certainly wouldn't want to live in the ancient world, but as a history nerd, I can appreciate that we can't always judge things by our current social mores and standards. Reading this novel encouraged me to do research into what the Bible had to say about David and the important people in his life.

4.5/5 stars.

I enjoyed India Edghill’s Delilah very much so I figured I’ll pick up her novel “Queenmaker” as a follow-up.

The book is a first person narrative of Michal, King David’s first wife (out of several) and the one to hold the title of Queen. The book follows the biblical books of Samuel and II Samuel from Michal’s perspective; from her humble beginning as a daughter of Saul, a humble farmer, through his ascension to king, wars and madness. After marrying her father’s harper / war hero David she helps him escapes her father and for her help gets sold to another man until David’s army goes back to reclaim / steal her ten years later only to lock her up in his castle.

Even though Michal did not give King David an heir, being the show more daughter of King Saul she played an important part of legitimizing David’s claim to the throne. The author tells the tale while throwing in a dose of political intrigue, adultery, scandals, palace politics as well as sibling rivalry.

Ms. Edghill’s writing is interesting and she weaves quite a story while letting her imagination flow. The book is not difficult to read and quite appealing but I always felt as if something more interesting could have happened, but didn’t – as if the author is setting the reader up for a climax and then pulls back.

While I understand the need to take literary license with such stories I feel, as several other reviewers, that some of the finer but important points of the biblical story (such as David and Bathsheba’s first born dying) were missing and the author missed the mark on them since they were key points in the lesson of the tale.

Since this book is sold under the biblical-fiction and/or historical-fiction categories I would have liked to know more about the daily lives of the people who lived during that time instead of imagined palace life.

Also…there were typos which drive me nuts; I hope this was fixed in later editions.

Despite the inaccuracies I did enjoy reading the book even though it fell under the “chick-lit” category which, honestly, doesn’t speak to me. show less

This is a work of biblical historical fiction, and I bought it solely because the cover blurb said it was on the same level as The Red Tent, one of my favorite books of recent years. Unfortunately, it's not anywhere near as good as that book.

The story is a first-person account of Michal, daughter of King Saul and first wife of David. At heart, it's a story about the power of men and how they abuse that power, and how even repressed women can earn power in their own right. This involves a lot of talking. A lot. Michal is entirely removed from ongoing wars and conflicts, being secluded in the palace; there isn't even much court intrigue except for one other wife who gets snippy on occasion. It ends up being David or Bathsheba talking to show more Michal while she spins in the garden. That's pretty much it. The material is very interesting, but there was no suspense or conflict. Michal bides her time, waiting to pwn King David the Jerk. I pushed myself through the last half of the book just because I wanted to get it over with before I got too bored.

That said, I have the sequel to this (found it at a thrift store months ago) and I'm still going to give it a shot. Maybe part of the problem is that Queenmaker feels like a first novel. Like the author has some great ideas but is still honing her craft. Therefore, I'll give her one more chance and hope it's a better book. Or maybe I'm just masochistic. [The sequel is awesome - much, much better than Queenmaker.] show less

A quick read, the book pulls one of the many invisible women of the Old Testament into the spot light. Focusing on Michal as she learns to live with David and, later, to manipulate him, the book draws on sparse references to tell a story that shows David as a narcissist.

I really enjoyed this historical fiction about King David's first wife, Michal, daughter of King Saul. In this story, told in first person by Michal, she is a good friend to friend to David's mistress Bathsheba, the mother of the next king, Solomon. Having no children of her own, Michal takes a liking to Solomon and helps maneuver him into the kingship. I'm no biblical scholar, so I could enjoy this story entirely on its own merits - and I did. I'd like to read other novels by India Edghill based on Old Testament women.

When I first started this book, I partially expected this novel to take a Harlequin romance detour. I was, however, pleasantly surprised when I was engulfed by this fascinating biblical era when Kings began to rule in Israel. Told through the words of King David's first wife and Queen, it is a fascinating tale of Kings (David, Saul and Solomon), prophets and the women behind them. Once I picked it up, I find it hard to put down and I finished it within a 2 days!

There style of this book is similar to THE RED TENT (I believe Anita Diamante was Ms. Edghill's first agent.) Even though I liked THE RED TENT better, I still enjoyed this one and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Anita Diamante's novel.

Michal, wise queen

I love historical fiction, especially from Ancient Israel. Michal , Bathsheba and King David seem so human. The bible story comes to life in this well written book.