Queenmaker: A Novel of King David's Queen

Fiction-Why call a rose by any other word?

I have always been fascinated by Michal, King David's first queen. Admitting that, I was really looking forward to reading an entire book about her, also. However, disappoinment poisoned my original optimism. Obviously, Ms. Edgehill has read enough of the Biblical account to know the real story. Unfortunately, the more one reads, the more she changes the original story. Michal becomes a cynical pesimist, David becomes a sex-addict, and the prophets of God become gold-diggers.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Historical FICTION at its best!

I enjoyed this book a lot, as I've enjoyed the sequal, Wisdom's Daughter. It's important to remember this is a historical fiction novel, not a historical factual novel. I'd definitely recommend this book to others!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Really enjoyed this book on King David and Queen Michal.

Really enjoyed this book on King David and Queen Michal.

Not the David You Thought You Knew

I really enjoyed this fictional interpretation of the Old Testament story of King David's first wife Michal. In this novel, Michal does not think highly of David, and he certainly does not come across as admirable. Instead this legendary and highly effective king is portrayed as Machiavellian, manipulative, and cruelly pragmatic. He is careless of the love of those around him; Michal in particular loathes him as he uses his power over her to control her destiny and force her to make tragic choices. All this while presenting himself as the soul of kindness and (at least in public) as totally solicitous of her well-being. But what goes around comes around....as the reader who finishes this well-told story will see.
I'm sorry if some readers are offended because this story doesn't follow the facts in the Bible. I read the Bible and am familiar with the Old Testament story of David, but I didn't expect the novelist to adhere to every detail - in fact, there wouldn't have been much to write since Michal is mentioned so few times. So, sure, Ms. Edghill took plenty of liberties, which she is free as an author to do. That is why a made-up story, even based on fact, is called FICTION.

A great find.

I bough this book four years ago, drawn by the cover, then by the synopsis. It was better then I thought, and made the Bible derived elements more humanistic, especially David. Michal survives her father's machinations, David's fickleness, and shows the real strength of a woman.

Great historical book

This was a great book about a little known character in the old testament.

Incredible!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I read it in four days. It truly shows the humanity of us all, and is definitely an interesting side of the story of Michal.

A Magical Novel

The Queenmaker was one a the toughest books to put down! Definitely one of my all time favorite books! Reading this magical story took me to an amazing ancient world. It was written beautifully! It captivated my interest from the beginning to the end! Hope to see her upcoming books soon!

Fairly Disappointing

I am currently playing Michal in a local production, and bought this book to help me flesh her out a bit. There's not a great deal of information about her in the Bible, and I knew that the author naturally would have to take some dramatic license. What I didn't expect was that she would ignore nearly all the facts that are written. These are just a few that come to mind: 1. David's escape more than likely did not take place on their wedding night. It is speculated that they were together for about 2-3 years before Michal helped him escape. 2. When Nathan confronts David about having Uriah the Hittite killed, David confesses, and makes no excuses (2 Samuel 12:13). He doesn't act arrogant and try to justify his actions. 3. Nathan prophesied that Bathsheba's firstborn by David would die, and he did (2 Samuel 12:18). Solomon was born later. 4. Amnon raped Tamar, then threw her away. They were not in love (2 Samuel 13:14-18). Absolom hated Amnon because he had raped Tamar (2 Samuel 13:22, 28-29), not because he desired the throne. Like I said, I certainly expected the author to fill in the blanks, but I also expected her to get the facts right rather than change history to fit her view. David was far from perfect, but he also described as a 'man after God's own heart'. Yes, he was probably arrogant, but I have a terribly hard time believing him to be the evil being that the author portrays him to be. The only good thing I can say about this novel is that the author's style is pleasant, and her descriptions certainly do bring the environment to life, but it was difficult for me to finish this book given that the facts were so distorted. I was surprised that all the other reader reviews were so good. Maybe they've never opened a Bible?

Fabulous!

I didn't want this book to end. Reminds us of how faulted our biblical characters were. Brings history to life.

I couldn't put it down!

I am a big fan of historical fiction. I happened to pick this book up even though the subject matter did not interest me all that much. It was extremely well written! I could not put it down. I cannot wait for the next book by India Edghill. I am only disappointed that I read it so quickly and have to leave the lovely world she transported me to behind!

Excellent

Whether or not this book follows the story as told in the bible is irrelevant. This is an excellent story.

A PLEASANT READ....

Ofcourse we all know the famous biblical story of David the hero who killed Goliath.This novel is told by David's queen Michal where she reveals the other side of him that we have never seen before.A clever man who did everything in his power to become a king,who betrayed his best friend and win the hearts of his people.David marries King Saul's daughter (Michal) for one night but runs away when he was told by his best friend Jonathan (Michal's brother) that the King plans to kill him.King Saul forces Michal to marry a farmer in which she lives with him for 10 years.When David becomes King,he then forces Michal to leave her husband and be his queen again,here her story begins. This is truly an amazing historical novel,well written which makes it hard to believe it is fiction.I also recommend The Red Tent by Anita Diamant.

India Edghill has a new fan in me!

This novel is based on the biblical character of King David and his first wife, Queen Michal. It begins when Saul is name King and ends at David¿s death. However, this fictional story is from Queen Michal¿s view.

Seeing Saul, David, Bathsheba, young Solomon, and all the other people and events from her eyes makes the reader wonder. After all, every tale has different sides. Read, hear, and understand Michal¿s!

***** An amazing story! I kept telling myself over and over, ¿This is fiction.¿ I slowed down as I reached the middle of the book because I dreaded to have it end! Author, India Edghill, is (by far) one of the most incredible writers alive today! *****

Reinterpreting King David

Here is an historical novel with a difference, a reimagining of an old story and its hero -- a king we knew from Sunday School, winner of a thousand battles, founder of an empire and a dynasty, beloved hero of his people and of his deity -- King David of 'David and Goliath' fame, as seen through eyes which the old biblical text tried mightily to conceal. In truth, though the David we have from the bible is the fair-haired child of the people of ancient Israel and their Lord, a careful reading of that tale reveals a very different man: a man who cleverly turns every situation to his advantage, who consistently says one thing but does another, who plays both sides of every conflict and who collects women as he does kingdoms. That we idolize this man today is a testimony to the spin his biblical handlers put on his tale. And to the fact that we will forgive certain folks almost anything.

India Edghill has given us this other David, the one who lurks just below the surface of the old tale for those of us willing to scrape away the heroic gloss and read the tale for what it is. Edghill's is the story of David as seen through the eyes of Michal, the woman he made queen of his kingdom, much against her will, the daughter of his predecessor King Saul, whom David hounded from his kingdom by shrewdness and trickery and then had the tale turned on its head so posterity would remember David himself as the aggrieved party. It's not a religiously correct interpretation by any means but one can argue that it's what the real story has to tell us, if we're open-minded enough to read between the lines. It's the story of David the soldier who betrayed his king and best friend, who dickered with and served their enemies, who took Michal against her will and installed her in his palace as a symbol of his right to rule from a usurped throne, who killed most of the surviving male members of her family and took one, a hopeless cripple, to live a prisoner at his court. A man who carefully ensured that he would always appear 'politically correct' despite the fact that his followers and servants wreaked bloody vengeance on the very folk he professed to love. A man who kept his word when the appearance of that suited him but who found ways to get around every obstacle when he needed to do that. No, this is not the David we remember from bible class. But it is the David which the biblical tales preserve. And India Edghill has dug him out.

This is the tale of David as seen through Michal's eyes, the daughter of the usurped king, reluctant wife to a dazzling dissembler, watching as the great hero of his people turns every event to his advantage and claims divine support for each maneuver. The tale effectively evokes the 'feel' of biblical times and Ms. Edghill has a fine ear for dialogue. Her words ring true and yet rarely sound too modern or inconsistent with the language of the original material. I did, however, miss a certain sense of the larger world around them but this was the result, no doubt, of the female point of view Ms. Edghill adopted since Michal spends much of the story cooped up in one king's house or another, the lot of royal women in those days, I suppose.

And I was a trifle disappointed by the rather one-sided view of David which is offered. For all his clever self-interest, the fascination of the original biblical story lies in how human David seems to be, heroic yet manipulative, honorable yet not above self-interested violations of honor. The biblical tale certainly subsumes all the bad 'stuff' beneath the gloss of piety and good-heartedness so that, in this work, Ms. Edghill manages to offer us a welcome antidote to the received view, based on the actual events themselves. But I think she missed an opportunity to give us a more rounded picture of David the King. If he wasn't the fair-haired hero of purest spirit which the biblical writers preserved for us, I suspect he also wasn't the totally unpleasant and false charmer Ms

Intriguing historical fiction

After losing several battles with their enemies due to a lack of a unified leader, the people cry out for a king. Reluctantly, the Prophet Samuel anoints farmer Saul as the first king of Israel because he is the only successful warrior in the land. King Saul suffers from dark moods that only his Harper David can ease with music. When David kills Goliath, he becomes the people¿s hero. David marries Saul¿s daughter Michal, but the jealous King plans to kill him. David flees and Saul annuls the marriage. He forces Michal to wed a farmer, Phatiel. Over the next decade, Saul goes mad, while Michal is contented.

When Saul and most of his sons die in battle, David becomes the king. He takes Michal away from Phatiel, but she insists on going home. David refuses to let her go and Phatiel dies in a suspicious accident. Over the years the popular David expands his kingdom and marries several women, including Bathsheba.

Years later, an elderly David lies dying without naming a successor. Michal takes his regal ring and gives it to Bathsheba¿s son Solomon. Michal realizes she has won because David coveted wealth and power while she sought love.

QUEENMAKER is a well-written historical fiction that provides a different slant on King David one of the more popular biblical figures. David, as seen through the eyes of Michael, his reluctant wife and queen, is a man who covets power and wealth Readers who believe in a literal translation of the Bible need to realize that David is treated as a selfish, Machiavellian individual. Through an interesting twist that uses references from the Kings Saul-David eras, India Edghill writes a fabulous but controversial work of biblical historical fiction that will please some readers while insulting others.

Harriet Klausner

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