Rating: 
Summary: An imaginative look at an ancient court
Review: Authors tread on dangerous territory when they retell stories from the Bible, because some readers do not want to consider alternatives to the Biblical accounts. However, I value the chance to experience the ancient world from a different imaginary point of view, in this case, through the eyes of David's queen Michal. I suspect that Edghill's description of Michal's situation is likely to be close to the truth: in ancient times, women were often forced to marry for economic or political or family reasons. Women's lives were often limited to the world of other women in the household, and for a variety of reasons (including Biblical sources) I think it is plausible to imagine that kings and warriors in the ancient world were not typically sensitive-new-age-guys or gentle, considerate husbands.
I liked this novel better than "The Red Tent"; Edghill's characters had greater depth and complexity.
Readers who are firmly wedded to an idea of David as a gentle hero will not like the way David is depicted in this book. However, I felt that the (sad and difficult) marriage described in this novel was a realistic possibility for the period, and Edghill's descriptions made me feel as if I were an eavesdropper in the courtyards, with an inside view of a world very different from our own. I am eagerly looking forward to reading her second novel (Wisdom's Daughter)!
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointingly inaccurate
Review: For those of you who may be tempted to believe that you are reading a historically accurate re-telling of the life of a much beloved biblical figure - beware! King David is reduced to a selfish, greedy villain in this travesty of unfounded outright lies and the little known Queen Michel is accredited with many of his good deeds (for instance: she is reported to have been the inspiration for Solomon's temple).
India Edgehill may have a flair for putting lovely lyrical sentences together but the context is offensive to those of us who love our Old Testament characters well. This book should not be compared to "The Red Tent" which treated its characters with the love and respect due them.
Some of the gross inaccuracies:
David and Bathsheba's first child died and was not saved by Michal. Solomon was Bathsheba's second child of their union. So much for David disgarding her after his "use" of her as India paints in the book. Aparently they enjoyed continued relations enough to have another child.
Abner never traded his alliances to serve David.
Amnon raped Tamar and refused to ask for her hand. Shame on you India - Tamar was a real person and you have defiled her all over again.
I could go on and on but space will not allow it.
My suggestion is that, in the future, this author weave her craft around her own invented fictional characters where she will do no harm to the memory of real people.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Impulse Buy Ever!
Review: I had never heard of this book till several of my friends recommended it to me. I wasn't going to buy it either till I got a second copy of another book, so I went to the bookstore and The Queenmaker was just in front of my eyes ~~ the best impulse buy I ever had done!This book is about David's first wife, Michal, the daughter of Saul whom David bested and became the second king of Israel. Little is known about Michal in the contemporary world. However Edghill brings out all of her qualities and made her a living being full of blood and passion. And what a wonderful story she has woven among the verses of scriptures. Don't get me wrong, this is NOT a biography, it's a wonderful written novel of fiction ~~ of what might have been. And it's so fast-paced too ~~ I couldn't put the book down and hated to go to work! It seems to interfere with my reading time! I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes to read about the women of the Bible. I found it fascinating and witty and fun ~~ Edghill makes history breathe again. I am anxiously awaiting her next book! 1-17-02
Rating: 
Summary: A Review of "Queenmaker" by India Edghill
Review: I have finished a little over half of the book and see little to recommend it. After having read "The Red Tent", I am sorely disappointed in this book.
I usually enjoy Biblical and historical novels, and I can tolerate even bold variations from a well known story. However, Edghill has taken a complex figure like David (with his faults and shining qualities) and turned him into a cruel, manipulative tyrant. Michal is no better, and becomes the shrill, spiteful "twin" of Abigail. Both figures are quite unidimensional.
Edghill seems to have an ax to grind with her portrayals of the characters. I can only guess at what that might be. Her theme seems to be at once anti-religous, anti-male and anti-war. I don't really need to have such "political correctness" in my fictional reading material.
I will say that her writing is pretty good. I will probably finish the book, since I want to see if it gets any better. Hence, I have given it two stars.
However, there are at least two stories I can name off hand which also take great liberties with the Biblical narrative and yet are quite enjoyable (even though one of them is fairly "religiously correct"). One is a children's story which retells the story of David and Bathsheva (Veggie Tales' "King George and the Duckie"). The other is an old novel about King Saul's concubine, Rizpah, which weaves a story based on a brief reference in the Bible. I would recommend either of them before this book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent historical fiction
Review: I have the suspicion that King David was much like how India Edghill portrays him in "Queenmaker," which is the untold story of Michal, David's first wife and head of his household. That is, David was a kind and generous man, full of life and love and interest, until he started believing his own hype. There are hints of this in the Bible in my opinion; the fact that he nearly was unseated (refused to see that his son Absalom could and would try to take his throne, for example) was a wake-up call, causing him to rule more wisely afterward. In the Bible, King David rallied behind Joab, and the rest of his family supported him, including Solomon, who was eventually named as his heir. However, there always seemed to be a bit left out of the story; Ms. Edghill supplies some badly needed contextual references to perhaps explain what was really going on. I think that showing David as a flawed human who was capable of much cruelty, in addition to much love, makes sense. Because really, if David had loved Michal, he would have left her alone -- or, conversely, he'd have gone after her immediately, and not allowed his wife to be married off to Phaltiel in the first place. And people who are capable of great love often _are_ capable of the exact opposite, even toward their own family members. People with great gifts have to be careful not to become hubristic; I have always thought this a "hidden subtext" of most of the later verses that dealt with King David, and I feel Ms. Edghill using it in her novel was appropriate. And Ms. Edghill is also right to point out that David didn't even bother to go after Michal until long after Phaltiel and Michal had formed a real partnership, and after her brother Jonathan had died (David was particularly close to him in his youth). Then, David's generals called Michal to him again. After ten years of nothing, David wanted her back, partly because of politics, and partly because it helped to cement his rule. I'm absolutely sure that David wasn't thinking much of Michal's happiness at that point; why would he? More to the point, why _should_ he, as he knew what he needed to do, he knew what God had told him to do, and he knew what he must do? So he did it, but it hurt her, and I don't think he cared overmuch. The fact that she made much of her life, formed alliances with others such as Bathsheba, and became powerful after being ignored for ten years was a credit to her intelligence and her strength of character -- and it's a story worth telling. At any rate, the other wives David had married in the interim didn't appreciate Michal coming in, nor her being put over all of them due to hers being the initial marriage. Plus, Michal isn't pleased, either; she'd grown to love Phaltiel and his son, and wanted to continue on as a farmwife. But David wouldn't let her do that; he insisted she stay with him, and although Michal wanted to go to Phaltiel, she wasn't allowed. Phaltiel was killed; Michal always wondered if David had done it, and was convinced that he had. Plus, when Michal married David, she was only thirteen or fourteen, and the first -- and only -- wife. When David reclaimed her, she now was first of many, and she didn't like it. Who could blame her? There was also some inkling in this novel that David might have been one of the types of men, like Elvis Presley, that wasn't interested in a woman as a woman once she'd given him heirs. Granted, there's absolutely no way to know if this was true or not, but it's a good supposition by Ms. Edghill -- otherwise, why didn't David put Michal aside? No matter how beautiful Michal was, no matter how smart she was, shouldn't he have put her aside once political expedience had been satisfied? Or were the people that upset at the thought of David putting Michal aside? I can't really believe that, so I tend to believe that Ms. Edghill's premise is the more realistic. In addition, David had not much love for Solomon; this is easily seen if you read the Bible between the lines. Yet Solomon was named over David's other heirs at the last minute, on his deathbed. I think Ms. Edghill might be on to something; Michal and Bathsheba and many others knew that they wanted nothing else to happen like what had nearly happened with Absalom; they wanted their kingdom to be safe and secure, ruled wisely, and for them to live out the remains of their lives in peace. If the truth is as Ms. Edghill paints, I'm glad that Michal was there. Because there is a ring of truth in all of it, something that convinces me on the emotional level, that this might well be the truth. And if David was senile, or had some terrible disease, and wasn't able to make decisions at the end of his life, so what? That doesn't make what he did earlier in his life, the things worthy of praise, invalid. It makes him more human, and puts his good deeds in stark relief. I applaud Ms. Edghill for this interesting historical tale, and hope she'll write more historical fiction soon, as she does so with great flair. Five stars. Highly recommended. Barb Caffrey
Rating:
Summary: Excellent historical fiction
Review: I have the suspicion that King David was much like how India Edghill portrays him in "Queenmaker," which is the untold story of Michal, David's first wife and head of his household. That is, David was a kind and generous man, full of life and love and interest, until he started believing his own hype. There are hints of this in the Bible in my opinion; the fact that he nearly was unseated (refused to see that his son Absalom could and would try to take his throne, for example) was a wake-up call, causing him to rule more wisely afterward. In the Bible, King David rallied behind Joab, and the rest of his family supported him, including Solomon, who was eventually named as his heir. However, there always seemed to be a bit left out of the story; Ms. Edghill supplies some badly needed contextual references to perhaps explain what was really going on. I think that showing David as a flawed human who was capable of much cruelty, in addition to much love, makes sense. Because really, if David had loved Michal, he would have left her alone -- or, conversely, he'd have gone after her immediately, and not allowed his wife to be married off to Phaltiel in the first place. And people who are capable of great love often _are_ capable of the exact opposite, even toward their own family members. People with great gifts have to be careful not to become hubristic; I have always thought this a "hidden subtext" of most of the later verses that dealt with King David, and I feel Ms. Edghill using it in her novel was appropriate. And Ms. Edghill is also right to point out that David didn't even bother to go after Michal until long after Phaltiel and Michal had formed a real partnership, and after her brother Jonathan had died (David was particularly close to him in his youth). Then, David's generals called Michal to him again. After ten years of nothing, David wanted her back, partly because of politics, and partly because it helped to cement his rule. I'm absolutely sure that David wasn't thinking much of Michal's happiness at that point; why would he? More to the point, why _should_ he, as he knew what he needed to do, he knew what God had told him to do, and he knew what he must do? So he did it, but it hurt her, and I don't think he cared overmuch. The fact that she made much of her life, formed alliances with others such as Bathsheba, and became powerful after being ignored for ten years was a credit to her intelligence and her strength of character -- and it's a story worth telling. At any rate, the other wives David had married in the interim didn't appreciate Michal coming in, nor her being put over all of them due to hers being the initial marriage. Plus, Michal isn't pleased, either; she'd grown to love Phaltiel and his son, and wanted to continue on as a farmwife. But David wouldn't let her do that; he insisted she stay with him, and although Michal wanted to go to Phaltiel, she wasn't allowed. Phaltiel was killed; Michal always wondered if David had done it, and was convinced that he had. Plus, when Michal married David, she was only thirteen or fourteen, and the first -- and only -- wife. When David reclaimed her, she now was first of many, and she didn't like it. Who could blame her? There was also some inkling in this novel that David might have been one of the types of men, like Elvis Presley, that wasn't interested in a woman as a woman once she'd given him heirs. Granted, there's absolutely no way to know if this was true or not, but it's a good supposition by Ms. Edghill -- otherwise, why didn't David put Michal aside? No matter how beautiful Michal was, no matter how smart she was, shouldn't he have put her aside once political expedience had been satisfied? Or were the people that upset at the thought of David putting Michal aside? I can't really believe that, so I tend to believe that Ms. Edghill's premise is the more realistic. In addition, David had not much love for Solomon; this is easily seen if you read the Bible between the lines. Yet Solomon was named over David's other heirs at the last minute, on his deathbed. I think Ms. Edghill might be on to something; Michal and Bathsheba and many others knew that they wanted nothing else to happen like what had nearly happened with Absalom; they wanted their kingdom to be safe and secure, ruled wisely, and for them to live out the remains of their lives in peace. If the truth is as Ms. Edghill paints, I'm glad that Michal was there. Because there is a ring of truth in all of it, something that convinces me on the emotional level, that this might well be the truth. And if David was senile, or had some terrible disease, and wasn't able to make decisions at the end of his life, so what? That doesn't make what he did earlier in his life, the things worthy of praise, invalid. It makes him more human, and puts his good deeds in stark relief. I applaud Ms. Edghill for this interesting historical tale, and hope she'll write more historical fiction soon, as she does so with great flair. Five stars. Highly recommended. Barb Caffrey
Rating: 
Summary: Typos! Typos! Typos!
Review: I thought this was an excellent easy read. Regardless of the accuracy of the story, it is a NOVEL. But the typos... Oh my!!! Sometimes coming two to the page. I have noticed this in many of the books being written today. The editors are not doing thier jobs and must be relying entirely on spell check.
Rating:
Summary: Long Live the Queen :)
Review: I was totally engrossed in the lives of Queen Michal, King Solomom, King David, Bathsheba, and all the rest of the "court". Like all the other reviewers I found that I could not put this book away, the characters kept calling me back. Queen Michal's voice resonated in my mind and my heart. I found this to be a fascinating story of Biblical proportions and I am also eagerly awaiting another from Ms. Edghill. Everything was here, love, hate, romance, intrigue, written so well the pages practically turned themsevles. If you liked The Red Tent, this is a must read. Even if you don't normally like biblical fiction, this is a story for all genres. Enjoy,
Debbi
Rating:
Summary: The Queenmaker
Review: I was very disappointed in this novel. I was expecting something to the effect of The Red Tent (which I thought was great), since it was compared to it on the inside cover. My expectations were too high. I struggled to finish this book. I found myself thinking out loud "what was this writer thinking?" I totally understand that we all have our interpretations of Bible characters, but there was nothing to remotely associate these characters to history except that you "knew" they were Biblical characters. There is something left to be desired when a reader enjoys the secondary characters more the main ones. I would not recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not sure
Review: if it is accurate and that is a shame since I am a pastor's daughter. However, I do have to admit it was entertaining to think of them as real people. King David ended up becoming a character I didn't think was ok but I did enjoy this book overall. I do agree the typo's were outrageous and I have emailed the company twice about them!
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