Customer Reviews

Daughter of the Sun

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This one made it to my "top 5" list of Barbara Wood books along with "Virgins of Paradise", "The Dreaming", "Green City in the Sun" and "Perfect Harmony". After young Hoshi'tiwa is taken away from the comfort of her home and family, she steps into a world so unlike her own - different ways of life, gods, social structures, etc. In the backdrop of majestic American Southwest, we witness naive and homesick Hoshi'tiwa turning into a courageous, intelligent leader. Along the way, she experiences love, loss, betrayal, loneliness and all other human emotions. I enjoyed getting a glimpse of beautiful pottery making, spirituality and worship rituals of the ancient American Southwest, not to mention the poignant romance between the main characters. I recommend "Daughter of the Sun" to any reader who would appreciate good romance or historical/anthropological fictions.

One of the most mysterious spots on the American continent are the ruins to be found at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Massive ruins of multistoried buildings, and round underground chambers called kivas dot the landscape, and the visitor can't help but wonder about the people who lived here.

Barbara Wood attempts to take on the riddle of why the sites of Chaco Canyon were abandoned so suddenly, and crafts a novel about the turmoil and times of great change among early native Ameican peoples. The story revolves around Hoshi'tiwa, a young girl of the People of the Sun, who has learned how to craft pottery and jars that seem to have the power to bring rain -- a valuable gift in a land that is starved for water. When gossip spreads, Hoshi'tiwa finds herself forcibly separated from her family and taken to the Center Place, where the Toltec overlords rule over the People of the Sun, and she finds herself the center of plots and threats of death.

The leaders of the Center Place, under the rule of the handsome Lord Jakal, range from Moquihix, who advises and oversees the running of the Center Place, his son Xikli leader of the Jaguar troops, Tenoch the hero and his daughter White Orchid, and the more humble peoples -- all of them want to see Hoshi'tiwa dead, but not before she brings the rain back.

How Hoshi'tiwa manages to survive despite all of the threats, and people plotting against her is the main plot of the story. Throughout it all, she remains true to her people and the strict code of honor that she was raised with. The rites and practices of the Toltec overlords are horrible to her, with violent human sacrifice and the eating of man-corn -- cannibalism. And many of the People of the Sun who have lived in Center Place have become just as greedy and callous as the Toltecs.

And it was this that made the story fall apart for me. Now I don't know huge amounts about this particular time of history, but on a gut level it certainly felt wrong. Not only are there the different cosmological systems to keep straight, the Toltecs are universally seen as nasty, decadent, and evil, while the People of the Sun are all gentle and nature-loving without any violence to them. Hoshi'tiwa takes on the characteristics of the archtypical 'Mary-Sue' heroine, who endures terrible hardship without a whimper, never makes a mistep, and saves the people in miraculous ways only to suffer great tragedy at the end of the story -- you may have guessed by now that I really don't like this sort of character much.

It's a thick stew of a novel, with the leftover feeling that the author took everything she knew about the peoples of the American Southwest and MesoAmerica, and decided to use everything at once. The Toltecs act like Mayans and Aztecs in their customs and language and names. There are coy words for turquoise -- sky-stone, people's names are either exotic such as Xikli, or overly cute such as Yellow Feather and White Orchid. After about fifty pages, I was starting to get irritated with it all, and it was a real chore to get through the rest of the novel.

Which is a pity. Chaco Canyon is one of the most amazing archaeological sites in America, and Wood does use a lot of the recent discoveries and theories to build her exotic civilization. While the riddle of why it was abandoned, and those who built the complex vanished so quickly is still unknown, this particular retelling just rubbed me wrong.

Wood, however, does help the reader with an extensive afterword. She talks about her decision to write about the Anasazi, Chaco Canyon, and the various use of what has survived. There is also an excellent bibliography and a reader's circle guide for book groups to use.

Giving this story a rating is tough. I like the unusual setting, but the overall feel of the tale left much to be desired for me. I didn't really connect with the main characters at all, and while the writing is very evocative and descriptive, there's just something about this that left me feeling unsettled.

Three stars overall. I wish I could give more.

Somewhat recommended.

Having enjoyed Barbara Wood's The Blessing Stone, I could not resist picking this book up when I saw it at my local library. I finished it within the day, it was very involving indeed.

The story is set during the Anasazi period in history and centers around a gifted young girl, Hoshi'tiwa, who belongs to the Tortoise Clan, and has humble origins. All she wishes to do is to marry her betrothed, Ahote, and cook suppers for him. Unfortunately, fate decrees a more complex destiny for her -she is chosen by the Dark Lord Jakal, leader of the Toltec people at Center Place and taken away to his court to bring rain [as prophesied by the priests].

At first, Hoshi'tiwa reviles the Dark Lord, but soon finds redeeming qualities within him, a complex man with many facets to his character, and the attraction is mutual, though begrudged. Jakal fights his attraction to the humble corn grower's daughter who is not as sophisticated as the ladies in his court, the beautifully adorned Toltec women, one of whom, White Orchid, will stop at nothing to get the man she desires. Hoshi'tiwa on the other hand, is not a great beauty, but her gift with clay, and her ability to touch Jakal's soul draws them both together, despite the fact that they are forbidden to be together.

This is a sumptuously told tale of history and romance, both interwoven with consummate skill and grips the reader from start to finish. The characters are well-crafted and developed, and we come to really care about some of them. All in all, this is an involving piece of historical romance that will surely enthrall fans of the genre.

Daughter of the Sun is the first book I've read by author Barbara Wood. It is a fabulous book, and I can't say enough about it. It is a real page turner, and I found it difficult to put down until I had devoured the entire thing. The book is incredibly well researched and well written. It holds your interest and makes you really care about the characters involved. If there is one author I would like to write as well as, it is Barbara Wood. The setting alone sparks the reader's interest, and there are many hooks along the way. I just cannot say enough about Daughter of the Sun. It is an outstanding read, and I highly recommend it to all readers, old and new alike. I am now a fan of Barbara's for life.

This was a great book. It kept me interested from the very first paragraph. This book is very empowering, passionate and ultimately sad.

I loved this book. I enjoyed this book from the first page to the last. Barbara Wood is an amazaing detailed writer. I loved her style.

I've always been interested in our American ancient history and this book is full of it. I'm aware of the Chaco Canyon "Center Place" phenomenon and I enjoyed this one interpretation of how it might have functioned. The love story and prophesies were interesting in a hard-to-put-down story. Bravo!

Plot Summary: In 1150 A.D., two ancient civilizations share what is now the Southwestern United States. The Sun People form small, peaceful, agricultural communities that grow corn and worship the earth spirits. The Toltecs are a warrior race who come from the South, and their practice of human sacrifice and cannibalism keep all the neighboring communities in fear. The Dark Lord who rules Central Place hears of a young farmer's daughter who can make it rain, and he takes her back to his parched city. While the people thirst for water, Hoshi'tiwa is repulsed and drawn to the ruler of the Toltecs, but ultimately she falls in love with the idea of helping her enslaved people, no matter the cost.

I knew full well what I was getting into after I read the jacket flap on this book, and I still picked it up anyway. It was the whole `forbidden love' quote that snared me like a sucker, and while it didn't deliver a happy ending (no surprise there), I was completely entertained by the ancient world brought to life here. This is a nice fictional interpretation of what might have happened to the Native Americans who lived in Chaco Canyon (New Mexico), since no one really knows the whole truth, aside from the fact that there was a great drought that lasted for 300 years.

The story focuses on a common teenage girl who is a gifted potter. Her people believed that beautiful rain jars coaxed the cloud spirits to fill them up with water, so the art of pottery held a sacred place within their society. Unfortunately for Hoshi'tiwa, her father brags about her abilities, and a Dark Lord from the south drags her back to his bone dry city for some spiritual help. Fortunately, her virginity is key to keeping her pots pure, so Hoshi'tiwa doesn't face the brutal kind of assault one might expect, but her existence is still desperate. If her pots don't produce rain, the blood-thirsty Toltecs are only too happy to pull her still-beating heart from her chest in a ritual sacrifice to appease the angry gods.

I wasn't disappointed that the `forbidden love' went up in smoke, since it's easy to see that Hoshi'tiwa's attraction to the Dark Lord will only end in misery. Their affair was the catalyst for a whole host of problems, but it never dominated the history. This book felt like a combination between The Fall of the Roman Empire (just substitute Toltecs and Sun People), and Joan of Arc (Hoshi'tiwa turns into quite the little crusader). I would never recommend reading this for the romance, but it was a thorough treatment of a seldom seen time and place in history.

This novel quite took me by surprise not because I thought it would be bad, but because I wasn't expecting the character development and the story to be as riveting as it was. Whether it was historically accurate I can't say and most historians probably couldn't seeing at the Toltec civilization simply disappeared about a thousand years ago, but the author weaves the daily lives of these people with the rituals that seemed to dominate their lives. It seemed like a cross between Clan of the Cave Bear meets Apocalypse, but it was so much more then that because you get to know your characters so intimately and empathize with even the worst of them. Also, it was really nice that the author kept the action building and the surprises coming all the time. I really, REALLY recommend this to history buffs and bookworms alike as this was a simply elegant read that I quite enjoyed.

I've read nearly all of Barbara Wood's books, and I am constantly amazed at the stories she tells and how she does it. I keep asking her how, but she won't tell me (smile). Actually, if I could write as well as she does, I don't think I'd give the secret away, either. Her latest novel, "Daughter Of The Sun", kept me enthralled from start to finish. Even more so, it had me involved. In the story and with the characters. If you are already one of Barbara's readers, the book's excellence won't surprise you. If you're not familiar with her work, you'll want to be, after reading "Daughter Of The Sun". It is easily one of her very best.