Customer Reviews

The Sea King's Daughter

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

 

 

An accomplished diver who lives happily with her mother and stepfather in Florida, Sandy is startled by the appearance of her biological father. Frederick is a crack-pot archaeologist who having lost his professional footing with colleagues due to his Atlantis theories wishes to discover the 20th century equivalent to Schliemann's Troy. He convinces Sandy to lie to her parents, meet him on the Greek Isle of Thera and dive in the treacherous expanse of sea that houses a live volcano. For Sandy this beomes an experience of polarizing emotions---while the Minoan traces on the island speak to Sandy in a way she does not quite understand, the precarious position of Thera, between two tectonic plates, keeps her permanently unbalanced as does the flirtatious relationship that develops between her with Jim, a young archaelogist working for the competition and the father-daughter tie she feels despite the seemingly insensitive actions of her father.
Intermingled with the usual Barbara Michael's mix of historical data and romance, is the coincidental reunion of Frederick, Sir Christopher (another archaeologist), a mysterious woman with an equally mysterious name---Kore, and an ex German officer who shot Frederick and Sir Christopher's companion on Crete during the German occupation in WWII.
Although the modern sensibilites alloyed to the island's ancient past makes for a climate fraught with electricity, I felt that Sandy's overtly feminist opinions adversely dated what could have been a more timeless narrative. Instead of everywoman, Sandy epitomizes the 70s working woman, quick with a retort that ensures an immediate knee-jerk defense reaction.
Otherwise the novel was a good read about an interesting subject.

I am amazed. Michaels' has proven that a little research can go a long way. This novel was really very good. The plot weaves together like a well-designed tapestry of mystery and intrigue. This one hooked me so well, I have a new passion for underwater archaeology."

I have been a fan of this author's Elizabeth Peters books for a long time, but this is the first of her Barbara Michaels books that I've read. It is just as exciting and suspenseful as her Peters books. I especially loved the Greek archaeological background.

Disclaimer: I hate giving this book a bad rating, but I find it necessary to do so.

I read this book back in high school, and really enjoyed the story. The characters are memorable, the story is excellent, and Barbara Michaels is an excellent author. Since I enjoyed it so much back then, I decided to purchase it for my Kindle.

Bad idea. Whoever turned it to Kindle format did a very lousy job of it. Lack of punctuation, missing words... It makes for annoying run-on and/or nonsensical sentences that distracted me during my re-read. It tainted the overall experience and annoyed me to no end! I seriously regret buying it for Kindle, but highly recommend buying it in paper format!

As always Barbara Michaels delivers. She has such a vast knowledge of archeology and the histories behind things that you really feel as though someone is standing there explaining the facts just to you. She even knows the questions you yourself would be asking. She is thoroughly entertaining, and makes you want to go on the adventures with her characters.

Sandy is "Everywoman". This mix of the ancient and the future is what we all experience on a day-to-day basis even in our unconnected US. I over-identify with her father-in-absentia, as do many American women, who have heard about their fathers, but never met them in person. And then meet them and have to deal with their strange humanness. Love the book--Reread it over and over and still find new surprises. Ache to see Thera. I have read every Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters book multiple times.

I love this author, and love this novel. I would ordinarily give this novel 4 1/2 stars (ok, 4.)

I am not sure how this book got put on kindle in such bad shape.

this is the WORST edited book I have seen yet on kindle. There is NO punctuation beyond periods and commas. There are no dashes where there should be dashes, and no semicolons...the sentences just run into each other.

It's really sad, because this is an excellent story, the author's work is top quality, and it's not being well represented here...we are paying full price for something that is so badly punctuated, at times one has to do a bit of deciphering to puzzle through the sentences.

This author writes seamlessly---it is merely the editing that makes reading this a chore.

SOMEONE PLEASE EDIT THIS!!!!

Not one of Barbara Michaels' best, but acceptable if it had not been completely ruined by the bad editing. For the price more sentences should have been completed!

I got this book because I am going on a Greek Island cruise. I give it marks for the history and mythology. Otherwise I was bored. I didn't really like any of the characters. There are 4 older adults and 2 young adults that are on this island. The 4 older folks had been there representing various perspectives during WWII. There was not enough foreshadowing to spark my interest as to why they all happened to be back together. The young woman kept having dreams and/or memories of a past life; take your pick. That sounds like it should be interesting, but it wasn't. Who-ever edited the Kindle addition was asleep at the switch, probably out of boredom. There are errors on nearly every page.

The story line could have been good but it moved too slowly throughout the entire book. None of the characters were very memorable and I wouldn't bother reading a continuation story of any of them. Michaels tried to put a twist in the end but it was much to late and not very successful.