Wisdom's Daughter: A Novel of Solomon and Sheba

by India Edghill

Following Queenmaker, "her majestic debut" ( People ), India Edghill's Wisdom's Daughter is a vivid and assiduously researched rendition of the biblical tale of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. As the Queen's search for a true heir to her throne takes her to the court of the wisest man in the world, both she and the King learn how to value truth, love, and duty . . . and the king's daughter learns to be a forceful woman in a man's world.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Biblical Fiction, Historical, Biblical, Christian Fiction, Middle East

432 pages, Paperback

First published October 11, 2004

About the author

A reference librarian by profession, India Edghill's interest in history is long-standing; her father was a major history buff whose favorite authors were Will & Ariel Durant. India inherited his love of research and history. Her favorite areas are the Ancient Near East, Victorian England, and India at any period. India lives in upstate New York, USA, with a comfort of spaniels, a lounge of cats, and a plethora of books.

Reviews

[Beth Cato · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the sequel to my previous read, Queenmaker. That book showed tremendous promise but was hampered by the first-person viewpoint of a woman confined to a palace and removed from all action. It felt like one long dialog and very much like the author's first novel. Still, I owned the sequel already and I liked the premise, so I decided to give Wisdom's Daughter a chance. I'm so glad I did![return][return]This book was exquisite. It corrected the problems of the first book in a huge way - there were multiple characters to follow, each with a distinct view on the same events. There are several different settings, and in this volume they are fully realized. Most of all, it is enlightening, witty, and sparkling with chemistry. The book begins with Bilquis, the Queen of Sheba, journeying north to the land of the acclaimed Solomon the Wise to find a female heir for Sheba. The heir turns out to be Baalit, Solomon's own beloved daughter of his true love first wife. Bilquis and Solomon have incredible chemistry,and I don't mean in a sexual sort; they are two intelligent, lonely adults who have found their match. Baalit is a delightful main character, too, who feels confined by the male-dominant Hebrew society and obviously is looking back on her 14-year-old self and shaking her head at her youthful errors. Wisdom's Daughter even manages to build on the main character of the previous book, Queen Michal, and makes her feel more real and genuine, even though she is dead.[return][return]Another quirk I loved about this book - King Solomon's queens. As I recall from my Sunday School days, Solomon was maligned for taking brides from pagan lands and letting them continue their believes in Jerusalem, which was then blamed for the fall of the kingdom. That is all covered here, but it includes some of the perspectives of the queens themselves and shows them as sad, lonely figures. They are far from home, married against their will, and all they have to cling to of their home is the old gods - and for some, those are even exaggerated to provide them some comfort and refuge. It provides an enlightening, more feminist view of these women who are voiceless and blamed.[return][return]This is an excellent work of historical fiction, and I highly recommend it for those who would love to explore a mostly-ignored period of time. This isn't a romance, and it's definitely not Christian in focus. It's just plain good. It will be joining The Red Tent on my shelf.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love historical fiction. This one was a great read on the plane to visit family in Texas last summer. It was simple, yet touching. Never go into these things thinking they are 100% accurate, just enjoy the ride.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edghill really wanted to showcase the world of Solomon and Bilqis, and her choice to do so was to give us so, so, so many Point-Of-View characters, first and third person.

It is rather headache inducing to jump from one courtier to the next, one wife to the other, one child to another, relatives, in-laws, parents, advisors, enemies, allies, priests, prophets, etc.

There’s little time left to develop all these side characters, which begs the question why bring them up at all when the main characters are fascinating enough by themselves? The worst part is all the side characters are equally fascinating, but we only get a small taste of each, the most frustrating being given just the smallest glimpse into the lives of several of his wives. Even with paring down the traditional population of Solomon’s harem from 1,000 to 40 there are still too many characters to give any the proper attention they deserve.

If Edghill wanted to, she could have taken the material here and used it as the basis for a 40 book series about the 40 wives of Solomon to give them all the proper development space they deserved.

(Note to self: look to see if I have time to write multi-book series on each wife of Solomon. Pick a number less than 1,000 probably?)

And can we all agree how gross and stupid and wasteful and selfish harems are? I suspect (with absolutely no hard evidence to back me up, I’m just spit balling here) we, as a species, somewhere about 50,000 years ago might have been at some sort of cheetah level population numbers and something vaguely like a harem might have been put in place in order to quickly build up the population level, and never mind the genetic – and social – consequences. But after we had agriculture well in hand, there’s really no call for that kind of thing. We’ve survived our ELE’s, hurray, let’s move onto equality already, OK?

Anyway, the King of Israel and the Queen of Sheba meet and it is a true meeting of the minds, meeting of true equals, sparks fly, the earth moves, all the usual stuff from the old tales – but there is an extra twist to the tale here.

The queen seeks her heart’s desire – and what she desires most is exactly with the king is least likely to part with.

There is shenanigans with religious and sexual politics, but while the story gradually builds to a fairly exciting plot, there isn’t the great battle of wills and wits I expected, just a realization by the supposed wisest king that everyone should be allowed to live to their full potential.

[J. Else · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I love about historical fiction is getting into the mindset of that culture. Edghill does a great job of this with her analogies and perceptions in each character. Her main character observations are worded elegantly and breautifully. The story was carefully constructed in order to follow the lines through many people... too many in all honesty.

The biggest disappointment was Ahijah the prophet. Why do religious men have to be angry and unyielding. And he hates women? While the setting is Biblical history, there was little to nothing of "Yahweh." Pagan gods seemed to have more influence than the Biblical God. Its like all spirituality and belief were sucked out of the story which was disappointing as major Biblical characters are used in this story. Baalit nor Soloman could have prayed to "Yahweh" just once for answers? I was saddened that no religious influence (besides hateful and scheming Ahijah) bore any weight on the plotline. I also thought there were a few too many side stories. It was too hard to tie them all up in the end. Characters like Amyntor, Rahbarin, and the handmaidens were given too much story. In the second part of the book, it was a confusing plot that skewed in too many directions and watered down the focus of the story. Edghill explored just a few too many of the supporting cast.

While I found it an interesting read, it wasn't as page-turning a flow as I had hoped. But Edghill has such poetic prose. I love her word choices. I thought this was a good book, but I most wanted to feel the spirituality in the main characters... and that was sorely lacking for me. I wanted more though-provoking spirituality.

I loved the Queen of Sheba parts, especially in her land where women are the dominant sex. Fascinating piece to explore that is so unique to historical fiction, and this was barely explored in the book, sadly. I wanted more.

"The gods give us life for good or for ill. If we do not use their gift wisely... well, that is our own fault. Not theirs."

[Jacki · Rating 5 out of 5]

"When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relation to the name of the LORD, she came to test him with hard questions...King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all she desired and asked for, besides what he had given her out of his royal bounty. Then she left and returned with her retinue to her own country."

The Bible gives us very little in regards to the story of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. In fact, we do not even discover her name. Yet, a legend has grown up around this brief story, a legend of love and loss. India Edghill follows that tradition and expands on the story found in the Bible to bring us amazing individuals full of passion, wisdom, and love.

In the beginning, I was concerned that I would not love this book. It was lovely and interesting, but I found that I could just not make head way. I had loved Queen Maker and had the same hopes for this. In the end, I cried. Cried for the loves that could not be, for the triumphs that did occur, for the beauty that can be seen when we follow our hearts. Edghill succeeded in bringing life to these biblicial characters and remains one of my favorite authors.

[Minty McBunny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Part of my problem with this book wasn't the book's fault, my library only had the large print edition. So it was annoying to read in the huge font. But I could have overcome that if it had been a better story.

I love well-written biblical fiction, like Orson Scott Card's Women of Genesis series, or The Red Tent. So I had high hopes. Sadly, they just were not met. Normally I don't mind jumps in narration, but all the women seemed to speak with the same voice and there were SO MANY of them, it got repetitious and tedious trying to keep up with all of them. I stuck with it through the overly long 'getting to know you' section, thinking surely things would pick up when the Queen arrived, but the story never seemed to take off. It's a shame, the idea is a good one, but the execution was poor.

[Natasa · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story was slow, the characters hard to distinguish from one another, and the structure didn't work at all.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Queen Bilqis of Sheba is past menopause and without an heiress to succeed her as queen. King Solomon of Israel is fair and just and wise, but dead in spirit, never having recovered from the loss of his first and favorite wife. His daughter, Princess Baalit, is blazing with ambition and restlessness, but destined only for a role as a subservient wife. When Bilqis visits Israel, the lives of all three characters are shaken. Along the way, the author seduces with lush detail, a large cast of characters, and a fascinating alternate perspective on figures from the Bible and folk legend.

I enjoyed this book, but I felt oddly emotionally distant from the major characters. Solomon/Sheba is one of the great love stories of the ages. Yet, in this novel, I don't really feel the strength of that love. I see how they are taken with each other intellectually, but the spark just didn't light for me. Maybe this is because the only character we really get inside of is Baalit, who is kind of a brat. Maybe it's because there really isn't much conflict or tension in the plot. I could tell the entire storyline from the first few chapters, and while there are events that threaten to disrupt the characters' lives, for the most part these events are averted before the tension really has a chance to build.

All the same, this is a lovely book, and I recommend it if you like feminist-leaning historical novels, as I do.

Oddly, the part that really choked me up was the story of Helike, Solomon's Trojan wife, who made vows of chastity to Artemis but was overridden when her father needed her to cement an alliance with Israel. She is a very minor character, but she's the one I ended up caring about most.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love her books most of us who grew up in the middle of the 20th century grew up hearing stories of the Old and New Testament. Ms. Edghill does a wonderful job bringing these characters to life in her novels. I can't wait for the next one.

[Ranjit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, this was a great tale to read. Required a bit of an effort to keep track of who's who but there was a tree in the front of the book...liked it enough to want to read another tale of Soloman and Sheba.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love historical fiction.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great read. I really enjoyed this author's style of writing.

[📚 Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wish I could give this book 2.5 stars. I feel that two stars is a bit low but I'm not comfortable giving it three.

It started out fairly good, with an interesting story and some decent characters, but it took too long for Solomon and Sheba to meet. We as the reader meet Sheba early on, but then she's ignored for several chapters as we learn about the court of Jerusalem.

And boy do we ever learn about it. We get introduced to many of Soloman's dozens of wives and have several chapter from their point of view, in addition to a few of their handmaidens, Soloman's daughter, a son of his, and a few other random court people like a guard and some priests. There are just too many people, and so so many that I didn't care about. A new chapter would start from some boring person's pov and I would groan, knowing I'd be bored for several minutes. In general, I only really cared when the Queen of Sheba herself or Solomon was narrating, though that doesn't mean there isn't some merit in the other chapters.

The biggest problem I had with this book was its pace. It was just so slow! We know from the beginning what's going to happen, or at least we assume it, and those of us who have read the Bible know even more about what happens after the last words of the book, so all this dragging out and will they/won't they just bored me. Even though the book isn't that long, it felt it. It felt so long and so filled with superfluous stuff that added nothing.

I have another book by this author on my t0-read shelf Queenmaker: A Novel of King David's Queen but now I'm not so sure I want to read it. Maybe it's different enough that I will enjoy it more than I did this one.

[Debbie Floyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars. This story was slow to start, I understand the author's reason for telling the story of some of the king's wives in their voices. It was a way of sharing with the reader what the women thought of becoming part of the king's the "treasures" of his court a piece of a trade deal, a pawn in the deals between kingdoms. This was a woman's lot in ancient times always a possession regardless of a woman's status, and very few women ruled kingdoms. Women who did were not looked upon favorably by most in fact it was believed by many that they used magic to achieve their gains, that they certainly could not do so with their minds. I think there were to many stories by the wives that were not a part of the story of what occurred between, Solomon, the queen of Sheba and his daughter. A historical fiction weaves a story or stories when facts are not known of everything that occurred, therefore I still enjoyed this author's ability to tell the story.

[Maurice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this novel because I wanted to know more about Solomon, but the two more interesting characters are Bilqis, Queen of Sheba, and Baalit, Solomon's daughter from his first marriage. King Solomon, the wise, is limited in many ways to wisdom, while he does not display other characteristics which he yearns for, characteristics that his father, King David, had in abundance. Bilqis is equal to Solomon in wisdom, if not superior. She comes to Jerusalem with gifts in abundance, but her true reason for coming is kept hidden until she is ready to reveal it. Baalit, Solomon's favorite daughter, must find her own way into adulthood, with the help of Bilqis. A fascinating account of the interplay of forces at that time, the author knowing well that there is scant documentation for any of it. I was at first intimidated by the sheer number of characters, and I think this novel could stand some editing.

[Angus · Rating 1 out of 5]

It has a painfully slow pace, lacks solid direction, and tries to do so many things without having the necessary skills of an adept storyteller. There are many characters that sound the same and they don’t even contribute much to the novel. You could take away half of these character chapters and still arrive at the same place. What a waste of my time. Book club obligation is the only reason I even bothered to read this long, tedious attempt at grandiose biblical fiction.

[Mia · Rating 4 out of 5]

In her acknowledgements, Edghill thanks someone for their knowledge of semicolons...
Also, some of the dialogue didn’t receive a paragraph break when transitioning to the next speaker.

Despite these faults, this book makes a perfect sequel to Queenmaker. It’s satisfying in that way, and is a fine book by its own virtue too.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars may be a bit high for this book, but I have to be fairly unimpressed to give two. This book was just okay for me. It had interesting moments, but for the most part, it was somewhat dull. At no point did I reach that enthralled moment when I felt as though I couldn't put the book down, but it was a decently written historical fiction.

[Blythe Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked it!

I started reading this a long time ago but just couldn't get into it - then I got sick & was looking for something & rediscovered this. I really liked it although trying to keep the people straight at first was tough.

[Merrill Kemp-Wilcox · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great, through provoking read. Loved the writing, engaging characters, interesting context.

[Roberta Wall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating novel

[cathy ballard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting tale on what could have been

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid 3.5, but I rounded up because I stayed up late to finish it. Pretty good, but everyone's eyes slant at each other and their voices ripple with laughter an awful lot. It gets a bit repetitive.

[Jean St.Amand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable story combining historical figures and imagination. Loved it.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a skill to take a little bit of historical knowledge and flesh it into a plausible story. One that explains the phrase - who do you think you are, the queen of sheba.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

A captivating tale!

[Cyndi Bowman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went into this book thinking it would be classified as Biblical fiction. In that regard, I was disappointed. However, when I backed away from that expectation and viewed it as Historical fiction, I was able to suspend my expectations and enjoy the story.

The author did a great deal of research into the customs and traditional stories surrounding the Queen of Sheba's visit to Israel and King Solomon. Other religious texts from the time tell the story, too, and those were used as sources for this author's rendering.

Switching narrators moved the story along at a good pace, and as long as I kept track of whose "voice" I was reading, I had no problem with the frequent switches. The characters' thoughts and actions were believable. I thought the author did a great job of telling just enough for the reader to build a mental image of people and events, but didn't belabor the point.

My only disappointment was the prophet Ahijah and the general feeling of the women that the Jew's God hated women and was a religion filled with ritual only -- not a worship of the one true, living God. However, as I stated above, once I adjusted my expectation from Biblical fiction to Historical fiction, I could understand the characters' perceptions.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was halfway through this book before I realized I didn't like it very much. It's interesting enough, I guess. There's nothing specifically wrong with it. And there's no specific spot I can point to and say, "This is where the story devolved." But I will say that it's biblical fanfiction and should be read as such. Take it for what it is and don't expect anything that it's not. So it's not particularly historically accurate, biblically accurate or even well edited. It's just a big old wordy story written by a lady fascinated with a little glimpse of where the lives of Solomon, King of Israel and Judah, and The Queen of Sheba intersected. Props to Edghill for making some ducats off some glorified Yuletide Treasure offerings.

[Gaile · Rating 5 out of 5]

Again Ms Edghill goes from character to charter giving us different points of view. Yet she manages to weave all of it together into a whole.
In Sheba the crown is passed from daughter to daughter. When her daughter dies in child bed and her baby girl dies with her, Queen Bilqis knows she must find a heir in another land.
In Israel King Solomon has many sons but only one daughter, Princes Bilaat, his favorite child.
When Solomon sends envoys to Sheba to trade for valuable incense, the queen intuits that she will find her heir in the land of Israel. she decides to make the journey to negotiate with King Solomon herself. This is unheard of but despite all protestations she makes the journey and thus begins the Song Of Songs.
Highly recommended.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was interesting for me. I had never read a biblical fiction book. there were lots of characters and each part written by a different one. so it was a lot to keep up with who was who but once you knew it was pretty good. it was interesting to me to see what one author thought the conversations might have been and put personally identification of emotions with each person. the story is between soloman and the queen of sheba... based on a scriptural passage, but liberties were taken. the story of what they needed from each other that only the other could give.
worth reading if its a slow month...