Synopsis
An imagining of the life of the Queen of Sheba, this story follows the life of a young cast-off princess through a turbulent adolescence to claiming the throne of Sheba. The majority of the book revolves around her interaction with King Solomon of Israel. Their relationship first begins with a series of coy and cryptic letters. Despite Sheba’s refusal to pay homage to Solomon, she eventually concedes for the good of the kingdom and makes the journey to Solomon’s Kingdom. There she finds the court and Kingdom of Solomon resplendent on the outside but beginning to rot away beneath under the force of sin and rising discontent. She cannot help but let her heart go out to this king who is wisest of all, yet empty and lost as any who have fallen away from God.
Stylistic ImpressionsThe best part of the writing in this book was the setting. It’s rich with details of the time, place, culture, language, and life of Sheba. The writer also does a great job of describing Sheba from the inside out. The reader follows the story from behind her eyes, observing the workings and foibles of her heart and thoughts.
The 4:8 AssessmentStarting in adolescence, Sheba is involved in sexual relationships outside of marriage (of which, thankfully, there were no graphic descriptions.) Since Sheba lived in a pagan culture, it was not surprising. Given her inevitable interaction with King Solomon, I decided to give the book a chance to redeem itself. It was a chance wasted. Sheba continued illicit relationships with men throughout the book, culminating in an affair with King Solomon. In addition, she displayed a lot of traits that I myself would never aspire to. Pride, independence, falsehood, infidelity amongst the topmost. None of the character traits were redeemed in the book or any way used for good. Rather they were presented as desirable traits of a strong woman. Finally, at the end, God himself was misrepresented as unstable, distant, aloof, and no different than Sheba’s pagan gods. God was given no credit for who he was. While it’s fine to be honest that humans experience those feelings about God, to leave them open without resolution is to send a false message about the God. Feelings and what’s true can be very different.
Other than characters and location, there is nothing else Christian about this book that I could tell. I regret the chance I gave this book and wouldn’t recommend it to any Christian.
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