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The Temple Dancer: A Novel of India, by John Speed
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India, 1657.
When Maya, a graceful, young temple dancer with a mysterious past, is sold into slavery, she enters a world of intrigue, violence, and forbidden love. Bought by a Portuguese trader and sold as a concubine to the dissolute vizier of Bijapur, she embarks on a treacherous journey.
In a caravan led by the dangerous settlement man Da Gama, she travels by elephant on the hostile road to Bijapur, joined by Geraldo, a Portuguese adventurer, and Pathan, a handsome prince who carries a dark secret. Together with Lucinda, a beautiful, spoiled young Goan heiress, and the manipulative eunuch Slipper, they climb the windswept mountain road through the Western Ghats.
When their caravan is attacked by bandits, the travelers’ lives are turned upside down. In the aftermath, Maya and Lucinda suddenly find themselves stranded in a strange, exotic world, a world filled with passion, romance, and deception, pure love and lurking evil, where nothing is as it seems and the two women are faced with great temptation as well as heart-wrenching decisions that will affect the rest of their lives.
Greed, politics, commitment, courage, love, and intolerance mesh to form a vibrant Indian tapestry. With spectacular settings, unforgettable characters, fierce sensuality, and intense scholarship, this adventure-packed novel marks the debut of an exciting new storyteller.
The Temple Dancer is the first volume of John Speed’s Indian trilogy, a three-book journey that will cover the final years of the Mogul Empire and the rise of the Marathis under the highwayman Shivaji. It will leave you breathlessly awaiting his next novel.
- Sales Rank: #4568356 in Books
- Published on: 2007-07-24
- Released on: 2007-07-24
- Format: Bargain Price
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.25" h x 1.06" w x 5.50" l,
- Binding: Paperback
- 416 pages
From Publishers Weekly
A melange of creatively imagined characters populates Speed's first novel (the first installment of a proposed trilogy), an entertaining historical saga that takes place in 17th-century India. At the center of the story is Maya, a Hindi slave who is being transported across dangerous terrain by a caravan of Portuguese settlers that includes the aging adventurer Da Gama and Lucinda, a spoiled but sensitive young woman. The most intriguing traveler is Slipper, a Muslim eunuch whose relationship to Maya serves as one of the driving mysteries of the novel. The fast-paced story benefits from intriguing characters and situations twisted just enough to keep them on the safe side of unbelievable. Though the story is sometimes beset by overexplanation and cartoonishly violent episodes, it's driven by a contagious enthusiasm for the people and places encountered throughout the journey. Speed, a longtime scholar of Indian history, takes more care with plot and cultural color than dialogue and style, but the result is an enjoyable adventure that still has respect for its characters. (Aug. 31)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Renowned historian Speed conducts an exciting tour of seventeenth-century India. Lavish and lush, this mesmerizing novel wends its way across the exotic Indian landscape as Maya, a dazzling temple dancer bought by a savvy Portuguese businessman as a politically expedient gift for the grand vizier of Bijapur, is transported via caravan to her new master. Of course, the road to Bijapur is not a smooth one, and Maya and her escorts face a new danger around every bend. Chock-full of sex, suspense, and peril, this high-voltage adventure yarn will rapidly transport willing readers to a vanished time and place. The initial volume in a projected trilogy, this installment will leave readers craving more. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
“Speed conducts a dazzling tour of seventeenth-century India. Lavish and lush . . . mesmerizing . . . Chock-full of sex, suspense, and peril, this high-voltage adventure yarn will rapidly transport willing readers to vanished time and place. [It] will leave readers craving more.”---Booklist
“The fast-paced story benefits from intriguing characters and situations twisted just enough to keep them on the safe side of unbelievable . . . it’s driven by a contagious enthusiasm for the people and places encountered throughout the journey . . . an enjoyable adventure that still has respect for its characters.”---Publishers Weekly
“A richly atmospheric debut.” ---Kirkus Reviews
“. . . an absorbing adventure and love story . . . fast-paced and suspenseful.”
---About.com
“The Temple Dancer sweeps the reader into an age of passion and danger, romance, chivalry, and high adventure---an age when a bandit could defy an emperor and a dancing girl change the course of history. Set against the rich backdrop of Moghul India, The Temple Dancer’s combination of history, intrigue, and forbidden love should appeal to anyone who loves M. M. Kaye’s The Far Pavilions and Shadow of the Moon. In fact, it should appeal to anyone who loves a story that will totally intrigue them.”
---India Edghill, author of Queenmaker and Wisdom’s Daughter
"What an adventure! Two women, utterly different in culture and outlook, travel across seventeenth century India on elephant back and discover, in the face of betrayal, that they have a great deal more in common than they ever suspected. Beautifully researched, this novel has it all: heroes adept with sword and pistol, bold and independent heroines, corrupt rulers, treacherous eunuchs, slippery merchants, and bloodthirsty banditti. The author stirs them all together with a handsome dose of conspiracy, mysticism, and sensuality to create a splendid entertainment in the grand style. --Judith Merkle Riley, author of A Vision of Light, The Oracle Glass, The Master of All Desires, and The Water Devil “The Temple Dancer is an ocean of a story, filled with adventure, passion, and heartbreak. It’s compulsively readable and everything you want in a novel.”
---Michael Swanwick, author of Bones of the Earth
“The Temple Dancer is a lush, loopy, multicultural epic set in seventeenth-century India, like the cockeyed marriage of a Bollywood musical and an Errol Flynn/Olivia de Havilland movie, well-researched, playfully written, and highly entertaining.”
---Christopher Bram, author of Gods and Monsters and Lives of the Circus Animals
“The Temple Dancer is what reading is all about. This book upholds true literature, which is . . . the beauty of language. There is a wonderful world here full of enchantment and nourishment.”
---Daniel Ladinsky, translator of The Gift and I Heard God Laughing
Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Deadly sins around every corner
By T. Oakley
A really enjoyable read. I was up until the late night finishing this wonderful book, just had to get to the end.
The beginning moves along at a fast pace as we find ourselves drawn into the characters of the novel. I felt like I too was languishing on the howdah: the chatter of a thousand birds and the view of the dense overhanging trees so close I could touch them. India was in my soul.
Adventure was just around the corner - I could smell it.
So go the words flowing gracefully out before me. What exploration to be had, but by the middle of the book the pace turned somewhat slower. Was it plot development? Still moving, but more like a hot lazy summer day. I was hoping that maybe we could do without another scene on the wide platform swing as it flowed back and forth, but it was not to be.
Romance and intrigue were all around.
Unfortunately, one of the the main character's personality changed midway through the book ; once being strong and courageous just seem to become weak and timid, did I miss the part where he became a eunuch, was it greed that drove him or just the author losing his way?
Would he redeem himself?
Nearing the end of the book, I was thinking about what new plots where to transpire between our characters, I hoped the journey would not stop, but for some reason part of the story just galloped in another direction.
Oh to be yearning for more.
The book was filled with some passionate people and deadly sins around every corner... I could hear there late night whispers amongst the grove of trees.
An exciting read if you don't mind some of the characters losing their way slightly in believability. I can't wait to continue my visit to India and the distance past in his next book.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
A Pleasant Surprise
By L. Gajewski
Up until the last couple of chapters I was going to give this book four stars. The writing definitely keeps moving, with never a dull moment, and I couldn't stop because I thought I knew what was going to happen at the end (of course, it's going to be happily ever after), but I wanted to know how the author was going to get there. Then I discovered, in the last chapters, a pleasant surprise--he doesn't make it happily ever after. It's not that there isn't justice or there's no resolution, but even the "good" guys sacrifice.
Yes, the plot at points seems contrived and the characters can get frustrating because they never do the "smart" thing, but the way the book moves along, the descriptions of this time in India, and the twists and turns make it entirely worth it. I took a chance on this book and found it exceeded my expectations.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Not quite what I expected
By Silent Night
I was not expecting the story I read when I purchased this book. If you are looking for a sensual story to lose yourself in a cloud of romanticism, you have found the wrong book. There really is no sensuality or a romantic plot line. The story is complex, brutal, and it's about more than just the temple dancer, but other people in the story too. It wasn't what I was looking for, but I will give it 4 stars because it was well written.
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