The Virgin of the Sun [Hardcover]

H. Rider Haggard's "The Virgin of the Sun", like his classic "King Solomon's Mines", is not written in the mold of a modern wam-bam action adventure. First, Haggard's writing style is more classical, which tends to be a bit verbose. Second, he is not particularly focused on exposition. He doesn't spend much typeface detailing location which is in some regards a shame considering the romantic locations he tends to write on - in this case a virginal South America. Third, his stories are deep and exploratory. Haggard doesn't write to get to an ending, but rather his stories have multiple layers that sit underneath the core narrative. In the case of "Virgin", Haggard explores love, friendship, and women, all while Adventuring across the Atlantic and over South America.

Historically, Haggard does a nice job blending Inca history and myth into his adventure tale. In "The Virgin of the Sun", he explores the Inca myth surrounding the rise of one of the Americas greatest pre-columbian leaders - Pachacuti. Now, Pachacuti is most well known for mountain retreat - one of the most recognizable icons in the world - Machu Picchu. "Virgin of the Sun" was published in 1922, only a scant 11 years after explorer Hiram Bingham rediscovered the lost city nestled in the Peruvian mountains. Bingham hadn't yet connected Machu Picchu to Pachacuti, but myth had already surrounded the Inca ruler who's credited with expanding Inca rule to cover a huge swath of territory on South America's western coast.

Haggard's story unfolds as a "modern day" anitque hound translates 400-year-old letters found in an ancient chest. The letters tell the tale of Hubert - a fisherman working and living in England. Following a few small adventures and misadventures, our hero, Hubert, meets and befriends a strange man from a foreign land. After Hubert's wife of less-than-24-hours commit suicide and Hubert kills her former lover, he and his friend, Kari, are off into the Atlantic Ocean. Kari acts as a phyiscal and emotional guide to Hubert who's immediately declared a White God by the various natives they come across after finding landfall in South America.

In addition to the Victorian era-like romance that leads to his wife's death, Hubert also falls in love with a beautiful Indian princess, Quilla - daughter of the moon. While their loves develops rather abruptly, Haggard does a nice job of using a surprisingly touching romance to further Hubert and Kari's adventure.

The story is enjoyable, but takes a little effort to get used to Haggard's writing style. The pace of the story picks up considerably about 1/3 through following Hubert and Kari's flight from England across the Atlantic. Consider this a strong historical adventure.

If you're a fan of Allan Quatermain and his African adventures you'll also like this book by the same author. Set in the land of the Incas this thrilling adventure story takes you into a forgotten world of an ancient culture that was later destroyed by the Spanish. It's a great historical novel that I found hard to put down.
I also liked Queen Sheba's Ring.

While I enjoyed this book as I do most of Haggard's works, it didn't seem as well constructed as his African novels dealing with the Zulus or his tales of Allan Quatermain. In format it reminded be of his book "The Ancient Allan". Virgin of the Sun is a fantasy tale taking the hero of the book from England to Central and South America in a highly unlikely manner, that said, once the second part of the story got underway it was thoroughly enjoyable and the description of the Inca society made for excellent reading. Haggard's battles were, as always, enjoyable as was the described relationship between Hubert and Kari. For me, the weakest part of the story was the romance between Hubert and Quilla, it was certainly a vehicle to drive the plot but not wholly satisfyingly.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 3 reviews  3.7 out of 5 stars