The Santorini Odyssey

By Peg Maddocks

This is a 20th century odyssey that takes place in the ancient city of Thera on the Greek island of Santorini.? During an earthquake, the back wall of the Grotto of Hermes and Heracles collapses... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1418440655
• ISBN13: 9781418440657
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: Authorhouse
• Length: 276 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A Magical Island with a Cast of Unforgettable Characters

I am a sucker for novels set on the magical island of Santorioni and when this popped up as the result of a frequently done search including the words `Santorini' and `fiction', I admit to being both excited but skeptical. Happily, "The Santorini Odyssey" satisfies on many levels. Peg Maddocks is not what I would call a lyrical writer; her descriptions of Greece and anecdotes retelling the Greek myths tend to be slightly sophomoric, almost bordering on travelogue-ish. However, the strength of the book lies in the fine job she does of creating a small story of some emotional complexity involving four Americans who voluntarily participate in the exploration of an earthquake-disturbed cave discovered by locals in the ancient ruins of Thera on Santorini. Some of the details and dialogue may seem a bit perfunctory, yet Maddocks obviously envisioned and planned her characters in great detail for she manages to paint a clear and intriguing portrait of each of them by presenting enough interchanges between them to both identify their inter-relationships with depth and compel the reader to read further. Without revealing too much of the plot, I will say only that in the tradition of Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripides, Maddocks takes the great Greek themes of hospitality, hubris, and irony and weaves them together to form a tight tale. The exploration team is prodded on by ambition, fueled by the simple sincerity of their Greek support team, almost destroyed by greed and spurred on by the magnificent backdrop of the island itself with its history of volcanic disturbances and its fabled identification as the lost city of Atlantis. In particular, the characterizations of Nikos, Anna and Katina resonate with the charming warmth associated with the Greek persona while the relationship between Merit and Brant and their obsession for goods they cannot possess legally moves the story into the realm of tragedy. Bottom line: Maddock's style may be a little raw, but her ability to keep the reader interested marks her as a true storyteller.