The Sun Is God

De: Adrian McKinty

Narrado por: Gerard Doyle

Colonial New Guinea, 1906: A small group of mostly German nudists lives an extreme back-to-nature existence on the remote island of Kabakon. Eating only coconuts and bananas, they purport to worship the sun. One of their members, Max Lutzow, has recently died, allegedly from malaria. But an autopsy on his body in the nearby capital of Herbertshöhe raises suspicions about foul play.

Retired British military police officer Will Prior is recruited to investigate the circumstances of Lutzow's death. At first, the eccentric group seems friendly and willing to cooperate with the investigation. They all insist that Lutzow died of malaria. Despite lack of evidence for a murder, Prior is convinced the group is hiding something.

Things come to a head during a late-night feast supposedly given as a send-off for the visitors before they return to Herbertshöhe. Prior fears the intent of the "celebration" is not to fete the visitors - but to make them the latest murder victims.

©2014 Adrian McKinty (P)2014 Blackstone Audiobooks

Fascinating story!

Would you listen to The Sun Is God again? Why?

Yes I definitely would.
It was a very interesting story, I had never heard anything about this before listening to this book.
Plus the fact that it is Adrian McKinty and Gerard Doyle that in itself is enough for me to read it again.

What other book might you compare The Sun Is God to and why?

None that I can think of.
It is unlike any of the authors other books.

Have you listened to any of Gerard Doyle’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes! He is one of my favorite narrators.
Great performance as always.
I think Gerard Doyles narration is always great even if sometimes the books themselves aren't. But with McKinty and Joyal you know it's going to be a great listen.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, and I did do that.
Stayed up all night last night to listen to it.

Any additional comments?

McKinty really can write about anything.
I hope to see some more historical accounts written by him in the future.

McKinty’s best

I’m a big Adrian McKinty fan and this is my favorite of all his his books. It’s a touch
Joseph Conrad but more fun.

Take a wild ride with a master of the mystery!

Where does The Sun Is God rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I must admit to a bias here: I love this writer and his narrative voice. This is a historical novel based on fact, so it is really a radical departure for Adrian, but you won't be disappointed if you put on your headphones and let the story and atmosphere carry you back in time to a very exotic locale.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Sun Is God?

The most memorable moments would all be spoilers, I'm afraid, but the moment when the prim and proper English woman goes "native" would have to be toward the top,

Which scene was your favorite?

I'm afraid the revealing the most powerful scenes would spoil the story, but the bizarre dinner party with the "Queen" toward the beginning of the book will stick in your memory for quite some time.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes. I came close, For someone who is deliberately trying to practice delaying gratification McKinty's books definitely test my self control.

Any additional comments?

Be prepared for a very strange story indeed.

Great prose, but not a great story.

This is a work of historical fiction about a relatively minor episode in the history of New Guinea, although it does provide a glimpse of what German colonialism was like in 1906. I've read all McKinty's mysteries, and this novel is quite different. Although I thought his prose was often as fine as usual, the story itself isn't all that exciting. Some of the characters were interesting, although I couldn't tell how much of their personalities were figments of McKinty's imagination. I love listening to Gerard Doyle, so between his narration and McKinty's writing, I found the book enjoyable. Thankfully, it wasn't too long.

surprisingly interesting

when it comes to the daily deals, you don't always expect much. My wife grew up on New Guinea, so I was interested in this one. The story was well written and thought out, and the performance was excellent. I recommend this highly.

Good but not as good ...

Fun and interesting, but not quite up to snuff with McKinty's other works. It almost seemed like he needed a break from his more intense works, and there is comedy. Still good but not as good.

An unusual but gripping story by Adrian McKinty

I normally expect Adrian McKinty's stories to be thrillers set in Northern Ireland and was surprised to find that this story was set in German New Guinea, near modern-day Rabaul, in the early 1900's. It featured a strange cult group of mostly German nudist sun worshipers. To make it even stranger they only ate coconuts and bananas (because they grew at the top of trees so were closer to the sun) and sunbathed their days away in a stupor after drinking a cocktail of coconut milk and powdered heroin at breakfast.

Will Prior, a former British military policeman, has retired to German New Guinea after a traumatic incident keeping control of a South African concentration camp. His new found tranquility is disturbed when the German authorities recruit him to investigate the death of one of the cult members, Max Lutzow, on the remote island of Kabakon. The cult members insist that he died from malaria but an autopsy suggests that the death was from other causes.

Prior, a German officer and a middle-aged single Englishwoman, visit the island to investigate. They are immediately thrust into the middle of the cult's day-to-day life and diet (including the coconut cocktail), meeting with constant denials of any wrongdoing in Lutzow's death. Eventually when Prior starts to flush out the truth things get pretty tense.

This was the first audio book that I have listened to and I enjoyed the experience during my morning walks and car journeys. If I had read the book I think that I might have given up because it was not what I expected from McKinty. The narrator, Gerald Doyle, did a great job in turning what could have been a fairly unexciting story into something pretty absorbing.

Pretty Uneventful Story

While the summary of the story sounded interesting, the story itself was a little less than that. I am a big Adrian McKinty fan and certainly had higher hopes for this book.

Of course, if you like me, are a big McKinty fan, this becomes a must read. It's certainly better than the random average to poor book out there, but simply wasn't up to the standard McKinty type book I have become accustomed to.

I would highly recommend the "Dead" / Michael Forsythe trilogy, and the Troubles trilogy by McKinty, the Dead trilogy being my favorite.

Gerard Doyle does a great job narrating as he always does with McKinty books.

Utterly Fascinating!

What did you love best about The Sun Is God?

It gave a seemingly realistic view of what life was like in the early 20th century in the African colonies. Careful descriptions of details of life in that time and place painted a believable picture of the difficulty of living in the tropics in those day yet were worked into the story in small doses so as not to interfere with the pace of the action. The characters well drawn and multi-dimensional.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Yes. After a little background on the main character, the British former officer Will, we find him living in a German colony on a plantation. Soon the mystery begins, intriguing to the end. The book was more about the establishment characters who came to the island than about the members of the cult and their weird beliefs and customs. The cult members did not respond to their visitors in the ways one might expect, so one could never guess what was going to happen.

Which character – as performed by Gerard Doyle – was your favorite?

Definitely Will, who came to the island to help with the investigation of a murder but got somewhat caught up in the strange life there, yet he managed to stay true to his purpose, the investigation of a suspicious death.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

This would make a great movie, except many of the characters would have to be nude. I would rather read about them than see them on the screen I'm afraid.

Any additional comments?

This was my first experience with either the author or the reader. Both were excellent. The narrator really captured the various characters with both his accent and tone of voice. I looked at the other books by McKinty but this seems to be the only one of this sort. The others are not so much to my taste, but I'm really glad I found this one.

Good historical mystery/thriller

I loved the mix of history and mystery in a very well written story. A cautionary tale of taking science and psychology and turning it into a religion.