The Golden Torc / Julian May

 

4 out of 5 stars 

2025 Re-Read

A trifle less enjoyable than volume one of the series, possibly because war/battle scenes don't excite me much any more. I'm just all battled out. But that doesn't mean that it was boring. We continue to follow the members of the Green Team who arrived in the Pliocene together. The two most prominent are Felice and Aikin Drum, the two most amoral people on the team, who are willing to make sacrifices (of other people) to gain their desires. And they desire power, probably why they were initially drawn to the whole one-way-ticket to the Pliocene in the first place.

Elizabeth, who had been unable to regain her mental powers in the Galactic Milieu, is transformed by the time portal and becomes the most powerful operant person in the Pliocene. Everybody wants her for various purposes, but the Tanu primarily desire her as breeding stock. If they can become psychically operant without the assistance of their torcs, they can defeat the enemy Firvulag.

Felice desperately desires a golden torc to release her latent psychic talents and she pursues this goal relentlessly. She is consumed with the need for revenge on those she perceives as standing in her way. Aiken Drum received a silver torc upon arrival and has worked his way up to fantastically operant without the help of any hardware. Neither of them are trustworthy leaders, however.

Madame Guderian, who was the entrepreneur who opened the time portal, chose to embark on her own trip to the past and now regrets opening this Pandora's box. Can she do anything about it? Will Bryan, the anthropologist, find his love, Mercy? And will Claude find a new purpose once the nun Amery has established herself in the rebel human camp?

As you can tell, it is the personal stories that entice the reader along if the action of the plot doesn't grab them. I am thoroughly enjoying the rereading experience.

Book 3 of my 2025 Read Your Hoard challenge.

The Lake of Lost Girls / Katherine Greene

 

3.3 stars?

Lindsey Fadley's life is on hold, just as it has been since her big sister Jessica disappeared. Jess went out to her car to get the birthday cake and is never seen again. Lindsey still lives at home with her parents. Where would she go until she learns what happened? Still, she alternately appreciates and resents the two women who are hosting a true crime podcast focusing on Jess and the other young women from her campus who disappeared during the same time frame. She also wonders about the journalist who has tracked her down and wants her assistance with his investigation.

The novel shifts between the past, seen from Jessica's point of view, and the present with Lindsey. We get to accompany Jess as her life spins out of control, her grades slip, and her alcohol consumption escalates, though there are only hints at what is bothering her so much. Lindsey has hope that the cold case will break open when a body is found out by a local lake.

There are actually two authors who have created a pseudonym to publish their joint writing. In my opinion, they have written an effective mystery, replete with red herrings and suitably ambiguous about the characters' motivations. Sadly, as in real life, there is a collection of reprehensible men available to choose from as you build your theories. If you like this book, I would recommend Bright Young Women (the 1970s) or The Quarry Girls (the 1980s). In The Lake of Lost Girls the murder takes place in the 1990s. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

The Love of My Afterlife / Kirsty Greenwood

 

4 out of 5 stars 

What is it with farcical romances recently? It seems to be a definite trend.

Delphie is a rather reclusive woman, socially awkward because of it. She was bullied in school and has been trying to blend into the background ever since. If she doesn't stand out, the mean people will leave her alone, right? And then one evening she chokes to death on a microwaved burger and comes to in an antechamber of the afterlife, where she meets Merritt, her afterlife mentor who is every bit as awkward and obtuse as Delphie. When Delphie runs screaming, she collides with a handsome man who has also just arrived and they just click. When Jonah's death is determined to be a glitch and he is sent back, Delphie reaches a bargain with Merritt: she may return to Earth and London for 10 days. If she can track down Jonah and get him to kiss her within those 10 days, she gets to stay alive,

London is a big place and 10 days is slipping through her fingers. Delphie must do things she would never normally do in order to meet her soulmate. She is always arriving at an event just after Jonah has left or she is comically unprepared or a new acquaintance is dragging her into a ridiculous situation. She fake-dates her grumpy neighbour to get his computer assistance, attends a drawing class with a woman she met at the dog park, and impersonates an actress at the talent agency that Jonah uses. She bounces from one unlikely scenario to the next at breakneck speed.

Despite the fact that I guessed where the plot was headed, I thoroughly enjoyed the journey. The slapstick tones down and Delphie learns how to make friends and enjoy her life. She can stand out, be noticed without being hurt.

If you enjoy this book, I would also recommend The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis and The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love by India Holton. You may also like The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by C.M. Waggoner or A Daughter of Fair Verona by Christina Dodd.

Lost Horizon / James Hilton

 

R

4 out of 5 stars 

I'm reasonably sure that I first read this book at age 13 because my best friend was reading it, so basically a buddy read. I've been meaning to reread it for some time and now, 50 years later, I managed to find a few friends to buddy read with me again. I'm quite convinced that I didn't really understand it as a teen, although I couldn't recall any details.

I found myself comparing Lost Horizon with H. Rider Haggard's She. Both involve Englishmen who stumble into lost civilizations. Of course neither could possibly be run by a local inhabitant—in both cases they are overseen by a mysterious Caucasian. It is difficult to find either civilization but those who are meant to be there are drawn to them. Freaky long life is featured in both instances. (And I wore out our school's copy of She because I loved it so much. The librarian gave me the discarded copy.)

I have to say that the life at Shangri-la didn't appeal to me at all, despite presumably having much more time to tackle my TBR. The older I get, the less happy I am with cold weather, something pretty unavoidable in the Himalayas. I don't think of myself as particularly social, but the limited number of people available would certainly give me pause. It is interesting to me that Shangri-la has become identified as a utopian society, a place to be sought out. It could just as easily be a dystopia. It is also fascinating that real-life expeditions have tried to search for it. Hilton obviously hit a nerve.

I was left with a kind of delicious limbo, wondering if Conway's experience was real or the result of a PTSD fugue state. The neuroscientist who frames the story with prologue and epilogue gives just enough tantalizing details to tease but not to confirm. Being one of those people who love ambiguous endings, this was a good novel for me.

Book 2 of my 2025 Read Your Hoard Challenge.