Nothing Sacred
   Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
  1991 Doubleday NY USA
   ISBN: 0385415303


In the middle of the 21st century people like Viveka Jeng Vanachek - over-educated & unemployable - have few options but to join the military. On her first mission she is shot down in the Himalayas & force-marched to a secret camp where she notices strange & inexplicable things.

How is it that her wounds have healed? That she is no longer exhausted by the trek? Why can't they remember how long they've been prisoners? When did they all seem to gain a degree of meaning, mission & certainty to their lives?

There are the dreams of monks in a beautiful mountain city in whose ruins they now dig, looking for sacred scraps, books, icons. There are the baneful lights on the far side of the mountains, ghastly nuclear-colored maelstroms that decimate everyone's hopes for their loved ones. Slowly they realize how very alone they must be.

Time passes: people love, labor & care for the children. No one notices growing old until the usual supply caravan doesn't make it back. When the decision to go outside is made, dreadful things happen & life gets complicated.

When I first came across this paperback, way back in time, just after I'd read The Healer's War I was rivetted. I have always been a Shangri-La lover & a Third Eye fan. Elizabeth Ann Scarborough continues that brave, mystical heritage.

I love a "What If..." story: what if the slate is wiped clean & we must begin again with our history intact in our minds? What if our dedication to the Healer's creed To Do No Harm is foremost our life's work? How would women & men react/respond? How would military & religious people behave?

While being a Ripping Good Read, Nothing Sacred is also a book to broaden your horizons, to dream a little magic & carve a quiet space that's safe, spiritual & self-healing. Last Refuge is a worthy sequel.

More by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough: The Godmother's Web; The Godmother's Apprentice; The Godmother; Last Refuge; Powers That Be; Power Play; The Healer's War; The Drastic Dragon of Draco, Texas; The Unicorn Creed; The Songkiller Saga and more!
(06/06/99)

Rebecca