The El-eventh Hour
Lily G. Stephen
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2004 Blooming Rose Press
ISBN: 0971265917

In 2012 a young woman journeys through continents, time & dimensions in search of divine reality.

The second in the Third Verse Trilogy, the first being The Tenth Muse which introduced Opal on Planet Earth & Sapphire on Planet Zamora questing for “reunification ... (so they may) evolve within the dynamic focus of their spirit-mission”, The El-eventh Hour continues the story of “becoming” with the lives of family & friends Opal has left behind. It is about “making choices, taking responsibility & ... transcending duality ... to see vividly, as it is.”

That having been writ: settle in for the Prologue to a fantastical guided vision. Here people upon a mountain survive a catastrophic series of natural events: tsunamis, winds, lightning & earthquakes, to be beckoned upwards by an astonishing light which shimmers through the storm.

The El-eventh Hour is Miranda's journey from her girlhood memory of fascination with the title “From Here to Eternity” to graduating from high school, getting ready for college & becoming drawn into physics that ‘took me far out into the cosmos & simultaneously deep within myself.’ Miranda was a friend of Opal: she of the visions & dreams, who leapt off a cliff & disappeared, as her boyfriend, LeRoy, had recounted, in a cloud of silver fragments. Her body was never found. Opal had that kind of magic. Miranda misses her friend, & even though she thinks about LeRoy, she's lost touch with him & gets on with her life.

& Miranda's adventures & quest will take her to high & low places -- Machu Picchu, Mount Shasta, as well as into spiritual, spellbinding, historical & future visions as she meanders through ancient subterranean realms, encountering The Els -- an advanced race present at a pivotal global time, & receives a message to bring back to humanity.

Lily Stephen writes wisdom-focused modern mythology, & exhibits extensive knowledge of all things “alternate”, as well as an often lyrical way with words. In an imaginative, “trippy” narrative, we follow this young woman “becoming”, although the “action” occasionally gets confusing as chapters suddenly arrive out of nowhere.

The El-eventh Hour is for readers with a taste for transcendental, “significant” quests, that involve shape-shifting through space & time, adorned with fragments from our collective memories & yearnings to understand the divine. In other parts, it is oddly pragmatic & passionless.

The El-eventh Hour is a series of tales of wondering & wandering, learning & leaving, & an exploration of the spiritual experience.

More from Lily G. Stephen: The Tenth Muse.
(11/21/04)

Rebecca