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Sales info: BOOK THREE (The Scorpions Strike)
Paperback
by C.L. Talmadge
reviewed by Anne Garber
Green Stone of Healing is a fast-moving, complex fantasy series that follows four generations of strong women and the mysterious green stone that binds them to their people and culture as well as to each other.
One of the hallmarks of excellence in fiction writing -- at least subjectively for this reviewer -- is that the characters somehow manage to infiltrate our "normal" lives, invading our thoughts when we are driving or at work, haunting that twilight time between wakefulness and sleep, or actually taking on a "real" life parallel to our own. When this sort of character is achieved, when the plot twists and turns become almost factual in our mundane world, it is close to impossible to finish reading the book, set it aside at its conclusion, and heaven-forbid await a sequel to find out what happens next!
By this, the third in C.L. Talmadge's masterful series of novels depicting gripping events that move an undaunted (yet much maligned and mistreated) heroine through trials and tribulations that might make Ulysses blanch, the reader finds herself braced for the disappointment that will surely come at the conclusion, because -- after all -- there can be no satisfactory concluding of events when one is hesitant to relinquish the characters to the purgatory of waiting-for-the-next-volume, anyway.
That said, The Scorpions Strike is face-paced, action-packed and full of surprises. Just when you think you have figured out where these events might be heading, everything you imagined is thrown out the window. How in the world can Helen Andros continue to move ahead in pursuit of well, anything, while she is doomed to carry such a heavy burden? Could any of us persist in the face of such odds and such relentless persecution?
While The Scorpions Strike is indeed a compelling story in and of itself, it is also a parable and an inspiration to those of us in the real 21st-Century world who sometimes feel abandoned with our unspeakable burdens. If we ever feel a moment of self pity, we need only imagine Helen's situation for a glimpse of the strength we might surely find in each of ourselves.
I have a friend, a bright, accomplished and beautiful young woman, who is currently struggling against prejudice and truly appalling obstacles in a Western European country that is surprisingly Neanderthal and chauvinistic in its attitudes toward women, even now in the year 2008. Reading The Scorpions Strike has given me renewed strength to help shore up my friend (albeit from a distance), and it has sharpened my appreciation of how incredible she is being in holding her head high and remaining unswerving in her march toward her goal. Her high principles are intact; her dignity may have suffered at times, but she is persevering. Hooray for Helen Andros and the behaviour-models she has spawned. What an important void this character, and C.L. Talmadge's inspirational story have filled!
Synopsis:
Helen moves to her father's manor in Alta Province, guarded by her secret love and a detail of soldiers. Maguari teaches Helen the first steps of kura manipulation and shows her how to use energy to be with her father in spirit. Helen has a vision of being attacked by a Temple warrior-monk that she reveals to no one.
Recovered, Helen's father marries his betrothed and his wife soon becomes pregnant. True to Helen's premonition, Temple agents almost succeed in slaying her, with her stepmother nearly suffering a miscarriage in the attack. Helen uses the green stone to save mother and child.
The Temple refuses to grant Helen's newborn half-brother the ancient rite of First Blood. Without it the boy will never be accepted into the Kindred. Helen's father sends her into hiding in Southern Alta Province to comply with the Temple and avert civil war.
Less than three months after she began writing her fantasy series, author C.L. Talmadge knew without equivocation that she was chronicling a life she had lived before -- and
that some of her main characters would return to earth to pursue unfinished business.
"I woke up one morning in October of 1998 with the horrendous memory of a trauma suffered by Helen Andros," she says. "I was devastated and deeply depressed without any immediate cause or corresponding event from earlier in my life. My emotions were so profound and painful that I realized this went way beyond trying to imagine how a character in a book might feel or behave. I was literally in Helen Andros' tragic shoes because I was -- and still am -- Helen Andros."
Since she was a child, the author has always been open to the possibility of past lives. In 1986, her attitude transformed to deep conviction as a result of profound emotional and spiritual healing experiences that involved other lives she has lived. This life-altering healing was possible through an alternative method that helps bring about emotional and spiritual resolution within the energy field of human consciousness. That same approach, called Sunan therapy, helped the author resolve Helen's pain and shame.
C.L. says reincarnation is a fairly frequent theme of genre novels. In most fictional treatments of past lives, characters learn that a previous existence has an unsavory influence over them and their relationships in the present, and much of the book's action involves their search for resolution.
Although the initial books include that approach, Green Stone of Healing™ offers a unique twist. As the series progresses through four generations, dead characters return as different people still struggling to resolve their issues. Souls mates and dear friends, heroes and villains meet again, but the outcome is by no means happy, even if the feelings between them do not change. How do they know each other? By intuitively detecting soul energy, or kura, which does not alter from physical lifetime to lifetime.
"Like the existence of God, it's impossible to 'prove' reincarnation to the conscious mind," C.L. points out. "The only clue to the validity of a past life is how your re-experience of it resonates with you emotionally and spiritually."
The tragic life and flawed character of Helen Andros resonate at a very deep level for the author.
Equally compelling is the powerful impact that the process of writing the Green Stone of Healing™ series has had on the author's partner, Jana L. Simons (Judith Altair), and their mutual friend, Susanne M. Doucet (Miriam Andros).
"No one wants to be forgotten," the author says. "It's the basis for fascination with genealogy and the rising interest in preserving family memories in scrapbooks that have developed over the past two decades. The effort to make a difference (and thus not be forgotten) drives many lives. It certainly drove Helen's life and it's what drives my life today, although in a far different, happier direction."
These days C.L. aims to make a difference by stirring readers' soul memories with the story of the Green Stone of Healing™. "This series is really one long look at the true meaning of free will and personal responsibility," the author says. "Outside of the language of traditional religion, I am exploring our connection to God, to each other, and to ourselves. Like Book One's heroine, most of us feel a sense of alienation from God, from others, and most important, from ourselves.
"The question then becomes, what causes this separation? Western religions traditionally ascribe the cause to 'sinful' human nature. My series argues for a different explanation -- one that is tied to healing at the deepest levels of self -- just as it posits a different definition for evil."
evalu8ed exclusively for evalu8.org by Anne Garber
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