Amazon.com: LAST REFUGE (Bantam Spectra Book) (9780553089615): Elizabeth Ann Scarborough: Books

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1992 | Series: Bantam Spectra Book

In the sequel to Nothing Sacred, Chime, a young woman from Shambala, a magical oasis where the survivors of nuclear Armageddon live peacefully, ventures out into the surrounding devastation to bring renewal to a shattered world.

#outer_postBodyPS { display: none; } #psGradient { display: none; } #psPlaceHolder { display: none; } #psExpand { display: none; } In the sequel to Nothing Sacred, Chime, a young woman from Shambala, a magical oasis where the survivors of nuclear Armageddon live peacefully, ventures out into the surrounding devastation to bring renewal to a shattered world.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

After the nuclear destruction of the world, the residents of the magically hidden land of Shambala realize that they may be humanity's sole survivors. When the women of Shambala begin bearing babies without souls, however, one young woman decides that the time has come to offer refuge to the homeless spirits of the world. Scarborough's sequel to Nothing Sacred ( LJ 3/15/91) blends Tibetan mysticism with various world myths, producing a strangely satisfying real-world fantasy with moments of humor, horror, and ecstatic vision. A good purchase for fantasy collections.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Sequel to Nothing Sacred (1991), continuing the tale of Shambala, a Shangri-La-like magical paradise hidden in the Himalayas. Nuclear war has ravaged the world, but Shambala has been protected by its enchantments. Nearly 20 years have passed, however, and disaster has struck in Shambala: New babies are being born without souls. Chime Cincinnati, the reincarnation of the Terton, Shambala's emissary to the outside world, decides she must venture into the wastelands to discover what's gone wrong. Along with Mike (son of Viveka Vanachek, the previous book's heroine), she enters a world populated by the ghosts of the billion dead (and a few degenerated survivors). Eventually, they reach another protected valley, ruled by the distinctly unholy Master Meru. It's up to Chime to outwit Meru and guide the living and the dead to safety in Shambala. Despite the colorful setting, the story has little energy, and the pace is further slowed by a long and pointless subplot. Any exoticism the Buddhist background might have added is lost in Scarborough's paradoxically rationalistic portrayal of the supernatural (the ghosts retain their lifetime identities, even such expressions as ``Sheesh!''), and the humor meshes poorly with the darker images and the apocalyptic landscape. The novelties that made the first book interesting cannot rescue this one. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Elizabeth Ann Scarborough Page

Altogether I've written and collaborated on 38 novels, 22 solo and 16 in collaboration with the fabulous Anne McCaffrey.
Among my solo novels is THE HEALER'S WAR, the 1989 Nebula Award winner for best novel, loosely based on my experiences as a nurse in Vietnam.
I have also written a traditional, though humorous, 4-book fantasy series, SONGS FROM THE SEASHELL ARCHIVES, a feminist Arabian Nights fantasy, two fantasies set in the Wild West and the Yukon Goldrush respectively, my obligatory science fiction writer's apocalypse book and the sequel, both set in Tibet, and three books about folk music and magic that made a big hit with the Library of Congress Folk Music Archives, which I blew up in the first book. Three of my books are about fairy godmothers, one is about Christmas and computers, one features Sir Walter Scott in a Victorian gothic mystery set in Edinburgh, and two are about Queen Cleopatra as the living "Past life" of two different women.
Just last week I released for the first time anywhere, a new e-book (available soon as Print on Demand as well), SPAM VS THE VAMPIRE. Spam is a cat whose mistress disappears suddenly, leaving him and his 14 feline housemates alone and soon to starve. When someone breaks into the house, Spam takes the opportunity to escape into the outside world, where he's actually never been before, to hunt for his human, or at least some other human to feed and care for him and his friends until their friend Darcy comes back. The more he hunts, the more he becomes sure that she is not going to be coming back on her own.