Nothing Sacred [Paperback]

Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Doubleday Books (1980)
• ASIN: B000N758PC
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

More About the Author

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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful read and a learning experience!, May 1, 1999

By 

J. Might (Texas, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nothing Sacred (Paperback)

This book was fast paced and very well written. Numerous characters yet all individual and very real. Really enjoyed learning about Tibet and some of its fables and history. A good story, you won't want to put the book down!! I'm so glad there is a sequel "Last Refuge" so I can continue reading more about this facinating culture!

4.0 out of 5 stars The SF Solzhenitsyn, February 5, 2012

By 

Gary Denton "Liberal Anti-Authoritarian" (Pasadena, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nothing Sacred (Paperback)

This is extremely well written but cannot be said to be a fast or pleasant read. Like in Aleksandr Sollzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich you are immersed in a Hellish concentration camp in a dystopian environment where the writer explores the human condition.

Viveka Vanachek in the late 2060's has escaped the massive unemployment of the former United States by first pursuing advanced degrees and then by enlisting in the North American Allied Forces. She is engaged in monitoring the battle lines and hunting for nuclear devices for the Indians. Americans have shifting alliances in the endless resource wars and are military advisers. Her plane crashes in the mountains of Tibet where she is captured by either the Russians or the Chinese. She is hypnotized after being raped and marched to an underground camp in a remote valley. Her fellow prisoners have been there for years but perhaps due to hypnosis all prisoners have difficulties with dates. As part of her reeducation she is told to write a diary examining her past describing her errors and her guilt. She is also put to work excavating and expanding the underground base and cataloging the books and objects they find. Besides the harsh conditions and her medical problems she becomes haunted by dreams of the huge buried temple/palace the camp is located in.

Scarborough's experiences in Vietnam, like Joe Haldeman's (Forever War), lead her to explore the nature of conflict and humanity in a visionary tale.

5.0 out of 5 stars Shangri La, October 25, 2011

By 

Lopey - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nothing Sacred (Paperback)

I was fascinated by the novel "Lost Horizon" and delighted by the film. Ms. Scarborough updates the story. She adds the frizzon of a world wide holocaust making this mythical kingdom man's last chance.

As always, Ms. Scarborough pulls the spiritual and mystical seamlessly into her story. Rather than a paradise in which everyone sits around and prays, "Nothing Sacred" had the inhabitants working hard to undo the damage done by the Chinese occupation of Tibet and the war. It is in the process of these repairs that the characters learn of the mysterious aspects of this valley and of their own true characters.

Rather than just one main character, "Nothing Sacred" has the leisure to focus on a group, exploring each in terms of their values and history. Eminently readable.Nothing Sacred