Customer Reviews

Nothing Sacred

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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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!

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.

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

At first, I was cautious, because this book was not something I would normally read. However, the book quickly drew me in, and it has become one of my favorites. Very re-readable.