The Sacred Pool [Hardcover]

L. Warren Douglas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2, 2001

A MILLENNIUM IN PROVENCE

A lost little girl weeps in the high wilderness, and her cries are heard...Is her rescuer a crazy, lonely woodsman, or a timeworn Celtic god, and she his only believer? Does an ancient female deity live beside the pool, among the ancient trees of the cool beech grove, or is she little Pierette's "imaginary friend," a poor substitute for a murdered mother?

Will the Black Time come, when dark, evil machines tower over the sunny little harbor of Citharista and all the goodness of the world is locked in an ebon box, or will young Pierette indeed become the great sorceress of her dreams, with fire at her fingertips to stem the evil tide?

Journey with her across the ancient landscape, wander among the bleaching limestone bones of dragons that lie still atop the hills, and see for yourself whether the old gods yet endure....

The Sacred Pool stands at the midpoint of a vast historic tapestry, looking both forward and back: From the sea-girt Paleolithic caves of Sormiou and the enchanted forests of ancient Gaul, to the steamy swamps of Midicor IV, a million years hence; from old Polybius in his leather tent at the siege of Numantia, to Achibol the Charlatan in a cybernetic fortress buried beneath the Columbia Icefields of Alberta, L. Warren Douglas is there -- and he takes his readers with him.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As the first in Douglas's projected trilogy the Sorcerer's Tale, this highly literate, intricately allusive alternative Dark Ages fantasy ingeniously explores the evolution of myths that sprang from various pagan roots to blossom into Christian tradition. Douglas's delightful heroine, Pierette, lives in coastal Provence sometime between the eighth and the ninth centuries A.D., when a succession of pillaging invadersDSaracens, Christians, Huns and VikingsDleft their marks (and not a few offspring) on the native Proven als. Child of a cowardly olive-grove farmer and an ethereal woods-dweller stoned as a witch by scapegoat-seeking villagers, Pierette eventually grows into a full-fledged sorceress capable of shaping reality to her requirements. Buoyed by the sacred spring, Ma, where her mother's spirit guides her growth, Pierette learns to pierce the Veil of Years, traveling through time and space to an early Stone Age tribe and to the Atlantean Fortunate Isles. Pierette's quest is to undermine the "terrible sameness" of skepticism that institutionalized Christianity induces. Douglas brilliantly highlights many of the pagan foundation-stones that supported the early Christian church through characters loosely based on historical and mythic figures as well as his own creations. His central philosophical preoccupation concerns the coexistence of good and evil, which he presents as two sides of the same concept, rather than two opposing forces. Immensely readable and elegantly simple in execution, this vivid reimagining of Western humanity's turbid adolescence engages, enchants and enthralls. (Jan.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Raised as a boy for her own protection and to preserve her father's lands, the child known as Pierrette or Piers becomes the focus of a grand quest for knowledge. Pierrette's uniqueness results in a journey of discovery and self-awareness at a time when Christianity wars with older religions for prominence in Roman-occupied Europe. Based on research into the history and language of France's Proven al region, this work by the author of Simply Human details a little-known era of history, portraying a world infused with the magic of religion and nature and caught in a crucible of changing beliefs. For most fantasy collections.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Baen; 1St Edition edition (January 2, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671319566
• ISBN-13: 978-0671319564
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,116,409 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Sacred PoolFantasy and More, January 26, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Sacred Pool (Hardcover)

In The Sacred Pool L. Warren Douglas has achieved two goals. He has told a well-characterized coming-of-age story about a young woman who is also a sorceress, set in a historical context not widely visted in this genre before. He has also begun a process of exploring the very nature of language, cultural perceptions, and how both of those change the nature of religion and magic in our minds and in the world around us. Without espousing a single belief system, it makes the nature of divine forces as important a component of the story as the characters and their actions.

Gripping as this story is, it is also one that will make the reader stop to think about how they look at the world. This book is the first volume in a trilogy, and it looks as though the exploration of the natures of perception and the world will continue with the following volumes.

What may startle many is that the story is easily accessible, and the author's scholarship is not obtrusive. This is a fun book to read. Enjoy it. Think about it. Read it again, as I already have. This isn't just for the reader, but for sharing with the people the reader likes to discuss their best discoveries with.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought-provoking, July 12, 2002

By 

Kelly (Fantasy Literature) (Columbia, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Sacred Pool (Mass Market Paperback)

The nature of magic changes, this novel theorizes, as human beliefs change. First there was matriarchal paganism, then patriarchal paganism, then the coming of Christianity, then reason and science, and each of them affected people's assumptions about how the world works. In medieval Provence, where all of these belief systems co-exist, a worker of magic never knows for sure who or what she will call up when she casts a spell. For some spells don't work anymore, and others work in frightening new ways. And with the rise of Christianity, and the idea that everything is either absolutely good or absolutely evil, the old gods and spirits are in trouble. They meet one of two fates: They either become prim Christian saints, or are subsumed into the figure of Satan. Needless to say, the practice of magic is perilous these days, and a sorceress must always be on her toes.

Enter Pierrette, an intelligent young girl who sees an apocalyptic vision of the future. She can only save the world by training to become a sorceress, and _The Sacred Pool_ is the story of her education. Pierrette must experiment with long-forgotten spells and newfangled science in order to defeat a demon that plagues her sister, and in the long run, to save magic itself from being destroyed.

This book starts out slow, but gets interesting once Pierrette begins her studies. It is thought-provoking and intelligent, and one of the few novels dealing with paganism and Christianity that says anything more profound than that one is "good" and one is "bad" (take your pick which is which; there are plenty of books taking each side). If you like fantasy that makes you think, check out this tale of magic, belief, science, and philosophy.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scientific magic? It works for me, April 4, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Sacred Pool (Hardcover)

As a Christian, I was offended by some parts of this book, but that in no way detracts from Douglas' amazing ability both to tell a story and to recreate the past.

I enjoyed accompanying Pierette on her journey through life and regretted parting company when I reached the last page. Sacred Pool is the first book by L. Warren Douglas and I am eager to read others. The author has a rare genius for storytelling, innovative ideas, and obviously knows his history. While the idea that gods and magic depend on humanity's collective belief in them is not a new one, Douglas takes this paradigm to amazing extremes, reality and time itself is mutable and dependent on human perception.

Sacred Pool cannot be categorized as a single genre: it's either a fantasy with elements of science fiction or a sci-fi book that reads like fantasy, its the story of a young woman trying to discover herself and the world, and its a recreation of midevial France so realistic you can almost hear the crashing waves and see the Eagle's Beak in the distance as you read. The book is also filled with the historical origins behind many of the truthes and traditions embraced by today's religions, and though I remain a Christian, Douglas has openned my eyes to many things I had taken for granted.

I recommend this book to anyone and everyone.