Summer Snow [Paperback]

William T. Hathaway (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 11, 2005

A spiritual novel set now amidst the war on terrorism as an American warrior falls in love with a Sufi mystic and learns from her an alternative to the military mentality. As US Special Forces battle al-Qaeda, the escalating violence threatens their future together and the lives of thousands in her country. To save them, she shows him an ancient transcendental way to bring peace to the collective consciousness and prevent terrorism. But can they make it work in time? A story of love in the shadow of destruction, SUMMER SNOW blends passion, adventure, and mystic wisdom to convey its theme that higher consciousness is more effective than violence and that women may be more able than men to lead us there.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

SUMMER SNOW is a spiritual novel set now amidst the war on terrorism as an American warrior falls in love with a Sufi mystic and learns from her an alternative to the military mentality. As US Special Forces battle al-Qaeda, the escalating violence threatens their future together and the lives of thousands in her country. To save them, she shows him an ancient transcendental way to bring peace to the collective consciousness and prevent terrorism. But can they make it work in time? A story of love in the shadow of destruction, SUMMER SNOW blends passion, adventure, and mystic wisdom to convey its theme that higher consciousness is more effective than violence and that women may be more able than men to lead us there.

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Avatar Publications (September 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 097384423X
• ISBN-13: 978-0973844238
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,975,403 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars of war zones & eternity, June 19, 2006

By 

Rebecca Brown "rebeccasreads" (Clallam Bay, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Summer Snow (Paperback)

Rebeccasreads highly recommends SUMMER SNOW as a lively adventure story about love in a time of war. It's also, mainly, a deeply religious & spiritual tale describing transcendental meditation, the history of Sufism & insights into who we are, what we're doing & where we're going.

In this time of post-9/11, US Special Forces doing battle with al-Qaeda in faraway places, come now to Kyrgyzstan where Cholpon is a farmer of honeydew melons. She's also a lifelong member of an ashram with both Vedic & Muslim traditions, which bought an abandoned Soviet collective farm in a valley high in the mountains.

Now the leader of the ashram tells Cholpon of a vision -- that she is to take a load of produce into Bishkek, the distant market town, sell it, bank the earnings... & await her destiny there.

Meanwhile, Jeff Madsen, no longer a youngster in Vietnam, awakens to gunfire. Trying to get a grip on reality, he knows the sound of battle yet can't place himself nor the woman beside him. Finally remembering he's now in the State Department administering foreign aid he watches a raid on the Kyrgyz Air Force Base across the street.

Old warrior that he is, he knows what he's seeing: a unit of intruders blasting the gates, rushing into the base & then returning with something heavy on a pallet which they load into their truck. Old warrior that he is, he gets out into the shadowed street, takes up the weapon of a fallen guard & shoots at the leaving truck, hitting the driver. The vehicle slows & intruders pour from the back. As Base guards arrive to do battle, one of the intruders lobs a grenade & Jeff dives for cover.

Punctured by shrapnel, he staggers back to the apartment where his lover refuses to let him in. As he stumbles along the hallway, heading out, another door opens & another woman asks him if he's hurt.

Cholpon's destiny has arrived.

With equal skill William T. Hathaway, in his debut novel, writes about war zones & battles & meditation & eternity.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sufi mysticism, love, war, and hope in the Middle East, October 13, 2005

By 

Laurel Johnson (Kansas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Summer Snow (Paperback)

No country on earth is exempt from ruthless power mongers who buy and sell violence and destruction on a daily basis. Humankind is overwhelmed with chaos. This story of an American warrior in love with a Sufi woman is a standout, thanks to William Hathaway's exceptional writing style.

The harm we do others always comes back to us. No one understands that cosmic law better than Jeff Madsen. Madsen is a Vietnam era veteran still haunted by his experiences there. His position as U.S. State Department Foreign Aid officer in Kyrgyzstan is playing politics and little else. His marriage is in shambles. His job is a balancing act, placating the Russian and Kyrgyz military while trying not to offend Muslim potentates. When terrorists steal a weapon of mass destruction, Jeff's warrior instincts resurface.

Cholpon is a Sufi sister in her mid thirties. She lives in a remote mountainous area of Kyrgyzstan and has survived

communism and Muslim mullahs who despise the Sufis. For fifteen years she's learned to harness transcendental meditation and astral channeling to strengthen her chakras. Cholpon meets her karma head on in the person of Jeff Madsen, who shows up on her doorstep bleeding from a terrorist attack nearby. She soon becomes a loving spark of life to a heart Jeff thought was dead.

Learning the Sufi way of harmony and peace transforms the warrior. He understands such peaceful unterventions may be the only chance Earth has of surviving endless war. When Cholpon and her gentle sisters locate the stolen atomic warhead, Jeff fears for their survival. Will the Sufi's peaceful interventions or man's warring nature save millions from destruction?

This touching love story is also a modern day adventure thriller that blends Sufi mystics, militant terrorists, metaphysical mysteries, and double dealing men of every nationality in surprising ways. This is a true picture of the world we live in as it is, and as it could be if lasting love

and peace were possible.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Summer Snow melds militarism with mysticism, March 3, 2006

By 

Mary Simmons "simmonsmry" (Wroxeter, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Summer Snow (Paperback)

Combining a story of the military with Sufi mysticism, William T. Hathaway manages to conquer the two topics in a cohesive work of fiction in his novel `Summer Snow.'

A Vietnam veteran, Jeff Madsen, finds himself in the midst of the war on terrorism in Kyrgyzstan, where he meets a Sufi mystic, Cholpon, who is trying to achieve peace through the collective consciousness under the tutelage of her shayka or spiritual teacher, Djamila.

In `Summer Snow' Hathaway explores how everything is connected. When shown against a backdrop of political conflict and the possibility of a nuclear bomb being set off, it shows the futility of war since the universe is inside of us just as we are in it. Therefore, an attempt to destroy it is an attempt to destroy ourselves. All it accomplishes is setting us further from our goal of enlightenment and true inner glory. The physical things are maimed, but the spiritual energy lives on.

While Jeff attempts to escape from his violent past through alcoholism, Cholpon struggles with a far more distant past - a past life in which it appears she and Jeff were unable to fulfill their desires. As they come together in this life during this violent and tumultuous time, their love reawakens and they find themselves immersed in circumstances far out of the realm of their every day lives.

In contrast to Djamila and Cholpon's world, where they are one with the universe, there is Jeff's world where he is constantly fighting battles he can never win.

In the midst of this story, when taken into the context of the world we now live in, there is a political message against the leaders of the world who use violence as a means to solve the problems of their nations. Hathaway is clearly advocating peace. The vision he presents in `Summer Snow' offers an alternative in dealing with perceived enemies.

This vision is a beautiful one, offering the possibility that meditation can change the consciousness of those who continue the warfare. Take a pause and think about what this could mean for our world. Unfortunately, as Djamila says in the book, "we are too few, too late. So now Kali must have her dance." The goddess of destruction takes over and those who live through it must deal with what is left afterwards.

`Summer Snow' is a compelling read, offering a unique perspective on war and peace. It blends suspense, passion and spirituality in a thriller that not only gets your heart racing, but also challenges your mind and spirit to be aware of their place in the universe as "little cells of the great body of God, each with a job to do."