The Threshold [Hardcover]

Marlys Millhiser (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 334 pages
• Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons; First Edition edition (December 3, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399130128
• ISBN-13: 978-0399130120
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,668,115 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A lot to love for the living history lover, not so much for everyone else., November 30, 2008

By 

Imez - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Threshold (Mass Market Paperback)

Aletha is sketching a century old abandoned miner's shack when a little girl appears through a tiny rip in time and space. They only see each other for a second, and then the rip closes back. With Aletha's sketchbook still in 1900.

The little girl Callie and the woman Aletha are tied together, rifts opening at random, enabling passing between the two times in the same town, a bloody troubled mining town in Callie's time and a tourist attraction in Aletha's. Aletha repeatedly gets trapped in the past, wanders a bit, then finds her way back.

I love this story, but mostly because it is my favorite kind of story. I'm the kind of person who will stand in front of a support beam in an old building for an hour, touching it just because I know a person 80 years dead once also touched it. This book was written for me.

It delivers the "what would I do if I got trapped in 1900?" adventure. And a few of the character story arcs, mostly the old time women and the crap they have to deal with, are really compelling.

Otherwise, I hate to admit, it is a bit shambly. A lot of uninteresting characters yipping around the few good ones. The most common occurrence is a secondary character darting into a scene, saying "You're all crazy!" and darting out again. Happens over and over. And the story gets sidetracked with miner's revolts and union corruption.

And the payoff is so small, so unsatisfying. Maybe there is a sequel that explains all the loosey goosey ends.

Better to read Millhiser's "The Mirror" which delivers the same good stuff with almost none of the jumbly unsatisfying stuff.