Neon Lotus is exactly the kind of book that can only be found by going through a wonderful used book shop or a well-stocked library, and I don't think I would have ever cruised over it on the internet. The author wrote six books in the 80's and 90's, published a short story last year, and is listed on Wikipedia as also being a video game designer.
This book was probably classified under science fiction, but I will consider it fantasy because it involves manifestations of Tibetan deities and deals with reincarnation, even though it takes place 200 years in the future. (Also, I needed more authors starting with the letter "L.") A woman born in New York is the reincarnation of a Tibetan scientist, so she goes to Tibet with the goal of freeing them from the still-ruling Chinese.
I have a fondness for this book because the sections and descriptions with those deities and the machines built to display their manifestiations are so incredibly imaginative -- it brings something to your head that you have never seen before, and that is cool. It was also thoughtful and understanding of the source material, Tibetan Buddhist mythology, which for me was a spiritual compelling to be compassionate despite our human foibles. There were some irritants -- I never really felt an affinity for the main character, Marianne, ever, the storyline was a little too easy and deuses ex machina, and a sharper, more incisive writing would have been nicer.
But I am willing to cringe a little through those things if there is a payoff, and for this book, it was in these intensely imaginative and touching images:
Chenrezi stood above her, strange expressions crossing his eleven faces, while his thousand arms and five thousand fingers flowed like the graceful tendrils of a sea anemone. The fingers brushed each other, touching tip to tip, parting again. Countless intricate patterns formed as the hands and fingers wove in and around one another; connections were made and broken by the instant. His fingers shaped the most elaborate mudras she has ever seen.
Lessons for Writers: Give your readers that which they have never seen or thought of before.
But this author is a writer in the best of ways, because he has always been writing and in love with books. His website is Not So Few Monstrosities.
This book was probably classified under science fiction, but I will consider it fantasy because it involves manifestations of Tibetan deities and deals with reincarnation, even though it takes place 200 years in the future. (Also, I needed more authors starting with the letter "L.") A woman born in New York is the reincarnation of a Tibetan scientist, so she goes to Tibet with the goal of freeing them from the still-ruling Chinese.
I have a fondness for this book because the sections and descriptions with those deities and the machines built to display their manifestiations are so incredibly imaginative -- it brings something to your head that you have never seen before, and that is cool. It was also thoughtful and understanding of the source material, Tibetan Buddhist mythology, which for me was a spiritual compelling to be compassionate despite our human foibles. There were some irritants -- I never really felt an affinity for the main character, Marianne, ever, the storyline was a little too easy and deuses ex machina, and a sharper, more incisive writing would have been nicer.
But I am willing to cringe a little through those things if there is a payoff, and for this book, it was in these intensely imaginative and touching images:
Chenrezi stood above her, strange expressions crossing his eleven faces, while his thousand arms and five thousand fingers flowed like the graceful tendrils of a sea anemone. The fingers brushed each other, touching tip to tip, parting again. Countless intricate patterns formed as the hands and fingers wove in and around one another; connections were made and broken by the instant. His fingers shaped the most elaborate mudras she has ever seen.
Lessons for Writers: Give your readers that which they have never seen or thought of before.
But this author is a writer in the best of ways, because he has always been writing and in love with books. His website is Not So Few Monstrosities.
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