Threshold FROM OUR EDITORS
The Barnes & Noble Review
Bestselling Australian fantasy writer Sara Douglass, author of the epic Wayfarer Redemption saga (BattleAxe, Enchanter, StarMan, etc.), has penned a stand-alone novel entitled Threshold, set in a fantasy world reminiscent of ancient Egypt. The main character, a slave girl named Tirzah, must somehow persuade her master, Magus Boaz, to stop construction of a centuries-long project -- a gigantic glass pyramid called Threshold -- that will theoretically open a passage to Infinity and give the Magi of Ashdod immortality. What the Magi don't realize is that there may be something on the other side of the dimensional portal that will be unleashed once Threshold is completed.
The project, which has cost untold hundreds of slaves their lives, is almost complete when Tirzah and her father -- highly skilled glassworkers enslaved because an unpaid gambling debt -- are brought to Ashdod to help finish the pyramid. Tirzah soon joins forces with other slaves in a plot to overthrow the Magi and somehow destroy Threshold.
Douglass states on her web site (www.saradouglass.com), that Threshold is her favorite book. You may well agree with her.
Paul Goat Allen
FROM THE PUBLISHER
In Hominids, Nebula Award-winning author Robert J. Sawyer introduced a character readers will never forget: Ponter Boddit, a Neanderthal physicist from a parallel Earth who was whisked from his reality into ours by a quantum-computing experiment gone awry - making him the ultimate stranger in a strange land.
Now, in Hybrids, Ponter Boddit and his Homo sapiens lover, geneticist Mary Vaughan, are torn between two worlds, struggling to find a way to make their star-crossed relationship work. Aided by banned Neanderthal technology, they plan to conceive the first hybrid child, a symbol of hope for the joining of their two versions of reality.
But after an experiment shows that Mary's religious faith - something completely absent in Neanderthals - is a quirk of the neurological wiring of Homo sapiens brains, Ponter and Mary must decide whether their child should be predisposed to atheism or belief. Meanwhile, as Mary's Earth is dealing with a collapse of its planetary magnetic field, her boss, the enigmatic Jock Krieger, has turned envious eyes on the unspoiled Eden that is the Neanderthal world ...
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Australian author Douglass (The Wayfarer Redemption) offers a stand-alone fantasy rich in detail, action and romance. In Ashdod, "the land of the One," where a mathematics-based religion holds sway, the glassworker slave Tirzah, an "elemental," can hear glass speak. Set to work at Threshold, a pyramid being built by the Magi of Ashdod as a bridge to Infinity, Tirzah must hide her elemental status or risk death. Meanwhile, a malevolent shadow power, Nzame, is lurking in Infinity, waiting to use Threshold to break through into Ashdod. Only Tirzah, with her uncanny magical ability, hears the glass in the pyramid screaming a warning. For all its complexity, this absorbing narrative flows with ease to a highly satisfactory conclusion. (Sept. 22) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
As the pyramid named Threshold rises in the land of Ashdod, the culmination of the plans of the Magi to rise to the realm of Infinity, slaves live and die for the sake of constructing the grand edifice. A slave glassholder named Tirzah attracts the attention of the Magi, who tries to discover her hidden talent. The author of "The Wayfarer Redemption" series crafts a standalone novel that features an intelligent and ingenious heroine whose knowledge of impending doom may hold the key to preventing a worldwide catastrophe. Douglass has proven herself a fine storyteller, and here she does it again. Recommended for most fantasy collections. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Stand-alone fantasy-romance in a quasi-Egyptian setting. Australian author Douglass (the Wayfarer Redemption series) tells the story of Tirzah, a young woman sold into slavery along with her father. Master glassworkers from a northern island, the two are sent to the southern kingdom of Ashdod to help build Threshold, a huge glass-covered pyramid. The Magi in charge of the project are skeptical of Tirzah's ability to do the fine work required; Boaz, the master Mage, contemptuously destroys the beautiful glass sculpture she makes to show her skill, though he still sends her to work on Threshold. There, she learns from other glassmaking slaves that her skill comes from an awareness of the Soulenai, elemental spirits that inhabit glass and other natural substances. She also learn that the Magi forbid worship of any but the One, the harsh deity to whom Threshold is meant to be a doorway. When Boaz takes her as his concubine, the other slaves urge her to spy on the Magi, to aid the slaves in rebellion against their masters. Surprisingly, Boaz is not interested in sexual favors; instead, he intends to teach Tirzah to read, so that she can translate a book written in a northern language similar to her own. The book, she learns, is one from which Boaz's mother once read him stories: in particular, one about the song of the frogs. From this point, the Mage begins to reveal his human side, and Tirzah begins to love him. But Threshold continues to grow, and its evil becomes obvious to all except the Magi. When catastrophe finally strikes, Tirzah and Boaz lead a group of slaves into exile, from which they hope to return to combat the evil. Formulaic, but Douglass brings many original touches to thetelling, effectively using vivid imagery to flesh out her exotic setting: a strong romantic plot in an unusual fantasy setting.
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