Living in Threes

By: Judith Tarr

Narrated by: Emma Galvin

From the author of the classic Hound and the Falcon trilogy (The Isle of Glass, The Golden Horn, and The Hounds of God) and the World Fantasy Award nominee Lord of the Two Lands, for the first time in four years, a new, original, and never before published title - and it is very special indeed: Three lives. Three worlds. Three times. Three young women, past, present, and future, come together to solve an age-old mystery and save a world. Meredith has the summer all planned. She'll hang out with her friends, ride her horse, and spend time with her mom, who is recovering from cancer. Then her mom drops a bomb: she's sending Meredith to Egypt to dig up mummies with her aunt the archaeologist. Meredith doesn't want to go. At all. But there are more forces at work than a 16th-birthday present she doesn't want and a summer she didn't plan - and a greater adventure than she could ever have imagined. Meru lives in a far-future Earth, where disease has been eliminated and humans travel through the stars in living ships. Meru and her friend Yoshi been accepted into the school for starpilots, but just as they're about to leave, a strange message from Meru's mother drives Meru away from her home and family and sends her on a journey to find her mother and save the people of Earth from a terrible plague. Meritre is a singer in the Temple of Amon in ancient Egypt. Her people have survived a devastating plague, but Meritre is foresighted, and what she sees is terrifying. As she tries to find a magical spell that will keep her family and friends safe, the gods take one last life - and that life, and death, resonate through Meredith and Meru to the end of time.

©2012 Judith Tarr (P)2013 Audible Inc.

Three young women find their lives intertwined

Meritre is a Temple Singer in the Temple of Amon, four thousand years ago. The recent plague that has killed so many is finally ending, but it's going to take one last victim before it's over.

Meredith is a teenager in our day, planning a summer of riding with her friends and caring for her recently bred mare, when her mother announces that as her sixteenth birthday present, she's going to Egypt to take part in a dig with her archaeologist aunt.

Meru, four thousand years in the future, has, along with her friend Yoshi, qualified for starpilot training. Unfortunately, Meru's mother, who has been chasing down the source of a mysterious plague hitting many planets, has secretly returned home--and died, leaving a package keyed so that only Meru can open it.

These three young women are connected, in some sense the same person, and a little scarab pendant enables them, unexpectedly, to communicate with each other. Each of them is confronting larger forces than they know, and the connection between them is key to finding the solution.

The girls each live in very different worlds, despite all those worlds being our own Earth. It's not just the technology levels that are different; they all live in very different family structures, and different expectations for their behavior and future lives. Yet they are also very closely connected, and find the connection helps them deal with their individual problems as well as their shared problems.

All three young women, and their friends, are wonderfully portrayed, clear, and complex, and likable. All three worlds feel believable and lived-in. The narrator does a great job, and has an excellent voice for these characters.

Highly recommended.

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