This story, part 2 of a trilogy, is about Miranda, a young woman whose interest in physics leads to more theoretical subjects like hyperspace and alternate universes. A friend of her mother, Willa Carson, agrees to take Miranda on a trip to Peru to visit sites like Macchu Picchu. Her parents aren't exactly thrilled at the idea, but they agree. On the way to Peru, the plans change. The two women join an expedition led by a woman named Margot, looking for a city called Tanum. It's inside an Andean mountain and is the home of an ancient civilization called the Ugha Mongulala. On the plane to Peru, Miranda has a dream. Her friend, Opal Courtright, now part of a higher consciousness being called Sappho (read part 1), tells Miranda that they will meet in Tanum.
After several days travel through impenetrable Andean jungle, the entrance to Tanum is found. While exploring subterranean tunnels, an earthquake strikes and Miranda is badly injured. The people of Ugha Mongulala come to the rescue, bring the three women to Tanum, and nurse Miranda back to health. There is enough light and fresh air in this underground city to support 2,000 people; they have been on Earth for thousands of years, and went underground to escape "white barbarians." Meantime, the earthquake that injured Miranda wasn't just an earthquake. It was part of a worldwide catastrophe that included, among other things, Earth's rotation stopping for three full days.
Miranda attracts the attention of an ethereal, androgynous, even more ancient, race called the Els, who take Miranda into another realm for a visit. She is given all sorts of ancient knowledge and wisdom, which she, in turn, is to preach to the people of Earth. When the three women are returned to "reality," Miranda is compelled to go into the jungle alone, following her own path.
Those who are interested in New Age concepts, like higher states of consciousness and ancient civilizations, will love this book. For everyone else, it's grounded enough in reality, and weird enough, to be very much recommended.
Rebeccasreads recommends THE EL-EVENTH HOUR for readers with a taste for transcendental, "significant" quests that involve shape-shifting through space & time, adorned with fragments from our collective memories & yearnings to understand the divine. In other parts, it is oddly pragmatic & passionless.
THE EL-EVENTH HOUR is a series of tales of wondering & wandering, learning & leaving, & perhaps, the exploration of the spiritual experience.
The second in The Third Verse trilogy, the first being THE TENTH MUSE, Lily Stephen writes "wisdom-focused modern mythology", & exhibits extensive knowledge of all things "alternate", as well as an often lyrical way with words.
