Beyond the Garden by S.Y. Thompson

Beyond the Garden by S.Y. Thompson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book here is the second in a row that involved a character named Lilith. I mean, the same Lilith who was the first female. Different author, different character level (as in main vs barely there side character), different interpretation (one’s an evil woman who is the mother of succubus and other demons (I’ve heard/seen other descriptions that list her as the mother of vampires, but I am uncertain if that was included in the prior book), while the other version is . . . well, less evil, though not necessarily good).

So, this Lilith, the one in this book here, is one of the two main characters. Her and a ‘Dana’. The two first meet when Lilith teleports (yes this version of Lilith is also magical) to Istanbul from Maine. To kiss a little girl. After kissing the sleeping little girl, Lilith runs into a confrontation in an alley. She doesn’t particularly desire to get involved, but notices that it appears to be men attacking women. And she doesn’t like that. So she gets involved. And easily kills them (this version is also super strong and a martial artist type). One of the two women being attacked, though, is dead. The other is Dana. Lilith helps Dana arrange to get back to the states.

The book then proceeds to show some scenes from both of their prospective before returning them together again – on the hunt for the Garden of Eden (though all Dana knows is that the woman who helped her wants a diver, and since Dana is both an advanced diving instructor and a scientist, she agrees to help Lilith). The hunt takes place in the Middle East.

Lilith/Lillian (she goes by Lillian at the moment – or during the course of the book) has a personality that is quite off-putting. But then something clicked in me and I actually decided to add 0.25 stars to the book. For Lilith really is like a different intelligent species in a way, first female human, but she’s also immortal and, while there are people in the Bible who are said to have lived hundreds of years (I think 600 might have been the max), all of them are dead now. But for Lilith. Who continues on. Alive. So she really is like an alien creature living amongst us.

I should probably remove that 0.25 for other issues though. Things in the book that seem vaguely . . . off. Like – she has the power to have her helpers basically remain immortal – at least so far that’s been the case. Yet she keeps going on and on about how she can’t allow herself to love because ‘they will die’. Um. What? She has the bloody power to grant a certain level of immortality to another – see her ‘helper’ women. So . . . what exactly is she belly-aching about? Hell, one or more of these women even used to be ex-girlfriends (well, one at least), so it’s not like there is some issue with dating your help and/or granting this ‘power’.

Right, whatever. The point of the book is that two women meet – one is searching desperately for a way to kill herself (hence the hunt for the Garden of Eden, which apparently has some artifact that will allow her to kill herself); while the other is attempting to get over the fact that her best friend – from childhood – died during their vacation. Oh, and both have a certain lust for the other. A vaguely odd and unexplainable (and unexplained) spark between them (re: unexplained – unlike everyone else on Earth, Lilith/Lillian can’t ‘read’ Dana – sense her emotions; no explanation was ever given for this issue).

Interesting enough book. Certain issues here and there. Kind of dry and stiff. Even while exciting things are done/found, like excavations; finding their convoy caught in a cross-fire during war; etc.

As a side note – why are the Goddesses always depicted as being, on some level, insane? Like here. Or in that Hot Damned series. And elsewhere. Granted, Gods and the like can be depicted that way as well, but it seems near 100% of the time, the female creator types are depicted as some level of insane. Just a random thought in passing.

ETA: oh, one last thought that I was going to quickly mention. I like the other cover of this book more than this cover here - 'this cover here' being the one with the woman dangling off the front of a boat in a bikini (in case the cover gets changed on me). While there are at least two different occasions that 'boating' occurs, I do not believe either included anyone in bikinis and . . . the cover gives the wrong impression of what this book is about.

27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

- Genesis 1:27 New King James Version - this, it is noted in a Wiki article on Lilith, is implying that Lilith was made at the same time as Adam from the same materials - and later Eve was created from bits of Adam. (Not exactly that Lilith was, but that a woman was - since there are two mentions of creation, and the first, the one above, already makes mention of both a man and a woman before mention of creating Eve from Adam - implication being that there was a woman made at the same time as Adam's creation).

Rating: 3.50

March 21 2017



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