From Publishers Weekly
Following two well-received werewolf novels (The Passion and The Promise), Boyd scores again with this engrossing tale of magic and immortality that calls to mind Anne Rice in her prime. Into the New York office of Dr. Anne Kramer, therapist, walks the charismatic Randolph Sontime, who's just committed a gruesome murder that's led to headlines full of outrage. Not easily rattled, Dr. Kramer finds herself losing her professional cool as the stranger tries to explain his crime. "Imagine if you will the days spinning backward: a millennium ends here, a century turns there, a year ends now, and another, and a thousand others," he says at the start of his hypnotizing story of "Egypt before time." Han, as Sontime was then called, tells in beautiful, luxurious detail of his youth spent in the House of Ra, a mystical temple where Practitioners learned alchemy, magic and ways to shape reality. When Han and two other students at the top of the class, the boy Akan and the girl Nefar, combined their magics one fateful day, the trio unleashed a power that they could neither understand nor control. Thereafter a passion for creating a perfect world ruled their lives, but since their magic was imperfect, their lofty schemes invariably came to ruin. Love, jealousy, insanity and murder all figure in this pitch-perfect narrative, while the House of Ra ranks high on the list of fantasy's most intriguing magic schools. Though some readers may feel the book is too short, the incendiary twist ending holds out the promise of more to come. (Jan. 2)Forecast: Romance readers as well as SF fans should go for this atypical fantasy in which ancient magic is in effect the same as today's technology.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Alchemist FROM THE PUBLISHER
In a sweeping epic of dazzling magic, soaring suspense, and dark longing, three immortal souls are united by fate and a fearless ambition that will change the course of history–even as it destroys their own way of life. . . .
On an upper floor of a plush, high-security building on Central Park West, an elegant man sits in the office of Dr. Anne Kramer, confessing to the heinous murder that has horrified the modern world. Randolf Sontime is renowned for his personal charm, and Dr. Kramer is fighting to keep from falling victim to it. For the first time in her life, she truly understands the meaning of the word “charisma.” Not knowing that her own destiny is irrevocably tied to his, Anne Kramer listens to the story of Sontime’s life.
“It began with the magic, you see. And so, perforce, must I.” As a boy named Han at the House of Ra, an isolated oasis in the Egyptian desert of a far ancient time, Sontime lived in privilege. There the chosen were trained in the science of alchemy–magic, philosophy, miracles. Only two other initiates were as skilled as he: Akan, quiet and studious, a boy whose thirst for knowledge was matched only by his hunger for truth; and Nefar, beautiful and brilliant, a girl as filled with wonder and unfathomable ambition as Han himself. Together they discovered that in union, theirs was a power unmatched in the physical world.
But even in the House of Ra, there were boundaries to be observed, knowledge that only the masters understood and feared. As the threesome’s thirst for answers–and for each other–deepened, they were tempted by the dark arts that they had sworn toavoid. “Look at three magnificent youths who stand astride your world and scoff at the rules you must obey. . . . Look at us, and call us gods.” Their power was palpable, their desire total–until the fateful moment when their alliance was forever damned, their gifts horribly corrupted.
A seductive work that seethes with mystery and passion, The Alchemist hurtles readers back through time to an era when magic was sacred and the workings of the world lay in the hands of a few gifted, but tortured souls. In a stunning feat of unbridled imagination, Donna Boyd has created her most hypnotic novel to date.
SYNOPSIS
In a sweeping epic of dazzling magic, soaring suspense, and dark longing, three immortal souls are united by fate and a fearless ambition that will change the course of historyﾽeven as it destroys their own way of life. . . .
On an upper floor of a plush, high-security building on Central Park West, an elegant man sits in the office of Dr.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Following two well-received werewolf novels (The Passion and The Promise), Boyd scores again with this engrossing tale of magic and immortality that calls to mind Anne Rice in her prime. Into the New York office of Dr. Anne Kramer, therapist, walks the charismatic Randolph Sontime, who's just committed a gruesome murder that's led to headlines full of outrage. Not easily rattled, Dr. Kramer finds herself losing her professional cool as the stranger tries to explain his crime. "Imagine if you will the days spinning backward: a millennium ends here, a century turns there, a year ends now, and another, and a thousand others," he says at the start of his hypnotizing story of "Egypt before time." Han, as Sontime was then called, tells in beautiful, luxurious detail of his youth spent in the House of Ra, a mystical temple where Practitioners learned alchemy, magic and ways to shape reality. When Han and two other students at the top of the class, the boy Akan and the girl Nefar, combined their magics one fateful day, the trio unleashed a power that they could neither understand nor control. Thereafter a passion for creating a perfect world ruled their lives, but since their magic was imperfect, their lofty schemes invariably came to ruin. Love, jealousy, insanity and murder all figure in this pitch-perfect narrative, while the House of Ra ranks high on the list of fantasy's most intriguing magic schools. Though some readers may feel the book is too short, the incendiary twist ending holds out the promise of more to come. (Jan. 2) Forecast: Romance readers as well as SF fans should go for this atypical fantasy in which ancient magic is in effect the same as today's technology. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Boyd sets aside the werewolf saga launched so strongly with The Passion (1998) and The Promise (1999) to kick off another shape-shifting series, this one set in ancient Egypt. Han, a lad from the House of Ra, is inducted into the dark alchemy of shifting things from one form to another. In the beginning he and his friend Akan and the beautiful, brilliant Nefar focus on the Practice and change themselves into birds, although they have the shocking problem of returning to weighty human form while midair. Boyd frames the full history of Han with flashbacks from the present as Han, now the billionaire Randolph Sontime, comes into the Manhattan office of analyst Anne Kramer to unload on her his role in a devastating crime now filling TV screens. Back in ancient Egypt, the three students learn physical alchemy but realize that the true key is to make people think they have seen some leaden shadow turned to golden substance. They also realize that their combined power has far greater strength than they would ever know as separate beings. This union is forbidden, and the trio find themselves up against the Master Darius who knows their every thought. They manage to leave the House of Ra, then face terrifying threats, but extraordinary magic stems from their kinetic balance of two male portions of sexual energy and the life-giving force of the female. The time they spend in Thebes becomes overwhelming bliss, but must be weighed against the afterlife paradise they will never know in their endless lives. What must happen is that all three beings combine their DNA into one Ayesha (as in H. Rider Haggard's She). Many rich touches, such as a clock whose pendulum swings with "the heartbeat ofeternity," that Boyd's fans now expect. More to come.
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