The book focusses on Meredith, a 16 year old American girl who fancies a summer break looking after her white horse (who is hopefully pregnant), turtle watching and hanging out with her friends. However, her mother – recovering from cancer – sends her to Egypt to help Meredith’s aunt in a dig. There she becomes aware of two other people: Meru who lives 4000 years into the future and Meritre who lives 4000 years in the past (as a singer for the female pharoh). All are tied together through a sickness/plague and they have to help Meru save the future from a plague.


I got this Young Adult book through Librarything’s Early Reviewer batch, and opted for it based on the summary. I was pleasantly surprised that a YA fiction book was easy to read and not patronising (something I specifically dislike about YA books).


This book suffered slightly in being the last book of 2012, during a busy Birthday and Christmas period, which meant it became the first finish of 2013 instead. The start was a little shaky, where I feared Meredith was going to be a stroppy teenager (and she was, just a little). However, when the other two characters came in, the telling became much better, and Meru in particular was realised well and a natural expansion of our current reliance on the web. The progression of the story was good, and the dealing with death (all three characters have people close to them who die).


The book ended quite quickly, and leaves the line open for other stories (I would be almost disappointed if Tarr HASN’T written more books in this series - it opens up so many opportunities to continue this world…..
( )

The book focusses on Meredith, a 16 year old American girl who fancies a summer break looking after her white horse (who is hopefully pregnant), turtle watching and hanging out with her friends. However, her mother – recovering from cancer – sends her to Egypt to help Meredith’s aunt in a dig. There she becomes aware of two other people: Meru who lives 4000 years into the future and Meritre who lives 4000 years in the past (as a singer for the female pharoh). All are tied together through a sickness/plague and they have to help Meru save the future from a plague.


I got this Young Adult book through Librarything’s Early Reviewer batch, and opted for it based on the summary. I was pleasantly surprised that a YA fiction book was easy to read and not patronising (something I specifically dislike about YA books).


This book suffered slightly in being the last book of 2012, during a busy Birthday and Christmas period, which meant it became the first finish of 2013 instead. The start was a little shaky, where I feared Meredith was going to be a stroppy teenager (and she was, just a little). However, when the other two characters came in, the telling became much better, and Meru in particular was realised well and a natural expansion of our current reliance on the web. The progression of the story was good, and the dealing with death (all three characters have people close to them who die).


The book ended quite quickly, and leaves the line open for other stories (I would be almost disappointed if Tarr HASN’T written more books in this series - it opens up so many opportunities to continue this world…..
( )

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.

I bought this audiobook. ( )

A weird and interesting story. I find Meredith the least interesting of the three, so it's a pity she's the main voice - she keeps going off and sulking, very annoying. The most childish of the three girls...hmm, an interesting comment on modern times, if that was intended. Meritre is enjoyable - very capable and competent, and interesting views on life (and death). I like Meru best, though I wonder if one reason she was being considered for starpilot is that she doesn't really prefer Consensus. She reminds me rather of Theo in the Liaden Universe - trained and raised to peace and consensus, but when the chips are down her choices are always to go it alone (or as alone as she can manage!). I did, deliberately, keep my emotions detached from the story - I've had a couple recent scares with my parents, and I think that if I'd tried to integrate their emotions I'd have broken down and been unable to read the book. It carries some pretty heavy messages. But the final one is hopeful, at least - life goes on. ( )

Meritre, Meredith, and Meru are three teens sharing one soul. Their lives become entwined, though they live thousands of years apart. From ancient Egypt to present day, to 4,000 years in the future, these girls must somehow work together to stop a plague.

This is the kind of book I would have devoured as a young teen, and one I'm very happy to have read now. Each girl has her own crisis to face, but they never have to do it alone. Even before they find each other, we are shown how important to them are the bonds they have formed: with their mothers, their pets and their friends. In this setting, part fantasy and part science fiction, these girls felt very real to me. ( )