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Living in Threes
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 sixteenth-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 have 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.
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 sixteenth-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 have 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.
278 pages, ebook
First published November 20, 2012
About the author
Judith Tarr
108 books401 followersAKA Caitlin Brennan, Kathleen Bryan.
Judith Tarr (born 1955) is an American author, best known for her fantasy books. She received her B.A. in Latin and English from Mount Holyoke College in 1976, and has an M.A. in Classics from Cambridge University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from Yale University. She taught Latin and writing at Wesleyan University from 1988-1992, and taught at the Clarion science-fiction-writing workshops in 1996 and 1999.
She raises and trains Lipizzan horses at Dancing Horse Farm, her home in Vail, Arizona. The romantic fantasies that she writes under the name Caitlin Brennan feature dancing horses modeled on those that she raises.
Judith Tarr (born 1955) is an American author, best known for her fantasy books. She received her B.A. in Latin and English from Mount Holyoke College in 1976, and has an M.A. in Classics from Cambridge University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from Yale University. She taught Latin and writing at Wesleyan University from 1988-1992, and taught at the Clarion science-fiction-writing workshops in 1996 and 1999.
She raises and trains Lipizzan horses at Dancing Horse Farm, her home in Vail, Arizona. The romantic fantasies that she writes under the name Caitlin Brennan feature dancing horses modeled on those that she raises.
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June 29, 2013This is one of those projects that needed the freedom of small press.
Judith Tarr, whose name many of you will recognize, had written the project of her heart--her agent read it, loved it, said, "I'm not sure how to market it." But sent it out anyway. And after a few ice ages had passed, notes came back from editors that boiled down to: Loved it, but not sure how to market it.
So Judy brought it to the rest of us at Book View Cafe. When I read it, I saw what the Big Six was whinnying about: much of the subject matter was definitely YA, without the familiar-these-days love triangle centered around an angsty iteration of Draco Malfoy. Instead of a variation on teenagers enduring some form of gladiatorial violence, there is a nasty plague threatening to go pandemic.
The protagonist is an everyday horse girl, texting constantly with friends in the here-and-now, but there is also a historical element. And a sfnal element.
And a mystery to be solved.
And a fantastic element, in the psychic link across time and space. A fantasy, then? But the subject matter was profoundly real: love, death. Friendship. Dreams and duty. And the big questions: paradigm, meaning, identity.
As Judy worked on the book, no longer constrained by trying to fit it into a definitive marketing slot, those disparate elements became its strength. I read it three times, and though the voice is breezy, at times funny, I teared up all three times.
It starts out the summer Meredith turns sixteen. At last her life seems more or less normal--her mom has recovered from life-threatening illness, her horse Bonnie might be pregnant. Then Mom drops the bomb.
“Seriously?” said Cat. “They’re giving you Egypt for your birthday?” When Cat gets excited she gets squeaky.
She was up in bat territory now.
Between that and the arctic air conditioning and the solar-flare lighting, the Ice Creamery was a migraine waiting to happen. I’d had a psycho break and ordered a Bama Slammer, which was a double banana split with blackberries, pecans, peaches, three different sauces, and enough ice cream to feed a third-world country.
I already had brain freeze from eating the first few spoonfuls too fast. I picked at the rest while Cat gnawed on her Choco-Cone. In between bites she kept squeaking. “Egypt! King Tut! Pyramids! Barging down the Nile!”
“Terrorists,” I said, two solid octaves down from her. “Sandstorms. Mummies.”
Meredith does not want to be packed up and sent overseas, but the adults have decreed, and it's the part of a kid to obey. Even if you're sixteen, so no longer a 'kid.' Meredith is furious, withdraws to write . . . and falls into a vision.
. . . against the wall, a shadow stirred. Wings unfurled, half mist, half solid. Eyes glittered above a drift of fog that might have been a beak. The starwing stroked its half-substantial wingtip across Meru's cheek, a touch like ice and smoke . . .
The vision is not Meredith's story, it's a vision-vision, of a girl named Meru who, with her best friend, a boy named Yoshi, are determined to be picked for star pilot school, but then Meru gets a message that her mother is missing. And Meredith falls out of the vision. What to make of that?
Events begin to accelerate Egyptward, in spite of Meredith's wishes, and it happens again.
A hawk hung on the pinnacle of heaven.
From the temple far below, it looked like a bird of metal suspended in the sky.
The sun’s heat was fierce, but Meritre shivered. The choir was so much smaller than it had been a year ago: so many lost, so many voices silenced. Of those whom the plague had left, too many were thin and pale, and their singing barely rippled the air above the courtyard.
They would be strong again. New voices would join the chorus. Pharaoh had promised, swearing that the promise came from the great god Amon himself.
This time the vision is not in the future, but long in the past . . . and the weird thing is, when Meredith gets to Egypt at last, little things begin to look familiar from the vision.
The visions come together to solve a mystery--a race against time, only how do you measure it when the three voices are separated by thousands of years? There are two climaxes, with Meredith emerging, with profound and painful insight, onto the threshold of adulthood.
I don’t cry for humans. I cry for things that are so beautiful I just can’t stand it, like Bonnie in front of me, all crusty from rolling in the sand, with a mouthful of half-chewed hay and eyes that knew everything I’d ever thought or felt or been.
Impatient Bonnie, who always has to be moving and thinking and doing, stood for a long time while I cried into her mane. Her warm animal smell filled my nose.
I think this book is so warm, so wise. I'd put it into the hands of a ten year old, yet the adult me was swept up in it with all the old intensity.
It was one of my favorite books of 2012, now with a far better cover.
September 27, 2013
There's a book I read when I was about 10, in 6th grade, probably, or possibly 5th. Anyway. I don't remember the title or author, but the gist of the story was about girl who perhaps became ill and traveled back to ancient Egypt and lived there for a time. At the end of the story there's some question about whether it really happened or was a fever dream. I loved the book intensely (I'm going to have to make the internet tell me what it was).
Judith Tarr's LIVING IN THREES hit me right in the sweet spot that old book created in me. I knew it would be good, because I've never read anything of Judy's that wasn't, but I had a vivid, visceral connection with the story, a feeling of discovery as fresh and intense as if I was a kid again, reading something new and bright and exciting to me.
It's a story about three young women spread out over 8000 years of time whose commonalities bring them together to solve a dangerous mystery that's evolved over the millennia. I loved the realisation of Maru's future world particularly, and the warmth of Meritre's past, and Meredith's voice felt so honest and real for a modern kid that she just broke my heart. It's beautifully structured, with a particular sort of tragedy binding all three girls together and creating an emotional resonance that weaves throughout each storyline and character. It's just gorgeously done.
LIVING IN THREES was Judy's first Kickstarted project. It makes me absolutely crazy that traditional publishing houses couldn't figure out how to market it, because I would have eaten it up as a YA reader, but the flip side is that holy crap am I glad that traditional publishing isn't the only route available now, because it would have been criminal to not get this story out into the world.
Seriously, I cannot imagine that you do not want to read this book. You can buy it at the link above, wich goes to Book View Cafe and which has epub, mobi and PDF versions of the book.
Judith Tarr's LIVING IN THREES hit me right in the sweet spot that old book created in me. I knew it would be good, because I've never read anything of Judy's that wasn't, but I had a vivid, visceral connection with the story, a feeling of discovery as fresh and intense as if I was a kid again, reading something new and bright and exciting to me.
It's a story about three young women spread out over 8000 years of time whose commonalities bring them together to solve a dangerous mystery that's evolved over the millennia. I loved the realisation of Maru's future world particularly, and the warmth of Meritre's past, and Meredith's voice felt so honest and real for a modern kid that she just broke my heart. It's beautifully structured, with a particular sort of tragedy binding all three girls together and creating an emotional resonance that weaves throughout each storyline and character. It's just gorgeously done.
LIVING IN THREES was Judy's first Kickstarted project. It makes me absolutely crazy that traditional publishing houses couldn't figure out how to market it, because I would have eaten it up as a YA reader, but the flip side is that holy crap am I glad that traditional publishing isn't the only route available now, because it would have been criminal to not get this story out into the world.
Seriously, I cannot imagine that you do not want to read this book. You can buy it at the link above, wich goes to Book View Cafe and which has epub, mobi and PDF versions of the book.
February 20, 2015
This was a book received through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers (thank you!). I've been trying to cut back on the books I put my name in for on LibraryThing, because while I've had pretty good luck there have been a number of clunkers – plus I'm a ways behind on my Netgalley books. But when I saw Judith Tarr's name on the book, it was a no-brainer – I had to request it, and I was happy when I received it.
I was not so happy with the cover art. This is one of those times when I'm happy to have the Kindle, so I don't have to look at … that. It's awful, amateurish and ill-conceived and just plain ugly. Book View Café, the cooperative publisher which allows authors to publish books they either can't or don't wish to take through traditional venues, apparently does not have an art department.
The book starts off much like one of the girls-and-horses books I loved when I was a tween and teen; it is a young-adult novel, and there is a heavy horse presence. I don't know if I would have loved it when I was the age of the characters, though. Meredith is a sixteen-year-old Florida girl who is looking forward to a summer spent with her friends and her newly pregnant Lipizzaner mare. However, her mother – in remission from a serious bout with cancer (not that any bout with cancer is anything to take frivolously) – puts a very firm kibosh on the plans: Meredith's aunt, an archaeologist working in Egypt, is on the verge of something big, and Meredith is going to go join her dig. And there's not a thing she can do to prevent it: to Egypt she, sullenly, goes.
Just before she leaves, she takes refuge in one of her favorite pastimes: she begins writing a story. It writes itself, really: a science fiction tale set in the far future (about four thousand years out) about a sixteen-year-old girl named Meru whose mother – also an archaeologist, of sorts – has gone missing, whose last fragmented message sends Meru looking for her into areas where she should not go. Meredith is unsettled by the story; it's too real. And then there are the dreams that begin about a girl named Meritre, who is a sixteen-year-old temple singer in the Egypt of four thousand years ago. It's all very strange – and more and more there seems to be a reason for this strangeness.
I liked the characters. They were a little precocious for their ages ("ages" can and should be taken two different ways here; Meritre was a bit too sanguine about all of the things which were completely alien to her, which would be … just about everything), but that's part and parcel of the reading experience. I mostly liked the idea, which I won't go into here (spoilers!), though it stretched willing suspension of disbelief for both me and the characters – with the fact that the latter had a hard time with it making it easier for me. Meredith, though sullen for much of her part of the story, had good reason, and was likeable anyway – quite an accomplishment.
Second-tier characters were lovely; I liked all three girls' circles of family and friends. Were it not for the ending, I think I would have loved this to pieces when I was sixteen.
There were a few things that bothered me:
- I admit, I smirked a bit over the fact that Meredith's horse is a Lipizzaner, given that Ms. Tarr devotes the non-writing bulk of her life to her Dancing Horse Farm, and that it took a little jiggering to explain how a sixteen-year-old Florida girl owns a Lipizzan mare. But it is explained, and "write what you know" can often equate to "write what you love", and Ms. Tarr's love of the breed cancels out my qualms.
- Meredith's writing voice was no different from that of the rest of the book, which considering Judith Tarr's skill means she's a pretty remarkable writer for sixteen. I wouldn't have wanted it to be worse - I wouldn't want to be forced to read fake juvenile writing, but if that's how the girl writes she should have a multi-book contract by now. Given that very little throughout the rest of the book is made of Meredith as a writer (she doesn't really have time or inclination for writing after this one burst), another means of introducing Meru might have been smoother.
- Meritre reacts with bafflement when she first sees a horse. Now, I know Ms. Tarr knows her Egypt, so I'm not questioning her decision here to have the girl not know what a horse was … well, maybe a little. I've seen the pictures of wall paintings horse-drawn chariots; there were horses in Egypt, introduced "during the early Second Intermediate Period (1700 to 1550 B.C.)"; I found it a little hard to swallow that Meritre never heard of them.
- Again, Meritre was cool with the concepts Meredith and Meru were exposing her to – including the archaeological dig that was opening up the tomb which in Meritre's time was just being sealed. She didn't like that – but she accepted it. And I didn't buy her acceptance of it: it violates every precept of her religion.
- The future world of Meru lacked depth for me. It was, I think, to some extent down to the fact that ancient Egypt is relatively familiar, almost as much so to Northeastern me as present-day Florida is (and the Florida-ness of the present-day setting was not overly stressed), and so shorthand went a long way in placing Meredith and Meru in their backgrounds. Meru, though, lives in an unimaginable future, and I floundered with where on Earth she was (literally) and how far she had to travel and in terms of alien presence are we talking Starfleet or Mos Eisley Cantina or Serenity, or what? What there was was intriguing; there just didn't seem to be enough.
- The aspects of the three worlds, past and present and future, were in a way both too closely parallel and not closely enough. They're all about the same age – though that means something drastically different in ancient Egypt from what it means in modern Florida. (Don't know what it means in the far future…) I think I would have been slightly happier if there had been more resonance among the three girls than the name similarity … but too much would have been irritating. Ah well.
- That ending. That's on me, and not the book – it was the right way to end this story, and it tied it up without tamping all the edges down overly neatly – but I hated it.
These are, really, quibbles. The writing – always reliable, in the word's best possible meaning – carried the book through whatever difficulties I had with the details. The idea was fascinating, if outré – it pushed the envelope without busting through. Am I glad I won this book? Absolutely. Am I glad I read it? Yes. Will I read it again? No. Do I still love Judith Tarr? Oh yes.
I was not so happy with the cover art. This is one of those times when I'm happy to have the Kindle, so I don't have to look at … that. It's awful, amateurish and ill-conceived and just plain ugly. Book View Café, the cooperative publisher which allows authors to publish books they either can't or don't wish to take through traditional venues, apparently does not have an art department.
The book starts off much like one of the girls-and-horses books I loved when I was a tween and teen; it is a young-adult novel, and there is a heavy horse presence. I don't know if I would have loved it when I was the age of the characters, though. Meredith is a sixteen-year-old Florida girl who is looking forward to a summer spent with her friends and her newly pregnant Lipizzaner mare. However, her mother – in remission from a serious bout with cancer (not that any bout with cancer is anything to take frivolously) – puts a very firm kibosh on the plans: Meredith's aunt, an archaeologist working in Egypt, is on the verge of something big, and Meredith is going to go join her dig. And there's not a thing she can do to prevent it: to Egypt she, sullenly, goes.
Just before she leaves, she takes refuge in one of her favorite pastimes: she begins writing a story. It writes itself, really: a science fiction tale set in the far future (about four thousand years out) about a sixteen-year-old girl named Meru whose mother – also an archaeologist, of sorts – has gone missing, whose last fragmented message sends Meru looking for her into areas where she should not go. Meredith is unsettled by the story; it's too real. And then there are the dreams that begin about a girl named Meritre, who is a sixteen-year-old temple singer in the Egypt of four thousand years ago. It's all very strange – and more and more there seems to be a reason for this strangeness.
I liked the characters. They were a little precocious for their ages ("ages" can and should be taken two different ways here; Meritre was a bit too sanguine about all of the things which were completely alien to her, which would be … just about everything), but that's part and parcel of the reading experience. I mostly liked the idea, which I won't go into here (spoilers!), though it stretched willing suspension of disbelief for both me and the characters – with the fact that the latter had a hard time with it making it easier for me. Meredith, though sullen for much of her part of the story, had good reason, and was likeable anyway – quite an accomplishment.
Second-tier characters were lovely; I liked all three girls' circles of family and friends. Were it not for the ending, I think I would have loved this to pieces when I was sixteen.
There were a few things that bothered me:
- I admit, I smirked a bit over the fact that Meredith's horse is a Lipizzaner, given that Ms. Tarr devotes the non-writing bulk of her life to her Dancing Horse Farm, and that it took a little jiggering to explain how a sixteen-year-old Florida girl owns a Lipizzan mare. But it is explained, and "write what you know" can often equate to "write what you love", and Ms. Tarr's love of the breed cancels out my qualms.
- Meredith's writing voice was no different from that of the rest of the book, which considering Judith Tarr's skill means she's a pretty remarkable writer for sixteen. I wouldn't have wanted it to be worse - I wouldn't want to be forced to read fake juvenile writing, but if that's how the girl writes she should have a multi-book contract by now. Given that very little throughout the rest of the book is made of Meredith as a writer (she doesn't really have time or inclination for writing after this one burst), another means of introducing Meru might have been smoother.
- Meritre reacts with bafflement when she first sees a horse. Now, I know Ms. Tarr knows her Egypt, so I'm not questioning her decision here to have the girl not know what a horse was … well, maybe a little. I've seen the pictures of wall paintings horse-drawn chariots; there were horses in Egypt, introduced "during the early Second Intermediate Period (1700 to 1550 B.C.)"; I found it a little hard to swallow that Meritre never heard of them.
- Again, Meritre was cool with the concepts Meredith and Meru were exposing her to – including the archaeological dig that was opening up the tomb which in Meritre's time was just being sealed. She didn't like that – but she accepted it. And I didn't buy her acceptance of it: it violates every precept of her religion.
- The future world of Meru lacked depth for me. It was, I think, to some extent down to the fact that ancient Egypt is relatively familiar, almost as much so to Northeastern me as present-day Florida is (and the Florida-ness of the present-day setting was not overly stressed), and so shorthand went a long way in placing Meredith and Meru in their backgrounds. Meru, though, lives in an unimaginable future, and I floundered with where on Earth she was (literally) and how far she had to travel and in terms of alien presence are we talking Starfleet or Mos Eisley Cantina or Serenity, or what? What there was was intriguing; there just didn't seem to be enough.
- The aspects of the three worlds, past and present and future, were in a way both too closely parallel and not closely enough. They're all about the same age – though that means something drastically different in ancient Egypt from what it means in modern Florida. (Don't know what it means in the far future…) I think I would have been slightly happier if there had been more resonance among the three girls than the name similarity … but too much would have been irritating. Ah well.
- That ending. That's on me, and not the book – it was the right way to end this story, and it tied it up without tamping all the edges down overly neatly – but I hated it.
These are, really, quibbles. The writing – always reliable, in the word's best possible meaning – carried the book through whatever difficulties I had with the details. The idea was fascinating, if outré – it pushed the envelope without busting through. Am I glad I won this book? Absolutely. Am I glad I read it? Yes. Will I read it again? No. Do I still love Judith Tarr? Oh yes.
June 21, 2013
My quest to read more self-published books is mostly demonstrating to me that there is often no difference in quality between them and traditionally published books. In fact, in certain genres, it is much easier to find more ambitious or unusual books, of equal literary quality, in self-publishing.
I am tempted to say that this middle-grade book is more ambitious than most, but recently middle-grade seems to be getting more ambitious, while YA, overall, is getting less so.
It's divided into three timelines, which bleed into each other from fairly early on. In modern times, American Meredith is sent away from her beloved pregnant Lipizzan horse and her mother, who is recovering from cancer, to accompany her archaelogist aunt on a dig in Egypt. In ancient Egypt, Meritre, a singer in the temple of Amon, worries about her pregnant mother and the pharoah's daughter, who is sick with a mysterious plague. And in a cyberpunk future that has cured most diseases, Meru pursues her missing mother into a secret quarantine zone.
This novel reminded me of a childhood favorite, Mary Stolz's Cat in the Mirror, which also contrasted dual timelines, of the same soul reincarnated in ancient Egypt and modern New York. Tarr's book is more complex and ambitious. The three timelines are not merely compared and contrasted and paralleled, but directly affect each other.
The book starts a little slow, probably due to having to set up three plot lines rather than one, but becomes quite a page-turner by about the one-third mark. The themes are grief, times changing and times staying the same, the inevitability of death, and the equal inevitability of life going on: reincarnation, and birth, and life itself.
Satisfying and complex. I especially liked the pets of the three girls: a horse, a cat, and a half-insubstantial alien creature.
Note: The author is a friend, so I'm probably not that objective.
I am tempted to say that this middle-grade book is more ambitious than most, but recently middle-grade seems to be getting more ambitious, while YA, overall, is getting less so.
It's divided into three timelines, which bleed into each other from fairly early on. In modern times, American Meredith is sent away from her beloved pregnant Lipizzan horse and her mother, who is recovering from cancer, to accompany her archaelogist aunt on a dig in Egypt. In ancient Egypt, Meritre, a singer in the temple of Amon, worries about her pregnant mother and the pharoah's daughter, who is sick with a mysterious plague. And in a cyberpunk future that has cured most diseases, Meru pursues her missing mother into a secret quarantine zone.
This novel reminded me of a childhood favorite, Mary Stolz's Cat in the Mirror, which also contrasted dual timelines, of the same soul reincarnated in ancient Egypt and modern New York. Tarr's book is more complex and ambitious. The three timelines are not merely compared and contrasted and paralleled, but directly affect each other.
The book starts a little slow, probably due to having to set up three plot lines rather than one, but becomes quite a page-turner by about the one-third mark. The themes are grief, times changing and times staying the same, the inevitability of death, and the equal inevitability of life going on: reincarnation, and birth, and life itself.
Satisfying and complex. I especially liked the pets of the three girls: a horse, a cat, and a half-insubstantial alien creature.
Note: The author is a friend, so I'm probably not that objective.
December 17, 2012
I supported Judith Tarr's Kickstarter project to fund this book and have looked forward to reading it for months. I can see why this book wasn't marketable by agents and needed to be self-published: not that that it's criticism of the book's quality or story, but the fact that it's completely cross-genre. It's simultaneously a contemporary YA novel, historical fiction, and far-future science fiction. I was quite curious as to how those varied settings would weave together, and was very, very, pleased with the result.
In short, this is a book I would have read to death when I was 12-years-old and transitioning from my horse obsession to adult historical fiction and fantasy. This book has EVERYTHING I wanted at that age and could never find in one book.
Tarr is masterful in her writing. She knows her horses. She knows archaeology--the real, tedious thing, not the glorified silliness of Indiana Jones (though that's enjoyable in its own way). I loved how she wrote about ancient Egypt in particular. It's so rare to see that used as a backdrop, and again, Tarr made it feel real, not some utopia. I could smell the dust of the place.
I can't help but smile when I think of this book. My inner 12-year-old is pleased at last.
In short, this is a book I would have read to death when I was 12-years-old and transitioning from my horse obsession to adult historical fiction and fantasy. This book has EVERYTHING I wanted at that age and could never find in one book.
Tarr is masterful in her writing. She knows her horses. She knows archaeology--the real, tedious thing, not the glorified silliness of Indiana Jones (though that's enjoyable in its own way). I loved how she wrote about ancient Egypt in particular. It's so rare to see that used as a backdrop, and again, Tarr made it feel real, not some utopia. I could smell the dust of the place.
I can't help but smile when I think of this book. My inner 12-year-old is pleased at last.
January 15, 2020
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.
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.
July 25, 2013
Tarr has done an amazing job of interweaving the stories of three young women who may be incarnations of the same soul. One lives in ancient Egypt, one in our time, and one in the far future. For a short book, these three mileux are amazingly well presented and solid-seeming. The characters are engaging, and the plot fast-moving with some serious moments as the young women face grief and mourning, both together and apart.
January 1, 2017
I loved it. LIVING IN THREES is one of those teen books that are good for adults as well. All three teenaged girls are endearing and authentic - courageous, intelligent and loving. Mind you, they might not be so endearing sometimes if the reader was a family member, but since we are seeing them from the inside and understanding what makes them sulky or ungovernable on occasion, they remain lovable.
Mt favorite youth read of 2016.
Mt favorite youth read of 2016.
July 1, 2018
Judith Tarr’s novel, Living in Threes, is a complex interweaving of three stories, in three times, each story focused on a young woman on the verge of adulthood, navigating the journey of her own growing independence while negotiating changes in her relationships with family, and facing the ultimate challenges of becoming an adult, the parameters of life and loss, birth and death.
In the present, Meredith wants nothing more than to spend the summer before her 16th birthday hanging out with friends, riding and taking care of the horses that she loves - especially Bonnie, her Lippizaner, who is pregnant - doing all the things she’s been planning on. But her mother has a an unwelcome surprise - everything has been arranged for her to spend the summer away from home, friends, and her overworked mother - a cancer survivor - in Egypt, working on a dig with her aunt Jessie, an archaeologist.
Meredith has strange dreams. Some of them are about Meru, a young girl living in the future, soon to become a space pilot, who receives a strange call for help from her mother, supposedly on a mission far from Earth. But when she tracks the message to the source, what she finds is worse than anything she could have imagined - plague, quarantine, and death.
Others are about Meritre, a young Egyptian girl, a singer in a temple chorus. The land is recovering from plague, in which Meritre’s baby sister died. Meritre’s mother, also a singer, is pregnant again, but her health may not be strong enough to carry the baby safely. And while the plague is mostly over, still, her father, a sculptor, is ill with something that worries Meritre.
One thing draws them together - a blue scarab bead. Meritre buys it in a marketplace, Meredith finds it in a tomb, Meru is given it by her mother as a clue. And when each one has the scarab in her own time, the three discover that they have one soul, and that sharing their knowledge and experience can can help all of them face the challenges before them.
It’s a beautiful story about three young women, growing up and finding courage to do the impossible.
In the present, Meredith wants nothing more than to spend the summer before her 16th birthday hanging out with friends, riding and taking care of the horses that she loves - especially Bonnie, her Lippizaner, who is pregnant - doing all the things she’s been planning on. But her mother has a an unwelcome surprise - everything has been arranged for her to spend the summer away from home, friends, and her overworked mother - a cancer survivor - in Egypt, working on a dig with her aunt Jessie, an archaeologist.
Meredith has strange dreams. Some of them are about Meru, a young girl living in the future, soon to become a space pilot, who receives a strange call for help from her mother, supposedly on a mission far from Earth. But when she tracks the message to the source, what she finds is worse than anything she could have imagined - plague, quarantine, and death.
Others are about Meritre, a young Egyptian girl, a singer in a temple chorus. The land is recovering from plague, in which Meritre’s baby sister died. Meritre’s mother, also a singer, is pregnant again, but her health may not be strong enough to carry the baby safely. And while the plague is mostly over, still, her father, a sculptor, is ill with something that worries Meritre.
One thing draws them together - a blue scarab bead. Meritre buys it in a marketplace, Meredith finds it in a tomb, Meru is given it by her mother as a clue. And when each one has the scarab in her own time, the three discover that they have one soul, and that sharing their knowledge and experience can can help all of them face the challenges before them.
It’s a beautiful story about three young women, growing up and finding courage to do the impossible.
December 2, 2017
The only problem was it was all too short. An interesting take on interwoven universes, without most of the contradictions. She has a historian’s grasp of the ancient past, a reasonable idea of the distant future, and NAILS so much of the present. Plus enough secondary issues to keep the entire work from being a tale of dread until the last few pages.
A great all-around balance, like all our lives, it should remind us that we’re all expected to include humor, silliness, and the mundane along with existential angst.
A great all-around balance, like all our lives, it should remind us that we’re all expected to include humor, silliness, and the mundane along with existential angst.
May 20, 2022
Unwillingly sent on a trip to Egypt to her archeologist aunt, Meredith starts experiencing visions of the future and past that have dire consequences. I really enjoyed reading all three young women's perspectives, though the future timeline was a little hard to wrap my head around at first. There's some parental death in here which was difficult to read, though Tarr has interesting thing to say about life and death, helped along by the Egyptian theme.
January 16, 2013
An ambitious, epically spanning coming-of-age tale best suited for teenagers. Tarr's writing is top notch, and I found her description of the hidden Egyptian tomb particularly stunning.
I was not, however, a fan of the novel's braided trio of voices. Meredith's modern-age voice bookends the book and seemed awkward as the only point-of-view in first person, especially when her personal tale seemed so unfinished. It really bugged that some of her plot's elements were never given conclusions: . Meritre's ancient-past voice seemed the least used, which I found a pity as she interested me; and Meru's far-future voice seemed the most vague. I still have no idea what a starwing is, and the illustrations depicting its appearance confused rather than enlightened me.
I can't help but feel I might have been more receptive to the plot if the narrative timelines would have been structured differently. I tend to be, as a reader, particularly drawn to character personalities. If a book is poorly plotted, if the world is fairly humdrum, even if the writing is awkward, as long as the character hooks me I read on. I never felt that hook with these characters. Every time I'd start to get involved in character's voice, the chapter would break and the next chapter would introduce a new voice. Every time a voice was carried on for excessive chapters, I'd get impatient with the narrator and want the story to get back to what the other characters were doing. I wonder if Tarr had ever considered restructuring the book into three or four large sections instead of individual braided chapters, each section ending when the character gains awareness of the others, a fourth section of all their voices together.
Still, despite that, I enjoyed the story and I could very much see it as being one I loved when I was younger, and I suspect it would strongly resonate with any young person having to deal with death or sickness in her family. Three and half stars, rounded up to four. I'd love to reread this again as companion novel to Tomorrow's Sphinx, a great favorite of mine when I was very young, that had featured a similar cross-time communication and a setting in ancient Egypt.
My copy of this book was provided by the publisher through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program.
I was not, however, a fan of the novel's braided trio of voices. Meredith's modern-age voice bookends the book and seemed awkward as the only point-of-view in first person, especially when her personal tale seemed so unfinished. It really bugged that some of her plot's elements were never given conclusions: . Meritre's ancient-past voice seemed the least used, which I found a pity as she interested me; and Meru's far-future voice seemed the most vague. I still have no idea what a starwing is, and the illustrations depicting its appearance confused rather than enlightened me.
I can't help but feel I might have been more receptive to the plot if the narrative timelines would have been structured differently. I tend to be, as a reader, particularly drawn to character personalities. If a book is poorly plotted, if the world is fairly humdrum, even if the writing is awkward, as long as the character hooks me I read on. I never felt that hook with these characters. Every time I'd start to get involved in character's voice, the chapter would break and the next chapter would introduce a new voice. Every time a voice was carried on for excessive chapters, I'd get impatient with the narrator and want the story to get back to what the other characters were doing. I wonder if Tarr had ever considered restructuring the book into three or four large sections instead of individual braided chapters, each section ending when the character gains awareness of the others, a fourth section of all their voices together.
Still, despite that, I enjoyed the story and I could very much see it as being one I loved when I was younger, and I suspect it would strongly resonate with any young person having to deal with death or sickness in her family. Three and half stars, rounded up to four. I'd love to reread this again as companion novel to Tomorrow's Sphinx, a great favorite of mine when I was very young, that had featured a similar cross-time communication and a setting in ancient Egypt.
My copy of this book was provided by the publisher through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program.
January 3, 2013
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…..
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…..
July 20, 2014
My experience of this book was that I "liked it", but that it really deserved at least four stars.
The author does an amazing job of creating three very different perspectives, of integrating them into a coherent story, and of ensuring that each perspective is engaging in its own right. I was particularly drawn to the symmetry and contrasts between the three main characters, especially their relationships with their family, friends, and pets. There's a lot of rich detail and meaning in this book, as well as significant emotional substance, that I believe would hold up well to rereading and closer scrutiny.
The only problem I had, which was not really the book's problem, was that it didn't quite match my own head space. I knew before I started reading that this book was directed at YA, but I found the experiences of the characters to be very different from my own experiences, and there wasn't any significant humour to provide a hook (such as in books by Diana Wynne Jones or JK Rowlings, which I love.)
Despite this, however, I am finding the story is sticking with me, and I believe it would resonate strongly with anyone in the young adult category or who experienced serious illness in a parent at a young age. For them, and for anyone else who thinks they might be drawn to the premise, I highly recommend this book.
The author does an amazing job of creating three very different perspectives, of integrating them into a coherent story, and of ensuring that each perspective is engaging in its own right. I was particularly drawn to the symmetry and contrasts between the three main characters, especially their relationships with their family, friends, and pets. There's a lot of rich detail and meaning in this book, as well as significant emotional substance, that I believe would hold up well to rereading and closer scrutiny.
The only problem I had, which was not really the book's problem, was that it didn't quite match my own head space. I knew before I started reading that this book was directed at YA, but I found the experiences of the characters to be very different from my own experiences, and there wasn't any significant humour to provide a hook (such as in books by Diana Wynne Jones or JK Rowlings, which I love.)
Despite this, however, I am finding the story is sticking with me, and I believe it would resonate strongly with anyone in the young adult category or who experienced serious illness in a parent at a young age. For them, and for anyone else who thinks they might be drawn to the premise, I highly recommend this book.
April 24, 2013
Living in Threes is an aptly named title for this book. Three teenage girls named Meredith, Meru, and Meritre are connected in such a way. They're the past, present, and future all rolled into one. Each of their experiences are different from one another yet their common tie is the only hope for Meru's future. Each must face their own inner demons to triumph what comes next for all of them. Meritre needs to learn a secret. Meredith must accept the truth. Meru needs to search for the truth. Together they can be living in threes.
When I first read the concept of this I was intrigued. Yet after reading it, I find that it's been such a fascinating story. The author cleverly wove three lives together in such a way that leaves little doubt in story crafting. Out of all the characters I most relate to Meredith. She is strong willed, honest, determined, and clear minded. I will definitely read more of this author's work.
When I first read the concept of this I was intrigued. Yet after reading it, I find that it's been such a fascinating story. The author cleverly wove three lives together in such a way that leaves little doubt in story crafting. Out of all the characters I most relate to Meredith. She is strong willed, honest, determined, and clear minded. I will definitely read more of this author's work.
October 12, 2015
Plot: 3 1/2 stars
Characters: 3 stars
Style: 4 stars
Pace: 4 stars
rounding up.
I actually hadn't read any of her books before (They've been on my TBR list for a while, but I've been trying to read through my already on hand stacks), but between enjoying the blog she does on BVC, and the ringing endorsements of her by several other authors I enjoy, I bought into the kickstarter anyway.
The three girls' voices all sounded the same, but for good reason.
Otherwise, an enjoyable read.
Characters: 3 stars
Style: 4 stars
Pace: 4 stars
rounding up.
I actually hadn't read any of her books before (They've been on my TBR list for a while, but I've been trying to read through my already on hand stacks), but between enjoying the blog she does on BVC, and the ringing endorsements of her by several other authors I enjoy, I bought into the kickstarter anyway.
The three girls' voices all sounded the same, but for good reason.
Otherwise, an enjoyable read.
June 23, 2013
Meredith is a horse-crazy 16-year old girl in modern America. She just wants to spend summer with her friends and her horses. But her mother, recovering from treatment that put her cancer in remission, wants to send Meredith to Egypt to visit her aunt, an archaeologist. Meredith starts having dreams of Meru, a girl living in the future, studying to be a starpilot, and of Meritre a girl living in ancient Egypt who knows some small magics to keep her family safe. The three are able to communicate with each other, in part through magic of the scarab and ultimately this connection must be used to save Meru's Earth from plague connected back to the other two's lives. This story combines Tarr's strong knowledge of both horses and of Egypt. It is YA but adults can enjoy it too.
August 24, 2013
Living in Threes is the story of three girls who find themselves connected to each other across thousands of years. One lives in ancient Egypt, the second in present day Florida, and the third somewhere in the future. Together they struggle to prevent the breakout of a pandemic.
I recommend this book. It was well-written and the three main characters are well characterized. There was not a whole lot of attention paid to the more minor characters. While I would have liked to see some of them more fleshed out, this is a short book so I can see that there's not really space. The one other complaint I have is that it felt slow to get into. However, I'd suggest readers to stay with it has it picks up near the end.
I recommend this book. It was well-written and the three main characters are well characterized. There was not a whole lot of attention paid to the more minor characters. While I would have liked to see some of them more fleshed out, this is a short book so I can see that there's not really space. The one other complaint I have is that it felt slow to get into. However, I'd suggest readers to stay with it has it picks up near the end.
August 7, 2013
I supported Judith Tarr's Kickstarter project to fund this book, and have been really looking forward to reading it (though got delayed by travel/work/life etc!).
It definitely had a YA feel to it, not just the 16 year old protagonist(s), but a slight simplicity to the writing, but that certainly didn't detract from the story. There's fantasy, sci-fi, horses, archaeology, family, love and coping with death. And a connection between three girls stretching from four thousand years in the past to four thousand years in the future.
Plus, as an archaeologist, I really have to thank Judith Tarr for the depiction of my profession!
It definitely had a YA feel to it, not just the 16 year old protagonist(s), but a slight simplicity to the writing, but that certainly didn't detract from the story. There's fantasy, sci-fi, horses, archaeology, family, love and coping with death. And a connection between three girls stretching from four thousand years in the past to four thousand years in the future.
Plus, as an archaeologist, I really have to thank Judith Tarr for the depiction of my profession!
June 12, 2013
A delightful story of a young woman across three time eras. A must for anyone interested in ancient Egypt and archaeology. It took a little while for me to get into the story, but after a couple of chapters I was fully engrossed. I was expectant of something more in the conclusion. For me the book closed with too an abrupt end. I would have liked, at the end of the book, for the author to have spent a little more time with each of the three main characters. A good read and I would have have no hesitation in reading any further books by Judith Tarr.
February 13, 2013
Really loved this novel, I found it really gripping, a real page-turner!
The story switches between three times and three lives, which each have a separate story, but are also intricately interwoven. I really liked the way in which the stories become increasingly linked and really become one story over time.
The descriptions of ancient Egypt and the distant future are lovely and very lifelike. The characters are not always worked out as well as they could have been, but the three main characters are worked out nicely and I found it easy to connect to them.
The story switches between three times and three lives, which each have a separate story, but are also intricately interwoven. I really liked the way in which the stories become increasingly linked and really become one story over time.
The descriptions of ancient Egypt and the distant future are lovely and very lifelike. The characters are not always worked out as well as they could have been, but the three main characters are worked out nicely and I found it easy to connect to them.
July 10, 2016
Science fiction/fantasy/real world intersection built out of a moment near the book's beginning where the teenage protagonist suddenly sits down and starts writing a science fiction novel that, for a while, we spend more time in than we had in the original story. Some very well-written moments centering around family and grief... but also some things that didn't work as well for me, such as the voice of the main protagonist, or the parts of the story set in the future, where the rules weren't entirely clear in a way that robbed the story of tension.
December 1, 2012
I won this book as a free download for my Kindle. When I realized part of it was going into the Sci-Fi area, I wasn't sure I would like the book. However, I got caught up in the story immediately and enjoyed how the author brought 3 times in life together. I imagine it took some research to fill in some of the blanks. It was well done but I wanted to know more about what path Meredith took at the end.
January 12, 2013
At first this is a difficult book to become interested in, but it does become more enjoyable after the significance of each character is understood. It does have the past, present, and future all in one book. Each character’s struggle is significant, and it explains who the character is. It is a great read, and a good fictional novel.
Thanks to book view cafe for the copy to read and review it.
Thanks to book view cafe for the copy to read and review it.
December 18, 2012
Good book.
Interesting concept and well executed.
Interesting concept and well executed.
August 16, 2014
A wonderful blend of magic, science fiction, and history.
May 18, 2015
Enjoyed it - a good blending of science fiction and fantasy with som Egyptology thrown
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