Religion & Beliefs - Fiction, Alternate Realities - Fiction, Social Science Fiction

She Still Lives

Name: She Still Lives
Author: Bill Magee
ISBN: 9781559392471

by Bill Magee

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Overview

She Still Lives: A Novel of Tibet is an action-love story set in a fictional Tibet of the future. The beginning of the next century is a pivotal time for the Land of Snows. A nascent freedom movement has been crushed by the Communists. Tara Gyatso, beloved Dalai Lama, and her adviser, Mila Lakpa, have been imprisoned. Many years later, Mila Lakpa emerges from jail. He is an aged remnant of his former self, but he rallies for a final act of rebellion. Outwardly he may appear to have forgotten the Dalai Lama, but inwardly, a secret plan is taking shape. The path to success is a razor's edge: on the one side, the Dalai Lama's freedom; on the other, a life sentence and the annihilation of his hopes. The Chinese believe he poses no danger to the State. For all Mila knows, they may be right.

Synopsis

This is a love story set in a fictional Tibet of the future. It is an exciting and suspenseful fictional love story involving the first ever female Dalai Lama.

Inquiring Mind

Outstanding novel...illuminates love's power to conquer and prevail.

About the Author, Bill Magee

William Magee has a PhD in Buddhist Studies from the University of Virginia. For the past twelve years, he has taught the University of Virginia's internationally famed summer Tibetan language program. Magee currently teaches at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.

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Editorials

Inquiring Mind

Outstanding novel...illuminates love's power to conquer and prevail.

Publishers Weekly

For those who want a break from serious books about Buddhism (and virtually all books on the subject are fairly solemn), Tibetan teacher and translator Magee offers a rare and imaginative novel. Set in 22nd-century Tibet, the action centers around a future female Dalai Lama imprisoned by the Chinese, who still rule the mountainous country. The principal character is her adviser, a nationalist who loves both his country and his leader, and who has been released from prison into a dystopian society as the book opens. Magee's fluency in Tibetan allows him to authenticate the text with Tibetan words and references. He also adds some visionary touches to this future-dogs bred for empathic intuition, for example. Land mines and sex contribute danger and excitement. None of the characters is fully or persuasively drawn and so sometimes characters' motivation is thin, but the adventure and exotic aspects compensate somewhat for lack of human depth. Moral questions about using violence to achieve political ends also flow naturally from the action, making the Buddhist framework highly relevant. Magee has written a proficient novel that adds highly unusual elements to a story of love, adventure and politics. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Children's Literature - Monserrat Urena

It is 2114. After fifteen years of imprisonment, political prisoner Mila Lakpa is free. One-time companion to Tara Gyatso, the seventeenth Dalai Lama, Mila is forced to face the apparent failures of their peaceful demonstrations. Tibet is still under Chinese control, and desperation and misery are a part of Tibetan daily life. Convinced that the Chinese are invincible, most Tibetans have decided to embrace complacency in order to survive. Others have embraced violence as their only option for survival. A profound pacifist, Mila clings to his belief in the power of non-violent resistance and in the rallying power of the Dalai Lama. Through many bloody and difficult trials, Mila manages to hold true to his beliefs and finds a unique way to liberate the imprisoned Dalai Lama. Bill Magee's futuristic Tibet is palpably real as a secondary world. The reader is immediately drawn into the vastness of setting and circumstance. The character of Mila Lakpa is an appropriate vehicle through which Magee analyzes and questions the power of non-violent resistance. The reader is forced to place the idea of non-violent resistance to the test, and through the process reevaluate their own personal understanding of it.