Most helpful customer reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
paranormal brilliance from JAK, Sep 17 2004
Since they repackaged two from this series under the title of Harmony, I got these out and decided to reread them, and found I enjoyed them more the second time around. This is JAK writing as the Jayne Castle she saves for her paranormal tales, and it's her best writing of late. I have been a wee tad disappointed in her last several hardbacks, especially in her Amanda Quicks (her historical romance name). She seems to have polished her diamond too much and lost some of the spontaneity that was her trademark. But in Amaryllis, Zinnia and Orchid (and later with After Dark and After Glow) the off-world of Harmony antics show JAK at her top form. These books original received mixed reviews from fans, not completely used to JAK's paranormals. I often see the complaint JAK is a great writer, but the books are too patterned. It's in her Jayne Castle works where is her most original, yet her fans were initially resistant to the paranormal theme. Now the paranormal market has caught up with her, and is so hot, these are getting better reviews. So if you missed the Harmony tales, don't hesitate to seek them out.In this off world tale, Amaryllis Lark is a private detective, but she is also a prism. In the Earth Colony of Harmony, people evolved with two supernatural talents: either they were a prism or a psychic. The prisms serve to increase the power of the psychics by channeling their powers through them, amplifying it and keeping it stable. Even the strongest of psychics needs a prism, for without them they cannot control and maintain their powers for long periods. Lucas Trent, the founder of Lodestar, hires Amaryllis for her prism talents. He is an off the chart psychic who need the talent of a prism of his level. A psychic and a prism have to be matched. They are rated 1-10 levels and if a psychic is stronger than a prism, the prism can experience burn-out. There are few prisms who can handle Lucas Trent's strong psychic abilities, so he is delighted to discover Amaryllis can handle whatever power he channels through her. Lucas is concerned one of his Lodestone employees is selling corporate information to his competition. He, originally, hired Amaryllis to help catch the industrial spy, and to use her talents as a prism to help his focus his psychic talent to trap the spy. But soon they are involved in a murder mystery. In this case, opposites do attract, and Lucas and Amaryllis sizzle, their attraction amplified by the psy-power between them. However, Amaryllis is undergoing the rigors of a matchmaking
service. All solid marriages on Harmony are founded on this service. While she is falling in love with Lucas, she fears it will only be an affair. Lucas has other plans and is not about to let his true match slip through his fingers. In order to foil nasty corporate to-dos, they are forced to join talents...and more! A super, brilliant work from the fine craft of JAK, without the narrow POV (point of view) being voiced on writers today. Simply magic!
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Jayne Castle (Jayne Ann Krentz) strikes again!, Jan 15 2003
By A Customer
Castle sets this love story on St. Helen's, a world settled by people from Earth and then cut off from ever returning to the home planet. Something on this planet gives the humans psychic powers, which seem to be getting stronger with each generation.Amaryllis is a "prism." She focuses others' powers in order for them to be used to the greatest possible extent. Lucas is he newest customer. He is quite put off by the prim Miss Lark. He has hired her to help him find a corporate thief. In the process, they trip over a senatorial candidate who is much less than he seems, and much more. Together they find the thief, but discover a possible murder. The victim was once Amaryllis' mentor. Determined to solve the puzzle, Amaryllis decides to investigate on her own. Determined to solve the puzzle of Amaryllis, Lucas has decided to help her. The love story is pretty straight forward, but, as always, Castle/Krentz makes the side plots very interesting as is most of the dialogue. Everything is complicated by the fact that both protaganists have signed up with match making services (a common practice on St. Helen's) and now don't want to look at any matches they might be offered. If you are expecting strange science in this book, you won't get it. All the technology is familiar ( how did that happen?) Ms. Castle/Krentz strong point is the love story and the banter. I enjoyed the story and the unexpected villian, but it will never be great science fiction.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Something new for me., Jun 15 2002
After reading After Dark, another futuristic romance by the same author, the plot is easy to follow in Amaryllis even though there are many differences. Instead of having pyschic illusion dismantlers and ghost hunters as in After Dark, we have pyschic prisms and pyschic talents working together.
the background:
In the distant Earth colony of St. Helens, the pioneer people from Earth that settled in the colony were stranded after the connection warp between Earth and the colony(also called "the curtain") disappeared almost 200 years ago. St. Helens was habitable but the materials from Earth quickly disintegrated. Earth's technology were also of no use. The settlers were forced to learn about the colony's natural materials and how to use them to produce everyday necessities. Through many generations, humans have also evolutionized to develop pyschic abilities. The pyschic power were of two different types: prisms or talents. Pyschic talents have the natural gift of performing one of various functions such as botanist, gemologist, illusionist, etc. However, the talents can't control their pyschic powers without the help pyschic prisms, which uses their powers to create a pyschic plane through which the talents can direct their energy into. Talents and prisms were classified into different levels of classes depending on their pyschic strength.
The first generation of St Helen settlers believed in a strong family foundation. The rules of society forbids divorce. Therefore, marriage is an eternal bound. Because of this, marriage is usually the result of a match by a marriage agency whose job is to find compatible soulmates. Any other type of marriage are doomed to fail. It's also conventional wisdom that high level talents and prisms are not compatible at all.the characters:
Lucas Trent is the president of Lodestar Exploration, a company who finds and extract jelly-ice, which is the main energy source in St. Helens (like oil on Earth). After experiencing a failed nonagency marriage, he was determined to do it right this time and registered with a marriage agency. He is also a high level talent with the abilities of talent detector and illusionist. Amaryllis Lark is a high level prism employed by Psynergy Inc, provider of prism services for a fee. Her parents died when she was very young and she was raised by her great aunt. Because her parents were not married, she was called many names growing up. She was illegitimate. This is especially hard in a society where family values were stressed. Amaryllis grew up to be a strict and a person who values ethical behavior. She also understands the importance of an agency marriage. Therefore, she registered with a marriage agency. their story:
Lucas was concerned about one of his employees selling corporate information to an outsider. Therefore he hired Amaryllis to be his prism in order for him to use his talent to check into the case. There was a mutual attraction. They also teamed up to investigate a probable murder case. After spending so much time together, they started an affair. Even though they have mutual feelings of affection for each other, they both know there would be no future for them. The agency would never match them up since they are both high level pyschics and would not be compatible. Will they be able overcome the many obstacles? Overall comments:
Interesting world. Good love story between Lucas and Amaryllis. However, I thought the mystery and resolution of it was a bit weak. The conflict was resolved easily. Not much surprise. Good book to introduce us to the world of St. Helens. Will definitely read Zinnia and Orchid, 2 other St. Helens novels.
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