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Jimgrim/Ramsden/Ommony #15
Om, the Secret of Ahbor Valley
An expedition in 1920s India searches for a lost tribe, a holy Lama, and a piece of jade that possesses supernatural powers
400 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1924
8 people are currently reading
193 people want to read
About the author
Talbot Mundy
460 books55 followersTalbot Mundy (born William Lancaster Gribbon) was an English-born American writer of adventure fiction. Based for most of his life in the United States, he also wrote under the pseudonym of Walter Galt. Best known as the author of King of the Khyber Rifles and the Jimgrim series, much of his work was published in pulp magazines.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
September 14, 2025
When Cottswold Ommony makes the decision to resign from his post as manager of an Indian forest, it sets in motion a series of seemingly random events that lead to his discovery of the Ahbor Valley, a place where he tracks down a secretive Lama to his hidden monastery. Once there, everything in Ommony's life that seemed chaotic happenstance instead resolves into a plan determined by fate but so intricate as to seem directionless from the perspective of the beginning.
Not only is that the plot of Om: The Secret of the Ahbor Valley, it is Mundy's personal philosophy brought to the form of a novel. Much influenced by Theosophy (easily apparent from what little I know of it), it is top-heavy in Buddhism. What is most interesting, however, is in the dissemination of the Mundy's Lama's thoughts: it is through the theater. At first, the obsession with the creation of a dramatic play seems out of place in an adventure story. But by book's end, you see the reasoning behind it all. Mundy has adopted an odd mixture of the principles of Piscator, Brecht, and Eugene O'Neill for his Theosophical Theater. It is an active agent in persuasion and explanation.
Critics hold that this is Mundy's masterpiece. So it seems and so it is. The journey from Delhi across the north of India is epic in scope. The amount of territory covered geographically is also traversed intellectually. Mundy was clearly a man who enjoyed ideas and kept seeking after answers beyond his own perspective all his life. Never is that more obvious than in Om. It is hard to see why he wasn't more widely read. His prose style is strong; his imagination even stronger; and his characterizations far and above what you would expect from simple genre fiction. Perhaps he should not have mentioned Atlantis so much. A nineteenth century writer might get away with it. But for even an early twentieth century novelist, references to the Lost Continent, along with Lemuria, tends to pigeonhole a writer into the category of the "unserious."
One last note: the descent into the Ahbor Valley. It comes after passing narrow and dangerous mountain ridges but a few feet wide, then swinging by hand down thousands of feet of rock and tree root lined goat paths until coming to a system of vast caverns leading into the valley. It is somewhat reminiscent of Arthur O. Friel's description of the descent into the valley of gold in Tiger River. And both tellings have much in common with Herman Melville's explanation of his descent into the Valley of the Typee. Proof that a good idea has staying power. Oh, and, yes, Friel was a writer, along with Mundy, at Adventure, where both first published their stories almost simultaneously.
Not only is that the plot of Om: The Secret of the Ahbor Valley, it is Mundy's personal philosophy brought to the form of a novel. Much influenced by Theosophy (easily apparent from what little I know of it), it is top-heavy in Buddhism. What is most interesting, however, is in the dissemination of the Mundy's Lama's thoughts: it is through the theater. At first, the obsession with the creation of a dramatic play seems out of place in an adventure story. But by book's end, you see the reasoning behind it all. Mundy has adopted an odd mixture of the principles of Piscator, Brecht, and Eugene O'Neill for his Theosophical Theater. It is an active agent in persuasion and explanation.
Critics hold that this is Mundy's masterpiece. So it seems and so it is. The journey from Delhi across the north of India is epic in scope. The amount of territory covered geographically is also traversed intellectually. Mundy was clearly a man who enjoyed ideas and kept seeking after answers beyond his own perspective all his life. Never is that more obvious than in Om. It is hard to see why he wasn't more widely read. His prose style is strong; his imagination even stronger; and his characterizations far and above what you would expect from simple genre fiction. Perhaps he should not have mentioned Atlantis so much. A nineteenth century writer might get away with it. But for even an early twentieth century novelist, references to the Lost Continent, along with Lemuria, tends to pigeonhole a writer into the category of the "unserious."
One last note: the descent into the Ahbor Valley. It comes after passing narrow and dangerous mountain ridges but a few feet wide, then swinging by hand down thousands of feet of rock and tree root lined goat paths until coming to a system of vast caverns leading into the valley. It is somewhat reminiscent of Arthur O. Friel's description of the descent into the valley of gold in Tiger River. And both tellings have much in common with Herman Melville's explanation of his descent into the Valley of the Typee. Proof that a good idea has staying power. Oh, and, yes, Friel was a writer, along with Mundy, at Adventure, where both first published their stories almost simultaneously.
December 5, 2014
Kipling and John Buchan crossed with Charles Williams by way of Rabindranath Tagore and H.Rider Haggard
I learned about this pre-war writer of thrillers from the diaries of Mircea Eliade, who discovered his books when the chatelaine of Ascona and the founder of Eranos, Olga Froebel, recommended them to him after she saw he was interested in detective novels. Talbot Mundy seemed to be a cult at the Jungian/Theosophist organization, and Eliade says, "I'm not the only one, it seems, to have let himself be seduced by Talbot Mundy's books. [The Dutch phenomenologist philosopher of religion] Van der Leeuw went up to his room every evening with a folder of "urgent papers" - and immediately picked up "OM" or "There Is a Door." "OM" is a kind of revision of "Kim", with a British secret service agent devoted to India and a Lama and his Chela. It is set in a vaguely 1930s-ish present, unlike Kipling's Kim, which was a historical novel (although about a period in history only 20 years earlier than the date of its publication, in 1903 or so). There are references to Gandhi, to Quit India, etc., and the British characters understand very clearly that their day is almost at its end, and the best of them know that they did far less good for India than the general run of them think. But the great difference to Kipling is that Mundy is far more serious about Buddhist thought, and brilliantly represents it in play in the world of his characters, and in his plot. And his writing, particularly his description of danger and journeys through amazing landscapes and peoplescapes, is better than Tolkien's - fwiw.
Kipling, Buchan, and Haggard are actual influences, but I mention Charles Williams because of a resemblance in genius regarding the animation of spiritual realities into a fictional/realistic world. I am no more certain about the accuracy of Mundy's representation of Tibetan Buddhism than I am about the Christian orthodoxy of Williams's otherworldly plots - but as a representation of belief and transcendance at all, however idiosyncratic, Mundy excels as Williams does in his own terms.
The characters are splendidly vivid, sometimes Dickensian, the plot is thrilling. And the good news is that if you like this as much as I do, there are scores of other books - some of them sci/fi, I understand. Wikipedia on Mundy's life is good - as strange and exciting as any one of his heroes.
For what it's worth, here are the specific titles that Eliade + Froebel note:
OM: the Secret of the Ahbor Valley
There Was a Door
Devil's Guard (alternate title: Ransdem)
I've started looking at "When India Came to Fight in Flanders," or Hira Singh (which purports to be a first-person account of Indian troops in WWI that he records - I have no idea whether it is truly recorded, or made up.
I learned about this pre-war writer of thrillers from the diaries of Mircea Eliade, who discovered his books when the chatelaine of Ascona and the founder of Eranos, Olga Froebel, recommended them to him after she saw he was interested in detective novels. Talbot Mundy seemed to be a cult at the Jungian/Theosophist organization, and Eliade says, "I'm not the only one, it seems, to have let himself be seduced by Talbot Mundy's books. [The Dutch phenomenologist philosopher of religion] Van der Leeuw went up to his room every evening with a folder of "urgent papers" - and immediately picked up "OM" or "There Is a Door." "OM" is a kind of revision of "Kim", with a British secret service agent devoted to India and a Lama and his Chela. It is set in a vaguely 1930s-ish present, unlike Kipling's Kim, which was a historical novel (although about a period in history only 20 years earlier than the date of its publication, in 1903 or so). There are references to Gandhi, to Quit India, etc., and the British characters understand very clearly that their day is almost at its end, and the best of them know that they did far less good for India than the general run of them think. But the great difference to Kipling is that Mundy is far more serious about Buddhist thought, and brilliantly represents it in play in the world of his characters, and in his plot. And his writing, particularly his description of danger and journeys through amazing landscapes and peoplescapes, is better than Tolkien's - fwiw.
Kipling, Buchan, and Haggard are actual influences, but I mention Charles Williams because of a resemblance in genius regarding the animation of spiritual realities into a fictional/realistic world. I am no more certain about the accuracy of Mundy's representation of Tibetan Buddhism than I am about the Christian orthodoxy of Williams's otherworldly plots - but as a representation of belief and transcendance at all, however idiosyncratic, Mundy excels as Williams does in his own terms.
The characters are splendidly vivid, sometimes Dickensian, the plot is thrilling. And the good news is that if you like this as much as I do, there are scores of other books - some of them sci/fi, I understand. Wikipedia on Mundy's life is good - as strange and exciting as any one of his heroes.
For what it's worth, here are the specific titles that Eliade + Froebel note:
OM: the Secret of the Ahbor Valley
There Was a Door
Devil's Guard (alternate title: Ransdem)
I've started looking at "When India Came to Fight in Flanders," or Hira Singh (which purports to be a first-person account of Indian troops in WWI that he records - I have no idea whether it is truly recorded, or made up.
March 12, 2015
Spectacular story! This author ran away from home age 16, signed onto the Merchant Marine, sailed to India, spent years there, grew to love the country and its' people, which is evident in the book.
Truly a glimpse into the mystery and intrigue of India back in olden times that will leave you panting for more!
Truly a glimpse into the mystery and intrigue of India back in olden times that will leave you panting for more!
July 25, 2020
Om, The Secret of Ahbor Valley was originally published in 1924. This is an excellent example of British, Late Imperial Adventure fiction. The twist Om offers, however, is it has a minor mystical element. Most of the book is concerned with Cottswold Ommony’s search for the Ahbor Valley and his experiences along the way—as well as the characters he meets on this quest.
What is interesting about Mundy now, is not the stories themselves—though fun they are run-of-the-mill early 20th Century adventure fiction—but the window the stories and books offer on Late British Imperialism, especially as this manifested itself in India.
The casual reader, however, should brace themselves for the imperialist perspective on the ‘native/indigenous peoples’. While Mundy’s racism is mild by comparison of, say, Ian Flemings’ [see Flemings’ James Bond series] it is pronounced by today’s standards. This doesn’t mean modern readers will not enjoy Mundy’s work, but it does mean the reader should prepare themselves for racial and cultural attitudes that are not acceptable today. Again, these attitudes are not as blatant as those of others writers and should not interfere, greatly, with the reader’s pleasure—if they keep the above proviso in mind.
Having said this, Om is a wonderful adventure story with mystical overtones and interesting historical observations. But, mostly, Om is a wonderful book filled with exotic and unusual characters.
The middle section of the book drags a bit, feels a bit overly long, but this may be because the reading sensibilities of the pre-internet and pre-television age are dramatically different from those of today.
Highly Recommended for those readers who enjoy Adventure fiction and those interested in Late Imperial Adventure fiction.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.
Note: The reviewer read the Kindle eBook version of this book. The book was well formatted and easy to navigate through.
For those interested in learning more about Talbot Mundy, they should check out his Wikipedia page. Mr. Mundy led an interesting and unconventional life, which fed into his fiction and his perspective on the world.
What is interesting about Mundy now, is not the stories themselves—though fun they are run-of-the-mill early 20th Century adventure fiction—but the window the stories and books offer on Late British Imperialism, especially as this manifested itself in India.
The casual reader, however, should brace themselves for the imperialist perspective on the ‘native/indigenous peoples’. While Mundy’s racism is mild by comparison of, say, Ian Flemings’ [see Flemings’ James Bond series] it is pronounced by today’s standards. This doesn’t mean modern readers will not enjoy Mundy’s work, but it does mean the reader should prepare themselves for racial and cultural attitudes that are not acceptable today. Again, these attitudes are not as blatant as those of others writers and should not interfere, greatly, with the reader’s pleasure—if they keep the above proviso in mind.
Having said this, Om is a wonderful adventure story with mystical overtones and interesting historical observations. But, mostly, Om is a wonderful book filled with exotic and unusual characters.
The middle section of the book drags a bit, feels a bit overly long, but this may be because the reading sensibilities of the pre-internet and pre-television age are dramatically different from those of today.
Highly Recommended for those readers who enjoy Adventure fiction and those interested in Late Imperial Adventure fiction.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.
Note: The reviewer read the Kindle eBook version of this book. The book was well formatted and easy to navigate through.
For those interested in learning more about Talbot Mundy, they should check out his Wikipedia page. Mr. Mundy led an interesting and unconventional life, which fed into his fiction and his perspective on the world.
January 26, 2008
A rousing tale set in 1920s India, with many philosophical overtones. Very memorable characters.
July 31, 2021
The Great Game is afoot and Ommony is looking for a jade piece taken from the Ahbor Valley, the place that his sister and brother in law disappeared into. He then gets roped into a theatrical group putting on a mystical play. The play is not interesting and the pretentious sayings embedded through the book don't help. Ommnony gets to the Valley and that's it, not much action.
Written in the 20s when spiritualism was in full swing, this book is a hodge-podge of ideas slammed together, a very Westernized version of Eastern doctrines. That combine with a bit of racism typical for pulp of this era give it a dated feel.
If you want to read something a bit better along these lines, read Kipling's Kim,
Written in the 20s when spiritualism was in full swing, this book is a hodge-podge of ideas slammed together, a very Westernized version of Eastern doctrines. That combine with a bit of racism typical for pulp of this era give it a dated feel.
If you want to read something a bit better along these lines, read Kipling's Kim,
March 4, 2016
Fabulous story, so rich in detail, you feel as if you are in India one hundred years ago! The authors' intimate knowledge and love of the country and its people is obvious and inspiring.
The book is usually found under the pen name of Talbot Mundy. Talbot Mundy wrote many other books on India that are also grippingly good!
The book is usually found under the pen name of Talbot Mundy. Talbot Mundy wrote many other books on India that are also grippingly good!
December 11, 2012
read this many years ago and just recently re-read it, it's still an extraordinary book, a good adventure.
January 28, 2023
I don't recall how I came across this book but many insisted it was good, and a 1920s era adventure story with philosophical overtones sounded right up my alley. There's a mystical piece of jade, a rumored hidden valley, a missing sister, a mysterious lama...
Unfortunately it was more a Mish mash of 1920s pseudo buddhist theosophic ramblings with a barely there plot. Literally the first half has the hero endlessly talking to various denizens of Delhi, partly to set up the plot but mainly it seems to establish the character and world view of the hero. When he finally gets going in disguise as a Bhat Brahmin with the lama's party, they put on a play and there is more endless discussion of pseudo Eastern philosophy.
So. Boring.
Unfortunately it was more a Mish mash of 1920s pseudo buddhist theosophic ramblings with a barely there plot. Literally the first half has the hero endlessly talking to various denizens of Delhi, partly to set up the plot but mainly it seems to establish the character and world view of the hero. When he finally gets going in disguise as a Bhat Brahmin with the lama's party, they put on a play and there is more endless discussion of pseudo Eastern philosophy.
So. Boring.
February 24, 2015
The original copyright of this book is from 1924. Maybe there is a good story in this book, but I found the style of writing not to my taste. When asked a simple question another character might launch into several paragraphs of response, much of which had nothing to do with the original question.
I gave it benefit of the doubt and rated two stars instead of one because I did not finish the book, it could have a good story hidden in there that I do not know about.
I gave it benefit of the doubt and rated two stars instead of one because I did not finish the book, it could have a good story hidden in there that I do not know about.
December 3, 2016
I found this book in a used book store. It was old and tattered but something about it called to me. I took it home and an hour after it got there I was lost in Mundy's world. Isn't this called a Ripping Yarn? I'm sure it is and it's a rip snorter. Laced with spiritual touches, great lashings of mystery and high adventure, I had to find more. It's not easy getting your hands on a Talbot Mundy but once you do you are in for an out-of-this-world treat.
April 3, 2013
I couldn't get into this at all. Skim read it, words flowed past me and I just had to put the book down. I think that it was the very odd style of writing that did it.
As for the story...
A shame...
As for the story...
A shame...
September 4, 2016
A very wise book and a wonderful adventure story. A book to get lost in and to return to often. A mystical Indiana Jones like story set in India under British rule. One of my all time favorite books.
October 25, 2023
A very creditable book, Talbot Mundy's Om: The Secret of Ahbor Valley is nevertheless hard to quantify. An inspiration for James Hilton's Lost Horizon, which was released nearly a decade later and is one of my favourite novels, Om follows the improbably-named protagonist Cottswold Ommony in British India in the 1920s, as he sets out to discover a mystical hidden valley and learn its secrets, not least that of the 'Jade of Ahbor' gemstone, of which he has encountered a stolen fragment. Throughout this story, Mundy laces his narrative heavily with spiritual and philosophical digressions, all of which are robust and a rung deeper than your usual East-meets-West mysticism.
Om exists in two worlds, and this shifting foundation is perhaps why I found it difficult to love, for all its qualities. It recalls Kim, a novel I did not like, but while it has one hand in the past in echoing Kipling's story, it also reaches out to the future, not only in suggesting the path which Hilton would later follow in Lost Horizon, but acknowledging the challenges of the coming years. "The men of the West are studying the construction of the atom, and have guessed at the force imprisoned in it," Mundy writes here, in 1924, more than two decades before Hiroshima. "Wait until they have learned how to explode the atom, and then see what they will do to one another" (pg. 363). Adventure stories rarely have this depth of wisdom, this metaphysical underpinning, and Mundy's is a genuine depth. Each chapter begins, Dune-like, with excerpts from a fictional Lama's book of teachings, and Mundy's professed following of Theosophy finds great airing through the characters' dialogue throughout. Many won't like philosophy mixed in with their fiction-reading, but for thoughtful and intelligent readers there is much to ponder here and the ideas are a fine complement to the story.
However, while the philosophical side is sound, the adventure story itself is found wanting. Mundy's characterisation of Ommony lacks the inner spiritual wanderlust which made Hilton's later protagonist Conway so relatable (even though 'Ommony' is surely meant to hint at 'Om', the meditative word). The underlying mystery of how Ommony's sister went missing in the Ahbor valley some years earlier is poorly-seeded and almost an after-thought. Characters leave the story when they are no longer convenient, rather than when their arcs are completed. After a promising start, with action, intrigue and exotic mystery, the story starts to drag: rather than heading out on a ripping adventure, Ommony becomes part of a kind of travelling circus which puts on a transcendental play in the villages it passes. The reader's interest fizzles out and when we finally arrive at our mystical valley of Ahbor, we've been off the tracks for so long we've forgotten why we were headed there.
The scene in which Ommony and his companions trek through to the hidden city, and the lost valley opens up before us, is a fine one, but in truth the exciting ingredients of a lost city and a powerful treasure are undersold. We are told that the natives of Ahbor "guard the valley as cobras guard ancient ruins" (pg. 367), but they are never really encountered in the story. Much of the threat, peril and excitement is informed second-hand through the characters' dialogue with one another, rather than being exampled in the narrative. A character explains the magical value of the Ahbors' jade gemstone, but we never see its effects in the story. The intelligence and depth underneath is often wise ("men fight to the death over the Golden Rule [of the Sermon on the Mount]," one character says on page 365, "What would they not do with the Jade of Ahbor?") but the story overlaying it is thin and stretched. It's to Mundy's great credit that he didn't rely on cheap thrills but instead utilised (and, in some ways, subverted) the adventure-story format to deliver a deeper, more satisfying message: there are adventurers and treasure-hunters of "the sort who hunt miracles and seek to make themselves superior by short-cuts. Whereas there are no short-cuts, and there is no superiority of the sort they crave, but only a gradual increase of responsibility, which is attained by earned self-mastery" (pg. 389). I am happy to follow a good author like Mundy, eschewing short-cuts; I only wish there had been a little more payoff on the adventure itself.
Om exists in two worlds, and this shifting foundation is perhaps why I found it difficult to love, for all its qualities. It recalls Kim, a novel I did not like, but while it has one hand in the past in echoing Kipling's story, it also reaches out to the future, not only in suggesting the path which Hilton would later follow in Lost Horizon, but acknowledging the challenges of the coming years. "The men of the West are studying the construction of the atom, and have guessed at the force imprisoned in it," Mundy writes here, in 1924, more than two decades before Hiroshima. "Wait until they have learned how to explode the atom, and then see what they will do to one another" (pg. 363). Adventure stories rarely have this depth of wisdom, this metaphysical underpinning, and Mundy's is a genuine depth. Each chapter begins, Dune-like, with excerpts from a fictional Lama's book of teachings, and Mundy's professed following of Theosophy finds great airing through the characters' dialogue throughout. Many won't like philosophy mixed in with their fiction-reading, but for thoughtful and intelligent readers there is much to ponder here and the ideas are a fine complement to the story.
However, while the philosophical side is sound, the adventure story itself is found wanting. Mundy's characterisation of Ommony lacks the inner spiritual wanderlust which made Hilton's later protagonist Conway so relatable (even though 'Ommony' is surely meant to hint at 'Om', the meditative word). The underlying mystery of how Ommony's sister went missing in the Ahbor valley some years earlier is poorly-seeded and almost an after-thought. Characters leave the story when they are no longer convenient, rather than when their arcs are completed. After a promising start, with action, intrigue and exotic mystery, the story starts to drag: rather than heading out on a ripping adventure, Ommony becomes part of a kind of travelling circus which puts on a transcendental play in the villages it passes. The reader's interest fizzles out and when we finally arrive at our mystical valley of Ahbor, we've been off the tracks for so long we've forgotten why we were headed there.
The scene in which Ommony and his companions trek through to the hidden city, and the lost valley opens up before us, is a fine one, but in truth the exciting ingredients of a lost city and a powerful treasure are undersold. We are told that the natives of Ahbor "guard the valley as cobras guard ancient ruins" (pg. 367), but they are never really encountered in the story. Much of the threat, peril and excitement is informed second-hand through the characters' dialogue with one another, rather than being exampled in the narrative. A character explains the magical value of the Ahbors' jade gemstone, but we never see its effects in the story. The intelligence and depth underneath is often wise ("men fight to the death over the Golden Rule [of the Sermon on the Mount]," one character says on page 365, "What would they not do with the Jade of Ahbor?") but the story overlaying it is thin and stretched. It's to Mundy's great credit that he didn't rely on cheap thrills but instead utilised (and, in some ways, subverted) the adventure-story format to deliver a deeper, more satisfying message: there are adventurers and treasure-hunters of "the sort who hunt miracles and seek to make themselves superior by short-cuts. Whereas there are no short-cuts, and there is no superiority of the sort they crave, but only a gradual increase of responsibility, which is attained by earned self-mastery" (pg. 389). I am happy to follow a good author like Mundy, eschewing short-cuts; I only wish there had been a little more payoff on the adventure itself.
September 26, 2025
I know Talbot Mundy's writings from the Tros of Samothrace series, which are amazing historical fiction in the time of Caesar and Cleopatra. Lots of intrigue, fighting, and cleverness. Om is different although the 1980s back cover promises adventure like Raiders of the Lost Ark. (Om was written in 1924.) It seems like there's going to be an adventure. There's a shard of jade that reflects what's in your soul and there's a mysterious guru who wants it back and our hero of the story follows this guru who he is very suspicious of for doing all sorts of bad things. He disguises himself and becomes an actor in the guru's traveling troupe of actors putting on a play about upending the politics of India. And then halfway through the book, he stops being suspicious and just follows the guru around, all the way to the jade stone, watches the guru die, and then becomes guardian of the orphaned niece he never knew he had. There a lot of philosophy intertwined in the book that was probably really eye-opening to English readers back in 1924 but reading it 101 years later, it's just boring (at least to me).
September 20, 2018
Beautifully written. An entertaining adventure that begins with a series of unfortunate events. Just enough good old fashioned mystery to keep up the suspense and keep you turning the pages. Why haven't more people read this book? I feel like buying copies for all my friends. I wish there was a movie. Other than the scenery fabricated by my imagination, the only actual picture I have of this magical adventure is the colorful camel caravan on the cover.
Regarding the mysticism: I was happy that the spiritual bits weren't too high and mighty, though the Lama generally tends to speak in riddles. I can imagine audiences in the West just eating this up when it was released in 1924, "Oooooh, so exotic! So interesting!" It's no surprise that everyone suffering existentially from the security of their middle class lives wanted to move to India and become Buddhist to find something "more." Maybe I should move to India...
Regarding the mysticism: I was happy that the spiritual bits weren't too high and mighty, though the Lama generally tends to speak in riddles. I can imagine audiences in the West just eating this up when it was released in 1924, "Oooooh, so exotic! So interesting!" It's no surprise that everyone suffering existentially from the security of their middle class lives wanted to move to India and become Buddhist to find something "more." Maybe I should move to India...
Currently reading
September 5, 2020
November 21, 2022
Starts out pretty slow but comes together pretty well at the end. Lots of good one-liners.
March 30, 2024
In India during the 1920s an English adventurer investigates some mystical secrets in a valley dominated by a powerful Lama. The book has a surprise ending.
September 25, 2024
(Abandoned after thirty pages.)
January 30, 2025
Za klimat i wątki teozoficzne.
August 25, 2025
Difficult to start, but once you get used to the word usage and 1920’s British language, it’s very interesting
September 27, 2013
Indiana Jones? Maybe...a little bit, though not nearly as much as the book cover would have you believe. A touch of Kipling, due to setting mostly. I think H. Rider Haggard would be the closest read-alike. A good read, especially if you enjoy older genre fiction.
January 30, 2015
easy reading, fascinating. wish it were a movie.
August 18, 2016
I'm not likely going to finish this book.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews