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One Mind's Eye
This is space opera at its finest, packed with action, romance, drama, and political intrigue. Llyn Torfinn is a virtual orphan, once found hooked to an artificial reality machine, drugged by sensation and wasting away, with no memories and no past. Physically, she has made a long and painful recovery, but in a system at war, with a dreaded alien threat lurking in the wings, Llyn's greatest challenge may be to discover her own identity. For if she cannot come into her own--and quickly--all of humanity may pay the price.
387 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1996
12 people are currently reading
92 people want to read
About the author
Kathy Tyers
33 books236 followersShe is the first child of Dr. H.C. Moore, an accomplished dentist and jazz musician who had served during WWII as a test pilot, and Barbara Putnam Moore, flutist with several California orchestras.
Kathy attended Montana State University in Bozeman, where she received a degree in microbiology, married, performed widely on her flute, and then became certified as a K-12 classroom teacher. After teaching primary grades for three years, she retired to start a family. Her only son took long naps and enjoyed playing alone, so in 1983 she set her electric typewriter on her kitchen table and started writing a book. Shortly after finishing the first draft, she joined a writers group, where she learned to critique and self-edit. First novel FIREBIRD was published by Bantam Spectra books in 1987, followed by FUSION FIRE, CRYSTAL WITNESS, and SHIVERING WORLD.
In 1993, her Bantam Spectra editor asked if she’d like to be a Star Wars © writer. THE TRUCE AT BAKURA hit the bestseller list, and life got hectic, exciting, and generally crazy for a while.
After one more novel for Bantam Spectra (ONE MIND’S EYE), Kathy took a sabbatical to deal with family issues. Targeting the Christian Booksellers Association market, she attended several writers conferences before concluding that no CBA publisher was interested in science fiction. She made three attempts to write a contemporary women’s novel, then turned back to her secret passion, which was to revive the unfinished FIREBIRD series. A year later, she connected with Steve Laube of Bethany House Publishers. Laube, a science fiction fan, was willing to take a risk on the project. Rewritten to enhance their underlying spiritual themes, FIREBIRD and FUSION FIRE reappeared in 1999 and 2000, followed in 2000 by a third Firebird novel, CROWN OF FIRE. Meanwhile, the call to write Star Wars came again, this time from Del Rey Books. NEW JEDI ORDER: BALANCE POINT was also a 2000 release.
In 2001, Kathy received the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference’s Pacesetter award for her efforts in the growing Christian science fiction genre. However, during the years that followed, worsening family troubles forced another sabbatical. Another SF novel was started but shelved. Bethany House asked for a new edition of SHIVERING WORLD, which Kathy completed while working at a retail greenhouse.
Kathy was widowed in 2004 and returned to school in 2006. Also in 2006, she completed working with classical guitarist Christopher Parkening on his autobiography, GRACE LIKE A RIVER. She has received a Diploma of Christian Studies from Regent College in Vancouver, BC, and she is working on toward a Master’s degree, mentoring several apprentice writers through the Christian Writers Guild, and drafting a new science fiction novel. Her Canadian experience includes worshipping at a marvelous Anglican church with stained-glass windows, kneeling rails, and challenging Scriptural preaching.
In October 2014 Kathy married William Thomas Gillin.
Kathy attended Montana State University in Bozeman, where she received a degree in microbiology, married, performed widely on her flute, and then became certified as a K-12 classroom teacher. After teaching primary grades for three years, she retired to start a family. Her only son took long naps and enjoyed playing alone, so in 1983 she set her electric typewriter on her kitchen table and started writing a book. Shortly after finishing the first draft, she joined a writers group, where she learned to critique and self-edit. First novel FIREBIRD was published by Bantam Spectra books in 1987, followed by FUSION FIRE, CRYSTAL WITNESS, and SHIVERING WORLD.
In 1993, her Bantam Spectra editor asked if she’d like to be a Star Wars © writer. THE TRUCE AT BAKURA hit the bestseller list, and life got hectic, exciting, and generally crazy for a while.
After one more novel for Bantam Spectra (ONE MIND’S EYE), Kathy took a sabbatical to deal with family issues. Targeting the Christian Booksellers Association market, she attended several writers conferences before concluding that no CBA publisher was interested in science fiction. She made three attempts to write a contemporary women’s novel, then turned back to her secret passion, which was to revive the unfinished FIREBIRD series. A year later, she connected with Steve Laube of Bethany House Publishers. Laube, a science fiction fan, was willing to take a risk on the project. Rewritten to enhance their underlying spiritual themes, FIREBIRD and FUSION FIRE reappeared in 1999 and 2000, followed in 2000 by a third Firebird novel, CROWN OF FIRE. Meanwhile, the call to write Star Wars came again, this time from Del Rey Books. NEW JEDI ORDER: BALANCE POINT was also a 2000 release.
In 2001, Kathy received the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference’s Pacesetter award for her efforts in the growing Christian science fiction genre. However, during the years that followed, worsening family troubles forced another sabbatical. Another SF novel was started but shelved. Bethany House asked for a new edition of SHIVERING WORLD, which Kathy completed while working at a retail greenhouse.
Kathy was widowed in 2004 and returned to school in 2006. Also in 2006, she completed working with classical guitarist Christopher Parkening on his autobiography, GRACE LIKE A RIVER. She has received a Diploma of Christian Studies from Regent College in Vancouver, BC, and she is working on toward a Master’s degree, mentoring several apprentice writers through the Christian Writers Guild, and drafting a new science fiction novel. Her Canadian experience includes worshipping at a marvelous Anglican church with stained-glass windows, kneeling rails, and challenging Scriptural preaching.
In October 2014 Kathy married William Thomas Gillin.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 4, 2024
Having been rescued from a virtual reality machine as a child, Llyn Torfinn has suffered years of abuse at the hands of the woman who adopted her and took on the mantle of "mother". Llyn's search for her true identity, and for freedom, will see her catapulted into a war between the two worlds that could claim her. But the real enemy is something else... and warfare will not stop them.
I've spent the past few weeks reading through Tyers' backlog and I believe One Mind's Eye is a satisfying culmination of her work in the 1980s and 1990s. In her previous books, she uncertainly circled the point she wanted to make and as a result she was too tentative with the delivery. I might not have loved everything she wrote in this period, nor agree with her message, but I can admire how she finally came to deliver her best novel (to that point, anyway - I have no experience with her more recent work and frankly have no wish to change that, since I'm agnostic).
As an aside, Llyn's mother is a chillingly accurate portrayal of a narcissist - she and Mother Gothel would get along nicely.
I've spent the past few weeks reading through Tyers' backlog and I believe One Mind's Eye is a satisfying culmination of her work in the 1980s and 1990s. In her previous books, she uncertainly circled the point she wanted to make and as a result she was too tentative with the delivery. I might not have loved everything she wrote in this period, nor agree with her message, but I can admire how she finally came to deliver her best novel (to that point, anyway - I have no experience with her more recent work and frankly have no wish to change that, since I'm agnostic).
As an aside, Llyn's mother is a chillingly accurate portrayal of a narcissist - she and Mother Gothel would get along nicely.
October 15, 2014
One Mind’s Eye review
I asked Adam Graham to buy me One Mind’s Eye by Kathy Tyers for my last birthday for a couple reasons. One was, at the time, it was priced higher than I was comfortable spending on an ebook for an ordinary occasion. The second was the title reminded me of an old title of one of my books and the plot line included the use of artificial reality, as she calls it. So for once I was curious about her tech gadgets rather than simply suckered by a cute, abused orphan.
Okay, so there is also an orphaned teenage girl dealing with a controlling mom who treats her like an extension of herself, misbehaving by merit of having the audacity to have her own thoughts, opinions, and ideas of what she wants to do with her life. Such as not spend it under lock and key, safely away from any musical tones that might possibly trigger her to have a flashback to the artificial reality where music both controlled her and she could control her environment right back with music. Oh, her mom is an empath who can read others thoughts but not project her own, so there is literally no privacy with her mom, not even in Lynn’s own mind, poor thing. Lynn is adopted, and I appreciate that the author managed to avoid implying that had anything to do with the abuse by making her mom’s behavior a pervasive pattern that eventually gets her in professional trouble.
For good measure, Tyers throws in star gates connecting an interplanetary Concord. The planet with most of the food doesn’t appreciate suggestions it share its food production and food productivity secrets. So much so it decides to start a revolution, in a fashion that proves, contrary to a popular American belief, revolutions aren’t always good.
If that wasn’t enough, a race of sentient alien parasites needs new host bodies, pronto, and is desperate enough to take ones that already are in use by another sentient being. Classic line of needing to prove to a more advanced civilization that we’re people, not animals, and shouldn’t be misused.
Since I didn’t find it too surprising, without specifics that would be spoilers, it does turn out the artificial reality experiences are crucial to resolving the main external conflicts. Though at first one might not see what that has to do with anything aside from being Lynn’s own personal drama. If you don’t like characters with rich internal/interpersonal conflict and just want a shoot ’em up story, you won’t like this one. If you’re like me, though, you’ll eat that side of the story up and even wish it’d gotten a bit more play and the classic war and alien invasion plotline a bit less.
I find it ironic that a story entitled “One Mind’s Eye” has multiple viewpoints and thus multiple story lines. She brought them together in the end fairly well, but a story with her title especially could’ve benefited from cutting a few viewpoints out. Also, for my tastes, Tyers used a bit too much summary of the “recapping events not showed in scenes” sort with weak or no internal motivation for the perspective character to give us that info.
Also, I love it when God shows up and makes a difference, especially when it moves the plot forward, God acts like the God I know, it makes sense within the narrative, and doesn’t relieve the characters of all the hard work of resolving the issues. If you for some reason prefer absent, silent, and uninvolved deities, though, this story world is ruled by a God that is too Biblical for your tastes. That’s nothing for Tyers to be ashamed of, either.
I asked Adam Graham to buy me One Mind’s Eye by Kathy Tyers for my last birthday for a couple reasons. One was, at the time, it was priced higher than I was comfortable spending on an ebook for an ordinary occasion. The second was the title reminded me of an old title of one of my books and the plot line included the use of artificial reality, as she calls it. So for once I was curious about her tech gadgets rather than simply suckered by a cute, abused orphan.
Okay, so there is also an orphaned teenage girl dealing with a controlling mom who treats her like an extension of herself, misbehaving by merit of having the audacity to have her own thoughts, opinions, and ideas of what she wants to do with her life. Such as not spend it under lock and key, safely away from any musical tones that might possibly trigger her to have a flashback to the artificial reality where music both controlled her and she could control her environment right back with music. Oh, her mom is an empath who can read others thoughts but not project her own, so there is literally no privacy with her mom, not even in Lynn’s own mind, poor thing. Lynn is adopted, and I appreciate that the author managed to avoid implying that had anything to do with the abuse by making her mom’s behavior a pervasive pattern that eventually gets her in professional trouble.
For good measure, Tyers throws in star gates connecting an interplanetary Concord. The planet with most of the food doesn’t appreciate suggestions it share its food production and food productivity secrets. So much so it decides to start a revolution, in a fashion that proves, contrary to a popular American belief, revolutions aren’t always good.
If that wasn’t enough, a race of sentient alien parasites needs new host bodies, pronto, and is desperate enough to take ones that already are in use by another sentient being. Classic line of needing to prove to a more advanced civilization that we’re people, not animals, and shouldn’t be misused.
Since I didn’t find it too surprising, without specifics that would be spoilers, it does turn out the artificial reality experiences are crucial to resolving the main external conflicts. Though at first one might not see what that has to do with anything aside from being Lynn’s own personal drama. If you don’t like characters with rich internal/interpersonal conflict and just want a shoot ’em up story, you won’t like this one. If you’re like me, though, you’ll eat that side of the story up and even wish it’d gotten a bit more play and the classic war and alien invasion plotline a bit less.
I find it ironic that a story entitled “One Mind’s Eye” has multiple viewpoints and thus multiple story lines. She brought them together in the end fairly well, but a story with her title especially could’ve benefited from cutting a few viewpoints out. Also, for my tastes, Tyers used a bit too much summary of the “recapping events not showed in scenes” sort with weak or no internal motivation for the perspective character to give us that info.
Also, I love it when God shows up and makes a difference, especially when it moves the plot forward, God acts like the God I know, it makes sense within the narrative, and doesn’t relieve the characters of all the hard work of resolving the issues. If you for some reason prefer absent, silent, and uninvolved deities, though, this story world is ruled by a God that is too Biblical for your tastes. That’s nothing for Tyers to be ashamed of, either.
October 26, 2020
Tyers writes sci-fi really well as she draws the reader into her story world with ease. Her characters are well documented, her principals fully developed with strengths and weaknesses plus there’s always an intriguing support cast.
Llyn Torfinn is a wonderful character. Her past is sketchy having spent plenty of time in a futuristic form of an asylum to be adopted by a brilliant psychologist who is determined to develop her beyond any disabilities she may possess due to her brain being wiped in the past. This is Llyn’s story and we see her development, her naivety, bravery and intelligence all on show. Her connection (‘enmeshment’) with Jahn is beautiful and a crazy good concept of Tyers.
The artificial reality (AR) and the Chaethe parasites kinda blew my mind. Having another intelligent being in one’s head is another crazy creation of Tyers but I found I tired in the last third of the book reading the dialogue these parasites had with Llyn.
I enjoyed this story for its clever concepts rather than the story itself plus Tyers writing. However, some of the concepts distracted me from diving deep with the characters and so I was pleased when the story came to an end and with a satisfying conclusion.
Llyn Torfinn is a wonderful character. Her past is sketchy having spent plenty of time in a futuristic form of an asylum to be adopted by a brilliant psychologist who is determined to develop her beyond any disabilities she may possess due to her brain being wiped in the past. This is Llyn’s story and we see her development, her naivety, bravery and intelligence all on show. Her connection (‘enmeshment’) with Jahn is beautiful and a crazy good concept of Tyers.
The artificial reality (AR) and the Chaethe parasites kinda blew my mind. Having another intelligent being in one’s head is another crazy creation of Tyers but I found I tired in the last third of the book reading the dialogue these parasites had with Llyn.
I enjoyed this story for its clever concepts rather than the story itself plus Tyers writing. However, some of the concepts distracted me from diving deep with the characters and so I was pleased when the story came to an end and with a satisfying conclusion.
December 1, 2023
Parts of this were very interesting. The main character had a lot of depth. I got a bit frustrated in the beginning with switching between characters. But this resolved as the story moved along. I also didn't really enjoy all the political intrigue, but it was kind of necessary for the story. Overall an engaging story.
April 9, 2024
This is quite the science fiction book, with a complex plot, and complex characters. I wouldn't say I enjoyed the book, but if you like science fiction, complex worlds, etc, you'll probably like this. It's not my favorite of Tyers' books.
September 21, 2020
Interesting ideas. Well executed
January 27, 2015
It took me a little while to thoroughly enmesh myself in the storyworld of this book, but once I did I found myself eagerly anticipating each reading. It was fascinating reading this book having already read Tyers' Firebird books. Tyers was exploring a lot of the same themes and ideas in this book (a group of elite mind readers, overbearing mother figures, etc.) But while Once Mind's Eye was a great attempt at fully developing these themes, you can tell Kathy grew as a writer in between writing this one and the Firebird books. I did love how she wove in spiritual themes without hitting you over the head, and I loved even more that this novel didn't skimp on the length. It's a long book, and that's a good thing when you enjoy the story.
August 7, 2019
I've enjoyed everything I've read by Kathy Tyers so I had high hopes for this story, and she didn't let me down. I did get lost a couple of times with all of the different odd names in the story and who's who, but as I got deeper into the story it all came together.
Our main character, LLyn, was wonderfully crafted. I felt for her and wanted so much for her to figure out her place in this world - but I wasn't too happy with the major decision she made when she did get her independence! She later found out that it wasn't the smartest choice, but it ended up working out for everyone, especially Jahn!
This is a clean read.
Our main character, LLyn, was wonderfully crafted. I felt for her and wanted so much for her to figure out her place in this world - but I wasn't too happy with the major decision she made when she did get her independence! She later found out that it wasn't the smartest choice, but it ended up working out for everyone, especially Jahn!
This is a clean read.
September 21, 2021
I got to chapter six and just lost interest. The plot moved at such a glacial pace that I gave up and DNFed it. If you want a space opera that is quick and snappy that jumps right into things, I recommend Holly Lisle's Hunting the Corrigan's Blood, Tanya Huff's Confederation of Valour series, or Anne McCaffrey's Crystal Singer series .
Read
March 16, 2011I choose not to rate this one just yet, because I read it back in middle school. Ah, for the good 'ole days when Mom worked at B&N and would bring home the catalog copies of books... That's how I got this one, anyway. Well, I remember thoroughly enjoying it as an early teen, which makes me want to read it again before rating.
February 18, 2010
Competently written account of inter-species conflict with an intelligent, parasitic form. Rather spiritual in some ways. The protagonist is a young woman struggling for self-determination and freedom from an overbearing caregiver.
Recommended for teen+. No harsh language, etc.
Recommended for teen+. No harsh language, etc.
July 3, 2016
A complicated world, The scope a bit too large for one book. Ender, Pod People, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Stargate all rolled into one novel. Whew. Not for the faint of heart but worth the time.
June 23, 2015
Creative universe
This was a unique combination of science fiction and faith. It was a good adventure and love story. The alien culture was interesting.
This was a unique combination of science fiction and faith. It was a good adventure and love story. The alien culture was interesting.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews