Jayne Castle is wonderful at bringing the reader to another world and taking them on an amazing adventure of suspense, mystery and love.

In many ways it seems almost unfair to judge this book (which was published in 1996) by the standards of science fiction/fantasy/romance books written today. These types of books and authors have moved in lightning fast style from what they were when the genre and sub-genre first began to be written. Nevertheless, I have to confess that I found myself bored while reading this first in the Castle series of "flower" books.

Amaryllis Lark, as a character, should have appealed to me since she is the type character I tend to want to read about. But even I found her TOO rigid, TOO prissy, TOO single-minded, TOO straight laced, TOO everything. She was not a psychic detective, as some reviews have stated, she simply fell into investigating the death of her academic mentor because she was too stubborn to let go of her idea that something MIGHT have been wrong in his death. No clear reason for her doubt ever stuck in my mind so I was constantly left wondering why she continued to think he might have been killed. She just went on and on and on insisting on investigating when there did not seem to be anything to investigate. Why? Give me some reason to believe that a mystery actually exists. (In fairness to the author, she did manage to hide the culprit very well, but by the time it was revealed, I just wanted to get it over with and be finished.)

Lucas Trent was a very good character for me. He was portrayed as the opposite of Amaryllis and Ms Castle did a very good job in making me see him as such. I do wish that she had given him more passion. He seemed to be rather lukewarm during situations where his emotions should have registered off the top of the scale. I have read in some of the reviews that this is a "steamy" romance. No, not by today's standards. If you read this book believing that, you are destined to be very disappointed.

I agree with another reviewer, if everything in this book is to be compared to Earth, why not just have the action take place on Earth using a time/dimension vehicle to move it out of our own world? All the descriptions are very shallow; as an example, at one point the characters eat a straw-peach pie. Not one single description of what that fruit looked like, smelled like or tasted like. Coff-tea. What was it? What did it smell like, taste like? Where did it grow? Did it grow? Give me some descriptions to tell me why this was not Earth. A fern-tree. Well, I know it was big but how big? How tall? How wide? Was it even green?

I have read all the Jayne Castle books about Harmony, AFTER GLOW, AFTER DARK, GHOST HUNTER and will receive the newest release in a few days. I just LOVE those books. I can envision the alien world of Harmony. I expected that these "flower" books would give me the same enjoyment level. I was wrong. As I said at the beginning, perhaps it is wrong to judge these too harshly because the writing has moved so far along since these early books were written. But the bottom line is: this book was too long, it did not excite me with any futuristic ideas, it was not a very intense romance and the mystery aspect seemed completely forced. Sorry!

****Comment added March 17, 2008 I have recently read another book in this series, "Zinnia", and absolutely loved it. All of the reasons I had for not really caring for this particular book were absent in the second. I definitely was not bored. Now I am looking forward to reading "Orchid" to complete the series.*****jel

Summary -

First futuristic romance by Jayne Castle (also writes historicals as Amanda Quick, contemporaries as Jayne Anne Krentz and Stephanie James). Interesting mystery overshadows the romance between two psychics. World-building very weak and far from credible. Not recommended for those looking for SF romance (such as those written by Asaro), or for those wanting a romance-heavy plot. Will probably be enjoyed by those who like Quick's more recent historicals (with strong mystery and suspense elements).

Details -
I read science fiction (and fantasy) as well as romances and mystery. While I haven't read equally extensively in all these genres (and their sub-genres) I think I have read enough to detect influences of one author upon another. In the past, the first historical romances (Jean Plaidy and Georgette Heyer) that I read were by Amanda Quick (alias Jayne Anne Krentz alias Jayne Castle alias Stephanie James). AMARYLLIS is the first Jayne Castle book of hers I have read. It also happens to be her first futuristic romance.

The problem I have with this book, among others, is that I read it well after I had read Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series (all written by her alone) and Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series. So, compared to those books/series, Jayne Castle's world-building could not really match up. Bradley writes fantasy (her characters also have strong mental/psychic powers), Bujold writes what is called military space opera (although she is now writing fantasy). Both authors set their best known series - mentioned above - on worlds cut off from humanity by some mysterious collapse of communications and transport. In Castle's case it was the "Curtain", in Bujold's case, it was a wormhole, and in Bradley's case, I believe it was the total incapacitation of the spaceship on an unexplored and undiscovered planet. So, when I was reading this book, I was constantly comparing how Castle's world St Helens matched up to Darkover (Cottman Four) and Barrayar. This is probably not the perspective of most readers, so they might want to stop right here.

Castle is not a writer of science fiction or fantasy, but one of romance. I do expect, however, that a writer of romance (contemporary, futurististic, alternate-reality/ paranormal, or historical) will still make her world a credible one. Throughout this book, I could not figure out why Castle did not simply bother to set her book on Earth (in an alternate reality or timeline) or in the future. The book constantly told me about differences in the planet's way of life, but rarely showed me. For example, I never found any references to different flora and fauna.

Furthermore, Castle constantly used terms such as "coff-tea" for a beverage, "chick-turk" for some form of poultry, and so forth. [It sounds more likely to me that homesick colonists would call any drink similar to an American popular beverage by that name, using "corn" for anything like corn, "coffee" for anything like coffee.]
This became almost an irritant while I kept on reading.

The cities were named exactly for cities on the Western United States coast, the continental geography sounded nearly the same. So why bother to create a new world? Castle argues that nearly all the colonists came from the north-western part of the United States. Hmm... I might buy that, but not the curious resemblance in geography.

The social structure did not make a lot of sense to me. Marriage is apparently for life; affairs (if discreet) between married people (not married to each other) are condoned, but not an affair between a married man and an unmarried woman. Marriages are considered safer if arranged. These are all apparently based on rules set down by the original leaders (the Founders). There were constant hints that the Founders were more complex (and less decent) than they appeared to their descendants, but not one clue was thrown out to the reader.

The so-called psychic abilities seemed far from supernatural. There are technical talents, agricultural talents, diagnostic/ medical talents, and so forth. Not much different from today, I would think. [I have no green thumb, and clearly have no agricultural talent]. People with talents need people who can focus those talents (called "prisms") to use those talents for a longer period or at a higher level, but the level of talent must be matched to the level of ability to focus those talents. AMARYLLIS (and perhaps its sequels) is about a man with high-level talent and a high-level "prism". The hero Lucas does have some unusual talents, notably the ability to create illusions (which he keeps secret) and the ability to detect others using their talents (which he has officially declared). Later, we learn of other people with unusual talents, not often declared to the authorities.

And the political structure? We meet a candidate campaigning for return to traditional values, but no sense of why this has suddenly become popular (his charisma aside). We have no real sense of how this planet is governed, policed, and otherwise organized on a day-to-day basis. All that is said is that the marriage laws are strict, and people have strong views about legitimate birth, lineage (and pedigree), and the like. St Helens sounds more like a tradition-bound society (where a person's status is determined wholly by his birth status and his family's status) than anything like the modern United States.

The story itself is more mystery than romance - the hero Lucas Trent, a loner like most of Castle/Quick/Krent's heroes, has to solve a case of industrial espionage (more whydunnit rather than whodunnit) initially, which escalates into his assisting the heroine to solve a suspicious death. We learn a little about the hero's past (his parents dying young, the pirate raids in the islands he called home, the deaths of his partner and his wife, and more). We also learn that the heroine Amaryllis Lark was born illegitimate and was rejected by her father's family (her parents too died young). While the romance develops, the mystery actually takes center stage (rather as in Quick's later and most recent historicals). The heroine is excessively naive, and very nearly stupid enough to get herself killed. The hero is smitten by the heroine, despite (or because of) her naivete. Rather like most of Quick's heroines....

And yes, I could tell that there would be stories about at least two other characters, former allies of Lucas Trent whom we meet briefly. Their appearance was not obnoxiously obvious (as in some novels where characters practically scream out "I am going to be in a sequel").

The real problem I had with this book was that I didn't buy the world-building at all. Although I don't dislike futuristic romances, I prefer what are sometimes called SF Romance (or romantic SF) such as those Skolian stories written by Catherine Asaro. And if I want to read about psychic characters, I would prefer to read a good old-fashioned paranormal romance or a Darkover book by Marion Zimmer Bradley.

This is not a discommendation for lovers of futuristic romance. Just be warned that if you want a strong romantic element in your book, this book has a stronger mystery and suspense element than a romantic element (it is pretty obvious that Lucas and Amaryllis are attracted to each other quite early on). If on the other hand, you want a strong world-building element in your book, you might want to pass this up. I am not sorry that I read AMARYLLIS, since I had read Castle in her other alter egos. On the other hand, I will stop right here, and stick to re-reading her early historicals.

-- Reviewed by bookjunkiereviews 18 February 2006

I love reading these paranormal adventures with JAK writing as Jayne Castle. Amaryllis Lark is an academic newly arrived in the business world and working as a full spectrum prism for Psynergy, Inc for just the past 6 months. She has dozens of certificates, diplomas and so on and adheres to a strict code of ethics. Lucas Trent was raised in the wild Western Islands with only an old prospector as a guardian. He owns Lodestar which mines jelly ice -- an energy source much needed on this planet!! He also discovered "alien relics" on the Islands that are going on display in a museum. He has an internal company security issue he needs Amaryllis to help him with as he is a "class 9" detector talent. Even though Amaryllis is a very straight arrow and rather prudish, she is excited about this opportunity to work with the famouse Lucas Trent!!

From the first time they link and as the story and murder mystery develops, it is alot of fun reading with some amusing anecdotes, secondary characters and startling ending.

If you enjoy futuristic/paranormal books, read this and the other two books on this planet, "Zinnia" and "Orchid" -- you can learn more about some of Lucas' friends!

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!