free e-book received from Member Giveaway in exchange for a review

This is the second collection of short stories by Lewis which feature Asha (a herbalist) and Priya (a blind nun). The first set were about death, this set focuses on rebirth, though does have a theme of death and dying. There are three stories in this volume. In each story Asha must solve a puzzling medical condition/mystery and get to the practical explanations for several so-called miracles. At the end she meets the doctor responsible for causing the discomfort, for the "progress of science" and she gets revenge. ( )

Review of member giveaway eBook
This short story collection comprises of 3 short stories set in the Halcyon world.
The Bitter Fruit, The Silent Sage and The Deadly Gift.
The stories follow Asha (a herbalist) and her companions Priya (a blind nun) and their pet mongoose Jagdish. They travel through this alternate world encountering strange people, animals and plants. The world and characters are fun, engaging and unusual. I would recommend this collection highly. ( )

This story was well-written with a couple interesting characters, but really, it's short. It's too short to be considered a book, or even a novella. Since it's really just chapters 4, 5 and 6 of this over-arcing story, I simply can't imagine why the author didn't just combine them in one volume to make a book of decent length. Each chapter read formulaically and reintroduced the same points, which made it seem as if these were originally intended to be short stories. ( )

This is a collections of stories about a girl named Asha and her companions. I enjoyed it and also read the first book as well event though both books could be read without the other. The stories are interesting can be read in one sitting easily. ( )

I enjoyed reading the stories in this book, enough to buy the first of the Asha books(The Tale of Asha, Volume 1: Death). The stories in both books are vivid and intriguing, mystical (sometimes whimsical, sometimes melancholic) parables that can easily translate to our present day lives. Mr. Lewis' writing style is easy to enjoy, lyrical and fluid, spare and yet vividly evocative. In short, I highly recommended. ( )