I had greatly enjoyed Scarborough's "Healer's War" years ago, glad to come across another of her books. I'll have to start actively searching for her. Both books actually have a similar theme.
I like reading books which bring other dimensions into the story, especially around healing (tho that was not a major part of the book). While the Tibetan traditions weren't given much explicit attention, Viveka, under stress, became awareness of an undercurrent of chanting which helped her cope. I see there is a sequel and think that the traditions may be more prominent (unless there is internal dissension among the inhabitants for a story line, also highly likely).
Most of the story dealt with prisoners of war, and their guards. Not, in itself, very thrilling and prone to sterotyping. Now that I reflect, I didn't really like Viveka spouting back prisoner attitudes after she had developed more awareness of what was going on. It just seemed so out of character.
I noticed the resemblance to James Hilton's Shangri-la and appreciated Scarborough acknowledging it even tho it meant, once again, Viveka had happened to read some obscure book before these events.
I didn't believe the acid snow at the end, she should have left the effects just with the time warp. The ending was a bit rushed, summarizing people's lives. I guess that's when Scarborough realized she'd need to do a sequel. ( )

This is an adequate novel with no great acts of skill to attract me to read further works by Scarborough. The perpetual warfare state, now looming as a possibility for all of us North Americans, is not very well done, nor is the eventual outcome pleasing. ( )