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"Enthralling and spellbinding"
by Diana Scanlan, public Relations and Natural Therapist from Sydney, Australia
After finishing "The Far Side of Eternity"and being held, spellbound, for the duration, I felt that I had actually come to know the characters personally, and had become involved in their lives, loves and struggles. Helen writes with a verve and clarity which grips the reader and keeps them turning the pages, bringing to life this "other world" and it's inhabitants, which is ultimately linked to our own.
I now look forward to the release of Helen's next book " The Dark Side of Eternity" with bated breath.
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Nicole, age 15. NSW, Australia
'An extraordinary book that opened my eyes to every bit of beauty this world has to offer. I could write pages and pages about this enchanting story. The Far Side of Eternity is a book that can't be put down. A love story that's changed my life forever.'
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Klara Kaye, Forresters Beach. NSW, Australia
December 15, 2000: Dear Helen, I have just finished reading your book (The Far Side of Eternity) and felt the need to write to you and tell you how much I enjoyed it. It's such a beautiful love story - true passion without smut. The characters became a part of you. I was definitely transported visually to a place of great beauty. The passion and understanding of each character carried me along emotionally, I didn't want it to end. I believe there will be another 3 books. Well come on. Give me more. How long before we get to read No. 2? Thanks again for a great Read. Look forward to the movie.
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Ken - NSW, Australia
December 6, 1999: Dear Helen, a compelling read. I feel I must say "What a wonderful imagination!" but then I realise it's only part imagination and a quantity of truth. This makes the whole situation very intriguing, to say the least. In any event, Helen, it was a very entertaining manuscript and I feel sure a lot of other people are going to enjoy the book as I did. They might have a few ???'s but I am sure they will be totally captivated.
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Phillip - NSW, Australia
January 30, 2001: I was given a basic outline of the book before I read it, and although I have a completely open mind, there is always the odd sceptic remark lingering in the back of my head. First, there are no references in the level which suggest fiction or non-fiction, which gave the reader an independence to believe or not to believe.
I was quickly impressed by the fact that everything had a logic sense, it felt right, and I believed what I was reading I had known before. "It made me feel good inside."
Helen, your book has given me an inspiration to do what I was meant to do in this life on this earth, do it to the best of my ability and apply peace, health and help to whatever crosses my path.
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Sue Steggall, Author - Australia
This review appeared in the Northern Beaches Weekender, a newspaper that covers Manly through to Palm Beach
The modern Olympic Games might be little more than a century old, but they owe their existence to an ancient sporting contest which began in 776 BC at a site revered in Greek mythology.
"The Far Side of Eternity" written by former Avalon resident Helen Benbow and published by Minerva Press, is a cosmic tale of grander-than-life deities and all too human failings and will inevitably be read - and understood - through the lives, loves and deeds of that pantheon of gods who inhabited Mount Olympus so long ago.
Baron Pierre de Coubertain, who is credited not only with the rebirth of the Olympic Games (in 1896) but also of shaping the Olympic movement's high minded goal of building a better world through sport, believed strongly in the civilizing power of educating the mind and training the body. He too looked to antiquity for a solution. The Baron's philosophy combined a taste for neoclassical elegance with a nostalgia for a golden age when all the gods were (perfectly) godlike and lived in an idealised paradise situated somewhere between Disneyland and Workout World.
So too are Helen Benbow's gods perfect - male and female - ageless and beautiful of face and body.
Twice - widowed, Helen's life has not always been easy and her book is proof not only of her determination to succeed as a writer (in spite of numerous rejections over the past 18 years) but an inspiration to all those who would like to write but have not yet found the courage.
"Emerging writer" is not the exclusive preserve of the under 35s! It wasn't until the 1980s that Helen began writing short stories, then children's stories and a novel (unpublished), guided by several mentor-friends. With this book, the first of a planned quartet, Helen said there was so much she wanted to say that she found it easy to write: "The whole thing was in my head; it all just spilled out."
Helen describes her book as having a dual entity - both novel and thesis. The publisher's report described it as "a fantasy that explores the nature of deities and our relationship with them.a stirring examination of the conflict between private and personal feelings and passions as against the duties of order and reason," Reason ... Margaret Wertheim writes, "the difference between 'science' and 'magic' was not always so clear as it seems to us today.
Although we often dismiss the world of spirits as misguided superstition, in earlier times the occult arts were considered legitimate sciences, based on a subtle understanding of nature's hidden forces." "But," Wertheim again,"by the early 17th century, mathematical scientists and magicians became rivals, with each camp claiming the true path to knowledge." At stake were fundamental issues of power and possession: who would be the keepers of the flame of 'truth' about the natural world?
Siding with neither camp, neither scientists nor mystics, evolutionists or creationists, and with a confidence not always found in a woman approaching three score and ten, Helen Benbow has set herself the Herculean task of putting down on paper her understanding of the life force, from the first spark of energy to the appearance of Homo sapiens, linking the realm of the gods with the everyday world of the computer crashes, intrigue, jealousy and occasionally, love. In spite of Benbow's ready appropriation of 'nineties culture with references to designer sport and information technology, in matters regarding politics and race relations there is a somewhat pre-sixties tone to the book which perhaps runs counter to the social climate of today's critical writing.
The book is a courageous attempt to answer some of the very big questions - Who are we? What are we? Why are we here? Where are we going? - but it is not easy to categorise. It does however invite serious reflection not the subject of why we write, how we write and how we read. Writing has many aims: to communicate, to understand, to repair our own lives, to tell a story. It often treads a fine line.
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'A.R.G.', Minerva Press Critic - UK
We are always pleased to give consideration to new work with the qualities that "The Far Side of Eternity" has in abundance; imaginative scope, realism, emotion, topicality and tension. This story explores the nature of the deities and our relationship with them: a stirring examination of the conflict between private and personal feelings and passions as against the duties of order and reason.
This work, as well as exploring moral and spiritual issues that endure into our time, is an individual and innovative piece, exploring the essential human themes of dilemma and loyalty in a style which swoops seamlessly between the earthly and the other worldly. The world of the novel, though a fictional creation of some substance, is a dynastic arena as unpredictable and enigmatic as reality, one that is populated by delicately drawn and individualised characters whose lives one quickly comes to care about.
This essential realism carries over into the body of the text itself. The writing is packed with products of real storytelling; as in a good Hollywood epic, little insights and observations of intense human interest and colour combine with the fictional material to give the work a powerful relevance to its readers. The facts of the story are attached to images and feelings to which anyone can relate. Essential 'scene-setting' details and other information are not relayed in huge indigestible chunks, but are instead woven carefully into the fabric of the plot itself. The dialogue is particularly well handled: informative and convincing.
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Matthew, Australia
Well, what a novel, I really must say I'm delighted it came into my hands at just the right time of course! absolutely fantastic and something I feel a lot of people will get a real buzz out of reading. I LOVED IT! wow a "real" metaphyxial love story! inspiring, delicate, intricate, simplistic and challenging all at the same time (well that was my experience anyway!) Love and light to you my friend Helen...
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