The beginning of the story is a true fairytale for Gailel. She has been in love with Prince Elriapmi since they were children. As adults, she finds out that he loves her too, so they are to be united. They are each other's "One-With." She is to have his name tattooed on her neck and throat and he will have hers on his right hand. This sounds painful to me, but I'm betting that they don't have many couples split up, unless they find another lover with the same name! When the needle hits Gailel's neck for the first time, she is struck by a vision of the end of the world. She knows that she must stop this ceremony and go wherever the One is leading her to go with only her handmaiden, Kimia, as her companion. Gailel is torn over this vision. At the time of the telling, there are more than one thousand million people on the earth across 8 races. In her vision, only a remnant of those survive. But all her life, she's wanted nothing more than to be One-With with the prince and just as the moment is at hand, the One is telling her that it must wait. Gailel knows that she must follow though so that she can lead the remnants of her people and save them from eternal damnation, hopefully her prince included.
The One sends his angel, Sachiel, to comfort her at the start of the journey. Sachiel will continue to show up to aid her in times of need. Gailel and Kimia set off for the Meditation Mountains since that's where Gailel feels they should go, but it isn't close. They've got a four week walking journey ahead of them, but they do have magnificent horses to ride. Unfortunately, Elriapmi has already sealed the city gates and through a lot of trouble, they end up postponing their journey and staying in the city for a bit longer. Of course, delaying her journey at this point is really senseless. She would have wasted a lot less time if she had just gone through with the original ceremony and then gone on the journey, but I guess Yune are like humans and aren't logical. At this point, if you haven't given up on the book, I applaud you. The beginning of Tides of Eternity feels like something that a lovesick 15-year-old girl would write about her dream love. But as I kept reading, I realized that the reason for that is to set up the characters, to show how strong their faith is and how far they have to go to obey the One, so if you've made it this far, just keep reading and the story will get less romance and more action. Gailel should have obeyed the One and gone on her journey right away instead of waiting on Elriapmi, but bad things probably still would have happened and she wouldn't have been around to help.
Gailel and Elriapmi get to spend their first night as mates together and she conceives that night. The next day, on the eve of their official first dance and presentation, tragedy strikes. Gailel and Kimia are forced to flee the city or be killed. Gailel's old teacher, Jon Tolk, shows up to rescue Gailel and Kimia and get them out of the city so they can finally continue their journey. From here on out, their lives are going to be much more difficult. They're going to have to fight continually to get away from the evil pursuing them until they can fight head on and hopefully survive the end of the earth.
Tides of Eternity reminds me of a bastard child of the Bible, Legend of the Seeker, and Charmed. Once Gailel has the child Tylen, it starts to remind me of the last few seasons of Charmed, with the very powerful child that must be protected from the evil ones. I do feel that they left some things hanging, like the relationship between Kimia and Lian,a stable boy. Gailel sends for the approval of his family and then it's never mentioned again.
The pacing of the novel is odd. It feels like it is moving too fast and skipping over some of the story details, but as soon as you get to the religious stuff, it feels like it drags. I know I skimmed some pages that were just chants over and over as I was falling asleep trying to read each piece as it repeated. As a rule, I don't mind works with a religious theme. I love Orson Scott Card's work and a lot of it is pushing religion, but not in such an overt manner. Tides of Eternity feels like you're reading a religious text a lot of the time and that really drags a bit, but there is a good story behind it so if you can handle wading through the rest, you might give it a shot. If you like reading religious works, you should definitely check it out.
