Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful Story about Strong Characters
Review: "Walking to Mercury" added depth and soul to "The Fifth Sacred Thing." After reading this latest addition, I reread "The Fifth Sacred Thing" and appreciated it so much more. Rio became a real person rather than a mysterious ghost. I developed great admiration for Maya, the Crone, after knowing her as a young woman who is learning from her mistakes, suffering, living life. It's a story about real people and Starhawk's portrayal makes the reader care about them.Starhawk portrayal of the evolution of our society in this book increased the credibility of her vision of the future in the other. The novel also explained how Maya came to hold so many of her viewpoints later. If you enjoyed "The Fifth Sacred Thing," you'll like learning more about the characters in it. If you haven't read it, this book stands alone quite well -- but you'll probably be drawn to read the other because you want to know what happens next. Since many of the characters in "The Fifth Sacred Thing" are descendents of those in "Walking Toward Mercury," reading one contributed to the experience of reading the other. However, the two novels have a different voice entirely despite the common characters. I enjoyed both. In summary, "Walking Toward Mercury" is an outstanding novel set in the present that beautifully portrays a fictional yet very real life.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Story about Strong Characters
Review: "Walking to Mercury" added depth and soul to "The Fifth Sacred Thing." After reading this latest addition, I reread "The Fifth Sacred Thing" and appreciated it so much more. Rio became a real person rather than a mysterious ghost. I developed great admiration for Maya, the Crone, after knowing her as a young woman who is learning from her mistakes, suffering, living life. It's a story about real people and Starhawk's portrayal makes the reader care about them. Starhawk portrayal of the evolution of our society in this book increased the credibility of her vision of the future in the other. The novel also explained how Maya came to hold so many of her viewpoints later. If you enjoyed "The Fifth Sacred Thing," you'll like learning more about the characters in it. If you haven't read it, this book stands alone quite well -- but you'll probably be drawn to read the other because you want to know what happens next. Since many of the characters in "The Fifth Sacred Thing" are descendents of those in "Walking Toward Mercury," reading one contributed to the experience of reading the other. However, the two novels have a different voice entirely despite the common characters. I enjoyed both. In summary, "Walking Toward Mercury" is an outstanding novel set in the present that beautifully portrays a fictional yet very real life.
Rating: 
Summary: Comparing Apples and Oranges?
Review: I enjoy Starhawk's books. I really enjoyed The Fifth Sacred Thing. This book lost a lot of its magic and fantasy of its first one. It was more a book of activism than deep spirituality, on the other hand at that point in time Wicca had not gone very deep. It is very much worth reading, just keep in mind that it is not the same as the first book.
Rating:
Summary: Comparing Apples and Oranges?
Review: I enjoy Starhawk's books. I really enjoyed The Fifth Sacred Thing. This book lost a lot of its magic and fantasy of its first one. It was more a book of activism than deep spirituality, on the other hand at that point in time Wicca had not gone very deep. It is very much worth reading, just keep in mind that it is not the same as the first book.
Rating: 
Summary: A bit disappointing
Review: I liked this book - even better than 5th Sacred Thing. It's really great, and it subtly uploaded all kinds of valuable things into my brain. Good stuff. A little soap-operaish at points, but it's most for the sake of character development. I might recommend reading this before 5th Sacred Thing. It's good! Taught me alot.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful tapestry of stories woven into a novel.
Review: I really enjoyed the collage of reading Maya's current journey to try and reconnect with her sister along with the journal entries and letters from her lover and long ago boyfriend. I would have liked to see more references to magic and the time she spent in NY with Sylvia but still found the book very satisfying. I devoured it in a matter of days. I wish that there was more fiction out there that was written about modern day pagans and witches. I did like the fifth Sacred Thing (especially the Melissa) but found it a bit too sci-fi. Maybe thats why I really liked watching the transformation of Maya from a Maiden to a pre-crone. Yet still searching for truths and connectedness. I would highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: awesome
Review: i wish it would have been longer, i didn't want it to end!
Rating:
Summary: Evocative and Magical
Review: I'd never read any of Starhawk's work before. So to read this, with no preconceived ideas about the characters, served me well. It was inspirational, reading of Maya, and of her journey (both personal and spiritual). This book changed my life, and has called me to travel to Nepal, simply to experience the places that were described so vividly in this book.
It's the amazing journey of one woman.
Rating:
Summary: Split review
Review: In reality I would need two different ratings to give this book it's proper review. I read it after reading "The Fifth Sacred Thing", which I liked, though with some reservations. I personally did not care for "Walking to Mercury", however I can see that someone who grew up in the same generation as Maya probably would. As our major character she is very caught up in the times and the culture of the '60's, and anyone who was familiar with the '60's and sympathetic to that variety of idealism would probably find it very good reading. Unfortunately for my enjoyment I come from another generation down the line (born in 1969). The baby-busters. Known briefly as Generation X, until the advertisers realized there weren't enough of us to bother with, and started using the term to refer to the baby-boomlet that occured right afterwards (hence proving the point the name was coined to highlight). For me, Maya Greenwood the crone in "The Fifth Sacred Thing" was an enjoyable character. Unfortunately the same person in her 20's and 30's just made me want to shake her because she was being so blasted stupid. The sheer pointlessness of Maya's entire "spiritual journey" up until 3/4's of the way through the book made me want to scream. I was simply struck by the self-aggrandizement, selfishness, and ultimate pointlessness of most of the behavior of most of the characters in the book. It's very hard to like even a well written book, when you don't like most of the people in it. The book does redeem itself somewhat towards the end. You get inklings of how Maya begins to deepen into the far more interesting person she is by "The Fifth Sacred Thing", and her relationships begin to metamorphose into something more worthwhile - just about the time the book ends. So not entirely awful, but mostly for those who lived the 1960's.
Rating:
Summary: Split review
Review: In reality I would need two different ratings to give this book it's proper review. I read it after reading "The Fifth Sacred Thing", which I liked, though with some reservations. I personally did not care for "Walking to Mercury", however I can see that someone who grew up in the same generation as Maya probably would. As our major character she is very caught up in the times and the culture of the '60's, and anyone who was familiar with the '60's and sympathetic to that variety of idealism would probably find it very good reading. Unfortunately for my enjoyment I come from another generation down the line (born in 1969). The baby-busters. Known briefly as Generation X, until the advertisers realized there weren't enough of us to bother with, and started using the term to refer to the baby-boomlet that occured right afterwards (hence proving the point the name was coined to highlight). For me, Maya Greenwood the crone in "The Fifth Sacred Thing" was an enjoyable character. Unfortunately the same person in her 20's and 30's just made me want to shake her because she was being so blasted stupid. The sheer pointlessness of Maya's entire "spiritual journey" up until 3/4's of the way through the book made me want to scream. I was simply struck by the self-aggrandizement, selfishness, and ultimate pointlessness of most of the behavior of most of the characters in the book. It's very hard to like even a well written book, when you don't like most of the people in it. The book does redeem itself somewhat towards the end. You get inklings of how Maya begins to deepen into the far more interesting person she is by "The Fifth Sacred Thing", and her relationships begin to metamorphose into something more worthwhile - just about the time the book ends. So not entirely awful, but mostly for those who lived the 1960's.
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