Land of Precious Snow

“Land of Precious Snow” by Thaddeus Tuleja.  Young Jethro Dey and his father travel to Tibet in search of precious white gold, but they are attacked by bandits and all are killed. Jethro believes he is also dead, but after a few days lying in the frozen snow, a man appears almost as a vision, naked, but unaffected by the cold and ice. He tends to the young American for several months until he is strong enough to travel, then the old man leads him to a monastery many miles away. In the meantime, one of his friends has set out to find Jethro and his dad, hoping they are still alive. It is a long journey, and finally they meet at the monastery. But now Jethro is a new man, and wishes to remain, not for the gold, but for deeper understanding. He gives up his belief in Christian religion, and accepts Eastern beliefs. This was written in Victorian style, as indeed, it’s the era the story takes place. I’ve never been a fan of Victorian fiction, however. The author is a historian, and also wrote the K’ing Kung Fu series as Marshall Macao, another series I couldn’t get into. “Land of Precious Snow” was supposed to be the first in a new Green Lama series, with Jethro Dumont’s name changed to Jethro Dey. This novel, however, was merely how Jethro reached the monastery, and the writing was too academic to be of interest. There were supposed to be three more novels after this one, but none appeared. Probably due to the negative response the first story received. We never see him as The Green Lama, so the book was a waste.