[Molly Kaye's] love of India is equalled only by her knowledge of it. This love and knowledge help to explain the superb success of her [The Far Pavilions and Shadow of the Moon] in America. You can quickly tell that this author writes not only from the heart but also from the head, that her comprehension of things Indian is as vast as it is varied. On the pages of her works India, with its many castes and creeds, its poverty and splendor, with its appalling heat and towering mountain peaks, comes to life. Furthermore Miss Kaye has been able to make the past come alive in the present. As one critic said, she "gives the reader a sense of being caught up in the fabric of another time, with the bonus of having an informed insider's viewpoint."

That viewpoint is decidedly pro-Indian. The British protagonists in each...