Author: Tim Weed
Publisher: Podium Entertainment
Published: May 26, 2026
As an obsessive reader of all the Carlos Castaneda books, I was pleasantly surprised to find this book about a daughter’s (Esme) quest to discover what happened to her father (Gregory), when he disappeared 20 years ago, when she was 12 years old. Once touted for his “bestselling book on Indigenous shamanic practices and hallucinogenic experience”, Gregory eventually resigned from his position at Columbia University to pursue what he hoped would be a life-changing discovery.
The book centers around Mesoamerican artifacts, a hidden cave, a curandera (healer/medicine woman) from Oaxaca, and the use of psilocybin mushrooms in pursuit of the Inframundo (mythical underworld/netherworld).
I loved the discussions of Mesoamerican culture, the piracy of artifacts, and the introduction of the Sebastian Bonney character as the bad guy. But, Sebastian’s character was a little on the nose. You can almost see him swirling a cape and twirling a handlebar mustache.
There is a love interest when Esme invites a struggling geological consultant to help her find the cave her father wrote about in his journals, although an out-of-character outburst by Esme puts the relationship in danger. There is intrigue when a stela is found (a stone pillar, that may have been the portal to the Inframundo), and a race to see who will claim it.
Like the Castaneda novels, I wanted more. I knew I would never really discover answers, so for me the book is all about the journey, the suspense, the theory of the multiverse, the descriptions of the mushroom-induced hallucinations, and the philosophy of an afterlife or alter-life.
Many thanks to NetGalley, and to Podium Entertainment for the chance to read this with my ears as well as on paper.
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