Thermodynamics of Solids, 2nd Ed.

Customer Reviews:

Approach this book with caution..........2005-08-20

To the curious minds of today and tomorrow:

This is not the book one should use as a introduction to thermodynamics of materials. A critical reading of it indicates that it was not carefully proofread. There are some very fundamental mistakes in the book, which might confuse the novice.

For instance, free energy curves are drawn with the wrong slope! I will not go into details of the physical meaning(s) of such a mistake, but it suffices to say that it defeats pretty much everything for what thermodynamics stands.

A great deal of caution has to be exerted if this book will be used as a textbook. Its use as a reference book is also quite limited.

However, one should give whenever and to wherever credit is due.
In Swalin's book you will find Fermi-Dirac statistics and the theory of heat capacity, which is discussed at a reasonble depth. That, in turn, clearly shows the reader the versatility of thermodynamics by providing a transition from macroscopic phenomenology to statistical mechanics.

The treatment of solution thermodynamics and phase equilibria is quite superficial as compared to the books by Gaskell and Lupis. However, the chapters on semiconductors and defect equilibria can conveniently be used as a primer to the subject.

Given the prohibitively expensive price of the book, it is clearly a book that will not be on your favorites list. If you have already mastered the principles of thermodyanmics, then you may want to take a glance at it. But stay away from it if you're a novice.

Cheers,

Dr.E.
-------------------------------

Read this book at your own risk.......1999-03-12

The book by Swalin is definitely not a book from which you may want to learn thermodynamics. First and foremost, it seems to me that the book is not proof read! There are some very fundamental mistakes in the book which might throroghly confuse the novice. Just to give you an example: the free energy curves are drawn wrong! A great deal of caution has to be exerted if this book is going to be used for the purpose of learning. In addition, the price is, in my opinion, not right. A few positive points worth mentioning are in order though...Swalin's book exposes the reader to Fermi-Dirac statistics and the theory of heat capacity at a reasonble level of detail within the context of thermodynamics that provides a good insight to the relationship between macroscopic thermodynamic phenomenology and statistical mechanics. That is indeed neat since it demonstrates how "flexible" thermodynamics is in addressing a wide range of physical phenomena. The treatment of solution thermodynamics and phase equilibria is quite superficial as compared to the books by Gaskell and Lupis. However, the chapters on semiconductors and defect equilibria can conveniently be used as a primer to the subject. Regrettably, I must say that this book definitely is not a "must have book." If you have already mastered the principles of (chemical) thermodynamics, then you may want to take a glance at it.

Book Description

What to see and what to expect at each site in the Galapagos—revised with the latest details on park conditions and the visitor's experience.

·Meticulously updated in consultation with senior staff at Charles Darwin Research Station and expert island guides
·Human and natural history of the islands—now updated
·Tips for planning and making the most of your visit—now expanded
·Bonus chapter on travel in mainland Ecuador (rainforest and Andean Highlands)—now revised

Marylee Stephenson is besotted with passion-flowers, daisy trees, giant tortoises, marine iguanas, and blue-footed boobies. Traveling in tiny, hand-hewn converted fishing boats and on luxurious sailing vessels, she has explored the Galapagos Islands numerous times over the past two decades. In her engagingly written guide, she takes you to all the important sites, describing the plant and animal life to be seen and the experiences to be had in each area. Includes maps and color photography.

Marylee Stephenson is brilliantly equipped to act as both armchair and practical guide to the Galapagos Islands, one of the world's best remaining magic places. If you're going or thinking of it, or just want a vicarious experience, this book is required reading.--Margaret Atwood, author of Oryx and Crake and Moving Targets

Customer Reviews:

More of a checklist than an explication.......2003-01-27

The subtitle gives you an indication that this is not exactly a reading experience, but a guidebook during your actually sojourn. While it contains some useful pre-trip information, Stephenson concentrates on detailing the flora and fauna that are on each island, and their approximate locations, in a format that is almost like a checklist (or, for the birders out there, a lifelist). Stephenson is knowledgeable, and her information accurate as far as I can tell, but there's really no savoir faire here, and there's the rub. If I had only this to base my foreknowledge of the islands, I'm not so sure I'd be so excited about going. Luckily, there's other books that are better at capturing the uniqueness of the islands and their place in history and our world today.

Infant Development: The Essential Readings (Essential Readings in Developmental Psychology)

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Infant Development: The Essential Readings (Essential Readings in Developmental Psychology)
Alan Slater
Manufacturer: Blackwell Publishing Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Adolescent Psychology | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Developmental Psychology | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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The Blackwell Handbook of Infant Development (Blackwell Handbooks of Developmental Psychology)
Introduction to Infant Development

ASIN: 0631217479

Book Description

Discoveries by researchers into infant development are some of the most exciting and important to be found in the study of human development, and they have been the subject of intense speculation and theorizing. Despite the fact that, as adults, we can remember little about the times and places when we acquired knowledge in infancy, that information does remain with us for the rest of our lives. Infant Development: The Essential Readings introduces the reader to the field of infancy research and to some of the current, lively controversies within this area.Each of the articles within the reader has been chosen to reflect the dynamic, changing nature of the subject and the diversity of research and thinking within the are of infant development. The articles have also been selected to be accessible to students at all levels. These articles are all by leading infancy researchers, and they are introduced and contextualized by the editors. Suggestions for further reading are made to give students an ideal starting point for exploration of the key topic in infant development.

The Essential Darwin (Masters of Modern Science Series)

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Complete, Informative, but Biased
Insightful without bias

The Essential Darwin (Masters of Modern Science Series)
Charles Darwin , and Kenneth A. Korey
Manufacturer: Little Brown and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Evolution | Science | Subjects | Books

Customer Reviews:

Complete, Informative, but Biased.......2006-05-30

This offers great selections from various works of Darwin, including some that are hard to find. I found it invaluable for my research paper, although it is clearly biased in favor of Darwin (for instance, Darwin "discovered the _fact_ of evolution".) However, it is still a good source, and the commentary helps to elucidate some of the more confusing portions of the text.

Insightful without bias.......1999-04-26

Robert Jastrow does a wonderful job of explaining the various theories and mindsets of Charles Darwin without pressing any bias in the mix. Robert, if you read this, thank you once again for another outstanding read.

Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading)

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Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading)
Charles Darwin
Manufacturer: Barnes & Noble
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Evolution | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

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The Essential Darwin
Charles Darwin
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Evolution | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0045750297

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Essential Darwin
Robert Jastrow
Manufacturer: LITTLE BROWN & CO @
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UCXODS

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Essential Darwin
Robert Jastrow
Manufacturer: LITTLE BROWN & CO @
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000QBAA62

The essential writings of Erasmus Darwin;

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The essential writings of Erasmus Darwin;
Erasmus Darwin
Manufacturer: MacGibbon & Kee
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0261620290

Essentials Of The Physical Diagnosis Of Thoracic Diseases

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Essentials Of The Physical Diagnosis Of Thoracic Diseases
E. Darwin Hudson
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing, LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Medicine | Subjects | Books

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Pulmonary | Internal Medicine | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature.

Evidence As to Man's Place in Nature Thomas H. Huxley with Special Introduction By Selman Halabi (Barnes and Noble Library of Essential Reading)

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Evidence As to Man's Place in Nature Thomas H. Huxley with Special Introduction By Selman Halabi (Barnes and Noble Library of Essential Reading)
Thomas H. Huxley
Manufacturer: Barnes and Noble
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0760783381

Product Description

Barnes and Noble Edition with introduction by Selman Halabi. Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature (1863) has been considered the most important of Thomas H. Huxley's Darwinian writings. Despite warnings from friends that publishing an argument in support of evolution could ruin his career, it in fact did the opposite. This book did much to facilitate the general acceptance of Darwinism in Huxley's day. Huxley demonstrates that humans are a part of the natural order of things and not radically separate from other animals. Anyone interested in the history of the Darwinian revolution or in early anthropology can benefit by reading this book.

The Book of Illusions: A Novel
Average customer rating:

perhaps one of Auster's best

(3.5): Is He Too Good?

Adult fables...but not quite adult enough.

Auster becomes too conventional

the crux of the other

The Book of Illusions: A Novel

Manufacturer: Picador
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Auster, Paul | ( A ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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Oracle Night

The New York Trilogy (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

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The Invention of Solitude

Moon Palace (Contemporary American Fiction)

ASIN: 0312421818

Amazon.com

Vermont professor David Zimmer is a broken man. The protagonist of Paul Auster's 10th novel, The Book of Illusions, hits a period in which life seemed to be working aggressively against him. After his wife and sons are killed in an airplane crash, Zimmer becomes an alcoholic recluse, fond of emptying his bottle of sleeping pills into his palm, contemplating his next move. But one night, while watching a television documentary, Zimmer's attention is caught by the silent-film comedian Hector Mann, who had disappeared without a trace in 1929 and who was considered long-dead. Soon, Zimmer begins work on a book about Mann's newly discovered films (copies of which had been sent, anonymously, to film archives around the world). The spirit of Hector Mann keeps David Zimmer alive for a year. When a letter arrives from someone claiming to be Hector Mann's wife, announcing that Mann had read Zimmer's book and would like to meet him, it is as if fate has tossed Zimmer from one hand to the other: from grief and loss to desire and confusion.

Although film images are technically "illusions," this deft and layered novel is not so much about conscious illusion or trickery as about the traces we leave behind us: words, images, memories. Children are one obvious trace, but in this book, they are not allowed to carry their parents forward. They die early: Hector Mann losing his 3-year-old son to a bee sting just as David Zimmer has lost his two sons in the crash. The second half of The Book of Illusions is given over to a love affair, and to Zimmer's attempt to save something of Hector Mann, and of the others he has loved. In the end, what really survives of us on earth--what flickering immortality we are permitted--is left to the reader to surmise. --Regina Marler

Book Description

Six months after losing his wife and two young sons in an airplane crash, Vermont professor David Zimmer spends his waking hours mired in a blur of alcoholic grief and self-pity. Then, watching television one night, he stumbles upon a clip from a lost film by silent comedian Hector Mann. Zimmer's interest is piqued, and he soon finds himself embarking on a journey around the world to research a book on this mysterious figure, who vanished from sight in 1929 and has been presumed dead for sixty years. When the book is published the following year, a letter turns up in Zimmer's mailbox bearing a return address from a small town in New Mexico inviting him to meet Hector. Torn between doubt and belief, Zimmer hesitates, until one night a strange woman appears on his doorstep and makes the decision for him, changing his life forever. The Book of Illusions is, in the words of Peter Carey, 'suffused with warmth and illuminated by its narrator's hard won wisdom. This artful and elegant novel may be Auster's best ever.'

Customer Reviews:

perhaps one of Auster's best.......2007-05-28

I am an admirer of Paul Auster. I love his imagination, his sense of humor, his constant allusions to literature and culture (his novels give me the sense of being rooted deeply in the Western civilization), the way he plays with the reader and gives him the pleasure of finding numerous cross-references between his books.

"The Book of Illusions" is no exception. In fact, it is one of my favorite Auster's novels.
David Zimmer, a professor of English from New Hampshire, faces the tragic loss: his wife and two small sons die in a plane crash one summer. David is heartbroken, he sinks deep into his grief, completely unable to recover. He starts drinking, takes a leave of absence (extending into infinity) from the university, buys a small house in the mountains of Vermont and feels like spending the rest of his life in seclusion.

Accidentally, he discovers the silent movies starring Hector Mann, the actor whose miraculous disappearance in 1929 put the end to his career. David becomes increasingly interested in Hector's movies and his life, and submerges himself in research for Hector's biography. When the book is published and Davis moves on to the translation of Chateaubriand's diaries, he receives a letter from Frieda Spelling, who claims that Hector is alive, she is his wife and summons David to their ranch in New Mexico. From then on, David's life takes an unexpected turn.

The interesting stylistic twist here is that the stories of David and Hector (both unusual and full of surprises) run in parallel, but while the reader gets David's story firsthand, Hector's story is reconstituted from bits and pieces discovered in libraries, letters and memories of people who knew or know him. We do not actually meet Hector, yet he is more a central character than David. Exactly like someone's obsession becomes a central object in their mind.

"The Book of Illusions" is, indeed, a book of illusions. The key, for me, was the movie about the life of Martin Frost, which David gets to see at Hector's ranch. When I reached this point, my perception of this novel changed - I no longer regarded it merely as an engrossing story, I decided that it is brilliant. There are many motifs typical for Auster, like Brooklyn, which appear in many of his other books. Metafiction is his specialty, most visible in his last novel "Travels in the Scriptorium" - look for this title here in the Martin Frost story...This novel is definitely worth reading and discovering the Auster phenomenon for yourself!

(3.5): Is He Too Good?.......2007-03-17

I like Paul Auster. I've come to like him a lot, especially after reading his non-fiction, and I continue to hope that I will read something I've come to enjoy as much as I did the New York Trilogy. This book, as others have noted, contains many of the same motifs that Auster has used in the past. This dark novel follows David Zimmer and a book he wrote about a once slightly famous silent film actor as a way to get over the tragic death of his family. When the silent film actor, who mysteriously disappeared essentially off the face of the planet reads David's novel, he goes about contacting him and tries to meet him face to face. I sometimes wonder when I encounter an Auster novel whether he comes up with a simple yet interesting idea, goes about writing it up, then realizes once he's finished with it if the original idea ever warranted a full-length novel. As a plot summary, the book is the kind of thing everyone would say "What a clever idea," but once in novel form, it kind of fizzles. I had many problems with the way the narrative would break into long descriptions of the silent films that David watches for his work and long digressions going into what the silent film star has been doing all of these years.

As is always the case, the book was easy to read, well-paced, and very entertaining at times. I loved some of the problems David encounters concerning his fear of flying and the way Auster paints depression is fantastically rendered. You couldn't help but feel for the guy. But at the same time, the whole book felt too long and I find myself thinking it would have made a much better short story.

Again, it's readable and better than most of what you find out there these days, but it's not Auster's best and it does have its flaws.

Adult fables...but not quite adult enough........2007-02-18

I cant account for the huge appeal of Paul Auster except that he's an intelligent writer without being `too' intelligent, that you can read him for entertainment without feeling like a total stooge, like you would, say, reading John Grisham or Dan Brown. Auster's novels are challenging, but they don't challenge much. They are adult fables reinforcing conventional values, viewpoints, and moral stereotypes written with clarity and craft but ultimately driven by TV-drama conflicts and tear-jerking sentimentality. You can be certain that in picking up a Paul Auster novel you'll never stray too far from the middle of the road.

That said, *The Book of Illusions* is familiar territory even so far as Auster goes. A man suffering a major loss questions his identity and the meaning of his life, begins writing a book, and finds himself involved in a mystery that unfolds in a series of stories within stories. This is Paul Auster's tried-and-true novel-writing formula, but after reading a couple of his books, it begins to feel a little stale. The weakness of this narrative device eventually becomes obvious ((and tedious))--large parts of his novels end up being summarized episodes from the past that read more like plot outlines than full-fledged dramatic fiction. In *The Book of Illusions* it is largely the life story of the vanished filmmaker Hector Mann that is told in this manner.

It's as if Auster wrote a lot of background material for characters in a novel and then made that background material part of the actual novel. It also begins to seem increasingly arbitrary what stories get told and who gets to tell them--a character comes onto the scene and then rambles on for seventy-five pages of back story. Meanwhile the main character--the guy who's wife and children were killed in a plane crash, whose been struggling with depression and suicidal drives--is left somewhere back on page thirty-five where he first started listening to all this. A lot of the episodes in these interminable stories don't really go anywhere--or simply amplify a point already sufficiently made. By piling up the coincidences and correlations, parallels between the stories of the various characters, Auster evokes his much-heralded "magic," but like a lot of magic, it ends up being dependent more on a cheap trick once you catch on. You realize that a lot of these `stories within the story' could just as easily have been left out--or, worse, multiplied to infinity. *The Book of Illusions* is, therefore, much longer than it really needed to be, but also much shorter than it theoretically could have been. And the fact that either way it makes no difference to the central plot is a problem.

In the end, *The Book of Illusions* isn't a bad novel; it just isn't a particularly good one. It won't shake up your world, but it won't put you to sleep either. Like all fables, it will pretty much repeat everything you already know, all the comfortable old bromides and moral certitudes that we imbibed as children and need to keep having confirmed to keep believing. Perhaps, its for this very reason more than any other that Auster continues to be so popular. He reconfigures the obvious in new ways. Nothing wrong with that--its one of the better-paying and more appreciated functions of art.

Auster becomes too conventional.......2006-09-24

We expect from Paul Auster normal character that find themselves in extraordinary, bizarre situtions. We,the reader are compelled to be the witness when these normal characters discover their previously untapped inner resources,to confront these strange events which engulfs their lives. Dave Zimmer is experiencing a personal crisis as he recently lost his family in a tragic plane accident. Zimmer starts writing about a silent screen actor, Hector Mann. What also presemted this actor as a very interesting subject is that at a very unexpected time in this actor's life he vanished. Auster superbly analyzes this actor's work on the silent screen (don't forget there were no words and all and inner and external thoughts had to be conveyed with gestures and facial expressions with very precise movements). However, Auster could have been more daring in crucial eleiments of this book. I felt there were certain events in the plot Auster could have taken the reader for a real surprise. After all isn't this we expect from such a great writer. I am not talking about bizarre developments simply for "shock" sake, but having Auster in his very deliberate manner present a plot delvelpment that would have come easy to the character,in context with the story but also surprising and thought provoking. It never happened. Auster is a great storyteller and the insights he presents through his characters to the reader are always thoughtful. I beleive expanding on those insights, especially in the final paragraph of the book, Auster did have the opprtunity of forcing the reader to say "wow". Instead it was consistent with some very good storytelling and I did feel content. However, from Paul Auster, I expected more.

the crux of the other.......2006-07-23

The book starts off with a letter from the Land of Dream, a Hispanic ranch where a long-forgotten silent film comedian supposedly stays. By following this artist's work, David Zimmer trains himself into becoming intensely concentrated on one purpose: "It was the life of a monomaniac, but it was the only way I could live now without crumbling to pieces."

I own a small encyclopedia of silent film comedians. As I read the Book of Illusions I found myself looking up Hector Mann and other actors and actresses mentioned by Auster. I discovered some of them: Lupino Lane, John Bunny... yet others were not listed. I "knew" that I was reading a work of fiction, but the fact that some of the (to me yet unknown) actors had actually existed filled me with wonder. As far as my encyclopedia is concerned, Hector Mann never existed. Perhaps my encyclopedia is to blame. It may be full of other such holes, tiny apertures between the entries, (un)recording the lives of the disappeared ones, the most silent ones. Mann's disappearance from my encyclopedia makes me think that I am insane, if only temporarily.

The Book of Illusions is a book about books. There is The Silent World of Hector Mann, which we want to read but can't. There is Chateaubriand, whose reading we have forever delayed; and there is Hawthorne's "The Birthmark", which we can't help rereading while reading this book. Once that David Zimmer's imagination is safely wrapped up in Alma's embrace we can indulge in the pleasure of reading between books.

The Book of Illusions is a book about women. Ideal women, who are the doubles of the real ones. Alma is the double of Helen. Nora is the double of Brigid, as is Dolores. The men's tragedy is that they want to find more spiritual women than the women they have got. They are ready to go to the extent of "killing" their more imperfect partners. David buries Helen and her children just as Hector buried Brigid. The abstract, ideal woman who is the object of the protagonists' desire may have an answer to the question that troubles them: Is there a life beyond... the grave of our illusions?

The Book of Illusions is a book about sex. What is the nature of the illusion under which two persons are united? How is our identity affected by the violence of feeling? For Hector Mann, the public performance of the act becomes the ultimate refuge from his own shame - his failure to realize the love for the one woman (any woman, as long as she is one and definitive). How can we survive the series of emotional breakages we cause to ourselves and to others, our victims? The spiral of hurting leads Hector to consumate his self-betrayal in the company of a prostitute, who eventually tells him to go.

The Book of Illusions is a book about death, and the death of artists. What right has an artistic output to survive the life of its producer? Are meanings buried with the mind that framed them? Why do audiences have an urge to communicate with the words and notions of those who are already dead? Reading classic literature is not but communicating with the dead, directly. Can an author truly survive through their work?

How can a man juggle with the two opposing forces at work in life: self and other, work and love? Sacrificing one's life-work for love is not unlike destroying one's creative acts. There is an untold mystery in the act of destruction, we want to find a higher spiritual purpose behind such self-denying action but its beauty is as elusive as the flames of an auto de fé. What is the meaning of fire? What is the nature of the magnetic force that lures us to self-destruction? It is a force that is related to "ecstatic negation", to the sacrificial mood of virgin nuns, to Bartleby. It is the mystic beauty of fire consuming itself... for the sake of nothing. The mystic fire that burned out the life of Hector Mann is a performance of purity; it is an spiritual quest and it is the consummation of an arrival.

Three Hainish Novels : Book (1) One: Rocannon's World; Book (2) Two: Planet of Exile; Book (3) Three: City of Illusions (Hainish Series)

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Three Hainish Novels : Book (1) One: Rocannon's World; Book (2) Two: Planet of Exile; Book (3) Three: City of Illusions (Hainish Series)

Manufacturer: Nelson Doubleday, Inc, Garden City
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: B000BISGAM

Illusions: A Nameless Detective Novel (Nameless Detective Mystery)

Average customer rating:

Mildly entertaining but the melodramatic, cobbled-together plot lines fall well short of the author's best work
This is a very good series, I didn't find Illusions as up to standard
One of the best in an outstanding series
Getting to the Bottom of It
JUSTICE SERVED?

Illusions: A Nameless Detective Novel (Nameless Detective Mystery)
Bill Pronzini
Manufacturer: Sunset Productions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

General | Books on Cassette | Audiobooks | Formats | Books

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ASIN: 1564312186

Customer Reviews:

Mildly entertaining but the melodramatic, cobbled-together plot lines fall well short of the author's best work.......2007-07-25

Over the years, I have read many of Bill Pronzini's "Nameless Detective" novels, whenever I could find one at a used bookstore. More recently, Amazon has allowed me to add some of the missing titles to my collection. I have long thought of Pronzini as a skilled storyteller and my favorite among a group of able writers of light, straight, credible detective fiction which includes his wife Marcia Muller and Sue Grafton.

Although sometimes weak on plot and veering at times into melodramatic action, Pronzini's characterizations, dialogue, descriptions of varied California locales, attention to detail, deadpan humor, and smooth, easy writing style almost always make his "Nameless Detective" books a pleasure to read. "Nameless" is low-key, competent, and serious-minded, part slob and part romantic. Pronzini regularly has fun with the character by humbling him with embarrassing or bad-luck situations and tests it by putting him through the ringer of traumatic experiences.

Illusions marries a story about Nameless's ex-friend/partner Eberhardt killing himself (alluded to at very end of Sentinels, the prior book in the series) with a story about a (soon-to-be-dead) client who tells Nameless a sympathetic story and asks him to find the client's estranged wife. The plot entails unsettling discoveries about the characters and involves battered women. After a talky ending testing his wife's conventions about law and justice, Nameless wrestles with what, if anything, to share with the police about what he has learned on the two cases, and ends the book proclaiming the death to all of his illusions.

Pronzini's skills as a story teller are on display to some extent, and the detective story shows some careful attention to detail. But the detection comes off as somewhat contrived, belated busy work in a story in which the two main plot lines are fairly shallow and do not work very well together. The "double substitution" plot point used in the book is confusing and not very effective. The characters are largely unmemorable, and Nameless's new assistant, Tamara Corbin, put to good use in Sentinels, fades into insignificance here. The book's description of the client's interactions with his ex-wife goes to a melodramatic, maudlin, morbid extreme, rather than being persuasively effective.

The pretensions to a grand theme fall a bit flat because neither of the two plot lines is effectively developed. And the book itself skimps on recognizing the implications of Nameless's actions -- he not only considers withholding theories from the police but also physical evidence that would affect their ability to solve the cases for themselves (witness the jury duty "stub" that Nameless "pockets").

The book is solid enough work by an old hand to round up to a three-star rating. But overall, I agree with another reviewer that there is something of a slack feel and hollow ring to the book's two story lines, that they do not gel with each other into an effective whole, and that they do not adequately support the momentous theme sounded at the end. To lavish, as some supposed reviewers appear to have done, a reflexive five-star rating on this book based on its general writing style or fondness for the series overall would be lazy and sloppy, and, more importantly, would not give a fair impression of Pronzini's best work.

This is a very good series, I didn't find Illusions as up to standard.......2005-07-14

Perhaps I read too many Pronzini's too quickly. For some reason Illusions was just not that great of a read in my opinion. I felt like Pronzini was kind of just offering up a half-baked effort and in my opinion it kind of fell a little flat.

First of all this book centers around morality. This morality is a shady sort that is ambiguous, and in the end both cases here are not as difficult to digest as the author would like to make out. I found myself thinking that the two mysteries here were not really up to par with the other Nameless books in this series. The tales did not force Nameless to undergo change in anything other than a superficial level. Also, the suspense level never really ramped up at all, this was more of a case of going through the motions.

I think that Pronzini's Nameless is one of the better PI's out there in the world of literature. I have enjoyed several of these books, especially the later ones (which is unusual in serial pulp). But as with any long running series, the author is bound to produce efforts not quite up to others, and I think that this is one of those.

One of the best in an outstanding series.......2004-05-28

I've never understood why Pronzini's "Nameless" series isn't more acclaimed - many of the books are out of print.

Getting to the Bottom of It.......2003-11-25

Long before Nameless and Eberhardt were partners, Spade and Archer were. Even though Sam Spade didn't have much respect for Archer, he knew that you had to avenge your partner's killer. In a similar way, Eberhardt's suicide hits Nameless hard. They haven't spoken for years, but they had been friends and partners for many years before that. What has happened to Eberhardt to make him want to kill himself? Nameless has to know. What he learns shocks him to the core, and makes him realize that he didn't know his old partner so well after all.

While this is going on, Ira Erskine hires Nameless to find his ex-wife. Their young son is dying of leukemia and wants to see his mother before he dies. Something about Erskine bothers Nameless's assistant, Tamara Corbin, but Nameless takes the case anyway. He quickly locates the ex-wife and lets Erskine know where to find her. Soon, Nameless has a second jolt when Erskine ends up dead while cleaning his gun. What really happened?

In both cases, Nameless realizes that he has been very naive . . . and that his naiveté has been dangerous to others. Although he cannot right the wrongs, he has to find out what really happened. The answers make him sick to the deepest part of his soul. And he has to decide what to do with the unpleasant truth.

This is an outstanding book which stands on its own, but you will enjoy it more if you read Dragonfire, Shackles, Quarry and Hardcase first.

As I finished reading the book, I also began to wonder where my rosy views about others hide a darker truth. This book can change your whole outlook on life.

JUSTICE SERVED?.......2000-08-13

A suicide always leaves lingering questions with those left behind and evokes deep feelings of guilt. So is the case with Eberhardt, Nameless's ex-partner, who commited suicide. Nameless is plagued by guilt and goes on an obsessive quest to find the answer as to "why" Eberhardt did it. What drove him to the edge?

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