Average customer rating:
- The Awful Truth
- A journey into human suffering and the will to survive!
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This Blinding Absence of Light
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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ASIN: 014303572X |
Book Description
An immediate and critically acclaimed bestseller in France, This Blinding Absence of Light is the latest work by internationally renowned author Tahar Ben Jelloun, the first North African winner of the Prix Goncourt and winner of the Prix Mahgreb. Crafting real life events into narrative fiction, Ben Jelloun reveals the horrific story of the desert concentration camps in which King Hassan II of Morocco held his political enemies in underground cells with no light and only enough food and water to keep them lingering on the edge of death. Working closely with one of the survivors, Ben Jelloun narrates the story in the simplest of language and delivers a shocking novel that explores both the limitlessness of inhumanity and the impossible endurance of the human will.
Customer Reviews:
The Awful Truth.......2005-09-26
The descriptor,'awesome', assumes unique resonance with this book. In 1971 a Morroccan military insurrection failed in its bid to overthrow the monarchical rule. Over 50 soliers were tried and this chronicles a 'pilgim's progress' of the subsequent imprisonment. Only four of our narrator's comrades in their subterranean cell block survived the 18 years of cramped darkness. Their bodies shrank. Their teeth rotted.The means of attrition are appalling. We hear the deaths occuring around them. Strangely, as I worked through this revelatory account, I gradually recognised the voice of displacement, insight and rigour I'd encountered as an adolescent whilst reading Camus', L'Stranger'. A mere 10 pages after this familiarity crystallised, our narrator indeed arrives at his recollections of the Camus piece, 'reading'it, as he did many other literary samples, to sustain his fellows. That said, this is one powerful piece of writing. Tahar Ben Jelloun has sourced the story from one of the four survivors. Authors may have succeeded in fictionalising such a scenario. But I know of none that have charted the painful disintegration of body and soul under extremis. War traumas, plane crashes in the Andes, spiritual revelations through self-imposed deprivations, fictions like Jim Crace's,'Quarantine', with all their virtues, will be assessed against the quality of this narrative. It is an astonishing triumph for man and his imagination.
A journey into human suffering and the will to survive!.......2002-11-23
I picked this book up from the libary and entered a world where untold cruelty and human suffering were a daily part of life. I finished this book about a week ago, and it is still affecting me. No longer do I complain or feel sorry for myself. It is a story that needed to be told. Put this on every American's "to read list" as after you read it, you will never be the same.
Book Description
From the New York Times best-selling author Paul Theroux, Blinding Light is a slyly satirical novel of manners and mind expansion. Slade Steadman, a writer who has lost his chops, sets out for the Ecuadorian jungle with his ex-girlfriend in search of inspiration and a rare hallucinogen. The drug, once found, heightens both his powers of perception and his libido, but it also leaves him with an unfortunate side effect: periodic blindness. Unable to resist the insights that enable him to write again, Steadman spends the next year of his life in thrall to his psychedelic muse and his erotic fantasies, with consequences that are both ecstatic and disastrous.
Customer Reviews:
Blinding Light: A Novel.......2007-06-12
Not up to Paul Theroux's usual cleverness as writer. Very disappointing.
Skip it!.......2007-03-07
Ugh. Slow. Self-obsessed, self conscious, and not worth the time to read it. First quarter of the book was promising, but then descended into tiresome descriptions of various sexual fantasies of the author (and yes, I am referring to both Paul Theroux and the main character of the book). The latter half of the book read more like a mild version of Penthouse Forum and less like a satire. I would have been MUCH happier picking up Lolita by Nabokov and rereading it than spending time on this drivel.
I guess he got too old.......2007-02-16
I am an avid reader of Theroux's travel writing, and have only read one of his fiction novels, "My Secret Life", which I enjoyed. I picked this book up at a book exchange while traveling in Mexico, and was delighted at my good luck. I tend to agree with the other negative reviews, this book did not live up at all to the other writing of this literary icon. I really can't figure out why he made all these references to real life "celebrities", the sex scenes were rather boring, the only thing he sort of nailed was the datura experience. Maybe he is losing it in his old age?
Good, But Too Long (In the Middle).......2006-10-21
Paul Theroux is known as a descriptive writer, and much of the work is good - if that style of writing is to your taste.
The middle of this book is too long and drawn out, and frankly the drug-induced sexual encounters became tedious. I couldn't wait for them to end - perhaps I was being held prisoner in a similar way to Steadman's girlfirend Ava.
The tail end of the book was a little more enjoyable - bear in mind, however that this is not a thriller, and the end is somewhat predictable. If the editor had removed about 60 pages from the middle of the book it would have been a great read.
My Advice: Read the start, proceed through the middle until it bores you, then fast forward to the end.
A powerful novel of introspection and hallucination.......2006-08-20
BLINDING LIGHT tells of a writer who's lost his muse, and who sets out for the Ecuadorian jungle with an ex-girlfriend in search of drugs and inspiration. He finds his drug and his inspiration, but it leaves him periodically blind - a condition he's willing to chance in the search for the completion of his novel. The next year will challenge his perceptions and change his life in this powerful novel of introspection and hallucination.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Book Description
Slade Steadman's lone opus, published twenty years ago, was Trespassing, a cult classic about his travels through dozens of countries without benefit of passport. With his soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend Ava in tow, Steadman sets out for Ecuador's jungle in search of a rare hallucinogenic drug and the cure for his writer's block. Amid a gang of thrill-seeking tourists, he finds his drug and his inspiration but is beset with an unnerving side effect—periodic blindness. His world is altered profoundly: Ava stays by his side, he writes an erotic, autobiographical novel with the drug serving as muse, and he returns to stardom.
Steadman becomes addicted to the drug and the insights it provides, only to have them desert him, along with his sight. Will he regain his vision? His visions? Or will he forgo the world of his imagining and his ambition?
As Theroux leads us toward the answers, he makes fresh magic out of the venerable intertwined themes of sight and insight. He also offers incisive, sometimes hilarious takes on the manifold ironies of travel, of trespass and trangession, and of the trappings of the writer's life—from the fear of the blank page to the unexpected challenges of the book tour.
Customer Reviews:
Faust.......2006-07-28
No one else has mentioned that this is a retelling of the Faust legend, so I thought I'd add this note.
The story had me completely absorbed. So much so that I felt used up after reading it. It rang true with me emotionally and afterwards I guess I was a bit frightened that I was so absorbed in this character who was, after all, making a deal with the devil.
However, most retellings of the Faust story do sympathize with the soul that wants more than we're normally allotted in this life.
Mixed Feelings.......2006-01-22
Theroux is one of my favorite writers and I eagerly anticipated the release of this book. The advance reviews were favorable and this added to my enthusiasm. Well, the premise was certainly interesting, and about 30 pages into the book I was completely taken in by the story. But then it sputtered: some chapters were interesting and moved the text along, and others could have simply been left out or dealt with in a line or two. As or the final 20 pages....My God!!! What happened?? Repetitious is an understatement and I honestly became irritated reading the various ways Theroux could characterize the same sexual acts. I kept saying to myself: "OK, I got it already!"
This is all too bad, because Theroux is an interesting writer and he has a very fertile mind. By the length of this book and the manner in which it dragged on at times are the downsides, and it often reminded me of his 1994 piece, Milroy the Magician. Hopefully, the next one will be a little better.
No More Porno Novels--Please!.......2005-12-31
OK Paul, now you've written a dirty book. Please don't do it again. I slogged through it because even when you're bad, you're a good writer, and I've read just about everything you've published. But the weird premise, the unlikely plot, the baroque, excruciating sex scenes, the pretension of name dropping the rich and famous (and the pretension of not name dropping the most famous), the unlikeability of any of the characters--it was pretty awful. The endless scenes with Steadman rattling around in his drug-induced blind horniness got old real fast.
There was some good stuff, which others have talked about, so it wasn't a total waste. But at your age, writing so graphically about sex labels you as a dirty old man. You don't want to end up in that category, do you? You can do better than a Henry Miller ripoff.
Not Bad for Theroux Fiction.......2005-12-10
I am a great fan of Theroux's travel books, as his journey and perspective is always amusing, educational, smart, and insightful. His fiction, however, can be overly self-absorbed, constricted, and sometimes just plain dull.
This one is slightly better than that -- he seems to have taken time to actually write a whole novel, as opposed to a good idea written poorly. Here, both the idea of the book is great, a stalled writer opened by taking a mind-altering drug, then blinded and redeemed by the visions unleashed, but the execution is also interesting and the pacing strong. Miles above his last Hawaii book, this one has interesting interludes with Clinton, copious sex, and lots of drug use and abuse. Right up my alley! Seriously, though, if you have given up on Theroux's fiction, you may want to reconsider and give it a try. There's plenty of the good Theroux lurking in this book, and it was a pleasure to read and enjoy.
Hard Not to Compare to Better Theroux.......2005-10-25
I've been a huge fan of some of Theroux's books. This one was vintage Theroux, but in all the wrong ways. The sex scenes read like Penthouse letters to the editor, and there are so many of them that it was like traveling in the company of a dirty old man.
The premise, of an author accepting the risk of blindness if it will re-start his creativity, is a good one, but it doesn't quite work out. Comparing this book against previous Theroux books, I realize, is kind of unfair. After all, the protagonist in this one is an author trying to escape always being known for one famed, long-ago work. Still, I couldn't help it.
Book Description
From the beauty experts at Essence Magazine comes a must-have book for the African-American woman. Every woman wants to be told, You look absolutely fabulous! and this guide to looking your best easily shows you how. The Essence Beauty Book celebrates beauty both on the inside and the outside, and provides step-by-step advice to the best hair, skin and make-up for the African-American woman. Discover the how-to on flawless complexions, makeup shades that are right for your skin tone, natural and relaxed hair, the best hair color for you, and other techniques that maximize your strengths and minimize your flaws, the classic looks that will never go out of style....and more! Includes beauty advice from the editors of Essencebeauty is one of the most popular sections of this monthly magazine. Essences Total Makeover (1999, Crown) was a popular seller; this book includes updated beauty tips and more, including a section on hair. Essence Magazine sells over 1 million copies per issue and has approximately 8 million loyal monthly subscribers. Essence Magazine has provided a national voice for the African-American community for over 30 years.
Customer Reviews:
Beautiful Book.......2007-04-15
Presnets to the reader various images of black women and not only those with lighter skin or eurpopean features. Provides excellent information on hair care (relaxed, natural, locks), skin care and nutrition. The pictures are stunning and show the beauty of black skin. The advise and recommendations are excellent. Great book also to show to little black girls so that they can also learn how to take care of their skin. Enjoy!
I also recommend:
Kinki Kreations: A Parent's Guide to Natural Black Hair Care for Kids
I Love My Hair!
Dreads
Carol's Daughter Almond Cookie
Lovin' It.......2006-08-17
I didn't purchase this book for its beauty tips and secrets. I love having it on my coffee table for visiting family and friends to look at. Its a joy watching their facial expressions as they look at the beautiful pictures. They only have admiring comments to share.
I love this book!!!.......2006-03-24
This book is incredible with the information and helpful tips they provide for maintaining healthy hair and caring for your skin, etc. I love Essence Magazine and I was not dissappointed at all in this book!!
Book Description
The Phoenix Exultant is a continuation of the story begun in The Golden Age and like it, a grand space opera in the tradition of Jack Vance and Roger Zelazny (with a touch of Cordwainer Smith-style invention).At the conclusion of the first book, Phaethon of Radamanthus House, was left an exile from his life of power and privilege. Now he embarks upon a quest across the transformed solar system--Jupiter is a second sun, Mars and Venus terraformed, humanity immortal--among humans, intelligent machines, and bizarre life forms, to recover his memory, to regain his place in society and to move that society away from stagnation and toward the stars. And most of all Phaethon's quest is to regain ownership of the magnificent starship, the Phoenix Exultant, the most wonderful ship ever built, and fly her to the stars.The Phoenix Exultantis an astounding story of super science, a thrilling wonder story that recaptures the verve of SF's golden age writers It is a suitably grand and stirring fulfillment of the promise shown in The Golden Age and confirms John C. Wright as a major new talent in the field. He concludes the Golden Age trilogy in The Golden Transcendence.
Customer Reviews:
Not Free SF Reader.......2007-09-03
This is a direct contination of the story begun in the first book, The
Golden Age. Our hero is now an outcast, as those in charge do not want
him around, and work out how to get rid of him. He now must make his
way among an outcast society, with no resources or assistance.
However, he does manager to garner allies, and meet some notable
characters, such as the last soldier in existence, who are able to give
him some clues.
Middling bridge does little to advance the story.......2006-10-23
You just know going into it that nothing much is going to happen in this second volume of The Golden Age trilogy, that author John C Wright is simply setting the stage for the last chapter. You know this not only because that's the way most trilogies are structured, but also because you've read that the publisher broke off this section of what was planned as a two-part work to make a financially rewarding third installment.
The Phoenix Exultant opens with our hero Phaethon beginning his exile on the Sri Lankan island of Talaimannar, a community of temporary and permanent exiles, a motley collection of the degenerate, the slothful and the drug and simulation addicted. True to his character, Phaethon upsets the established order by usurping what passes for the community's work boss and drug/sim supplier and launching small work projects to help his fellow exiles gain some degree of financial independence, projects from which Phaethon skims his share in order to buy communication time with the Neptunians, with whom he seals a contract to pilot his ship, the Phoenix Exultant. While amongst the lost, Phaethon meets up with another incarnation of Daphne, sent to help him escape his exile but who in the end seems to play no more significant role than comedic sidekick. Also on hand is Atkins, Earth's last soldier, an immortal military cliché who because of his existence outside the main computer net is able to help clarify bits of the plot.
By the time you open the first chapter of The Golden Transcendence, the concluding volume of this trilogy, which begins like the first, with Phaeton having lost his memory, you realize you were right, that you could have perhaps read the last chapter or two of The Phoenix Exultant and not really missed anything of any great significance to the overall story. You would have also sparred yourself a pious exposition on poverty, "strength-of-the-will" bromides that when alluded to amongst Phaethon's social and economic peers were unremarkable, but when doled out barefaced to the dispossessed tend to stick in the craw.
Even so, Wright has done such a spectacular job imagining his world and his characters that it's easy to overlook these flaws and simply enjoy spending a few hours in The Golden Age.
Another Great Installment.......2006-07-09
The second installment of the Golden Age trilogy is every bit as enjoyable as the first. The book should not be read on it's own because it is a direct continuation of the first book, The Golden Age. The Golden Age saga is one long story, divided into three parts only because you couldn't contain the entire thing between two covers. After thousands of years, humans have evolved to a point that would be incomprehensible to our ancestors, integrating advanced technology into our biology, resulting in what appears to be a near utopian existence. Philosophical issues involving self determination and artificial intelligence, among others, are explored throughout the story making for a very thought provoking experience. I highly recommend this far future epic to all science fiction lovers as well as those interested in philosophical discussion.
the saga continues in full force.......2006-07-06
Rating System:
1 star = abysmal; some books deserve to be forgotten
2 star = poor; a total waste of time
3 star = good; worth the effort
4 star = very good; what writing should be
5 star = fantastic; must own it and share it with others
THE STORY:
Continuing right where Book1: The Golden Age left off, we find Phaethon exiled from society as he knows it. This story is of his attempt to rise to power in a society where it is a crime to associate with Phaethon, as he works to regain control of his ship, The Phoenix Exultant, and still live out his dream of reaching the stars.
THE BOOK:
In this second of a trilogy the author looses much of the ethical debates of the first book for one more physical in action. There still exists debates to boot, but the majority of the book is our protagonist and his allies working their way through the murk of deception and technology in order to identify who Phaethon's true enemy is and how a broke exile could leverage the system to gain him control of his ship again.
The setting, though away from the Peers and the rest of the Transcendence, remains vivid and colorful. Even in the areas of exiles and rejects, technology still is an overpowering force that governs the actions of men and Phaethon utilizes this to his advantage wherever possible.
The allies that emerge leave the reader glad for Phaethon and cheering...expectant of what is to come. Phaethon continues to show his intelligence as a protagonist which allows him to overcome obstacles that most of us would have shyed away from.
The story ends where one must again keep reading into the next book, but that isn't a bad thing. That just means a great story continues.
OVERALL:
If you've read the first book and enjoyed it you must keep reading. Once you read this book you'll feel compelled to keep reading more, as I am. So off I go to start the finale to this epic space saga. Don't miss out, get it and read it!
Not as good, but still entertaining........2005-12-13
How would you survive in a society where people, computers, and even the equivalent of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) refuse to acknowledge your existence? That's essentially the dilemma faced by Phaeton in "The Phoenix Exultant," which isn't quite as strong as its predecessor "The Golden Age" (2002). The story isn't so much about Phaeton's starship (which the book is titled after), as it is about his continued efforts to recapture it (and the recurring hurdles which get in his way). There are some twists and turns involving a clone of Phaeton's wife Daphne, who is convinced she's "the real deal."
"The Phoenix Exultant" is strong until two-thirds of the way through, when it takes a sudden left turn into a romance, followed by a comedy, but finally regains its footing to finish up just in time for the final book in the trilogy, "The Golden Transcendence" (2003). Those "odd" sections lend a different flavor to the narrative, but are a bit jarring, too.
Volumes two and three in this series are noted as being edited by David G. Hartwell, who also brings us "The Year's Best SF" series. Despite that, some spelling errors slip through. "Noumenal" (which denotes the technology for recording human personalities electronically) becomes "numenal" on two occasions, and a character is described as wearing a "back kimono." However, the web that Wright's storytelling weaves captivated me enough that I had to find out what happened next!
In all, slightly weaker, but still worth the effort... so you can move on to Volume 3!
Average customer rating:
- Space Opera at its (almost) best
- Stellar Science
- A little more space opera than normal for Baxter
- Great imagery
- A bit too scattered
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Exultant (Destiny's Children)
Stephen Baxter
Manufacturer: Del Rey
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Baxter, Stephen
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Coalescent: A Novel (Destiny's Children)
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ASIN: 0345457897
Release Date: 2005-10-25 |
Book Description
When it comes to cutting-edge science fiction, Stephen Baxter is in a league of his own. His mastery of hard science, his fearlessly speculative imagination, and his ability to combine grand philosophical questions with tales of rousing adventure make him essential reading for anyone concerned with the future of humankind. Now, in Exultant, Baxter takes us to a distant future of dazzling promise and deadly threat, in which a far-flung humanity battles for survival against an implacable alien foe.
Destiny’s Children
EXULTANT
For more than twenty thousand years, humans have been at war with the alien race of Xeelee. It is a war fought with armaments so advanced as to be godlike, a war in which time itself has become an ever-shifting battleground. At the cost of billions of lives, and with ruthless and relentless efficiency, the ruling Coalition has pushed the Xeelee back to the galactic core, where the supermassive black hole known as Chandra serves the Xeelee as both fortress and power source.
There, along a front millions of light-years long, a grisly stalemate reigns,
until a young pilot, Pirius, faced with certain death, disobeys orders and employs an innovative time-travel maneuver that, for the first time in the history of the war, results in the capture of a Xeelee fighter. But far from being hailed as a hero when he returns to base with his prize, Pirius is court-martialed, disgraced, and sentenced to penal servitude on a bleak asteroid.
It is not only Pirius who pays the price. In flying into the future and back again, Pirius returned to a time before he’d left, a time inhabited by his younger self. And that younger self, by the pitiless logic of Coalition justice, shares the older Pirius guilt and must be punished. Not everyone in the Coalition agrees. Commissary Nilis believes that the elder Pirius, whom he dubs Pirius Blue, may have found a way to defeat the Xeelee. But Nilis can do nothing for Pirius Blue. Instead, he takes charge of the younger Pirius (Pirius Red), and brings him back to Earth, the capital of a vast empire seething with intrigue.
There Pirius Red will discover truths that will shatter his preconceived notions of all that he is fighting for, even of what it means to be human. Pirius Blue, meanwhile, will learn truths harsher and more discomfiting still. Yet the most shocking revelation of all is still to come, waiting for them at a place called Chandra. . . .
From the Hardcover edition.
Download Description
When it comes to cutting-edge science fiction, Stephen Baxter is in a league of his own. His mastery of hard science, his fearlessly speculative imagination, and his ability to combine grand philosophical questions with tales of rousing adventure make him essential reading for anyone concerned with the future of humankind. Now, in Exultant, Baxter takes us to a distant future of dazzling promise and deadly threat, in which a far-flung humanity battles for survival against an implacable alien foe. Destiny¿s Children EXULTANT For more than twenty thousand years, humans have been at war with the alien race of Xeelee. It is a war fought with armaments so advanced as to be godlike, a war in which time itself has become an ever-shifting battleground. At the cost of billions of lives, and with ruthless and relentless efficiency, the ruling Coalition has pushed the Xeelee back to the galactic core, where the supermassive black hole known as Chandra serves the Xeelee as both fortress and power source. There, along a front millions of light-years long, a grisly stalemate reigns, until a young pilot, Pirius, faced with certain death, disobeys orders and employs an innovative time-travel maneuver that, for the first time in the history of the war, results in the capture of a Xeelee fighter. But far from being hailed as a hero when he returns to base with his prize, Pirius is court-martialed, disgraced, and sentenced to penal servitude on a bleak asteroid. It is not only Pirius who pays the price. In flying into the future and back again, Pirius returned to a time before he¿d left, a time inhabited by his younger self. And that younger self, by the pitiless logic of Coalition justice, shares the older Pirius guilt and must be punished. Not everyone in the Coalition agrees. Commissary Nilis believes that the elder Pirius, whom he dubs Pirius Blue, may have found a way to defeat the Xeelee. But Nilis can do nothing for Pirius Blue. Instead, he takes charge of the younger Pirius (Pirius Red), and brings him back to Earth, the capital of a vast empire seething with intrigue. There Pirius Red will discover truths that will shatter his preconceived notions of all that he is fighting for, even of what it means to be human. Pirius Blue, meanwhile, will learn truths harsher and more discomfiting still. Yet the most shocking revelation of all is still to come, waiting for them at a place called Chandra. . . .
Customer Reviews:
Space Opera at its (almost) best.......2007-06-15
Space Opera at its (almost) best. Galactic War, interesting alien races, new societal concepts, time travel, hard science: Exultant has it all. Baxter even managed to resist making everyone[...] or some other silly transformations, even though the story takes place 20,000 years in the future or thereabouts. Really a terrific book that probably would have been even better if it was longer as he didn't have enough time to drill down on all the different concepts presented. You will definitely want to read it.
Stellar Science.......2007-05-25
This is one author I look forward to reading, particularly because of the science suffusing his works. I'm not a big fan of astro-physics per se. Call me crass, but pulsars and their ilk just don't excite me. Nevertheless, the scientific ideas presented and speculated on in this book are truly profound. I also like the character development and the storyline. Against a backdrop of gigantic scale this book engenders deep thought about what it means to be human. Bottom line, it's an A+.
A little more space opera than normal for Baxter.......2006-09-08
Another reader characterized this work as "space opera." In fact, that's what Baxter has produced here. Much the same way Coalescent was, this book contains two major plot threads, which are (true to his normal style) related. Baxter's understanding of time dilation is keen, and he manages to explain it pretty well without using the typical deus-ex-machina style approach to it as other authors have.
That said, the book does have more or less cookie-cutter characters in it. The characters are all pretty wooden, and are nothing really new to me. For contrast, take some of the characters from Iain Banks' Culture books. While you still have gallavanting space oepra protagonists in the Banks books, there is vast depth to his portrayal (such as Sharrow in Against a Dark Background). However, reading a Baxter book, one has to understand that Baxter is an engineer, and is attempting to explain concepts and ideas, to project what he think a possible future may look like. Not to write a bedtime story about heroes and demons.
To that end, Baxter has done a very good job of taking this series (the Destiny's Children series, not all of the Xeelee Sequence) and extrapolating what seems to be Frank Tipler's ideas into a plausible description of a universe in which humanity is taking over.
Of the three books in the series, I do believe Exultant is my favorite. That's kind of sad, given it's 1500 pages, give or take. However, it's par for the course when you consider some of his other series, such as the Manifold books. It's not the misses which disappoint, it's the "hits" which are truly worth reading for.
Great imagery.......2006-06-28
I read this one after "Transcendent". I liked Exultant much better. Actually, I like Transcendent better now than after first reading it because of the way some of the undercurrents from Exultant flow into it.
Humanity's galactic stagnation in the face of a galactic war reminded me of some of Baxter's other books in which civilizations went stagnent or collapsed due to lack of resources or slavish devotion to ideology. I find it an interesting commentary on the present because we're facing possible energy starvation and are experiencing a resurgence in mysticism.
Then, there is the physics underlying it all. Baxter's fiction is about the best intro to cosmology I've encountered. Before I read Exultant, I never really distinguished the surface of a black hole from the event horizon. However, the preservation of energy within a black hole is disturbing because I always assumed that it was homogenous in there. Time to read some physics again because I'm sure Baxter bases his fiction on reality.
So many concepts to dwell on, so little time. I could not put this book down - and I'm a slow reader.
A bit too scattered.......2006-01-19
Probably should have been titled "Conglomerant." It's main value may be its multiple insert chapters which overview the how and why of the Baxter multiverse. But I think that could have been better done with a separate small guide book rather than squeezing it into the cracks of a space opera. I think Mr. Baxter may be trying to tie together all the conflicting technologies, characters, plots, and alien species of his other works into a unified body of work. All well and good but all those walk-on aliens, post-humans, technologies and the history of everything seem to get in the way of the space opera plot rather than illuminating it much. And if there is an overarching, thought-provoking, philosphical point here I seem to have missed it. This novel does explain why there are so many life forms in his other novels (think "intelligent design" with a twist) but I don't catch anything meaningfull from that other than maybe it is an answer to some technical critics. Some good hard science concepts here though so it isn't a total loss. Might also be interesting to teen readers since the protagonist is a teen (and simultaneously in his early twenties) and there is a lot of space war action. Anyhow, I'm sort of hoping that a time travel event in the next novel in the series, "Transcendant," edits out this draft time line.
Book Description
Do you want to know God more and understand his relationship to his creation, the nations of the world, Israel, and today's believers? Of course you do, and now you can by walking with Warren Wiersbe through Psalms 90-150. Like David and Moses and others who contributed to the Book of Psalms, you can come to know God as the tenderhearted Father, a God who keeps his promises and who lovingly cares for his people. See yourself in those who follow him, their faith and doubts, their victories and failures, and their hopes for the glorious future God has promised. You will meet all kinds of people who are faced with a variety of circumstances, crying out to God, praising him, confessing their sins and seeking to worship him in a deeper, more meaningful way.
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Exultant bird: A collection of poems
Pearl Lunt Robinson
Manufacturer: H.L. Robinson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
United States
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ASIN: B0006F80VU |
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Jesus Exultant
Daniel Steele
Manufacturer: Convention Book Store
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O2XE2U |
Book Description
In this updated reissue of his 1984 classic, James Fowler applies his groundbreaking research on the development of faith to Christianity. In his revised first chapter Fowler locates his approach to the study of human and faith development in relation to the contemporary conversation about identity and selfhood in postmodernity. Fowler invites readers to explore what it means to find and claim vocation: a purpose for one's life that is part of the purposes of God. Reclaiming covenant and vocation as ideals for responsible, mature, Christian selfhood, Fowler shows how a dynamic understanding of what vocation involves can both inform and transform lives.
Customer Reviews:
Too deep, for a newby........2007-07-25
I was hoping that this book would be more basic in the approach to faith development, but it read like a thesis. He interacted with many of the leading voices, but I was too new to this study to engage completely. There are some helpful elements, but unless you are well versed in this field, the book will be over your head.
An academic text that eventually gets to the point!.......2007-01-09
This book is definitely academic. Perhaps not as academic as Fowler's other books in that it seems ostensibly to be written for layperson, student or educator. However, (and I write this as an academic myself) Fowler seems unable to break free of the academic genre. The book reads like fellow academics were the audience in mind. The standard dance of academic writing is engaged in, everything meticulously argued out using the language of the discipline. All fine and good, but it might tend to lose the layperson. It certainly lost me. Fowler eventually gets to the point, that the key to finding our vocation lies not within us, in our own hopes, desires and needs, but in the faith (and wider) community to which we belong. We need to be outward looking rather than inward looking to find our true vocation. What I said in the last sentence takes Fowler a whole chapter to say. At times I thought he was spinning it out to knock a book out of it, but I genuinely think he can't break out of the mould of the academic writing genre. Nonetheless, I'm glad I read this book, as despite its form, its content is a message worth hearing.
Great.......2007-01-04
This was a great resource in my college studies and my college aged children have read it for personal reference. Quoted in many of other readings I've done on Christian worldviews.
Reconcilating Fowler's 'Faith' and Christian 'Faith'.......2006-01-15
Fowler's Faith Development Theory is commonly being used to describe Christian spiritual growth. Yet, when it was first formulated, Fowler described faith as `seeking meaning in our lives' and universal, thus not limited to Christianity. This theory, which arise out of Piaget's cognitive and Kohlberg's moral development theories are descriptive and did not take into consideration the supernatural/spiritual.
This book was Fowler's attempt to reconcile his development theory to the Christian theological concept of salvation and sanctification. His approach to integrate this is by the concept of vocation which `is the response a person makes with his or her total self to the address of God and to the calling to partnership'. He defined this partnership as synergy between the human potential and the work of the Spirit which he called `grace'. Fowler defined blockage to this synergy as sin and unblocking this synergy as salvation. The aim of this partnership is `in God's work in the world' which Fowler elaborated as partnership with God the Creator, with the governing action of God and in the liberative and redemptive action of God. However, what Fowler was describing are a series of behavioural pattern. Any description of spiritual growth must include a new creation, inner transformation and fruit of the Holy Spirit. One needs to differentiate between descriptors and contents.
Fowler then went on to describe vocation, relationship of vocation and Christian communities and the Christian story. While I agree that our vocation is a call by God for His purpose, I do wish Fowler had explained how the different stages of his theory can be directly linked to the redemptive work of Jesus on the cross, justification by faith and the work of the Holy Spirit to sanctify us into Christian maturity (Christ-likeness). In the final chapter, he did try again to integrate spiritual maturity and development theories but surprisingly, he used Levinson's seasons of life theory instead of his own. In the end, Fowler did not give a clear picture of the integration of his faith development theory and theology.
Ideas come of age.......2005-10-24
This is a summary of Fowler's theory of the development of faith, and it reflects the clarity and completeness of an idea that has matured and been shaken down to the basics. Also,the discussion of vocation in the last chapters is inspirational and well articulated.
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