Average customer rating:
- Depends upon what you expect...
- Totally bizarre but fun!
- The review that forgot to lie
- Message Without a Cause (or Clue)
- Tedious
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The Town That Forgot How to Breathe: A Novel
Kenneth J. Harvey
Manufacturer: Picador
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0312424809
Release Date: 2006-08-22 |
From Amazon.ca
With no more cod to fish, Bareneed, the setting of Kenneth J. Harvey's powerfully eerie The Town That Forgot How to Breathe, has become another Newfoundland outport village on the wane. As one character laments, "Bareneed, once a lively and warm place, now stank of drabness and heartbreak." It's not much of a magnet for tourists, but it has attracted two visitors for the summer: a fisheries officer and his young daughter. Deeply pained by the recent break-up of his marriage, Joseph fails to notice the more curious aspects of the town. It takes him a while to hear about the townsfolk who've been dropping dead for no apparent reason. He's also slow to realize that his daughter Robin's new playmate is the ghost of a drowned girl. When he and Robin find an "exceptionally ugly" sculpin at the end of their fishing line, Joseph again tries to stay calm. But then he takes a closer look at his catch. "Feeling his fingers turn warm while he tried to disengage the hook," Harvey writes, "Joseph whisked them away. Flesh-coloured fluid seeped from the sculpin's wide mouth. A solid object began edging out as he wiped his fingers on his pants--a flesh-coloured sculpted orb, topped with something that resembled hair, matted in mucousy clumps." The porcelain doll's head that emerges from the fish is one in a series of unsettling sights in Harvey's book. As more and more objects are expelled from the sea, Bareneed's most painful secrets come to the surface.
By setting his story in this desolate Atlantic locale, Harvey seeks to do more than add regional flavour to a Stephen King-style tale of an ordinary community plagued by inexplicable events. Instead, the terrors that Harvey describes are rooted in very real psychological and societal traumas. What makes The Town That Forgot How to Breathe so cunning is the way Harvey uses the horror genre as the basis for a provocative defence of Newfoundland's imperiled cultural traditions. Even though his ornate prose style can sometimes get waterlogged in the scenes between the shocks, Harvey has created a book that is as compelling as it is unique. --Jason Anderson
Book Description
Something strange is happening in the seaside town of Bareneed. Mythical creatures are being pulled from the sea, perfectly preserved corpses of long-lost villagers are washing up on the shore, and residents of the town are suddenly overcome by a mysterious illness that is making them forget how to breathe.
A page-turning gothic thriller reminiscent of H. P. Lovecraft, The Town That Forgot How to Breathe is "a novel of dazzling ambition and strange, haunting loveliness. . . . An absolute triumph of the storyteller's art" (Joseph O'Connor, author of Star of the Sea).
Customer Reviews:
Depends upon what you expect..........2007-09-27
While the quoted blurb on the back cover intrigued me by referencing Lovecraft, it took me about ten minutes of reading to realize that the author of the quote could not actually be familiar with either HPL or "The Town that Forgot to Breathe"...and, quite possibly, with neither.
No, this book has much more similarity to Stephen King...and while the later New England horror-writer was without doubt inspired by the earlier, their sympathies could not be more different. Lovecraft wrote of bookish scholars confronting alien powers, and quietly revered a certain elitist nobility that has failed to endear him overmuch to readers more swayed by literature that aims to speak to 'the common man'.
King, on the other hand, is often at his best when he portrays the more-or-less modern, more-or-less small town setting. He knows about working class people who are out of work, and he knows about middle-class people who are growing more or less out of touch with their roots. It is precisely this human perception, in addition to a master's grasp of the technique of narrative, that allows King to tower above the rank and file of modern genre writers. We may quiver in the night over his bloody clowns and monster movie remakes, but if the works stay with us at all, it is because his characters and settings ring rich and true.
Kenneth J. Harvey has even more of this power. It is somewhat of a shame that anyone familiar with King will be unable to avoid making easy comparisons (as I have just done). Harvey's setting is nearly stereotypical King: a depressed Northwestern coastal fishing town beset by the supernatural. His characters, like many from King's pages, include a colorful and keenly authentic cross-section of wise old-timers, small-town (forgive the phrase)'white trash', and often adrift middle-age professionals...not to mention the obligatory police and military interlopers.
However, where King shows the cancerous effects of the supernatural on his characters (a recurring Lovecraft theme), Harvey takes almost the opposite stance. It is humanity's disease which afflicts these townsfolk, technology and progress which have sapped the vitality and magic of the community. The ill omens of supernatural danger occur not because man has foolishly dared to come too close to mysterious things, but because he has strayed too far from them.
Without doubt, this is an ideologically motivated work. Some may dismiss it, seeing a misguided nostalgia for a simpler time, and some may welcome it as an ode to traditional virtues of community and locale. One may feel that it gently preaches, and affirm or rebel as suits their temperament.
The author makes missteps and sometimes fails to deliver on his promises. It's easy for us to say that a tighter editing would have resulted in a stronger work, and possibly a slightly shorter one...perhaps Harvey was trying to include a little too much and despaired of bringing it all together at the end. In trying to strike a balance between comfort and complexity, it is easy to drop a few threads along the way; many and more well-known authors have had the same problems, and vastly more have failed to produce anything as uniquely engrossing and enchanting as this book.
This is just barely able to be called a work of horror. Do not buy this because you've read everything else in the genre and need your horror fix (though it will serve a more specific Stephen King addiction, and offers a touch more substance than anything he's produced in the last thirty years). It is barely even a work of 'modern fantasy' (and by this I mean the many dreary books which have fairies talking on cell phones, or witches working at publishing houses). It is well worth reading, mainly because it is well-written and memorable and speaks Newfie like a native.
Read this, instead, if you want to smell salt air and hear the sound of the ocean at night. Read this if you want to reflect on the dangers of too much progress and the decay of small-town strength and wisdom. Read this if you've ever deliciously shuddered at the thought of mysteries of unseen depths that have nothing to do with man-eating sharks and lost undersea civilizations.
Just drop your expectations at the door and curl up with nothing more, and nothing less, than a good book that is both eerie and thoughtful. You'll find it easy to forgive a little clumsiness at times, because the rest is as satisfying as homemade soup and an old book of true true fairy tales.
Totally bizarre but fun!.......2007-04-26
At times I really felt that I was a part of "The Town that Forgot How to Breathe". Very descriptive. All the characters, even the minor ones were very well developed. There were some parts where I got a little confused and felt the author didn't describe the scene well enough but overall a very interesting read. The "horror" is minimal. This is not a gore fest or even that scary. It's kind of hard to describe because I have never read anything else like it!
The review that forgot to lie.......2006-11-30
This book took me a long time to finish, almost a month, I think. It is slow paced and tends to spin off as if they took a lot of filler from other books that was edited out and crammed them in here.
Spinning towards a vapid, hippie ending, it does nothing to save itself from being God awful. Tragically, I think this was a best seller.
D.
Message Without a Cause (or Clue).......2006-10-22
Reviews from places like The Detroit Free Press, Bookpage, The San Francisco Chronicle, and many others heap praise on this novel, calling it "meticulously created", "haunting, poetic, funny, and moving", "a thoughtful piece of literary horror." I hate to be the contrarian here, but I call it simply "goofy" - a pretentious bombast of confused messages and rambling prose that never manages to get to the point and is more (unintentionally) funny than scary.
Bareneed, Newfoundland, is an old fishing town in decline following the banning of cod fishing and the closing of the local fish factory. Soon after Joseph Blackwood and his young daughter show up, renting a home for a summer vacation in the picturesque coastal town, strange things start happening. Local residents, forgetting how to breathe - literally - while at the same time becoming violent and forgetting who they are - start filling up the local hospital. Then bodies - some apparently centuries old but perfectly intact - start bobbing up to the surface of the bay. Strange and mythical sea creatures romp in the surf, while those locals still breathing normally seem to spend most of their time drawing pictures, spouting New Age psycho-babble, or breaking out in seafaring folk songs. The respiratory-challenged, all tubed-up in ICU, were much less annoying than those Bareneed residents still able to function "normally". But this was the part of the book that was discernable. The rest - a tedious concoction of man's connection with the sea, with family, with death, spirits, amber lights, fish, mermaids and the Canadian armed forces - is less clear, if that is possible.
In summary, it seems that author Kenneth Harvey was trying to be Steven King - but Steven King with some important, moral message. He failed on both counts - even King's sub par "Cell" is a classic literature by comparison. "The Town that Forgot How to Breathe" is simply all wet - save your time and money and wait for the next port.
Tedious.......2006-09-11
Reading this book was as tedious as running a mile in chest-deep water. Comparisons to King and Proulx are ridiculous. King, at least, keeps his stories humming while Proulx's writing is minimalist brilliance. Harvey's story is waterlogged and interminable, leaking page-bloating, tangential backstories every ten pages and peopled with annoying, boring characters. As for his style, it's bloated, taxing and sodden, the occasional surreal touch nothwithstanding. (Sure, an albino shark barfing up a human head is startling, but it, like so much of this novel, is ultimately meaningless.) Every time his character, Miss Laracy, opens her toothless mouth (how many times do we need a description of her pink, shiny gums?) and chatters endlessly in her apostrophe-riddled, irksomely rendered Newfoundland dialect, I got so weary I could barely hold the book up in my hands. Worse, while Harvey's story is intrigueing enough to keep you reading, his climax and resolution are so uneventful and silly and, well, boring, that I actually tossed the book aside after (finally!) finishing the last page. Four hundred and seventy-one pages of over-plotted, over-written monotonous drivel. Pure tedium.
Customer Reviews:
Great for all Catwoman fans.......2005-06-03
This is a great story which shows Catwoman's origin. It is very interesting and probably the best portrayal of Catwoman I've ever read. There is a lot of character development, cameoes from Batman showing scenes from Frank Miller's BATMAN: YEAR ONE and it is full of crooked cops. A must have for all CATWOMAN fanatics.
Catwoman: Year One.......2004-06-08
This is the notorious Catwoman story that D.C. Comics wanted to erase from memory but it somehow surfaces every now and then. "Catwoman: Her Sister's Keeper" is actually "Catwoman: Year One" (or the closest we will ever get to a "Year One" for the feline fatale) as it ties in very closely to Frank Miller's justly-classic "Batman: Year One". In fact, it more than "ties-into" that work; entire scenes were lifted from Miller's original and put into this volume. In fact, the present writer/artist seem to have created their story in this volume by wrapping some "filler-info" around those famous Miller-scenes.
As to the notoriety of the work, this volume, like Miller's "Batman: Year One" gives us a Selina Kyle who works as a prostiture/sexual-dominatrix. But more than that, it ties her to religion (Selina's sister is a Catholic nun) and child-prostitution/abuse in the character of Holly. Furthermore, this tale revives the classic sexual attraction between Batman and Catwoman with a classic kiss shared by the two on the rooftop (a scene stolen by Tim Burton and added to the movie, "Batman Returns").
According to DC Editorial decrees, this work is no longer part of official continuity (after the continuity altering event called "Zero Hour"). However, DC continuity is a tricky thing and so are Editorial decrees. In recent years, it seems to be back in "official continuity" as the current Ed Brubaker "Catwoman" series seems like a direct continuation of this book (Holly and Selina's sister features prominently in Brubaker's run). Therefore, it is an essential read in Catwoman's long legend.
Continuity aside, this is really a difficult book to like. The art is choppy at times, and the scenes "lifted" from Miller's work (originally drawn by David Mazzuchelli) does not help either. In truth, it only adds to the frustration that this work wasn't done by the original Miller-Mazzuchelli team! About the only element in this tale that is half-decent is the introduction of Ted Grant (the Golden Age JSA-er, Wildcat) as Selina Kyle's mentor. The writing is very, very uneven and the pacing is hopeless. Reading it again recently, I felt like I was watching a bootleg, unedited David Lynch movie. After a while, I gave up on the pacing and tried to make as much sense of the story as possible. Honestly, if not for my great love for the characters (Batman and Catwoman), I'd probably give up by the first chapter.
My copy is an original first-print tradepaperback with the original painted cover and an excellent foreword by the late Archie Goodwin. Goodwin compares Catwoman to the movie "Cat People" and talks a little about sexual repression and the need for split-personas. Interesting stuff.
This volume is recommended to all Batman/Catwoman historians as well as the new fans just getting in with the Ed Brubaker monthly. It is also recommended as an antidote to purge the poison of the new Warner Bros. "Catwoman" movie starring Halle Berry. The real Catwoman is in here; NOT in that movie!
Catwoman as you never will see again.......2000-07-22
It's a very good book, featuring the "firt" and more adult origin of Catwoman (before being spoiled in the zero hour fiasco), linking it to the batman origins also, giving us a chance to see the dark night when he was just a begginer, the book has a dark tone, but it tells a very good story about pain, suffering and vengance, I only dislike the fact that there isn't much about the origin of the custome (first one, with a tail) maybe because of the comic restrictions for the time it was published.
Average customer rating:
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Her Sister's Keeper (Avalon Romances)
Sydell I. Voeller
Manufacturer: Thomas Bouregy & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Psychological & Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
General | Romance | Subjects | Books
General | Contemporary | Romance | Subjects | Books
Avalon | Fantasy & Adventure | Series | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0803490631 |
Download Description
Romance, Contemporary Logan Corbett, registered nurse, suddenly becomes the guardian of her 10-year-old sister, Kim. A former prizewinning gymnast, the girl was seriously injured in the same plane accident that killed their parents. Logan admits she's overly projective of Kim, but only wants what she thinks is best for her. Dr. Zachary Dellinger, a pediatrician at the hospital where Logan works, suggests that Kim should attend a summer camp for children with special needs. Logan agrees, but on one condition--that she will volunteer to be the camp nurse so she can keep a close eye on Kim. Under starlit skies and breezy summer days, Logan struggles with her growing attraction to the handsome pediatrician--all the while, battling the urge to hold on too tightly to Kim. Will Logan ever be able to let go enough to allow love into both their lives?
Book Description
Logan Corbett, registered nurse, suddenly becomes the guardian of her 10-year-old sister, Kim. A former prizewinning gymnast, the girl was seriously injured in the same plane accident that killed their parents. Logan admits she's overly protective of Kim, but only wants what she thinks is best for her. Dr. Zachary Dellinger, a pediatrician at the hospital where Logan works, suggests that Kim should attend a summer camp for children with special needs. Logan agrees, but on one condition--that she will volunteer to be the camp nurse so she can keep a close eye on Kim. Under starlit skies and breezy summer days, Logan struggles with her growing attraction to the handsome pediatrician--all the while, battling the urge to hold on too tightly to Kim. Will Logan ever be able to let go enough to allow love into both their lives?
Book Description
Two Sisters
One Choice to Make
Nia Molner and her twin sister Trina plan to visit their hometown of Elk Creek for the Founder's Day Centennial. But Trina is recovering from a devastating divorce, and when she hears that media mogul Clay Heller will be returning to town, she impulsively leaves for a few weeks ahead of Nia-hoping to rekindle a romance with Clay. . .her first love.
Clay isn't in Elk Creek when Trina arrives. . .but his brother Cole is. Trina's unexpected attraction to the handsome rancher leads to lovemaking. And when Trina discovers she's pregnant, she turns to Nia for help.
Nia has taken care of Trina all her life-putting Trina's needs and desires before her own. But now Nia is torn. She wants to be there for Trina-help her sort through her conflicting emotions over the two brothers-but she also has her own happiness to consider. Because Nia loves Clay herself. . .
Customer Reviews:
fine contemporary romances .......2005-03-13
Twin sisters Nia and Trina Molner agree to come home to Elk Creek, Wyoming to attend the annual Founder's Day Centennial. Nia hopes this will get her sibling out of the depression following a difficult divorce. However, Trina sneaks into town six weeks earlier to see if she can score with her first love, media giant Clay Heller, but instead he is not in town, but she meets his brother rancher Cole. They make love before she leaves town to catch up to her sister. However, Trina becomes pregnant from her tryst.
Nia and Trina arrive for the gala. Nia and Clay meet and are attracted to one another, but she is used to being HER SISTER'S KEEPER and believes that Trina wants him and is carrying his baby. Trina loves Cole, but has doubts about marriage following her recent debacle although she also worries about being a single mom.
These fine contemporary romances between two pairs of siblings with a touch of misunderstanding is a fun read especially because the Molner sisters are indecisive and unsure when it comes to the men they respectively love. The story line centers on a comedy of errors as Nia for the first time in her life wants to put herself first instead of her twin, but has trouble ignoring a couple of decades of habit. Though the studs could have used more muscle, fans will enjoy Victoria's Pade's ranch tale and seek out TALES FROM ELK CREEK: COWBOY'S LADY COWBOY'S LOVE.
Harriet Klausner
Customer Reviews:
Could have been better.......2006-03-11
HER SISTER'S KEEPER by Julia Penney held promise of a good story, but went downhill the longer I read it. It is a story about a woman who discovers on her wedding day that her sister is pregnant with her fiancé's child. Melanie Harris is the bride, and her sister is Ariel. The prologue describes the wedding scene and the confession that comes out of Ariel's mouth. Melanie walks out on her own wedding and tells her sister she can have Mitch, the future father and her ex-fiancé.
One of the first mistakes, in my opinion, was that of not mentioning in the prologue that Ariel was actually a big time movie star. The prologue paints a picture of a contrite younger sister who did not mean to hurt Melanie, and while this remains true, the reader gets a different image once the fact is revealed that Ariel is in fact a celebrity. Melanie herself is also ensconced in the world of entertainment, with her boss being Ariel's mentor and a famous director of films.
The book fast forwards to six months later, when Melanie meets Dr. Kent Mattson, a therapist recommended to her by her best friend Stephanie. The reader is thus introduced to the male lead of this romance, and I found him to be arrogant and not likeable at all. There was nothing to this character that could have labeled him a romantic lead. There did not seem to be any chemistry between the two, despite the fact that Kent's thoughts were directed toward his attractive patient.
Melanie does not follow through with her appointment, but instead ends up listening to Kent's story about his life on a ranch he calls Chimeya. He commutes between there and Beverly Hills, where he has a practice catering to the stars, piloting his own plane to get to and from work. Kent also works for the police, helping them solve cases.
At the end of their "session", Kent receives word that there has been a death at the Beverly Hills Regency, and when he finds his expensive sports car stolen from the parking lot of his office building, he asks Melanie to drive him there. Melanie ends up hanging around the hotel, and after seeing the body of the deceased, discovers that the person murdered at the Regency is her best friend Stephanie!
Kent whisks Melanie off to his ranch Chimeya, thinking that Melanie's life is in danger after they find her cat dead from ingesting dip left over from a party, a party that Ariel and Stephanie had attended. Melanie is also a suspect, but Kent doesn't tell her that.
The story progresses like a police procedural, and for a few minutes it reminded me of a Jonathan Kellerman novel. The more I read, however, the more I found the story line rather contrived and that most of what happens to the characters felt like it was written for drama's sake, and not really because these characters would truly behave in this manner in real life. Over the top characters fill the pages, including a Russian dancer who disappears along with Ariel and her baby. Mitch had just been recently murdered as well, with another friend also discovered dead. There are several suspects, and while most of the book felt overly done, what kept me reading was the "whodunit" aspect of the story.
This was definitely not a favorite Superromance for me. It had potential, but went downhill after a few chapters. While the authors (Julia Penney is the pen name of a two person writing team) tried to entice the readers with the Beverly Hills/Hollywood characters, they failed to bring believability to the novel. Mistakes such as the misspelling of "Miramar" did not help, plus the fact that Kent had to fly home every day was a bit over the top for me. The scenes that took place at Chimeya, however, were a welcome change of pace, and I felt this to be the only truly "real" part of the novel. The description of the ranch and the lifestyle there were easily seen in my mind. At the same time, it felt out of place compared to the rest of the novel, which tried to be an action-packed "whodunit", filled with movie stars and other celebrities. I'm not going to recommend HER SISTER'S KEEPER except to the truly big fan of Harlequin romances. This book does not reflect the type of writing that usually can be found with Superromances, and this reader was disappointed. -- Couresy of Loveromances
terrific investigative tale .......2006-02-16
In Los Angeles, what should be the sixth month anniversary of her marriage is instead the date of her betrayal symbolized by her need to see a psychiatrist. Two minutes before walking down the aisle, her hysterical sister Ariel informs Melanie Harris that she is three months pregnant and the father is the groom actor Mitch Carson. Melodramatically, Melanie hands Ariel to Mitch informing him he should marry her sister. Unable to sleep and losing weight at the urgent pleading of her best friend Stephanie, Melanie visits psychologist Dr. Kent Mattson.
Kent prefers his work with LAPD and with the kids his late wife worked with, but his bills are paid by his private practice. Currently, he is working on two homicides that seem linked with Melanie the surprising connection. As he fights his attraction to his new patient, she informs him that her sister whom she abandoned at the altar has gone missing. Melanie and Kent team up to rescue her sibling who just might be the next victim of a sly killer protecting his film business.
HER SISTER'S KEEPER is a terrific investigative tale in which a romantic subplot simmers in the background adding tension and embellishing the search and rescue mission. Kent wants Melanie from the moment they meet, but he is the consummate professional trying to control his libido, which is running wild. Melanie feels the same way but her quest save the sister she abandoned takes precedent. Though starting off seemingly like a soap opera; Julia Penney turns the tale into a fine Hollywood suspense thriller that readers will appreciate.
Harriet Klausner
Average customer rating:
- The best tale of living, loving, leaving and loss.....
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Her Sister's Keeper
Linda Barlow
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
General | Romance | Subjects | Books
General | Contemporary | Romance | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0446363316 |
Customer Reviews:
The best tale of living, loving, leaving and loss............1999-03-24
A real, completely uncorny novel that deals with stubborn fathers, sibling rivalry and broken hearts. I am an avid reader of authors such as Sandra Brown, Judith McNaught and Danielle Steele, but this is by far the best book I have ever had the pleasure to read.
Book Description
2065: In a world that has rediscovered harmony with nature, the village of El Modena, California, is an ecotopia in the making. Kevin Claiborne, a young builder who has grown up in this "green" world, now finds himself caught up in the struggle to preserve his community's idyllic way of life from the resurgent forces of greed and exploitation.
Customer Reviews:
Not Free SF Reader.......2007-09-03
Robinson again takes a look at his Californian setting, this time in a community that is environmentally focused, and has limited development and economic expansion.
The book's conflict come as one of the members of this community tries to get around their rules and laws for financial gain, another opposes him, and a woman is caught in the middle, being the ex-lover of the rulebreaker, and current interest of the community upholder.
Robinson's Utopia plays Softball.......2007-08-18
In this, the third of Robinson's "Three Californias" trilogy, we get a very personal story of love and life in the idyllic ecotopia of El Modena, a small California town where water is a treasured resource, the abandoned cities are being broken up for scrap, and economic development is carefully controlled by the democratically elected local government. The protagonist is Kevin, a likable conservation-minded young man who builds multi-family homes with an outdoorsy feel and complete with interior gardens. His rival for the attentions of the beautiful and athletic Ramona is Alfredo, who lusts for power and the glory of accomplishment. The love triangle between Kevin, Alfredo and Ramona takes center stage, paralleling the two men's conflicting designs on their magnificent natural resource.
The three novels in the series are completely independent of each other, and in fact exist in alternative timelines, so there's no reason to read them in any particular order. The idea is to show the various possibilities latent in California's present, but if one didn't know better, one could have read all three books and not realized they were connected. In this installment, Tom, the only character who appears in all three books, is a lonely elder statesman who enjoys a late-blooming romance with a traveling scientist, but he doesn't really have much purpose here.
The angst-ridden conclusion causes one to question the author's state of mind. While certainly realistic enough, there seems little real point to it. Perhaps Robinson felt it necessary to remind us that even in a utopia, the basic problems of love and death will still plague mankind. Unfortunately, this ending undercuts the pleasure one might have derived from reading the book, and given that it's pretty lightweight to begin with, this is a crucial failing. There's very little science fiction in this book, and not much philosphy (for a utopia novel) so the melancholy conclusion leaves this third of the triptych with nothing to especially recommend it.
fell in love in with all aspects.......2007-07-16
In all aspects of this book, I fell in love.
The descriptions of Ramona, the town beauty, left me longing for her. The realtionship between Ramona and Kevin sent my heart afluttering. I found Kevin to be as human as a character could be, hence his likablity and conveyance of the situations. Kevin is a very well-rounded and developed character whose eyes are suitable for the window into this world.
When the plot thickens, the characters thicken, as well. The reading is fluid and enjoyable. The ending seems a fitting end to all things brought to the forefront in the book. It left me smiling as I finished the last page and closed the book and set it upon my bookshelf.
Weak ending keeps it from being a great book.......2005-12-30
The theme of community that was touched on early in the first novel is fully developed here -- socially, economically, historically, politically, and even romantically. The story is primarily about a threat to the utopia of worker-owned businesses (a middle way between capitalism and socialism) and secondarily about two romances: the love triangle involving the protagonist, and the affair between two old people (which KSR dares to portray as passionate).
Considering that this book was written pre-internet (its original edition is dated 1990, a couple years BEFORE the Mars Trilogy was published), the two-way TV link-ups for global communication seem prescient. There are few other technical innovations, and the story really qualifies as speculative fiction rather than SF.
The character "played" by the personality named Tom comes into full bloom here as a global hero who was a significant force in establishing the utopia. I think KSR's greatest contribution to the utopia genre is his pointed question "How does a utopia come about?" I don't recall any other author addressing this issue in sufficient (let alone convincing) detail -- futuristic utopias appear out of nowhere as the story begins, without a good explanation of how we got (or can get) from here to there.
Unfortunately, KSR indulges in a kind of "author's diary" that opens each chapter with an entry full of his own ruminations. He should have spent less effort on it and more on developing the sketchy background story about how Tom et al transformed the kind of society epitomized by late 20th century US into the community-oriented utopia of the novel. But at least KSR gave it a try. The unsatisfactory fence-straddling ending keeps me from giving this book 5 stars. Even so, it's the best of the three.
I FELL IN LOVE WITH THESE CHARACTERS AND THEIR TOWN.......2005-08-25
This book is not action-packed and it's not really what I consider science fiction. All that makes it futuristic is that it's set a few decades into the future. If you're looking for high-tech or hard sci-fi, look elsewhere. However, if you want to read a pleasant story about the lives and loves of a small, mid-twenty-first century liberal community in southern California rendered in simple, clear prose that even achieves a certain degree of lyricism at times, then give this a try. You may end up loving it, as I did. Liberals probably more than conservatives will enjoy this book because the good guys are liberal while the one bad guy, if the story can be said to have a bad guy, is a republican-type who lets his greed get the better of him at the expense of the community. But nobody in the story is really all that bad (or completely perfect either); they're just basically decent people trying to do their best given their character flaws. The town, while not exactly a shangri-la, is a pleasant, healthy place to live. I really grew to like this community and its simple, back-to-basics (but without being primitive) way of living. In a sense, reading this book is therapeutic; there's nothing morbid here, but lots that is beautiful and uncomplicated, even spiritually uplifting (God is not banned from this liberal community). I found the plot compelling. It kept me turning the pages. The characters were mostly likable, some even adorable. When I finished this book, I got the sense of having visited a place in which I would like to live. Instead of giving a doom-day scenario of the future, the book allows the reader to imagine a future that, while not perfect, is still better than the past. If you are a parent looking to find a book to share with your young adult, this book is good because it works for both adults and kids (over twelve, I'd say). Notwithstanding the somewhat meloncholy ending, this novel is a very pleasant, light-hearted read. If innocence is not your thing, you may not like this book. But I am usually into much darker stuff and I nonetheless found this book to be like a ray of light shining through a cloudy sky.
Book Description
Here are up-to-date arguments for God's existence and for Jesus' deity and resurrection, answers to objections to Christian theism, and discussions of four key issues.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent primer... but have your thinking hat on!.......2007-06-11
Dr. Moreland's book is, as one reviewer already wrote, "already a classic." It is a bit of a tough read for the average church layman, however it is well worth the effort. I would encourage anyone who is contemplating reading this book to do so, BUT be prepared to move slowly through it the first time. Take the time to look up any words that are unfamiliar. While (after many years of study on such matters) I don't agree with every concept Moreland presents, and neither may the reader, I certainly respect the scholarship that went into this book. Take... read... you'll be considerably the better for the effort.
Scaling the Secular City.......2005-07-28
Dr. Moreland is a gifted writer and has captured the subject very well. The book is particularly challenging to those that are not inclined towards math or philosophy. Therefore, it will not be particularly useful to those of casual interest. Perhaps that's OK.
Already a Classical Text.......2004-06-01
This book, fashioned by J.P. Moreland of Biola University, has stood the test. While it appears as an introductory text; he avoids dumping down the information to the point of making the information irrelevant. In addition, he presents the information with enough technical language and argumentation as to make someone who has not encountered Philosophy of Religion studies before struggle enough to make them grow intellectually. This is the genius of the book, to accomplish this in a primer text.
He goes over most of the standard arguments in apologetics such as the design, cosmological, mind arguments and so forth. His chapter on the Resurrection of Jesus is outstanding and his chapter on Science and Christianity is good introductory fair by surveying the different positions.
I do think that he should have taken his morel relativism critique in his final four issues chapter devoted an entire chapter to this discussion and with the same depth of skill he used in the "design and cosmological" chapters, developed a chapter on relativism and the impact on the agreement from morals.
A Highly Recommended Defense of the Faith.......2003-09-10
J.P. Moreland, one of today's top evangelical philosophers, released this valuable apologetics work about 15 years ago. Despite its age, the book is very relevant and useful even today.
Throughout the book, Moreland discusses various issues of importance to the Christian faith. The first few chapters cover arguments for the existence of God, such as the Cosmological Argument and the Argument from Mind. Moreland is thorough and persuasive in his powerful presentations of these arguments for a personal Creator.
Moreland also discusses issues dealing with the historicity of the New Testament and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Finishing off the book is a chapter on Christianity and Science, and a chapter that deals with various miscellany.
Also useful is a bibliography of recommended further material provided at the end of the book. Moreland offers suggestions for all sorts of topics, and each book is rated Beginner, Intermediate, or Expert. With this feature, Moreland solidifies his work as an excellent apologetic. If there is one apologetics book you buy, Moreland's "Scaling the Secular City" is a great choice.
A powerful case for Christian faith.......2003-07-30
Moreland has written a lucid and compelling defense of Christianity. True, the arguments are theoretical and often difficult to grasp; however, the time spent attempting to understand them will not be time wasted.
While the work is fantastic from beginning to end, Moreland's explication of the Kalam cosmological argument--an argument originally devised by MUSLIM scholars and mathematicians--is breathtaking. The other arguments--cosmological, teleological, etc--rely on premisses that some non-theists might find initially unacceptable; the kalam argument, however, relies on the nature and limits of the most exact of the sciences: mathematics.
Beyond this, Moreland's work with and understanding of science and its interface with philosophy and theology is especially helpful. He makes a powerful case not only for the value, but the necessity of a philosophy of science.
In sum, the work is indispensable for anyone willing to honestly investigate the plausibility of the Christian worldview. A close, reflective reading will not go unrewarded.
Books:
- The Water and the Blood: A Novel
- Two Girls Fat and Thin
- Unknown Man #89
- Unquiet Earth
- Utopia Parkway: The Life And Work Of Joseph Cornell
- Vegas Heat
- Vendetta Defense, The
- White Noise Critical: Text and Criticism (Viking Critical Library)
- 376 Decorative Allover Patterns from Historic Tilework and Textiles (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
- A Season of Angels/Touched by Angels (Angels Everywhere)
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