Average customer rating:
- Keep writing - this book was wonderful
- All of us could certainly use a little more faith, don't you think?
- VERY SPECIAL
- This Hamburger is juicy
- A very accomplished first novel about Michiganders passages to Isreal
|
Faith for Beginners: A Novel
Aaron Hamburger
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Literary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Jewish American
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Setting the Lawn on Fire: A Novel
-
The View from Stalin's Head
-
The Good Neighbor
-
You Can Say You Knew Me When
-
Full Circle
ASIN: 0812973208
Release Date: 2006-11-14 |
Book Description
An acclaimed short-story writer has created a miraculous first novel about an American family on the verge of a breakdown–and an epiphany.
In the summer of 2000, Israel teeters between total war and total peace. Similarly on edge, Helen Michaelson, a respectable suburban housewife from Michigan, has brought her ailing husband and rebellious college-age son, Jeremy, to Jerusalem. She hopes the journey will inspire Jeremy to reconnect with his faith and find meaning in his life . . . or at least get rid of his nose ring.
It’s not that Helen is concerned about Jeremy’s sexual orientation (after all, her other son is gay as well). It’s merely the matter of the overdose (“Just like Liza!” Jeremy had told her), the green hair, and what looks like a safety pin stuck through his face. After therapy, unconditional love, and tough love . . . why not try Israel?
Yet in seductive and dangerous surroundings, with the rumbling of violence and change in the air, in a part of the world where “there are no modern times,” mother and son become new, old, and surprising versions of themselves.
Funny, erotic, searingly insightful, and profoundly moving,
Faith for Beginners is a stunning debut novel from a vibrant new voice in fiction.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
Keep writing - this book was wonderful.......2007-03-05
A wonderful read - he is an excellent story teller and I didn't want it to end. I can not wait for his next book!
All of us could certainly use a little more faith, don't you think?.......2007-01-25
The Tanach (the Hebrew Bible) instructs that there's nothing new under the sun.
That which has already happened, and that which promises to occur in the future is the equivalent of the cosmic broken record. That which humanity will one day seen as already taken place in that strip of territory straddling the continental elbow between the holy River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea.
Israel is the Bible's stomping ground. The country most contested, that "promised land" of sanctified shangri-la that legions of admirers have shed gallons of corpuscles for over the centuries. Israel is the world's bone-dry dusty jewel, the brilliant garnet in the Levantine crown which everyone covets like New York State's lottery jackpot, before taxes, that is.
Okay, I'm ranting...
In short, it is in this very Israel that nothing new has happened under the sun.
Aaron Hamburger, in his novelistic debut FAITH FOR BEGINNERS, deals with this magical land of "play it again Sam."
It's a compelling yarn about a young misguided cultural tourist who arrives with his proverbial tail between his legs without a blimmin' clue about how to manage his angst-ridden life. Parachuting in on a jetplane after a half-day journey across the stormy Atlantic, our young twentysomething protagonist, Jeremy Michaelson, is a total trout out of water. He begins to, er..."come" of age at the turn of the 21st-century in the land of, um...milk and honey.
His mother, Ms. Michaelson, has brought her confused son to the Holy Land in the hopes that our young Jeremy will right himself. Master Michaelson is as yet unsettled with his homosexuality, not quite accepting his life's basic reality, having drunk once too often from society's chalice of "sexual rectitude." You know, the same one which tells the so-called "freaks" of society how to more properly behave. Ms. Michaelson feels that it's her duty to help Jeremy with what ails him, so a hastily-planned sojourn to Israel is what she feels will cure the kid of his troubles. Israel will right all wrongs, she believes. One deep inhale of its jasmine-scented air will be enough to get Jeremy back on the right path. Mama Michaelson hopes it will mark the end of his green-haired days, his safety-pin nasal piercings, his trainwreck-like habit of over-imbibing and overdosing on all manner of hallucigens. At least this is what the good Ms. Michaelson hopes for...
What happens to Jeremy, his mom, and the motley crew of extremely well-drawn characters like Jeremy's deaf Palestinian boyfriend George, his sycophantic haredi (ultra-Orthodox) admirer Noam--the same one who agrees to undergo a makeover for our anti-hero--and the lustful and very hirsuite Rabbi Rick Sherman who's been doing the horizontal lambada with Jeremy's mother while Jeremy shoots around Jerusalem in the act of "finding himself."
Author Hamburger's research is positively meticulous. Gadzooks.
He seems to have covered heaps of ground during his investigative trips to Israel, and the dialogues of the various personalities who populate his pages are so bang-on it gave me the butterflies.
For those of you who've spent a series of months and years in the Holy Land, the true-to-form realism of scenes like Ms. Michaelson's harrowing day trip to Hezekiah's Tunnel is a delight to the senses. For those who have never set foot in the contentious Holy City of Jerusalem, the delicate character beats will still resonate with you as you make your way through. As Hamburger intimates, human conflict is universal. Those same political battles over hearts and minds which has been ravaging the Land of Israel for over a century (and then some!) can be mirrored in other locales around the globe.
The human vice of hatred is a constant. Fear of the other is a growing feature in an increasingly globalized world.
Through the device of one of the world's more "marquee" tribal conflicts, Hamburger delivers his most masterful message of the entire story...jeez, can't we all just leave well enough alone and get along?! With the ancient hatreds simmering in the Land of Israel for as long as they have, Hamburger leaves us imagining just what things might be like if one group ceded control over their sacred stones and decided to look at the other person standing across from them for precisely what they are.
And this is best embodied by the relationship between George and Jeremy, two young men who want nothing more than to give pleasure and be pleasured.
Two youngsters who crave nothing loftier than the purity of the emotion love. For the other to just reach out and touch them, to reassure them that everything's going to be just fine. Indeed, Jeremy and George are gay, but that's entirely beside the point, folks.
While there are always exceptions to the rule, Hamburger has been keenly diligent in his efforts to encapsulate the basic gripes of this region: I lord over something that you can't have, and if you want it, then we can't both have it.
You having it means that I can't.
For you to take it away from me, I've got to do something tragic to you, which often boils down to bad blood.
Just thinking about the violent rows and tirades over today's Temple Mount Complex, and you'll readily see what I mean.
There have been dissident voices expressed in the reviewing community that Mr. Hamburger only took the very worst episodes of those on offer. Though after several years of residence in that part of the world I'd have to admit that his depictions are rather on the money. Indeed, there are times when the travesties which rend the societies in that part of the world are non-existent, still history has shown that these lulls are rarities for the most part.
And as for the gratuitousness of the sex scenes? Spurious accusations at best.
What's the big fuss about? What's to quibble over? People have sex, and what goes on behind closed bedroom doors--as a sage Fenian opponent of the European socialist "nanny state" once said, George Bernard Shaw--is frankly none of our business!
Men have sex with men. Women have sex with women. And, more commonly, opposite genders attract. Who cares? You're missing the point of this tale, folks.
All in all, FAITH FOR BEGINNNERS is a magnificently tremendous debut. An oeuvre of considerable depth, astoundingly unexpected from a first-time novelist, yet Aaron Hamburger has plainly rung the bell.
Turning that final page, I suddenly felt myself levitating. Well, not exactly levitating, but I certainly began to have more faith in the common man, more than ever before. At the end of the day, it all boils down the base passions of love, sex, and, well...eating the bones.
Master those concepts, and you're well on your way from the beginning stages and boldly onto our very next lesson, says Hamburger.
You know. I think he's right.
~~~~
Five stars? Another title isn't more deserving.
Hand on the heart,
ADM in Prague
VERY SPECIAL.......2006-12-28
Hamburger, Aaron. "Faith for Beginners". Random House, 2006.
Very Special
Amos Lassen and Literary Pride
I eagerly awaited the publication of Aaron Hamburger's first novel "Fait for Beginners". I love his collection of short stores "The View from Stalin's Head" and it sits in a cherished place on my bookshelf. The novel does not disappoint and I have wondered why it did not get the readership it deserves. I suppose books about Israel have a limited audience as do mother and son stories or anything fictional about religion. But these issues are only part of the book.
"Faith for Beginners" is not a typical gay novel. It is about a trip to find faith. It concerns the Jewish mother, Helen Nussbaum Michaelson. The book shows the way of life in Israel and compares it with what we have in America. The family s taking part in a tour organized from their home in Michigan and Helen thinks that maybe a trip to Israel will be just what her son, who has piercings and is a slacker at college, really needs to pull his life together. He has just managed t pull through a suicide attempt. What she hopes is that Jeremy will discover holiness in the Holy Land but what she and Jeremy find is a little more than faith. Helen, herself, has an affair with a young rabbi while Jeremy also has a sexual relationship--with a deaf Palestinian. Politics enters their lives as well. It is Jeremy who unlocks the mysteries. He is in his fifth year as an undergraduate at Columbia University and his life seems to be going nowhere. On a Sabbath eve at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, he fails in his attempts to pick u young student and after having dinner with a group of tourists e finds himself in Independence Park--the major cruising area of the city of peace. It is here that he meets George, the deaf Palestinian.
Helen is a trooper. Both f her sons are gay but the oldest is in a relationship with an Asian man. It is Jeremy that causes her so much worry. He is promiscuous, rebellious and not to keen on being Jewish (what a terrible thing to befall a good Jewish mother). Jeremy has green hair, a nose piercing and is as lackadaisical toward life as he is toward religion. When Helen read in a local paper that many Jews find themselves on trips to Israel, Helen signs her family up and dreams that her son will undergo a transformation. His homosexuality is not what bothers her; she is concerned that he has no place in the world.
Jeremy is the modern American. He is critical of old world values and he freely admits that he does not believe in God. He s somewhat manic depressive and is suspicious of the world and resents religion. It is George, the Palestinian (the forbidden meat of the Jews) that opens Jeremy`s eyes to the ways of the world.
Hamburger beautifully relays the dichotomy of the Arab and Jewish worlds who live side by side in Jerusalem and his descriptions of how every conversation turns to politics is wonderful. He shows with candor the differences between the Orthodox of the old city who adhere to archaic laws and do not seem to care for people.
There is a cast of eccentric and amusing characters but the power of the narrative rests with Helen and Jeremy and the ironic ways they look for acceptance and self-acceptance. There are some rather strong sex scenes in the book and I had a bit of trouble with the way Hamburger depicted the Palestinian people. What is meant to be funny in the book turns out to be somewhat depressing. Because the characters are never fully developed there are times that you feel you do not really know then and one of the beauties of good fiction is being able to identify with the characters. Also the issues are never really resolved. Although Helen and Jeremy seem to find what they were looking for, faith, we are never really explained s to how this came about. There are times when the novel is wildly funny and very erotic but there are also serious issues raised--religion, politics, gay relationships, and the Israeli-Arab conflict. And there is humor--the potshots made at the Israeli tourist industry and American support for Israel.
Thus book is special to me because I like Jeremy found what I was looking for in Israel, although not with a deaf Palestinian. I found my faith and I found myself. I love this book. So much was familiar to me from when I lived in Israel and came out as a gay man. I was no Jeremy but I had a lot of the same issues. For that alone, I have read the book several times and each time it has hit closer to my own life. To me that is a sign of good fiction.
This Hamburger is juicy.......2006-09-26
As one who has weak interest in reading about Arab-Israeli politics, finding one's fatih, or mother/son relationships, it took a lot for me to decide to settle down with this book. But I was redeemed with a refreshing read well outside of the typical gay-novel niche.
This is one journey to faith that is a lively excursion through Israel. The ways of Helen Nussbaum, her punkish son Jeremy and disabled husband bring an interestingly distinct contrast between settled American life and the very real turmoil of living in Israel.
The family is outside of their normal Michigan world and on a commercialized tour called the Michigan Miracle 2000. Helen is worried about Jeremy, her pierced, college-slacker son who has just survived a suicide attempt. But amid their travels through war-torn Israel, they take steps (sidesteps?) toward exploring their faith and achieving a sort of mutual acceptance. While her husband suffers from a slow but steady form of cancer, Helen explores intense sexual experiences with a young, hirsute rabbi. Jeremy has some fun of his own, meeting George, a deaf Palestinian. Politics of all types fill their lives (but in a captivating way) and as it turns out, Jeremy becomes the one who understands this strange, ancient land and its current climate the most.
Here are the ways Aaron Hamburger could have made this novel go wrong: making it solely a story about a mother who struggles with the fact that her only offspring, two sons, are both gay (not new); overloading the story with politics (he didn't); making Jeremy's rebellious nature the core of the story (again, not new); setting the story in Michigan (ho hum).
Instead, Faith for Beginners proves to be a rich blend of real, flawed characters, imbued with the easily-recognize (but often missed) humor of suburban family ennui.
A very accomplished first novel about Michiganders passages to Isreal.......2006-03-21
Faith for Beginners involves a Michigander Jewish family (mother, father, gay son) on a package tour of Israel. The father, who had been a clinical psychologist, has terminal cancer. His wife and son have erotic/romantic adventures in Israel. Helen Michaelson's is with a very hirsute rabbi who migrated from the US and is leading the tour along with his mother.
Jeremy, a fifth-year Columbia undergrad who had recently nearly overdosed on drugs and liquor back in New York, attempts to pick up Noam, a Hassidic student, at the Wailing Wall, but gets shunted off to a strange Sabbath dinner with another group of tourists to Jerusalem, and later is picked up in Independence Park after dark by a deaf Arab who has taken the name "George."
The comedy between Anglophones abroad that was the specialty of E. M. Forster is transferred from pre-WWI Italy and India to Israel ca. 2000. About two-thirds of the way through, there seemed to be heavy influences of A Passage to India, though the Marabar Cave episode and the trial of an unjustly accused local in Hamburger's novel are split (but not entirely unrelated, not least in that Michaelsons are involved in both). I was disappointed at the lack of follow-through (Jeremy's more than Hamburger's) with the juridical proceedings against the local.
Nevertheless, the rich portrayal of characters of diverse backgrounds and the intricate plotting kept me entertained and turning the pages.
BTW, the book is NOT "pornographic," though Helen and Jeremy each has a major and a minor sex scene.
Customer Reviews:
Exactly as Advertised.......2005-09-02
This book is exactly what the title says, a collection of short stories about first time lesbian experiences. The stories are written by women, usually in the first person, and are filled with flowery imagery. This title takes a deep look, mostly through repetition, at the sensual and emotional sides of lesbianism.
Each story left me with a sense of admiration and respect for the virgins at the leaps of faith they made in order to live out their first experience. Certainly in light of the social taboo and potential rejection a journey into homosexuality has the potential to be a devastating occurrence. The women all know this but follow their hearts into relationships to intensely rewarding ends.
This book allowed me a window into my own wife's past as an experimental teenager. I thought it was amazing how closely her story mirrored some of the stories in this book. I would recommend this collection to anyone who thinks they are a lesbian or anyone who is in a relationship with a lesbian/past lesbian.
One last note of warning, this is not a hardcore/pornographic novel; if you are looking for something like that I would recommend "Penthouse Forum" magazines.
Depends on what you want it for..........2004-07-12
I found this collection to be standard. Like most erotica, this compilation has a few shining stars as well as a few stinkers, with most everything else falling in the middle.
One of the stories was mediocre in its editing: There were a few times where the author's repeated use of the same word distracted from the reading (After reading only 2 pages, I wanted to ring up the author and yell, "Buy a thesaurus!")
Another story was poorly paced: I wanted to sink my teeth into erotica and instead I got three pages of fruit salad recipes.
That said, I must give credit for a few good choices by the editor. One nod goes to the fact that she tried to create a balance of romance themes and hard core sexual stories. A second nod goes to her attempts to cater to a wide variety of sexual tastes and fetishes, from vanilla to S&M.
If you're in the mood for a decent collection of varied erotica to have on your bookshelf, this is a nice choice. If you're just looking for some reading to whack with, I suggest you save your money and surf up nifty dot org or some other web source.
Great stuff in here........2004-01-24
Whether you're a woman and are "bi curious" or you're a guy--there's no need to explain why men would like this book--Awakening the Virgin is a mind blowing and satisfying read about women and women. I've only read one other book that comes close to this one, "The Other Woman" by Kim Corum. I hope to find more becuase these stories are HOT.
*Whistles*.......2003-10-03
I don't even know what to say about this book but its great. Ever since reading the book it reminded me of the things that I thought were forgotten.
Anywayz this is a must in have in your collection since all the stories are real. All in all a great read.
Awesome book! A must read for all women........2003-02-07
This book was the most awesome book on lesbian relationships I have ever read. The stories are emotional and erotic! I loved every story and highly recommend this book to all women, whether you are straight, bi, or lesbian. This book shows how women relate on all levels, especially sexually. A real eye-opener for the novice or curious.
Book Description
Call it what you will, we call it hot: the idea of initiating another woman into the ecstatic joys of woman-on-woman sex. Apparently you liked it because you bought a kazillion copies of the first volume. So here is another collection of scorching true stories by women who had the mind-blowing good luck to be another woman's first.
Nicole Foster is the editor of Electric, Skin Deep, Body Check, Wet, and of course, Awakening the Virgin.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting anthology.......2006-07-31
I found the title a bit misleading. With titles like -
Fist
Sugar: My First Threesome
Rough Trade
Rock Star Spanking
I was thinking that virgins might not be participating in certain stories.
I did find a stand out story from an author that is new to me -
Sydney Larkin's `Pawn Takes Queen' was excellent and I will look for her in future books.
There are 23 stories in the collection with many new names to me and several I have read in other anthologies, Rachel Kramer Bussel and Shar Rednour to name just two.
I enjoyed this second volume MORE than the first!.......2004-06-08
If I have a problem with this "Awakening the Virgin" series it's that it's not really about first-time lesbian encounters so much as women recalling a particular encounter they had later in life, or a particular woman. I guess I had hopes of more lesbian seduction.
Having said that, I enjoyed this second volume of the series more than the first because I felt it included a certain kinkiness lacking in the first edition. These included episodes of sensual bondage and even some light spankings (nothing severe). I feel the first volume is bland in comparison.
A disappointing reawakening.......2004-01-01
I anticipated with eagerness the arrival of the followup tome to Awakening the Virgin part 1, a splendid and evocative celebration of lesbian relationships. However, the followup, while well-written, has none of the gentle, magical discovery of its earlier counterpart. This book will still hold appeal for the reader with kinkier or wilder interests, but may be too daring and elusive for more tentative, curious novices.
A disappointing reawakening.......2003-12-30
I anticipated with eagerness the arrival of the followup tome to Awakening the Virgin part 1, a splendid and evocative celebration of lesbian relationships. However, the followup, while well-written, has none of the gentle, magical discovery of its earlier counterpart. This book will still hold appeal for the reader with kinkier or wilder interests, but may be too daring and elusive for more tentative, curious novices.
Customer Reviews:
Very Good.......2006-10-05
FROM BACK COVER:
Eve Robertson lives a quiet life in a secluded
village, and she wants to put her turbulent past
behind her. However, her newfound stability is
threatened with the arrival of Jake Romero....
Jake is tall, dark and...dangerous--and he wants
virginal Eve. His touch leaves her aching for
more, but her secrets hold her back. But how
long can she resist Jake's intense, exotic brand of
seduction...?
Jake was facinated by Eve from the moment he met her at her grandmother's estate. Her air of mystery, made him wants to find out what secrets she's hiding, and she's hiding a lot of them. I liked the characters of Jake and Eve and I also liked reading this book very much. Although to be honest I'm not quite sure why I liked it...
Eve's grandmother took her in when her mother turned her back on her. Jake's a guest at her gandmothers house and becomes attracted to her, and she to him. They embarked on pursuing a relationship but first they have to overcome the obstacles of both of their past, they are both likable characters who exhibited a strong attraction for each other...
Although the ending was a bit rushed, I think you will like reading this book.
Customer Reviews:
From the back cover:.......2005-07-05
A stolen kiss, a midnight visit and suddenly oil baton Cade Gallagher found himself married to a virginal Tamiri princess! Honor demanded Cade pledge himself to Leila Kamal to save the lovely princess's reputation. Only the two of them knew the truth, that Leila remained untouched. Come hell or devil's own temptation, Cade vowed to keep her that way. Leila might be innocent, but she knew the agony of forbidden desire when she saw it in a man's eyes. Her tall, stubborn Texan of a husband might think he was being noble. But honorable intentions were no match for a princess determined to be a wife in every way!
Product Description
First American edition of the Seduction of "Suzy"Gypsy Child Virgin by the renown erotica author Marcus Van Heller.
Book Description
The Star Risk, Ltd. team has a standing objective: "We'll do anything for money." And when they're hired by a political top gun to clear his assassinated father's name, wealth beyond their wildest dreams is finally within their grasp...if they can stay alive long enough to forge the check.
Book Description
First in the explosive new series that goes beyond the "A-Team"-and beyond the stars.
They're outnumbered, outgunned, and out of luck. But the mercenaries of Star Risk, Ltd. will take on any mission-no matter how dangerous-provided of course, the price is right.
Customer Reviews:
Star Risk Ltd........2006-02-20
A nice read. Somewhat in the style of E.E. Smith whom I really like. This is NOT a heavy, deep thought required, read; however, I found it an enjoyable book. I like the mix of characters.
Nothing new, but still a fun read.......2005-12-12
Star Risk Ltd is not particularly inventive (in fact, I'd be hard pressed to find anything inventive in the book at all), and it's loaded with spelling and grammar errors, but I still felt it was worth reading.
This is not the kind of book to read if you're looking for something deep or thought-provoking.
This is the kind of book you read with the same mind-set that you'd go to see a sci-fi action thriller movie - it's entertaining as long as you don't try to think about it too much.
I liked it........2005-01-14
This book is like the perfect airplane reading. I don't mean that in a bad way, either. It's lighthearted, not too dense -- just pure escapist sci-fi.
One big annoyance, though, was the use of paragraphs in dialogue. Stuff that could've been one big chunk of text was split up into three or four paragraphs, each one or two sentences, and since each paragraph begins with quotes it was sometimes hard to tell who was speaking.
A fun adventure, but no classic.......2004-12-16
Star Risk, Ltd. reminds me of a print version of the excellent anime series Cowboy Bebop - only not as cool. From the beginning the reader should abandon all thoughts of a hard science fiction story and get ready for something more akin to a wild west tale set in the Star Wars universe. This is science fantasy, but that's not to say it fails to entertain. There are more than a few chuckles and memorable scenes in this book, and it would be great for passing the time on a plane flight or long road trip. Pick up Star Risk, Ltd. if you don't want to *think* too hard about your sci-fi reading for once.
Fun but flawed.......2004-10-11
I enjoyed Star Risk Ltd but must agree with at least some of the criticisms levelled at it by other reviews.
The bad points first and I must say the person who did the editing job should no longer be gainfully employed. There are just too many grammatical and even typographical errors for a professionally produced product.
This is not usually a huge flaw in a novel but having to re-read passages and take yourself 'out of the action' becomes a major flaw when one of the main areas of the enjoyment is the fast pace of the novel.
On the other hand, as a small aside and redeeming the editor (if it was his/her decision) a smidge in my books, I did like the fact that, unusually, the correct English style was used to indicate who was speaking. The fact it isn't the the usual style used in novels counts for it not against it since showing others how it should be done is never a bad thing!
The characters are a little thin but given the nature of the book, an action space-opera, this is not only forgivable but expected ... and there are follow up books to develop the personalities of course!
The plot does seem to save up all its complications until the last few chapters which is at odds with its fast paced roots but, to be fair, it isn't hard to follow the twists (even if you don't guess at least some of them are coming).
I'm also sure (though this is without re-reading) some of the plot explanations disagreed with some of the logic when the same plot point was discussed earlier in the novel. However this doesn't upset the story too much really and could be explained away quite easily ... it's just a shame the editor (yes him/her again) didn't point this out and suggest that this easy explanation could be added!
Re-reading my comments it sounds like I didn't enjoy this book and this isn't true - it's just easier to identify and write about flaws than the good points. And there are good points a plenty ...
The plot is interesting enough to keep you on your toes but not so convoluted you get lost; Chris' wrtiting style perfectly suits the pacy Space-Opera feel and exciting situations and, as others have pointed out, he does military feel very well indeed; the characters are likeable and fun if a little flat so far and as the first of a series it works well and entertains throughout.
Overall a good read, but not yet up to the standard of his (with Allan Cole) Sten novels and with far too many editorial errors.
Average customer rating:
- not very well developed
- Action action and more action
|
The Scoundrel Worlds (Star Risk #2) (Star Risk Ltd)
Chris Bunch
Manufacturer: Roc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Bunch, Chris
| ( B )
| Authors, A-Z
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
Adventure
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Series
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
( B )
| Authors, A-Z
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
| Brooks, Terry
Adventure
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Series
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
All 4-for-3 Deals
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The Double-Cross Program
-
Star Risk Ltd. #1 (Star Risk, 1)
-
The Dog From Hell (Star Risk #4) (Star Risk Ltd)
-
Homefall (The Last Legion, Book 4)
-
Storm Force (The Last Legion, Book 3)
ASIN: 0451459369
Release Date: 2003-08-05 |
Book Description
Skyball is popular, challenging, and violent. In other words, the greatest sport in the universe. The mercenary team of Star Risk, Ltd. has been hired to watch it...closely. Two opposing worlds are neck and neck, and lately the game's been a real killer. Riots, murder, a real madhouse for loyal fans. It's up to Star Risk to keep it galaxy-friendly. Good luck to them. They don't stand a sporting chance.
Customer Reviews:
not very well developed.......2004-06-18
Star Risk, the first book in this series introduced a handful of characters that seemed to provide a good foundation for an entertaining space series.
Unfortunately Scoundrel Worlds departed from what made the first Star Risk book interesting and glossed over much of the development in the plot. Good story lines, just not well executed.
I was left with many why's in this book and it didn't seem to flow. The main characters seem to blend together and the story ended in a whimper.
I hope Bunch goes back to the drawing board and reworks the plots to develop the characters and flesh out the battle scenes.
Action action and more action.......2003-08-06
Trimalchio IV is the home base of Star Risk, Ltd., a mercenary outfit headed by Friedrich Von Baldur that takes on unusual cases and political hot potatoes. Von Baldur went AWOL from the military arm of the Alliance to escape his court martial. Other members of the group include Jasmine King (an operative who might be a robot), Grok (a Chewbacca looking alien), and Riss (who quit the Allied Service after squaring off with her lecherous commanding officer).
The former premier of the Planet Dampier hires the team to free an intelligence officer accused of selling state secrets to the Torguth homeworld. Both Dampier and Torguth claim the Belfort worlds even though the former currently controls them. The ex-premier believes that there is still a highly placed mole in the government and he wants Star Risk to catch the culprit. Once they arrive on Dampier they are immediately caught up in the politics and espionage shenanigans of the planet and must hire mercenaries to guard their own backs if they want to live to free an innocent man and catch the traitor.
The members of Star Risk are a lovable bunch of misfits who use self-deprecating humor to keep from taking themselves too seriously. Though some supporting items seem familiar such as the skyball game they play seems Harry Potter like and Grok the Chewbacca intellect, these elements are actually fresh and different once the reader clears the surface. The world of Dampier is a treacherous place, particularly suited to the battle-hardened mercenaries who meet force with even more force. Chris Bunch is one of the top authors of military space operas.
Harriet Klausner
Customer Reviews:
I like the Star Risk books, but this one was the best.......2007-05-10
I hesitantly got into the Star Risk, Lrd. books. To my delight, however, this series is both interesting and funny. The Dog From Hell, however, is really the cream of the crop, primarily because of its storyline. I liek how the members of Star Risk are able to get the upper hand from Cerebus (primarily from making them assume they were all dead), and then coming back and getting excellent revenge on their enemies. Excellent book, and am eagerly awaiting the new book in July.
An unfulfilled promise of more..........2006-01-05
The Dog From Hell is another one of Chris Bunch's wild and crazy space operas featuring the crew of Star Risk, Ltd. The structure of this novel is different, feeling almost like three loosely connected novellas rather than a single, integrated novel - and that's not a criticism, just an observation. The novel starts with Star Risk, Ltd. taking a very different job for them, babysitting the troublesome daughters of some very rich people. After that matter is settled, the novel moves to a mid-section in which the evil directors of Cerebus, Inc. decide to take Star Risk, Ltd. to the cleaners. The final section is about the Star Risk, Ltd. crew engaging in some serious and painful payback. The ending suggests that the entertaining rogues of Star Risk, Ltd. have many more adventures ahead of them. Unfortunately, that isn't going to happen, because the author, Chris Bunch passed away in mid-2005. For those of us who enjoyed the rousing adventures arising from Bunch's fertile imagination, it is a sad good-bye. RIP, Chris Bunch. You were one heck of a storyteller.
Back on Track.......2005-11-25
After enjoying the first couple of Star Risk novels immensely, I was disappointed with the 3rd volume in the series. It seemed to plod on interminably without much in the way of interest. The fourth volume is back up to the previous standard.
The real antagonist, as always, is not the any of the political entities going around hiring mercenaries. They get fleeced as usual but the real adversary is Cerberus, Inc., the largest private contractor in the galaxy. Hundreds of employees vs. the 5 of Star Risk: the big guys better watch out.
The Star Risk crew don't have a direct employer in this one. Cerberus has forced them out of business and then tried to kill each of them in their "retirement". Now the crew is out for revenge and blood. They set up to sabotage a Cerberus operation that stands to be very profitable. As part of the price of doing business, they wind up helping some gypsy types that have moved into the system.
The characters are almost, but not completely, amoral. They want profit, fun and revenge. They try not to hurt innocent bystanders but nobody is going to get in the way of wiping out the real adversary.
Good Miliporn, but that's it.......2005-09-13
If you like miliporn science fiction then this book is for you. The characters are one-dimensional the plot straight forward and in four books the characters never developed at all.
Now, that's not saying this is a lousy book. It's not space opera, its too simple for that, but it is action packed and has enough macho-one linders to make for light fun reading. I enjoyed it, I enjoyed the whole series and if you've read my reviews before that means something.
This is not Sten, this isn't even Last Legion. It seemed that as Mr. Brunch drifted further on his own, his writing calcified instead of grown. He kept writing the same types of characters in the same types of situations with little or no imagination.
I use the past tense in describing his writing because Mr. Brunch passed away in July and this was his last book. Which is sad because it means that instead of being known as a co-author of Sten, his legacy will be of a hack.
A good read........2005-09-09
This is the fourth book in this series. It follows the others well, and I would recommend reading the previous novels first.
This doesnt mean this novel can't stand on its own, but it helps give the characters depth to have the history behind them.
As usual, once I picked it up I read it until hit the end.
Average customer rating:
|
Star Risk, Ltd.
Chris Bunch
Manufacturer: Roc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000JC2IBS |
Average customer rating:
- Marxism vs Religion
- Great book, fun to read, overlooked topic
|
And God Created Lenin: Marxism vs Religion In Russia, 1917-1929
Paul Gabel
Manufacturer: Prometheus Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Japan
| Asia
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Russia
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| World
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Communism & Socialism
| Ideologies
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Marxism
| Political Doctrines
| Political Science
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Communism
| Political Doctrines
| Political Science
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
History
| Religious Studies
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Russian Orthodoxy on the Eve of Revolution
ASIN: 1591023068 |
Book Description
When the Bolsheviks took power in Russia in November 1917, they used a wide range of techniques—some subtle, some violent—to eradicate religion in areas under their control. The new Soviet government arrested priests, closed church buildings, exposed fraudulent monastic relics, forbade the printing of religious literature, and denied religious education to the young—all the while proclaiming abroad that there was no religious persecution in Russia. They set out to crush not only all organized religion but even the likelihood of religious thought. And God Created Lenin examines in depth the conflict between Lenin's logic-driven efforts to stamp out religion and the churches' passionate attempts to save themselves from obliteration. It looks at both sides objectively and admits that they both presented strong cases. In this thoroughly researched yet accessible study, historian Paul Gabel offers a new understanding of the only effort in world history to upset the universality of religion. Besides the main conflict between the Russian Orthodox Church and the atheist state, Gabel also considers the tensions that this campaign against religion caused within the Communist Party. In addition, he discusses the bitter hatred dividing the Orthodox factions that refused cooperation with the government from those that tried to adapt the church to communism. Was the failure of Soviet communism to eradicate religion simply a matter of practical miscalculation, or was this effort, in light of the persistence of religion throughout history, ultimately unrealistic and doomed from the start? This is the key question that Gabel's fascinating, insightful narrative attempts to answer.
Customer Reviews:
Marxism vs Religion.......2007-05-31
Soviet Russia, under the faith of Marxism, tried to stamp religiosity out of the country. Rather than compete in the marketplace of ideas, as should have been done (but which always results in great variance in beliefs), the approach that was taken was more akin to stubborn parents trying to tell their teenage daughter that they do not approve of her boyfriend. This, of course, does nothing to lessen the girl's interest in the boy. Much of what followed in the attempt to replace old Christian faith with the new Marxist faith entailed atrocities every bit as bad as those found during Christianity's darkest hours, and really wasn't all that different than the inquisition itself.
Great book, fun to read, overlooked topic.......2006-05-03
For fans of history, this is a look at a fascinating time after the Russian revolution. The time this book covers happens within twenty years of the two world wars and the great depression. Obviously, the first wide scale attempt to force atheism on a population would get overshadowed. A lot of good stories in here, written in an easy to read fashion. Stamping out faith wasn't the first concern of the communists, but government barbarities were set up to deal with the issue creating some interesting interactions with the uneducated populace. The most ambitious of plans had to be scrapped due to resistance.
Books:
- Fear and Trembling: A Novel
- Feast of Snakes: A Novel
- Fortunate Son: A Novel
- Four Souls: A Novel (P.S.)
- Fourplay: A Novel
- Gardenias for Breakfast: A Women of Faith Novel (Gunn, Robin Jones)
- Gidget
- Gut Symmetries
- Here Is Where We Meet: A fiction
- HOME SONG (HOME SONG: A CAPE LIGHT NOVEL) [LARGE PRINT]
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- History: Fiction or Science
- Angel Numbers
- The Rock: A Tale of Seventh-Century Jerusalem
- The Columbia Presbyterian Osteoarthritis Handbook: The Complete Guide to the Most Common Form of Art
- The Power and the Glory
- Algebraic Statistics for Computational Biology
- Where is Coco Going
- Toughest Men in Sports : Looking for the Mental Edge
- The Missing Tax Debate
- How To Create Your Own Super Second Life; What Are You Going To Do With Your Extra 30 Years
