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John Derbyshire took an interesting risk with this first-person novel written in the voice of Chai, a former Red Guard from Northeastern China who fled his strife-ridden country by swimming to Hong Kong, eventually making his way to the United States. Happily married and living in Long Island, he has developed an obsession for Calvin Coolidge, whose low-key, laissez-faire approach to government makes him sound to Chai like the ideal Confucian leader. Through Chai, Derbyshire offers insights on the difference between China, where citizens are crushed by the weight of a long and enduring history, and the United States, where a relative lack of history gives its citizens the opportunity to endlessly remake themselves. All this is wrapped in a plot that has Chai flirting dangerously with thoughts of reviving a long-lost relationship with a woman from his past.
Book Description
This is a magical novel of a Chinese immigrant's coming to terms with himself, his marriage, and America--and the unlikely moral force that guides his life.Chai is middle-aged, a disillusioned formed Red Guard who escaped China for Hong Kong and then America, where he works in New York as a banker. He and his wife, Ding, are the parents of an infant and enjoy a contented marriage; he develops a fond obsession with President Calvin Coolidge, the taciturn New Englander whose wry wit and wisdom delights Chai. One day, a chance discovery leads him astray: He learns that a lover from his youth is now in Boston, living with her husband and their son. The son is Chai's very image, and the staid banker is inflamed by the implications of the resemblance. Confused by his emotions, he becomes determined to revive the affair. How Ding schemes to win back her wayward husband--and teach him the necessary truths about love--forms the plot and beguiling conclusion to John Derbyshire's tale.
Customer Reviews:
A Great Book Club Book.......2005-08-05
My husband and I bought this book simply because we happen to live in one of Calvin Coolidge's old homes. We didn't really expect all that much. Boy were we surprised. I immediately recommended the book to my book club.
Let me say something about my book club: we've been together for almost ten years and we're made up for thirteen stong-minded women ranging in age from 30-something to 80-something. This is one of the few books we have unanimously loved. In fact, we enjoyed it so much that we wrote the author a letter inviting him to return to Northampton. He did and it was a joy to meet him.
Rita Bleiman
author "Dirty Tricks"
Good Read or Good Book?.......2005-04-20
I was telling a friend who was once my English professor at Cal Berkeley that Seeing was the best novel I'd read in a long time. (Unfortunately, there is currently little time for novel reading.) She asked, "Good book or good read?" I sort of went "Huh," but have been mulling over the question ever since. The answer: good read, emphatically. Swift, short and constantly entertaining in its transitions of place and time, and overlay of memory, Seeing is a true page-turner. Good book? I think the answer here is also yes. Derbyshire, who I presume from his name to be a Caucasian, does a pretty convincing job as an Asian narrator, even capturing Chai's reflexive smugness toward women, particularly his wife Ding. The pitch for the rehabilitation of Calvin Coolidge does not convince me; he still seems a simple man for simpler times whose values are of a more limited guidance than the author implicitly argues. At the same time, the observations on China, particularly the excesses of the Red Guard, and on a self-absorbed and often frivolous America as seen through a recent, successful immigrant's eyes ring very true. And you can't help but enjoy Ding's wiles as she brings Chai to live Coolidge's maxims.
An intriguing book that more than justifies the title.......2005-03-09
There are other unusual characters in literature, but surely the protagonist of this book is right up there for dynamic range of experiences and interests. He is a former Red Guard Chinese American banker whose also an amateur etymologist and American history lover. When he's drawn toward a tryst with a long lost love only his determined wife can save him and only Silent Cal (in a dream) can possibly advise him.
I was disappointed when my aquaintance with this interesting man came to an end.
First off, a 'thank you' to previous reviewers here!.......2004-12-23
Until recently, my only acquaintance with Mr. Derbyshire was in his role as a somewhat disagreeable controversialist in "National Review" magazine. Then, I noticed his most recent book (as of this posting), "Prime Obsession", a non-fiction account of the work of 19th century German mathematician Bernhard Riemann, whose prime number theorum remains one of the biggest unsolved problems in mathematics. Through the capsule biography of the author, I found out the existance of this book and consulted the reviews here.
Having read "Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream", I can say that it fully lives up to the sometimes-extravagant praise posted here. The book has a quirky charm all its own, not least because of the first-person voice of its hero, Chai, a winning and fascinating personality. Since the plot has been fully discussed in other reviews here, I will limit myself to a few random observations.
--Chai's account of his participation in the Red Guards as a teenager reads like a chiller out of Chen Jo-Hsi's book, "The Execution of Mayor Yin, and Other Tales of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" His witnessing of a gang-rape (which he feigns participation in) shames him and destroys at a stroke any loyalty to the Party he may have had. This starts him on his long road to America.
--Like Joseph Conrad in England, Chai masters the intricacies of English while in America. His ironic and insightful observations of the United States, China, and Hong Kong (before the PRC took over) are fun to read and dead-on.
--The long-dead Calvin Coolidge appears to give some dry and intelligent advice. Mr. Derbyshire manages to squash the old legend of "Silent Cal" as unintelligent and indolent. While the author perhaps spreads it a mite too thick, it is still a useful and entertaining corrective. (I hold with the political scientist who believes that Mr. Coolidge's apparent indolence was the result of a deep--perhaps clinical--depression at the death of his 16-year old son, Calvin Jr. from septicemia caused by an infected blister on his foot that had been raised playing tennis on the White House lawn.)
All of this is just by-the-by, however. The book was simply a delight and I urge anyone whose interest has been piqued by these comments to read it just as I did.
I Couldn't Put It Down.......2004-10-11
All the other reviewers are right on about this book. It is hard for me to find any books that hold my interest or fun to read. This was different. I highly recommend this book for easy and fun reading!
Average customer rating:
- The Mutual Divine Love of Krishna and Radha is Beautiful and Enlightening
- Earth & Heaven
- A very excellent work, but the tattva must be understood
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Love Song of the Dark Lord
Manufacturer: Columbia University Press
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0231110979 |
Book Description
-- Parabola
Jayadeva's dramatic lyrical poem Gitagovinda is one of the most important works in Indian literature and a source of religious inspiration in both medieval and contemporary Vaishnavism. Revealing an intense earthly passion to express the complexities of divine and human love, its songs are an important part of Indian devotional music and literature.
The twentith anniversary edition of the renowned translation by noted scholar Barbara Stoler MIller brings this classic to a new generation of readers and offers fresh insights for those familiar with the text.
Customer Reviews:
The Mutual Divine Love of Krishna and Radha is Beautiful and Enlightening.......2007-10-07
"An emotional attraction towards a personal god began to be expressed in the early centuries of the Christian Era." Ency. Britannica on Line
"Deliverence is not for me in renunciation. I feel the freedom in a thousand bonds of delight." Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali
Bhakti Movement for the Love of God:
Bhakti a devotional movement in in Medieval India (& South Asian Hinduism), expressing the intense love and emotional attachment of the faithful to their personal god. Bhakti came to mean "devotional worship and sharing love," the Sanskrit verbal root bhaj, originally meant "to share, to apportion."
Bhakti movement, integrates aspects of personal religious experience, social protest, and a variety of ritual modes around a notion of intimacy with one's deity that colours all aspects of human existence. Bhakti Proponents among Hindus, challenged Vedic sacrificial religion, gender inequity, caste boundaries, and dominant use of Sanskrit as sole religious language.
While all of the principal divinities in Hinduism; Vishnu, Shiva, and Shakti, has their own devotional cults, the Bhakti movement most characteristically developed around Vishnu, principally in his two earthly incarnations as Rama and Krishna. The mystical way of bhakti, claimed by its supporters to be a superior way, has contrasted other ways of achieving salvation, by knowledge, ascetic body disciplines, and ritualistic/good works. It is as well open to all, irrespective of their class, gender, or caste into which they were born.
Krishna's Sacred Love:
An emotional attraction towards a personal god began to be expressed in the early centuries of the Christian Era. It was an attitude furthered by the Indian epics, "the Mahabharata and the Ramayana" and by the Puranas, sacred texts that recount legends of the various appearances of the deities, their incarnations and genealogies. The devotional practices accorded them included the recitation of God's name, the singing of hymns in praise of him, wearing his emblem, undertaking pilgrimages to sacred places serving him in many ways.
Radha, in Hindu mythology, is the beloved consort of Krishna during his earthly life among the cowherds of Vrindavana. Radha, who was the wife of another cowherd was Krishna's unseparable companion. In the Bhakti devotional fellowship Radha, symbolizes the female human soul while Krishna, the divine male. Radha allegorical love has been given expression in lyrical poetry of most Indian languages, including the supremely lyrical Govinda Das. The Bengali god Chaitanya was deemed an incarnation of the unseparable lovers; Krishna on the inside and Radha on the outside. Chaitanya also composed many lost lyrics celebrating the divine love. The Gitagovinda by Jayadeva was a favourite source of inspiration for later miniature painters, in whose works Radha is seen waiting for Krishna to return with the cows in the twilight or engaged with him in amorous play in a forest grove. The images of Krishna playing the flute, enshrined in temples are often accompanied, in the eastern provinces of India, by images of his beloved Radha, and is also venerated in worship.
Veneration of the Buddha:
In Buddhism and Jainism, bhakti was an infrequent technical term implying veneration and awe of Gautama Buddha or Mahavira. It was considered one factor among others such as knowledge of scriptures or asceticism, necessary for spiritual practice. In South Asian Islam, the rudiments of bhakti appeared in works of Sufism, particularly during the reign of Akbar (1556-1605), and in the veneration of a pir, or charismatic Sufi figure. Sikhism, emerging in the sixteenth century, incorporated many practices associated with bhakti, such as an emphasis on the name (Nam) of God in worship.The devotional fervour of the seventh-tenth-century hymnists of South India, the Alvars and the Nayanars, also travelled north, until in time bhakti became an extremely widespread and popular form of Hindu religious life, inspiring a substantial quantity of superb religious poetry and art.During the medieval period (twelfth to mid-eighteenth century), the various possible relationships of the worshipper to God, based on the analogy of human sentiments -- such as that felt by a servant towards his master, friend towards a friend, parent towards a child, child towards a parent, and woman towards her beloved -- were explored in separate schools.
The love of Radha:
A particularly rich tradition centred in Bengal concentrated on the love of Radha, who symbolizes the human soul, for Krishna, the supreme God. In this tradition are Chandidas and the Maithili poet Vidyapati (c. 1400). The greatest single influence was Chaitanya, who in the sixteenth century renewed Krishnaism. He left no writings but inspired many hagiographies, of which the "Nectar of Chaitanya's Life" by Krishna Das (1517) dominates. His profound and everlasting influence on the religious sentiments of his Bengali countrymen propagated the community celebration of Krishna as the most powerful means of revealing the real bhakti attitude. Chaitanya also introduced the worship of 'God,' the director of man's senses, within the very activity of those senses, kept free from egoism and completely surrendered to preman (the intense desire) to satisfy the beloved Krishna. (Condensed & Edited from Ency. Britannica on Line)
Padas, Religious Lyrics:
The religious lyric continues in the so-called padas (verses); one of the greatest poets in the Bhakti genre in which divine love is symbolized by human love is Govinda Das (1537-1612). The songs of Ramprasad Sen (1718-75) similarly honour Shakti as mother of the universe and are still in wide devotional use. The most famous religious lyrics in Gujarati are the poems of the saint Mira Bai (1503-73), who wrote passionate love poems to Krishna, whom she regarded as her husband and lover.
The Gitagovinda:
Jayaveda's Gitagovinda is a dramatic lyrical peom, unique in Indian religious inspiration lyrics. Krishna's love with Radna, of intense passion, in a rite of spring expresses the complexities of Bhakti expression of a sensual human response to divine passion. The poems remain popular, allover the Indian subcontinent, even if they were written 800 years ago, in eastern India. Its songs take an important share in inspiration when performed with devotional music, and consitute a principal subject in medieval Rajput painting.
Editorial Reviews:
* "[Miller] has given us the Indian equivalent of the Song of Songs without the usual sentimentality." D. Shapiro, Parabola
* "[This new translation] beautifully renders the sankrit lyric into poetic English and captures the rich imagery and musical rhythms of Jayadeva's language." choice
Earth & Heaven.......2005-11-09
Enjoy the work for what it is . . . an earthy and sensuous titillation of the senses in order to draw one's being to the heavenly consummation of spiritual attainment. It's just as disastrous to be unmoved by the lower passions as it is to be moved only by such illusions.
~Namaste
A very excellent work, but the tattva must be understood.......1999-06-11
This is one of those works that may be taken out of context, due to a misunderstanding of tattva(principle or truth) and of siddhanta(conclusions). In the mind of a mundane reader, it may appear to be something like "erotic" poetry, like the gross, mundane activities between an ordinary man and woman. Therefore it is essential when reading this work that one has some understanding of the ontological position of Radha and Krishna. For this end, it is a necessity that one studies the work of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, specifically Srimad Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita. These works are given in parampara(disciplic succession)coming directly from Sri Krishna Himself. Therefore they are very authoritative in understanding the complex intricacies and knowledge of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His diverse energies. If one does not have a philosophical understanding of Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and has not removed all material contamination from the heart, such as lust, greed, envy, anger, illusion, madness and even subtle desires for profit, adoration and distinction, then reading the "Gita-Govinda" will be nothing short of disasterous. This is because one will mis-understand the loving exchages between Radha and Krishna to be something like mundane sex life. This is a most offensive and improper mentality. "Gita-Govinda" is not mere poetry, like that of some conditioned soul. It is written for liberated souls to relish. Therefore we should be very cautious when approaching this divine and sacred work.
Customer Reviews:
Delicious.......2007-04-27
If ever there was a man who needed a good woman it is James Killoran, the hero of To Love a Dark Lord. He is so jaded and world weary that it will take a special, innocent and determined heroine to veer him from his self destructive course. Emma is up to the challenge. Rarely do lovers have the combustible energy of these two characters.
James saves Emma from a certain hanging when she is discovered standing over the body of her dead relative. James vouches for her innocence, not because he believes her story or that he is smitten by her beauty. No, it just amuses him to do so. He really has no other ambition in life than to lead a hedonistic life.
He again comes to Emma's rescue from an amorous employer and realizes that she is the perfect pawn to bring about the downfall of his nemesis. Emma is destitute so she accepts his help knowing that she holds no special place in Killoran's life other than bait to be dangled before an enemy.
Things are not always what they seem, however. Emma has a true longing for Killoran, who has deep dark secrets and he just cannot forgive himself for his past mistakes. Emma is no door mat. She is quite brave and able to defend herself verbally and physically time and again.
Killoran is your wonderful Stuart hero. His intensity comes across every page and his self sacrificing nature is buried under mountains of guilt, anger and ennui. It is impossible not to be in love with him and disillusioned with him at times. Still his charm is ever present and his killer wit and looks are in no short supply. This is the best historical Stuart has ever written. The plot never gets in the way of the romance and the secondary characters are well drawn and thoroughly enjoyable.
Book Description.......2006-11-15
"To survive, Emma Langolet has committed a shocking crime. But, to her amazement, the notorious scoundrel James Killoran has agreed to accept responsibility for her desperate act -- though the handsome Irish Earl professes no interest whatsoever in the enchanting miss whom he has surely rescued from the gallows."
New kind of historicals.......2005-08-02
I have read Anne Stuart, this is my first historical by her. I think her contemporary books are great. I think the same of her historicals.
This is a good book. Dark and dangerous, once you start to read it you dont want to stop. For some reason, even though it is romance and a historical, it still falls into its own category. You wont find another author line Anne Stuart, not one that is even close. I wouldnt reccomend this to just anyone though, cant be squemish and think romance books are not ever dark. Those who enjoy those types of books as well are in for a rare treat.
Stuart's best Historical Romance.......2004-09-25
Anne Stuart is one of my favourite authors, I admit that - but for a very good reason. She is simply one of the best writers around in either Contemporary or Historical romances. In To Love a Dark Lord, as usual, she delivers - this time one of her best Historicals ever!
She is the queen of creating bad boys with blackhearts and souls. This time the scoundrel is James Killoran, who has a heart and soul so black he himself knows there is only one reason to lives, and that is revenge. He once loved a redheaded woman, only to have her destroyed. James could not save the woman he loved, so his only reason for living is vengeance, but he is no where closer to achieving that aim. The road to revenge can be a bloody dull, long and boring reason to live, since he cannot find the right weapon to extract it, so he uses people to relieve the tedium of his ennui. Mostly, he's just drunk and in a fowl mood with his self-loathing.
The book opens with Emma Lagolet escaping a ravishing. Between her graceless attempts at saving herself, and the drunken James tarnished knight in shining armour rescue, Emma escapes. He deposits her where she can find a possession as help, only to discover she must again fight off the advances of her employer's amorous son. James at first thinks it a hallucination as Emma flops over his wooden fence. But the Irish Lord, again, goes to great pains to save Emma - just for the entertainment. Then James is struck that Emma is the perfect instrument to complete his long awaited vengeance. Emma who now loves James will go to any length to win James' love. James, too, is falling for Emma, but he will let nothing stand in his way from his revenge.
It is so funny, with strong characters, proving once again, Stuart is the tops in her field. One of the Best! Why this is not in reprint is ONE BIG MYSTERY!
Actually, 4 and 1/2 stars.............2002-11-08
"To Love a Dark Lord" is my first Anne Stuart book. I have to tell you..I'm thrilled that I have discovered her and I cant wait to dive in and read her other stories!! Girls, This book was fabulous!!!..I enjoyed the storyline and the H/H immensely. There were also some of the most wonderful secondary characters in this book!! Killoran is so romantically tortured and Emma is his perfect match..I was up so late reading this..I couldnt bear to put it down!! DEFINITELY a MUST READ!!!!!!
Product Description
An excellent edition, used widely as a text. with critical introduction
Average customer rating:
- Hard sci-fi at its best - puts the science in science fiction
- A book that starts good and declines steadily.
- The early material is great, but Niven's latest is awful
- Beowulf's Progress
- A strange hybrid, but the stories are great
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Crashlander
Larry Niven
Manufacturer: Del Rey
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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ASIN: 0345381688
Release Date: 1994-03-02 |
Book Description
Crashlander Beowulf Shaeffer has long been one of the most popular characters in Known Space. Now, for the first time ever, Larry Niven brings together all the Beowulf Shaeffer stories--including a brand-new one--in one long tale of exploration and adventure! PLUS--an all-new framing story that pulls together all of Beowulf Shaeffer's adventures and allows Shaeffer and his family to make a clean start at life once and for all!
Customer Reviews:
Hard sci-fi at its best - puts the science in science fiction.......2006-06-21
This is a collection of all of the Niven's short stories involving Beowulf Schaeffer. Most of the stories were written in the late 60s and early 70s, and Niven added an additional story to this collection (published in 1994) as well as a bridge to connect all the Beowulf stories. This is among the best hard sci-fi available, and I must admit that I'm a bit puzzled by some of the negative reviews. The best stories in this collection were written almost forty years ago now, and they are available in other (now out of print) books such as Neutron Star. The additional story and bridge, while not outstanding, are not as bad as some of the negative reviewers have portrayed. In the hard sci-fi genre, this is as good as it gets. If you are currently collecting the Known Space stories (novels and short stories) and haven't been reading/collecting Niven since the '70s, this is an absolute must have. If you are a longtime reader/collector of Niven, this is probably not worth the one story plus bridge unless you want to complete your collection. If you are new to Niven, the Beowulf stories are terrific hard sci-fi, and I would highly recommend this collection as a starting point into Known Space. For those in the latter category, Niven combines the hard boiled detective genre (ala Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler) with creative and/or speculative astrophysical ideas that were at the cutting edge of astrophysical research at the time they were written. I give this four stars instead of five for three reasons. First, many of the astrophysical ideas are now hopelessly out of date. The stories were quite imaginative in the late 60s and early 70s, but Niven's speculations about neutron stars, the Galactic core, and supernovas have now been shown to be incorrect. This isn't Niven's fault of course, but it definitely gives the series of stories a dated feel. Second, there are some gross errors of physics (e.g. he grossly underestimates the effect of tides around neutron stars, and he makes some incorrect assertions about shock waves) that would have been well understood even at the time of writing. Third, Niven includes a few `supernatural' plot elements (e.g. the space ships are navigated psychically) that don't really belong in hard sci-fi. These are minor criticisms though, Niven has lots of great ideas, and with a few problems, he creatively blends science fact with speculative fiction. The stories are imaginative, and the planets, the people, and the aliens that populate Known Space are well developed and believable. I think this is a great collection and would recommend it to anyone interested in the hard sci-fi genre.
A book that starts good and declines steadily........2003-04-03
Known Space. It's cool. Beowulf Shaeffer. Cool guy. Mostly.
The first few stories, especially the Nebula award winning "Neutron Star," are of extremely high quality. It's something of a shock, then, that the later stories decline so rapidly. Niven's writing style changes quite noticably in the real-life years between the stories, from a more traditional space opera to something...not. I couldn't even finish "Procrustes," it was so bizarre and un-Niven that I had trouble following it.
If you are lucky enough to find the book Neutron Star, which contains the first few stories of this book (in addition to a few others), go for it. It's a better buy overall. If not (this will be most of you, unfortunately), it's up to you whether the first half of the book is worth the price of admission, since the second half arguably isn't.
The early material is great, but Niven's latest is awful.......2002-04-10
In 1966 Larry Niven created the ultimate tourist with his short story "Neutron Star." It was the tale of Beowulf Shaeffer, a laid-off pilot heavily in debt and easy to blackmail, and how the alien race the puppeteers convinced him to make a dangerous flyby of a neutron star. Throughout the late sixties followed several other Beowulf Shaeffer stories, which were previously to be found only in the out-of-print collection NEUTRON STAR. In 1994 Del Rey released CRASHLANDER, which brought back into print the Beowulf Shaeffer stories of the late 60's, together with "The Borderland of Sol" (1975), a new story "Procrustes," and interim material that Niven had just penned to bind the stories together into one novel, as it were (there's no table of contents and the title of each story isn't listed at the head of the page). CRASHLANDER has some good material, but the latest writing shows that Niven's treatment of his Known Space universe has become very poor indeed.
The late-60's Beowulf Shaeffer stories were classics of science fiction, mixing hard science with colourful alien races and futuristic fashion. In "Neutron Star" the reader travels with Shaeffer as he visits what was then a revolutionary concept in astronomy. In "At the Core", the puppeteers convince Shaeffer to take an experimental hyperdrive all the way to the galactic core, where he makes a discovery that spurs the puppeteers into fleeing Known Space. "Flatlander" begins with Shaeffer as a tourist on Earth, and takes him on a journey with a millionaire to a very unusual planet. "Grendel", the last of the golden age of the Shaeffer stories, has Shaeffer foil a kidnapping on a newly-colonized world. These stories are all excellent and are recommended reading for any fan of science fiction.
The last two stories, however, are incredibly disappointing, nearly enough so to taint the eariler works. "The Borderland of Sol" was written after the decline of Niven's writing in the mid-1970's. It nearly repeats the theme of "Grendel" (with Shaeffer becoming something of a detective), but with unbelievable characters, B-movie shoot-outs, and uninspired futurisms. The last story, "Procrustes" dates from the 1990's and is nearly as bad as Niven's novel from the same time THE RINGWORLD THRONE. "Procrustes" has a plot that is convoluted to say the least, and none of the characters act like they have in previous stories. Most disturbing is the Robert Heinlein-esque turn into sexuality explicit scenes that Niven made in the early 90's, as "Procrustes" begins with an orgy. The frame stories were written at the same time as "Procrustes" are are just as bad. They contradict previous Niven stories (such as mentioning the Trinocs when they won't be met for another 200 years, the Puppeteer Fleet of Worlds, etc.) and end in an inexplicable murder that is nothing but a deus-ex-machina.
My recommendation: skip CRASHLANDER and find the out-of-print collection NEUTRON STAR, which brings together all the golden age Shaeffer stories as well as several other fascinating Known Space short stories.
Beowulf's Progress.......2001-06-05
Beowulf Shaeffer started out as this cool space pilot who swoops down on a neutron star, journies to the galactic core, and visits the weirdest planet in Known Space.
Later on, though, his adventures involve stopping criminal activities, as if he's become an interstellar cop.
In the end, he's this amoral dude on the lam from the Earth government in the most convoluted plot this side of interpreted BASIC spaghetti code.
The early classics are in other collections, and will endure. This effort, thankfully, will be forgotten. If you can figure what it was about in the first place.
A strange hybrid, but the stories are great.......2000-08-25
Crashlander contains the collected stories of Beowulf Shaeffer, the man who, in Niven's Known Space, discovered the core explosion and, as it turns out, did a number of other things as well. Beowulf is an interesting character, and although not every story is great, most are very good and quite worth reading.
The stories were written over a range of time, which is obvious from the internal differences - the social and moral aspects of Beowulf's world change quite a bit from first to last. And the "binder" material - the stuff Niven interpolated between the stories to bring them together, make them more cohesive - is only moderately successful. Frankly, Beowulf's past is just more interesting than his present. But the stories themselves are truly gripping, and as a short story collection, this book really works.
One tiny caveat: the book as a whole implies certain things about the origins of Louis Wu (of Ringworld fame) that contradict the beginning of the Ringworld series itself. Doesn't matter, of course, unless you're a real stickler for detail.
Over all, a book well worth reading for those into Niven or his Known Space.
Average customer rating:
|
Crashlander
Larry Niven
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OVF5A0 |
Book Description
Striving to be the most student-friendly textbook in this field, Carmody's WAYS TO THE CENTER: AN INTRODUCTION TO WORLD RELIGIONS, 6th Edition weaves together rich historical, cultural, and theological detail into structural and philosophical sections that analyze each of the world's major religions in terms of its views on nature, society, self, and ultimate reality. The readily accessible text is designed for today's students and places a premium [on] the development of critical thinking. Combining both historical and systematic analyses, the book takes as its focus the theme of personal centeredness-a primary goal of each featured religion.
Customer Reviews:
College Text.......2007-06-27
I got an A in my Religion class, so it was a pretty helpful book.
A good starting point for understanding world religions.......2007-06-14
Although this book is not as nuanced as Huston Smith's classic book, "World Religions," it is a good introduction to the major religions of the world today, including the ancient religions of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Rome. It is written in an easy, narrative style. It focuses on rituals and beliefs, and does not focus on concepts or the philosophical assumptions of each religion. Like any introductory book, it is a very simplified explanation of each religion. Simplifying a complex religious system results in some distortion of the variety found in each religion's expression. I use this book as my text in a World Religions course. It is a good starting point for someone who has no background in the many religions of the world.
Book without the center, trying to show ways to the center.......2001-07-08
I used this book for my class in World Religions. One thing that is very annoying about the book is that, it does not give objective information about concepts, ideas, and philosophies. Even the information that it gives, is not comprehensive or well researched. Information about Hinduism, and some of its rituals is flawed e.g. the idea of sati has been overemphasized, and some concepts are from some outerspace (Ashwamegh yagna's ending has been misconceptualized). There is a bias in the quantity of information given about diffrent religions. Judeo-Christian traditions have been overemphasized, and information hasn't been presented rationally. The book fails revolve around core structure. For eg. it talks to lengths about history, and puts little emphasis on concepts.
There are way better books in the market than this book. I just gave two stars as some concepts are clearly diffrentiated and concisely explained as compared to other books. But, as I said before, it fails to do its job in those areas.
-- Pankaj Patel. BSCS, CCNP, MCDBA.
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