Book Description
A masterpiece that is breathtaking in its scope, SARUM is an epic novel that traces the entire turbulent course of English history. This rich tapesty weaves a compelling saga of five families who preserve their own particular characteristics over the centuries, and offer a fascinating glimpse into the future.
From the Paperback edition.
Customer Reviews:
What an Historical Novel Should Be: Absorbing.......2007-09-10
I took my dear sweet time reading this novel, and cherished every second. Historical fiction works, and works well, when it can be lingered over, savored; when it can be read, then re-read, as the author's glowing accounts of historical events come to life right off the page.
James Michener was a master of this craft; Edward Rutherfurd aptly keeps him company, as evidenced by his sweeping novel, SARUM. Set in the author's hometown of Salisbury, England, this is a novel that tells the rich history of the valley where five rivers meet. As seen through the eyes of members of five prominent families over thousands of years, the reader witnesses an astounding array of historical abundance: from the wondrous building of ancient stonehenge to the meticulous construction of the world-renowned Salisbury Cathedral; from the influence of the Romans to the bloody invasion of the Vikings; from feudal oppression to the horrific Black Death; from civil war to Renaissance; from industry to empire. Over and over, Rutherfurd tells a rich, compelling, absorbing account of the history of the Avon Valley--the history of England.
Unlike other readers, I was not particularly bothered by each family having its own inherent propensity for a certain skill, or behaviour. (For example, the Porters had an eye for detail and numbers; the Masons were inherently skilled craftsmen.) This device enables the author to maintain consistency. My only caveat is that, after a virtually breathless examination of countless centuries of events, the titanic happenings of the 20th Century are glossed over in only a handful of pages. But this, however, did not take away from my supreme enjoyment of this novel.
SARUM: THE NOVEL OF ENGLAND does what historical fiction is supposed to do: entertain and enlighten. I learned, and I learned a lot, having read this book. Highly recommended.
--D. Mikels, Author, The Reckoning
just awful.......2007-08-12
As a fan of authors like Michener, and well-written historical fiction, I found this book teeeeedious and boooooring. I have a real problem with books that read, "And then an event happened that changed their lives forever...." instead of just telling the story and surprising the reader with said event. The first few times it happened I was forgiving and kept on....but by the 16th or 17th time I was insulted and threw the book across the room. That's just bad storytelling in my book. :) This is one of the only books I have started and not finished....and I was a few hundred pages in. I have heard that the books by Alison Weir concerning British history (albeit later in the game) are beautifully written and historically accurate....we shall see! If you enjoy this book, more power to you. I just could not take it.
A Fine Piece of Historical Storytelling.......2007-08-03
Sarum is the sweeping epic of England, a rich history that blends the ancient and the modern, beginning with the Ice Age 10,000 years ago and transporting the reader through the worlds of Stonehenge, the Black Death, the Industrial Age, World War II, and ending in modern times. It follows the fortunes of five families: Wilson, Godfrey, Shockley, Mason, and Porteus. Witness how changes in political, social, and economic climates affect these families and witness how the landscape is transformed over time. From the unspoiled land of the five rivers to the ritual and spiritual centers of Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral to the bustling commercial and industrial centers of the modern age, Rutherfurd interweaves history with fiction to create a seamless tale that will endure across the ages.
Though several chapters seem to drag with the story and characters, you can still learn a lot about the history of England -- many parts of the novel actually read like a history book -- and you will learn how the country arrived at its modern state. You will understand how the social climate changed dramatically with the coming of the Black Death and how the legislative system developed over time to make England unique. I particularly enjoyed the earlier chapters, those dealing with the Stone Age, the Roman occupation, the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons, and the medieval period, which included the construction of the famous Salisbury Cathedral. I felt the stories and characters were much more entertaining than those in part two of the book, "New Sarum." Despite the slow going of some of the chapters, Rutherford's impressive storytelling ability does not get lost in all the history.
Definitely worth the read. Rutherfurd seems to have done his research well, though as with all historical books, I'm sure there will be debate concerning the accuracies of various parts. It's a book you will want to read more than once, as much for the entertainment as for the history.
800 pages? Seemed like 25.......2007-05-17
That's what blows me away when I go to Europe - the rich sense of history and the lost day-to-day details. I kept flipping back to earlier chapters to remind myself of the evolution of the area, the buildings, and the families.
This isn't one of those "epic, generational" things where the paperback has all these faces on it and the back cover reads dramatically using words like "sweeping saga of history." It's just a generational, evolutionary, progression of family story lines that you can't put down!
The research is painstaking. Ummm - okay, a few places I skipped pages because it got to be too much like a history book, but nevertheless, it puts things rather eerily in perspective of just how much time has passed. I can't wait to read his book "London."
Sarum.......2007-05-12
This is a "Readers" book and is best enjoyed thru steady reading. Open your mind and go back to that time - accept it for when and what it was. The only way to truly enjoy a book (in my personal opinion) is to be able to put yourself there, at that time and in that place.
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Sarum a Novel of England
Manufacturer: Ivy Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000I133B4 |
Average customer rating:
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Sarum : The Novel of England
Manufacturer: Random House of Canada, Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000HKWV0A |
Customer Reviews:
Trying to Cope.......2006-11-09
Paris Jackson, an exotic dancer, is struggling with the rejection of her father and the difficulties that it has caused her. These difficulties surfaced in the way that she deals with the men in her life, but now those feelings and difficulties are affecting her job. Paris begins repeatedly taking money from her clients. She also starts making them want and need her. But...this is her way of getting revenge on her father. However, when a stalker begins terrorizing Paris, her world falls apart. Searching for answers, she is forced to deal head-on with her past. Christal's book is almost therapy for women who are suffering from male rejection that happened in the early part of their life and now learning how to cope with it later on in life.
about 3 stars..........2006-05-15
I started reading this book then I put it down for about a month or so. I couldn't really get into it because of the introduction. Later, I forced myself to go through and read it and it was quite interesting. I could relate with Paris's stubborness, but sometimes I just wished that she would take her guard down. Even though she stayed to herself I could tell that she wasnt happy with her life. I felt bad for the way she treated her "suitors" but in a way they should have respected her wishes and gave her some space. As the story progressed I began to really enjoy it and looked forward to seeing what was going to happen. However, the ending didn't really go into detail about what happened with Paris and her new lover. Overall, this book was very interesting and once you get pass the first few chapters your attention will be captured.
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Under the Cherry Moon
Manufacturer: INDIGO VIBE
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0739464361 |
Average customer rating:
- A Soldier on the SEALS
- Fair at Best
- The little book that didn't
- Striking For Mars!
- Not too bad for a first try
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Starstrike: Task Force Mars (Starstrike)
Douglas Niles , and
Kevin Dockery
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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ASIN: 034549041X
Release Date: 2007-05-29 |
Customer Reviews:
A Soldier on the SEALS.......2007-09-13
This book started a little slow but I find that this is typically the case for a new series when the writers want to give the readers enough background to set the stage. I quickly got hooked on the story and found many parts where the authors used realistic proceedures instead of creating far-fetched situations. The writers bring up good points about which Teams would be the best in space and how much do you really trust information received from unknown sources.
Overall I think this was an excellent book and am waiting for the next installment.
Fair at Best.......2007-09-04
When I first saw this title it sounded like something I would be interested in. But sadly it was not. This book reminded me of very old Flash Gordon or a 1930's movie series.
The Aliens were all human, the SEALS were all hard Corps and the Navy arrived just in the nick of time. How convenient!
There are other and better Military Science Fiction books and Series.
The little book that didn't.......2007-08-01
This book just never breaks through into a good read. They worked too hard getting all the jargon and cliche's to fit and forgot about telling a good story. Reads like a dull after action report.
Striking For Mars!.......2007-06-15
This debut novel of a brand-new military sci-fi series was penned by two authors that came from polar opposites of the writing track.
Douglas Niles is a famed author and best known as a fantasy author, while Kevin Dockery has written exclusively fiction books about Navy SEALS, both on his known as well as a series with real-life Navy SEAL co-author Dennis Chalker. The blending of these two authors is both intriguing and exciting.
Starstrike: Task Force Mars starts out a tad slow with a bit more detailed equipment checks and descriptions then a sci-fi-actioner should. But once it gets going, the action and adventure we were expecting exploded upon the pages. Starting out on a space station built mainly by alien technology, the newly-created SEALS team, (acronyms now mean Sea-Air-Land-and Space), are then dispatched to go to Mars, where a distress call from their outpost is plunged into eerie silence from a martian attack force.
Led by Lieutenant Stonewall Jackson, the SEALS team races into a trap created by one of three alien races that all have their separate agendas. Then what ensues is a sci-fi action adventure read that is filled with blazing guns and high-tech heavy armor that is sure to please readers of such writers as Ian Douglas and David Weber.
We look forward to the next book upcoming: Operation Orion.
Not too bad for a first try.......2007-06-11
The book is rather dry. From a writing perspective, technically it is not too bad, but needs two or three more drafts to make the story more engaging. Plus it looks like somebody did a global search and replace, and capitalized all instances of the word "Team" - as in "sTeam" and "Teammates". :)
Book Description
Humanity's first contact with alien life is no less than a nightmare, as the Ahimsa take control of Earth and force humanity to do their bidding. Soon Earth's most skilled strike force, composed of Russian, American, and Israeli experts in the art of war and espionage, find themselves aboard the Ahimsa vessel, training for an offensive attack against a distant space station. Andas they struggle to overcome their own prejudices while preparing to face an enemy of unknown capabilities, none of them realize that the greatest danger to humanity's future is right in their midst....
Customer Reviews:
An interesting read with some thought provoking ideas........1999-02-15
Michael Gear shows some thought provoking ideas of alien thought processes while slapping us in the face about how we use stereotypes. As a average sci-fi reader this book gives some interesting twists in the plot while keeping your attention and does a good job of showing how hard it should be to understand a completely different way of thinking.
An interesting read with some thought provoking ideas........1999-02-15
Michael Gear shows some thought provoking ideas of alien thought processes while slapping us in the face about how we use stereotypes. As a average sci-fi reader this book gives some interesting twists in the plot while keeping your attention and does a good job of showing how hard it should be to understand a completely different way of thinking.
contrived, stereotypical, weakly researched.......1999-01-19
On the bright side, Gear develops some fairly interesting characters in spite of the failings, and keeps a high suspense level. He did make a real effort to create aliens who thought in an alien way.
However, his humans are hopelessly stereotypical. Just as every Chinese person a Caucasian meets does not say 'ancient Chinese secret' every time s/he comes up with a bit of wisdom, neither do Israelis make constant Holocaust/Lebanon references, nor did Russians (late Cold War) make constant statements about political matters, and nor do black Americans always make reference to the mean streets of Detroit (or wherever). If the characters had been allowed to be themselves, rather than their nationalities, they'd have been more interesting.
While on the topic of nationality, Gear had best do some more research on language. 'Yeled' means 'child' in Hebrew, and is not a likely name for a male. One Russian character's last name is done wrong for her gender. On top of all this, it is too obvious that he got a lot of his information on the Soviet Army from Victor Suvorov's (real name Vladimir Rezun, a Soviet defector) books. You'd think he would have at least camouflaged the references, but authors who take the easy way always get caught, and Gear is busted with the goods here.
If one can get past all of the above, it's not a bad book.
Starstrike tries, but falls flat........1998-04-03
Starstrike is laid low by it's characterization. While the plot itself is moderately gripping, most characters appear at best cardboard cutouts and at worst completely 0 dimensional. This is especially apparent in the desription of non-Americans, who are reduced to caricature status. Literally every sentence they make has some aspect designed to heavy-handedly remind the reader which country they are coming from, wether it's incessant Holocaust metaphores in case of the Israelis or the (somewhat less common) referring to everybody and everything as "Comrade X" by the Russians. I will not even touch the fact that aliens who live for multiple billions of years (and study humanity for thousands of those years) are outsmarted via a fairly childish strategem. I recommend everybody to pass this one by.
Tag-lines add an aroura of color to Starstrike........1997-11-06
Michael Gear does a masterful job of transporting his readers above and beyond the earthly. Not only does the plot, pacing, and theme hold the reader's attention, but the writing is artful. As a aspiring (or maybe I should say perspiring) writer, I know how difficult it is to craft tag-lines that color the background and enhance the action. Mr. Gear has refined this ability to a level of science. I look forward reading more from this talented author and using his work as a framework for improving my own.
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Starstrike
Manufacturer: DAW Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 999434465X |
Book Description
Jack Hayford identifies seduction as anything that pulls us away from the light of God and His intended purpose for our lives. In society today, we are surrounded by temptation in its countless forms-from carnality, pornography and marital infidelity to cultural trends in the media and immoral lifestyle choices. The Anatomy of Seduction is the biblical guide with real-world solutions for protecting our spiritual integrity. With its anatomy defined, temptation's destructive venom loses its potency.
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Anatomia de la seduccion/The Anatomy of Seduction
Jack W. Hayford
Manufacturer: Editorial Unilit
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0789913100 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from World Policy Journal, published by World Policy Institute on September 22, 2004. The length of the article is 3223 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Three Faces of Fascism.(Fascists)(The Anatomy of Fascism)(The Seduction of Unreason: The Intellectual Romance with Fascism from Nietzsche to Postmodernism)(Book Review)
Author: Sheri Berman
Publication:
World Policy Journal (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2004
Publisher: World Policy Institute
Volume: 21
Issue: 3
Page: 95(6)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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