Walking Through Shadows: A Novel

Book Description

When Lloyd Cotton hears that Sheila Barnes is consistently beaten by her daddy, he offers her a room and a job cleaning up around his dairy farm. Despite physical deformity, poverty, and years of abuse, Sheila manages to see the silver lining in every cloud–and her bright spirit touches everyone in the Cotton family, including young Annette who finds an enchanting Best Friend. Stoney Barnes, the handsome boy who milks the cows, is especially taken with Sheila. And when they marry, it seems that God has finally given her the good graces she deserves.

But in a cruel twist of fate, Sheila’s body is found in the cornfields. Soon the little town of Zebulon, Mississippi, is awash in scandal. Who would want the innocent young woman dead? Her alcoholic father, her opinionated husband, or perhaps the faithfully married Lloyd Cotton, about whom unsavory rumors swirl?

Surprising secrets will crack open a rural community, and more than one family will suffer in the telling.

Customer Reviews:

Truly enjoyable reading experience ..........2007-04-06

I was very surprised by this novel as I do not care for murder mysteries; and am usually not interested in Southern fiction. This is both of those things, yet also in a separate category too - just plain, good fiction. These characters were so well realized, the story sad and hopeful at the same time. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, although it definitely left me sad at Sheila's cruel, short life ... and through it all, she was so positive and kind. It's not always an easy book to read emotionally, but it's very hard to put down. I finished it in 2 days and it lingered well after that. Highly recommended.

A Treasure!.......2007-01-24

You cannot put this book down!What a wonderful story that stays with you!

Walking Through Shadows.......2006-12-15

This is a most unusual murder story that is well written, with "real-life" characters. You get to know them all intimately and feel their pain at what happened. I had two suspects in my mind throughout the book, but ended up being wrong. Now THAT's a good mystery!

I'll Never Forget This Book!.......2005-03-28

WOW! I absolutely loved this book. What beautiful writing! I still can't get Shelia out of my mind or her poor misused body. Read this book if you don't read anything else this year. Such a wonderful coming of age story & a plethora of other subjects. Please more Ms. Marshall. I am looking forward to all of your novels.

STUNNING WRITING.......2002-12-18

Bev Marshall's first novel, WALKING THROUGH SHADOWS, is a breathtaking creation. Set in a small town in rural Mississippi just before World War II, the story's obvious center is the murder of a young woman, Sheila Barnes. Sheila is one of the most unforgettable characters I've run across in recent years - just seventeen at the time of her death, married for around a year, Sheila is uneducated but full of unconventional wisdom, which she bestows gently on those around her as their needs dictate. She is a gift in their varied lives - and they all come to realize it in their own time.

Sheila comes to work at the dairy farm run by the Cotton family, and soon becomes the Best Friend of ten-year-old Annette (her caps) - the two girls grow as close as family, and at one point Annette's mother, Rowena, comments that `Annette loves Sheila like a blood sister'. Sheila is seemingly completely without a formal education - she comes from a family of numberless children, loomed over by her brutal father. The beatings - and other abuse - she receives from him on a regular basis are the central reason in her leaving home, to seek work and shelter at the Cottons'. She is also possessed of a physical anomaly - a hump on her back - although she never lets it interfere with her image of herself or the way in which she attempts to live her life. It is at the Cottons' dairy, where she works, that she meets Stoney Barnes - despite her `deformity', he falls in love with her (and she with him), and after a short courtship, they marry. The abuse she suffered at the hands of her father continues sporadically - and Stoney is guilty of inflicting physical pain on her as well. When he reports Sheila missing early one morning, and her body is found in the Cottons' cornfield, the investigation that ensues reveals things about almost everyone involved that each one would have most certainly preferred to be left in the dark. The revelations strain friends and family and community - the outcome is both expected and surprising, and soul shaking.

The story unfolds gracefully through various viewpoints - a technique that Marshall employs extremely well. The author endows each of the characters with a distinctive personality and - even more importantly, I think - a unique, completely believable voice. Rather than simply describe each character to the reader, the author skillfully allows them to illuminate not only themselves but also each other. Their narratives - which vary in length, but grow shorter and switch back and forth more in the second half of the book - overlap in both subjects and time frames, much as if the reader were privy to individual tellings of the same story, walking from room to room, eavesdropping. There is a subtlety in Marshall's method here that is a wonder to behold - things are revealed to the reader as they are revealed to those in the story, allowing the mysterious aspects of Sheila's brutal murder to be opened like a flower. The suspense is palpable and deftly controlled.

There are lessons to be learned here - as well as a story that entertains - about a plethora of subjects: love, honor, family, pain, abuse, friendship, faith, race, healing, and more...including magic. I'm not speaking of the type of magic that is performed on the stage - I'm speaking of the more indefinable magic that lives and breathes in the touch of a friend's hand, in the stories they share that delight and instruct, in the pain that we cause each other and in the healing we can inspire. If this leads you to believe that this is a soporific tale, don't be deceived - this is fine writing of the highest order, and a story that reveals not only the innermost workings of its characters, but of all of us.

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Hope for your heart

Gripping and on target

A profoundly written and powerfully inspiring spiritual read

Succinct and staunchly Biblically based

Walking Through the Shadows: Finding Hope in a World of Pain
Carl Wieland , and Ken Ham
Manufacturer: Master Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Great Dinosaur Mystery Solved

The Lie: Evolution

ASIN: 0890513813

Customer Reviews:

Hope for your heart.......2007-05-12

This book is an excellent one for anyone who is struggling with grief. It may be that you are grieving a loved one, your own failing health, or like me, raising a disabled child you wished was whole. The comfort of this book comes not just by reading of the tragedies in the lives of the authors, but in the ultimate truths that Ken Ham and Carl Wieland point out. It is my favorite gift to give someone who is going through a difficult time.

Gripping and on target.......2003-02-19

It's easy to talk about what happens in the bad times. It is more of a challenge to walk the talk. Having a biblical worldview equips you for the tough times. Ironically, skeptics who ask "if there is a good God why is there so much evil" often miss the point that evil only exists as an objective reality if there is a God who defines good in the first place. Authors Ken Ham and Dr. Carl Wieland show how evil exists as a consequence of human sin, and show through their personal experiences how this understanding gives the strength to overcome profound tragedy.

Without giving too much away, this includes a horrible head-on collision that shattered medical doctor Carl Wieland's body, as well as the Ham families' recent experience with the untimely loss of his brother due to a degenerative brain disease. My wife was able to relate to the experience of the first, having been broad-sided by a driver running a red light and having suffered permanent back injuries as a result. This is not fluff Christianity, and if it does seem stilted at times in the latter half, it is only because the authors have been talking the right talk for so long they've got it down pat, which is not a bad thing.

A profoundly written and powerfully inspiring spiritual read.......2002-12-05

Walking Through Shadows: Finding Hope In A World Of Pain by Ken Ham and Carl Wieland is an engaging and thought-provoking compilation of true accounts of personal suffering (such as everyone has or will experience in the course of ordinary life), ranging from the loss of a loved one, to the slow destruction of health and life through incurable disease. Specifically written to help Christian readers understand why such horrid things exist in God's world, and expressing a deep admiration for a God who offers comfort and wisdom to his people for the purpose of for learning to cope with tragedy and to look forward to the future, Walking Through Shadows is a profoundly written and powerfully inspiring spiritual read which is confidently recommended to a Christian readership regardless of denominational affiliation or theological orientation.

Succinct and staunchly Biblically based.......2002-09-07

This the most excellent treatise on human suffering and the effect of original sin I have ever read. Succinct
and staunchly Biblically based, "Walking Though Shadows" helped me to assemble many fractured
thoughts in my own experiences. In August of 2000 my father went home to be with the Lord after 6 weeks
in a coma following surgery. Thirteen months later our newborn baby boy followed him into glory. They
lay beside each other now awaiting resurrection. Many of the thoughts in this book had begun to formulate
in my mind, as I stated earlier, though intense study of the Word. Thank you Ken and Carl for your Biblical
presentation. It is so very important that we know the Bible teaching that we live in a cursed world in
corruptible bodies, and that we should not be swept away by any wind of false doctrine. But praise be to
the Lord, one day corruption will change to incorruption and mortal to immortality. And then the
culmination of all the promises of Christ. This book is a must read, especially if you are ensconced in the
belief of "faith healing", i.e., that lack of healing = lack of faith. This is not to say that God does not heal
today. He most certainly does, as is demonstrated in "Walking Though Shadows". May the comfort of the
Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

Good Grief, Jesus (A guide for those walking through the vallely of the shadow of death)

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Good Grief, Jesus (A guide for those walking through the vallely of the shadow of death)
Hilton Chancellor
Manufacturer: Hilton Chancellor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0972800603

Product Description

Paperback, 72 pages,

Walking Through the Valley of the Shadows of Death

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Walking Through the Valley of the Shadows of Death
DBA, Dr. Robert E. Kasey
Manufacturer: AuthorHouse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1420874624

Book Description

Anyone who has ever played an organized sport knows that in order to beat your opponent, you not only need to have a good team and proven skills but you also need to have a game plan or strategy BEFORE you enter the game. The same is true in the "game of life" and this is especially true with regards to those situations that look like they could ruin you financially, emotionally, physically, or spiritually. A lot of self-help books offer you "prosperity" training or "financial planning" training, but very few, if any, offer you training on "how to prepare-for-the-worst" that could come your way. This book, I believe, will offer you a "game plan" in this area of preparing yourself for life-threatening and life-changing situations. A specific "game plan" that I use that has worked to prepare me to get through those "worst-days-of-your life" is simple and has only four parts to if. 1) Develop a "Life Perspective" as soon as you can. 2) View the situation in its proper perspective. 3) Use all of the knowledge and truth of your Christian faith to see the reality of the present situation to take proactive steps to prepare yourself mentally and spiritually to carry you through the "valley of the shadow of death". 4) Stay focused in time of trouble by learning and following the steps of how to deal with the "End of Days" moments.

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Seeing Yourself.
Unbelievable!
A good reading experience
Charming
Delicious Southern Treat!

Hot Fudge Sundae Blues (Unabridged)
Bev Marshall
Manufacturer: audible.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Download
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ASIN: B000HXDNS6

Customer Reviews:

Seeing Yourself........2007-03-05

Basically, I had nothing in common with Layla Jay's character except that I was a girl, had once been a teenager, have a mother and feared God! This was more than enough to connect to this intensely fascinating story of a wonderfully, interesting family that basically struggles to survive and find a greater understanding of things beyond our control. The characters are interesting, sometimes charming and mostly flawed! This is what makes it a great story because on some levels it is a true reflection of humankind!
Great work Bev!

Unbelievable!.......2005-12-03

I picked up this book after reading "Walking through the Shadows" by Bev Marshall. That was a great book, she is such a talented storyteller. However, I must say though, I loved this book more. I will not give away any hints as to what this book is about. There was one point when I felt that if I did not finish the book that I would come apart with worry and angst over Layla Jay's situation. Ms. Marshall really grabbed me with this one and I really, couldn't put it down.

A good reading experience.......2005-09-16

In 1963 at the Pisgah Methodist Church, thirteen years old Layla Jay week after week disappoints her grandma by not accepting Brother Thompson's offer of salvation. Grandma fears that her only grandchild will follow the sinning examples of her husband and her daughter. However when Jehu Albright comes to the church Layla Jay decides to impress this teenage Steve McQueen hunk of a boy by accepting Brother Thompson's prayers.

However God answers in mysertious ways as she sees Jehu with another "woman", her drunken mother marries Brother Wallace Ebert and is in a car accident, and grandma dies. When Ebert starts with twitching her nose and leering at her, but soon tries to rape Layla Jay, her mom intercedes with a 7-Up bottle. Life will never be the same in this household.

HOT FUDGE SUNDAE BLUES is more than a historical perspective glimpse of the 1960s in small town Mississippi; although that provides the background, the tale is more a deep family drama that looks closely at love between extended kin in spite of flaws, and deception and dishonesty to hide these defects from loved ones. What makes a loving relationship is not just shared gene pool, but the ability to forgive not necessarily to forget even the biggest transgressions. Bev Marshall provides a powerful perspective of the good, the bad, and the ugly of human interactivity.

Harriet Klausner

Charming.......2005-09-14

I shied away from reviewing Mrs. Marshall's second novel, Right as Rain, because I suspected that I couldn't do it justice. I suspect the same with this novel, but I enjoyed it so much that I must input my opinion regardless.

I haven't a word to say to contradict the critics whose reviews I've read so far; the central theme of forgiveness is unmistakable and the importance of it seems to be indisputable. Frieda and Layla Jay are easy to forgive because we see that they are inherently good, and this can be said for other characters as well. There is also a more nebulous element-we forgive them because Mrs. Marshall presents them to us in a way that makes them virtually members of our own families or close friends, and that may be the key. I would say that for the most part it is human nature not to allow the bad to outweigh the good in the cases of close friends and family. We may waver and we may take time to forgive, but ultimately we will, and this may be one of the most respectable qualities of humankind. The book showcases it well.

Aside from the fact that the writing is strong and clever, each page demands that the next be read, the characters in general are undeniably enchanting, and Layla Jay in particular is lovable as Annette and Ruthie from the first and second novels, I was very much interested in an element that is not present in her other novels. The concept of a significant character being a lesbian and that having an unavoidable effect on the main character drew me to the book even more. Consider how difficult it is to write about that topic with the setting being Mississippi in the early 60s and still do so in a way that is sensitive and understanding as well as realistic and convincing. She does that extremely well, and I found it to be a very cathartic read.

This third offering is by no means lacking in the humor that makes me enjoy her writing. There's nothing quite like laughing and crying simultaneously, and there are instances for that. I must say that I'm still laughing about Frieda's ironic reaction to Our Town and Layla Jay's declaration that she is not a "lesbianism."

I also want to recommend this to anyone who has never read Bev Marshall before. It's a great place to start and discover one very impressive storyteller.

Delicious Southern Treat!.......2005-09-04

Bev Marshall's third novel, Hot Fudge Sundae Blues, begins with thirteen year old narrator, Layla Jay faking her own salvation to impress a boy at church.

The novel is a coming-of-age story set in the 1960's, in the small town of Zebulon, Mississippi. Layla Jay lives a quiet life on a farm with her mother, Frieda and her grandparents. Her mother marries Wallace, a so-called man of God who turns out to be phony. Frieda doesn't care whether or not Wallace is religious, as a matter of fact, she prefers it when he goes out drinking and dancing with her since she only married him so she and Layla Jay could move away from the farm. Layla Jay is uncomfortable around Wallace, and rightly so. Their lives together, under one roof, throw Layla Jay's world into a tailspin and when a problem arises, Layla Jay finds herself doing two things: praying and lying. Not always in that order, but always praying and lying. She means well, and we know it. Her mother means well and we are forgiving of her as well.

The first half of the book is filled with problems that seem somewhat disjointed; however the second half deals with the consequences of choices and the complexities of familial love. Layla Jay talks with God every step of the way, but this novel is not about Layla Jay's relationship with God, it isn't even about her relationship with Wallace even though he is the reason for so many of her problems. This novel is about relationships with those we love-for Layla Jay it is about her grandma who longs to see her family saved by Jesus, her best friend June who harbors an aching secret, her relationship with her fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants mother, and her first love, a sweet boy named Jehu.

In Marshall's first two novels, she made us fall in love with her characters. Once again, Marshall makes us fall in love with Layla Jay and Frieda despite their elaborate lies and poor judgment.

Even more, Marshall does what all great story tellers do-she gets you to keep turning the pages. The chapter endings are seamless and filled with questions that force you on to the next chapter, while the tone and pace is strong and steady. The novel is an easy, fairly quick read and the action is not loud. It doesn't have to be. Marshall knows how to pique our curiosity bit by bit without ever insulting our intelligence as readers, and in Hot Fudge Sundae Blues she has done just that.
[...]

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Walking Through Shadows
Bev Marshall
Manufacturer: MACADAM/CAGE +
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N7A4RE

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Walking Through Shadows: A Novel
Bev Marshall
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OVJPY2

Walking through the shadows with the Jackmans

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Walking through the shadows with the Jackmans
Etta C Jackman
Manufacturer: Gregath Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Genealogy | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006EB28O

Book Description

Sixth in the Anthony Award-winning Southern Vampire series.

Spiked with a frothy fusion of romance, mystery, and fantasy, this bestselling series sends the supernaturally gifted cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse to New Orleans, where she has to deal with the legacy of one of her own family and a host of potentially dangerous characters.

Customer Reviews:

definately dead.......2007-09-12

Definitely dead does not describe her books! Try laugh out loud fun, sex, humor and surprise as elements that makes Charlaine Harris one of my favorites in the chick lit fantasy and supernatural realm.

Sookie.......2007-08-27

If you are already a Sookie and Bill fan, this book will blow you away! It is fast paced, and you see a side of Sookie and a side of Bill you would never believe. If you are new to the Southern Vampire series, you definitely need to start with "Dead Until Dark." Ms. Harris has such a way of pulling you into the world of the supernatural, you don't realize you have left the "real world." Believable characters are what makes this series one that you will want to read over and over again. I cannot wait to see what Sookie and her friends have gotten themselves into next.

THE BEST!.......2007-08-23

OMG! I can't wait until the next in the series comes out! I love them all!! Sookie is the best!

DEFINITELY READ THIS!!!!.......2007-08-19

In another delightful Sookie whodunit, Sookie is given the sad news that cousin Hadley, also a member of the undead, has actually died again (permanently) in New Orleans. Being the only heir, Sookie realizes that she has to go to New Orleans and clean out her cousin's apartment. Sookie soon finds out that Hadley was actually the consort of the Queen of New Orleans--who is soon set to marry.
It doesn't take Sookie long to discover that her cousin had a lot of secrets--hiding, literally, in closets and other places. But there is someone lurking who would rather that Hadley's secrets stay just that--secret. In addition to the mysteries concerning her cousin, there are revelations regarding Sookie's own personal life. And could there be a new romantic interest?
In another installment sure to keep readers turning the pages, this is another delightful paranormal whodunit from the author of this wonderful genre mix.

DYB

Sookie's Backkkkkk.......2007-07-27

Sookie Stackhouse, barmaid and telepath, is back in this sixth installment of the Southern Vampire Mysteries, and things are, as usual, tense in Sookie's corner of the world. Contacted by Louisiana's vampire queen, Sookie discovers that her estranged cousin, Hadley, has been murdered and Sookie needs to come to New Orleans to deal with her estate. Of course, this is Sookie Stackhouse we're discussing, so things are not as simple as they seem. Add in some demons, the vampire king of Arkansas (why does that make me laugh?), weres of every shape and size, witches, fairies, Sookie' regular stable of friends and acquaintances, and the three hot guys currently vying for her affections, and we've got a standard, fun-filled addition to the series.

Definitely Dead is definitely delightful; Sookie discovers some things about herself and her family tree, and she assists in locating a missing child, thus putting her skills as a telepath to use in an arena besides the magical world. Upon reflection, however, I'm still not sure why that episode was added, though it was interesting. Otherwise, the action is almost non-stop, and Sookie once again is in mortal danger more than once. She's begun a new relationship with Quinn, the sexy weretiger, but she finds out devastating information about Bill, her former vampire lover. What's a telepath to do?

This is a worthy installment in this laugh out loud, engaging series, if a few minor questions still need answering. Sookie is managing herself well, and the set-up is there for the next book when Sookie will be accompanying the queen to a conference. Personally, I miss Sookie's sexy relationship with Eric, and hope to see more of him in book 7. Light reading but fun, this one's just left me wanting more.

Charlaine Harris Southern Vampire Collection[1-6][sookie Stackhouse] (southern vampire, 1-6[dead until dark/club dead/living dead in dallas/dead as a doornail/dead to the world/definitely dead)

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Charlaine Harris Southern Vampire Collection[1-6][sookie Stackhouse] (southern vampire, 1-6[dead until dark/club dead/living dead in dallas/dead as a doornail/dead to the world/definitely dead)
charlaine harris
Manufacturer: ace
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000WNAVDG

Product Description

the outstanding sookie stackhouse southern vampire series by charlaine harris!!!

Customer Reviews:

C'mon, man, you can do a lot better than this . . ........2006-02-23

I first met Bruce back in the `70s, when he was one of the young Texas SF authors who regularly appeared at IguanaCon in Austin, so he's been at this awhile. While he has talent, he's not the best Texas has to offer -- that would be Howard Waldrop and the late Chad Oliver. Unfortunately, Sterling's stories from the 1980s and early `90s, of which there are thirteen in this collection, are heavily politics-dependent, and they don't always wear well ten or fifteen years later. As in "Hollywood Kremlin" and "We See Things Differently," they postulate a Soviet Russia or a Middle East that really haven't changed -- but things have changed, a lot. He also has a habit of launching into stories brimming with neat ideas, stories that would actually make good novels, and then running out of steam (or becoming bored?) and simply stopping instead of ending. This is the case in "The Moral Bullet" (which, in fact, led to his novel, _Holy Fire_ -- sort of) and "The Unthinkable." The best stories in this collection are those that step entirely outside our world, especially "The Shores of Bohemia" and "Are You for 86?," and maybe "Dori Bangs."

Hits and Misses.......2003-08-17

This collection of short stories contains some interesting "hits" (Hollywood Kremlin, Storming the Cosmos, We See Things Differently, Are you for 86?) and some disappointing "misses" (The Sword of Damocles).

Sterling is at his best when he is discussing alternative futures close to our own, and he has done his homework in studying two rival cultures that play roles in his alternate universes -- the Muslim world and the world of the old Soviet Union. He creates memorable characters (the international arms dealer/hustler Leggy Starlitz, for instance) and generates a lot of thought-provoking ideas (Will Turing-conscious AI's embrace Islam? Was the Tunguska blast really caused by an alien speacecraft? Will Islam become the dominant superpower -- threatened only by American rock and roill? Will genetically engineered pets capable of human-like thought and speech exist?).

Sterling's prose here is not of the quality of William Gibson's, or indeed, as good as Sterling is in other works, such as Schismatrix, or The Difference Engine. It is a good collection of stories, for the most part, and makes a good companion on a trip to the beach.

An Intriguing Mix Of Sterling's Short Stories.......2001-12-27

Admittedly this isn't Sterling's best short story collection, yet it does contain an intriguing set of 11 tales which run the gamut from slightly hard science fiction ("Storming The Cosmos") to humor ("Hollywood Kremlin"). Sterling is at his finest writing lean, lyrical cyberpunk prose in the tales I mentioned. Yet anyone expecting a literary classic comparable in quality to William Gibson's "Burning Chrome" may be disappointed. Still, Sterling, as always, is intriguing to read for his ideas and his uncanny knack at conjuring plausible near future scenarios, as well as his fine writing.

A mixed bunch of stories.......2001-04-16

In this book, you will find 11 stories by Bruce Sterling and two collaborations. All but one of the stories has prviously appeared in magazine form between 1985 and 1991.

Most of the stories here are well worth reading. Especially "Hollywood Kremlin" and "Are You For 86?" which introduce Leggy Starlitz, one of Sterling's enduring characters. Also, the two collaborations, "Storming the Cosmos" and "The Moral Bullet" respectively with Rudy Rucker and John Kessel, are very good.

There are also one or two stories here which quite fankly should not have seen the light of day. "The Sword of Damocles" is the sort of exercise often tackled in writer's workshops and that is where is should have stayed.

There is not as much hard science in here in some of Sterling's other books but that does not detract from this collection. Indeed, a number of the best stories would escape all but the broadest definition of SF.

In the Leggy Starlitz tales, Sterling lays out lots of technical trivia in the same style as do many thriller writers. His facts are often wrong and self contradicting. Often laughably so and that does detract from the writing.

This is not the best collection to introduce you to Sterling's short fiction. I would recommend "A Good Old Fashioned Future" as an introduction but if you read and enjoy that and want more, you will not be disappointed by this book.

If you enjoy this book and want to read something in the same vein, I'd suggest William Gibson's collection "Burning Chrome" or the anthology "Mirrorshades" edited by Bruce Sterling.

Third World Posse.......2000-11-01

"Apocalypse is boring," so spaketh Chairman Bruce, in his mission to overcome the faux-Terminator after-the-bomb scenarios which typify so much contemporary SF hack-work. It's been a long time coming since J. G. Ballard's classic planetary-disaster novels; those who do SF in his wake must write their way to new levels of subtlety and informed speculation, become a legitimate participant in the great Futurological Debate, rather than just another cynical doomsdayer-cum-road-warrior writing in the megalomaniacal glare of Oppenheimer's bomb-God. In light of Sterling's admonition, it is peculiar to admit that the stories in *Globalhead* have an inescapable post-Nuke groove to them, symptomatic of Sterling's coxcomb-jingling portrayal of disaffected Third World spaces. A far subtler apocalypse, but still great fun.

"Our Neural Chernobyl" (my personal favorite) is a stunning hybrid of high comedy, dead seriousness, and throat-grabbing economy which the remainder of this collection will never surpass. The old-school SF theme of intelligence-maximization is treated with breezy hep-cat irony and panache, a counterculture of renegade "gene-hackers" riding the god project of biotechnology. Cagey, brilliant, underhanded, hilarious, dead-on modern fiction.

The last twenty pages of "Storming the Cosmos" reaches a pinnacle of revisionist SF, in the glassed-in detention cell of a Soviet gulag for dissident rocket-scientists, the purveyors of a protean technology that *actualizes* the subjective imagination of its observer (i.e. an experimental substance that changes shape and function according to the minds which possess it). When the conservative, obstructionist members of blackguard Soviet science abduct the item, the device *becomes* an antique rocket, replete with hoary, mind-blowing (literally) repercussions. Just read the story.

"Jim and Irene" hits a tender note, the possibility of trans-cultural romance in a dingy, saturated, postmedia world. It goes a long way towards justifying the travails of relationship-related stress and paranoia, the feasibility of making human connections at the heart of a Baudrillardian desert, postmodern Nothingness encroaching upon our air-conditioned havens of glass and steel.

"The Gulf Wars" points to the cyclical barbarism of Middle East violence and warcraft, in a brash little comedy about two hapless army engineers sucked into an Arabian time-warp to die the good death. But by now Sterling in beginning to lose his edge....

"The Shores of Bohemia", notable for its extrapolation of animal-empathy cults in the future, simply does not pay the reader back for his/her efforts, as the arch-narrative of Gaia vs. Artifice and the propaganda-value of Titanic architecture (see Sterling's *Wired* travelogue "The Spirit of Mega") comes on a bit conventional and, well, conceptually worn-out.

Things pick up with "The Moral Bullet", the precursor to Sterling's superb *Holy Fire*(1996), where a pharmacological fountain-of-youth corners the black market run by paramilitary Mafioso competing for urban territory, a lawless after-the-Fall wastelander fantasy. Sterling grooves hard for about twenty pages, but the story's denouement seems rushed, desperate, unsatisfying.

In the hackneyed genre of Lovecraftian satire, "The Unthinkable" is a rare triumph. The military-industrial complex has assimilated the necromancy of the Great Old Ones in a new arms race for weapons that attack the very dreams and souls of the enemy. Despite my weighty paraphrase, the piece is really quite funny.

"We See Things Differently" offers a very intelligent, very wily indictment of monotheistic Islamic culture, while providing a convincing scenario for the survival of such religious traditions in the total-media zone of Western tech-wealth. An Islamic secret agent journeys to the heart of American rock culture to reap the whirlwind of his martyrological devotion to Allah.

"Hollywood Kremlin" introduces Leggy Starlitz of *Zeitgeist*(2000), the pragmatic middle-aged worldweary go-getter trying to help a grounded Russian aviator complete his sortie. Like so many Sterling protagonists, Starlitz is an inspiring blend of cool optimism and brute adaptation to the caterwauling world around him, largely forsaking acid-spray cynicism for the ethos of pragmatic global cooperation. (Until the very end of the story, that is.) The Starlitz double-feature continues with "Are You For 86?", where Leggy becomes a smuggler of do-it-yourself abortion pills (a drug called RU-486), pursued by fundamentalist Christian soldiers (in death's-head masks, black robes, and wielding plastic scythes no less!) across the Utah desert. The story's climax at the State Capitol and Museum is both intellectual and action-packed, Sterling's trademark double-play.

And finally, there's "Dori Bangs," a pseudo-mainstream fantasy of star-crossed Beatniks coming to terms with their artistic mediocrity in a commodified universe of death....

Suffice it to say, my summaries don't do justice to level of intelligence at work in these narratives. So much of what matters here is contained in the brilliant minutiae which hang on every descriptive passage, which color every extended dialogue. (Sterling's in the details.) While not as ambitiously original as the Shaper/Mechanist cycle of the mid `80s, these stories are all satisfying in their own brash, silly, madcap, populist way; even the boring ones are worth reading, as "meta-journalism" or political satire. Though a part of me hesitates to recommend them to non-SF enthusiasts. There are simply too many in-jokes.

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GLOBALHEAD
Bruce Sterling
Manufacturer: Mark V. Ziesing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000P0TUVU

Average customer rating:
Globalhead
Bruce Sterling
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000TYBZQA

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I Suffer Not a Woman: Rethinking 1 Timothy 2 11-15 in Light of Ancient Evidence
Richard Clark; Kroeger, Catherine Clark Kroeger
Manufacturer: Baker Pub Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KY4GZG

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