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- This is a fictionalized account - a Novel.
- Crabwalk
- In the Prism of History.
- History and human suffering.
- The Internet as a substitute to parents
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Crabwalk
Gunter Grass
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Contemporary
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Literary
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Historical
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Sea Adventures
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ASIN: 0156029707 |
Book Description
Hailed by critics and readers alike as Günter Grass's best book since The Tin Drum, Crabwalk is an engrossing account of the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff and a critical meditation on Germany's struggle with its wartime memories.
The Gustloff, a German cruise ship turned refugee carrier, was attacked by a Soviet submarine in January 1945. Some nine thousand people went down in the Baltic Sea, making it the deadliest maritime disaster of all time. Born to an unwed mother on a lifeboat the night of the attack, Paul Pokriefke is a middle-aged journalist trying to piece together the tragic events. For his teenage son, who dabbles in the dark, far-right corners of the Internet, the Gustloff embodies the denial of Germany's suffering. Crabwalk is at once a captivating tale of a tragedy at sea and a fearless examination of the ways different generations of Germans now view their past.
Customer Reviews:
This is a fictionalized account - a Novel........2007-02-22
Based on the editorial and individual reviews, I purchased this book for my father, an avid reader of WWII historical accounts. Upon receiving the book I skimmed through it and to my great disappointment discovered that it is a fictionalized account. Had I paid closer attention to the book's web page, I would have noticed the word NOVEL in the editorial description and on the cover. I'm not saying that Gunter Grass's information is inaccurate. He may well have included the most accurate account of information available, but the fact that he took that information and wrapped it up in a fictional story would be abhorrent to my father. I, personally, was turned off by the foul language. I had to return the book. So, for those of you looking for a plain, factual accounting of what happened, this isn't it.
Crabwalk.......2006-12-07
While the Wilhelm Gustloff sank in the Baltic Sea after being hit by three Soviet torpedos, Tulla Pokriefke was giving birth to her son, Paul, on one of the few deiced lifeboats. As they floated away from what is thus far the single greatest loss of life in maritime history, Paul's cries rang out. From that day onwards, his mother, overbearing and overopinionated, unable to leave the ship for the rest of her life, considers that Paul's duty is to make the world remember the magnificent, doomed cruise liner, as the memory of World War II fades until only the great, sweeping events of the time remain in the mind of the people.
Paul Pokriefke is not able - or willing - to do this. He is aware of his worth, a man content with who he is and what he is capable of achieving. 'I know my limitations. I'm a run-of-the-mill journalist, who can do a decent job for short stretches. I used to have big plans...but for the most part my plans stayed on the drawing board. Then Gabi stopped taking the Pill without telling me, was soon pregnant, undeniably by me, and dragged me off to City Hall to get married. Once the squalling baby was there and the future educator had gone back to her studies, it was clear as day to me: From now on, don't expect much.' Throughout the novel, he never strays from this clear-eyed view of himself, of his place in the grand hierarchy of relationships, occupation and leisure.
His mother however, will never forget the Wilhelm Gustloff. Endlessly, always, she speaks of the sinking of the ship, detailing the sounds, emotions and feelings that she experienced. It was the great defining moment of her life, that others forget the ship is an implication that she, too, will be forgotten. What use for a white-haired old woman who harps on the past?
The reason that the Wilhelm Gustloff is mostly forgotten, even in modern day Germany, is almost certainly linked to its duties as one of the Nazi passenger ships allocated to the Kraft durch Freude (KdF), or 'strength through joy' program. The KdF allowed hard working Germans a chance for a good, clean, exciting and stimulating holiday for very little money. The intent was to provide a 'classless' experience, in that roughly middle-class leisure activities such as concerts, day trips and luxury cruises were available for anyone who could pay the extremely low cost. The KdF was an immensely popular German experiment, but the taint of Hitler's World War II, and the shadowy difficulties associated with the Wilhelm Gustloff, meant that it became a small portion of German Guilt that was best left behind. When the German people have such monumental issues such as Auschwitz, the Holocaust and World War II to deal with, it makes sense that a 'minor' incident such as the sinking of a ship filled with (mostly) non-combatants would be swept under the rug.
Paul, like many Germans of his age - for the novel is set alongside the advent of the internet as a popular medium, with Paul celebrating his 50th birthday in 1995 - chooses to forget the KdF, the Wilhelm Gustloff, the smaller portions of the war. He is concerned with being the man that he is, not a 'survivor', or the only child born on the ship on the day that it sank.
His son, Konrad, has developed a website that is devoted to the man from which the Wilhelm Gustloff cruise-ship received its name. Gustloff was the leader of the Swiss NSDAP party, and was assassinated in 1936 by David Frankfurter, a Jew. Konrad is outraged at the memory loss of his people, declaring Gustloff a great hero, and Frankfurter, a terrible enemy of the state. Paul, while idling browsing the internet, discovers his son's site, and is horrified at the vitriolic hate that spews forth from the anonymous webpage of his child. When a young man begins to post under the name of 'David Frankfurter', purporting to represent the ideals and thoughts of the original murderer, Konrad assumes the stance of Gustloff and the Nazi party in a way that will prove fatal.
Crabwalk, as a narrative, involves a 'scuttling backward to move forward'. Grass moves the story back and forth and roundabout through time. Generally, we are either experiencing firsthand the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, or we are involved with Paul's examination of the events in his son's life. Very rarely do we intrude into any specific portion of the novel which could be termed 'action'. No, Grass is writing a study, an essay, an examination of the ways in which the German people struggle with what has been done then, and what they need to do now.
Paul is a mouthpiece for Grass, a chance to extrapolate the metaphors of Germany that still form the core of that great, flawed country. Konrad is the hatred, the racial exclusion, the determination of the 'German way', regardless of cost. David, while professing himself a Jew, does not shy away from his own hatred, his own firm beliefs. In a way, they represent two sides of the same coin - they are strong-willed, determined, and will do anything and say anything to get their viewpoint across. Paul, a removed observer of their internet interactions, is the voice of reason, which is to say he doesn't have a voice at all. While Konrad and David spout grand theories and obscure facts, Paul is left in the middle wondering what to make of it all.
It is to be supposed that Paul represents that majority of thought and feeling within Germany. He is left bemused - and occasionally, amused - at the outpourings of Konrad and David, yet he does nothing to sway or intercept or stop their communication. The end result, when it comes, is one that is foreshadowed from the very beginning of the novel. The characters, as metaphors, simply must arrive at their intended goal, no matter the consequence, no matter the cost.
It would be dishonest to review a work of Gunter Grass' - and one as explicitly linked to World War II - without mentioning his 2006 admission of serving as a member of the Waffen-SS. This book, like all of his works, can be seen as an atonement, but also an explanation. With his writing, he is examining the German consciousness, struggling to understand how an intelligent, hard-working, cultured nation could produce such a dark time in world history. Grass may not have the answers - not for himself, and not for us - but he is more than capable of presenting his country, in all its flaws, with all its greatness. Crabwalk is a novel that is important for the message it holds, and for the honesty it shares. As Grass says, 'It doesn't end. Never will it end.'. We must remember, we must consider, we must think and study and learn from what has happened before our time, so that it does not happen again. We are all responsible.
In the Prism of History........2006-06-09
This book examines an historical fact: the sinking of the former Nazi "classless cruise ship" the Wilhelm Gustloff, laden with refugees from Eastern Germany in the last days of the war. The event becomes a prism through which the attitudes of three generations of Germans are refracted. Tulla Pokriefke, as a pregnant young woman, was one of the few survivors of the disaster; once an ardent Nazi, she became an equally ardent Stalinist; clearly she has a great need to belong. Her son Paul was born on the rescue vessel; now a journalist, he has few strong feelings, although he doggedly pursues his research into the sinking. And Paul's estranged teenage son Konrad turns out to run a website with neo-Nazi sympathies. All is interesting, but the tone is curiously detached and unemotional -- events as filtered through the internet rather than experienced first-hand. While this may be true to the mindset of a certain generation of Germans, it also blunts the book's impact as a novel.
History and human suffering........2006-01-18
Scuttling sideward or backward, pincers poised, crabs walk defensively. After the collapse of the Third Reich, Germans have, according to Grass, crabwalked through time. Moving about with their feeble crab eyes, post-war Germans see their recent past poorly and defensively. Crabwalk addresses how a people, either while living under a brutal regime that created widespread suffering or as inheritors of that regime's legacy, struggle to come to terms with the past.
Although he focuses on Nazi Germany, Grass would equally apply his observations to other national catastrophes, such as those created by Stalin, Mao or Hideki Tojo. Thus he uses the worldwide web to emphasize how evil permeates all human societies.
Grass inserts himself into his narrative as a publisher asking Paul Pokriefke, an unaccomplished journalist, to write about the sinking of the "Wilhelm Gustloff". Paul's pregnant mother was on board the "Gustloff," a German ship carrying thousands of other war refugees, mostly women and children, as well as young sailors and military nurses, when the enemy torpedoed it. Almost all on board perished. Paul's mother survived, giving birth on the rescue ship. The "Gustloff's" sinking symbolizes the Third Reich's destruction and becomes a metaphor for Germany's wartime suffering.
Grass uses the Pokriefke family to illustrate how different German generations have struggled to accept their country's history. As the novella progresses, the characters crabwalk and reveal their shallow understanding of the Third Reich's history.
Tulla Pokriefke, Paul's mother, personifies wartime Germany, choosing to follow strong political personalities. She comically mixes up ideologies, with personal survival as her priority. In one moment, she asserts in high-German such superficial traditional German values as cleanliness, punctuality and industriousness, but suddenly switches to low-German to reveal an ingrained instinct to think in racist categories. She's incapable of understanding the larger consequences of her thoughts.
Paul, from the early post-war generation, vacillates among acceptable post-war political beliefs, left and right, with no real commitment or understanding shown for any of them. His politics spring from penance, not reflection. Paul would like to be the foundling rescued from the shipwreck, the history-less child whose mother and father will never be known. Everything German remains tainted. No probing questions about the past are asked, it's just rejected.
Konrad, Paul's son, is enthralled with Nazi Germany, demanding that its monuments be restored as legitimate historical relics. He doesn't want to reject his German past, so he becomes obsessed with historical research, collecting statistics and mountains of trivial facts. It's a dehumanized history of outward details. He exhibits what Grass calls a "versachtlicher Haß," or reified hate. (The translator's rendering of "matter-of-fact hate" misses the mark.) Konrad's view of history excludes any human suffering.
A lesser writer would have stumbled in creating characters that represent abstract principles, but still should to live and breathe. Grass develops his main characters admirably.
Grass' storyline is complex and is set in motion by the actions of three fanatics. Wilhelm Gustloff is a fervent Nazi organizer in Switzerland. He is assassinated by David Frankfurter, a Zionist. Hitler names a luxury cruise ship after Gustloff and the ship is later torpedoed by a Soviet submarine commander, Alexander Marinesko. Grass expresses his discomfort with obsessed people: "I've never felt comfortable with people who stare at one spot until it smolders, smokes, bursts into flame." The actions of these three people exert powerful forces upon the Pokriefke family, making them seem small in comparison.
The story shuttles effectively back and forth in time, ending at the trial and sentencing of Konrad Pokriefke. The reader's attention is held by Grass' ability to reveal engagingly new facets of his main characters and his ability to evoke a curiosity about what makes these characters act the way they do.
Grass' conclusion evokes at once optimism and pessimism: that while some people may overcome their historical blindness, there remain others who will quickly take their place. To me that seemed a sober way of insisting that confronting the unpleasant lessons of human brutality will be ongoing.
The Internet as a substitute to parents.......2005-03-13
Universality is at hand. This novel is one of the signs on our daily road. It speaks of one particular event in German history, the sinking of the ship Wilhelm Gustloff on January 30, 1945, hit by three torpedoes from a Soviet submarine. And yet it is universal. It entertwines the fates and lives of Wilhelm Gustloff, a small nazi dignitary in Switzerland, shot dead by David Frankfurter, a Jew, and after whom a Strength Through Joy vacationing ship was named in 1936, a ship that was torpedoed to death by Aleksandr Marinesko from his submarine. But the historical fact is captured through three generational layers of witnesses. First the Mother, who was a refugee on this ship on that day, pregnant too. Then her son who was born after the torpedoes hit their target, while the ship was sinking, miraculously rescued from nearly unescapable death. Then his own son, and the grandson of the Mother, Konrad, a whizz computer and Internet kid of 17. This network of crisscrossing testimonies and reactions and actions all reported by the miraculously rescued son is already fascinating. The Mother, after having been a clearly supportive nazi follower, turned into a militant and local dignitary of the SED, the communist party in East Germany, due to sheer circumstances, the last Stalinist in East Germany as she calls herself, and she is the ranting and raving memory of this fateful sinking. The son, after leaving East Germany through Berlin just before the wall was erected, marries and has a son of his own, but he gets divorced and the son is entrusted to his ex-wife who, after the wall has fallen, entrusts this son of hers in her turn to his grandmother who is going to raise him in the ranting and raving memory of the good old days, mixing up nazism and communism in one vision of a classless society represented in her mind by the Strength Through Joy movement. The ship was sunk by Soviet hence stalinistic torpedoes and she reverses what should be her hatred or frustration into a blind and absolute love for Stalin himself, and yet, deep under, she remains antisemitic and even anti-non-German, if not jingoistic, probably due to her coming from East Prussia, what is now Poland. Here we already have a lesson about humanity : commitments to this or that ideology is always personal and extremely brittle and fickle because dictated by circumstances monitored by the survival instinct. The book contains some vignettes about the gerneration of her son that are just as realistic : the 1945 baby-boom generation develops an ideology of pure non-committing middle of the road neutrality that explains so well what the world is today : unable to make any clearcut and longlasting choice. But the book becomes a masterpiece when we take into account the third generation, Konrad's. These are lost in total incomprehension and darkness : they have to situate themselves in life with no real committed and ethical models in the previous generations. The grandmother is a hitlerian turned stalinist, and ending her life with a living-room catholic altar with the Holy Virgin and Stalin in the places of honour. The father and mother are living in ideological limbos. A child needs commitment and a model to show him the way towards some ethical behaviour. In this case, Konrad follows his grandmother and finds in the Internet the possibility to recreate a clearcut ideological world through virtual reality. He starts a webpage on the Wilhelm Gustloff and develops his persona as a nazi or at least neo-nazi supporter, and finds in his chatroom-clientele someone who plays the persona of the eternally evil Jew, a certain David, who is no David and no Jew, but assumes this persona. This Internet trick enables the author to speak of the suffering of the German people at the end of the war, often increased by some war decisions of the Allies to hit, at times knowingly, some civilian targets like Dresden whose civilian areas, including the historical palaces along the river, were bombed with phosphorus while the enormous train station was not even menaced. But it would be short-sighted to reduce the book to that. In fact this Internet dimension reveals the need for young people to have adult models they can follow or not, hence to have committed adult models. It shows that the rising generation finds their models in the personae they meet and build for themselves on the Internet, and that these personae are going to be committed and ethical, in a way or another, often extreme, since no guidance among parents or at school is available. The book pushes the situation slightly further and imagines what may happen if such virtual commitments and personae were to meet in flesh and blood. And that is the best dimension of the book : they will reinvent what has been lived and experienced two generations ago by their grandparents, which means in Germany the conflicts and commitments of the 1930s and two subsequent decades. The book even seems to believe, at least Konrad seems to, that some kind of synthesis is possible in the concept of classlessness. The main conclusion we can draw from such a deep and yet short and quick book is that we have had it all wrong for at least one century, or, if you prefer, that history repeats itself all the time and particularly its mistakes that are maybe not mistakes, just the embodiment of the deep, bright or dark, impulses of human beings. I will say this book is optimistic, even if many may think these conclusions are particularly pessimistic if not provocative.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
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Crabwalk
Gunter Grass
Manufacturer: Harcourt Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000LC7ZCS |
Average customer rating:
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Crabwalk
Gunter Grass
Manufacturer: FABER & FABER LIMITED
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OLJCBI |
Book Description
When the Swedish Academy announced that Günter Grass had been awarded the 1999 Nobel Prize for Literature, it singled out his first novel The Tin Drum (1959, English translation 1963) as a seminal work that had signaled the postwar rebirth of German letters, auguring "a new beginning after decades of linguistic and moral destruction." Nearly fifty years after its publication, the novel's significance has been generally acknowledged: it is the uncontested favorite among Grass's works of fiction on the part of reading public and critics alike, yet its canonical status tends to obscure the decidedly mixed and even hostile reactions it initially elicited. Along with The Tin Drum, Grass's impressive body of literary work since the 1950s has spawned a cottage industry of Grass criticism, making a reliable guide through the thicket of sometimes contradictory readings a definite desideratum. Siegfried Mews fills this lacuna in Grass scholarship by way of a detailed but succinct, descriptive as well as analytical and evaluative overview of the scholarship from 1959 to 2005. Grass's politically motivated interventions in public discourse have kept him highly visible, blurring the boundaries between politics and aesthetics. Mews therefore examines not only academic criticism but also the daily and weekly press (and other news media), providing additional insight into the reception of Grass's works. Siegfried Mews is Professor of German at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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Crabwalk
Gunter Grass
Manufacturer: Harcourt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MC2O1O |
Product Description
6 cds in clamshell case. Special unabridged library version.
Average customer rating:
- Not Impressed
- Excellent, brilliant, and breathtaking
- Wow is all I can say...
- Doesn't disappoint
- After all, I was my mother's son.
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Kushiel's Scion (Kushiel's Legacy)
Jacqueline Carey
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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ASIN: 044661002X |
Book Description
Imriel de la Courcel's birth parents are history's most reviled traitors, but his adoptive parents, the Comtesse Phedre and the warrior-priest Joscelin, are Terre d'Ange's greatest champions. Stolen, tortured and enslaved as a young boy, Imriel is now a Prince of the Blood; third in line for the throne in a land that revels in art, beauty and desire. It is a court steeped in deeply laid conspiracies...and there are many who would see the young prince dead. Some despise him out of hatred for his mother, Melisande, who nearly destroyed the entire realm in her quest for power. Others because they fear he has inherited his mother's irresistible allure...and her dangerous gifts. As he comes of age, plagued by unwanted desires, Imriel shares their fears. When a simple act of friendship traps Imriel in a besieged city where the infamous Melisande is worshiped as a goddess and where a dead man leads an army, the Prince must face his greatest test: to find his true self.
Customer Reviews:
Not Impressed.......2007-10-09
As Scion began, I really thought I was going to enjoy it. In fact, I was enjoying it, at first. Imriel's youth and adolescence is at least interesting, but that's about it.
Usually Carey's Kushiel books are a mixture of intrigue, sex, action, and adventure. A very good, pretty well-balanced mix. Unfortunately Scion is largely sex and intrigue. Now, I like both of these things, but they vastly outweighed the action and adventure in the book. I really like the way my boyfriend put it: It's like having a sundae that's made completely of hot fudge and whipped cream. Sure, those are an awesome part of the sundae, but eat too much of only those, without the ice cream and other things, and you start to get sick of it, not to mention a bit queasy.
The whole middle of the book is a bogged down mess of intrigue and sex, sex and intrigue, with a bit of intrigue and a hint of sex thrown in. And none of it was very interesting, either. Imriel's waffling personality and uncertainties make the sex mostly annoying. And even once the scene moves to Tiberium (Rome) the intrigue is just meh. Okay, not a professional term, but that's really the best way to describe it: Meh. I just wasn't that caught up in it.
Imriel doesn't help the matter. Where Phedre was a fascinating, believable character, even in her gift/curse, Imriel's issues just read false. As I said before, he flip flops constantly in his uncertainties. He just comes to accept who he is and something happens to make him go right back to doubting. Most of the situations are, unfortunately, not very convincing. With a distinct lack of real personality and what I can only a call an angsty, emo teenager attitude, Imriel just isn't enjoyable to follow. Some of the supporting characters are a lot of fun though, adding some bright spots. And the ending, the last 100 or so pages, picks up considerably.
Scion isn't terrible, but it was bad enough that the hardcover of Kushiel's Justice has been crossed off my Christmas wish list. I'll wait for the paperback, thanks. This one just didn't leave me wanting to read the next one that badly.
Excellent, brilliant, and breathtaking .......2007-08-11
After reading a review that claimed that one could skip reading Kushiel's Scion and go on to read Kushiel's Justice and not have missed anything of consequence made me quite upset and angry. Now that I have read Kushiel's Scion I know that the person that wrote that review was mistaken. Kushiel's Scion sends the perfect ideas about light and dark and the cycles of life that with the bad comes the good and vice versa. The struggles that Imriel faces are well substantiated in the emotional intricacies of his life as Phedre's were in the previous three novels. The wording is exquisite and I am not sorry for reading this addition to the series. Every addition to this series is worth reading for their is much insight and knowledge to be gained from the emotional turmoil of life.
Wow is all I can say..........2007-08-08
This book was amazing! I was searching for a new something to pass the time as I sadly abandoned the Anita Blake Series.
This Book was a welcome change from the mindless sex scenes in the Anita Blake Series.
The book was well written and it contained a very though plot/character development. I was instantly drawn to this book. I finished the book in a matter of days (Sadly work gets in the way of reading time). Imriel is an engaging character! The best part is that he is not alone, Phedre, Joscelin, Gilot, the entire array of characters only enrich the story.
I give this book five stars! And tonight I start the next book Kushiel's Justice.
Doesn't disappoint.......2007-07-26
Have read the original trilogy some time ago, I was afraid that I would not be able to get back into to caring about the characters without first re-reading the originals. That was not the case at all! My memory was certainly rusty to begin with, but this beginning of a second trilogy pulls you right in and includes gentle reminders of past occurrences whenever necessary, without burdening the reader with a lot of wasted time reviewing "what has gone before." I was also afraid that a new trilogy, focussing on a new main character could not possibly live up to the originals. I was completely wrong. The story is every bit as rich and engrossing as any of the first three books. I was captured immediately and couldn't put it down. Read this book. If you haven't read the first trilogy, read those too. You won't be disappointed.
After all, I was my mother's son. .......2007-06-24
"I felt at once tired and sad. "Why would you think it was anything else, Sidonie? Who told you to be afraid of me?"
Jacqueline Carey revisits her engaging world previously conceived in the first of the "Kushiel Legacy" trilogy with a fervor and skill that we have come to know and love. She deftly weaves the previous storyline of Phedre and her companion, Joscelin, into a new tale surrounding Imriel, the son of the traitorous Melisande Shahrizai, Phedre's former patron and greatest enemy. Imriel, recovering from the horrors of Darsanga, cannot wholly escape his past. He is now laboring under a new mantra, having been adopted into Phedre's household... "I will try to be good".... In other words, he is trying not to succumb to the treacherous nature of his blood and the cruel and malign hand of the God Kushiel, whom the Shahrizai are direct descendents of.
The story begins when Imriel is thirteen, three years after his rescue from Darsanga and after the fateful trip that released the Master of the Straits, Phedre's childhood friend Hyacinthe, from his eternal curse. Now, Imriel is growing up, learning the discipline of the Casseline Brotherhood under Joscelin's tutelage, and trying to forget the fact that he is a Prince, third in line for the throne of Terre d'Ange. There are the beginning stirrings of puberty and manhood taking their toll, but Imriel is still far too tortured from Darsanga to heed their call. Suddenly, something no one excepts occurs; Melisande disappears from the Temple of Asherat without a trace. This causes a stir in the Royal Court, but Imriel tries to remain above it. Some time later, at the behest of Phedre, he decides he wants to become friendlier with his Shahrizai relatives so his cousins Mavros, Baptiste, and Roshana come to be fostered at the Montreve estate for a summer. It is then that he discovers the true nature of what lies in his blood, and begins to realize the beginning stirrings of desire which he attempts to quell. During the same year the son of Grainne and Quintilus Rousse, Eamonn mac Grainne, comes to the estate and falls into a fast friendship with Imriel.
"Is it possible to fall upward? It seemed it to me. Lying on my back, I fell upward into Emmeline; into her mouth, into her. Every part of me she had touched and made sacred blazed with desire that was Naamah's gift, clean and pure, untouched by any shadow. I offered it back as tribute, and she accepted it with gladness.."
When Imriel turns 16 he visit's the Balm house and couples with the adept, Emmeline, who teaches him the true nature of desire. This helps him to repress some of the atrocities of Darsanga, but healing is very hard to come by. It is not until his cousins take him to Valerian house when he truly begins to know himself, and the cruel hand of his lord Kushiel. To his horror he realizes the allure of power over another and this knowledge, combined with the realization that it will forever alter his and Phedre's relationship causes him to flee to Tiberium, assuming the life of a poor student so that he may attempt to flee his duties, including a proposition that he wed the Princess Dorelai of Alba.
Carey's incomparable with and narrative are still very present in this revisiting of the Kushiel world. I found myself powering through the book with extreme alacrity. The one part that I did not find myself enjoying, however, was the siege of Lucca. To be frank, I skipped some of it. I cannot even say why but I found it to be tedious and uninteresting, which is the only reason I am rating the book 4 stars instead of five.
The remainder of the book, however, was superb, and I found myself falling in love with Imriel as a narrator and the protagonist. Actually, for a time, I thought that he was more interesting than Phedre. Of course, he has a more interesting basis for comparison, as he is the son of Melisande Shahrizai, and he has all of his past to contend with. I found him to be extremely empathetic and tragic, and that made me compelled to read the book that much more swiftly. Plus, the fact that he was a dominant sexually, as opposed to Phedre's submissive tendencies, but was fighting against his own nature, made him more exciting to read. I adored this book, with the exception of the one detail of Lucca, and would recommend this series to everyone. Carey has definitely found another way to captivate an audience with the world of Terre d'Ange and I applaud her for doing so.
"I was tired of being afraid."
Product Description
The first 4 books in the Kushiel's Legacy series, which is set in the country of Terre d'Ange (resembling medieval France). D'Angelines, as the citizens are called, believe they are descended from Blessed Elua and his band of fallen angels. Elua was born when the blood of the crucified Yeshua ben Yosef, the son of the One God, mixed with the tears of the Magdalene and then was quickened by Mother Earth. Scorned by his grandfather, the One God, Elua wandered the Earth with eight companion angels, who had rejected God to follow him. The eight were Naamah, Anael, Azza, Shemhazai, Camael, Cassiel, Eisheth, and Kushiel. The companions finally settled in the land that would be become Terre D'Ange. Elua espoused the precept Love as thou wilt and he and his companions inter-bred with the native populace, creating the D'Angeline people.
Book Description
The Book of the New Sun is unanimously acclaimed as Gene Wolfe's most remarkable work, hailed as "a masterpiece of science fantasy comparable in importance to the major works of Tolkien and Lewis" by Publishers Weekly, and "one of the most ambitious works of speculative fiction in the twentieth century" by The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Sword amp; Citadel brings together the final two books of the tetralogy in one volume:The Sword of the Lictor is the third volume in Wolfe's remarkable epic, chronicling the odyssey of the wandering pilgrim called Severian, driven by a powerful and unfathomable destiny, as he carries out a dark mission far from his home.The Citadel of the Autarch brings The Book of the New Sun to its harrowing conclusion, as Severian clashes in a final reckoning with the dread Autarch, fulfilling an ancient prophecy that will forever alter the realm known as Urth."Brilliant . . . terrific . . . a fantasy so epic it beggars the mind. An extraordinary work of art!"Philadelphia Inquirer"The Book of the New Sun establishes [Wolfe's] preeminence, pure and simple. . . . The Book of the New Sun contains elements of Spenserian allegory, Swiftian satire, Dickensian social consciousness and Wagnerian mythology. Wolfe creates a truly alien social order that the reader comes to experience from within . . . once into it, there is no stopping."-The New York Times Book Review
Customer Reviews:
A triumphant accomplishment.......2007-06-10
Sword and the Citadel and the last two books of the Book of the New sun Quartet. The story picks up after the Shadow and Claw, with Severian, the torturer continuing his Odysseian journey across the southern continent, on an Earth a millenia in the future as our Sun is dying. Severian intends to return The Claw of the Concilliator, a magic relic which seems to give him, at times, the power over death, the the Religious order from whom he accidentally took the claw from. Severian soon finds himself at the heart of events that can literally change the destiny of humanity.
This second and third book are an even greater accomplishment than the first two of the series were. As I wrote in the first novels' review, the language utilized throughout this series serves as a plot device in and of itself, not only serving to enhance the foreignness of the reading experience, but adding to the mystery which are part and parcel of its charm.
Severian finds himself evolving quite a bit through these last two novels he is coming to term with his own humanity and the nature of the brutality that is part of everyday. Severian finds himself even more deeply embroiled in the intrique that is the conflict between the rebel leader Vodalus, and the leader of the commonwealth The Autarch.
The brilliance in this novel it is so deeply imagined and so stunningly written that it is hard to imagine this was produced by an author of our time. There is a reason that this novel gets so much praised on it. It draws you in, and then it forces you to constantly cope with it's eccentric characterizations, which is akin to decoding a foreign lanquage that you are only semi fluent in. This is actually extremely satisying, but that is not in and of itself the biggest strength of the narrative. In many "fantasy/sci fi" books merely reads about extraordinary worlds, but in this series, the reader resides as an insider in this world. Ultimately the Sword and Citadel resolve a number of plot lines and mysteries, and of course this makes it greater than the first two.
The Sword and Citadel, and specifically the Book of the New Sun are indeed one of the greatest fantasy books written of all time. These books should be a part of any serious fan of fantasy, but really any one who enjoys high literature.
Truly Surreal.......2007-04-25
An excellent entry in the Dying Earth genre. Wolfe elaborates on his already fascinating and baroque Urth. His protoganists journey ends in full circle, but another one begins.
Wolfe's writing style is intense and interesting and the memoir style the book is written in works great. Highly recommended.
Thought-provoking.......2007-02-15
I like to read a well-written story. I like epic tales. This and the sequels fill the bill, quite nicely. You may need a dictionary handy when reading, due to the choice of terminology the author uses. It's worth it, if you like expanding your vocabulary like I do! This book is one of those books where you won't always assimilate everything there is the first time you read it. Unlike some novels, this one may provide new insights once you've allowed it to sit on the bookshelf for a few months then attack it with a (hopefully) new perspective.
The Epic Continues.......2007-02-09
Continuing with Severian, the narrator of Gene Wolfe's magnum opus, is a journey of academic wonder.
Sword & Citadel: The Second Half of 'The Book of the New Sun' (New Sun) wasn't as enjoyable for me as the first collection in the tetralogy. I think it's because the author's grand designs came to fruition. We find that the sun is indeed dying, but this was prophesied and the narrator is the realization of civilization itself, the savior come again. His esoteric exegesis of modern theology is too ambitious for my taste and I found myself working too hard at it and wanting too many breaks. I suppose my craving for knowledge met it's match in the effort required.
While Severian is accidentally fulfilling his preordained destiny, we as the reader are being challenged for our own beliefs and shown that faith, belief and higher powers are really part of our evolution, a dependency of our genetic makeup . . . that's where he lost me. The allegory aside as a New Sun/Son becomes the savior of all, this is a call to faith, or at least that's what I comprehended in the reading.
While all this is going on, we find that the narrator, our Messiah, is an untrustworthy source. He's been withholding information and twisting it in the telling. This is a trait of Wolfe who has claimed that narration is a reflection of humanity and humans are essentially untrustworthy creatures. While a clever devise, it takes away from the power of the story where readers have no other knowledge to depend on other than what the narrator relates.
It's good, but has flaws.
CV Rick
I fell in love..........2006-08-08
The predecessor to this book had me falling in love with Dorcas, one of the female characters. This one left me feeling a grave loss at her absence.
Wolfe has produced an excellently rich world and we accompany a rather unconventional character through it. Severian, a torturers' apprentice, guides us through our own planet- here spelled "Urth"- billions of years in the future as the sun is dying and humanity has advanced, as best I can put it, 'beyond technology.'
In his world, humans on Urth live in a ignorant barbarism while the technologies of today and of the future lie around them running their world. Severian is our guide through this world, and the journey is well worth taking- if you can put up with Severian's character.
The important thing to keep in mind is that these two books, and their predecessors, are written *by* Severian- Wolfe created Severian as a character, and then that character, in Wolfe's mind, wrote his own memoirs. The record is filled with the quirks of Severian's personality; it is disconnected, as so many lives are. Novels often present us with an unlikely series of events in which the hero continually gets lucky, saves the day just right, and then goes on to keep saving the day in a coherent fashion. Wolfe is well aware that things don't work that way in real life, and they don't work that way when people write memoirs, as Severian is doing. The entire Book of the New Sun is written as an account of Severian's life; he tells us the things that were important to him, and we watch as they happen. This story isn't "How Luke Became a Jedi and None of the Adventures that Occurred Along the Way" but rather "The Life of Severian, A Journeyman of the Order of the Seekers for Truth and Penitence."
Severian has adventures. They happen in such an order as to bring him to his final destination. Throughout it, there are side-adventures, needless digressions, unexpected meetings, stories told and stories heard, and unimportant characters encountered. Because that is how life goes.
So if you're looking for a true story, a Hero's Journey in the sense that we are used to seeing in our pop literature and movies, this isn't the place to find it. You might have noticed the rambling story in the first two books and assumed it would get more coherent. Not so. This series lacks narrative momentum entirely- you will find yourself engaged while reading it, but might not have much reason to pick it back up once you've put it down.
However, if you want to read a fictional memoir about a most interesting person who has some amazing adventures with some fairly good philosophical insights, I think you'll be very pleased. In this series, it is not the destination, but rather the journey, which dominates the mind of the reader. It is not important to make the decisions as to understand them- all of this exposition can get very Buddhist about it, but in the end these books do not center on continuity of adventures but rather the adventures themselves and how they shape Severian. They are truly a different kind of literature- new, fresh, and exciting for their experimentation and their creativity. At times, however, the freshness does work against the story. But I still feel it's well worth it.
Customer Reviews:
have to disagree.......2007-01-18
I devoured all of the "Swords" novels. I read them about ten years ago and just recently re-read the entire series. Saberhagen does a wonderful job with weaving in and out the tales of all the swords and their powers.
Not much better than previous volume.......1999-09-30
Saberhagen does it again. Yet another boring, pedantic story with as little dialogue as possible. The dust jacket claims these are best-selling books so someone must like them. Not me.
Average customer rating:
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Second Book of Lost Swords: Sightblinder's Story (Orbit Books)
Manufacturer: Futura Orbit
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Fantasy
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ASIN: 0708842259 |
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The Magic Sword ELT Edition (Cambridge Storybooks)
Rosemary Hayes
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Book Description
A series of ELT readers for young learners of English. What happens when Class 8 visit a castle with Mr Mulch?
Download Description
Cambridge Reading is a major new reading scheme which provides stimulating books and support materials for the teaching of reading throughout the primary years. Key features include: a coherent yet flexible structure for teaching and learning; a variety of high quality attractive picture books; a balance of different text types and genres, including stories, poems and information books; an integrated phonics programme; comprehensive support materials. The Magic Sword is from the Towards Independence phase of Cambridge Reading. It forms part of a set of nine books in the Fantasy strand which are written by Rosemary Hayes and illustrated by Ian Newsham. Mr Mulch, a schoolteacher with special powers, is the central character in this and three other books.
Customer Reviews:
An excellent book.......2002-08-29
This book is about a dozen swords with unique special powers forged by the god Vulcan. The swords were then scattered across the world. Mark, the main character with a somewhat unknow background is the one who figures out most of the swords and eventually finds more out about his background and patronage. While this is not your typical fanatasy book with in depth character development, it is a book of many individuals and thier stories with each of the twelve swords. An excellent read for a tale of how powerfull artifacts alter peoples lives.
Not That Great.......2002-08-20
This book followed the footsteps of Mark, a young man whose father helped the god Vulcan make 12 magical swords. The swords were intended to be part of a game that the gods set up. However, the gods miscalculated how powerful the swords were and the power that ordinary humans had. Mark could be an interesting character, but lacks real depth and development. The story is really about the swords.
There are three books in this one, but they don't really flow together. They stories are chronological and do make sense, but there is a lot of repetition and not a whole lot of characterization or smooth plot development. The end of the last book leaves many loose ends and doesn't provide anything resembling a sense of satisfaction with a book well written and worth reading. I was very glad that I had borrowed and not bought this book.
Product Description
multiple books ship as one item. save on shipping/handling charges.
Product Description
The second and current series, Artesia Afield, began publication in 2000, and follows Artesia and her captains as they lead an army out of the Highlands to aid the Middle Kingdoms against the returning Thessids. The Empires legions have swept across the land bringing death by sword and fire, and have laid siege to the cities of Collwyn and Berrina, forcing Awain, the High King of Therapoli, to split his army and attempt to relieve the beset cities. As Artesia seeks to join the northern army led by the High Kings marshal, the Grand Duke Owen Lis Red, they are confronted with the myriad dangers and distractions of life on campaign. They encounter the Thessid enemy for the first time, meet and hire mercenaries from distant Palatia, and learn of the Empires terrifying allies, the Isliklids, who heretically claim descent from Islik the Divine King. And through it all, Artesia is plagued by dreams and haunted by ghosts, as she ponders the choices she has made, and those she hasnt...
Customer Reviews:
Excellent!.......2007-10-11
This is an excellent book for any Christian to read. It could just as easily be titled Why I Am A Christian. It is a concise and very easy read with excellent points about God's grace and salvation. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested to know more about what Lutherans believe and practice.
Why I Am a Lutheran: Jesus at the Center.......2007-07-12
This is a must read book for all Christians and specifically Lutherans. Dr. Preus explains very clearly all elements relating to Christian doctrine and confessions. It's very easy to read and to understand. There will be no doubt in your mind, once you've read it, why Jesus is the Center of the Lutheran faith.
Lutherans and Catholics are almost the same.......2007-07-04
I am a baptized and confirmed Lutheran. I am learning alot from this book. I wanted to be able to answer my Catholic in-laws when they ask me why I'm still a Lutheran.
Beautiful presentation of why Christ should be at the center of every Christ-ian and at the heart of Christ-ianity.......2007-02-02
Please do not vote, yet! I will finish the review shortly. Thank you!
INTRODUCTION:
Reading this little book reminded me why I decided to join the Lutheran church as a believing Christian.
The image on the cover is the most recognized symbol for Lutheranism, called Luther's Rose.
AUTHOR:
Daniel Preus, the vice-president of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS, 2nd largest American lutheran denominations of the 3, biblically conservative).
CONTENT:
CONCLUSION:
Reading the introduction and the conncluding chapaters of the book, one is reminded that the author's intent is to present the basics of the historical Christian faith (albeit with a slight touch of Lutheran spirituality and theology) and why a biblical Christology is important for every Christian, whether Lutheran or not. With this spirit (which the author explains in no uncertain terms), I feel that the book would better deserve to be titled "Jesus at the Center: I am an Evangelical Lutheran Christian."
The good news of Christ's death and resurrection saves all who believe it.......2006-01-05
The forgiven believe "Jesus has done everything necessary to save us." (page 53) Promoting free will instead puts focus on the one "who through the exercise of free will contributes to his or her salvation." (page 60)
The book concludes, "The teachings of the Lutheran Church place Jesus at the center because the teachings of the Scriptures place Jesus at the center. No other confession demonstrates such fidelity to the truth of God's Word." (page 195)
Books:
- Dance for the Ivory Madonna: A Romance of Psiberspace
- Days of Atonement: A Novel
- Dream of the Walled City
- Enchanted Night: A Novella
- Geniuses of Crack
- Harlot's Ghost
- Hens Dancing: A Novel
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- I Hate To See That Evening Sun Go Down: Collected Stories
- I Was Amelia Earhart
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