If I Never Get Back

Average customer rating:

Best baseball novel ever

Best Ever

One of my favorite time travel novels

A home-run time-travel novel

Baseball History at Its Best

If I Never Get Back
Darryl Brock
Manufacturer: Plume
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Two in the Field: A Novel

The Celebrant: A Novel

The Iowa Baseball Confederacy: A Novel

The Beer and Whisky League: The Illustrated History of the American Association--Baseball's Renegade Major League

About Time: 12 Short Stories

ASIN: 0452283728

Book Description

Written in Q&A format, A Gynecologist's Second Opinion answers all the questions that patients need to ask, but doctors don't have the time to answer. In this newly revised edition, Dr. Parker has added up-to-the-minute and crucial information on new treatments, techniques, and therapies for a wide variety of gynecological concerns. With a special focus on younger women's issues, this comprehensive guide provides detailed information on:

€ Fibroids
€ Hysterectomy- including new treatments that only necessitate a partial hysterectomy
€ Bladder Problems
€ Endometriosis
€ Pelvic Pain
€ Ovarian Cancer Screening
€ Cervical Cancer
€ Menstrual Problems
€ and much more...

Including case studies from across the country, this is the essential guide for every woman.

Customer Reviews:

Best baseball novel ever.......2007-08-23

This is a book I've read several times. I'd like to know where Mr. Brock found out so much about Charlie sweazy, Asa Brainard et al, to make these characters come alive the way they do. There were a few political issue editorials Darryl brought into the story. But these surely do not detract from the book. I wish I had Andy Leonard as a brother as well.
You will hate to see the end of this book as it is entertaining(and historically accurate) from first page to last. As I said earlier, it's my favorite baseball book and one of my favorite of any genre.

Best Ever.......2007-07-03

This is one of the greatest baseball novels ever written. If you like baseball,time travel,romance and "rooting for the good guys" this is a book that will never get old. I'm sorry they never made a movie if it. However I doubt Hollywood could do it justice. Superb!!!!!!!!!!

One of my favorite time travel novels.......2007-05-18

I love time travel novels and I love baseball; so this is one of my all-time favorite books. I enjoyed reading how baseball was played in its infancy and learned things that I never knew. A great book!

A home-run time-travel novel.......2007-05-05

I love this novel! A man goes back to 1869 and joins the Cincinnati "Red Stockings" baseball team. He falls in love and also introduces many new ideas--selling hotdogs, bunting. A super fun read.

Baseball History at Its Best.......2007-01-31

I don't usually like "fantasy" books, but this one is exceptional. It's sort of like Harry Potter: you suspend disbelief on about page 15, and from there on it's a joyous, rollicking ride! The author did a magnificent job of researching his subject and all the other historical events that he interweaves in his story. The hard part was when I was down to 25 pages or so and knew that it was all going to end. I didn't want it to end! Wonderful book for baseball fans, those who enjoy Mark Twain, and historical buffs.

Average customer rating:

This Book got Lost

If I Never Get Back
Darryl Brock
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OR886C

Customer Reviews:

This Book got Lost.......2007-04-12

There is apparantly a film version of this bizarre and interesting novel coming out but the book itself seemed to sink like a stone, not arousing much mainstream interest. It is a very interesting book, depending more on setting than on character but with strong characters nonetheless.

The problem may have been in the marketing. Since the book involves baseball, it might have been better promoted as a baseball novel. Since it involves time travel, it is clearly science fiction. Instead of using either "hook," the publishers apparently insisted on treating it as a mainstream novel and it didn't take off.

I ought to qualify this by saying that I have been out of the bookstore business for several years and the book might have sold better recently than it did.

Average customer rating:

If I Never Get Back
Darryl Brock
Manufacturer: Crown Publishing Group, Incorporated
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000WL20LE

Average customer rating:

I would have given it 10 stars if possible

If I Never Get Back.
Darryl. Brock
Manufacturer: Crown Pub.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NGT2SW

Customer Reviews:

I would have given it 10 stars if possible.......2007-04-05

An enthralling book. Brock is meticulous in his research, down to duplicating the style of speech used in 1869. The more you read of this book, the harder it is to put down. After a few pages, you find the seemingly implausible aspect of time travel entirely plausible due to the deft skill of the author. I'm not a big baseball fan, but I really got into this book, far more that I had anticipated. The only low point happened when I finished reading it. I then promptly ordered the sequel,"Two in the Field," which I'm sure I will enjoy because I like the characters in this book.

Book Description

The Fighters series showcases one of the most popular Dungeons & Dragons® character classes.

Each novel in the Fighters series is written as a stand-alone adventure, allowing new readers an easy entry point into the Forgotten Realms world. This novel is a classic revenge story that focuses on a man in black with ghostly powers who seeks vengeance upon those who caused his death many years ago.

Customer Reviews:

Familiar Story Line with a Different Twist.......2007-07-10

Stories about cruelty, death, and revenge are nothing new, particularly in Forgotten Realms novels. It is also not unheard of in the Forgotten Realms for characters that has been gravely wronged and left for dead to return when it is least suspected seeking vengeance.

This title has all of those elements and there is even a decent love story woven in the plot.

For me, what makes this story different is the main character being a Ghostwalker. For those not familiar with Ghostwalkers in the Dungeons & Dragons world, it is a prestige class with very strange yet powerful attributes, particularly their connection to the ethereal realm.

Even though they are not the same thing, the main character reminded me a little of the late Brandon Lee's character in the movie "The Crow".

My only real criticism of this book is that I felt as though the last four or five chapters were rushed. I can't put my finger on exact example to give (probably because it has been over a year since I read it). I just remember getting to the last few chapters having felt like something was left out or there was more to the story that could have been or should have been told. Don't get me wrong, the story wrapped up very well, but as I said, to me it seemed a little rushed at the end.

I would definitely recommend this novel if you are a Forgotten Realms fan and would like to read something a little different.

Bringing new life to the realms!!!.......2007-06-25

Ghostwalker has everything you could want in a book, action scenes that are so clear that you could imagine them on the big screen, love and heartbreak, and a character that you instantly become facinated with and would never become tired of reading about.

This book is equally great for people who love Forgotten Realms or even those who have never read any of the other books that take place in the realms!!!

The first excalmation point is for the scar on Walker's arm, that came from the thin man's sword. The second is for the scars on his chest, that came from the barbarian's gyrspike. And the third for the scar on his shoulder, from the woodsman's axe.

Erik Scott de Bie has risen to the level of the best writers in the realms: R.A. Salvatore, Paul S. Kemp, Elaine Cunningham, and Troy Denning.

I was hoping for more too!.......2007-03-06

After reading all of the other reviews for this book, I had to wonder how many were from the publishing group's offices. I was disappointed with this book on several levels, the first and foremost being that it was too full of last minute saves. I felt like I was playing one of those enchanted modules where no one in the party loses their favorite character (or any of their favorite character's equipment for that matter.) Fun if you're still a kid, but not if you're looking for realistic interactions and plot developments. Another point is that, though Eric put together an interesting story line, the characters needed more development in my opinion. I love action, I wouldn't have bought the whole Fighters series if I didn't, but action is nothing if there isn't some other "stuff" to bring it all together.

All in all, I think this is a good first book on the part of the author, but I'd like to say "shame, shame" on the editors for not helping the author to turn this into a great first book. I hope you keep writing and striving for a mastery of your characteristic style. As an avid reader of fantasy fiction for the last thirty years I see a lot of promise here. I'll check out your next one when it comes along.

Fascinating!.......2007-02-01

I will have to go with the rest of the reviewers, this book is simply breathtaking.

The thing that diminishes almost everything else in this novel is De Bie's storytelling. His writing is beautiful, almost poetic at times, giving the little frontier town of Quervarr a breath of life. His battle scenes are so descriptive that you can almost hear the clash of weapons in your room. Brilliant writing, truly. The protagonists in the book are also very good. They all have believable motivations, emotions and histories. The antagonists are a piece of art. Not only are they memorable, but De Bie "gets in their heads" on a scale experienced only in Salvatore's FR novels. The plot is masterfully conceived, and it is personal and emotional, with a fair number of twists. No saving the world here. And the ending is truly fitting.

I do have a few complaints, but they fade in comparison to De Bie's storytelling. Walker, the main character, is at times too heroic to be believable, considering his past and emotional state. Besides that, there are too many unpredictable rescues from sword-tip for my liking.

But as I said, everything becomes irrelevant once you get lost in this story.
A Forgotten Realms masterpiece.

I will take some time to reflect on the "Fighters" series, as this is my last review from that particular series. Mathematically, they get an average score of 3.75, which is more than good considering that the books were written by four different authors. It features only one poor book (Bladesinger), and the rest range from good (Master of Chains and Son of Thunder) to brilliant (Ghostwalker). You should check out these books. And I almost forgot, the cover art is breathtaking on all of the books.

I was hoping for better.......2006-11-20

Based on all these stellar reviews I was expecting this to be among the best FR books I've read. Maybe my expectations were just too high.

First I was confused about what Walker actually was. Was he a ghost? No. Was he alive? No. And he can change back and forth from corporeal to material, but he chooses odd times not to use this power. In fact, all his powers were confusing since he used them erratically. Maybe I just am not quite up to speed with all the current dnd prestige classes, which I shouldn't have to be to enjoy a novel.

Secondly, his love interest comes on awfully quick. For someone bent on revenge he was easily distracted.

The main villain was not fleshed out well. He did bad things in the past and some bad things during the story, but most of those were not shown. Showing some of those things would have made him more evil and more interesting.

The last 100 pages were especially chaotic and tough to follow. There were several battles, each climactic in its own way, and I kept thinking "this is just like the last 100 pgs of Lord of the Rings" where it just didn't want to end for some reason, even though there was nothing left to do.

It seemed like this author was trying to hard to be RA Salvatore. I realize you're a fencer but I don't need every battle to be 6 - 10 pages of fencing moves.

The characters all did some idiotic things and behaved erratically. Perhaps that is human nature to some degree but it was just too all over the place here.

Finally, the story about Walker's past seemed like it was changed mid-novel by an editor. One guy was his father, then he wasn't, then he was again? Very confusing. The same thing with his mother.

Not a bad book, but certainly not among the best FR books. The idea was really good, just lacked in execution.

Unfortunately, these class books by WoC seemed to really drop off after the first two rogue books.

Average customer rating:

Ghostwalker (Fighters)
Erik Scott De Bie
Manufacturer: Wizards of the Coast
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1415638381

Book Description

Hal Clement is a Grand Master of SF, and, of the living Grand Masters, is the one most associated with the subgenre of Hard SF. From his classic stories in the 1940s through his novels of the 1950s and on to the recent Half Life, he has made a lasting impression on SF readers. And on writers too: Clement is the model for many writers of how to write Hard SF, and this book contains the principal products of his method most often held up as exemplars. Here are the classic Mission of Gravity, its sequel, Starlight, and Whirligig World, the famous essay Clement published in Astounding SF in 1953. It describes the rigorous process he used to create his memorable planet, Mesklin, whose odd shape causes gravity to vary widely from place to place. It is on Mesklin that all the stories herein are set.

HEAVY PLANET (THE CLASSIC MESKLIN STORIES)

Average customer rating:

HEAVY PLANET (THE CLASSIC MESKLIN STORIES)

Manufacturer: A TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES BOOK
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0739432915

Product Description

SCIENCE FICTION. THIS CLASSIC ALSO INCLUDES "MISSION OF GRAVITY" AND "STAR LIGHT"

Average customer rating:

Heavy Planet Classic Mesklin Stories
Cal Clement
Manufacturer: TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000VVXZI2

Book Description

This work challenges the assumptions made by so many than religion and scientific belief are incompatible, exposing a number of fallacies through a carefully argued refutation of scientific atheism.

Customer Reviews:

A good read and a good logical exposition of materialist weakness as a philosophy.......2007-06-27

The author does a good job of laying out fundamental philosophical arguments in favor of theism and its non-conflict with real science. The book helps counter the popular anti-Christian ravings of bigoted authors like Dawkins who knowingly uses rhetoric and deception to get his particular world view (sad as it is) accepted by others [misery loves company!]. It was nice to see Dawkins' "memes" concept so nicely trashed in a single paragraph (Chapter 9).

A good read and highly recommended.

A good introduction.......2006-07-22

Contrary to the misunderstandings of some of the earlier reviewers, this book is not really an apologia for theism. Nor is it in any way, shape or form an attack on science as such. One can only speculate how such misunderstandings can come about when the intentions of the author are so clearly stated.

Obviously, those reviews completely miss the purpose of this book, which is clearly stated by Ward himself:

"The view I shall take is that, on most issues, there are no conflicts (between science and religion) and that the success of scientific investigation corroborates theism, rather than the reverse" (p.12 - my addition).

This intention provides a starting point that can be illuminated with the following analogy (mine, not the author's).

If we want to go fishing in a lake with the intention of actually catching fish, we pre-suppose in some sense that there are fish to be caught. Otherwise, we are wasting our time.

Likewise, if we want to examine the universe with the intention of finding some orderly explanation for its operation, we pre-suppose in some sense that the explanation we ultimately arrive at will, in fact, be orderly. Otherwise, we would again be wasting our time.

Beginning with this common-sense starting point, Ward wants to draw out the implications of that pre-supposition. He chooses to base his program on the naturalistic arguments of two prominent British scientists, Richard Dawkins and Peter Atkins, both of whom are clearly in the reductive materialist camp. But he wishes to nuance the very observations that are used by them to actually support his starting point - rather than, as they do, to support the materialist view.

In a way such a program can be considered a rebuttal of the arguments supporting reductive materialism. The idea, however, is not merely to show where those specific arguments break down, but to use the observations that they are based on to go in a different direction.

Ward's program is not without real difficulties, however. Perhaps because he is using the arguments of others as a base, he is never as consistent in his philosophical approach as is, for example, Mariano Artigas in The Mind of the Universe. Just to take one aspect of Ward's approach, consider his view of science as a search for a natural order. It is sometimes difficult to grasp if Ward is saying that the order being sought by science is to be found in the scientific explanations as such, or if there is a real order that science `discovers' over time. For a scientist `doing science', it actually doesn't matter. One can `do science' either way. But for Ward and what he is trying to get it, it actually does matter.

So like a plane flying through a thunderstorm, the ride can get very choppy. But ultimately, Ward seems to emerge from the storm going in the direction that he seems to have wanted.

That direction can be called the descriptive model of science. The model goes something like this. It is unquestionably true that science explains natural actions in an orderly fashion. The explanations are what we call the `laws of science'. But the order obtained by those explanations cannot in itself be causative. To put it bluntly, equations and words cannot be the source of any real actions. Therefore, if the natural actions are real (and they are), and if the order is real (and it is), we must seek the real source elsewhere.

Unfortunately, all that Ward's program gets us is that there is an order-producing reality to the universe, and that such a reality is the source of real actions. It doesn't actually tell us what the nature of that reality is.

Ward concludes that the order-producing reality can be identified as the Judeo-Christian-Islamic God, but he doesn't actually provide the ontological necessity that this conclusion requires. To get to that necessity, Ward would have to consider ways of knowing that go beyond the empirical-objective experiences he is limiting himself to. Perhaps that would have made the book much longer than the author wanted, or perhaps the author felt that a sufficiency argument met his stated purpose. Nevertheless, I think that at least some pointers for going further should have been included. So I can only give this book a four star rating.

With that qualification, I do recommend this book as an introduction to those who are confused about the falsity that `doing science' requires a non-theistic worldview.

Accessibility gained at the expense of sophistication.......2005-10-13

Keith Ward's "God Chance and Necessity" is extremely accessible to the general reader, much like Richard Dawkins' book, "The Blind Watch Maker". I think he does the public a service by making it so easy to read. Unfortunately, this accessibility is largely gained at the expense of a certain philosophical elegance, if you will. For example, in some contexts he'll use the word "universe" as meaning physical spacetime, and in other contexts he'll use it to mean "everything that exists, including God." Initially, he tells you when he's changing his meaning, but then he later doesn't.

In short, if you are used to the clarity and rigorous approach used by many philosophical authors (e.g., Immanuel Kant, Aristotle, etc.), then you may find Ward's approach a bit less deductive (or even inductive). He is mostly concerned with rebutting Dawkins and Atkins than actually developing an original philosophy.

For instance, he develops many interesting metaphysical ideas (for example, human free will is not incompatible with God's omniscience, since God could conceivably know of every *possible universe* while the future of the *actual universe* was indetermined), but he doesn't lay down a rigorous metaphysical system. I suppose one reason he does this is because he wants to appeal to a wide crowd of religious people who have their own doctrines, and they might feel alienated if Ward was to make truth claims beyond what is universally accepted about how the universe works.

Not clearly a good thing, he often waxes lyrical in poetic tangents that don't do much to help his case, except maybe emotionally or aesthetically. Though, I suppose if intuition and aesthetics are any basis for concluding something about reality, then these tangents aren't entirely wasteful. Oh, and for some reason he frequently employs awkward transitional adverbs to begin sentences like, "In fact, of course, it is true that...," which I found distracting.

I think this book's greatest success is in highlighting the grave limitations of natural selection *alone* to explain intelligent life. He effectively proves that the idea of life existing for the propagation of genes (Cf. Dawkins, "The Selfish Gene") is completely ludicrous (it would be, he points out, like suggesting that the cake exists for the propagation of the recipe; but the recipe does not have intention, and neither does DNA!). Again, these are not couched in philosophical language, and, if you want a more rigorous approach that supports Ward's position, I recommend you see any of John Searle's essays or books about consciousness.

Psuedo-scientific theism disguised as real science.......2004-03-15

Both logic and science are faulty in this book. This is little more than another weak attempt to establish a scientific basis for theism. Theism is about faith. Science is about evidence. The author fails miserably to link the two.

Bad science and bad logic.......2004-03-15

God, Chance, and Necessity is an attempt by Keith Ward to demonstrate that science, far from being incompatible with God, provides strong confirmation of God's existence. To support his case, Ward attempts to refute arguments by Peter Atkins and Richard Dawkins, two prominent atheist scientists.

Ward's critique of Atkins, although not perfect, does seem to be reasonable for the most part. I agree with Ward that Atkins attempts to make the process of our universe coming into existence naturally seem simpler than it probably is.

However, I find Ward's critique of Darwinian evolution and Dawkins in particular to be highly problematic. Although Ward pretends to accept modern science, most of his chapter "Darwin and Natural Selection" is nothing more than an attack on the theory of evolution that is almost unanimously accepted by biologists today.

What is most appalling about Ward's discussion of evolution, however, is that he has a very poor understanding of the subject. A notable example is Ward's mention of the theory of punctuated equilibria. According to Ward, "Eldredge and Gould have developed the hypothesis of 'punctuated equilibria', according to which long periods of gradual mutation are punctuated by episodic events in which large, fast, saltatory genetic changes (i.e. changes by large sudden jumps) occur in conditions of relative genetic isolation. Such changes occur before any selectional control, though of course they are subject to natural selection once they exist" (Ward, p. 75).

It is clear that Ward does not understand what punctuated equilibria is. The "episodic events" that Ward describes are not saltatory genetic changes that occur before any selectional control. Rather, they are periods when, through mutation and natural selection, evolution occurs relatively rapidly. Niles Eldredge explains this common misconception in his book Time Frames:

"The most common misconception about `punctuated equilibria' [is] that Gould and I proposed a saltationist model of overnight change supposedly based on sudden mutations with large-scale effects ...[W]e used conventional speciation theory and the notion of adaptive change through natural selection to explain the origin of new reproductive communities (species) and the adaptive modifications of organisms through time!" (Eldredge, pp. 141-142).

This misconception is clearly explained in the chapter titled "Puncturing punctuationism" in Dawkins' book The Blind Watchmaker. Since Ward criticizes this book extensively, it is surprising that Ward didn't read or read but didn't understand this chapter.

In the chapter titled "The Metaphysics of Theism" Ward proceeds to justify belief in God. Ward writes that God is "not a theory invented to explain particular occurrences in the world. What, then, is the idea of God for? God is primarily the supreme object of worship and prayer" (Ward, p. 96). How does this fit with Ward's previous assertion that "only the existence of God that can explain the propensity to complexity and consciousness that seems so clearly present in evolution"?

Throughout this chapter, Ward tries to argue that theism and materialism (the belief that nature is all that exists) are both equally valid hypotheses, except that theism explains more data. I agree with Ward on the latter point, because assuming God exists, any unexplained phenomenon can be explained with the suggestion that God wanted it. However, I believe the former point is invalid, because theism requires the assumption that an unexplained complex being exists, while materialism does not require this assumption. The theist objection that a complex God requires no explanation is no better than a materialist objection that a complex universe requires no explanation.

In chapter "Evolution and Purpose," we find that Ward doesn't like Dawkins' suggestion that the Utility Function if life is the survival of DNA (Ward, p. 137). Ward writes that "In fact, the survival of genes is not maximized by evolution, since the whole process proceeds precisely by the mutation of genetic material, that is, by replacing genes with better ones." This would be relevant if Dawkins referred to the "Utility Function of evolutionary change" rather than the "Utility function of life." Dawkins agrees that evolutionary change is detrimental to any genes that are lost in the process of that change. In his book The Selfish Gene, Dawkins explains that "Evolution is something that happens, willy-nilly, in spite of all the efforts of the replicators (and nowadays of the genes) to prevent it happening" (Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, p. 19). This is consistent with the fascinating error-correction mechanisms we observe in DNA (Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, p. 126).

Unfortunately, the few reasonable arguments that Ward makes in his book are overshadowed by the glaring scientific and logical errors he makes. I think most people who have read the books The Blind Watchmaker, The Selfish Gene, and A River Out of Eden by Richard Dawkins will find that most of Ward's objections to Darwinian evolution and Dawkins' claims have little basis. I would recommend approaching this book with skepticism.

Average customer rating:
Chance, Providence, and Necessity: Eight Lectures Held in Dornach Between August 23 and September 6, 1915
Rudolf Steiner
Manufacturer: Steiner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Religious | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Theosophy | New Age | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0880102624

Average customer rating:
Dice of the gods: Causality, necessity and chance
W Ehrenberg
Manufacturer: Birkbeck College
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Epistemology | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0950609102

Average customer rating:
God, Chance & Necessity

Manufacturer: Oneworld
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HVO5GM

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books