Rush Home Road: A Novel

Book Description

Sharla Cody is only five, but has already lived a troubled life- only to find herself dumped on an elderly neighbor's doorstep when her mother takes off for the summer. Although Sharla is not the angelic child Addy Shadd had pictured when she agreed to look after her, the two soon forge a deep bond. To Addy's surprise, Sharla's presence brings back memories of her own childhood in Rusholme, a town settled by fugitive slaves in the mid-1800s. She reminisces about her family, her first love, and the painful experience that drove her away from home. Brilliantly structured-and achingly lyrical, this is a story about the redeeming power of love and memory, and about two unlikely people who transform each other's lives forever.

Customer Reviews:

good, but...........2007-03-29

I enjoyed the novel with a few critiques. I found that Addy had way too many tragedies in her life. The death of her husband and daughter seemed to happen just to add drama to her life. I didn't enjoy it as much as "The Girls" but found it easy to read but not memorable.

I Rushed Home to Read It!.......2006-08-09

If you are looking at these reviews in 2006, it may be because you have just read Lori Lansens latest novel, "The Girls" and found it to be so enthralling that you want more more more. That's why I picked up "Rush Home Road", and am I ever glad I did because it is every bit as enthralling, page-turning, heart-wrenching and endearing as "The Girls". This woman can write a story! Maybe it's her experience as a screenplay writer that makes her able to keep you interested, to teach you something you didn't know, and to make you want to know what happens next. I can't wait for her next novel! Brava!

A bit cheesy, but overall enjoyable read.......2006-05-05

Addy, an elderly black woman, suddenly finds herself the guardian of Sharla, a biracial five-year-old, after Sharla's trashy mother abandons her. Although initially unwilling to take on the job, Addy soon discovers how much she needs Sharla, and quickly transforms her into a healthy, loving child -- a necessary task, as Addy knows that the two won't have much longer together. The story gets kind of hokey in spots, and Lansens bogs it down with a lot of flashbacks (Addy's lived through a lot in her 70-odd years) but overall, it's hard to put this book down.

Too Oprah-ish!.......2005-08-28

What started off as an interesting story turned into an Oprah-ish type novel where the characters faced extreme drama at every turn and are faced with unbelievably unrealistic coincidences. I thought that the book would cover an interesting topic of the Underground Railroad as part of the novel took place in Chatham, Ontario, but it did not. I really wanted to enjoy this book, but it left me unfulfilled. I was surprised that the author didn't reunite her main character with her first love, although she DID literally stumble upon his grave. Bad writing, but I give it a "3" because some of the characters had potential.

Seamless Integration .......2005-05-08

The book is soul-enhancing; a story of an elderly black woman wonderfully revealed when she has to take care of a young girl. Seamlessly integrated as the author reveals the past through the present and the feelings oppressed by various persons are skilfully portrayed.

A book that convinces me to pass up on tv series and reach for soul-enhancing rather than soul-reducing activity.

Book Description

A dark and powerful fantasy from the bestselling author of Ender's Shadow.Enter the city of Hart's Hope, ruled by gods both powerful and indifferent, riddled with sorcery and revenge. The city was captured by a rebellious lord, Palicrovol, who overthrew the cruel king, Nasilee, hated by his people. Palicrovol, too, was cruel, as befitted a king. He took the true mantle of kinghood by forcing Asineth, now Queen by her father's death, to marry him, raping her to consummate the marriage. [But he was not cruel enough to rule.] He let her live after her humiliation; live to bear a daughter; live to return from exile and retake the throne of Hart's Hope.But she, in turn, sent Palicrovol into exile to breed a son who would, in the name of the God, take back the kingdom from its cruel Queen.

Customer Reviews:

Card's Classic Fantasy...Brilliant!.......2007-04-14

In typical Orson Scott Card fashion, Hart's Hope does not disappoint. One of the things I love about Card is that each one of his books are entirely different, yet they are instantly identifiable as a book that he authored. What's even better is that he always exceeds my expectations. I could build up a book of his in my head for five years, and it would still be better than I could ever imagine. The man is magical with a pen (or a computer) and with Hart's Hope, he has written a truly magical tale.

Orson Scott Card has describe Hart's Hope as the most classic fantasy novel he has written, meaning that the book holds all the elements of a traditional fantasy. It takes place during an unstated time, yet seems medieval in fashion. It involves magic, sorcerers, kingdoms lost, kingdoms fought for, kingdoms saved, vengeance, and kings and queens. It's quite the epic novel wrapped up into a little under 300 pages.

Hart's Hope is the story of Orem, the unknown son of the king, Palicroval. Palicroval has killed the current king and taken the king's daughter as his wife. The king's daughter then decides to take vengeance and becomes Queen Beauty through a truly horrifying ritual of blood and sorcery. Queen Beauty in turn has put the king, Palicroval under a horrible spell and sees his every move. The Hart is a stag of 100 horns, a god of power. The Hart leads Palicroval to a woman who fathers Palicroval's son, though Palicroval is unaware of it. The child is named Orem and has powers that are unknown to anyone, even to himself. All of these storylines interweave into a very complex but surprisingly easy to understand plot that takes us on a truly magical, wondrous, and at times horrifyingly graphic, yet beautiful story.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've never been disappointed with Card. I've read nearly his whole library and find it very hard to rank books of his in order of which I like best, though I must admit that my favorite book of his is still Speaker For The Dead, the sequel to Ender's Game. The great thing about Card's novels is the love we feel for his characters. He has a gift of bringing a touch of humanity to all of his characters. I care about his characters like no other author's. Hart's Hope was no exception.

I enjoyed this one very much and would recommend it to any fans of fantasy. And for those that aren't crazy about that genre, you may still like this book. The writing and the story itself stand alone without being classified into a genre. Beautiful book!

Pretty bleeding good.......2007-04-03

My only complaint was an annoying sticker on the cover, but I got it to come off with minimal residue. Overall, a solid, strong service. Average speed but great quality of the product itself.

Dark and powerful fantasy that you won't easily forget.......2007-02-22

Hart's Hope is a tragic tale about a land of magic and misery, where common people live in a desperate struggle to cling to life, and rulers rule with iron fists. The bulk of the story revolves around the life of Orem, the son of an ousted king and result of the meddling of powerful forces, who is meant to righten the natural order of the world that has been corrupted by the justifiable anger and hate of Queen Beauty.

The book is in the form of a narrative letter from one character to King Palicrovol, chronicling events in a fashion that draws you in and keeps you captivated from the beginning to the end. Difficult questions are raised about the necessity of evil and the justification of vengeance. The writing style is magical and mysterious, almost flowery at some points, and very graphic, maybe making this story a bit too much for the faint-of-heart (and certainly too much for young children). Explicit sexual scenes are not glossed over in the least and the commonplace brutality found in this story makes the whole thing more life-like, powerful, and sometimes disturbing.

The setting reminds me a lot of Card's Alvin Maker series, especially as far as the characters and the types of magic involved.

It takes real talent to tell such a powerful and epic story in 300 pages. Orson Scott Card is without a doubt one of the best Fantasy/Sci-Fi writers of all time.

The most touching and tragic fantasy tale of all.......2005-11-19

The most lingering question you will have after reading 'Hart's Hope' is, 'What is evil, anyway?' Is Evil a single act? A single retribution? A single greed? Or is Evil a festering wound that takes years to nurture, molding it as you would a lump of clay? If Evil is singular, can it be absolved? Where does Evil end, and where does it begin?

'Hart's Hope' is one of the best books I have ever read. It still clings to me like a sticky web, trailing from my fingers as I pass my hand across all that I own, all that I am. And I ask myself, "What If?"

When Palicrovol defeats the bad King Nasilee, he only has to force the king's daughter Asineth to marry him and consummate the marriage in order for him to rule Burland. Palicrovol's single act of mercy in not killing Asineth as he was told he should do would eventually become his undoing. Instead of killing her, Palicrovol sends Asineth away with the powerful wizard Sleeve, but not before he has tagged Asineth with the name 'Beauty'.

Beauty's thirst for vengeance and power over the man who defiled her is legend, overpowering even the bonds of motherhood when she gives birth to a ten-month child, a bad omen. Obtaining magical powers through her child, Beauty sets out to challenge King Palicrovol.

Beauty leaves Palicrovol with his kingship, but takes over her father's city, renamed Inwit. She transforms Palicrovol's virgin bride into a hideous visage and renames her Weasel. Palicrovol, banished from the city, eventually finds himself spellbound to take a farmer's wife on the shores of a river.

The farmer's wife births a son named Orem. The majority of the story is about Orem's upbringing and adventure into Inwit, where Orem will meet his fate with Queen Beauty. Along the way are many unsettling events, one of my favorites being Orem's encounter with the Sweet Sisters, deformed co-joined twins separated by magic.

Hart's Hope is written with such lavish and precise prose that I could feel the wind, hear the lapping waters of the river, see the gates of the city, and smell the putrescence of Beggarstown. 'Hart's Hope' is as magical and mystical as your imagination will stretch, yet completely absorbing with its realistic description and dialogue.

It is a heart-wrenching tale of despair and broken promises, of abuse and outright evil, and of the hope that lingers in the hearts of those who keep faith. Steeped in curious creeds and mysticisms, Orem faces off against Beauty even knowing that he must sacrifice the one thing he holds most dear to his heart.

If you are a fantasy lover, you mustn't miss out on this spectacular tale. Though I warn you, it is dark. Truly one of the best books I have ever read. Enjoy!

One of my Fantasy top 5!.......2005-10-20

I read this book when I was about 19 years old. I still can't forget it! It seems to combine fantasy with a bit of in-your-face whimsy. Fantastic!

Warning: you have to be a critical thinker to get this book. Otherwise, it will go right over your head.

DROPPED THREADS - What We Aren't Told: Starch Salt Chocolate Wine; What Stays in the Family; Notes on a Piece for Carol; Lettuce Turnip and Pea; Casseroles; Hope for the Best - Expect the Worst; Tuck Me In - Redefining Attachment Between Mothers and Sons

Average customer rating:

DROPPED THREADS - What We Aren't Told: Starch Salt Chocolate Wine; What Stays in the Family; Notes on a Piece for Carol; Lettuce Turnip and Pea; Casseroles; Hope for the Best - Expect the Worst; Tuck Me In - Redefining Attachment Between Mothers and Sons
Carol; Anderson, Marjorie (editors) (Joan Barfoot; Lorna Crozier; Isabel Huggan; Anne Hart; Bonnie Burnard; Susan Lightstone; Marni Jackson; Shields
Manufacturer: Vintage Books - Canada
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Similar Items:

Dropped Threads 2: More of What We Aren't Told

ASIN: B000FJPOCU

Product Description

The hidden emotional territory of women's lives--from the joys of belly dancing to the agony of caring for a dying child--is revealed in the pages of Dropped Threads: What We Aren't Told. Editors Carol Shields and Marjorie Anderson bring together 34 eclectic and engaging pieces by renowned authors (e.g. Margaret Atwood and Bonnie Burnard) as well as women whose day jobs include politics, child-raising, and cattle ranching. Marni Jackson's "Tuck Me In" is an entertaining account of conflicts with a teenage son who considers shampoo a culturally imposed artifact. Perhaps the most powerful essay is "Edited Version," in which Isla James describes her dying child's last days at home....

Hope Against Hope: Christian Eschatology at the Turn of the Millennium

Average customer rating:

Beautifully Written
Best book on eschatology available

Hope Against Hope: Christian Eschatology at the Turn of the Millennium
Richard Bauckham , and Trevor A. Hart
Manufacturer: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0802843913

Book Description

Two leading New Testament scholars explore the Christian vision of the future from the perspective of life today.

The start of the twenty-first century evokes fresh concern for what the future holds. Will it bring an end to suffering and evil? Can we look for a new heaven and earth? Will judgment be cosmic or personal? HOPE AGAINST HOPE revisits these and other questions central to Christian eschatology and provides a fresh yet responsible look at the church's vision of the future. Integrating images from the Bible and Christian tradition with analysis of contemporary Western culture, Richard Bauckham and Trevor Hart reinterpret the meaning of such eschatological themes as the antichrist, the last judgment, and the kingdom of God in terms that will benefit students and general readers alike.

Customer Reviews:

Beautifully Written.......2004-12-06

I'll leave the complex in depth reviews to others. What I love about this book is that I can understand it. It's graceful and lucid and reading it is a pleasure. The words are infused with a kind of joy. As a novelist, I have to make characters, plots, put people in action. It's hard for me to approach theology or philosophy because of the density of abstractions in the writing. I just can't get most of it. But these two highly gifted theologians have written something of great meaning that is accessible to some one like me. As to the premise of the book, it's a convincing testament to the unfathomable and ever increasing power of the Christian Event. It moves us forward. I connect it with Teilhard de Chardin.

Best book on eschatology available.......2004-10-06

This book is without question the best contemporary book I have ever read on eschatology. Unlike the popular evangelical subculture that tends toward apocalyptic fantasizing and bogus fiction books, this book seriously examines the essence of Christian eachatology: Hope.

Bauckham and Hart chronicle the rise and demise of secular concepts of hope, cheifly the myth of progress. The optimisim of he 19th century has now given way to a culture of despair, suspicion and hopelessness. Against this backdrop, Bauckham and Hart show how Christian eschatology offers a vision of hope that is able to overcome the current culture of despair. Unlike secualr hope(s), Christian hope is grounded in the trancendent possibilities of God and his redemption and not anything within our power. As such, Christian eschatology offers a paradigm of hope that is able to nourish and sustain us in the face of the nihilism of our age.

The chief chapter of the book examines central eschatological "images of hope" such as Resurrection, The Kingdom of God, The Millennium, The Beast, etc. Rather than speculating about how or if these images point to future events, Bauckham and Hart show how they are intended to noutish the Christian imagination, thereby giving us hope.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. In a time where hope is increasingly absent and suspect, Bauckham and Hart's delineation of the power of Christian hope is much needed.

Fresh Wisdom: Breakthrough to Enlightenment

Average customer rating:

Great Reading
A life-changing work!
The Most Profound Book You Will Ever Read

Fresh Wisdom: Breakthrough to Enlightenment
Tony Hope , Markus Hart , and Vicki Wilson
Manufacturer: BookSurge Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Love & Romance | Relationships | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1419618555
Release Date: 2005-11-15

Book Description

The authors of Fresh Wisdom show no mercy as they expose and obliterate commonly accepted deceptions and delusions. This controversial manuscript, 30 years in the making, is timely advice for those who realize 'things are not as they seem'. Fresh Wisdom provides powerful principles and strategies for making sense of life in a senseless world, enabling you to find your life purpose. This book is not for the faint-hearted.

Customer Reviews:

Great Reading.......2006-01-09

Paradigm shifting. I wish this book would become a best seller, because this would mean that there has been some sort of great awakening. Regardless, I am delighted to be one of a chosen few who can say he has been laboring to internalize all that this life "textbook" contains.

This book is must reading for anyone who knows that something in this world has gone wrong and is attempting to lift that proverbial veil of deception. It shows the reader how to prepare spiritually, financially, and personally for the coming difficult times. I have a mission in life and that is to edify and admonish others while there is time.

Please read and spread the Truth. Once you learn, you will know why the Apostle Paul preached and admonished as much as he did. He knew that this life was only a test and a preparation for something inconceivably wonderful after this - but only if we pass the test. This makes a great study guide. Please pass the test. God Bless.

A life-changing work!.......2006-01-05

Fresh Wisdom has had an incredible impact on my life. It has helped me escape from that `held back', stifled, chained feeling I have had my entire life. Fresh Wisdom has helped me to break free of so many shackles that have prevented me from living life to it's full. It has helped me to understand so much about my past choices and `mistakes', and to actually change the way I think and live my life. I now live without guilt; am happy and content every day of my life; don't judge those I meet but have a new capacity for love; have that incredible feeling of living with my `eyes wide open'; but most of all have discovered the purpose of my life, which has literally transformed me. I wake up every day with a bounce in my step and anticipation in my heart. I no longer drag myself out of bed, dreading the day ahead and the boredom of life. I know exactly what I want and what I need to achieve every day. I am no longer distracted from this by other people's needs and agendas. I now truly know the meaning of what it is to be FREE.

The Most Profound Book You Will Ever Read.......2005-11-23

Fresh Wisdom is definitely not for everyone, and if you are sensitive about fast-held beliefs you should definitely not purchase this book.

The authors show no mercy as they expose commonly accepted deceptions and delusions in the 5 key areas of life:
Health and Longevity;
Romance, Love and Relationships;
Independent Wealth Creation;
Metaphysical and Spiritual Realities, and;
Sovereignty and Personal Privacy.

Fresh Wisdom has changed my world view entirely, and as a result my life has changed completely.

If you are one of the few who realize 'things are not as they seem', this book will 'make sense of life in a senseless world'. If, however, you are happy in your cocoon of life, you will find some of the revelations too uncomfortable to accept and should perhaps consider a less controversial alternative.

Fresh Wisdom presents a paradigm (or way of looking at life) that will enable one to answer any challenging life issue. Get it if you are in any way frustrated with what you see happening in the world around you - you will finally grok why things are the way they are.

The Lesbian in Front of the Classroom: Writings by Lesbian Teachers

Average customer rating:

The Lesbian in Front of the Classroom: Writings by Lesbian Teachers
Sarah-Hope Parmeter , Irene Reti , Ellen Louise Hart , M. Eugenia Rosa , Caroline Sidaway , and Anza Stein
Manufacturer: Inland Book Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Similar Items:

Lesbian Teachers: An Invisible Presence (S U N Y Series in the Psychology of Women)

ASIN: 0939821311

A Perfect Mitzvah Gift Book: Time Travel with the Kagan's Kids to 10th Century Kiev, "When Jews Of Eastern Europe Had No Hope Other Than The Grace Of The ... Meshiach, Or The Arrival Of The Khazars."

Average customer rating:

A Perfect Mitzvah Gift Book: Time Travel with the Kagan's Kids to 10th Century Kiev, "When Jews Of Eastern Europe Had No Hope Other Than The Grace Of The ... Meshiach, Or The Arrival Of The Khazars."
Anne Hart
Manufacturer: ASJA Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0595381596

Book Description

There may not have been any concept of Bar or Bat Mitzvah in 10th century Kiev 'yet,' but that wouldn't stop the nearly grown children of the Kagan of the Khazars from arranging the appropriate rite of passage and blessing for the changing of the societies around them which they knew—the pagan Vikings, Rus, and Pechenegs surrounding Kiev, the Volga Finnic peoples of the Urals, the eternal Silk Road, Christian Byzantium to the south, the Caucasus Mountaineers, the grassland steppes, the rabbi-scholars of Constantinople and Spain, the Turks arriving from Central Asia, and the Islamic Caliphate of Persia and Baghdad to the East. Each encounter began a new concept and framework for their time-travel adventures.

The garden of the Khazars is a storyteller's paradise, especially during the time that their ruler's family, friends, and associates turned Jewish, and the Kagan of the Khazars got tied up in the belly of a Viking Ship, rescued by his thirteen-year-old son, and his daughter, the teenage, time-traveling Princess Tarbagatay rode between the fourth and tenth centuries with the Queen of the Steppes. Welcome to anthropology through fiction and my series for all storytellers on tall tales of Medieval Khazaria.

Let my first person proto-Bar or Bat Mitzvah gift story book novel, although fiction, guide you through the walkways of anthropology and ethnology in my Kagan's Kids of Khazaria Time-Travel Adventures, the perfect book for a Mitzvah gift for thirteen to fifteen-year old readers and also for their parents. As an author of multicultural and multiethnic novels that reveal the nuances of anthropology through fiction—stories, novels, and plays—let this novel and the treat that follows be your mentor to open doors to new opportunities, choices, roads, and destinations.

Average customer rating:

Hart's Hope (Orion)
Orson Scott Card
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0048232882

Christian politics: false hope or biblical demand

Average customer rating:

Christian politics: false hope or biblical demand
Rockne MaCarthy , Jerry Herbert , John Olthuis , Hendrik Hart , and James W. Skillen
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000R8XOBM

Average customer rating:

A.D. Hope (Oxford Australian Writers)
Kevin Hart
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Book Description

A.D. Hope has long been Australia's most internationally renowned poet, yet Kevin Hart's new critical study of the 85 year old poet is the only one devoted to his work. Hart seeks to read Hope's poetry and criticism in terms of several overlapping contexts: critical debate about Australian
poetry; twentieth-century poetry as a whole (including French, German, and Russian poets who have influenced the poet); Hope's intellectual and cultural commitments (such as his aesthetic theory, as drawn from Aquinas and others, his interest in science and mathematics, his cultural politics in the
university); and contemporary critical theory. Superbly argued, and written by one of Australia's finest young poets and critics, A.D. Hope is a worthy guide to the career of one of our most notable writers.

Average customer rating:

The industry reviews are quite unfair.

Hart's Hope
Orson Scott Card
Manufacturer: Severn House Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0727844962

Customer Reviews:

The industry reviews are quite unfair........2006-09-03

Well, it might seem a bit strange for me to be writing a review of a book published 20 years ago, but if I'm like other Amazon visitors, I like to have at least one reader review to go by, even if the book is quite old.

The industry reviews included with this book listing are fairly accurate--the old couple in the woods aren't what they appear to be, kids die of a mysterious ailment while the old folks seem to grow younger and stronger, and the main husband and wife in the story are having marital problems. However, the industry's despair over a "poorly crafted" horror novel is far from fair.

I personally found this novel to be gripping, and for all facets of the story to be interesting and part of the overall "big picture" of the book. Some of the characters featured prominently don't end up doing much by the end of the book, but they're far from superfluous--every character plays a role in this complicated but satisfying novel.

As for bits and pieces of the book being "too far-fetched" even for an "occult novel," I'd have to disagree there, as well. Some of the best-known horror fiction is based on premises that could never possibly be true, but the authors of those novels wrote in such a way that it was easy for us to picture something so improbable happening right in our own little towns.

All in all, a good effort by Black--this being the first novel of his I've ever read, I look forward to digging into another book of his that I own, Letters from the Dead.

Average customer rating:

Good Book

Adventure with Intelligence

Lose yourself in the Outskirts!

Kirstein's Secret

Two out of three?

The Outskirter's Secret
Rosemary Kirstein
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Lost Steersman

The Language of Power

The Steerswoman's Road

Cast in Shadow (The Cast Series, Book 1)

Beguilement (The Sharing Knife, Book 1)

ASIN: 0345368851
Release Date: 1992-10-24

Customer Reviews:

Good Book.......2007-10-02

If you begin reading the books in this series, you'll want to get them all. You just have to see how it all ends. The world the Steerswoman lives in is believable as is the technology and the situations with which she must cope.

These can be read as stand alones -- there's ample description in each book to bring you up to speed -- they're best if read as a series so you can journey along as the plot thickens, the mystery deepens and the surprises happen. What are the blue shards? Can a wizard be a wizard and still be a friend? Will she be betrayed by the wizard, after all? Read it and see.

Adventure with Intelligence.......2005-01-26

Another original and exciting story of the female, swashbuckling scholar. The author has done her research and knows her subject: from a clever sword fight test to uncover the true identity of an opponent to interesting contrasts of the moral/social considerations of nomads as opposed to that of village dwellers (there is a core element of agreement, or there would be no basis of understanding). If possible, read "The Steerswoman" first.

Lose yourself in the Outskirts!.......2002-12-07

The Outskirts is a fascinating world described wonderfully through the steerswoman's natural inclination to quesiton and investigate. This book has it all...magic, mystery, intrigue, love, war, adventure.

I look forward to next summer when I can read the next book in the series.

Kirstein's Secret.......2001-02-25

One of the major disappointments of the genre is the apparent abandonment of Rowan and Bel in the Outskirts. There was a sequel planned - I can find references to Ms. Kirstein's reading portions of it at science fiction conventions - but it doesn't seem to have ever been published. This book and its prequel, "The Steerswoman," are among my treasured paperbacks.

At the risk of giving spoilers, imagine a world that's nearly uninhabitable by man, filled with plants and animals inimical to earthkind. Now imagine a program for the terraforming of that world, a program that will take centuries if not millenia, involving first infrared bombardment by satellite and the burning of the borderlands, then sowing a genetically engineered plant that serves as a transition to earth life, and then a succession of increasingly earth-like plants.

After hundreds or thousands of years, in the areas treated first, the land is pretty much indistinguishable from earth; at the borders, life is strange and harsh. Most of the planet is apparently unchanged. Different peoples and cultures inhabit the various zones as the millenia-long terraforming proceeds.

To make things stranger still, those with knowledge have made themselves sorcerers and wizards, wielding technology when and how it suits them, quarreling among themselves and extirpating those who would try to recover science and technology. Most residents in this world are technologically ignorant, unknowingly held in that state by the technocractic wizards.

The sorcerers grudgingly tolerate a band of Socratean scholars, the Steerswomen, who have re-developed principles of logic and serve as explorers, historians and cartographers. They mingle with the people of this world, operating by two rules: they will answer any question you ask, provided that you answer the questions they ask you. If you refuse to answer a Steerswoman's question, they shun you. It works pretty well...

But the wizards have their schemes, and as Rowan the Steerswoman struggles to understand them with the help of Bel, an outskirter, a member of one of the tribes on the fringe of the terraforming, the importance of understanding the schemes is increasingly urgent. Because one of the wizards is willing to use the infrared/burning tool in the satellite system to burn terraformed lands, and it is a terrifying weapon. The same wizard has caused one of the satellites to crash, at what jeopardy to the terraforming product we don't yet know.

It is fascinating to watch Rowan struggle to understand the issues and her situation, to see her begin to grasp that the world she knows is not the world on which earthkind evolved. With her, we are ignorant as to the wizards' motives, but we can understand better than her the risks their actions are creating.

Add to this meticulously crafted world and plot the vivid characters of Bel and Rowan, the logically consistent and believable cultures her world has spawned, and you have a wonderful story .... that is incomplete. It's half told. It's maddening.

I don't know if the problem is with Ms. Kirstein, her editor, her publisher or some combination of them, but this is a storyline that needs to be completed. Please. I'm begging...

Read and enjoy "The Outskirter's Secret" and "The Steerswoman." But be prepared to wait a long time, at best, for the rest of the story.

Two out of three?.......2001-02-05

I have read both of Rosemary Kirstein's books and enjoyed them enormously. She has created wonderful characters out of which an exciting story naturally develops. She has also imagined a world which at first sight looks fantastical and at second seems to be based on very sound science (Rowan's deduction of the notion of how to get something into orbit is fascinating).

What troubles me about these books is that they are plainly part of a larger book which is unfinished. Many questions remain to be answered at the end of Outskirter's Secrets...and the main one *I* have is: what happened to Rosemary Kirstein? Why are two books of a (possible) trilogy all of her work we have to enjoy?

What happened next?

Inga

Average customer rating:
The Outskirter's Secret
Rosemary Kirstein
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NU2ULY

Average customer rating:
The Outskirter's Secret
Rosemary Kirstein
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OVJE3Y

Customer Reviews:

An excellent and realistic account of a Christian life........1998-05-03

This autobiography of the author of such classics as "Treasure in the Snow" and "Star of Light" is itself a real treasure. Patricia St. John doesn't engage in any "everything is happy happy happy" account of her life. There is a realism and depth that those who take their Christian life seriously can connect and relate to. In my own opinion, the poem near the end "The Alchemist" is in itself worth the price of the book. If you are skeptical of the popular evangelical cliches that trivialize Christian experiance and Biblical truths about the Christian life, this book will be breath of fresh air.

An excellent and realistic account of a Christian life........1998-05-03

Ordinary Woman's Extraordinary Faith - Autobiography Of Patricia St. John

Average customer rating:

Ordinary Woman's Extraordinary Faith - Autobiography Of Patricia St. John
Patricia St. John
Manufacturer: Harold Shaw Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000JZX47W

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books