Book Description
Ranging across two centuries, and from the western Himalaya to an Adirondack village, these wonderfully imagined stories and novellas travel the territories of yearning and awakening, of loss and unexpected discovery. A mapper of the highest mountain peaks realizes his true obsession. A young woman afire with scientific curiosity must come to terms with a romantic fantasy. Brothers and sisters, torn apart at an early age, are beset by dreams of reunion. Throughout, Barrett's most characteristic theme—the happenings in that borderland between science and desire—unfolds in the diverse lives of unforgettable human beings.
Although each richly layered tale stands independently, readers of Ship Fever (National Book Award winner) and Barrett's extraordinary novel The Voyage of the Narwhal, will discover subtle links both among these new stories and to characters in the earlier works.
The title story of this volume was selected for Best American Short Stories 2001 and for Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards 2001.
Amazon.com
No one limns the opposing pull of inner and outer worlds more eloquently than Andrea Barrett. Her naturalists, explorers, scientists, and healers are driven to work and above all to know; they categorize, theorize, and collect the phenomena of the natural world with an urgency that feels like physical need. But they are motivated equally by desire and loneliness, and the theme of domestic life runs like a countermelody through each of the six lovely, deeply memorable stories in Servants of the Map. The narrator of the title story, a cartographer in the Grand Trigonometrical Survey of India, is a timid, home- and family-loving man, but the Himalayas strike him with the force of a revelation. The heroine of the lyrical "Theories of Rain" is a creature of strong feelings and appetites, driven to ask questions about the world around her in the same spirit as she longs for a neighbor and mourns the brother separated from her in childhood. Her scientific curiosity is scarcely different from her desire: "Through that channel of longing, the world enters me."
Fans of Barrett's earlier books (the sublime Ship Fever and Voyage of the Narwhal) will delight in tracing the stories and characters that wind in and out of these three books, producing the sense of something lovely, ongoing, and whole. In the final story, Elizabeth finds consolation in her work caring for tubercular patients--"as if, in the order and precarious harmony of this house and those it shelters she might, for all that gets lost in this life, at last have found a cure." The same might be said of science, and of Barrett's art. --Mary Park
Customer Reviews:
Very sick.......2006-07-28
I enjoyed the "Narwhal". That led me to believe I might have a good book here. I began reading and found a very sick image of male sexuality. I am certainly no prude but men, among their own, behave far differently than Ms. Barrett imagines. What she writes suggests a great deal about her own thoughts.
I am sorry to see a competent writer resort to such devices. It is truly sad. I suspect she has fallen on hard times and is trying to make images of something she doesn't understand at all. The story rings with falsehood from that point on.
Good reader that I am; I read the entire work and must say that I believe Ms Barrett is short of material and not creative enough to be convincing.I did have the opportunity to review this for a newspaper but it was not worth a review.
The author should look at plot again. Tricks are apparent and really beneath her. I hope she does better in the future. She has the basic ability. Perhaps this book was an aberration. I hope so. I would like to see more of what I know she can do.
Erudite, poetic, deeply enriching stories.......2003-06-25
SERVANTS OF THE MAP is a unique collection of short stories by the redoubtable Andrea Barrett. While most of us felt she needed the space and stretched-canvas-epic-form to weave her magic, in this collection of six shortish stories she proves she is as adept at relating her tales woven equally with Apollonian/scientific and Dionysian/sensual facets in tight, capsular fashion. She still manages to create vistas rather than views and lineages rather than one dimensional lifetimes. Now and then I find it necessary to break out of her luxuriously poetic language and take a laudatory appraisal of this women's depth of scientific information. The research for such diverse stories pays off by giving the reader the pleasure of discovery of cartography, botany, medical diseases etc in a flowing, painless entry to the richly detailed minds of her characters. This is nothing short of a wondrous book, on to be revisited often - one story at a time - like a treasured scrapbook travelogue!
Wonderful storytelling, but..................2003-05-08
No doubt, these finely crafted, interwoven stories will delight many readers, but.... If you're considering this collection because you loved the adventure and danger of Voyage of the Narwhal, reconsider. These stories are as quiet and subtle as Voyage is exciting.
Fabulous Stories.......2002-11-02
Andrea Barrett's Servants of the Map is a wonderful story collection, a collection with tremendous depth and imagination. Barrett's stories are all richly told and engrossing, each giving us their own world. What is remarkable about her stories, and what sets this collection off from most others out today is her focus on the scientific world. This focus adds an additional layer to the stories and makes them somehow richer. The stories involve a 19th century map-maker, a 21st century science professor and early 20th century tuberculosis sufferers. Barrett does not shy away from the scientific nature of her characters and their stories and because of this, these stories have additional layers of meaning. These are terrific stories. Pick them up.
Wonderous.......2002-03-31
I discovered Andrea Barrett when I read Voyage of the Narwhal, an epic story of courage, devotion, and the struggle with the northern latitudes that captured so many imaginations during the 19th century. I enjoyed that book tremendously. I wasn't disappointed in this collection of short stories.
Andrea Barrett has a great ability when it comes to developing characters. From Max Vigne, a hard working member of a mapping expedition in the area of Northern India in the title story, Servant of the Map" to his wife Clara that makes a major appearance in the final story "The Cure", all her characters are real. Almost real enough, it seems, to reach out and touch.
Each story stands on its own. But the way Ms Barrett weaves the stories together if fabulous. The final story, by the way, is connected to her book, Voyage of the Narwhal. Ned Kynd, an inn keeper in the "The Cure" played a major role in the novel.
I think readers appreciate these connections with past reads. It shows that the author respects the intelligence of the reader and isn't afraid to say that perhaps that story wasn't quite finished.
Finally, Barrett is a wonderful story teller. One can read along in any of these stories and almost take for granted what one is reading. Then all of a sudden a major twist in the story, or some new development with the character, or a connection with something you've read before.
Read this book.
Book Description
Regrouping in Taglios, the surviving members of the Black Company are determined to free their fellow warriors held in stasis beneath the glittering plain. Journey there under terrible conditions, they arrive just in time for a magical conflagration in which the bones of the world will be revealed, the history of the Company unveiled, and new world gained and lost....all at a terrible price.
Customer Reviews:
Not Free SF Reader.......2007-09-03
Another of the weaker Black Company novels, as the Company is still in a bad place. If you had not made it this far in the series, you could be excused. If you are enjoying it, you will still like this book, and it does get better later. Perhaps for completists, but I still liked it, and if it was possible would give it a 3.25.
An improvement over the last 2 titles..........2006-08-23
This novel is a vast improvement over the last two titles; I found Bleak Seasons very convoluted with Murgen's temporal ambling and She is the Darkness to be an notable improvement. This novel is certainly a good story, though there are a number of issues which could be brought up.
Notable that there is no military organization called the black company in this novel, rather there are a few survivors of the last few years acting as a sort of insurgency/conspiratorial group.
It takes place 14 years after the previous novel, and the only characters with any development time previously are goblin/one-eye, soulcatcher (who has not resembled the character depicted in The Black Company at all in the last few novels), the local nobles, and a couple of cameos. I think that inevitably, by devolving to other narrators and removing central characters from his story, cook is losing the character of the black company stories as compared to the initial trilogy.
Cook appears to have simply ignored the elephant in the living room, which is that Soulcatcher's true name is known (both by Lady and by being derivable from the Annals from the time in the north, croaker would have known this, he knew what names the dominator tried to use on the Lady, and was present when she was named IIRC) and there is really no excuse for her not having been shut down quickly upon becoming not dead. As I noted above, Soulcatcher is quite a different persona from the character in the first black company novel, who was very quiet, focused and enigmatic, never raising her voice or losing her cool. That worked well with her apparently non-telepathic character insights, but this current soulcatcher is a raving loony.
I did find sleepy's ongoing rambles about her god and all the obligatory phrases annoying, especially as she tried to reconcile later events in her monotheological framework. Pointless and annoying. Tobo was annoying in general (maybe an accurate description of a 14-year old).
The ideas revealed about the glittering plain shown in this book are really interesting. I think he pulled off resolving some major plot threads very well, there was plenty of potential to screw up and he avoided those pitfalls.
One question that comes to mind - why did soulcatcher leave the standard with murgen at the end of She is the Darkness? This was a valuable artifact she could have used to escape the plain in a less threatened fashion.
All in all this is a good book, though unlike Dread Empire, where he kept Ragnarson as the central persona in his story throughout despite a large number of everyone else dying at one time or another, here he has removed his main characters and you really end up with a story that feels quite different.
Home, Home on the Plain.......2006-07-31
Once again we get a switch in annalists - of necessity since Soulcatcher dropped most of the main characters (other than Goblin and One-Eye) into a stasis trap in the depths of the Fortress With No Name. It is Sleepy this time, who got some slight mention in She Is The Darkness, mostly because she was masquerading as a he. Sleepy, along with Murgen's wife Sahra are hard at work getting even with Soulcatcher, Mogaba, and the usual select crew of bad guys. When they aren't pulling someone's chain they are trying to find a way to re-enter the Glittering Plain and release Murgen and all the other Black Company regulars.
The story takes place almost entirely in Taglios, which is now the center of Soulcatcher's 'protectorate.' I'm not sure why the witch chose that title, since the only thing she ever protects is herself. And she is more than content to spend the lives of innocent citizenry if she feels the least bit threatened. Sahra and Sleepy and the remaining fragments of the Black Company have gone into hiding with the help of the Nyueng Bao. They wage a war of irritation with the Protector and the Radisha. They spy, paint slogans on walls, and even resort to kidnapping in order to keep everyone off balance while they engage in a desperate search for a key to the Glittering Plain and some knowledge on how to rescue the captives.
Murgen, the only one of the captives still conscious is still around as a disembodied source of intelligence and advice, and Tobo, Murgen and Sahra's son also plays an important part as he begins to display significant skills as a sorceror. This is a tale told in small, detailed steps, both by Sleepy and by Cook himself as he gives us frequent updates looking over the shoulders of the villains. What with Murgen's ghostly presence and Sahra's day job as a housecleaner in the palace it's no wonder that Mogaba finally remarks that keeping a secret is hardly worth the effort.
Glen Cook always manages to have things work out differently from the reader's expectations and Water Sleeps is no exception. This includes the discovery that there is a fourth volume in this trilogy, which has already covered a lot of ground. But there always seems to be more to find out, and one more volume to read.
Great Gritty Real Read.......2005-08-12
Glenn Cook captures the life and times of a mercenary bad with gritty realism.
I higly recommend the Black Company series.
Much better..........2005-07-07
than some of the other more recent books. Solid and a nice return to form.
Book Description
One moment Conrad Schwartz was suffering from a severe hangover as he hiked through the mountains of present-day Poland, the next he was running for his life from an angry Teutonic knight. Things went downhill from there, and he finally had to face the disheartening fact he had somehow been stranded in 1231 A.D. He would have been happier if he had known less history. But there was very bad news in his new future, so he set out to turn Medieval Poland into the most powerful country in the thirteenth century. It wouldn't be easy. He would be investigated by the Inquisition, be knighted, round up vassals, build a city, survive armed combat with the Champion of the Teutonic Knights, invent the steam engine and cloth factories, establish universal education, and organize an army. He needed the army most of all, because he knew that the Mongol hordes would attack in only ten years and destroy Medieval Poland-and that would really mess up Conrad's life.
Customer Reviews:
Trashy but oh so good........2006-07-05
We've been trying to find the paperback versions with no luck. Thanks!
An Awesome, Time Travel/Alt History Story.......2006-04-21
I'm a scifi fan and this is the only complete series I've ever read. At 700+ pages I assume this volume contains the whole thing. It's about an engineer/soldier mysteriously transported back centuries and how he changes history with his knowledge and initiative. Very thought provoking.
A Great, Classic Series!.......2005-08-15
This series is a real favorite of mine. Great story line, great characters, and unique ideas. Now (as of Summer 2005) the latest Conrad book, "Conrad's Crusade" is now available from [...], on line! It is solid action on par with the best in the series. [...], and I recommend it highly.
Rousing funny tales that hold up to multiple readings.......2005-01-31
It's rare I reread a book yet Frankowski's I have, discovering subtle insights and deep thinking underlying fast-moving exciting stories full of humanity, humor, well-drawn characters, rousing action by ill-prepared people wildly improvising, a little-known setting (medieval Poland just before the Mongol invasion, and a very well done reworking of Twain's "A Connecticutt Yankee in King Arthur's Court" with more real laughs and far more purpose. There's a thousand lessons on history, technology, science, religion, economic development, warfare, trade, Playboy Clubs, time travel, project management, and politicking, so it's well worth an adult's time while a ripping yarn for an adolescent. Robert Heinlein, Neal Stephenson, Eric Flint, and S.M. Stirling would be in this caliber.
Book one.......2005-01-15
This is the first book, alt time travel? not much on details but has a good story line. Really liked it.
Book Description
NEW LIGHT ON THE PAST
Conrad Stargard, a twentieth century Pole marooned in thirteenth century Poland, had just ten years to prevent the Mongol hordes from slaughtering everyone in Poland.
So he "invented" all the modern advances--things like prefabricated housing, Playboy Clubs, steam engines, universal education, cloth factories, and belly dancing.
But wars are fought by warriors, not strong economies, and Conrad needed the very best. So he set out to create an army . . .
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful.......2004-10-12
I am a female reader and do not agree with the other review about these books.
In general, I do not enjoy science fiction or fantasy. So when I was desperate for a read a few years ago, I borrowed these from a friend. What a great surprise. I have since collected the series for myself. Wonderful Stories.
This is a five book series that is unfortunately out of print. If you can get your hands on one or all of these books, do so.
although the books can potentially stand alone, it is much better to read them in order. They are a quick interesting read.
Conrad is modern day man in Poland on a hiking trip when he happens to get transported back in time. He is able to invent things and bring some of his modern day experience into the past. It is a fascinating read. The author does not get caught up in the philosophy of time travel but instead has fun with the idea.
In this book Conrad begins with, once again, dealing with his nemesis and then begins developing a new army. Excellent reading.
Well worth the money.
Enjoy.
Excellent 5 Book Series.......2000-08-15
This is the best time travel series in a realistic timeline ever written. Before these books, L. Sprague De Camp had held that title for decades with his "Lest Darkness Fall", but it was too short. Mark Twain may be the most famous with his "Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", but that is more light hearted than serious, and disappointing at the end. The Conrad series delivers on all the promise, and even after 5 books, it still leaves you wanting more. (There is a sixth book now, but Conrad is a minor character, and I've reviewed it separately.)
I say realistic timeline, because Conrad isn't really from our timeline. I was a little suspicious right from the start, but it wasn't until Conrad reminisced about the Mongols invading France that I thought "Hey, wait a minute". It turns out that it didn't happen to us (even without Conrad). But the historians I read agree that it would have, except the great Khan died and the Mongols had a war of succession which they never recovered from. This is often used as an example of the actions of one person changing history. I never even heard the story, until Conrad got me to look it up. Go figure.
This is an action story, with fighting and sex, where Conrad overcomes insurmountable obstacles, and usually has a good time along the way. The author doesn't just ignore the time travel though. He writes a science fiction sub-plot about that too. In fact, the author is obviously an engineer, not just because it takes an engineer for Conrad to build the things he does, but also from the way the books were planned out and crafted. Obviously the author planned the Mongol invasion and built the series around it, but he also foreshadows romantic sub-plots 3 books in advance.
I love these books, and share other reviewers disbelief that they haven't been reprinted since 1993. If you've already read them, and love them too, you might want to try "The Misplaced Legion (Videssos Cycle, Book 1)" by Harry Turtledove, about elements of one of Caesar's legions travelling into Rome's future of the Byzantine Empire. Only it's not the real Byzantine Empire, it's a parallel universe where magic works. Aside from that, it's Byzantium during the 1100's written by a Byzantine historian. And of course you'll want to read the "Island in the Sea of Time" series by S. M. Stirling, about modern day Nantucket going back in time to the Trojan War. These works are different, but also 5 stars.
Boot Camp!.......1999-04-01
This was a fun read! Infidel Moslems, and the return of the insufferable Sir Stefan make up the first half of the book, but the Radiant Warrior really shines (no pun intended) in the second half when Conrad attempts to build a US Army-style boot camp for his new Army. Highly recommended!
One of my all-time favorites.......1997-10-27
If you can find it, GET IT! Well-written, thoughtful, and entertaining. Love and joy, sadness and pain, the adventure of time travel gets lost behind the story of the daily life of an ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances.
great book, loved it, went and bought the sequal.......1997-10-24
made me think, taught me about midevil poland, and moderen day science, and all around enjoyable read
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Library Bookwatch, published by Midwest Book Review on February 1, 2005. The length of the article is 385 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Baen Books.(Very Bad Deaths)(Warp Speed)(Tinker)(The Far Side Of The Stars)(Conrad Stargard: The Radiant Warrior)(Book Review)
Publication:
Library Bookwatch (Newsletter)
Date: February 1, 2005
Publisher: Midwest Book Review
Page: NA
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thompson Gale
Book Description
Diarmuid O'Murchu offers some penetrating and original insights into the changing and evolving spiritual awareness of our time.
Customer Reviews:
Horizon Expander.......2002-12-27
As a novice to readings in spirituality, I claim no special intellectual or spiritual insights into the mind of God. But as a seeker and traveller, I grow in mind and spirit, advancing from the words and wisdom of John Shelby Spong and Marcus Borg, to Michael Morwood, to Matthew Fox, to, now, Diarmuid O'Murchu.
It is an ever-increasing circle. There is much in RELIGION IN EXILE to stimulate the imagination and engender spiritual reflection. The interrelationship of humanity with the cosmos and all life within it directly supports and reinforces the spiritual viewpoint of the mystics who precede us. This book is for all who are open to becoming spiritually a part of the whole.
Psychological or Theological Homecoming?.......2001-11-04
O'Murchu states that he seeks to befriend religious questions rather than seek answers to them and, in fact, he does just that. Not much by way of an answer is provided. He offers a critique of the underlying assumptions to religious and spiritual issues which he has identified as problematic for the individual seeking a spiritual home, or an understanding of a world in which to be "at home." His is a phenomenological approach that presents current religious and spiritual issues in the popular vocabulary of religious critique. I can identify with his critique. However, doubt I can agree with all of his interpretations. Agreement among academics is a perpetual problem. For theologians who read about religious issues treated by competent individuals in other disciplines agreement seems particularly problematic. Although theologically trained, O'Murchu thinks about religious issues from a perspective more properly psychological than theological. This is not necessarily an undesirable approach but a theologian needs to be cautious and not accept psychological thinking as theological thinking. As I understand him, O'Murchu speaks more of the psyche than of the pneuma. The psychological perspective of the book makes this a good "self-help" resource for those troubled or curious minds who desire more than a shallow presentation or description of spiritual or religious issues. O'Murch says: "The need to talk things out is the pastoral context where possibilities begin to unfold"(p.198). Issues are "talked out" in the book. But as I read I found myself asking: "So what?" and "Yes, but how is change to happen?" Thus, while I have no reservation about his description about returning home, I am disappointed to find no suggested direction on "how to return home." I suggest that theologians could benefit from reading this psychological work.
Penetrating and original insights.......2001-02-14
With Religion In Exile: A Spiritual Homecoming, British counselor and social psychologist Diarmuid O'Murchu offers penetrating and original insights into the evolving spiritual awareness of our contemporary times. His observations are engaging, thought-provoking, and occasional inspiring. Religion In Exile is enthusiastically recommended reading for anyone with an interest in spirituality and the role of religion in modern life.
Spirituality without religion.......2001-01-24
Diarmuid O'Murchu is a counselor and former (I believe) religious priest who explores the idea of a spirituality without religion. He speaks of conemporary experience as being in exile from the earth and from the presence of God that the earth manifests. Christianity, Judaism and Islam have been patriarchcal religions which have divided and conquered the world. They rely heavily on authority to promote their revelation. What is most appreciative about this work from one Roman Catholic's perspective is that a fellow Catholic, who has been imbued with the theology and spirituality of that religion has discovered what other Catholics have. Namely that religion can take a person only so far in the discovery of God. There is a truth that exists beyond all religion. O'Murchu explores the Mother Earth Goddess spirituality pre-existent of the modern religions as well as aspects of it in those religions. He explores current ecological and political movements for a sense of "homecoming" as he calles it. This is a short book that is tantalizing in some aspects. His bibliography points to longer, more focused works that have been part of his research. The view that O'Mucho presents does not mean one must leave one's religion. It is simply a way of seeing in anew.
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- Ten Years Later
- The Autobiography of Donovan: The Hurdy Gurdy Man
- The Body of Jonah Boyd : A Novel
- The Collected Jack London: Thirty-Six Stories/Four Complete Novels/a Memoir
- The Collected Writings of Zelda Fitzgerald
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Ship Fever
Reading Life: A Writer's Reader (with InfoTrac®)
Voyage of the Narwhal: A Novel
Middle Kingdom
The Story Behind the Story: 26 Stories by Contemporary Writers and How They Work
