Book Description
Hailed by Frank O'Connor as one of "the greatest living storytellers," J. F. Powers, who died in 1999, stands with Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, and Raymond Carver among the authors who have given the short story an unmistakably American cast. In three slim collections of perfectly crafted stories, published over a period of some thirty years and brought together here in a single volume for the first time, Powers wrote about many things: baseball and jazz, race riots and lynchings, the Great Depression, and the flight to the suburbs. His greatest subject, however—and one that was uniquely his—was the life of priests in Chicago and the Midwest. Powers's thoroughly human priests, who include do-gooders, gladhanders, wheeler-dealers, petty tyrants, and even the odd saint, struggle to keep up with the Joneses in a country unabashedly devoted to consumption.
These beautifully written, deeply sympathetic, and very funny stories are an unforgettable record of the precarious balancing act that is American life.
Table of Contents
The Lord's Day
The Trouble
Lions, Harts, Leaping Does
Jamesie
He Don't Plant Cotton
The Forks
Renner
The Valiant Woman
The Eye
The Old Bird, A Love Story
Prince of Darkness
Dawn
Death of a Favorite
The Poor Thing
The Devil Was the Joke
A Losing Game
Defection of a Favorite
Zeal
Blue Island
The Presence of Grace
Look How the Fish Live
Bill
Folks
Keystone
One of Them
Moonshot
Priestly Fellowship
Farewell
Pharisees
Tinkers
Customer Reviews:
Thirty stories gathered from three volumes: mid 1940s-70s.......2007-09-03
I have reviewed on Amazon the earlier collections in their original format, "Prince of Darkness" (1947) and "Presence of Grace," (1956) as well as the novel "Morte d'Urban" (1962). The collected three thin volumes, thirty stories total, are reprinted as "The Stories of J.F. Powers" in 2001 from NY Review Press, as well as reissues of the two novels. As another reviewer on Amazon here noted, I too prefer the original volumes, but the fact that NY Review Press has reprinted the five books (the two novels and this anthology) in handsome editions after Powers (1917-99) languished as a cult favorite and, curse and blessing for him, status as a "writer's writer" who took years to create, it seems, a single story, judging from over forty years and the small shelf of five thin books as originally printed 1947-88.
Denis Donaghue provides an efficient introduction to this rather prickly author, whose moral backbone, no-nonsense manner, and ear for the telling phrase and the revealing pause made him one of America's most talented recorders of fictional priests, laity, and in two great stories a cat as the narrator of Midwestern foibles, dreamers, and ordinary folks, whether in rectories or social halls. His best stories do involve the clergy, as any reader of Powers will recognize, but these at their best emerge more vividly when included among the lesser attempts at themes such as baseball, the space race, race relations, wife-swapping, and a chillingly rendered Welcome Wagon lady.
Powers took his good time writing these stories, so take yours reading them. If you would like more advice on each of the thirty, take a look at my reviews of "Prince," "Presence," and "Look." There, I briefly comment upon each story in the order they were originally printed. This anthology preserves this order, but outside of an introduction adds no new stories to the small but, if you take the best of the clergy stories, memorable tales. As Powers explained why he as a layman wrote about clerics: a man taking out an insurance policy provides no real tension usually. But when a priest takes out an insurance policy, you have material for a story...
Puffed Up Version.......2006-09-16
Nothing wrong with this version of Powers' stories, but I prefer the original, unabridged "Prince of Darkness and Other Stories" which is available in Doubleday paperback, first published back when Powers was hailed as "a compelling young talent in American fiction, perhaps the most exciting short-story writer to emerge since Eudora Welty." -- Philadelphia Inquirer.
The Doubleday Image Books imprint set about "making the world's finest Catholic literature avilable to all..." True, Mr. Powers' work is formed by his Catholicism, but in subject matter, he writes about baseball and jazz, old people and boys, boxers and more. He has, The New Yorker once observed,"few rivals at creating characters with more than superficial reality."
America's greatest writer.......2005-09-19
In a world where bestselling authors Joe Queenan, P.J. O'Rourke, Dave Barry, Christopher Buckley, and (God-forgive-me) Al Franken are hailed as leading humorists, there are three giants of American humor that are criminally underappreciated: Florence King, Jim Goad, and the late James Francis Powers. While King and Goad follow in the Rabelasian tradition of the better known humorists listed above, J.F. Powers wrote in a deep and subtle field of allusion and irony. His humor is poignant and instructive in a way that is both profoundly human, yet open to the face of the divine.
The stories collected here also include Powers's tragic pieces, as well as other sketches and thinly disguised passages of his own family life. These are exemplary works, and perhaps the best examples of American writing ever produced, for Powers has often been called "the writer's writer" for the craft and care with which he chooses words.
Attention has been paid to the fact that Powers was a Catholic writer, and there have been critics who strain to invoke comparison with Flannery O'Connor. For me the only points of tangency are that they were Catholics, were writers, wrote about humor and irony, but that is about it. Their voices create entirely different worlds, and their characters are hewn from different rock, and their anima sprouted from different soil.
Powers is a distinctly different writer, speaking from a different landscape and with a plainness of style that invokes the Midwest and invites comparison with Willa Cather. But as William Faulkner said and wrote, Powers's subjects are circumscribed by "the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing."
And so we return to Powers's comedy. For his humor is deeply funny both for what is on the page, and for that which is unstated. Indeed, with a single sentence Powers creates paragraphs of detail in the reader's imagination; we have seen each of these people and each of these situations before, oftentimes in the mirror. But Powers is gentle, and gives us a kind of catharsis as we follow the bumbling path of flawed souls, venial, petty, and helpless, but not hopeless.
If there is a counterpoint in American letters to which Powers should be compared, then I suggest H.L. Mencken, for in many ways Powers is the answer to Mencken, for all which he found contemptible, Powers has also found funny, but more importantly sacred. Mencken's American cynicism and misanthropy have been answered by Powers with prose that is his match, and a literary redemption of the common soul that could only have been inspired by both a love of man and a love of the written word. Until the Library of America recognizes Powers for the giant of American writing that he is, we will have to be content with this edition. A pity, for the binding is poor, and already sections are falling out of my copy. From heaven, Powers must observe this condition with the wry and ironic amusement to which, during his earthly life, he gave voice.
Great stories by an American original.......2000-03-26
These wonderful stories mine the whole of American life, but Powers was at his best when he wrote about the very narrow slice of life that confines, constricts and defines the lives of Catholic priests. The comedy inherent in parish and church politics, the worldliness of men who have supposedly dedicated their lives to God, the loneliness of other men who have discovered that God is absent from most of their daily routine---these are Powers' favorite subjects, and in exploring them he produced some of the saddest and funniest stories to be found outside of Joyce's "Dubliners."
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- Final collection of stories from Powers: Midwestern angst & faith
- Short stories:
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Look How the Fish Live
J.F. Powers
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Morte D'Urban (New York Review Books Classics)
ASIN: 0701206373 |
Customer Reviews:
Final collection of stories from Powers: Midwestern angst & faith.......2007-09-03
Judy Smith's review posted here simply copies, without attribution, the blurb on the dust jacket.
So, here's my original one. [I have reviewed on Amazon the earlier collections in their original format, "Prince of Darkness" (1947) and "Presence of Grace," (1956) as well as the novel "Morte d'Urban" (1962). The collected three thin volumes, thirty stories total, are reprinted as "The Stories of J.F. Powers" in 2001 from NY Review Press, as well as reissues of the two novels.]
This, the third and final collection of his stories, picks up in the era before (Vatican II, with selections as early as 1957, although given the slow nature of Powers' preparation, these ten stories did not appear in one volume until 1975! They show a changing Church, obviously, and Powers appears to be, as his colleague Jon Hassler called him, "a saint with a bad temper" as he grumpily tries to-- as one of his priests tries to put it, answer the unanswerable question. "How can we make sanctity as appealing as sex to the common man?" The friar answered the seminarian merely that we must keep on trying, that's all. This commonsensical, quite Midwestern and drolly American reply from mid-20c Minnesota, as lived by Powers and fictionalized if thinly in his two novels and his thirty stories, on second thought leaves out one of the key problems facing his priests and laity as they grapple with a world where Holy Resting Place is proposed as a less off-putting name for the parish dedicated to the Holy Sepulchre, where guitar masses and clergy yearning to break free of celibacy contend with old-school clerics and restive bishops before and after being put out to pastoral pasture in the rural diocese of Ostergothenberg.
The dilemma is this. Sex and sanctity confounded the clergy, as "Priestly Fellowship" maps in the post-conciliar era. But, for the laypeople determined to toughen it our by the dictates that Powers sincerely lived by and doggedly believed in, I suppose that the harsh reality of an unpampered life as a critical favorite who sold few stories and fewer books and with a wife who longed to break free of her childraising duties to get back to writing (she managed but a handful of published stories and one novel, 1964-9 "Rafferty & Co.") did get the pair of talented artists but destitute breadwinners down in the dumps. Even Powers and his wife, writer Betty Wahl, contended with as he admitted once five children when they were not really cut out to be parents. One wonders if they had been able to avail themselves of contraception in their own procreative years if Powers & Wahl could have devoted themselves more to their shared craft, and if fewer mouths to feed (Thomas Merton recalled on a visit in the 1950s to the Powers home near St John's U in St Cloud five children lined up by size bringing in the beer steins to celebrate the monk's dinner as a detour from Merton's attendance at a psychological conference at the monastery in Minnesota) could have meant more fiction from the happy couple. Instead, much of this slim volume must have been written during their stints back and forth from Ireland and in teaching in various colleges here. Powers' painstaking concentration meant few stories over what here's nineteen years since his previous collection and thirteen since his first novel.
The results, as they say, are mixed. The title story opens promisingly, a suburban father (modelled on the author and his own family's set of fated foreclosures on their homestead) who finds that whether DDT, nature's cruelty, Civil Defense, the expanding local college, parking lots and dorms encroaching and then obliterating his home, domestication has its downsides. The wild, the unforeseen, and the military-industrial complex all subtly bear down relentlessly upon one harried paterfamilias.
"Bill" will later be incorporated and expanded into his last novel, the 1988 (see about slow preparation?) "Wheat that Springeth Green", as will "Priestly Fellowship." Here we find Fr. Joe Hackett, forty-four, dealing with a new curate whose name the pastor never finds out-- and Joe never comes out straight and asks!-- and then the curate's pals, one an ex-seminarian proudly atheist but still team-teaching a class in Scripture with his old seminary professor; the other clerics reflect one cautious man who Joe pegs as a future bishop, one who seems overwhelmed by the changes, and one who embraces them to the point of relativism and folly. It's not hard to see where Powers' sympathies lie.
The other clerical stories take place in the same world as Powers' earlier fiction. "One of Them," although perhaps a bit long-winded as are all of the clerical stories here (but one can blame Powers little for stretching out and elaborating his wonderfully wry diocese and its familiar, fatalistic, and flawed priests) good-naturedly examines a convert, Simpson, who is ordained and sent to a nearly monosyllabic, extremely laconic old Irish pastor. Simp must learn the ropes and finds, as in a marriage, becoming more like his housemate than he bargained for. This story reminded me of earlier stories in "Presence" and its tone takes more from the 1950s-era by the quaintly dated nature of the pastor's attitudes as compared to the newer, post-Vatican II-era clerics being minted. We also return to a minor character from "Presence," Fr. Beeman, who will appear in a similar role in "Wheat."
"Keystone" takes a long look at a bishop of that certain diocese who aims at a new cathedral lacking what the newer Church and trendy architects dismiss as no longer needed: an arch cementing the portals together to bear their weight. Written originally around the time of "Morte d'Urban," when Vatican II was in session, this long tale explores more of the power struggles that John Dullinger, bishop of Ostergothenberg, must contend with along with his up-and-coming auxiliary, Msgr Gau.
After the auxiliary takes over, John retires, more or less, but finds renewal in "Farewell," filling on "livery-detail" for small parishes on short-term loan-- much as Fr Urban had in "Morte." Bishop Dullinger begins to rediscover his vocation, and his true calling, until, just as the Clementine preacher had in the novel, the bishop too finds a sudden deus ex machina while out in the open. These two stories show Powers operating with accustomed ease in his own imaginary terrain, not too far from his real surroundings.
Brief pieces for the first time enter a collection of Powers' short works. "Moonshot" purports to be a play, but it's more of a sketch, a rather shallow send-up of the Cold War race in space to build moon buildings out of pumice rock. It's very slight. The even briefer "Folks" attempts to poke fun at wife-swapping and the end-of-the year holiday letter sent another couple who's drifted away from such conviviality, but again the tone is arch and the style forced. Better is "Pharisees," which taken in light of the ex-sem Conklin in "Priestly Fellowship" as the ex-Pharisee makes more sense. This short tale's a send-up of the Publican & Pharisee parable, and reveals the only direct parody of an actual bible story that I can recall in Powers. It's a novelty, but it grows on you with repeat readings by its sly knowing wit.
"Tinkers" ends with Powers' only story dealing directly (in a manner of speaking) with his Irish experience. A great counterpart to his wife's novel, which was all about their South Co. Dublin suburban sojourns on-and-off in the 50s and 60s. As Jon Hassler's noted, it's so understated at times that a reader risks missing the point, but it's an oblique commentary on itinerancy, the pretensions of returning Yanks, and the indomitable attitudes of their Hibernian hosts towards those with a bit more cash and lots less sense than they think. Powers and Wahl both send up their own American pretensions at the hands of Irish landlords, workers, and neighbors who manage to undermine any hope that, as Powers and Wahl once believed, they could actually live in Ireland in a time half a century ago far less expensive than now and save money from paying rent in Minnesota, enough to get by on savings and simply write!
Short stories:.......2004-04-04
Here again, we find ourselves in quotidian, heartland America, where the absurdities of family life abound, where cigar-smoking, whiskey-drinking, mildly opportunistic clergy still go about their chosen work...but with a difference now. Something has happened to the world of ordinary people, of imperious pastors and downtrodden curates, to the certain landscape of the Country and the Church...where a young father, entangled by his children in the fate of a baby bird, despairs of Nature's (and God's) failures...where a serious-minded young priest, arriving on the last ripple in the long incoming tide of converts, finds himself adrift on the choppy seas of feminism and ecumenism...where a lonely and convivial if not always congenial pastor wants to be both pal and mentor to the new breed of curates ("not too bright and in love with themselves")...where an aging bishop, whose pastoral letters often mention "the keystone of authority," builds a new cathedral...one, unfortunately, without a keystone...but who, later, in another story, rediscovers his true vocation, in retirement, while in the course of investigating miraculous visions. There is a story about a pastor who can't find out his curate's name. There is a story, set in Ireland, about "Americas thriftiest living author" and his family. There are also two cautionary tales, about wife swapping and hypocrisy, and a short play about the first American expedition to the moon.
Book Description
Beloved by millions of readers around the world, Piers Anthony's Xanth novels are among the most popular fantasy adventures ever published. Demons Don't Dream begins a thrilling new Xanth sequence, as a pair of young adventurers play for the highest stakes of all: the future of Xanth--and of Earth as well!Drawn into Xanth by a harmless-looking computer game, two young people find themselves competing for a precious prize: Dug, who is beguiled by a beautiful serpent-princess, and Kim, who discovers her favorite fantasy realm has suddenly become frighteningly real.In a desperate race against time, dug and Kim battle their way across the wondrous, perilous land of Xanth, testing their courage against dozens of fearsome obstacles (and their wits against a host of outrageous puns!) But when treachery, danger, and deceit place Xanth itself in peril, Dug and Kim learn that some things are more important than winning or losing.A breathtaking, madcap quest filled with fearsome monsters and far-fetched fun, Demons Don't Dream is vintage Xanth, an unforgettable escapade from fantasy's most imaginative storyteller.
Customer Reviews:
Shame on you, Piers Anthony!.......2007-09-06
This has got to be the lamest scifi book I've ever read, and I've read and enjoyed at least a dozen of Piers Anthony's books in the past including a few from the Xanth series. I like a clever pun now and then too but this entire book consists of nothing but really idiotic puns, dozens of them on every page, with a very weak and contrived story to tie them together. I get the impression it was written in about half a day. If you're already a huge Xanth fan you might enjoy it just because it's Xanthish. If you've ever bought Bazooka bubble gum just for the intellectual stimulation of the highly humorous jokes on the wrappers, you might love it. Otherwise it's more likely to make you vomit than laugh.
A drop in the quality of a wonderful series.......2007-06-27
I hate to say it, but I believe that this marks the nadir of the Xanth series. "Demons Don't Dream" and those that follow, lose sight of the earlier novels. I don't like stating this as I have been a huge Piers and Xanth fan for years. The biggest problem here is that Xanth is recognized in Mundania via the novels, and the residents of Xanth recognize that their world is full of puns.
In this story, for instance, two Mundanians are transported into Xanth via a computer game. One of the contestants knows a great deal about Xanth having read the series. I feel that this distracts from the fantasy of Xanth. I always felt that Xanth was completely unknown to most Mundanians. I guess Piers is a conduit between the two worlds. I think too much of Mundania is working its way into Xanth. In fact, his "Black Wave" from Mundania, could be misconstrued as borderline racism! In the next novel, a giant is stricken with bone marrow cancer--not the fantasy world that we expect from Piers!
I liked the idea that the people of Xanth took their puns as what they were having known no other explanation. We readers would chuckle at the phrasing, but the protagonists of the novels knew nothing else! In "Demons Don't Dream", puns are recognized as figures of speech by the denizens of Xanth taking away the double meaning to the reader. Even Magician Trent comments on the punny nature of Xanth in the next volume, "Harpy Thyme". It is also in "Demons Don't Dream" that Piers seems to be worried about using up all of his puns. Before, puns were integral to the story; here they are so numerous that they are often only mentioned in passing and usually feel forced.
If you read the other 1.74 quadrillion Xanth novels that precede this one, you will have to read this one and those that follow. Just prepare to be a bit disenfranchised by "Demons Don't Dream". No longer can a Xanth novel be pure `escapist' fiction.
Demons Don't Dream.......2005-11-03
Demons Don't Dream was a very good book. It was very adventerous and a little wierd at points, but that is sort of what I like. The ending was my favorite part of the book. That was pretty suspenseful because you wanted to know what the prize was but before you found out you had to read 330 pages. Also I thought that the prize was going to be money. Also another favorite part was at the very begining where Kim fooled the Ogres in a challenge which would of saved her from getting knocked out of the game.
My fave Xanth Book.......2005-08-11
This was the first xanth book I ever read........and I got hooked. I love the entire series. The review of it doesn't do it justice.
A Piers Anthony Pleasure.......2004-02-04
Piers Anthony has done it again...amazed me with yet another spectacular read. Surprised? Of course not! This is Xanth! I just finished reading this book, as I'm reading all of Xanth straight through now instead of scattered as I previously have. This book stands out as one of the best books I've ever read, taking a standard well-loved plot and putting a new twist to it. It brings out the child in us all, while still maintaining a tad bit of adult humor. Well done, Piers. Keep it up!
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Demons Don't Dream
Piers Anthony
Manufacturer: New York, NY, U.S.A.: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC,
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Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OVAG9A |
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Demons Don't Dream (The Magic of Xanth)
Anthony Piers
Manufacturer: Del Rey Books
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5 Mass Market Paperback Titles in the Xanth Series - 15-19 - The Color of Her Panties - Demons Don't Dream - Harpy Thyme - Geis of the Gargoyles - Roc and a Hard Place
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Demons Don't Dream
Manufacturer: Tor Books
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ASIN: 9994719130 |
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Demons Don't Dream
Manufacturer: Tor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000HKO21Q |
Book Description
Collected together for the first time in one volume-this is Richard Paul Russo's critically-acclaimed science fiction trilogy featuring police Lt. Frank Carlucci investigating high-tech crime and corruption in a near-future San Francisco.
Customer Reviews:
Cyberpunk - the real thing.......2007-02-23
Cyberpunk genre has a lot of fantasy. This trio of books doesn't - it has a very probable reality. Grittier than any other cyberpunk you'll find (Gibson, Sterling, Stephenson) it doesn't pull punches to give you a warm fuzzy. What's going on in the real world now - this is a real outcome. Starts with "Destroying Angel" where Carlucci is a secondary character, then the other 2 have him as the main. Many may not like these because they're not an escape, they're eye-opening. Bad things happen. I read all three seperate before this compilation - thank you for making this trio as it is a MUST read for Cyberpunks and futurists.
BUYER BEWARE- RICHARD PAUL RUSSO AND RICHARD RUSSO ARE TWO DIFFERENT AUTHORS!.......2006-09-13
I bought this book believing it to be by the same Richard Russo who wrote Mohawk, Empire Falls, Straight Man and Nobody's Fool. Well, slap me silly, how was I to know the difference when Amazon have the books of both authors all listed together. Since I was now the proud owner of a book I no longer wanted, what else do you do with it but read it? I mean, with a hefty 624 pages you could also use it to prop up the end of your sofa!
On a serious note, if you are a reader of futuristic detective novels, you will probably enjoy Carlucci. In my opinion, this author does not possess the literary skills of Richard Russo (Richard Russo without the Paul, that is) but Carlucci does have some interesting plots and is filled with lots of action and excitement.
Great Police Books; So-So SciFi Books.......2006-07-30
First, to the person who wrote the review stating that the book was like 'Blade Runner without the flying cars'. You have to take the time to read the short story the movie is based on. Also, take some time to watch the movie once again. Neither have much to do with a police or detective novel, they are just caged in one; instead telling a story about humanity and what makes a person a person.
I say this because I think that is what's going on in the Carlucci books. Humanity is lost in the age of technology and that man is a victim to his own advancement -- ie the constant heat and strange colored skies. The characters in these works all seem to have remembered their humanity, but must face a world in which it may be lost.
Overall, they are very deeply-written works.
I would have gone for a full 5 stars here but I found myself a bit bored with the last work in the collection, and was only interested in what happened to Carlucci's daughter.
I'll bet he was glad to get this out of his system........2005-08-28
Ruso is a top flight writer of science fiction. In this collection of his `Carlucci' novels he shows why he is also a first rate writer of mysteries. He deftly combines the genre in a manner so that readers of either SciFi or Mystery will be satisfied. I recommend these in this volume or individually. There is enough difference to interest anyone.
My major comment and the reason for my title is the really glum, despondent, morose . . .I think of run out of synonyms here. Ruso really paints a bleak and scary picture of the close future. I remember a article I think Ray Bradbury wrote years ago. He said that on days when he felt especially good, he'd write a quick dismal story just to get all traces of depression out of his system. Maybe that is what Ruso is doing here. Although most of them of a quick nod to emotional uplift at the end, they are, for the most part really bleak views of the world.
Don't let that turn you off unless you are a perpetual Pollyanna; we all need a dose of the blues from time to time.
Carlucci.......2005-05-31
Beware misleading listing here at Amazon as to their confusion in putting books by Richard Russo(author par excellant) and those by Richard Paul Russo ( author medicore), on the same page.
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Lie of the Land: The Secret Life of Maps
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Asking to Die: Inside the Dutch Debate about Euthanasia
Manufacturer: Springer
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The Dutch experience with euthanasia is valuable for all cultures embroiled in debates about its morality. In the Netherlands, doctors can openly and intentionally end the life of their patients. This practice inescapably influences the practice of medicine everywhere in the world. Yet for a country yielding so much power in shaping our thoughts and policies, it is especially dangerous to neglect its own struggles with euthanasia. The arguments, laws, and policy adjustments should not be overlooked or misunderstood. Without an adequate portrait of the internal Dutch debate, including public and professional arguments as well as intensely personal stories - as set forth in Asking to Die - the valuable lessons from the Netherlands will be lost for other countries. This book therefore differs from other published books on euthanasia in that it addresses the debate, as it is currently formulated, among Dutch physicians, policy-makers, academics, lawyers, and bioethicists, as well as families, and it does so using academic papers as well as personal experiences.
Book Description
The field of ballistics divides itself naturally into three subcategories: interior ballistics, exterior ballistics, and terminal ballistics. Providing unique coverage of all three disciplines, this book explains the theory and science of each in progressively greater detail and complexity, making it accessible and useful for both the novice and experienced engineer. It considers combustion and thermal processes within the projectile, aerodynamics and flight, and impact behavior. Both authors have considerable experience in the area as professors and in association with the National Defense Industrial Association (NIDA).
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- Masterful
- Excellent Sci-Fi Detective Series
- If you like Bladeruner, you'll love Carlucci's Edge.
- A beautiful blend of dark and light.
- Generic cyberfiction but with an element of realness
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Carlucci's Edge
Richard Paul Russo
Manufacturer: Ace Books
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ASIN: 0441002056 |
Customer Reviews:
Masterful.......2001-11-14
This was the first Richard Paul Russo novel I read and so remains something of a favorite. I haven't been able to add anything substantive to the excellent reviews already here, so have refrained from posting a "me too" review.
But there's an angle which perhaps deserves to be mentioned, and that is Russo's use of the "backstory." All of his Carlucci novels IMPLY much of what has happened to society without really explaining it, and describe new technologies and fads almost in passing. The comparisons to "Blade Runner" refer to this fully-created future world of which our story concerns just a small corner.
For this reason, I found reading the novels out of order was not really that much of a detriment. The backstory of "Carlucci's Edge" was largely explained by "Destroying Angel," and the backstory of "Carlucci's Heart" was explained by "Carlucci's Edge," but these details are such a small part of this wholly-created new world that your bewilderment quickly settles into a willing suspension of disbelief anyway.
So don't be afraid to read them out of order. Once you've read one, you'll want them all anyway.
Excellent Sci-Fi Detective Series.......2001-01-26
Richard Paul Russo's superior series combines the best of the Science Fiction and Mystery genres into one package. Detective Frank Carlucci is an honest cop and a good detective in the hopeless corrupt world of the mid-21st century. He is determined to do the right thing despite the potentially negative consequences. The real strength of the book is the vivid desciptions of the streets of San Francisco that leave you feeling that it is inevitable that the world will turn out this way. Any of the books in this series, which include "Destroying Angel," and "Carlucci's Heart," are well worth owning.
If you like Bladeruner, you'll love Carlucci's Edge........1999-07-28
While not as strong as Destroying Angel, I found Carlucci's Edge to be an intense ride. It takes the reader through the near future tecno-streets of San Francisco and is a hell of a lot of fun. The story is good and has a strong plot. I like the gritty background and I hope to see many more novels by Mr. Russo in the future.
A beautiful blend of dark and light........1999-02-12
I've wanted to let Richard know for some time that I think this series of books is one of the best all around reading experiences I've had. The story touched me on every level and was possibly the most perfect blend of the dark and light aspects of human nature I've ever read. The story is dark, but it's clear that Richard Russo believes in the nobility of the human spirit, regardless of what the human mind and body are forced to endure. A memorable book, vivid and thick with atmosphere.
Thank you, Richard!
Generic cyberfiction but with an element of realness.......1998-02-03
Russo's writing reads like a candid conversion at the bar and very real. Carlucci is less of the rehashed hard-boiled detective and seems more like a character from NBC's Law and Order or NYPD Blue. Very believable.
Average customer rating:
- Study or read?
- better than neal stephenson and william gibson
- Russo does it again! Another cyber punk noir classic!
- Draws You In...
- Murder, health care, and families -- what a mix!
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Carlucci's Heart
Richard Paul Russo
Manufacturer: Ace Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Destroying Angel
ASIN: 0441004857 |
Customer Reviews:
Study or read?.......2000-08-21
I ended up staying up half the night before finals to finish this book. I could not put it down. The characters drew me in, made me feel for them, want to help them......
better than neal stephenson and william gibson.......1999-10-09
not cyberpunk, no strange technology, the setting is a future san francisco/united states where there is numbness to the power of the commercial ruling class. the story is part epidemic, part human drama, dads and children, love stories. weaves a powerful story around a strange and unusual environment. i have not read the other carlucci books but plan to put them on my list.
Russo does it again! Another cyber punk noir classic!.......1999-07-28
I thought this novel was one of the best I have ever read. You are drawn into Russo's darkly beautiful world, and it is so much fun. He is as good, if not better than William Gibson. His prose is richly textured and detailed. I hope he doesn't make us wait long for another great story.
Draws You In..........1999-05-07
If murder, plague, and conspiracies aren't enough to draw you in, Russo's writing style will. Heart manages a good blend of modern cyberpunk and the trench-coated classics of old. The characters are deep, believable, and really draw you into their world.
Murder, health care, and families -- what a mix!.......1999-03-06
I found this book interesting -- it hung together as a mystery/murder investigation by a cop who can't be bought. The mix of murder, missing person, disease/plague, cut-throat business tactics, lack of basic medical for almost everyone, red-tape, character interactions keeps you reading. Sometimes just when you think you have it all figured out it skews by 90 degrees.
I did have a problem with so many characters that seemed to pay bills, live in apartments but have no visible means of support and be always available to the main characters when needed. I can suspend belief but I do wonder about how people can get along without working maybe it's wishful thinking.
Book Description
Raising children who are happy and successful is becoming increasingly more difficult in todayÂ's society. Our children are surrounded by negative influences through music, movies, peer groups and even in our homes. This book offers realistic answers to the perils that are threatening the innocence and future success of our children. These are livable solutions that can fit into the life of every parent, whether they are married or single. The pages of this book offer parents hope that through the choices we make, our children can grow up in a world that celebrates their gifts and supports their successes.
“A Common Bond is a refreshing look using common sense…in creating an atmosphere that enhances the environment of the children we are raising. The authors have touched on the responsibility we all share in raising the children of today…”
—Mahtowin Howe, publisher and author of Buffalo WomanÂ's Vision
Customer Reviews:
An Interesting Look at the Parent's Role.......2003-07-22
A Common Bond is a fresh take on parenting books. Instead of focusing on telling us what to do right, it focuses on pointing out what we may be doing wrong. Never does it hold us up to a perfect parent standard, but instead focuses on how each parent has the ability to change the future through simple, common sense parenting techniques. It is an exciting, opinionated read and well worth the money.
Book Description
Escape is a near-future tactical combat simulation for two
players or teams. One player controls the agents of the People for a
Unified Tomorrow (PUNT), attempting to destroy the Armageddon Device and
escape Talobar Technologies alive. The ohter team controls the Talobar
CorpGuard security forces, using whatever means necessary to stop
the agents.
Unique puzzleboard floor tiles allow an almost infinite number of
layouts, while the finely detailed metal miniatures (sculpted by
the legendary Mark Copplestone) and stand-up door pieces give
the game a realistic 3D feel. A simple impulse-based system keeps
all players involved in every moment of the game.
Dark Horizon: Escape includes:
* 10 highly detailed miniatures
* 5 full-color floor tile sheets, for a total of 45 tiles
* 1 sheet including 12 full-color door pieces and stands
* 24 close combat cards
* 1 32-page illustrated rulebook, including 5 starter scenarios
* 10 UV-coated, erasable player forms
* 1 sheet with over 120 die-cut counters
* 1 felt-tipped pen
* 4 dice
Customer Reviews:
A nifty game!.......1999-02-02
I'm always on the lookout for a good game, and the Dark Horizons offerings certainly fit the bill. If you're into minis, Escape comes with those; if you're into a VERY clever means of map-making, look no further; rules that model close-combat quickly and clearly? Dark Horizons: Escape nails 'em all. A great find and fun to play!
Book Description
This book will assure the reader to find peace in this consoling call to overcome feelings of guilt that come from our illusion that we are separate from the love of God.
Customer Reviews:
Acceptance of self leads to love of self, God & others.......2006-10-30
Getting rid of fear and guilt is not an easy task and one must ask for the grace of letting go and letting be.
We are who we are, human, imperfect and full of guilt about our imperfections. Letting go is the only way to fulfill our humanness. Its okay, all is right with the world, there is no need to pretend to be other than who we were created to become.
We have become laden with heaviness with our "sins" we are unable to accept ourselves and our growth. No one is born perfect and no one will die perfect.
Christ came to lead us to the Father and became human to show us the "way". The "way" to God the Father, the "way" to our heart, the "way" to love and be loved. Christ took upon himself our burdens, our hopes, our dreams our very selves to show us the "way" to peace, joy and love.
John Jacob Raub draws an excellent portrayal of our human dilemma and encourages us to acknowledge our guilt and fear and move on with our lives.
Growth is the only evidence of life. Let us walk tenderly with our God and may God be merciful throughout our journey with Him.
Other books for your consideration with my book reviews:
Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ (Library of Spiritual Classics, Volume 2) Jesus is the way and the truth.
Therese Simplicity is the key to God's inner life.
Amazing Grace From one pilgrim to another thank you for journeying.
What a fantastic book!.......2006-08-21
I agree with the other reviewers who wrote that this book is not revolutionary in its thought; but I think that's the point. Br. Raub is reiterating the words and messages of Christ in an up-to-date and easy-to-understand (and apply) way. I have used its lessons for more than 10 years, have recommended this book to so many people, and am in the process of buying yet another copy to pass along.
In response to the reviewer who felt inundated with its messages, I want to suggest that I found this book much more helpful when I read a few sections and spent time (anywhere from an hour to a month!) considering them before proceeding; rather than reading it straight through.
To anyone who's considering this book, I'd like to say: BUY IT, READ IT, CONSIDER IT ~ you won't be sorry.
Unconditional Love spelled out.......2005-10-29
Great book. Went to Gethsemene to meet him! Thomas Merton would be proud. Like "Silence on Fire" by Wiliam Shannon, the editor of the Thomas Merton papers. Hope the word gets out!
How to get to heaven without guilt.......2005-09-13
This is trully a remarkable book. While reading this book everything within me wanted to give the author lectures and quote verse and authority to him. But he won me over to feel that one should give substantial weight to his position in balancing one's own position. While I was not bowled over by the genius and brilliance of a Merton, or seduced by Mertons gift with language, I felt that the Holy spirit might just have offered a little input to this work, as I am certain he did with much of Merton's work as well, but a true humility seems to shine through all the while presenting something that seems to shake our roots, though often those roots are little more than the church's equivalent of old wifes tales.
a must read............2004-02-13
amazing ideas laid out in a logical, easy to understand format. not a really religious type book (although it is based upon Christian ideals), its more spiritual........ it's a bit wordy (i was saying "i get it, i get it", by 3/4 the way through) but truely some revolutionary thoughts that inspired me in an eye opening way......a must read for anybody questioning their spirituality or looking for more answers.
Books:
- The Trickster of Liberty: Native Heirs to a Wild Baronage
- The View From Pompey's Head
- The Warrior's Apprentice (Vorkosigan)
- To Swim Across the World
- Toward the End of Time
- Ultimas noticias del paraiso (Premio Alfaguara)
- Vintage Cisneros
- What is Mine
- What She Saw...: A Novel
- Where Trouble Sleeps (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
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