Book Description
Classic stories by a major writer of the modern West.
Walter Van Tilburg Clark, according to critic John R. Milton, "did perhaps more than anyone else to define (in his fiction) the mode of perception, the acquisition of knowledge, and the style which we tend to call Western." In 1950, Clark, author of the acclaimed novel The Ox-Bow Incident—published a collection of short stories that had already won distinction in various national magazines. The collection—Clark's only published volume of short fiction—was well received by reviewers, and subsequent critics have noted that these stories reflect both Clark's literary power and the major concerns of his novels: the interior and intuitive complexities of good and evil, and the fragile, intricate web that connects humankind to the rest of the natural world.
This new paperback edition—which includes "Hook," Clark's most renowned story—makes these remarkable pieces available again to a new generation of readers. A foreword by Ann Ronald sets the stories into the context of Clark's oeuvre and career and illuminates the way they reveal crucial characteristics of this complicated writer's imagination. Clark remains one of the West's most significant writers, among the first to explore the complicated interactions between humankind and the West's vast and often haunted landscape. The stories in The Watchful Gods will offer contemporary readers fresh insight into Clark's unique genius.
Customer Reviews:
Contains at least one classic short story.......2004-11-23
Here are a few sentences from a short article that appeared Nov 21, 2004 in the Washington (DC) Post BOOKWORLD. It was this article that made me interested in this book.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In the 1950s Walter Van Tilburg Clark seemed on his way to becoming a major American writer, both a popular and a critical success. His first and third novels, "The Ox-Bow Incident" and "The Track of the Cat", were made into movies. And one of his short stories, "The Wind and the Snow of Winter," an elegy for freewheeling days on the Western frontier that still has few equals, was an immediate classic. ... Today Clark, who died in 1971, is at least in print: all three novels, along with "The Watchful Gods and Other Stories", the collection in which "The Wind and the Snow of Winter" appears. But he has become an in-crowd kind of writer, championed by a Stendhalian happy few, such as Wallace Stegner, and otherwise getting little attention.
Product Description
From the author of The Oxbow Incident, includes: The Watchful Gods, Hook, The Wind and the Snow of Winter, The Rapids, The Anonymous, The Buck in the Hils, Why Don't You Look Where You're Going?, The Indian Well, The Fish Who Could Close His Eyes, and The Portable Phonograph
Amazon.com
Victor Pelevin has the sort of unbridled comedic imagination that can make most writers seem insipid by comparison. Born in 1962, the Russian writer has already published three story collections as well as a splendidly funny take on the Soviet space program, Omon Ra. From time to time his effects lurch out of control, yet Pelevin's manic level of invention tends to carry us along until he regains his equipoise. Certainly this is the case with The Life of Insects. This time, Pelevin sets his story in a sleazy Crimean resort town, where his characters eat, drink, make merry, make love... and turn into insects. This is no soft-focus allegory: the author is superbly specific about his entomological creations. "Arthur and Arnold had turned into small mosquitoes," he writes, "of that miserable hue of gray familiar from prerevolutionary village huts, a color that in its time had reduced many a Russian poet to tears." The sex scenes are a mite (as it were) much, though nothing more gruesome than you'd see in your average PBS documentary. Still, Pelevin's best trick is to makes his six-legged protagonists appear all too human. A self-doubting cicada, for example, finds himself envying the relative ease of an ant's life: "But he never dwelt on such comparisons, aware that once he stopped and began to compare himself with others, it would begin to seem that he had already achieved a great deal, and he would lose the sense of resentment toward life that was essential to continue his struggle." The Life of Insects is a black-comic Metamorphosis for the 1990s, minus Kafka's gravity and with an extra dose of Slavic neurosis. --William Davies
Book Description
In a sophisticated display of allegory, fantasy, and philosophical inquiry, Victor Pelevin creates an Ovidian, shape-shifting world that never fails to resonate on various strata with our own.
The Life of Insects opens with a trio of investors--two Russians and one American--discussing business prospects in the Crimea, when, suddenly, they reveal themselves to be mosquitoes in search of hemoglobin and glucose. Other figures morph from human to insect (and back again) in this thoroughly disorienting yet strangely familiar Kafkaesque novel. Both a parody of traditional Russian prose and a savage commentary of post-Soviet culture, The Life of Insects is a triumphant act of storytelling that succeeds in making "insect aspirations and anxiety feel so fragile and so soberingly universal" (The New York Times Book Review).
Customer Reviews:
...Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis'?.......2006-07-11
It seems to me that the plot of `The Life of Insects' might well derive from `The Metamorphosis' [Die Verwandlung - 1915], a famous story by Franz Kafka:
A young man (Gregor) awakes one morning in the form of a giant dung beetle. Gregor is unable to speak in his insect form, and never successfully communicates with his family at all after his physical appearance is revealed to them. However, he seems to retain his cognitive faculties, which is unknown to his family.
Although I believe that a review by Matt Curtin (Columbus, OH USA, see below) is interesting, I feel doubt that Pelevin's book is, as Matt writes, `an allegorical commentary on Russian society'. I could hardly generalize on Russian life, as it is so mosaic and buzzing. Nor am I sure that `Readers of Russian works will feel at home in The Life of Insects, as the story and its presentation has a distinctly Russian feel to it'. ...Um... It seems to me that I feel at Kafka's home.
I think the book represents european influence in Russian literature.
Love Love Love!.......2006-06-11
This was my first book by V. Pelevin, and I loved it! The story is very well built, very intriguing and unique. It's so unpredictable and the subjects of alcohol, marihuana, and mushrooms pop up so often, it makes you wonder if the author himself was on drugs when he wrote it! The hallucinating visions in the book bring you to the USSR era once again. Yeah.. been there, done that.. Though, Pelevin chooses a very different angle to deliver the story, so it's worth the read. I definitely recommend it if you are not threatened to get lost in the Russian names (it looks like all my English speaking friends have troubles with those doesn't matter if they read Tolstoy or Pelevin..)
beauty in the bleak.......2006-01-16
"The Life of Insects" is not for the Disney-minded, though it delves quite frequently in the silly and absurd, and uses animals -- well, insects -- to represent people. The book is written as a comical "Metamorphosis," at times witty, silly, morbid and profound. Humanity is viewed as insects through some dismal, cosmic microscope. We are the insects always trying to find the light, but finding only darkness, pushing along a ball of dung (our corporeal body) and never rising above our materialistic predicament. As much as the novel describes these squallid Russian characters living in a sad state of affairs, reduced to the cruel plight of an insect existence, Pelevin is also pointing out that the majority is weak-minded in the first place, never questioning their dim fate and resigned to make contact only with dung. Pelevin's prose slaps the reader in the face, both poetic and philosophical, a mix of Bukowski, Emily Dickinson and Andy Goldsworthy, a stark raving loner, content to watch the paint peel and pick up from it designs of brutal bent.
An organic picture of Russian society........2005-11-17
In 1994, Russian author Viktor Pelevin first published his commentary on Russian society after perestroika and even after the fall of the Soviet Union. While many reviewers focus on the unique Russian character of Жизнь Насекомых [The Life of Insects], I was struck by its quality as an allegorical commentary on Russian society. While obvious comparisons to certain Russian masters like Chekhov and Turgenev seems inevitable, I thought more of the allegories and social commentaries of authors such as Zamyatin, Nabokov, and even Orwell. I read a 1996 translation into English by Andrew Bromfield.
The Life of Insects Rather than focus on the story of a single protagonist working his way through society, Pelevin opts to tell several stories in a single novel, allowing a picture to emerge of a society as a whole, not from the top-down as if by some Soviet-style central design, but rather from the bottom-up, where individuals live their own lives, only vaguely aware of others outside of their sphere. The Life of Insects becomes a commentary on modern society, Russian society, with various factions each being represented by some variety of insect, beginning with enterprising mosquitoes in a clear reference to the "New Russians" that emerged at the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Readers of Russian works will feel at home in The Life of Insects, as the story and its presentation has a distinctly Russian feel to it, something of a fatalist acceptance that whatever superficial changes we might make, nothing will ever be fundamentally different. Especially in the case of ants and dung beetles, we are shown very clearly that for whatever struggles might take place at the individual level, circumstances far beyond our control will dictate the manner of our daily lives as we hope to produce another generation of the species before we meet our own ends. If we live long enough to observe and pause long enough to reflect, we'll see our children doing exactly as we did-and only then will we really understand why our parents said what they said and did what they did as we struggled to reach maturity.
Some will be more pensive, actively thinking about where they are going instead of being shocked to see history repeating itself in front of their eyes. They will think about terms like paradise that people talk of, thinking about how pointless it is to dig, always to dig through the dirt, where breakfast and lunch are largely the same, and one always struggles to dig well enough to reach the surface. When finally getting there, realizing just what it means, and unable to share the insight.
Others will be more social, staying abreast of the news, sharing observations, insights, and experiences with others. While they experience their own ups and downs, their friends will be there, always supportive and a force for balance and stability. The trick, of course, is not to attract too much attention along the way, lest they find themselves on the receiving end of some action by the authorities to limit their influence.
Each of these has particular meaning in modern Russian society, with commentary not being difficult to follow-the text fairly clearly spells out the necessary parallels. Even so, similar lessons can certainly be drawn for other social structures as well.
I thought the translation equal to the task of presentation of the book in English, making it accessible even to those unfamiliar with Russian society beyond a place where one might see abbreviations such as NKVD and KGB. (One unexpected joy comes from familiarity with the issue of translation of language between Russian and English and the ability to sense the quality of translation. I am anxious to see the text in the original language and what construction Pelevin himself used that required Bromfield's nice little trick with the use of Ai- й + а, perhaps? Addendum: as it turns out the text is available online and it was just as I suspected.)
I thought the text an interesting tour of contemporary Russian society, as told by someone who lives within it but clearly sees it not just as a whole but in all its parts. The novel's structure was worthy to carry its ideas and the ideas worthy of consideration for society more broadly.
Unique and challenging.......2004-04-11
Pelevin, one of few prominent Russian modern writers, impressively creates a cast of characters that exist simultaneously as humans and insects. The transformations and comparisons are fascinating, as is the portrait of Russian life during perestroika. The book is heavily philosophical though and much of it is hard to comprehend. According to a Russian friend, "the only way to understand some of it is to smoke a joint, then read it."
Average customer rating:
- Dot, Flik, Hopper, and the rest of the gang
- the adventure is on
|
A Bug's Life (Disney's Junior Novel)
Justine Korman , and
Ron Fontes
Manufacturer: Disney Pr (Juv Pap)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Fiction | Bugs & Spiders | Animals | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
Action & Adventure | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
Humorous | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
Popular Culture | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
A Bug's Life | Disney | Popular Characters | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0786842520 |
Book Description
A retelling of the feature film story, which involves the plight of the ants against the grasshoppers.
Customer Reviews:
Dot, Flik, Hopper, and the rest of the gang.......1999-07-02
Join all of your buggy friends on and adventure you will never forget. As all the Ants battle it out with the grasshoppers this book (and the movie) will almost make you cry at the end. I would recomend this book to the adventure "bugs"!
the adventure is on.......1999-05-05
Follow the bugs on the adventure of their life. Together they find the courage to fight hopper and his gang and save ant island. Flick is an outcast that is always braking things. Because of his latest mishap Flick is sent on a mission to find warrior bugs. Going to the city is a scary place for a little bug, can Flick find they heroes he is searching for, or is the real hero Flick?
Average customer rating:
|
Novel Aspects of Insect-Plant Interactions
Manufacturer: Wiley-Interscience
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Insects & Spiders | Animals | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Biology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
Entomology | Biology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
Invertebrates | Zoology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
Biochemistry | Botany | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Botany | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Agricultural Sciences | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
Entomology | Biology | Biological Sciences | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0471832766 |
Book Description
Presents the first efforts to explore ecological interactions between insects and plants across several trophic levels, with special focus on mediation of complex interactions by plant allelochemicals. First section looks at effects of plant allelochemicals on predator-prey and host-parasitoid interactions. Second section reveals the role of microorganisms as mediators of interactions between insects and plants. Third section unifies and extends current theory to examine the effects of allelochemicals on the second and third trophic levels. Final section traces the physiological effects of plant allelochemicals in animal behavior, population regulation, maintenance of mimicry systems, and evolution of host range.
Average customer rating:
|
Novel Aspects of the Biology of Chrysomelidae (Series Entomologica)
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Insects & Spiders | Animals | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
Entomology | Biology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Zoology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
Invertebrates | Zoology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Ecology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Science | Subjects | Books
Entomology | Biology | Biological Sciences | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
Ecology | Biological Sciences | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
General | Zoology | Biological Sciences | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0792321855 |
Book Description
Chrysomelidae, along with Curculionidae and Bruchidae, are the most important phytophagous Coleoptera. At least 37,000 species of leaf beetles belonging to 19 subfamilies have now been described, and more probably remain to be discovered, especially in the tropics. Many species are familiar agricultural pests. The Colorado potato beetle, the cereal beetle, flea beetle and the corn root worms are but a few of the well known pests. Because of the economic importance and biological diversity, chrysomelids are an important taxonomic group for scientific inquiry.
This book is divided into eight parts, entitled palaeontology, larvae and larval biology, trophic selection, genetics and evolution defence mechanisms, anatomy and reproduction, pathogens and natural enemies, and general studies in biology. The biologies of agricultural and forestry pests,
Leptinotarsa,
Plagiodera,
Entomoscelis,
Paropsis,
Mecistomela and
Aspidomorpha are dealt with in detail. Others, such as
Timarcha and those in the poorly known Megalopodinae, are covered in Part VIII. In this volume the American, European, Asian and Australian fauna occupy the greatest part.
This volume, together with
Biology of Chrysomelidae (1988), provides a comprehensive coverage and helps to complete the picture of chrysomelid biology.
Book Description
With the planet Mirach now experiencing civil unrest, peace becomes unlikely. Governor Ortega is at odds with several powers-including his two sons, both aspiring MechWarriors who believe only a hard-won battle can save the planet.
Download Description
With the planet Mirach now experiencing civil unrest, peace becomes unlikely. Governor Ortega is at odds with several powers-including his two sons, both aspiring MechWarriors who believe only a hard-won battle can save the planet.
Customer Reviews:
Not without its faults, but a decent read for a Tech newbie.......2004-06-12
Some devoted BattleTech fans have been quite critical of Robert E. Vardeman's The Ruins of Power, the third book in the MechWarrior: Dark Age series. I am a newcomer to the BattleTech world, so I made a point of reading the two earlier entries in this series so as to put myself in a better position to judge the merits of this book. While The Ruins of Power isn't on par with its predecessors, I found this to be an entertaining, quite satisfying novel. Vardeman does tend to avoid certain questions about the background of events, fails to expound upon a few seemingly unlikely details, and leaves room for the questioning of several characters' motives and agendas, but the basic story holds together pretty well, certain explanations are rightly held back until the closing pages, and important aspects of society and leadership are addressed. BattleTech veterans may find fault with a number of things in these pages, but those new to the series stand a good chance of enjoying a pretty good story.
There is not a lot of military action to be found in The Ruins of Power. This is due in no small part to Mirach's governor's adamant pacifism and zealous commitment to diplomacy; such strong feelings on his part are ironic and somewhat hard to accept at face value for the reason that Baron Sergio Ortega was a celebrated MechWarrior in his youth. His two sons, Dale and Austin, plead with the governor to use the threat of force to quiet the growing unrest and riots springing up across the land. The destruction of the Republic's interstellar communication capabilities has not only isolated Mirach, it has led to growing economic problems affecting the entire population. Business leaders have gone so far as to begin converting IndustrialMechs into modified fighting machines in order to defend themselves from angry mobs should the social fabric of Mirach split completely asunder. The government's biggest problem, however, turns out to be the Ministry of Information and the virtual monopoly its minister, Lady Enora, has on the news now that there is virtually no access to interstellar communications. With the specter of civil war hanging over Mirach, only time will tell which important organizations and factions will support the Republic and which ones will betray the common good for their own selfish interests. Political intrigue, treachery, and galling lust for power all make their mark on this story.
The Ruins of Power does have its weaknesses, and some readers will find them more frustrating than others. Serious and committed BattleTech readers point to technical problems surrounding the equipping and utilization of BattleTech units in the novel. As a newcomer to the series, I am not familiar enough with the technical details of the machinery of war to question any such information, but this may be an issue for some readers. A much bigger problem is characterization - or, to be more blunt, the lack of it in some cases. Baron Ortega's unflagging commitment to diplomacy proves quite frustrating early on, and Vardeman really offers no sort of explanation as to why this former MechWarrior now refuses to resort to any show of force. Young Austin Ortega, for his part, fails to live up to the hype of a BattleTech novel hero, although he does develop into an interesting and sympathetic character. The main problem with the novel, though, is Vardeman's portrayal of "the bad guys." The most dangerous hornet in the nest of opposition all but declares her treachery time and again, making misstatements that call her loyalties into question from the very start. Her supposed motivation is hardly acceptable in and of itself, and this fact weakens her character greatly. Questionable characterization is only exacerbated by certain aspects of the plot; Vardeman sometimes jumps from point A to point B without explaining how he got from one to the other.
Suffice it to say that The Ruins of Power is not a perfect novel - far from it. It is, however, a perfectly interesting book that speaks to some of the basic values and concerns of any modern society. Obviously, not all BattleTech fans would recommend the book, but in my opinion The Ruins of Power is more than worth a look by prospective readers.
Intriguing scenario of political intrigue (3.5 stars).......2004-03-03
I'm not familiar with Battletech, Mechwarrior, Dark Age scenarios, but bought and read this book because of its author, Robert E. Vardeman. Not being able to judge what others might expect as a result of the above-mentioned affiliations, I can only evaluate it on a stand-alone basis as a work in its own right. In short, I found the book to be pretty good! Political intrigue turns out to be the core of the work, and here, as elsewhere, Vardeman has done a good job presenting institutional and governmental power struggles in a fictional scenario. This may not be the style expected by fans of Battletech, but from my end I'm impressed that the book is no mere string of shoot-em-up antics. Rather, it has a balance between presenting its characters, a broad political context, specific tactical information in a number of key action sequences, and also apparently fitting into a broader framework of tied-in games and novels. I think it does a good job of fitting into this web. It's main weaknesses, I suppose, would have to be in character development. I found all the roles presented to be interesting enough, but some of the key persons in the story weren't quite fleshed out enough to come across with full credibility. Main villainess Elora had motivations that seemed a mite too simple. Marta Kinsolving's character was never properly explored in this text. Most of the characters are intriguing and interesting to watch and listen to as they scheme and try to piece together what threats are building against them, but as characters are never truly round - effectively being defined merely in terms of the roles they're playing in the power struggles in a semi-isolated sector of the universe. This shortcoming wasn't enough of a drawback to sink the book too much, though. The book reads well enough and has a couple of extended action sequences that I imagine are aimed toward the Battletech crowd specifically. I was particularly impressed by the way that power struggles involved many social institutions - media, government, military, and business. For the scenario of intrigue alone, the book is well worth reading. I'm not sure who the typical Battletech reader is supposed to be, but I was impressed that this book was no simpleminded slugfest. The political intrigue was a lot better thought-out than I would normally expect from a series that sounds vaguely to be based on the appeal (?) of mechanized militarism, and this (plus an interesting counterpoint of a concern with pacifism) made the book a rewarding experience for me. In the end, I can't count it as an actual classic - mainly because of the limits of having to be squeezed into a broader scenario and series. But it was a refreshing change of pace to find these good elements within what looked like an action-dominated scenario. As for the action scenes themselves, I thought they worked quite well, too! But if you want something more than just another routine of action/combat events, check this book out! It does a good job of linking the combat into POLITICS!! 9:20
Intriguing scenario of political intrique (3.5 stars).......2004-02-17
I'm not familiar with Battletech, Mechwarrior, Dark Age scenarios, but bought and read this book because of its author, Robert E. Vardeman. Not being able to judge what others might expect as a result of the above-mentioned affiliations, I can only evaluate it on a stand-alone basis as a work in its own right. In short, I found the book to be pretty good! Political intrigue turns out to be the core of the work, and here, as elsewhere, Vardeman has done a good job presenting institutional and governmental power struggles in a fictional scenario. This may not be the style expected by fans of Battletech, but from my end I'm impressed that the book is no mere string of shoot-em-up antics. Rather, it has a balance between presenting its characters, a broad political context, specific tactical information in a number of key action sequences, and also apparently fitting into a broader framework of tied-in games and novels. I think it does a good job of fitting into this web. It's main weaknesses, I suppose, would have to be in character development. I found all the roles presented to be interesting enough, but some of the key persons in the story weren't quite fleshed out enough to come across with full credibility. Main villainess Elora had motivations that seemed a mite too simple. Marta Kinsolving's character was never properly explored in this text. Most of the characters are intriguing and interesting to watch and listen to as they scheme and try to piece together what threats are building against them, but as characters are never truly round - effectively being defined merely in terms of the roles they're playing in the power struggles in a semi-isolated sector of the universe. This shortcoming wasn't enough of a drawback to sink the book too much, though. The book reads well enough and has a couple of extended action sequences that I imagine are aimed toward the Battletech crowd specifically. I was particularly impressed by the way that power struggles involved many social institutions - media, government, military, and business. For the scenario of intrigue alone, the book is well worth reading. I'm not sure who the typical Battletech reader is supposed to be, but I was impressed that this book was no simpleminded slugfest. The political intrigue was a lot better thought-out than I would normally expect from a series that sounds vaguely to be based on the appeal (?) of mechanized militarism, and this (plus an interesting counterpoint of a concern with pacifism) made the book a rewarding experience for me. In the end, I can't count it as any sort of a classic - mainly because of the limits of having to be squeezed into a broader scenario and series. But it was a refreshing change of pace to find these good elements within what looked like an action-dominated scenario. As for the action scenes themselves, I thought they worked quite well, too! But if you want something more than just another routine of action/combat events, check this book out! It does a good job of linking the combat into POLITICS!! 9:20
Why can't we give it ZERO stars?.......2003-07-18
I can't begin to tell you how upset I am at this book. Vardeman should definitely stick to writing about Vor.
Something that threw me off very early in the story was that the main characters (Dale, Austin & Sergio) shared the same last name as Raul Ortega from 'A Call to Arms.' This universe is still in it's infancy, lets at least wait till we're about 15 novels into it before we start recycling surnames.
'Ruins of Power' had the potential to be a powerful story with the characters it introduced. Unfortunately, the author never takes any time to dig deep into any of the characters; many questions go unanswered. Why is Sergio Ortega so adamant a pacifist? What evidence is there that Sergio was a great mechwarrior in his past? Why does Segio not confide in his own son, Austin, as to what Dale and Hanna knew of Lady Elora's work to undermine his authority as governor? It is obvious Sergio can trust no one, so why not his son? Is it because he feels that Austin is incompetent? Well that can't because Austin is given a political postition alongside his father plus he spends a week outfitting a Centurion for battle (i.e. programming it, loading LRM ammo & AC ammo, and other superhuman feats). It seems Austin is more than ready for the truth; I hope you can sense the sarcasm. We are also introduced to Capt. Manfred Leclerc of the First Cossack Lancers charged with protecting the governor till they are handed over to the Legate's control. Manfred's relationship with Austin is never given much time so you can imagine my surprise when Austin deeply embraces Manfred (who has been in hiding). Does Austin look to Manfred as a surrogate father, a big brother, what?
Despite the many character flaws inherent in this book (don't get me started on Legate Tortorelli) there were some definite technical mistakes. As I mentioned before, Austin loads LRM & AC ammo into a Centurion locked in a museum. How in the world does he accomplish that without some sort of gantry or crane? Whatever. Also, the Centurion is capable of much more damage than it was allowed to dish out. It was taken out of battle early and Vardeman even wrote of Austin having to watch heat levels even after firing only two weapons/salvos. Unless the Centurion had no heatsinks, Austin should not have given heat a second thought until he was in the thick of battle. Besides, his long range weaponry should have taken out any mech-killing tanks well before he was in range of their guns. Lastly, is the mysterious Atlas that arrives with Envoy Parsons to save the day. Not only do we not know who is piloting the Atlas (Vardeman spends no time in the cockpit of the Atlas for the reader) it seems he is the worst pilot in all of the Republic. The Atlas is ordered to minimize collateral damage to the city and to fire only when fired upon. There was no mention that the Atlas even took any vehicles out! In fact, the Atlas was about to be felled by the Home Guard forces before the battle turned. It seems to me that the Republic would have sent along an elite pilot (a Knight or something), Vardeman should have given his name, and would be able to take out any vehicle with well-placed laser, gauss or LRM salvos. Please do some research before writing and/or talk to past BT authors.
Bottom line, this is a horrible story. I could have written it and I am not very creative. There were no 'levels' to the plot, the characters, the battles, etc. Buy this book just to add it to your collection. Read it once and never touch it again unless you have a wobbly table that needs fixing.
By the way, I thought Far Country was entertaining (but yes, it was dumb).
Implausible and Inexplicable.......2003-07-16
My problem with this particular novel was highly implausible behavior by main characters.
The father, sergio, is supposedly a former great mechwarrior and hero who has had a lifetime of public service. Yet throughout the book he adheres to a childlike pacifism, even when mobs are killing hundreds of innocent people. A real person with such a background could hardly adhere with such stubbornness to such a ridiculous policy.
As has been said elsewhere, the battle scenes are perplexing because characters are worried about the possibility of "collateral damage," and refuse to fire -- they are just big, lumbering targets.
Even the arch-villain, a witch-like woman, is trying to take over the planet to give it to the Steel Wolves clan. This is because her mother was raped by a Steel Wolf warrior-- resulting in a fanatical loyalty to the Steel Wolf clan in this woman. Wha? Yes, it's patently improbable. Too much of this very sort of far-fetched motivation -- or lack thereof -- starts to make the novel seem ridiculous.
As a final example-- A powerful official visited the planet, learned about the rioting and chaos, and then left in his ship. At a key moment late in the novel, this same official inexplicably returns, just a few days after he departed. He brings an Atlas battlemech, which he gives to one of the factions. Characters ask, "why did he return? He just left, didn't he?" This is never explained.
There are a few good things in the book. Some of the characters seemed interesting. The description of the Palace of Facets, which becomes the setting for much of the novel, and the way the museum offers tools of war for desperate characters, these are a few qualities which somewhat mitigate the deep flaws in the book.
On balance, however, not worth your trouble. There are so many better BattleTech novels out there.
Patrick Callahan
Book Description
"Not since the popularity of The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran in the 1960s has a poet made such a dent in American Culture. And if any one person could be said to be responsible for the Rumi renaissance, it would have to be Coleman Barks." --The New York Times (12/6/98)
In 1244, the brilliant scholar Rumi and the dynamic wandering dervish Shams of Tabriz met and immediately felt a deep spiritual connection to one another. "The glance," this mystical experience that occurs in the meeting of the eyes between the lover and the beloved, parent and child, friend and friend, taps a major, yet little-explored theme in Rumi's poetry. Following on the success of The Essential Rumi bestselling translator and poet Coleman Barks brings the spontaneous love lyrics of The Glance. These powerful, complex and all newly translated poems range from ethereal to everyday and express the unique place of human desire, longing, and ecstasy--where in the meeting of eyes there occurs not just the union of two souls but the crux of the universe.
In an illuminating and deeply personal introduction Barks explores the meaning of the glance that allows us to experience love as a presence all around us and always available. He speaks of its many paradoxes: the sweetness of grief, the freedom of limits, the warmth of nakedness, the eloquence of silence. Here, in this exquisitely packaged work, is a new kind of lyric love for our time--one of connection, wholeness, and belonging.
Customer Reviews:
Deep, contented breath...........2007-07-01
The very title of this Coleman Barks translation of some of Rumi's most soulful love poems is what initially drew me in - because I felt as if I knew this "Glance" he spoke of with a deep soul-friend of mine. May everyone know just a taste of what Rumi felt with his beloved, Shams. Perhaps this book may spark exactly that intent for many readers.
I have been a long-time fan of Rumi's poetry, this title helped me become a bonafide Coleman Barks fan as well.
In the introduction, Barks does a tremendous job in his summation of Soul-Friendship, both universally and what was known between Rumi and his
soul-friend Shams. Hear what he says about the concept of Rumi's "love lyric" from page xv:
"expands the concept of love lyric into a region where many languages blend: the jewel imagery of mysticism, clouds of bewilderment, the charge of erotic language, and the feel of drunkenness. It's a new and old mixture of human desirings, longings and other intensities. these poems come from a place where those experiences are both felt and transformed. the realm of the glance is beyond touch and somehow within touch, too. THe friendship of Rumi and Shams goes beyond wantings, past ideas of gender, beyond old love categories, beyond the synapse of the garden balcony scene and beyond mind."
These poems - and Coleman Barks introduction and closing notes - would be excellent reading for anyone who has a heart for the sensual (not only the sexual aspects of sensual, but the deep experience of all of the senses through soul breathed and connective descriptions that gather your being up into a taste of the ecstatic spin that is Rumi - that seedling of spiritual alchemy that comes from not only reading Rumi's words, but allowing those words to become a part of your blood, allowing those words to be an invitiation into experience.
I also admire Barks' closing notes, where he pays homage to other Rumi translaters, honoring the specific work of Nevit Ergin.
most excellent.......2005-08-15
I found this little jewel quite by suprise and have since shared it both as readings and as gifts. I really appreciate Coleman Barks' translations of Rumi. Enjoy and share!
A Metamorphosis of Brilliance.......2005-03-16
A glance ... a gaze ... full recognition ... connection ... that is how I felt reading some of these poems. Anyone who has experienced strong emotions which transpose events into a new way of "seeing" ... turning an ordinairy experience into a spiritual, other-worldly, almost "divine" encounter will understand the impact of Rumi's poems. The trigger could be a heart-felt conversation, an over-powering view of nature, or a deeply buried emotion which surfaces, or meeting someone special. Rumi describes many life experiences. Each poem is like a crystal which reveals a flash of infinity that is captured in words. The world would be a better place if more people could relate to the brilliance revealed by Rumi's poems.
Coleman Barks provides unparalleled free verse translations which breathe new life into these ancient verses. His highly appealing style makes the poems palatable to modern readers. Maybe, just maybe, Rumi loved life more and dared to live it more fully ... than many people livng today. Perhaps, more "love for life" can be awakened in the readers of these poems. We can only hope ... Erika Borsos (erikab93)
It will make your soul sing.......2004-01-25
Coleman Barks has done a supurb job of selecting and translating Rumi's poetry. The words will move you to tears, the imagry inspire you, the lyric sound of the prose bring joy to your heart. It is a simply magnificient collection and translation. The volume is slender, containing only a handful of poems, but the impact of them is weighty. If you own only one book of poetry - or even only one book by Rumi, this is the collection I recommend.
Barks won't bite, and he doesn't have to........2000-02-20
I may not know a cake from a cow-pie, but if Coleman is cooking I'll take two helpings please! And serve it up on audio...straight from the lover's lips is best...images clear as mountain air, accent thick as pine tar, and voice sweet as peach nectar. YUM...YUM That's the way I like it. During my first listen, I felt the music on this audio to be a little too over-powering for some of the readings, but it has grown on me. Now I love even the quirkiest of the pieces. He may not be the chef for you, but he is the word gourmet for me.
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- Windchill Summer: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
- Yosl Rakover Talks to God
- 101 Double-Ended Hook Stitches: Crochet (Crochet on the Double)
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