La Prisonniere

Customer Reviews:

Inspiring.......2004-01-21

This is the most amazing book I have ever read. If you want to be inspired by the story of a strong woman, overcoming more than you could ever imagine, this is a book for you. It's not necessarily brilliant literature but it is the story of overcoming adversity that is truly breathtaking.

GREAT STORY....SECOND RATE WRITING...POOR EDITING..........2003-12-09

This is the French text edition of a book that on its face held a lot of promise. Any story in which a mother and her children, as well as faithful family retainers, are unjustly imprisoned in squalid conditions for twenty years for an ostensible crime committed by the familial patriarch would certainly be of interest. Wrong! This is a tepid and disappointing book, poorly written and, most certainly, poorly edited. It is so filled with contradictions and inconsistencies, as to create somewhat of a credibility gap for the reader.

The story revolves around the Oufkir family, who were, at one time, a prominent, highly respected, and well known Moroccan family. Their story is told by Malika Oufkir, who is the eldest daughter of the late General Oufkir, who was executed in August 1972, immediately following an aborted attempt to assassinate King Hassan II of Morocco, for whom he was the Minister of Defense. General's Oufkir's treasonous action was the catalyst for the tragic turn of events that were to ungulf his family.

After the aborted coup, the General's immediate family was placed under house arrest and four months later, along with two loyal family retainers who volunteered to share their fate, were whisked away to the first of several desert prisons that were to house them for the next fifteen years.

As Malika tells it, hers was initially almost a fairy tale story. Brought up in luxurious surroundings, she suffered early heartbreak when, at the age of five, she was separated from her family and "adopted" by then King Muhammad V, so as to be a live in playmate for the King's daughter. This adoption is never really explained, and one has no idea what her parents' thoughts were on this issue. Malika lived in the Palace in the lap of luxury for many years. As a teenager, however, she moved back with her family, where, there too, she continued to live a very privileged life, steeped in luxury and money.

After the Oufkirs' circumstances changed, theirs is truly a tragic story. There is little doubt that the conditions in their desert prisons were deplorable and squalid. With inadequate sanitation, insufficient food, no medical care, or educational provisions, the family was truly living a life of privation. Cutoff from the outside world, as they were, they truly were disenfranchised.

Their escape from their last desert prison, an escape that brought their plight to the consciousness of the public, was amazing. But for their escape, there is no doubt in my mind that they would still be languishing in a desert prison today, barely alive, if not already dead. I salute their determination and ingenuity in making a desperate break for freedom.

The problem lies in the telling of the story, which is so poorly told. Many things are left unexplained. No effort is made to ground the events that led to their family's downfall in a historical context. Whatever Malika said seems to have been what went into the final draft of this book, even if she contradicted herself a page or two later, which is the main problem with the book. There are so many inconsistencies with what Malika herself says, that the discerning reader is left to question much of what she represents.

Malika comes across as a somewhat self-absorbed, vapid woman to whom fate dealt a harsh and unusually cruel hand. Her self absorption is most evident in that she barely acknowledges the sacrifice of the two faithful family retainers, who voluntarily shared their fate, nor does she discuss the impact that this had on them. It is also a little disconcerting that more does not come through about the perceptions the other family members had about this hellish experience. Their insight might have provided a little more balance and interest to the narrative. In the hands of a good writer and and excellent editor, this book might have withstood scrutiny and met expectations.

Sorry, Oprah, your book club selections are usually excellent. This one fails to make the grade.

Excellent book, still outlawed in Morocco.......2001-01-17

One of the first personal accounts by a an ex-prisoner of what Hassan II, King of Morocco, called his "secret garden"--a complex of horrendous prisons in which opponents of his regime disappeared and often died. This book forced Hassan II in July 1999 (two weeks before his death) to express, reluctantly but publicly, his "regrets" over the way the Oufkir family was treated during the 20 years of their imprisonment for no other reason than being the wife and children of General Mohammed Oufkir, Hassan's strong man who tried to oust him from power in 1972. A must read for anyone concerned about human rights in Morocco.

a lesson of hope.......2000-06-03

The book shows the injustice and abuse of human rights. A whole family was punished severely and imprisoned due to the acts of one person. After several years of terrible conditions, some members escape and are able to contact the press and let the world know their terrible predicament. The contrast between the author's comfortable upbringing and childhood in the king's palace, and the following period in prison are incredible. This is a more gripping tale of survival and enduring hardship than even, Shackleton. A must read.

Average customer rating:

A GREAT STORY BUT POORLY WRITTEN...
A captivating testimony of tribulation and hope
Incredible true story about 9 survivors
amazing
From riches to dust

La Prisonniere
Malika Oufkir
Manufacturer: BANTAM PAPERBACKS (T
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0553813021

Book Description

Malika Oufkir was born into a proud Berber family in 1953, the eldest daughter of the King of Morocco's closest aide. She was adopted by the king to be a companion to his little daughter, and at the royal court of Rabat, Malika grew up locked away in a golden cage, among the royal wives and concubines.

But when Malika was eighteen, in 1972, her father was arrested after an attempt to assassinate the king. General Oufkir was swiftly and summarily executed. Malika, her beautiful mother and her five younger brothers and sisters were seized and thrown into an isolated desert jail. For fifteen years, they had no contact with the outside world, and lived in increasingly barbaric and inhumane conditions.

Like a modern Scheherazade, Malika kept up the spirits of her younger siblings by telling them stories every night about an epic world of her own invention. Then, after fifteen endless years of imprisonment, the Oufkir children managed to dig a tunnel with their bare hands, and made an audacious escape. Although they were recaptured after five days, the ensuing public outrage resulted in house arrest rather than a return to prison. In 1996, Malika was finally permitted to leave Morocco to begin a new life in exile.

La Prisonnière is a heart-rending account of resilience in the face of extreme deprivation, of the courage and even humour with which one family faced their tormented fate. A shocking true story, it is hard to comprehend that it could have happened in our own times.

Customer Reviews:

A GREAT STORY BUT POORLY WRITTEN..........2005-07-31

This is a book that on its face held a lot of promise. Any story in which a mother and her children, as well as faithful family retainers, are unjustly imprisoned in squalid conditions for twenty years for an ostensible crime committed by the familial patriarch would certainly be of interest. Wrong! This is a tepid and disappointing book, poorly written and, most certainly, poorly edited. It is so filled with contradictions and inconsistencies, as to create somewhat of a credibility gap for the reader.

The story revolves around the Oufkir family, who were, at one time, a prominent, highly respected, and well known Moroccan family. Their story is told by Malika Oufkir, who is the eldest daughter of the late General Oufkir, who was executed in August 1972, immediately following an aborted attempt to assassinate King Hassan II of Morocco, for whom he was the Minister of Defense. General's Oufkir's treasonous action was the catalyst for the tragic turn of events that were to engulf his family.

After the aborted coup, the General's immediate family was placed under house arrest and four months later, along with two loyal family retainers who volunteered to share their fate, were whisked away to the first of several desert prisons that were to house them for the next fifteen years.

As Malika tells it, hers was initially almost a fairy tale story. Brought up in luxurious surroundings, she suffered early heartbreak when, at the age of five, she was separated from her family and "adopted" by then King Muhammad V, so as to be a live in playmate for the King's daughter. This adoption is never really explained, and one has no idea what her parents' thoughts were on this issue. Malika lived in the Palace in the lap of luxury for many years. As a teenager, however, she moved back with her family, where, there too, she continued to live a very privileged life, steeped in luxury and money.

After the Oufkirs' circumstances changed, theirs is truly a tragic story. There is little doubt that the conditions in their desert prisons were deplorable and squalid. With inadequate sanitation, insufficient food, no medical care, or educational provisions, the family was truly living a life of privation. Cutoff from the outside world, as they were, they truly were disenfranchised.

Their escape from their last desert prison, an escape which brought their plight to the consciousness of the public, was amazing. But for their escape, there is no doubt in my mind that they would still be languishing in a desert prison today, barely alive, if not already dead. I salute their determination and ingenuity in making a desperate break for freedom.

The problem lies in the telling of the story, which is so poorly told. Many things are left unexplained. No effort is made to ground the events that led to their family's downfall in a historical context. Whatever Malika said seems to have been what went into the final draft of this book, even if she contradicted herself a page or two later, which is the main problem with the book. There are so many inconsistencies with what Malika herself says, that the discerning reader is left to question much of what she represents.

Malika comes across as a somewhat self-absorbed, vapid woman to whom fate dealt a harsh and unusually cruel hand. Her self-absorption is most evident in that she barely acknowledges the sacrifice of the two faithful family retainers, who voluntarily shared their fate, nor does she discuss the impact that this had on them. It is also a little disconcerting that more does not come through about the perceptions the other family members had about this hellish experience. Their insight might have provided a little more balance and interest to the narrative. In the hands of a good writer and excellent editor, this book might have withstood scrutiny and met expectations.

Sorry, Oprah, your book club selections are usually excellent. This one fails to make the grade.

A captivating testimony of tribulation and hope.......2003-05-20

A story of great courage and love and freedom lost. Malika recounts her family's fate with much candor, and eloquent simplicity that captivates you immediately. The Oufkir's family ties saw them through some of the most inhumane treatment one can imagine. I highly recommend this book.

Incredible true story about 9 survivors.......2001-10-26

This was an incredible story about 9 survivors, a mother and her children (ages 3 to 19 years) and two assistants, imprisoned inhumanely for 20 years in a Moroccon desert jail. They were political prisoners, innocent victims, for a crime they did not commit and which they were not tried for. They were taken away in the dead of the night and did not deserve the cruelties which they were to face for the next 20 years.

They were originally from upperclass society. Their youth, innocence and freedom were stolen from them and their lives changed forever. It is a heart-wrenching true story about courage, love, survival and a miracle!!

Although the story is amazing and unbelievable, the book was poorly written. It kept jumping around different time periods and sometimes it was difficult to keep track of the timeline of the story. I would still recommend everybody to read it because it's about survival and how a family overcame their worst nightmare. It will teach you about appreciation of more important things in life, the things we take for granted, rather than power, money and modern conveniences.

amazing.......2001-08-01

i recently read this book and loved it, it's facinating how someone can live through that with her whole family and continue to be that couragous. I was intrigued and would love to read more books by these two.

From riches to dust.......2001-07-15

This story is incredible; possibly weeks after you have read it, it will still be on your mind. The poignant story of a girl who grows up privileged in a privileged familly and is the adopted daughter of the King, ends up later spending 20 years in a desert jail in horrific conditions, only comparable to those of the Holocaust, with her entire familly. It is an empowering story of holding onto human life in even the most degrading conditions, when you really have no reason to hang on. I urge you to read this book; it will teach you that even those who spend 20 years in a desert jail can still laugh and enjoy life.

Juliette Drouet: La prisonniere sur parole (Grandes biographies)

Average customer rating:

Juliette Drouet: La prisonniere sur parole (Grandes biographies)
Henri Troyat
Manufacturer: Flammarion
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 208067403X

Bob Morane, tome 8 : La Prisonnière de l'ombre jaune

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Bob Morane, tome 8 : La Prisonnière de l'ombre jaune
William Vance , and Henri Vernes
Manufacturer: Dargaud
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 2205006010

Average customer rating:

Dina, tome 3 : La Prisonnière de Lhassa
Philippe Andrieu , and Stan Vince
Manufacturer: Bayard Jeunesse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 2227760036

An Ideal Prison?: Critical Essays on Women's Imprisonment in Canada

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An Ideal Prison?: Critical Essays on Women's Imprisonment in Canada

Manufacturer: Fernwood Publishing Co., Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Criminology | Crime & Criminals | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1552660249

Book Description

Exploring the effects of punishment and penality on women’s lives, the impact of feminist reforms on the lives of women in prison, and the systemic barriers that limit change in the context of both provincial and federal prisons, these essays question the role of prisons in our society, the importance of taking account of gender and its intersection with race and class, and the problems of both weak feminist models and the cooptation of feminist ideals and Aboriginal spirituality by correctional systems.

Jean Rhys, la prisonniere (Collection Echanges)

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Jean Rhys, la prisonniere (Collection Echanges)
Christine Jordis
Manufacturer: Stock
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 2234046823

John Ford: La Prisonniere du desert : une tapisserie navajo (Collection "Un sur Un")

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John Ford: La Prisonniere du desert : une tapisserie navajo (Collection "Un sur Un")
Jean Louis Leutrat
Manufacturer: A. Biro
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 2876600692

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La parole prisonniere: Roman
Jean Metellus
Manufacturer: Gallimard
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 2070706982

Amazon.com

There are two versions of Harry Gainesborough's bestselling children's book Zod Wallop: the published version, written second, and the original version, stolen by Harry's zealous fan, Raymond Story, while Harry and Raymond were both patients in a mental hospital. The published version has a happy ending; the private version was Harry's confrontation with the death of his child. And the private version, emotionally true and infused with the power of a group hallucination, ending with the destruction of the world, is becoming real.

It's inevitable that Zod Wallop will be compared to The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll; both are about authors of Oz-like children's books whose literary creations leak over into our world. Both are dark in tone, and in both death and denial are key elements, but Spencer's poignant story owes as much to Philip K. Dick as to Carroll.

Customer Reviews:

William Browning Spencer Rocks.......2007-01-10

Run out and grab all his books you can. He is not a prolific writer, and some of them have been out of print for a while. Zod Wallop is an elegiac meditation on love and loss with fantastic elements adding mood and atmosphere. I have read it several times, and each time find something new to move me.
You must also read "Resume with Monsters" a scary and hilarious story involving Cthulhu in a modern cubicle workplace. Like Dilbert, but only Dilbert can see what is happening, and no one else believes him and thinks he is crazy.

Well written, thoughtful, full of surprises.......2006-04-26

Having read and loved Spencer's previous novel, the critically acclaimed Resume with Monsters, I thought he'd be hard pressed to match that effort. I can happily report that I was wrong--his follow-up, entitled Zod Wallop, is a thoroughly engaging, very wise dark fantasy, reminiscent of such modern classics as Jonathon Carroll's Land of Laughs.

The tragic death of his daughter Amy sends Harry Gainesborough, the author of several popular children's books, into a depression so deep it destroys his marriage. Gainesborough is so despondent that his agent, Helen Kurtis, has him committed to Harwood Psychiatric. There, Gainesborough is instructed to deal with his feelings by writing. The product of this therapy is a very dark book called Zod Wallop, where, contrary to tradition, evil triumphs over good.

The original manuscript is stolen and presumably destroyed by Raymond Story, a fellow patient and rabid fan of Gainesborough's work, who finds the book too disturbing for general consumption. At first outraged by the theft, Gainesborough eventually accedes to Raymond's fervent pleas to rewrite the book. The second version is less morbid, and later becomes a huge best seller. Raymond embraces this version, eventually coming to believe the events recorded inside actually occurred.

Gainesborough finishes his treatment, and retires to his country estate, desiring only to be left alone. His solitude is disturbed, however, by Raymond and a ragtag bunch of inmates who have just escaped from Harwood. Raymond seeks "Lord" Gainesborough's assistance in protecting the "Ice Princess" (in reality, Raymond's wife, Emily, who is catatonic) from the evil Lord Draining.

Gainesborough's initial reaction is to humor Raymond until he can be returned to Harwood. But suddenly, the landscape of his reality starts to shift--people start saying things right out of his book, and he encounters strange creatures who only exist in the world he created. Puzzled, he decides to accompany Raymond in search of answers, unaware that he and his new companions are being tracked by Roald Peake, doppleganger to Lord Draining. Peake wants to capture and study the group, who all received illegal doses of Ecknazine, an experimental drug which might be causing reality to warp.

Zod Wallop is a well written, thoughtful book, full of surprises. Spencer is careful to provide several possible reasons for the impossible events he describes. Is Raymond a mutant? Did Gainesborough's extreme grief give his creations life? Did the Ecknazine create some kind of mass delusion so powerful it is now affecting even those who didn't take it? Whichever reason you choose, it will not diminish your enjoyment of the book. The "reasons" behind the events of the story are ultimately unimportant--they exist only to launch an enthralling flight of fantasy nicely suited to more modern, cynical tastes. Spencer is an excellent storyteller. Listen to what he has to say.

Zod Takes a Wallop.......2004-04-22

This is the third time in a little over a year that I am reviewing a book by William Browning Spencer. This time the book in question is THE RETURN OF COUNT ELECTRIC. This volume is a collection of short stories. During their original publication these stories prompted Roger Zelazny to declare Spencer the premier short story writer of the decade.

While Zelazny may have been right that Spencer's stories are very well crafted and written, his earlier books left me unprepared for this collection. What really threw me about this collection was that I made it from cover to cover without encountering any elements of science fiction or fantasy. I did, however, encounter madness. As evidenced in his novels, Spencer has a knack for getting into the minds of the deranged and obsessed. In one amusing story we are treated to the rantings of a man convinced that his wife is having an affair with Stephen King and feeding him plots.

So, while this book cannot technically be called science fiction or fantasy and resembles horror only in the most tenuous ways I was still a very appealing book. Despite the lack of SF trappings, Spencer's writing still remains as captivating as in RESUME WITH MONSTERS or ZOD WALLOP. So if you enjoyed either of those books, then you might want to take a gander at this one.

Spencer's Sinister Fantasy World.......2003-05-16

I read William Browning Spencer's "Resume with Monsters" and was quite impressed. Here is an author who knows how to combine quirky plots, horrific elements, and great character development into a seamless blend of grand entertainment. Why this guy is not sitting on the bestseller's list is a mystery of the highest order. Several of his books are not even in print anymore, another crime that needs a remedy as quickly as possible. Fortunately, public libraries often save the day when one looks for out of print material. His books are magical in that once read, they stay with you forever. This may be due in part to Spencer's habit of pouring himself into his stories. The familiarity shown in both "Zod Wallop" and "Resume with Monsters" with psychological problems and the difficulties of coping in modern society give hints into the author's knowledge about such unpleasant incidents.

Harry Gainesborough wrote a book called Zod Wallop after the death of his daughter Amy. The tragedy of his daughter's demise sent Harry into a tailspin, requiring a short stay in a mental asylum. A psychologist in the institution recommended Harry continue writing as a means of therapy, so Harry continued to work on Zod Wallop during his hospital stay. But the book he wrote while incarcerated took on a much grimmer, more dangerous tone than your everyday children's story. The characters in the land of Zod Wallop began to resemble some of the other patients and doctors in the ward. There are characters that bear a striking resemblance to Harry's literary agent. The problem comes when there are real life people who resemble the evil characters in the book because Zod Wallop is more than a book; it has the potential to become reality.

Harry is now out of the hospital and living alone in an isolated cabin. Amy's death still troubles him greatly, but he manages to get through each day until a triumvirate of patients from the mental institution arrives on his doorstep. Led by the over exuberant Raymond Story, this gang of miscreants includes Rene, a troubled but beautiful young girl; Emily, Raymond's new wife and a total invalid; and Allan, a man plagued with fits of violent rage. Joined by Lord Arbus, a monkey, the group tries to involve Harry in their quest to go to Florida where a showdown with the evil Lord Draining awaits. As Harry and his literary agent take part in Raymond's seemingly delusional odyssey, reality starts to warp on an increasingly disturbing level.

There is a perfectly (well, maybe) rational explanation for the strange encounters endured by Harry and his friends. Two executives from rival pharmaceutical companies take a significant interest in these escaped asylum inmates. The reasons are best left unsaid here, but it is safe to say that it involves something both men want very badly for research and development. As it turns out, Harry and his friends shared something special, albeit slightly sinister, during their residence at the hospital. As the executives take up the hunt, they too end up becoming a part of the fantasy of Zod Wallop.

I enjoy how Spencer deftly blended reality with the looming world of Zod Wallop. The reader never knows what is coming down the pipeline in this book. One minute everything seems to be going great, the next minute brings an attack by a Ralewing. A mundane trip to a convenience store turns into a mind-blowing experience with the full force of Harry's past. The conclusion of the story witnesses startling revelations, total immersion in the world of Zod Wallop, and closure for Harry and his ex-wife.

Spencer's book is a real hoot. This guy has a phenomenal imagination along with the ability to write engaging prose. Again, it is difficult to imagine why he is not considered a preeminent author. Both "Resume with Monsters" and "Zod Wallop" is enough to place Spencer head and shoulders above most of the drivel passed off on the public today. For those seeking a whimsical romp through the realms of unreality, Spencer is the man.

Effective and imaginative.......2003-01-27

The inevitable comparison that Zod Wallop brings to mind is to Jonathan Carroll's The Land of Laughs. Both novels revolve around a children's book that is directly affecting the lives of the other characters. The approach that the two authors take to the subject is quite different--Carroll, even in his first novel, drifts around the fantastic, never quite making it real, preferring to define his characters by the world of which we know. Spencer embraces the fantastic, so much so that it is hard sometimes to tell where the "real" world and the fantastic world come together. If one thinks of this balance between the real and the fantastic as a see-saw, in Carroll's world the heavier child is the real world, and vice versa in Spencer.

Harry Gainsborough wrote books for his daughter, Amy. His books were so good that they were published and became well-loved children's books across the world. But when his daughter drowns in a freak accident, he enters into a depression so severe that his agent checks him into a psychiatric ward. In the hospital, the therapist suggests that he write another book--hoping that the creative process will lift him out of despair. Instead, the book that he writes, Zod Wallop, is a bleak, dark novel--the kind of children's book that the Wicked Witch of the West would have written.

Zod Wallop is also Harry Gainsborough's most popular novel, more popular even than Bocky and the Moon Weasels or The Bathtub Wars. Children the world over love Zod Wallop, but none more so than Raymond Story, who read it while a patient at the Harwood Psychiatric Hospital. Raymond, who almost drowned when he was 8, sees his near-death experience as a link to the author of Zod Wallop. Raymond, who when he came across the first draft of Zod Wallop, destroyed the dark, original version that Harry had written. Or had he just hidden the book?

Lastly, William Browning Spencer's Zod Wallop is about the drug, Ecknazine, administered by Marlin Tate to a group of patients at the Harwood Psychiatric who had extremely rich imaginative lives. The goal of Tate's experiment was to enable telepathic communication, but the drug did something else, something much more strange than telepathy. The drug enabled Zod Wallop to come to life.

Spencer's novel is a complex knot of these three stories, moving at a reckless pace towards the conclusion. Zod Wallop is not a predictable book--it steadfastly refuses to toe the line of any one genre, going through thriller, fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mainstream in the course of its pages. I would not call it slipstream either, because it doesn't have a singular consistency of vision. The point is that it works, and in straight comparison to The Land of Laughs, it works better, because it works towards a resolution--one much more rewarding than Carroll's first effort. Spencer still has some honing before his prose is as sharp as Carroll's, specifically the Carroll of Bones of the Moon or After Silence, but Zod Wallop shows that he has the imagination and skills to be in the same league.

Average customer rating:
Zod Wallop
William Browning Spencer
Manufacturer: St Martins Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTDCHK

Average customer rating:
Zod Wallop
William B. Spencer
Manufacturer: White Wolf Publishing, Incorporated
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000KXTLT8

Amazon.com

Paul Levinson's second novel, Borrowed Tides, is an enjoyable read. It has all of the qualities that a good one-chapter-a-night-before-bed novel should have: it's engrossing, educational, and thought provoking without being too heavy. The characters, who are traveling from Mars to Alpha Centauri on humankind's first interstellar voyage with only enough fuel for a one-way trip, are both believable and likeable. And although many of the ideas Levinson deals with--the paradoxes inherent in time travel, the group dynamics of a small crew isolated for a long period of time on a space ship, the applicability of quantum mechanical principles to macroscopic objects, children with special powers--are not new, and could even be considered trite, his handling of them is interesting enough to make revisiting them worthwhile. Levinson's erudition is apparent throughout the novel, and his allusions to Native American legend, the Bible, computer science, political theory, and Western physics and philosophy suggest that he is well versed in each of these disparate fields. Thus, like his first, this novel will be appreciated by hard-core technophiles and more well-rounded science fiction lovers as well. --Diana Gitig

Book Description

A voyage and an adventure as sublime as any in the history of the universe.

Aaron Schoenfeld has parlayed a Ph.D. in the philosophy of science and a sharp tongue into an improbable second career as director of a project to plan and execute the first interstellar voyage. The trip to Alpha Centauri will take many years and might end up being a one-way journey for the crew.

His old acquaintance Jack Lumet may be the unlikely source of an answer. An anthropologist obsessed with the myths of Native Americans, he once wrote a paper about Wise Oak, an Iroquois sachem who claimed to have ridden a cosmic version of the Hudson, a tidal river that flows both ways, to the stars and back.

In a world where money for space journeys is hard to come by, even a slightly mad theory that suggests a possible shortcut to the stars is an attractive possibility for the people who believe more in humanity's destiny among the stars than they do in safety considerations, minimal risks, or taking no for an answer.

Customer Reviews:

Incredibly Bad Physics.......2006-02-01

Other people have detailed the plot.
I really liked the silk code. I enjoy fantasy mixed in with my science fiction. I completely lost it when he said:
1) Making a return trip will cost twice as much fuel as a one way trip.(try many times)

2) Tea brewed at 0.78G is so much better than tea at 1G because of the different pressure. (how much water in the cup has a much bigger impact on pressure)

This part wasn't supposed to be fantasy. I have no problem with rudders on space ships in Stanislaw Lem. I have no problem with elves and return of the dead in Peter Hamilton. I can't deal with stuff that's supposed to be physics that isn't. Why couldn't he have asked someone to proofread his book?

The story telling and language wasn't grabbing me either. I found the dialog implausible. I didn't finish. I finish about 100 books/year, so this was unusual for me.

So Glad I Only Borrowed This One.......2005-04-26

All his life Aaron had wanted to reach the stars. After a lifetime of work, and with a little help from his childhood friend, Jack (and his ancient Native American belief that a "river" flows both ways between stars, and that they can use the return flow to return to Earth), he finally succeeds. Launching from a space station in orbit around Mars, Aaron and his crew extend their reaches to Earth's nearest star (excluding our Sun), Alpha Centauri. But Aaron and his crew are using an unproven drive, which allows them to attain 48% the speed of light. At this speed it takes the ship, the Light Through, eight years to make it to Alpha Centauri...but they don't have enough fuel to get back. Their plan is to slingshot around Alpha Centauri and thereby gain enough velocity for the return back to Earth.

Where to begin with the flaws in this story? The characters are shallow. In fact, there is really only one main character, perhaps two "sub-main" characters. The rest of the people on board the Light Through provide virtually no depth to the story, and indeed, prove to only be there to serve as roadblocks to Aaron, the main character, or as moral sounding boards, of which Aaron can launch ideas, theories, and concepts at them to "see what they think". But the moral interplay is shallow and predictable and barely provides enough "umph" to keep the plotline crawling.

The main concept behind the voyage is that the Light Through will be able to, essentially slingshot around Alpha Centauri and thereby get itself back on course for the return voyage to Earth. Umm...this "slingshot" technique to attain a needed velocity has been used by NASA for more than 30 years. Why the heck wouldn't it work on a voyage to Alpha Centauri?...it would just be a longer jaunt than anything they have yet attained. Also, this group of eight or nine explorers spend eight years couped up on a ship just to spend a few weeks in the Alpha Centauri system, zooming around the sun for a return voyage back to Earth? What's the point? Who's going to want to spend that much time in space for just a glance at another star and its planetary system? Of course, they do, breifly take a trip down to a planet, but it doesn't last long, and, quite frankly they don't do very much while they are there.

The list is quite long where Mr. Levinson failed in this book. I'm hardly an expert, but the way he portrays quantum mechanical theory on large scales borders on absurd. He simply does not back it up with anything, either hard science, or a believable fantasy milieu, either of which would have been acceptable and made the story a lot more enjoyable and engaging.

In over 50 reviews here at Amazon, this is the first review I am giving less than 3 stars. I think that alone should say something about Mr. Levinson's story. Borrowed Tides lacks depth, engaging characters, but most importantly a sense of uniqueness of thought, the story lacked a sense that it really had something new to say. The only reason I am giving this 2 stars instead of the Lonely 1, is because this story is about explorers, and as an explorer-at-heart I can't give my comrades-in-arms the Lonely 1, it's not their fault their existence did not shine as it should have.

Caught in the interstellar undertow.......2004-10-13

This is the second book I've read by Paul Levinson. I picked it up on the strength of his first novel, "The Silk Code," That book, despite its flaws, was enjoyable because of the intellectual quirkiness of its plot. "Borrowed Tides" is equally quirky. It combines quantum mechanics, space navigation, the nature of time, and Native American mysticism in a story about the first manned interstellar trip to Alpha Centauri. Although I can't comment on the plausibility of the ideas, they do make an interesting mix.

Unfortunately, I didn't find "Borrowed Tides" as successful as "The Silk Code." Like its predecessor, it was disjointed in spots and weak in terms of character development. Those faults were acceptable in "The Silk Code" (to me at least) because of the large time span encompassed by the story and the sheer audacity of Levinson's ideas. However, even though ideas were likewise at the core of "Borrowed Tides," the focus of the story on a small group of people confined together for 16 years on a single ship demanded more attention to character development. There were too many examples of things happening without sufficient motivation, and several characters were only mentioned in passing until they were needed to move the plot forward at the end.

Despite these faults, "Borrowed Tides" was not without its pleasures. The middle sections of the book dragged, but the beginning was good and the end was moving. This is by no means great science fiction, but its faults are offset by its speculative nature. 3 1/2 stars

Not even a very interesting failure.......2003-12-29

-----------------------------------------------------------
I picked this one up from the library for some reason, renewed it a couple of times, and finally read it last night. I finished it, but just barely.

BT opens pretty well, with an oddball first expedition to Alpha Centauri based partly on an Iroquois legend. The sfnal premises are laughably wrong-headed -- the stuff of bad TV shows -- but I kept reading, thinking Levinson had something else in mind. Perhaps he did, but the story kept twisting and turning -- odd enough to keep me reading, but not coherent enough to gel. About the only real virtue in BT is that it is short.

Some readers did like it -- the Amazon reviews are split between the 4-5 stars and the 1-2's...

This book clearly wasn't aimed at me. It's not even a very interesting failure. I won't be eager to read another Levinson novel. Caveat lector.

Next time I'll try to remember to check the reviews first. It's not like I don't have other stuff to read...

Feh.

Happy reading (something else!) --
Peter D. Tillman

Reminiscent of Haldeman's Forever War........2003-03-18

Ok, my background (recently) is CJ Cherryh and Iain M Banks. Both very hard-sf type people, with exceptionally deep characters and far flung plots that are complex on a macro and micro level.

This is not that kind of book. The story is told in the same sort of way that Joe Haldemann wrote _The Forever War_. The story is intriguing, but the author is trying to tell it in far too little space. At only 258 pages, it is a very short read. However, the 258 pages encompass 16 years of time. There are jumps in the book that literally gloss over 3-4 years at a time.

The people in the book are not very fully developed. In fact, they are developed to a level I'd expect from Dean Koontz or some other pulp author. There really is only one main character, and you couldn't really call him a protagonist. The story meanders on, holding up this character as some moral lighthouse, some metaphor for humanities need to "explore the stars," as it were.

It is a very cheery novel, with the darkest parts of the book passing in what could be just a flicker of dark compared to what you'd see in Banks' _Against a Dark Background_, or even Cherryh's _Downbelow Station_.

I guess where I'm going with this is the book is as shallow as the characters. It tells a fun, Buck Rogers kind of story, and I'll admit I got attached to it the same way I might get attached to a channel on TV I mistakenly flipped to (and felt compelled to finish the show).

Not an excellent book. A fun (and thankfully short) read. Good plane or car material.

Ah, one final note. The subtle little pokes at society (such as mentioning "Lawrence Livermore/Microsoft Labs" in the beginning of the book) really ruffled my feathers. They come out of nowhere, they're not justified, and they just serve to irritate the reader.

Buy used.

Average customer rating:
Borrowed Tides
Paul Levinson
Manufacturer: Tor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTWBPO

Average customer rating:
BORROWED TIDES.
Paul. Levinson
Manufacturer: TOR,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NYH542

Average customer rating:

Questionable

For the cookie monster in all of us!

Were these recipes tested???

Excellent right-off-the-page recipes!

Deliciousness!

Big Fat Cookies
Elinor Klivans
Manufacturer: Chronicle Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Cookies | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
General | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
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Book Description

Nobody's ever made baking history with a scrawny cookie. No matter what the occasion, nothing beats the big, fat, homemade kind. With this deliciously fun cookbook and a few simple ingredients, anyone can whip up a quick batch of one of 50 different gigantic crispy, chewy, or fancy-pants sandwich cookies. From classic Super Chocolate Chip to colossal Mocha Mud Mountains, Jumbo Coconut Macaroons to Lemon Whoopie Pies, this is total cookie satisfaction. Introductory material includes tips on buying the best ingredients, techniques such as mixing and forming the perfect round, baking ahead and storing, and for those who actually like to share their cookies how to pack them up safely so they won't break on the way to the party. So, get that sweet tooth ready and bite into a Big Fat Cookie.

Customer Reviews:

Questionable.......2007-09-13

I have to say the design and photography in this book are amazing. The recipes are very original and fun. However, I made my first batch from this book today and have to say it was a mistake. I bake all the time. I am a creator as well. Coming up with many fun treats that people love. Do not, I warn you, do not even attempt to make the chocolate chip mud balls. They took me all day for one thing. It's a huge long process. It is the messiest thing you will ever make. You have to ball up the cookies after they are cooled. They don't make a very nice ball and the chocolate chips get all over your hands. Very messy. Secondly, the coating tasted horrible. You can literally taste the oil in it. If you feel like you have to make these I would only use a little oil or none. Not sure what purpose it serves but it tasted horrible. It was a little disappointing after spending all day working on them. Try another one instead of these.

For the cookie monster in all of us!.......2007-08-23

by Judy Bart Kancigor, author of Cooking Jewish: 532 Great Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family

From The Orange County Register
February 10, 2005

Go ahead. See if you can say "big fat cookie" and not smile. I dare you.

I asked Elinor Klivans, noted Maine pastry chef and author of "Big Fat Cookies" (Chronicle Books) how she got the idea for her beautifully photographed, irresistibly cookie-licious cookbook.

"I was working on my last book ("Fearless Baking") and someone asked, "What do you think you want to do for your next book?" and without thinking about it, `big fat cookies' came out of my mouth, and I thought, yes, that's the one I should do."

With Valentine's Day only a kiss away, what could be better than giving some big fat cookies to the one you love, but try to choose just one recipe from this stunning, new book. I double dare you.

If chocolate be the food of love, bake on. For the Chocolate Chip-Stuffed Cookies, two mammoth chocolate chip cookies are stuffed with even more chips for a "now, why didn't I think of that?" chocoholic's dream. And how does Klivans produce a cookie firm enough to stand up to this chocolate overload? "I use all brown sugar rather than the usual granulated and brown sugar combination, plus cold eggs and only slightly softened butter, rather than the usual room temperature," she revealed.

Not enough chocolate for you? Try the Chocolate Chip Whoppers, Chocolate Chunk Mountains or my personal favorites, Big City (read New Yawk, of cawse) Black and Whites.

Were you the kid that loved to make mud pies? Then the Chocolate-Covered Chocolate Chip Cookies" (aka "Mud Balls") are for you. "You bake these wonderful chocolate chip cookies, and when they're just cool enough to handle but still quite warm, you squish them into balls and refrigerate them," Klivans explained. "Then for the shiny chocolate coating, instead of tempering the chocolate, which is really tricky to do, you just melt chocolate with a little oil and dip the cookie balls in that mixture and refrigerate until firm. They look like giant truffles. For parties I even cut them into quarters."

Oh, did I mention - these are really big cookies! "Most of the cookies call for 1/4 cup of batter each," she noted. "I like to use an ice cream scoop. Then the cookies are all uniform and you just go down the line."

Because of their size, these cookies need to be baked longer, so most call for a lower temperature than you may be used to. "Cookies are a quick-baking item, and there's only a short interval between a perfectly baked cookie and an overbaked one," she cautioned. "And because of their high sugar content, they burn easily, so check the bottoms with a spatula to be sure they're not getting too dark Better to risk breaking one up than to ruin the whole batch. You can always eat that broken cookie!"

Why not bake some Heart-Shaped Butter Shortbread cookies for your Valentine. "These are sturdy cookies that hold their shape," said Klivans. "Cornstarch, unlike flour, contains no gluten and makes for a more tender cookie. As an option, add a teeny drop of red food coloring to a little of the glaze to turn it pink. Then drizzle the pink glaze over the white for a marbleized effect. I don't like to fuss with decorations for hours. These are so easy and really pretty too."

Were these recipes tested???.......2007-05-15

Like other reviewers, I thought the organization and look of the book was spot on. But, and it's a big but, the finished product didn't turn out as it looked in the picture. For instance, the butterscotch blondies melted before they could set up, and so were a mess...but they sure tasted good. So now I'm reluctant to try any other recipes.

Excellent right-off-the-page recipes!.......2007-04-10

This is definitely a great cookie book to have in your library. I have tried five of the recipes so far and each one has turned out perfectly. Sometimes I make the cookies 'normal-size' and they still turn out great. Everyone raves about these recipes and there are plenty of unique recipes with combinations that I never would have thought of. You'll not be disappointed!

Deliciousness!.......2007-02-28

So far I have tried 3 recipes from this book. All have come out quite delicious and have been a big hit with everyone I've shared the cookies with. The black and white cookies especially were bakery quality. I'm really looking forward to making more!

The recipes are easy to follow and for the most part contain pretty simple ingredients. The batch sizes are also reasonable (usually about 1 dozen really big chewy soft cookies) In addition its really nice looking book with great photographs. It would make a great gift or addition to your own kitchen.

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