Amazon.com
Mark Dunn's early forays into the novel, Ella Minnow Pea and Welcome to Higby, were praised by critics and relished by bibliophiles for their linguistic gamesmanship. But Ibid: A Life easily outdoes its predecessors for literary audacity. The novel purports to be not a novel at all, but the endnotes of a biography. The main text of the supposed life of Jonathan Bashette was destroyed by a careless editor, and, as the wearied author reports in the letters which begin the book, his publisher has decided that the notes can stand alone.
At first, the conceit makes for difficult reading, but Dunn does a remarkable job of slowly revealing three-legged Jonathan Blashette and his odd world without ever departing from the footnote form. Readers learn that Blashette, born in Pettiville, Arkansas, in 1888, was doomed by his extra leg to become a sideshow attraction. But the boy escapes the circus to become a soldier in World War I. There, in the trenches, he first glimpses (or smells) his future calling: male underarm deodorants. Upon his return to the States, he launches the Dandy-de-odor-o Corporation and marries several times (each wife meeting a bizarre end in the cursed city of Boston). Though rocked by adversity, the fictional Blashette lives a rich life full of encounters with the writers, politicians, artists, and celebrities that marked the 20th Century.
Rather than being a limitation in this quirky Horatio Alger story, the notes offer Dunn freedom to explore the diversity of his imagination with brief sketches and "back-story" that are, in fact, all the story there is. The novel becomes a pastiche of parodies of famous documents, speeches, and poems. Dunn includes the "full text" of Lou Gehrig's farewell speech at Yankee Stadium (which includes thanks for a "'Waldorf' Wardrobe Trunk with vulcanized fiber binding and built-in shoe pockets!") and an alternate version of the Alcoholics Anonymous 12 steps, complete with consideration of Dolores Del Rio as a "power greater than ourselves." Throughout, Dunn references one obscure fictional book after another, from Ringleader: A Life in Circus Management, with a Foreword by the Bastard Ringling Brother "Skippy" to a collection of letters sent to a urologist, Confessions to a Pee Pee Doctor.
Ibid's humor, an odd mix of Monty Pythonesque potty jokes and highbrow political and literary satire, may not be for everyone. But Dunn's deft contortion of the usual elements of storytelling into this odd formal experiment proves to be a perfect showcase for his unique wit and intellect. Ibid may not be the Great American Novel, but it is certainly the cleverest American endnotes ever to see print. --Patrick O'Kelley
Customer Reviews:
Help! Ibid.......2007-02-19
It's a pretty brave idea -- a story told entirely through the footnotes of a destroyed novel.
Even a brilliant experimental author like Italo Calvino might have blanched at writing something like this, and Mark Dunn gives it a solid try. The result is a mixed bag -- a wonderfully colourful main character with epic experiences, but written in a densely rambling style.
The novel opens with an exchange of letters between Dunn and his editor. The editor tells Dunn that due to her three-year-old son, the only copy of his manuscript has been reduced to soggy pulp -- the only part left is the footnotes. The editor is willing to publish these, without the novel they belong to, and after a bit of dithering Dunn agrees.
The footnotes sketch out the story of Jonathan Blashette, a man born with three legs. Unsurprisingly his life is an interesting one: he becomes a circus frreak, falls in love many times (a pockmarked prostitute, a transvestite, and a girl whose "life is snuffed out in a tsunami of molasses," among others), goes to war, becomes a deodorant king, and encounters countless important personages -- celebrities, inventors, politicians, and more.
"Ibid" sounds like an impossible way to write a book, let alone a fictional memoir. Come on, who can tell a story through footnotes, which by definition are dependent on the main text? Which in this case, was destroyed in a bathtub by a three-year-old?
But Dunn actually does a pretty decent job bringing Blashette's story to life, through a series of notes for the text we never see. These footnotes are detailed and kind of kooky (Greta Garbo announcing, "I vant to be alone... with this big plate of sliced beets. Bring me some tripe!"), and touch on major world events like the invention of the jigsaw puzzle.
Unfortunately, "Ibid" keeps getting tangled in its own oddball narrative. It starts off well through the weird letters ("I know you never use the phone, fearing electrical shock") and Blashette's boyhood, but then Dunn seems to realize that this is going to be a very short book, and some of the footnotes become so extensive and rambling that the story gets lost.
That's too bad, because Blashette's story is so fascinating that you wish the manuscript hadn't been wrecked. Blashette is a likably strange guy with a compassionate streak, who runs into all sorts of weird people over the course of his life -- including some who were real, as a racist (fictional) letter from Frank L. Baum displays.
"Ibid: A Novel" is a strange, ambitious novel that trips over its own feet (all three of them). It has some definite flaws, but is still a pleasantly kooky read.
A life creatively told in footnotes.......2005-07-19
Three-legged Jonathan Blashette was the founder of a successful deodorant company and a forward-looking humanitarian of the early 1900s. Although he was not a particularly extraordinary man, his extra limb notwithstanding, the interest in this story lies not in the fictional biography of Blashette himself as much as in the minutiae at the margins of his life. Author Mark Dunn, who wrote the whimsical word-play novel "Ella Minnow Pea," has pushed the boundaries of fiction even farther with "Ibid." As Dunn states in the acknowledgments, he sought to "step wide of the narrative box" by crafting a story solely through the use of footnotes. As constrained as the idea sounds, it actually works.
Through the footnotes with their interviews, excerpts from articles and diaries, and accounts of historical events, the reader becomes acquainted not only with Blashette, but also with his family, his friends, and society at large. Blashette managed to rub elbows with such celebrities as Rudolph Valentino, Lou Gehrig, and Dylan Thomas. He was placed at the scene of numerous historical events, both well known and obscure. Thus, Dunn asserts, "History can be more fun than dry facts and dates."
The silly-sounding names and titles cited in the footnotes, as well as selections of atrociously composed poems, songs, and essays, spoof their more dry and scholarly real-life counterparts. The tongue-in-cheek details go off on bizarre tangents. In a parody of Wilde's Dorian Gray, an account is given of Blashette having commissioned his deceased true love's portrait and then having it modified every year to age her appearance. In another reference, a description is given of a friend's membership in a small Christian sect that believed Jesus had a dog that accompanied Him as He preached. There is an amusing account of a devastating squirrel migration in 1826 that destroyed crops. Another humorous segue is a court deposition, recorded during a lawsuit against Blashette's deodorant company, that is written in the form of a play script,
Where Dunn will go from here is anyone's guess. Will he perhaps try a palindromic novel, or one written without any letter "e"? Time will tell. In the meanwhile, enjoy this playful story.
Eileen Rieback
A man's reach should exceed his grasp, and this time it did.......2005-07-06
I adored Ella Minnow Pea. It was witty, well-paced, inventive, funny and endearing. It is rare that a comic novel packs such a serious message.
Ibid., the story of three-legged Jonathan Bleshette, carried solely through "endnotes" because the manuscript was lost in a bathtub, is another self-conscious attempt by Dunn to reinvent the novel. I would like to think that he succeeded, and indeed about 20 pages into the book I thought he'd succeeded admirably.
Unfortunately, as the book goes on, it seems more and more like a one-note piano. Bleshette is, again quite consciously, like Zelig (or the uncredited Forrest Gump); he meets numerous famous people in his life, often in unusual ways. There is a constant theme of the women in his life meeting their end in Boston, until his great love, the prostitute Great Jane, breaks the "Boston curse". But so what. Despite his ability as a novelist to invent any source he wants, from transcripts of conversations to the notes Bleshette and the future Rudolph Valentino scribbled for stage names for the latter and a deodorant brand for the former, Dunn fails to make either Bleshette or the other characters come alive. The last two-thirds of the novel are rather boring, and little comes of the possibilities that the first bits promised.
Great Jane, for instance, seems at first to have possibilities, and although she ends up as Lady Jane, and tries to save prostitutes from that life, we never get to know her much, or see her plying her trade. The various hangers-on at the deodorant factory have fewer possibilities (the running joke of "she's the one" "no, she's not" is okay but gets tiresome) and Jonathan's relatives seem to come and go without much purpose, the only exception being his father who comes to learn Yiddish after spending his whole life in Arkansas before Jonathan moved him to New York.
But the real problem is the possibilities for Jonathan himself that are not explored in sufficient detail. You'd think a man with three legs would have a set of interesting encounters with tailors; nope. Jonathan goes to war; how were his uniforms made? Can he use three legs as a tripod and hold a machine gun better? No idea. Are there rules to sports that can be gotten around if you have three legs (e.g., catching a football in-bounds)? A possibility not exploited.
The endnote thing is similarly unexploited. If you read endnotes (and I do) one thing you notice is a lot of vituperativeness toward prior biographers. Dunn creates the prior biography ("Three Legs, One Heart") but doesn't take it far enough. Give us a diatribe, Mark, something totally outlandish. Pick on the guy's commas or something, or a perpetual misspelling with endless "sic's".
I'm glad we have authors like Dunn who experiment with the novel; this one just didn't work. At the end he notes his admiration for Woody Allen, and one wonders if he's a fan of the later, unfunny films. This book is a lot like them. A great premise with too few jokes and not enough character.
A disappointment.......2005-07-03
The conceit here is that the only copy of Dunn's latest book, a biography of Jonathan Blashette, "the child circus sideshow performer who later made his fotune in male deodorants", has been lost, and the publisher is making it up to him by publishing the footnotes.
It's an amusing idea but it doesn't quite come off. The problem is that the footnotes aren't. I mean that they are not the type of footnotes that one ordinarily finds in a book. They are either far too long, or contain material that would ordinarily be in the main text, or digress so far off the subject that they would never be included. On top of which, the character is a bit too odd.
What made Dunn's Ella Minnow Pea a delight was that he managed to make its odd premise seem perfectly natural. But here, the story, like Procrustes' victims, seems to have been stretched and chopped to fit the concept.
Nabokov meets Mark Twain.......2004-03-31
A clever idea by the author of the delightful 'Ella Minnow Pea.' But it doesn't quite come off. The mock-pedantic sophistication of Vladimir Nabokov meets the down-home humor of Mark Twain (there's even a reference to the 1910 appearance Halley's comet that marked Twain's death as it had his birth: Mark Dunn's homage to Mark Twain?). But Nabokov did it better in 'Pale Fire,' and Twain did it better every time he put pen to paper. The humor wears thin after about the first 100 pages, and becomes more and more irrelevant. At one point the book's putative author (one Mark Dunn, author Mark Dunn's fictional creation) wonders if the book has been over-researched. No, not really, but he DID throw in everything including the kitchen sink. Exuberance alone cannot a good book make.
Nice try, but no brass ring this time.
Book Description
For nearly five months, starting in mid-September 1944, American GIs battled for the Hurtgen Forest, a 50-square mile tract of extremely inhospitable terrain.
Customer Reviews:
Not definitive...not interesting.......2002-06-12
The Bloody Forest is an account of the battle of the Huertgen Forest, which took place during the fall of 1944. As with all of Astor's books, this is an "oral history". This means it's really a book based on the recollections by participants more than a scholarly and objective analysis of the battles. Indeed, there is no analysis or critical thinking; no historically important questions are raised or answered. Like Stephen Ambrose, Astor does not write history, but merely chronology spiced with personal accounts. Of course, this is not the point of the book, but if you are looking for an assessment of the Huertgen campaign, this is not the book you're looking for (instead, try Miller's A Dark and Bloody Ground, which is not "hard to get" as another reviewer claims).
For someone looking for a book that focuses on personal experiences of individual combatants, the book does an adequate job of providing this. The personal stories are gripping, the descriptions of being shelled in the forest and suffering airbursts are vivid, and the tales of exhaustion, frustration, and sheer terror are both pointed and poignant. I particularly liked the stories which reflected the frustrations of command during the battles. Many focused on the problems at the company level, where the predominant issues were company and platoon comander losses, causalties in general, and the poor training and integration of the green replacements. Occasionally there are also tales of battalion or regiment HQs being so out of touch with what was happening at the front lines that orders were completely rediculous and lead to serious defeats.
The book, despite these interesting tales of failures of command, is not great, due to a number of problems. First, the stories and experiences reported in the book get repetitive very quickly. They all are about artillery and airbusts, foxholes, and mines. Granted, these were key themes of the battles, but after the first 10 or 15 stories, the reader gets the point that covering your foxhole with logs was imperitive to avoid getting nailed by airbusts. Astor does a poor job of editing these comments so that the reader isn't bored. This is a major failing by Astor, as it cheapens the effectiveness of the combatants' tales of their experiences. Instead of being exciting throughout, the book plods on and on (the reader starts to think "...let me guess, this guy will dig a foxhole, cover it with logs, and then complain about mortar fire and how wet his feet are"). This isn't fair to the vets who are relating their experiences.
Furthermore, huge sections of George Wilson's If You Survive were quoted. Although the material was appropriate (Wilson's personal accounts of his exeperience in the Huertgen Forest are very interesting), I found this to be annoying. I have read Wilson's book and I was annoyed to find out that I was going to read it again instead of Astor actually providing something new. Furthermore, it is a failure on the part of the author when whole sections of another text must be quoted verbatim to carry the story along. At least Astor properly, legally, and ethically quotes the material and documents the source. Perhaps ... Stephen Ambrose should take note.
Another problem is that Astor does not provide useful maps. There are only two for the entire book. One is a broad overview map, showing the entire region of the Westwall south of Aachen. As such, it isn't useful to pick out the locations of individual towns where battles took place. The other is a more detailed map, but it only covers the portion of the Huertgen Forest that was initially invaded in the early parts of the battle. It doesn't even include Schmidt! This lack of maps was extrodinarily frustrating, even though I've read other books on the subject and am familiar with the geography of the region.
Finally, the book is very choppy. Instead of seamlessly blending the personal stories of the combatants with a tight chronology of the battle, Astor jumps around both in terms of time and space. Several pages will be devoted to a battle in one location at a certain time, and then without warning (i.e. with nothing more than a new paragraph) Astor will jump to a new location miles away and cover a different battle that took place a day earlier. This is very frustrating, particularly when there aren't supporting maps to help the reader.
In the end, the book is a disappointment if read on its own. If you are going to read only one book on the Huertgen Forest, this is not the one to read. Instead, read Miller's A Dark and Bloody Ground for a tight history as well as analysis, then read this book to add the color and grit of the peronsal accounts.
In a nutshell: A potentially great book ruined by a bad writer.
Good Oral History, Old Arguments........2002-05-23
The strength of Gerald Astor's book lies in his oral history narrative. As a work of history, however, Astor breaks no new ground. The standard arguments: the Roer River Dams should have been the American's prime objective; the Hurtgen Forest should have been avoided; the American numerical advantage, armor and air supremacy were nullified in the confines of the forest, are repeated once again in Astor's work. Astor tries to represent as many units that took part in the fighting as possible. Good oral history, no new analysis.
Good...but misses the mark........2001-07-31
This book certainly provides the reader with an understanding of the front-line soldier during the Battle for the Huertgen. However, Mr. Astor fails to provide a larger context in which this struggle can be understood. I had difficulty understanding how the local village battles related to one another or to the Corps or Army level for example.
The oral history is good but the "big picture" is missing.
Battle for the Huertgen Florest........2001-05-30
I don't believe Mr. Astor's account of the Huertgen Forest campaign flows as well as his Blood Dimmed Tide book about the Battle of the Bulge. I have read and also written about this campaign and find Mr. Astor's book authentic and reliable in its facts. It can be used as a source book to other writers.
Great but not quite superb.......2001-01-17
While this book did captivate me, especially on a personal level, my grandfather fought in the Huertegen, I can't bring myself to give it 5 stars. It is certainly well written, and enjoyable, but the first hand accounts are broken and choppy and in my opinion, Astor should have given the veterans more space.
Astor's book does convey a forboding feeling for the darkness and terror of the forest and attempts to provide the German perspective as well for completeness. The language just didn't feel as rich as some other books (even Astor's own "A Blood Dimmed Tide") and came across as very flat even when describing horrific details and events.
The maps provided were limited and not of much use. The photographs also seemed very limited and didn't aid the text. It is hard to believe that there aren't better photographs from this campaign. Even modern photographs of the Huertegen would have been more instructive than some of the photo's included.
The Huertegen campaign was a horrible, bloody affair that revealed poor strategic decision making coming from SHAEF and it has not recieved much scholarly attention and for that we should thank Astor. This text is well worth the read, but it is not the definitive book on the campaign.
Average customer rating:
|
Bloody September (Clan Novel Saga. Vol 3)
Stewart Wieck ,
Gherbod Fleming , and
Eric Griffin
Manufacturer: World of Darkness
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Achilli, Justin | ( A ) | Authors, A-Z | Horror | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Fleming, Gherbod | ( F ) | Authors, A-Z | Horror | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Wieck, Stewart | ( W ) | Authors, A-Z | Horror | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Family Saga | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Wieck, Stewart | ( W ) | Authors, A-Z | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:
-
The Fall of Atlanta: From the Most Ancient of Times to Friday, 2 July, 1999 (World of Darkness)
-
Anthology (Clan Novel: Vampire the Masquerade)
-
Dark Ages: Tzimisce (Dark Ages Clan Novel Series)
-
Clan Novel: Brujah (Vampire: The Masquerade)
-
Gangrel (Dark Ages, 10)
ASIN: 1588468534 |
Average customer rating:
- Great research, little analysis
|
Bloody April...Black September
Norman L. R. Franks ,
Russell Guest , and
Frank W. Bailey
Manufacturer: Grub Street
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
World War I | Military | History | Subjects | Books
General | World | History | Subjects | Books
General | Aviation | Transportation | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
History of Technology | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books
Military Engineering | Special Topics | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1898697086 |
Customer Reviews:
Great research, little analysis.......1998-01-30
This book is in two parts, one covering Bloody April, by Franks, and one covering Black September, by Guest. Each part starts with a brief description of the orders of battle and the main objectives, then goes into a daily narrative of all the combats: planes, pilots, squadrons, times, and places of all fights, along with the claims and losses for each side. Each day ends with a grim list of Allied casualties and a comparison of the total claims of both sides to the actual losses for which records exist. Interspersed in the catalog of each day's events are snippets from personal accounts and interesting historical comments.
As a statistical handbook, the book is invaluable. However, the authors make little attempt to analyze the fighting in the depth that their obviously vast collection of data would allow. The book is essentially a narrative of the dry facts of the encounters. Who ordered all these missions and why? Who planned them? How, in detail, did the squadrons carry out their various task? What did the average pilot in 57 Squadron think about going out again the day after a massacre at the hands of the Jastas? And most importantly, who won? One reads of the battles fought and their outcomes, but what about the planes that saw no enemies? What percentage of the RFC's missions were successful even in the slaughter of Bloody April? Such information would have been of great assistance to the reader and made the book a more complete reference work.
Average customer rating:
|
A Bloody Meat Loaf
Mostafa M. Aboutaleb
Manufacturer: Trafford Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General | 20th Century | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
General | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
General | Asia | History | Subjects | Books
General | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books
Israel | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books
General | Military | History | Subjects | Books
General | United States | Military | History | Subjects | Books
Relations | International | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Terrorism | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
All Amazon Upgrade | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books
History | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books
Nonfiction | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books
ASIN: 1553698509
Release Date: 2006-07-06 |
Book Description
Three warnings were sent by the author to both presidents. The author received confirmation of the White House receipt of warnings and a reply.
America and its people are a full-warring party in the Mideast conflict and have been for 50 years. The American people are extremely ignorant of the truth published in this book.
The power of political analysis the author has warns of many more September 11ths and advises the only solution.
Average customer rating:
|
Bloody September
C. A. Haddad
Manufacturer: Harper & Row
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: 0060117095 |
Average customer rating:
|
An address delivered at Bloody Brook,: In South Deerfield, September 30, 1835, in commemoration of the fall of the "Flower of Essex," at that spot, in King Philip's war, September 18, (o.s.) 1675
Edward Everett
Manufacturer: Russell, Shattuck, & Williams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
King Philip's War | Colonial Period | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B00086F0WE |
Average customer rating:
|
Bloody September
C.A. HADDAD
Manufacturer: Harper & Row
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OA4BQU |
Average customer rating:
- Another action-packed entry in the Legion of the Damned series
- William Dietz, a master of military fiction
- More of the Same
- excellent military science fiction
|
For Those Who Fell
William C. Dietz
Manufacturer: Ace
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Dietz, William C.
| ( D )
| Authors, A-Z
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
Adventure
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
( D )
| Authors, A-Z
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
| David, Peter
| Drake, David
Adventure
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
All 4-for-3 Deals
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
For More Than Glory
-
By Force of Arms
-
By Blood Alone
-
The Final Battle
-
Legion of the Damned
ASIN: 0441012671 |
Book Description
To ensure the survival of The Confederacy, the Legion of the Damned must establish a new capital on the planet Algeron--and seize faster-than-light technology from alien forces before it can be used against them.
Download Description
In a galaxy where alliances shift like sand, the Legion of the Damned is humanity's first line of defense-and often last hope-against its enemies. Now, the acclaimed author of For More Than Glory delivers a gripping new novel of the soldiers-both human and cyborg-who step up when the chips are down... When faster-than-light technology is discovered in the alien Ramanthians' possession, General William ""Bill"" Booly III and First Lieutenant Antonio Santana face an epic struggle-on two fronts-to save The Confederacy at any cost.
Customer Reviews:
Another action-packed entry in the Legion of the Damned series.......2007-02-10
Having injected fresh new life into his Legion of the Damned series with For More Than Glory, William C. Dietz provides readers with another exciting military science fiction adventure with For Those Who Fell, the sixth novel in the series. Much has changed since we first encountered the Legion of the Damned several years (and two futuristic wars) ago. While the human cyborg legionnaires remain the foundation of the epic story, intergalactic intrigue, deception, diplomacy, and good old-fashioned warfare have long ago become the trademarks of the series. A narrower design in this and the previous novel has also allowed for tighter focus and better characterization of both new and familiar individuals.
While the Confederation of Sentient Beings has defeated the mighty Hudathans twice in battle and managed to subdue a powerful, mysterious new alien race called the Sheen, it still finds its very survival very much in danger - as was made clear when its spacebound headquarters was totally destroyed via an act of betrayal from within. While no one ever trusted the bug-like Ramanthians completely, few suspected that they would quickly change from ally to insidiously dangerous foe - that's mainly because the Ramanthians chose not to share the news that they were secretly preparing for the hatching of five billion new citizens. Unable to support this impending population explosion on their home planet, the Ramanthians need access to a lot of ships and the ability to seize control of additional planets to serve as homes for large numbers of the new hatchlings - all things that their treachery allows them to lay claim to.
Ramanthians seem to hold the upper hand, as evidenced by the location of the new Confederation seat of government on the ice world of Naa, home of the legionnaires - no other planet wanted to offer the unified government even a temporary home, for fear that the Ramanthians would once again target it for destruction. This kind of concern for the future grows all the more graver when Confederation spies discover that the Ramanthians have managed to build a hypercom; once implemented, this faster-than-ship communications technology would almost surely seal the Confederation's doom. A special ops force is quickly dispatched to the planet Savas to seize the hypercom before the Ramanthians can implement it among all of their forces. Leading the way is the series' newest hero, Lieutenant Antonio Santana, whose dangerous job is made all the more difficult when the overmatched allied force crash lands on the planet in two separate locations separated by a vast desert. Not only must the Confederate forces be brought together before the intended mission can take place, Santana must also deal with a murderous Hudathan traitor running amuck in the wilderness and fight a proxy war against his enemies using the planet's two indigenous populations. And time is short because there's a Ramanthian fleet on the way, as well.
Dietz is truly a master at this kind of futuristic hard science fiction, nimbly handling large numbers of familiar characters across multiple worlds; a variety of subplots really infuse this ongoing saga with a richness most military science fiction can only dream of. Just because Santana has his hands full on Savas while the Naa renew their controversial call for equal representation in the Confederation and diplomat Christine Vanderveen risks her career to expose the secret collaboration of the Thrakies with the enemy Ramanthians doesn't mean the Confederacy doesn't have a surprise or two up its sleeve for the Queen laying all those billions of eggs back in the Ramanthian Hive. To fully appreciate this story, though, you really need to have enough of a background of the series to put everything in context. You should definitely read the previous novel, For More Than Glory, before picking this new installment up, but I would strongly recommend reading the entire series in order, for Dietz takes his readers on a wild and addictive ride that just keeps getting better and better.
William Dietz, a master of military fiction.......2007-02-05
William Dietz has taken the quiet, solid honor of the Legion and made them legendary in his books. This book, like all the others in the series, takes the reader to a sold, tangible place that allows you to feel like you're there. The generations represented by all of the "Legion of the Damned" books are well done and the characters are engaging. I heartily suggest ALL of Mr. Dietz' work to anyone who loves military science fiction.
More of the Same.......2006-06-06
This book is an excellent read for people who have been following the Legion of the Damned.
However, if you're new to the series? This book is not the place to start. It's only the fact that you've (in theory) have been reading about these people that make you care about them. Except for humans (who have, in this universe, no un-noble drives), most every alien race is bound by some set of arcane biochemistry that renders them completely unable to solve their own problems, and prone to either betrayal or misdirected fury.
Once again, the solution to the galaxy's problems are "kick all the aliens down until no one's kicking back anymore." You'd think that civilizations with cyborgs and space travel would have gotten more civilized, not less.
However, this is a stirring tale of the honest, rugged and true soldiers of the no-longer-misfit Legion. Your favorite characters are back to kick ass and take names through all the events that a hostile universe throws at them. Will they all survive to stoically defend a Conferacy run by (gasp) Liberals?
So for fans of military sci-fi, this book rocks. For people interested in anything else? Skip it.
excellent military science fiction.......2004-10-06
The Confederacy of Sentient Beings has a new home on Algernon, the only planet that welcomed them after the insectoid Ramanthians destroyed the battleship that housed their infrastructure. Meanwhile the Ramanthian queen on planet Hive is laying billions of eggs that need transporting to other orbs so the species can survive and ultimately expand to rule the galaxy. Counter strategies forged on Algernon are implemented by the legion to protect the galaxy from the insectoid horde.
Hive is heavily protected so that an armada could not successfully attack, but a lone spaceship disguised as a comet and piloted by a cyborg might succeed. The mission works forcing the enemy to pull back forces to protect the Hive. However, the enemy has cut a deal with the Thrakis to retrofit three thousand vessels; a loyal governmental circumvents official channels to insure the information reaches the right people because the biggest battle in the galaxy seems imminent on the planet Savas with the legion determined to get the Ramanthians new communication system.
William C. Dietz raises the bar of excellent for military science fiction with every book he writes. FOR THOSE WHO FALL is a superb action packed thriller starring countless number of ordinary people forced into Herculean efforts to prevent the enemy from victory. Pivotal heroes like First Lieutenant Antonio Santana and Charlotte Vanderveer, who have appeared in previous books add much to this terrific tale.
Harriet Klausner
Customer Reviews:
First Official Cowichan History Wins BC 2000 Book Award.......2000-05-30
This book has been named one of 61 winners of the British Columbia 2000 Book Award. Those Who Fell From The Sky is the first-ever published record of the Cowichan peoples, written for and approved by the Cowichan Tribes. The book chronicles the rich culture, spiritual practices and local history of local First Nations using an effective mix of documented records, archeological evidence and oral tales from prehistory to European contact. Historian Dr. Daniel Marshall's informative tale begins with the 12 original Cowichan peoples that fell from the sky to populate the Cowichan Valley's pristine wilderness and build a society from cedar and salmon -- the foundation of West Coast Native culture. But the the book also sets the stage for modern land claims, recounting the Cowichan people's early relationship with government, the Crown and colonial settlers that started arriving in huge numbers during the mid-1800s.
The underlying message within is the Cowichan people's unshaken sense of place in the face of massive changes resulting from European expansion. "The history of the Cowichan peoples is all about their relationship to the land and the incredible permanence of place that they have achieved," states the book's postscript. "While the transient nature of Vancouver Island's white society continues to ebb and flow like the tide, the Cowichan peoples will always remain connected to their warm land."
As a British Columbia 2000 Book Award winner, Dr. Marshall's work will now display the unique gold-embossed seal created by the BC government and the BC Book Publishers Association as part of the province's Millenium Legacy Programme. The provincial government will also provide up to $300,000 to school libraries to buy more than 22,000 British Columbia 2000 designated titles of which Those Who Fell From The Sky is one. For a complete list of the titles log on to http://www.BC2000.gov.bc.ca.
BOOK CONTENTS CH.1 The Ancient World of the Cowichan/ CH.2 The First Cowichan Peoples: Those Who Fell from the Sky/ CH.3 The Story of the Flood/ CH.4 The Natural Landscape Encountered/ CH.5 The Traditional Landscape Expands/ CH.6 Prophetic Patterns: Contact with the European World/ CH.7 Drawing the Line across the Cowichan World/ CH.8 Hecate's Spell is Cast upon the Land/ CH.9 Crown & Anchor: Cowichan Peoples 'Join' Canada/ Postscript: Words from the Warm Land/ Bibliography.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR), published by The Register Guard on November 12, 2004. The length of the article is 858 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: A personal tribute to those who fell.(Holidays)(A Vietnam War Marine visits the veterans' memorial in Eugene to spend a moment appreciating the things they can't)
Publication:
The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR) (Newspaper)
Date: November 12, 2004
Publisher: The Register Guard
Page: D1
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Amazon.com
Anyone facing an occasional dinner for one, making solo brown-bag lunches, or living alone will find Toni Lydecker's Serves One invaluable. She shows you how to make tabbouleh and ratatouille in modest amounts so you don't have to eat them for days. She even gives a recipe for pizza dough you can turn into perfect, single-size pies. Who needs soggy take-out when you can make your own potato and pesto pizza, or luxuriate on Sunday with a creamy Smoked Salmon Pizza? (You bake the dough, then add the topping; it's much better than a bagel!)
Lydecker tells how to make Mini Meatloaf and Oven-Barbecued Pork Ribs, just the right amount of Chicken Fingers, even your very own Shellfish Steamer, a kind of clambake. Many recipes cook in 5 to 20 minutes. When stews and soups take longer, they don't need tending. If any cookbook will ever wean you off frozen entrees and instant mixes so you eat as well on your own as with family or friends, Serves One can do it. --Dana Jacobi
Book Description
This new, completely revised edition retains the spirit of the original, a deft mix of the practical and sophisticated, presented with an engaging simplicity that will fill the beginner with confidence and warm the heart of a frazzled gourmet.
Customer Reviews:
Eats Alone.......2007-05-09
The book is put together well with servings for one. What I would have liked is a few more simple meals. Even though the recipes are sized for one I still find it difficult to find and cook just one piece of meat to make the dishes in the book.
Buy This Book!.......2007-02-05
Are you on your own and tired of eating cereal and calling it dinner? Can't afford another night of fast food or ordering in? Well then buy this book!! The meals in here are quick and easy to make. I have made Soothing Tortellini-Broccolini Soup, Sizzling Shrimp With Garlic and Salmon Packet With Sicilian Flavors from the book and they are all fantastic!! Also, Toni put in some suggestions you can substitute other things for in case you don't have a particular ingredient. The directions are easy to follow, which is a plus, and you don't end up with a million things to wash after :).
Hate to cook.......2006-11-05
I got some ideas from this book, but a lot of the recipes required exotic items that take time to find and add to cost.
Serves One: Simple Meals to Savor When You're on Your Own.......2006-09-02
A pretty complete cook book. The beginning is really good for beginning cooks. The recipes are basic and substitues are provided in some cases. The only thing missing is the nutrional values which could be helpful for people with special needs.
Worthwhile and accessible "middlebrow" book for the novice and intermediate solo cook.......2006-07-02
Even with my limited experience, (but I've dated and lived with some very good, experienced cooks), I can tell that about half the recipes in this book are uninspired, workaday fare. They are there to fill out the pages and create a thicker book that the average cookbook shopper will think gives more "bang" for the buck.
But even with that caveat, I feel that this book deserves an extra star for its attempt to focus on the needs of an underserved American market : beginning and intermediate cooks who need (or want) to start cooking for themselves. For this audience, "Serves One" is a great choice, especially if they need to get started right away and can't wait to score a copy of "Going Solo In the Kitchen".
I am OK with the "averageness" of many of these recipes. I don't need gourmet cooking, I don't need bistro fare, I don't need Mario Batali cuisine. I can go to my local bistros for that. At this stage in my cooking career, I need simple, foolproof recipes that deliver decent results with a minimum of fancy ingredients, and I need them scaled for 1 or 2 servings so I don't waste time doing algebra in my head while I'm trying to master the basics of braising or sauteing...or else stuffing my refrigerator with more wasted leftovers than I'll ever be able to finish. I also want some variety, so I don't get bored with making the same 5 or 6 dishes again and again. It's OK if some of the food I produce is unexciting - whatever I cook and make for myself with 'Serves One" is bound to be cheaper, fresher, tastier and better for me than any pizza, takeout or drive through food around.
And in fact, some of the recipes do sound promising ( I'm looking forward to making the "Pickled,Spiced Grapes"), and a couple have rewarded my inexpert efforts with pleasant, satisfying dishes that gave me confidence in my abilities to cook proper, worthwhile meals.
So in that spirit, I would recommend this as a worthwhile addition to the beginning/intermediate cooks' library. My ex-girlfriends might turn their noses up at it, but this has been a very useful book for me, well worth the purchase price and the time spent going through it.
Books:
- Insatiability: A Novel in Two Parts (Quartet Encounters)
- John Chancellor Makes Me Cry
- Johnny The Homicidal Maniac: Director's Cut
- Katz Und Maus
- La Carreta
- Mad House: Growing Up in the Shadow of Mentally Ill Siblings
- Masquerade
- Milky Way Railroad (Rock Spring Collection of Japanese Literature)
- Myra Sims
- None Shall Look Back (Southern Classics Series)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Nickel and Dimed: On
- Franciscan: An American Dinnerware Tradition
- America's Top 300 Jobs: A Complete Career Handbook
- Batman: Blind Justice
- Christmas Joy : A Keepsake Book from the Heart of the Home
- In Search of Lost Time: Proust 6-pack
- Eating the Flowers of Paradise: One Man's Journey Through Ethiopia and Yemen
- Competitividad En Hoteleria
- CardBus System Architecture
- IEG Sponsorship Sourcebook 2003: The Comprehensive Guide to Sponsors, Properties, Agencies and Suppl
Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters
ZOUNDS!: A Browser's Dictionary of Interjections
Ella Minnow Pea: A Progressively Lipogrammatic Epistolary Fable
The Big Over Easy: A Nursery Crime
You Suck: A Love Story
