History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Average customer rating:

4 1/2 Stars
Delightful - Magic and Romance
enjoyable
Abosultely stunning!!
This book can be reread time and again

Night Visitor (Timeswept)
Melanie Jackson
Manufacturer: Dorchester Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0505524236

Customer Reviews:

4 1/2 Stars.......2007-08-15

This was a neat time-travel romance.

Taffy is taking pictures of old scottish ruins and haunted castle--haunted by the bagpipe music played by Malcolm.

She hears Malcolm talking to her. She finds his bones (hands cut off) and goes thru time to stop his death.

This book is full of faeries, love and magic and was such a nice story.

"Are you coming for me Taffy girl..."

If you enjoy a time travel romance, you will like this one!

Delightful - Magic and Romance.......2003-08-07

Ghosts, Time Travel, Fairies, Magic and Scotland figure in this delightful story. I liked it. I had one little wish -- I got a bit confused with the love scenes - wish they were a little more detailed and longer.

enjoyable.......2002-04-10

This is the first book I've read by Melanie Jackson and I found it to be a enjoyable book. It was a bit hard to follow in parts but the story line was interesting enough to keep me at it. I liked the fact that the heroine is a strong yet vulnerable woman who can stand on her own but also knows when to lean on her man. The hero is a very sensitive man who probably because of his heritage makes him irresitible to his heroine.

This is a combo of a timeswept/fantasy romance. The heroine, Taffy starts off in the 1880's and ends up in the 1640's. She is helping her father with his archeology by taking photographs of the bones they have discovered of a piper. The piper was killed after warning of a trap. His hands had been cut off and he bled to death. While taking the shot she sees a ghost who happens to be the piper himself. The piper, Malcolm, is our hero. She is sent back in time to save him by the fairies. She and he both are of fairy blood and the fairies need them.

Together they must overcome their human enemies and the fairy dangers which await them. I enjoyed the excitement in this book. You weren't sure what was going to happen next. I plan on reading more of thisd authors works in the future.

Abosultely stunning!!.......2002-02-09

I am one of the male managers of WISE Writers and Readers, and I generally leave the reviewing to Lady Ashorah, the head of WISE. But I wanted to say the male readers at WISE loved this book!!

Melanie is a super writer, with a haunting, evocative quality that leads the reader into a drama drawn from real historical events. She is one of the strongest historical writers around.

WISE WrIters and Readers Book of the Month for MAY and Book of the Year for 2001

This book can be reread time and again.......2001-11-24

Taffy and Malcolm are extremely beleivable charactors in a fantastic faerie filled plot. The plot is fey but the Taffy and Malcolm are 3-D humans.
Part of what makes this book so believalbe is that it is based on real historical fact and the resulting ghost story that sprang up around a real life piper/hero. The real Malcolm knowingly gave his life for what he beleived in. Moreover, the death he suffered was not kind.
This books just gets better the more often you read it.

The Night Visitor:: A Shaman Mystery (Shaman Mysteries)

Average customer rating:

Daisy does it again
So many dreams, so little sense...
Oddly readable without actually being enjoyable.
A Mammoth Endeavor
Somewhat disappointing

The Night Visitor:: A Shaman Mystery (Shaman Mysteries)
James D. Doss
Manufacturer: William Morrow
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0380977214
Release Date: 1999-09-07

Book Description

The morning after the aged Ute shaman receives a perplexing visits from a silent, disheveled matukach "magician," daisy's neighbor Nathan McFain discovers something astonishing buried in the dirt on his foundering Colorado dude ranch: the bones of gargantuan beast from a prehistoric age. It is a find of enormous scientific importance that attracts the attention of a wide variety of individual: noted paleontologist Moses Silver and his archaeologist daughter Delia; pillars of the scientific community Robert Newton and Cordell York; an Arkansas sharpie named Flye, an overly interested local antiques dealer.. and Charlie Moon of the Southern Ute Police Department. At the McFain spread primarily to keep an eye on the disreputable Flye, Moon is curious about the strange old bones ....and wary as well. For things this ancient and rare have been known to inspire evil deeds in the past, including avarice, mendacity, and murder. And when one of the prime players in this timeless drama vanishes without a trace, Charlie worries that his greatest fears have been realized. But while Charlie investigates the unexplained disappearance --and a very suspicious death that follows soon after--using rational and accepted police methods, his aunt Daisy is being drawn by forces preternatural into a grimly related mystery. For craven murder is not the exclusive domain of contemporary Man--and a cry for justice from the past has reached Daisy Perika and tow extraordinary young girls in her care, ensnaring them all in something old, dark, and dangerous.

Customer Reviews:

Daisy does it again.......2007-09-08

This was a great read. I love the shaman daisy and her french canadian buddy. They make a story flow.. as do all of the characters created by Mr. Doss.

So many dreams, so little sense..........2005-09-24

Apparently, there's nothing in the world that a good dream can't cure--including some tortured labyrinths of human behavior. The book is mildly amusing: there's good description and informative background. But the characters are caricatures and the plot is bogged down with dreams which do little to advance the plot. Final result, in the last few seconds before the book put me to sleep, I had some pretty graphic dreams of my own....

Oddly readable without actually being enjoyable. .......2005-08-14

Caveat lector. A dog days of summer/blizzard of the week series, to be taken liberally with any period of inclement weather or bout of ill health. Caveats: This doting grandpa of an author never did meet an uber-precocious 6 year old girl who couldn't save the day with the right dream sequence. Special Neo-Freud caveat: You'll have to come to terms with the endless [and quite boring] dream sequences which are had by dang near every character in the series way too often. Special note for the ethically challenged [and aren't we all]: If you like cops who will, with astonishing little soul searching, cover up minor crimes to major felonies when it involves a friend and, more importantly, saves them a bit of embarrassment, Charlie Moon and Scott Parris are your kind of cops. For those of you who like rigorous and thoughtful plotting that doesn't deus-ex-machina to beat the band, well, keep looking. But for those of you who just want a book that can be read with a minimum of disquiet and disgust, where you can skip vast stretches and always know what's going on, why, you've struck gold! Anyway, I'm starting my third in the series with high hopes.

A Mammoth Endeavor.......2001-02-22

I always enjoy reading about Charlie Moon and Aunt Daisy. I find the characters believable, and the action suspenseful enough to keep me reading until the last page. Although I know nothing about the Ute tribe and their culture, the books read as authentic information, like Hillerman's Navajo tales. If you enjoy Native mysteries, try Doss on for size.

Somewhat disappointing.......2000-09-03

I was disappointed in the convolutions of the plot and felt that at some points I needed to diagram it all out on a pice of paper about five-feet-long and three feet wide. I found it very hard to literally imagine a Native American the size of Charlie Moon. Unfortunately, his fried food diet is all too believable. On a positive note, I did enjoy the quirkiness of the characters and their approaches to life, and felt they were very well constructed.

Average customer rating:

Night Visitors
Ed Young
Manufacturer: Philomel
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0399227318

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Amahl and the Night Visitors Vocal Score
Beautiful story and images!
THIS IS WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR
Lame boy meets Wise Men

Amahl and the Night Visitors
Gian Carlo Menotti
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0688054269

Book Description

Since its first performance on Christmas Eve, 1951, Amahl and the Night Visitors has taken its place with A Christmas Carol as a holiday classic. Peformed on every continent and in many languages, it has been seen by more people than any other opera in history.

The story tells of the night the Three Kings, following the star to Bethlehem, stop for shelter at the home of Amahl, a poor, crippled shepard boy who lives with his widowed mother. Inspired by the Wise Men's tale of a kingdom "built on love alone," Amahl offers his own simple gift to the Christ Child. And then a miracle happens. . .

In this warm and compassionate story, Gian Carlo Menotti has captured the essential spirit of Christmas. At its premiere, The New York Times called Amahl "rare art. . . tender and exquisite." Now brought to life in glowing watercolors, Amahl and the Night Visitors is a feast for the eyes and heart, one readers of all ages will want to return to again and again.

Customer Reviews:

Amahl and the Night Visitors Vocal Score.......2007-01-12

The score was complete and arrived within a few days of ordering. It was written clearly and I was able to accomplish the task I wanted without any trouble. It included both vocal soloists and choral parts so that the choir would be able to manage it easily. I was very pleased with my purchase.

Beautiful story and images!.......2004-12-13

This gorgeously illustrated storybook has become the favorite part of my Christmas, since I found it 8 years ago. As an elementary music teacher I found this to be a fabulous way to introduce opera to my 4th grade classes. Each year I read the story to them inserting selected vocal works from the opera. This allows the children to hear the words spoken first, preparing them for the selections from the opera.
I would encourage anyone who wishes to teach their children about opera to purchase this book along with a quality audio recording. Enjoy!

THIS IS WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR.......2001-06-21

Look no more! At a wonderful price, this IS the complete score reduced for piano. Of course, performance rights and other instrumental orchestrations must be obtained through the publisher, but the info. that you need to do that is included in this book. If you're looking to get started into "Amahl", this and the video are the way to do it!

Lame boy meets Wise Men.......1998-09-21

This lovely Christmas book is based on Menotti's own cure of lameness as a child in 1911 Italy. In this book, Amahl, the lame boy, meets up with the Wise Men on the way to Bethlehem. His poor mother and he give the Wise Men a place to bed down for the night and Amahl is repaid for his faith by being cured and going with the Wise Men to meet the Christ Child. This delightful Christmas story is full of mystery and awe, reinforced well by the full color illustrations. This book belongs on every child's bookshelf and makes an excellent Christmas gift for six to eleven year olds. I am a church librarian and bought this book for our church library.

Amahl and the Night Visitors: Full Score

Average customer rating:

Amahl and the Night Visitors: Full Score

Manufacturer: G. Schirmer, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Songbooks | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0793566711

Book Description

English Only - Cloth Score.

Average customer rating:

Fantastic pre-school book

Jack And the Night Visitors
Pat Schories
Manufacturer: Front Street
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1932425330

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic pre-school book.......2006-12-28

My 3.5 year old daughter talked more about this book than any other in her pre-schools Family Reads program. While the book contains no text, the story is evident. My daughter saw things I didn't and interpreted the story very quickly. She loved it. I highly recommend this book.

Average customer rating:

Amahl And The Night Visitors
Monotti
Manufacturer: McGraw - Hill Book Company Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JCD22M

THE ILLUSTRATED MAN: The Veldt; Kaleidoscope; The Other Foot; The Highway; The Man; The Long Rain; The Rocket Man; The Fire Balloons; The Last Night of the World; The Exiles; No Particular Night or Morning; The Fox and the Forest; The Visitor

Average customer rating:

Novel? I Think Not!
Mixed quality, including some uninspired stories but also some brilliant pieces. Recommend on the basis of the good stories
Hardcore Bradbury Fans Only
Fun reading and good story-telling
solid

THE ILLUSTRATED MAN: The Veldt; Kaleidoscope; The Other Foot; The Highway; The Man; The Long Rain; The Rocket Man; The Fire Balloons; The Last Night of the World; The Exiles; No Particular Night or Morning; The Fox and the Forest; The Visitor
Ray Bradbury
Manufacturer: Panther Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

ASIN: 0586043594

Amazon.com

That The Illustrated Man has remained in print since being published in 1951 is fair testimony to the universal appeal of Ray Bradbury's work. Only his second collection (the first was Dark Carnival, later reworked into The October Country), it is a marvelous, if mostly dark, quilt of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. In an ingenious framework to open and close the book, Bradbury presents himself as a nameless narrator who meets the Illustrated Man--a wanderer whose entire body is a living canvas of exotic tattoos. What's even more remarkable, and increasingly disturbing, is that the illustrations are themselves magically alive, and each proceeds to unfold its own story, such as "The Veldt," wherein rowdy children take a game of virtual reality way over the edge. Or "Kaleidoscope," a heartbreaking portrait of stranded astronauts about to reenter our atmosphere--without the benefit of a spaceship. Or "Zero Hour," in which invading aliens have discovered a most logical ally--our own children. Even though most were written in the 1940s and 1950s, these 18 classic stories will be just as chillingly effective 50 years from now. --Stanley Wiater

Book Description

He was a riot of rockets and fountains and people, in such intricate detail and color that you could bear the voiced murmuring, small and muted, from the crowds that inhabited his body.

The Illustrated Man

Ray Bradbury brings wonders alive. A peerless American storyteller, his oeuvre has been celebrated for decades--from The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451 to Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes.

The Illustrated Man is classic Bradbury --a collection of tales that breathe and move, animated by sharp, intaken breath and flexing muscle. Here are eighteen startling visions of humankind's destiny, unfolding across a canvas of decorated skin--visions as keen as the tattooist's needle and as colorful as the inks that indelibly stain the body.

Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man is a kaleidoscopic blending of magic, imagination, and truth, widely believed to be one of the Grandmaster's premier accomplishments: as exhilarating as interplanetary travel, as maddening as a walk in a million-year rain, and as comforting as simple, familiar rituals on the last night of the world.

He was a riot of rockets and fountains and people, in such intricate detail and color that you could hear the voices murmuring, small and muted, from the crowds that inhabited his body.

THE ILLUSTRATED MAN is classic Bradbury--a collection of tales that breathe and move, animated by sharp, intaken breath and flexing muscle. Here are eighteen startling visions of humankind's destiny, unfolding across a canvas of decorated skin--visions as keen as the tattooist's needle and as colorful as the inks that indelibly stain the body.

The images, ideas, sounds and scents that abound in this phantasmagoric sideshow are provocative and powerful: the mournful cries of celestial travelers cast out cruelly into a vast, empty space of stars and blackness...the sight of gray dust settling over a forgotten outpost on a road that leads nowhere...the pungent odor of Jupiter on a returning father's clothing. Here living cities take their vengeance, technology awakens the most primal natural instincts, Martian invasions are foiled by the good life and the glad hand, and dreams are carried aloft in junkyard rockets. Ray Bradbury's THE ILLUSTRATEDMAN is a kaleidoscopic blending of magic, imagination, and truth, widely believed to be one of the Grandmaster's premier accomplishments: as exhilarating as interplanetary travel, as maddening as a walk in a million-year rain, and as comforting as simple, familiar rituals on the last night of the world.

Customer Reviews:

Novel? I Think Not!.......2007-09-20

There seems to be one misconception running through a lot of these reviews. The misconception is that The Illustrated Man should be viewed as a novel. It IS NOT a novel. I repeat: NOT A NOVEL. The Illustrated Man is an excellent work of literature, but it is a collection of loose stories. Even those who say that the stories have a loose theme are not stressing the point enough, it seems. The stories are barely tied together at all.

The stories themselves are superb, and classic Bradbury. Among the best are The Veldt, about technology and what can go wrong with it; Zero Hour, about an innocent game that may not be so innocent; Marionettes, INC., a classic sci-fi story also about the misuse of technology; The Long Rain, a psychological roller coaster through the future of mankind; and No Particular Night or Morning, a wonderful philosophical story about space and what it can do to a man's mind.

Again, you should view these stories as ones in a short story collection, not a full novel. But they are essential Bradbury and essential science fiction, like most of his works of literature.

Mixed quality, including some uninspired stories but also some brilliant pieces. Recommend on the basis of the good stories.......2007-09-07

One hot summer day, our narrator meets the Illustrated Man. When the man strips off his stifling long sleeves, he reveals the Illustrations, which decorate every inch of his bare skin. But, as he warns the narrator, they are more than Illustrations: at night, they come to life, change, and spell out stories. That night, the narrator watches these stories--and each becomes a short story in Bradbury's collection. From living houses to ever-raining Venus to the Martian invasion of the commercialized Earth, these often-harrowing science fiction stories range on all topics and all skill levels. Some of the stories are incredible and haunting; others are bulky or uninspired. It is a mixed bag and not as good as some of Bradbury's other collections, but the framing of the Illustrated Man and the golden nuggets sprinkled within make it an imaginative and worthwhile read. Tentatively recommended.

It is particularly difficult to review short story collections because quality can and does vary from story to story, making it hard to summarize and judge the book as a whole. The median quality of this book is not exceptional, and it is not my favorite of Bradbury's short story collections (that would be The Machineries of Joy and The Martian Chronicles, which is not quite a short story collection but is close). The reason for this is simple: some of the stories are uninspiring--neither harrowing or scientific, they're vaguely satirical but without cutting witticism, making them instead simply bland. These uninspiring short stories drag down the overall quality of the book.

Some of the other stories, however, and the framing of the Illustrated Man, are simply brilliant. For me, these include The Veldt, The Man, The Long Rain, The Rocket Man, and Zero Hour, and make up about half of the stories in the book. They range from incredible concepts to haunting ideas to wistful, more personal stories, and are all written in Bradbury's clear, precise, honest prose.

I recommend The Illustrated Man on the basis of these outstanding stories. As a whole, the collection is a bit wanting, but taken individually, there are definitely some stories worth reading. Fans of Bradbury's writing will especially enjoy this book, and the short-story format makes it accessible to all readers. And when it is good--it is very, very good.

Hardcore Bradbury Fans Only.......2007-08-12

If you are not a die-hard Bradbury fan do not waste your time with this book. It is pretty much a campy (ie. rockets, space, mars, etc.) collection of space stories. There are a few stories here with interesting views and/or concepts, but for the most part it's a poorly written, redundant, and slow paced book.

If you are going to read Bradbury for the first time or are new to his writing I would recommend "Fahrenheit 451".

Fun reading and good story-telling.......2007-06-05

Bradbury is a good story teller, though a lot more compelling in a earlier time when one is young. Some of the stories are first rate because they deal with the timeless themes of human nature. The Veldt (the first story in the collection) is the best in the book and I was moved as well by "The Rocket Man", a story about grief and loss beautiful in its simplicity. Also, the device of the Illustrated Man still works on a second read and is a stroke of inspiration.

Some of the stories are not good literature from a writing or character development perspective, but are extremely clever and fun -- neat ideas that would make (or have made) great Twilight Zone stories. My favorite is the time traveler story.

One story (No Particular Night or Morning) is deeply philosophical in nature. The character portrayal is not convincing but the philocophical idea of space travelers who are compelled to question their own existence is about as good and interesting an exposition of a philsophical issue as you'll ever find.

Many stories are clunkers, I'm afraid -- the situations are usually interesting but the characters are wooden and not believable.

Also fascinating is how science ficition ages with time. The vision of the future tells us more about the past than anything else. No one seems to have foreseen cell phones, the internet, and the communications/information revolution (although Arthur C. Clarke in Childhood's End comes close). You can harldy fault Bradbury for this, but it's interesting how the futurists simply extrapolate their current world into the future -- i.e., brute machines are the rage in 1950, so they imagine even better, more brutish machines in the future.

For all his limitations as a writer, Bradbury has written some classic stories that I would include in a literary anthology for this period. I therefore recommend that you read or re-read this book.

solid.......2007-03-16

Very diverse feel here, some scifi, some general fiction and fantasy. The stories are evenly well done.

Scary Night Visitors: A Story for Children With Bedtime Fears

Average customer rating:

A very helpful book

Scary Night Visitors: A Story for Children With Bedtime Fears
Irene Wineman Marcus , and Paul Marcus
Manufacturer: Magination Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0945354258

Customer Reviews:

A very helpful book.......2002-01-26

This book is a psychoanalytic book which really helped my child overcome her bedtime fears. Its approach is great and can truly help you and your child

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