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.

Fire Sea: The Death Gate Cycle, Volume 3 (Death Gate Cycle)

Average customer rating:

Again, Amazed
Fire Sea - Death Gate Cycle takes a very dark turn...
One of the best!
sorta ok sometimes
Not bad, it is a shame the rest of the series was not written as well

Fire Sea: The Death Gate Cycle, Volume 3 (Death Gate Cycle)
Margaret Weis , and Tracy Hickman
Manufacturer: Spectra
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0553295411
Release Date: 1992-02-01

Book Description

Abarrach, the Realm of stone. Here, on a barren world of underground caverns built around a core of molten lava, the lesser races -- humans, elves, and dwarves -- seem to have all died off. Here, too, what may well be the last remnants of the once powerful Sartan still struggle to survive. For Haplo and Alfred -- enemies by heritage, traveling companions by necessity -- Abarrach may reveal more than either dares to discover about the history of Sartan... and the future of all their descendants.

Customer Reviews:

Again, Amazed.......2007-07-09

From the first to the last this cycle is AWESOME! This one in particular really leaves the strongest impact of "What's going to happen next?" burning in your mind at the end so be sure to have the next one handy when you near the end because you won't be able to wait too long! Again I must say WARNING - this Cycle is addicting.

Fire Sea - Death Gate Cycle takes a very dark turn..........2006-02-23

Fire Sea, the third of seven books in Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Death Gate Cycle is just as good as the previous two, if not better. This entry in the series takes place in Abarrach, the Realm of Stone.

It starts out different from all the rest, with the first seven chapters being part of a diary from Balthazar, King Edward's necromancer. Soon, as Haplo is about to enter the Death Gate, Alfred (from Dragon Wing) drops in and goes with Haplo to Abarrach. They soon discover that the Sartan found here practice Necromancy, or the art of bringing back the dead. This is discovered much to Alfred's horror, as he cannot believe his race would do such a thing.

The book continues, with many conflicts and sub-conflicts rising up and making for a very dark and interesting read. We get to see inside Haplo, and we discover he is not all Sartan-hater we think he is. We also find that Haplo is not invincible and that Alfred is more powerful than we knew.

Fire Sea is an amazing book in the Death Gate Cycle, and I cannot wait to read Serpent Mage!

P.S: Be sure to read the appendicies...They're important!

One of the best!.......2005-09-27

Fire Sea is book #3 of a seven book series. While the previous two volumes are quite good in themselves, this is the one that takes this series to a whole new level. I truly believe that Weis & Hickman did their best bit of writing as a team on this one book. The enviroment is so alive (in a dark sort of way).

"Gripping" is the word I would use to describe Fire Sea. I don't want to give away any spoliers, but believe me, the conflicts involved and the atmosphere itself will keep you turning pages for several hours. The storyline is very dark and morbid. The dead walk freely in Abarrach and the living are slowly dying off. The novel describes the struggle of the living as they try to survive a world that is killing them, just as they are unknowlingly killing themselves.

It is simply brilliant work, and I would freely recommend the book to anyone.

sorta ok sometimes.......2005-08-13

eh.. Decent books but tend to be weak in my view. They have some killer ideas but at the same time seem to get lost and opt not to take these books to a level higher than just run of the mill fantasy.

Not bad, it is a shame the rest of the series was not written as well.......2005-07-30

First, I will tell you how to get the most enjoyment out of this series. Start with going to the library and renting all of these books. Do not buy them as they are not worth it. Then read books 1, 3, 4, 6 and 7 without reading the footnotes or the appendixes. You have the option of reading books 2 and 5 if you are really enjoying the series, but they are only filler and do not even need to be skimmed. Finally, accept the fact that Weis and Hickman may only be one hit wonders and move on.

Second, I write reviews for those who seek good fantasy and not for the zealots who hang on every Weis and Hickman word. You would think from some of the reviews of this series that these books were greater than War and Peace and written by Bronte and Conrad. In reality, this series is not very good. I am not trying to trash Weis and Hickman, I found the Dragon Lance series to be extremely enjoyable and would give at least the first two series of that line four stars. This series deserves no more than 2 stars. The books are incomplete thoughts that may have been much better had the authors taken more time to flesh out the story. Beware of fantasy books that contain footnotes and appendixes. Usually, these are the telltale signs of poor writing. Having said that, I did manage to read most of these seven books and here are some thoughts.

Many reviewers have made a lot of the fact that Xar is actually tsar or czar. I fail to see the significance here. Xar is a ruler and a tsar is a ruler. So what? What I found to be much more interesting and ultimately distracting was the use, by the authors, of the word mensch. Mensch is a Hebrew word. It is not close to a Hebrew word, it is a Hebrew word. If you look it up, mensch means a person of integrity and honor. What are the authors trying to say here? That all people without ambition or power are full of integrity and honor. I read all seven books trying to understand the use of this word to no avail.

Not surprising considering the books are filled with errors and inconsistencies. Some of these errors and inconsistencies are no doubt addressed in the footnotes and appendixes, but it would take an additional seven books to address all the problems. I believe that most of these problems occurred because the authors did not take the time to complete their work. Perhaps they were pressured by their publisher.

Most of the characters are thinly veiled shadows of those characters from the Dragon Lance series. Only, these characters are not as interesting or as engaging. Part of the problem is that Weis and Hickman never determine where they want the story to go. They blur the line between good and evil, then they erase the line, then they re-draw the line in bold. In Dragon Lance, it was intriguing to see how the characters dealt with the discovery of the duality of their own nature. In this book it is just confusing.

The Doors of the Sea: Where Was God in the Tsunami?

Average customer rating:

Cogent, powerful, speaks beautifully to the hope and promise of God
A tough but worthwhile read
Eerdman's missed the mark on this book...
Fantastic, poetic, beautiful.
Absolutely Brilliant--a masterpiece

The Doors of the Sea: Where Was God in the Tsunami?
David Bentley Hart
Manufacturer: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0802829767

Book Description

As news reports of the horrific tsunami in Asia reached the rest of the world, commentators were quick to seize upon the disaster as proof either of God's power or of God's nonexistence. Expanding on his short piece in the Wall Street Journal, "Tremors of Doubt," David Bentley Hart clarifies the biblical account of God's goodness, the nature of evil, and the shape of redemption.

Hart incisively reveals where both Christianity's critics and its champions misrepresent what is most essential to Christian belief. While responding to atheist skeptics, Hart is at his most perceptive and provocative as he examines Christian attempts to rationalize the tsunami disaster. He contends that the history of suffering and death is not simply part of a divine plan that will make sense of evil. Rather than appealing to a divine calculus that can account for every instance of suffering, Christians must recognize the ongoing struggle between the rebellious powers that enslave the world and the God who loves it.

This meditation by a brilliant young theologian of the Eastern Orthodox tradition will deeply challenge serious readers grappling with God's ways in a suffering world.

Customer Reviews:

Cogent, powerful, speaks beautifully to the hope and promise of God.......2007-01-10

Take a $10 chance and buy, read and consider this remarkable and enormously important Christ-centered (read: love-centered) book. Be not, as another wisely observes, mislead by the title: this is a book of keen theological perspicacity, scholarship and complexion, the catastrophic Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 but, however difficult and unthinkable, the backdrop upon which these beautiful, hope-filled words on the amaranthine love of God are cast. In many ways, the most important, with one exception of course, book I've ever read.

A tough but worthwhile read .......2006-08-19

"The Doors of the Sea" subtitled, "Where Was God in the Tsunami?" It's written by an Eastern Orthodox theologian, David Bentley Hart. And it's a fine work that demands careful reading. I read and then re-read it. It is short (109 pages), lyrical and literary.

The title tells it all. Hart's book is an expansion of an op ed piece he wrote entitled "Tremors of Doubt: What Kind of a God Would Allow a Deadly Tsunami?" that was published in the Wall Street Journal, on the last day of the year in 2004.

As a couple of other reviewers have noted, Hart can be obscure at times, but persistence with this book will pay dividends,

The title "The Doors of the Sea" is a loose reference to Job, chapter 38.

Eerdman's missed the mark on this book..........2006-06-14

They could have published a book that would have been a tremendous comfort to lay readers. Unfortunately, Hart's academic language is maddening--there are words here that will not be in your dictionary, and you will have to re-read parts several times to understand what the author is saying.

I would guess that most readers will give up before finishing the book. That's too bad, because Hart has important things to say. Some of the other reviewers seem to cherish his obscurity. I don't. It IS possible to present important, even complicated, ideas in an elegant way that can be also be readily understood.

To prospective buyers: skip the book and find the Wall Street Journal column. It's much more to the point. To the author: please read "Simple and Direct" by Jacques Barzun.

Fantastic, poetic, beautiful........2006-05-19

Christian theodicy (that is, its defense of an all good, omnipotent, omniscient God in the face of the nihilant evil and suffering of the world) in its variegated forms has the unfortunate tendency to be cold, sterile, and hopelessly esoteric. Hart's book provides an illuminating critique of standard theodicic rebuttals within the world of Christendom, but also a staunch and unrelenting deconstruction of standard atheistic aggrandizing of the "failure" of the Christian system due to misunderstood theological tenants on both sides (that is, both Christian and atheist).

Hart views with a critical eye the notion that the world process as it stands, evil and all, is part of some diligent calculus on God's part, some equilibrium of the "best possible world," or a necessity for God to show his grace. In this brushtroke of his mighty pen he chastizes epigones of Leibniz, Calvin, and others by working through the complaints of Voltair, Dostoevsky, and Mackie. Hart points out that if this were the case, that God has either made this evil for the greater good, or that evil actually has in itself a higher purpose, God would not be the God he is without the evil of this world. His Goodness would necessarily be reactionary, comparative, not essentially good or pure, always caught in the undulating dialectic of good/evil where God, though champion over evil, is the Good Savior only in reference to evil. Rather Hart points out that a truly biblical conception names no purpose to evil, superimposes no grant of life to death. Evil is in fact the ultimate meaninglessness of sin, and has no instrinsic purpose. The death of a child, the rape of a mother, the malignancy of a car crash, have no ultimate machination or design, but are all rendered ultimately meaningless as they are the privation of God's goodness. Hence God's goodness is not a dialectical goodness always paired as that good which overcame evil, but rather evil, in the ultimate illumination of God's effulgent glory, is defatigated and palliated into the nothingness that it truly is. To answer one question below, however, in regards to Noah, Hart is not denying that God might turn evil (or denying the Old Testament, as a reviewer below ponders) for the purpose of the Good, merely that evil has no ultimate design in the tapestry of God's economic plan.

There have been a number of critiques faulting Hart for what is otherwise an impressive utilization of the spectrum of the english language. For its part, they who would chastize Hart in this way are correct in pointing out moments of obscurity due to the poetic flourish of language often pervading the text. And I sympathize in part with those who find Hart's language pompous and perhaps isolated from a more general audience, as a reviewer above notes there ARE ways to state Hart's arguments otherwise than through obscure words. These are, of course, things to be considered (and I would recommend a dictionary as a compliment to Hart's compendious vocab) Nonetheless I find it a somewhat irritating and unfair analysis that seems much akin to faulting a painter for the complexity of brushtroke used in the architecture of a sunset, or the hyaline beauty of a midnight sky. Surely it is an unjust criticism to say Hart was writing "to impress other theologians or his mother" (as a somewhat pretentious reviewer notes above) Could not also his exuberance and excess of language be due to a love for poetic analysis, an enlightened aesthetic appreciation of the wax and wane of language's metaphorical landscape? God forbid we should learn something as we read! Whether or not Hart goes overboard with his word choice is debatable, and just how much the clarity of the arguments suffer as a result is also hard to determine, but at any rate I would urge readers not to pass up this book because of a smattering of difficult words.

This is all in all a fantastic book that both provokes and satisfies. Hart is truly a fantastic theologian with an ability for complex thinking (see his The Beauty of the Infinite for a truly staggering read) and it is very refreshing to have an approach to theodicy that doesn't seem to disrespect through the intrepidity of its logic, the utter cthonic nothingness,the morose and horrifying events of this fallen reality. Highly recommended. I can think of no other book that crams so complex and beautiful a Christian response to evil as this.

Absolutely Brilliant--a masterpiece.......2006-03-18

I have bought countless copies of this book as gifts. It is a stunningly beautiful, elegant, rigorous meditation. The prose alone is worth the price, but what so impressed me was the powerful articulation of the orthodox Christian understanding of good and evil. There is no mawkish sentiment, no appeal to pure emotion, no obscurantism. I have never encountered another book that, in so short a space, made me see how internally coherent and how revolutionary the Christian vision of reality is. The book is also a kind of poem to the beauty of creation, and a haunting lament over its sufferings.

One of the reviewers below grows a bit petulant over a scattering of large words in the text, but that's a silly complaint against so distinguished a stylist. Hart uses the exactly appropriate word in any given context, and the euphony of his sentences is majestic.

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Survival at Sea
The Voyage of the Frog
The Voyage of the Frog
Unsmooth Sailing
Why I liked this book and why you sould read it

The Voyage of the Frog
Gary Paulsen
Manufacturer: Yearling
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0440403642
Release Date: 1990-10-01

Book Description

Slowly, David opened his eyes and looked around the horizon, wincing again with the new movement. There was nothing sticking above the water as far as he could see.

He was alone.

Fourteen-year-old David Alspeth intended only to fulfill his uncle's last wish when he set sail in the Frog, but when a savage storm slams into the tiny sailboat, David is stranded. No wind. No radio. Little water. Seven cans of food. And the storm is just the first challenge David must face...

Customer Reviews:

Survival at Sea.......2007-07-01

David, a fourteen-year-old, is devastated. His favorite uncle, a man who lived nearby and always made time for him, the man who taught him to sail, is dead. They'd found the cancer when he went in to get a backache checked out, and just weeks later he died. His last wish was for David to have his sailboat, the Frog, and for David to take it out alone one day and scatter his ashes in the Pacific Ocean.

When David goes to the Frog a short time later, he intends to sleep in it at the dock that night and then take it out the next day after checking the supplies and the weather. Instead, he is so moved by being on the boat among his uncle's things that he decides to sail out at night, his uncle's favorite time, and be back the next day.

Without checking anything for safety, David leaves the dock and sails for hours, until land is nowhere in sight. He sails through the nght and into the next morning before he decides he is far enough away to scatter his uncle's ashes. As he is getting ready to head back home, he notices waves in the distance that look funny. Before he can really prepare, David is in the middle of a giant storm that knocks him out, dislocates his shoulder and leaves him, over a day and a half later, dazed and lost in the ocean with few supplies. Thus begins his real journey.

For the first time in his short life, David finds out what it's like to truly be fighting to stay alive. He learns to read the ocean and to trust himself. But will his determination and his new knowledge be enough to get him home safely?

I liked learning along with David what would need to be done when lost at sea in a sailboat. I also liked the way David was able to deal with his uncle's death by spending time alone on his boat, figuring out how to stay alive. This situation seemed to speed up the process of grieving.

The Voyage of the Frog.......2006-01-23

The book I read is The Voyage of the Frog. The author is Gary Paulsen. This book is a fiction story. The plot is a 14 year-old boy, David Alspeth, set sail to his Uncle's boat, THe Frog. But when a massive storm throws the tiny boat all over the place, David is stranded. Little water, low supply of canned food, no radio, and no wind. The storm is only one of the many problems he must face. I recemend this book to the ages from 10-14. I really liked it because it was about boating and I love to boat. It was also about adventure, anybody who likes adventure should like this book.

The Voyage of the Frog.......2005-12-15

David Alspeth's uncle Owen had been taking him sailing and teaching him to sail for years. Then David's unlce Owen found out that he had cancer. It was spreading very fast. A week after he went to the doctor, he passed away. Before he died while he was in the hospital, Owen called David in. Owen told him that he wanted David to have his sailboat, the Frog. He also told him that he was going to be cremated and he wanted David to take his ashes on the Frog out in the middle of the ocean and scatter his ashes where you can't see land. When Owen passed away, David took his ashes out like he was supposed to. It wasn't as easy as he thought his trip would be. David went through a couple of big storms, had many encounters with ocean animals, and got lost at sea. Would David ever make it back home? Find out in this great adventure book!

Unsmooth Sailing.......2005-11-10

Gary Paulsen has an uncanny knack for writing survival stories, but this one seems a little repetitive. Considering the time spent at sea isn't at all productive, just basic survival and bad luck. It's only partially his fault, but I think being lost at sea just isn't a very interesting surviving place. This story is extremely uneventful and I would recommend it only to someone who is actually in a predicament like his. It'll help you pass the time. ;)

Why I liked this book and why you sould read it.......2005-05-18

I liked this book because I like the ocean. And this books tells me how the ocean can act. Because the ocean can be really really nice but some days it is not. But this book was about a 14 year old boy and his Uncle had died from cancer. So the boy furfil his uncle dream of setting sail the Frog. But when he got out to sea a bad storm had hit. And he was sraded out a few miles off the sore. He had only 7 cans of food and a barrel of water that he had brong.

Deep Atlantic: Life, Death, and Exploration in the Abyss

Average customer rating:

Wonderful illustrations, pity the book.
cover to cover for a non-fiction book
More Good Stuff From Ellis
Great yet somewhat confusing book.
Fascinating subject! Beautiful Illustrations!

Deep Atlantic: Life, Death, and Exploration in the Abyss
Richard Ellis
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1558216634

Book Description

From the author of Monsters of the Sea and The Book of Whales comes an exhilarating armchair expedition to the last frontier on earth--the bottom of the sea. Ellis first surveys the history of deep-sea exploration, then plunges into the Atlantic's great repository of strange and wondrous fauna, 102 drawings. 32 photos.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful illustrations, pity the book........2002-01-19

This is a wonderfully illustrated book, except it is terribly written. Mr Ellis may have a good eye and hand, his writing is full of stock expressions and canned phrases. He seems unable to focus on any particular idea for more than a paragraph or so, and he meanders, but not in any reflective or thoughtful way. The text is full of paragraph length verbatim quotations from other books, even when there is no real need for it. He seems unable or unwilling to even attempt any sort of synthesis, even a personal one, of the themes that are supposedly the subjects of the book. He does have a good bibliography though, and it is probably more rewarding to skip his text and read the originals.

The real problem with the book though, is as a book of popular science, it is full of inaccuracies, mistakes, and contradictions. Among others, he writes red light has higher frequency than blue, when it is the other way around. There are many others like this, not really deep mistakes, but simples ones that should have been easily found. It seems the book was simply sloppily, superficially researched, and not carefully written and edited at all.

For a much better popular book, try William Broad's "The Universe Below".

cover to cover for a non-fiction book.......2001-10-30

I would truly love to meet Richard Ellis, the author of this book. He has produced a very eclectic bibliography on life in the sea. I understand that he began his career as an artist and all of his books are beautifully illustrated. This one in particular makes liberal use of scratchboard art which does a fine job of bringing the creatures of the abyss to life. The first section deals with the history of deep ocean exploration. I found it particularly interesting. Proceeding sections deal with the myriad of ocean geology and biology topics. Ellis' treatment of these subjects is effective, particularly for the person with interest but a less than advanced background in science. I don't think you will find all the information here in another single source. Ellis, if not a marine scientist, shows a mastery of research and bringing his topic together. Some of the information is a bit disjointed but all in all a very good read.

More Good Stuff From Ellis.......2001-06-21

I've enjoyed everything I've read by Ellis, and this is no exception. Like his other books, this one too seems to suffer from some mediocre editing, but the content more than makes up for it. The book is basically split into two sections, one describing the oceonography of the Atlantic Ocean, as well as a history of human exploration of the murky depths. The second section, which i found to be the more interesting of the two, is a broad survey of the animal life found in the deep areas of the Atlantic Ocean (and hence the title). I wish he was able to go into more detail about some of the bizarre and amazing animals that he discusses, and I wish that he could have included even more of his wonderful drawings, but despite those reservations, I still thought the book was great.

Great yet somewhat confusing book........2000-11-23

After spending time doing my own studies on the subject it was very nice to read someone as respected in the field and get some new and wonderful info. This book is filled front to back with countless accounts and drawings of deep-sea beasts. However his use of examples and the way in which he quotes some of his sources can easily draw you away from what the current topic is and blur the overall vision of the book. However I would strongly suggest this book to anyone who is in the least bit intrested by this subject.

Fascinating subject! Beautiful Illustrations!.......2000-07-04

I've been fascinated by deep sea life ever since I was in Kindergarten, when my teacher showed me a picture of a Gulper Eel. This is also great book for sparking a similar interest in deep sea creatures, no matter what your age. The detailed illustrations draw you into the pitch-black world where these remarkable creatures reside. The text is precise and informative, however I found the author relied heavily on too many footnotes. This made reading seem "choppy," and took away from the overall flow. I found myself frequently getting lost referencing footnotes, and having to back up to re-read portions. But overall it's very informative, and the illustrations are absolutely gorgeous! Definately a conversation starter if left on the coffee table!

Death on the Hellships: Prisoners at Sea in the Pacific War

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A comprehensively researched masterpiece
Man's Inhumanity to Man
A sobering, comprehensive, superly written & accurate survey
A harrowing history of a maritime Dante's Inferno
Evil of the Japanese- well documented

Death on the Hellships: Prisoners at Sea in the Pacific War
Gregory F. Michno
Manufacturer: US Naval Institute Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1557504822

Book Description

The Japanese treatment of prisoners of war in World War II has been written about before, but only with this chronicle will readers come to appreciate the true dimensions of the Allied POW experience at sea. It is a disturbing story that for many made the Bataan Death March pale by comparison. The survivors describe their ordeal in the Japanese hellships as the absolute worst experience of their captivity. Crammed by the thousands into the holds of ships and moved from island to island and put to work, they endured all the horrors of the prison camps magnified ten-fold.

Gregory Michno draws on American, British, Australian, and Dutch POW accounts as well as Japanese convoy histories, recently declassified radio intelligence reports, and a wealth of archival sources to present for the first time a detailed picture of what happened and the extent of the prisoners involved. His findings are startling. More than 150,000 Allied prisoners were transported in the hellships with more than 21,000 fatalities. While many of the deaths were attributable to beatings, starvation, disease, and lack of food and water, the most, Michno reports, were caused by Allied bombs, bullets, and torpedoes. He further reports that this so-called friendly fire was not always accidental--apparently at times it was more important to sink Japanese ships than to worry about POWs. The statistics led Michno to conclude that it was more lethal to be a prisoner on the Japanese hellships than a U.S. Marine fighting in the campaign. His careful examination of the role of U.S. submarines in the sinkings and the rescue of POWs makes yet another significant contribution to the history of the war in the Pacific.

Customer Reviews:

A comprehensively researched masterpiece.......2006-07-27

Gregory Michno has written what will surely become the reference work on hell ship voyages. Impeccably referenced throughout, with a bibliographic section that will keep me busy for years chasing up articles referred to in his research notes. Gregory draws on recently declassified American and Japanese records of their combined activities and inhumanities committed during desperate times - A master of his topic, with objective analysis revealing that neither side was truly innocent in creating hell on the high seas. At times a harrowing, poignant read. This is a 'must have' book for anyone interested in WWII history.

Man's Inhumanity to Man.......2002-03-10

Author Michno covers a subject that has been neglected in World War II history, namely prisoners of war held on Japanese ships on the Pacific Ocean. The book is over 300 pages of the depressing conditions that POW's faced at the hands of the Japanese on their hellships. Prisoners who were deprived of water, food, and sanitary conditions and subjected to executions by their captors make for a very hellish read. It appears that those who survived were those who developed an intense hatred for their captors. Those who felt sorry for themselves were not among the survivors. This is a subject that has apparently been neglected in World War II history and the author says the Japanese continue to deny or cover up their atrocities. I found it difficult to continue reading such horrific treatment of human beings for over 300 pages, but, nevertheless, this is a story that has been needed to be told.

A sobering, comprehensive, superly written & accurate survey.......2001-10-11

Death On The Hellships: Prisoners At Sea In The Pacific War is a sobering, comprehensive, superly written and accurate survey of life and death as an Allied prisoner of war aboard the Japanese submarines, under conditions as hellish as any concentration camp. More that 126,000 prisoners were transported on these hellships with more than 21,000 fatalities, due to beatings, starvation, disease, and worst of all, friendly fire. The statistics lead author Gregory Michno to conclude that it was more dangerous to be a prisoner on Japanese hellships than to be an active U.S. marine in the campaign. Disturbing in its detail, Death On The Hellships is a vivid and unforgettable reminder of the horrors of war and an invaluable contribution to 20th Century military history collections.

A harrowing history of a maritime Dante's Inferno.......2001-08-13

Gregory Michno's "Death on the Hellships: Prisoners at Sea in the Pacific War" is a harrowing account of one of the nearly forgotten stories of World War Two - the experiences of Allied POW's aboard Japanese transport ships. These prisoners, most of them captured during the early months of the war in the Pacific, passed through nearly unimaginable horrors, brutally mistreated by their captors, subjected to starvation, beatings, and deprivation of water, and held in crowded, grossly unsanitary conditions. And they often fell victim to Allied torpedoes and bombs. More than 20,000 Allied POW's died at sea, most of them when the transport ships carrying them were attacked by U.S. submarines and aircraft. Although Allied headquarters often knew of the presence of POW's aboard vessels targeted for attack through radio interception and code breaking, the general policy was to sink the ships anyway, evidently on the basis that the interdiction of critical strategic materials was more important in the long run than the deaths of prisoners-of-war.

"Death on the Hellships" is a veritable Dante's Inferno at sea, the tragedies chronicled month by month. Michno's research into previously classified records and with survivor first-hand accounts far surpasses that of anyone who has touched upon this topic before, and he deserves great credit for rescuing this important story before it was lost forever in the fog of the past. It is not a tale for the faint-hearted. Although the subject covers too broad a time and geographical area to permit in-depth narratives of every prison ship voyage, Michno does provide a wealth of survivor stories illustrating the experiences of these unfortunate men and women. Anyone who reads the history of this tragic episode of modern war will not soon forget it.

Evil of the Japanese- well documented.......2001-08-10

"Death on the Hellships" is a classic in research and documentation. Cross referencing from American records at the National Archives, interviews with Allied POWs who survived these nightmarish voyages, and the convoy records of the Japanese, Michno reveals a picture of depravity and horror. The sad truth is that the American Intelligence knew of almost convoy and merchant ship movement through spies and code breaking. Military intelligence even knew the cargo, including ships containing POWS. It was a "dirty little secret" that is only now available from the declassified records. A deliberate decision was made to withhold the fact from submarine commanders that specific ships and convoys contained prisoners. The decision was made "to sink them all" rather than take a chance the Japanese would realize their codes were broken. Submarine commanders, pledged to lifelong secrecy, knew the location and course of almost every Japanese ship. Many jokingly complained that, "The Japanese ship was ten minutes late.," before he was sunk. Michno masterfully documents and relates the experiences of those who suffered in the Hellships as they were carried to serve as slaves for Japanese industrial companies who now snub any thought of an apology or compensation. A compelling and well written classic for the bookshelf of any historian.

The Death of an Irish Sea Wolf (Peter McGarr Mysteries)

Average customer rating:

Engrossing Mystery STORY
Gill in top form
A great Irish escape to Clare Island, County Mayo.
Ireland through the mystery novel
A Clever Tale of Greed, Betrayal, and Sacrifice

The Death of an Irish Sea Wolf (Peter McGarr Mysteries)
Bartholomew Gill
Manufacturer: Avon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0380725789

Amazon.com

Mystery writers often seek foreboding locales as the settings for their tales, and Bartholomew Gill has certainly found such a spot in a wind-swept, desolate island in the North Sea. You can almost see the fog rolling through the crusty seascape towns as investigators come from Dublin come to look into the disappearance of an old man. Gill mines Irish folklore to provide depth to the tale, which is equal parts mystery, adventure, description and history all combined to craft an intriguing book.

Book Description

In a remote community off the west coast of Ireland, residents inclined to gossip speculate why reclusive Clement Ford, the "Sea Wolf," has become such a generous benefactor to his neighbors. then one night, a mysterious figure from Ford's past arrives on the island, and by morning three people are murdered and Ford has disappeared. In the wake of the tragedy, Chief Superintendent Peter McGarr, and his intuitive wife, Noreen, along with his trusted staff from the Murder Squad, must piece together the deadly evening's events and answer the questions: Who really is the enigmatic Sea Wolf? And what does he have that is worth killing so many people for?

Customer Reviews:

Engrossing Mystery STORY.......2007-02-26

This is my first Peter McGarr Mystery. I found it in a desperate search for old-fashioned mysteries where the focus is on the story not the dysfunctional lives of the detectives. Now there are plenty of dysfunctional people in this book, but that's not the focus. The focus is on a great story of betrayal and redemption that kept me turning pages right to the last one.

Gill in top form.......2004-06-03

This 1996 Peter McGarr mystery takes place primarily on the remote island of Clare where a man named Clement Ford washed up on the beach 50 years before and has lived ever since.

As the book opens, Ford is alerted to the arrival of a strange boat in the harbor. After so many years, his pursuers have caught up with him, in search of revenge and the treasure Ford absconded with at the end of World War II. By morning, several people are dead, Ford is missing and Chief Superintendent McGarr's fishing holiday is over.

With the help of his familiar Murder Squad team, his feisty, scholarly wife, Noreen, and the efficient mainland computers, McGarr begins to put together the pieces. Of less help are the closed-mouth islanders, many of whom despise "foreigners," whether they be mainland police or longtime benefactors like Ford, known to be behind the anonymous Clare Trust.

McGarr soon realizes that the killers did not achieve their objective - the treasure - and will return, losing themselves in the annual reunion of several thousand of the world's O'Malleys.

Gill is at his best here; his literary wit in top form, his characters gregarious and sharp, and the suspense heightened by harsh, windswept terrain and sudden, violent spring storms.

A great Irish escape to Clare Island, County Mayo........2002-05-08

Though some of his settings feel a bit reminiscent of Agatha Christie, Gill writes for a totally different audience--readers who do not shy away from realistically depicted (and sometimes gratuitous) violence, who do not expect the police to be models of probity, and who want their mysteries to be more than simple whodunits. In this 1996 combination of modern mystery and World War II thriller, set off the coast of County Mayo, Gill tells the tale of Clement Ford, a mystery man with a hoard of hidden treasure. Ford has just been tracked down by his old enemy, Angus Rehm, and the result is three deaths, three disappearances, two missing boats, and the arrival of Chief Inspector Peter McGarr from the Garda Siochana and his detectives, each of whom is also dealing with personal problems--alcohol, illicit affairs, and the demands of family--while trying to solve the mystery.

Local beliefs and superstitions, ancient history and pagan monuments, the geological record, and family history are interwoven with the more modern attitudes toward religion, the British, and authority in general, as Gill creates a lively "personality" for Clare Island. The mystery develops a global scope as Clement Ford's true identity and his World War II connections to Angus Rehm emerge in the final pages.

One of a long series of engaging Peter McGarr mysteries with a cast of well-developed repeating characters, Gill focuses on some intriguing aspect of Irish history and culture in each (e.g. eel-fishing, secret religious societies, literary history). The novels written prior to the recent Death of an Irish Sinner can be read in any order, but events in the latter are so explosive that it is difficult to go back if you read Irish Sinner too soon. The series is a fascinating look at Ireland and its characters--great fun and great escape reading. Mary Whipple

Ireland through the mystery novel.......2000-12-15

I plan to use this book with my high school juniors. To find a modern and interest-grabbing book which will whet their appetites for British Lit is a difficult task. I believe this book will do it with its fast-moving, physical plot encompassed in solid prose, idiomatic phrasing and cultural enticement. Though I am not usually a fan of the mystery genre, this one grabbed me.

A Clever Tale of Greed, Betrayal, and Sacrifice.......2000-08-26

This intelligently written mystery takes place off the coast of Ireland on Clare Island. The story centers on Clement Ford, a well-liked 80 year old Sea Man. Clem and his wife Breege live a modest lifestyle in their cottage on the island. They are personable and well respected by the remote communities citizens, however, they hold a deep dark secret.

One night after a violent storm, three people on the island turn up murdered and Clem and Breege mysteriously disappear. Detective Peter McGarr and his colleagues are assigned to the case. Police are baffled as to why anyone would commit these murders and how they could be tied to the quiet elderly Ford's.

Bartholomew Gill's story is unique in that you know who the killers are right from the beginning. However, the mystery lies in why did they kill? What do they want? Will they strike again?

The prose in this book is wonderfully descriptive. You will smell the salty air, see the rolling green hills, and watch the colorful Irish sunsets. The characters are refreshing and believable, and Gill provides the reader with accurate historical facts about the land and its people. This was my first Bartholomew Gill book, but it certainly won't be my last. What a terrific discovery!

Average customer rating:

Book Synopsis
Sea of Death (Gord the Rogue)
E. Gary Gygax
Manufacturer: ACE Charter
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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City of Hawks (Gord the Rogue, Book 3)

Night Arrant (Gord the Rogue, No 2)

Artifact of Evil (Greyhawk Adventures Novels, Book 2)

Saga of Old City (Greyhawk Adventures Novels, Book 1)

Dance of Demons (New Infinities Publications)

ASIN: 044175676X

Customer Reviews:

Book Synopsis.......2000-01-06

Few people have ventured into the Ashen Desert, and fewer still have re-turned to tell of what they saw and how they managed to survive. But a young man named Gord cannot allow himself to be disheartened by this knowledge. Part of an ancient and evil artifact is hidden somewhere in the Ashen Desert, buried beneath the arid and deadly landscape of this forsaken area, and Gord has accepted the chal-lenge of finding and holding the Final Key to keep it out of the hands of those who would use it for evil purposes.

Decision At Trafalgar: The Story of the Greatest British Naval Battle of the Age of Nelson (Heart of Oak Sea Classics Series)

Average customer rating:

Excellent history telling.....
Very Entertaining book, no dry history here!
Make this your first Age of Sail read!!!
Better that Patrick O-Brien: this is REAL!
Decision at Trafalgar (Heart of Oak Series)

Decision At Trafalgar: The Story of the Greatest British Naval Battle of the Age of Nelson (Heart of Oak Sea Classics Series)
Dudley Pope
Manufacturer: Owl Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0805061363

Book Description

The story of the greatest British naval battle of the Age of Nelson.Renowned historian and novelist Dudley Pope explores the defining moment of the Age of Nelson. His compelling descriptions of the battle itself are backed by a wealth of historical detail, including a chronicle of the preceding year, revealing both the British and the French political motives, and explaining Nelson's strategy and Napoleon's response. Pope creates an intimate portrait of the life in the Royal Navy at its finest hour.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent history telling............2004-06-12

Without a doubt, one of the more entertaining and informative retelling of the Battle of Trafalger. The author put all his talents of a fictional writer and applied it nicely in this well searched and written account of the Trafalger campaign and battle. I am familiar with the author's work on Copenhegan which was also nicely done.

You can probably compared this book with David Howarth's work although Decision at Trafalger provides far more details and more insights into the entire campaign and battle then Howarth. The book read well and even a casual reader can get into the narrative. One of the better books on the subject, belong on a bookshelves of anyone who got an interest in naval warfare during the Napoleonic era.

Very Entertaining book, no dry history here!.......2004-02-28

Trafalgar was an amazing, dramatic event. The grandeur of the ships and the legendary characters involved are well described in this book, and you can tell that Dudley Pope was a man who was fascinated with the age of fighting sail. He was also a very good writer and he described it well.
Pope started out by describing the voyage of the HMS Pickle, the 4 gun schooner which carried news of Nelson's victory as well as his death back to England immediately after the battle. This small part of the great story of Trafalgar might be ignored or briefly mentioned by another author, but Pope related it as the dramatic story that it was. He described the heavy weather which battered the tiny, unescorted ship through hostile waters during her 1000 mile voyage home, causing her to leak badly. He described the overland voyage to London by the young Lieutenant Laponetiere, who arrived at the Admiralty, utterly exhausted, late at night to deliver his stunning news to an elderly, overworked clerk. And all this is just the first chapter.
Subsequent chapters describe the British, French and Spanish navies of the time, the strategies of Napoleon and Pitt, Nelson's life and the relationship he had with his Captains, the life of the common sailor, and even the conditions in Cadiz in 1805. Pope's writing is full of color and detail, and this book moves quickly.
Pope managed to describe the action of the battle very clearly with the use of diagrams of the battle as a whole and of individual matchups between opponents. He made the complex action understandable, and described the dramatic death of Nelson without getting bogged down in melodrama.
The aftermath of the battle, as well as it's importance to the Napoleonic wars and the future of the Royal Navy, are insightfully described towards the end of the book.

Make this your first Age of Sail read!!!.......2002-07-22

This book is simply perfect. Not only does it recount the true events surrounding the Battle of Trafalgar off the coast of Spain, it is an excellent introductory book to the genre. As a fan of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin tales and CS Forester's Hornblower, this new collection of nautical books is a must read.

Dudley Pope's narrative flows smoothly making this one of those books you can't put down until your finished. The nautical terms of the 1790's ~ 1800's are explained to satisfy both the novice and the well read. Whether this is your first Age of Sail book or just another in a long list, this is a must read that you will cherish.

Better that Patrick O-Brien: this is REAL!.......2000-08-27

This is the best written and best researched treatment of the Battle of Trafalgar and Nelson's death that I have ever read -- and I read a LOT of naval history! Most discussions of Trafalgar concentrate on Nelson's slow death on the orlop deck, while the really decisive actions of the battle rage out of view. In this book Pope gives readers a thorough and vivid discussion of exactly what happened between the whole engaging fleets, AFTER Nelson was hit and taken below. The victory was Nelson's, from his strategy and leadership, but many other men on both sides fought to reach that crucial military decision. Dudley Pope brings this to life. If you've ever wondered why Nelson's last order, knowing he was mortally wounded, was for his flag captain to anchor the British fleet, read on! I also highly recommend Pope's other works, including his fictional Lord Ramage series, which gets visibly better from book to book.

Decision at Trafalgar (Heart of Oak Series).......1999-12-19

As both a Patric O'Brien fan and a lover of history works, I very much appreciate the novelistic approach that Mr. Pope takes with the book, which adds much character to the writingas well as a flavor of the life and times. Some detail is sacrificed, but the book is easily readible and the account of the ship actions themselves with included diagrams helps make this complex engagement easy to comprehend.

Mattanza: Love and Death in the Sea of Sicily

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The REAL Mediterranean
Life and ritual in the Mediterranean
Fish Story
Get Sweaty
A piece of Sicily

Mattanza: Love and Death in the Sea of Sicily
Theresa Maggio
Manufacturer: Counterpoint
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 073820269X

Amazon.com

A mattanza, in Italian, is a slaughter--in the instance Theresa Maggio relates, a springtime slaughter of bluefin tuna, the fish highly prized by sports fishermen and gourmands. In these elegant pages, Maggio describes the hard lives of Sicilian fishermen who chase the bluefin, reenacting a hunt that extends far back into prehistory and whose rituals, including that ceremonial massacre, have gone essentially unchanged for thousands of years.

Maggio, a former science writer at the Los Alamos National Scientific Laboratory, first traveled to her ancestral island in her early 30s. On the rocky coast of Favignana she witnessed her first mattanza, an unexpected "font of primal energy, beauty, and suffering, all in a tiny square of sea." After observing the coordinated efforts of the fishermen, who battled to drive the three-quarter-ton fish into a carefully constructed maze of net traps, Maggio came to develop an appreciation for the hunt in Sicilian village life. It is a ritual as laden with meaning as the buffalo hunt in Plains Indian cultures.

Maggio's memoir of life, death, and hard work in a dangerous sea joins with Peter Matthiessen's Men's Lives as a thoughtful study in human ecology. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

A magnificent journey inside the world of a Sicilian fishing community and its thousand-year-old rituals

Every spring for untold centuries, great schools of giant bluefin tuna have swum through the Strait of Gibraltar to spawn in the Mediterranean Sea. And there, for untold centuries, men have been waiting for them. In this stunning debut, Theresa Maggio brings us inside the insular world of the tonnara-the ritual trapping and killing of bluefin enacted by fishermen since the Stone Age. In a single, bloody spectacle-called the mattanza-the fishermen harvest the bluefin, lifting them by hand from the Chamber of Death, the last room in an elaborate trap.

Theresa Maggio witnessed her first mattanza on Favignana, a butterfly-shaped island off the coast of Sicily. Brought to the island by a fisherman who was in love with her, Maggio in turn fell in love with Favignana, with its white magic and stonework, its anchors and nets. Penetrating this exotic, all-male world as no woman has before her, Maggio documents a dark and beautiful ritual that might soon disappear-a casualty of the modern fishing industry. Part memoir, part natural history, part travelogue, Mattanza is a riveting narrative of one woman's journey into another world, a world where moon lemons grow wild, and where the sea holds the promise of renewal.

Customer Reviews:

The REAL Mediterranean.......2004-05-17

What a pity this books seems to have dropped from print. Forget Mayle and Mayes with their renovated houses and expensive habits, and gushing nonsense. This is the real Mediterranean, where people are proud but poor (Stendhal says that Italians have no shame about poverty) and attempt to hold on to their centuries-old traditions in the face of declining fishing stocks and changing economic circumstances. Maggio's book is a wonderful testament to these noble men who love their life in spite of its precarious nature--the perfect foil for having to deal with boring MTV-types.

Life and ritual in the Mediterranean.......2003-10-19

I picked up this book as part of my recent Mediterranean travel book kick.

The book is more romance than reportage, as Maggio tries to capture the life, rhythm, rituals, myths, and, yes, romance of life on the island, centering her story on the fishermen who deploy the nets and traps that gather hundreds of the giant bluefins for slaughter. The tuna once made the island prosperous, but declining numbers of fish and competition from long-line trawlers has taken its toll (the island's cannery closed in 1981, throwing a thousand people out of work), and soon the ritual of the mattanza will probably disappear from Favignana, leaving pretty much nothing but tourism behind.

(As a reader in Tokyo, I was surprised to see a Japan connection: it's Japan's voracious appetite for sashimi that's helping keep the mattanza going: when the bluefin tuna are slaughtered, the Japanese are waiting to send them off to the tuna auction at giant Tsukiji Wholesale Market in Tokyo. Maggio includes a rather over-the-top chapter about Japanese sushi, exaggerating (in my opinion) the ritual and price of sushi: she quotes 10-year-old Bubble-Era prices for tuna (in 1992, she says, a 715-pound bluefin was sold for $83,500, or about $117 a pound) and extrapolates from that, despite the fact that the average price is a very small fraction of that peak.

(The kind of highly stylized sushi places she describes, where they sell toro for $75 a plate, are places I've never set foot in and probably never will: I go to the far more common, far more plebian "kaiten zushi" (conveyor belt sushi) restaurants, where I can snarf down maguro and toro for about $1 to 2 a plate. Sure, the fish isn't the highest quality, the atmosphere is utilitarian, and the wasabi is reconstituted from powder, but it's still tasty and, I think, a more usual experience than the romantic and ritualistic kind Maggio describes.)

But I like the book, I must say. Maybe I'll tackle the Lawrence Durell book on Corfu on my shelf next.

Fish Story.......2003-08-09

Theresa Maggio has done us a favor by providing a well-written book about a subject little-known to the English-speaking world: I refer to the mattanzas, or communal bluefin tuna kills, that have been a feature of Sicilian life for over a thousand years. In the process, she has introduced us to dozens of colorful characters and an obscure island off the northwest coast of Sicily.

Curiously, it is the Japanese -- not the Italians -- for whom most of the tuna is reserved. They have factory ships offshore for processing the tuna into sushi and packing it to fly back home under ice. These mattanzas are intensely covered by the Japanese news media, as Ms. Maggio shows, because bluefin sushi is highly desirable, rare, and goes for astronomical prices in Tokyo.

Over the last two or three decades, the number of tuna and their size has declined steadily. One reason is that, at the time the book was written, European fishermen had overfished the tuna using purse seines. Off the coast of North America, stricter controls are in effect to allow the species to recover.

The process of luring the tuna into the elaborate traps for the mattanza is complex and deeply embedded in Sicilian lore. It calls for patience, strength, courage, and wiliness -- qualities which are fast disappearing as the knowledge has not been passed on due to the decreasing number of old hands available to impart the knowledge.

The only failure of the book is not the author's, but the publisher's. Explanatory photos and more schematics than the single one (in Italian) appearing on the front and rear endpapers are essential to support the text. There are some small photos that are marginally discernible, but plates would have been better. The mattanza is a complicated event, and I feel this is a serious omission. In every other way, I wholeheartedly recommend Maggio's work.

Get Sweaty.......2002-11-22

Sicilians perform dramatic killing rituals. Traveling lady gets down with the local men. Greed destroys nature and wrecks a proud island culture.
Whatever way you cut it, this is a passionate jewel of a book. I can't imagine how many drafts the author wrote to distill her years of meticulous note-taking. Every chapter has a photo or drawing, a delightful touch that only suggests the thousands of such shots she must have taken.

Maggio's sensuous observations of the island, her candid personal impressions, and her subtle political commentary will make you think -- and sweat.

(This review refers to the earlier edition with the less hyped title.)

A piece of Sicily.......2002-09-12

This woman is a great writer. she brings you right to
the subject at hand, this one being an ancient fishing
rite, populated by real, breathing (sexy sometimes) men.

You have to read the whole book too!

amazing.

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