Eye of Heaven (Dirk & Steele, Book 5)

Book Description

When Blue, an electrokinetic and a member of the Dirk & Steele detective agency, is sent to Las Vegas to track down his half-brother, he finds himself embroiled in an organ smuggling plot -- and protecting a young beauty who is more than she appears.

Customer Reviews:

originality, action and adventure in this continuation of Dirk & Steele series.......2007-09-13

A small package causally toss in the lap of Blue Perrineau is the start of a new Dirk and Steel adventure. Back in the USA, Blue gets the news that his father is dead. Now he must search for his brother, the legal heir.

Shape-shifter Iris McGillis works with big cats for a Las Vegas based circus. Her cat like moves and her affinity for the big cats attracts more than just the usual crowds. Her act has pulled in some dangerous interest too.

The action comes fast and hard once all the players meet. A lost mother, a missing brother, a she-tiger and Blue with the Dirk and Steel group. The mixture of action and emotion will keep you on the edge of your seat.

As a fan of X-Men, I have read Marjorie M. Liu's DARK MIRROR and she brings the same originality, action and adventure into her Dirk & Steele series. I highly recommend reading the other books in the series in order to get the full enjoyment of this story. (TIGER EYE; SHADOW TOUCH; THE RED HEART OF JADE).

Reviewed by Michele Patrykus
For eBookIsle

Hard to put down........2007-08-14

This book was so much better than the previous full length novel, The Red Heart of Jade. The chemistry between Blue and Iris is wonderful. The complex situation that is forced on Blue by his father and the circumstances with Iris's mother are beautiful written. This is one of the best book I have read this year.

Excellent!.......2007-07-20

Blue Perrineau has spent a lifetime escaping the shadow of his ruthless father. As an employee for the Dirk and Steele Detective Agency, Blue has sought to disrupt the flesh peddling by Santoso Rahardjo. A devastating injury and news of his father's death sends him in a different direction, one that lands him at Reilly's Circus. He's in search of his brother, Daniel, but also finds Iris McGillis, a shape shifter. Unfortunately, Blue knows the truth about his father's death and the ramifications of Blue finding Daniel and Iris may be catastrophic.

Marjorie M. Liu weaves a complex tapestry with EYE OF HEAVEN. The details of this intricate tale cleverly unveil themselves as the story progresses. Each book of the Dirk and Steele series is a stand alone but there are some ongoing threads throughout the series. EYE OF HEAVEN is starting to bring some of those threads, along with characters from previous books, together. Marjorie M. Liu provides enough details that new readers will be able to follow along but I would highly recommend reading the other books in the series in order to get a better picture of the machinations of the Consortium.

EYE OF HEAVEN is an excellent blend of fantasy, the paranormal, action, and romance! Marjorie M. Liu carefully builds up the tension to the grand finale, leaving the reader breathless with anticipation as each page is turned. While I have enjoyed each installment of the Dirk and Steele series, EYE OF HEAVEN returns to the style I fell in love with in TIGER EYE. EYE OF HEAVEN is easily recommended!

COURTESY OF CK2S KWIPS AND KRITIQUES

Good followup.......2007-05-08

I like this one but not as much as the ones before. The story got a little bogged down for my taste, however I love the series and look forward a new one.

The best shifting descriptions I've ever read.......2007-04-21

I loved this book. The author's descriptions of the shapeshifting process are the best I've ever read and I have read EVERY book about shapeshifters I could lay my hands on. The story is completely unpredictable and I cared so much for both the main characters and the supporting characters I could not lay it down until the end. I dearly hope there is a sequel because I am not at all finished with these characters!

Heaven and Earth : Unseen by the Naked Eye

Average customer rating:

Absolutely beautiful
Revealing scientific education for all
Amazing cofee table book!
Heaven and Earth - What a fantastic book
Awesome book, Buy the hardcover

Heaven and Earth : Unseen by the Naked Eye
David Malin , and Katherine Roucoux
Manufacturer: Amazon Remainders Account
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Similar Items:

ASIN: B000ESSSM0

Book Description

Now available as a mini paperback, Heaven Earth charts an awe-inspiring voyage of discovery through the infinite world of science - from the smallest particles on the earth's surface to tiny dots in galaxies that are light years away.Featuring the extensive range of matter contained in the cosmos, the book navigates an unfamiliar world and celebrates the beauty and boundless mysteries of planet earth and the universe. These beautiful photographs are presented in sequence according to scale and distance within distinct chapters, and are accompanied by extended captions.

Customer Reviews:

Absolutely beautiful.......2007-07-22

The pictures are beautiful, varied, and amazing. Looking at them I felt the wonder of being a human in the universe. This is completely sappy as a review, I know, but the photos are of wonderful things, most of which you can't see any other way than in a photo (because they would require special microscopes or telescopes or other equipment or an unusual place to stand to take the picture).

The book makes a good gift too.

Revealing scientific education for all.......2007-04-05

This is a superb book. I'm 73 with a scientific background and still very active in my field. The book has also been devoured by my 3 teenage grandchildren. They have been fascinated. The photographs are outstanding. The brief text for each picture is well written, succinct, relevant, interesting and scientifically accurate. I found the introduction stimulating and thought provoking. It's a great book. I'm glad I found it.

Amazing cofee table book!.......2006-02-07

This is a facinating book that both my husband and I could not put down. Highly recommended.

Heaven and Earth - What a fantastic book.......2005-08-20

This book contains one of the best set of images I have ever seen. There are pictures of different subjects on a whole variety of scales and colours, which are fantastic design sources for many arty/crafty people who lack inspiration for various projects. Some images are unidentifyable and are impossible to understand without reading the blurbs - I spent a while guessing what some of the pictures were & quite often got them completely wrong. It's one of those books which make you realise that you are glad that you cannot see to microscopic levels, especially of bedbugs & flies etc..! Well worth getting & some amazing photography.

Awesome book, Buy the hardcover.......2005-05-15

I bought this book for my wife, and the pictures are amazing. You really can't go wrong with something this fantastic. The biggest problem is the binding is garbage - hence the 4 stars - on the paperback. After looking through it ONCE, it is already falling apart. Worth the extra couple of bucks for the hardcover.

The Eye of Heaven: Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler (Masters of Modern Physics)

Average customer rating:

The Eye of Heaven: Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler
Required reading!

The Eye of Heaven: Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler (Masters of Modern Physics)
Owen Gingerich
Manufacturer: AIP Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Astronomy | Astronomy | Science | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0883188635

Book Description

"I can think of few better ways of introducing students to the history of astronomy than by using The Eye of Heaven as a text....This is science at its best....Not only does Gingerich make you think, he also forces you back in time and makes you think as astronomers did then. Students need this inspiration." David Hughes, New Scientist

Astronomer and historian Owen Gingerich provides a fascinating introduction to three giants of early astronomy: Ptolemy, Copernicus, and Kepler. In these collected essays, Gingerich examines the revolution in man's conception of the universe brought about by the shift from the earth-centered cosmos of Ptolemy to the sun-centered model of Copernicus.

Customer Reviews:

The Eye of Heaven: Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler.......2007-06-27

I bought this book because I am hoping to write a book myself, giving a thumbnail sketch of history relevant to today's climate science (including Global Warming) from the Ancient Egyptians through Newton and Foucault and into the present. Real meteorology started 7 years after Foucault's work, as a direct result of what was learned from Foucault's pendulum.

I am a climate scientist, not an historian, so I have a steep learning curve to write such a book.I had previously obtained Toomer's magnificent translation of Ptolemy's "Almagest" (it shows Ptolemy to have been the world's first full-on theoretical physicist, and a magnificent teacher). I knew Toomer valued Gingerich highly, so I bought Gingerich's book. It has not disappointed. It has helped me to understand Ptolemy's fairly opaque book much better, and has also given me a much better appreciation of Copernicus the man.
I would have liked it if Gingerich had described Brahe in the same way -- we scientists value observations first, then theory -- and Ivar Peterson's "Newton's Clock" does a better job on Kepler. Nevertheless, I nearly gave this book five stars, not four.

Required reading!.......2001-06-08

This book is essential for anybody who wants to understand what Ptolemy, Copernicus and Kepler really did. It's a bit more technical than "The Great Copernicus Chase", but if you're serious, you'll appreciate it.

Book Description

From a strong new voice in epic fantasy comes the tale of Durand, a good squire trying to become a good knight in a harsh and unforgiving world.

Set to inherit the lordship of a small village in his father’s duchy because the knight of that village has been bereaved of his own son, Durand must leave when the son unexpectedly turns up alive.

First he falls in with a band of knights working for a vicious son of a duke and ends up participating in the murder of the duke’s adulterous wife. Fleeing, he comes into the service of a disgraced second son of a duke, Lamoric, who is executing a long subterfuge to try to restore his honor in the eyes of his father, family, and king. By entering tournaments anonymously as "The Red Knight," Durand will demonstrate his heroism and prowess and be drafted into the honors of the king.

But conspiracies are afoot—dark plots that could break the oaths which bind the kingdom and the duchies together and keep the banished monsters at bay. It may fall to Durand to save the world of Man…

Authentic and spellbinding, In the Eye of Heaven weaves together the gritty authenticity of a Glen Cook with the high-medieval flair epitomized by Gene Wolfe’s The Knight, to begin an epic multi-volume tale that will take the fantasy world by storm.

Customer Reviews:

Terrific, Fast-Paced Read!.......2007-06-22

This is a terrific, fast-paced story with lots of details. Don't start it on a Friday, or your whole weekend will be gone before you know it.

I really liked this book.......2007-05-14

I hope there's another. The confusion/overfocus that others complained about just didn't bother me. I really liked the story and the characters, etc. I'm hoping for a sequel.

Good for a first draft.......2007-05-07

This story has potential, but unfortunately the writing drags it down considerably. It really needed to be polished. At the moment it reads almost like a first draft, without anything properly fleshed out.

The first problem is that scenes are poorly described, when they are described at all. I felt almost blind as I was reading, because the author gives you nearly no idea of the places or people that the characters find themselves around. When he does describe a place it is with only the barest hint of what is there, or it's in terms that don't have any descriptive value, terms that the author has developed to describe his own world, but have no real meaning to anyone who can't see into his thoughts. For instance, two main characters are called 'Rooks'. They aren't really described much beyond that. I have no idea what they look like or sound like--other than that they dress in black--for the entire book. The characters spend a majority of their time travelling across the landscape; however it's never really described beyond the ground underneath their feet. We are told is they are walking on grass up a hill, for example, but that's it.

When he does describe anything, it's in fits and starts. You'll get a tiny bit of information and then, half a page later, you'll get a little more. So, you've already started to imagine what's going on, filling in the yawning gaps left by the author with your own imagination, and then you have to change it all to fit in some new information. In fact, sometimes this information doesn't just come a page later: it isn't until you read through about 90% of the book that you're told that Durand has black wavy hair. Durand is the main character, by the way.

When things are described they are written in a confusing manner. I know, I've already told you that, but it's not just that the details are few and far between, they sometimes seem to be conflicting. Here's an example:

"During the night he had looked closely at his sword . . . the Eye [sun] shone in a pale, crisp heaven . . . they rode through a night as black as a midnight mine . . . sometime before first twilight . . . "

The gaps mostly contain some brief descriptions about the men in the area. Basically this is all the same scene. Is it day? Is it night? How many days have passed? At first it seems obvious that it was night, then day, then night again, but if you actually read the entire thing in context--which is more than I want to quote here--you'll see that it's only one night and one day. But it doesn't add up.

Another problem. I have with the writing. Is that the sentences. Are structured. Awkwardly. (You get the idea, I'm sure.)

Another thing that I found difficult to digest was--well, let me give an example first, then I'll explain it a bit:

"Table, wall, bench, and food were all scabbed over. A half-finished leg of goose had sunk in on itself, putrid with mold. Maggots teemed . . . a similar broad fan of mildew had bloomed over the plaster. Insects scrabbled down the table. [A] black functionary plucked one of the running things--cat quick--and popped it in his mouth."

Pretty gross, eh? This is at a large group gathering and yet none of the characters really react. Is it real? Is it imagined? Does everyone see it? What the heck is going on? The events in the book are entirely like a hazy dream where everything is indistinct and yet a looming caricature of reality at the same time.

Finally, I hate, hate, hate how the author writes women. Not that you get much of them in this book. In fact there really are only two that get more than a paragraph's mention at all. They are fairly sterotypically described, physically, for women in fantasy books and also they are horrible, weak characters. The main woman is actually quite a selfish person and yet the author brushes off her disasterous actions with sympathy for her and no sense of responsibility at all. I can't say any more without revealing too much of the plot, but suffice it to say that this point alone would reduce this book's review to two starts from me. The only reason I haven't given it one star is because I think that as a whole the story isn't too bad. It's just extremely rough. I'd never have bought it, or even started to read it, had I known what I was in for. However, it's not the worst novel I've read at all. At least I finished it, though I did skim the last several chapters just to get it over with.

Ah well. Maybe the next book by David Keck will be worth reading. This one, for me at least, was not.

Undigestable.......2007-04-29

There are three major drawbacks to this book. First, it is smattered with supernatural events that would make even the most credulous reader scoff. Second, the uninteresting characters lack for any real personality, and seem to act a particular way because the author wanted them to. Third, the writing is simply inelegant, and uninspiring.
I have plowed through some very dense books, but after 150 pages of this bore, I put this book down forever. Maybe you'll have better luck.

Good characters and plot, poor writing style.......2007-03-19

Writing style is the window that we view a story through. In this book, that window is blurry, hazy and has large obscuring splotches on it. Keck has created an intricate mythology, but gives absolutely no explanation of terms or history (not even a glossary). His descriptions of action scenes seem to be missing large chunks so that we don't know what happened until pages later. If he is trying to be poetic and mysterious, he is failing with this reader.

However the characters and plot are intruiging and I find myself wishing Keck had a better vehicle for telling this story.

From Heaven to Earth "Angel Eyes" (From Heaven to Earth) (From Heaven to Earth)

Average customer rating:

All Eyes On Angel Eyes!

From Heaven to Earth "Angel Eyes" (From Heaven to Earth) (From Heaven to Earth)
Miriam Hees
Manufacturer: Blooming Tree Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0971834830

Book Description

Rachael Miller is trying to make friends, and much to the dismay of her guardian angel, she is trying too hard to fit into the "in crowd".

Being in the seventh grade is turning out to be much harder than Rachael expected. Especially when she finds herself smack in the middle of the school dance committee, right next to the cutest boy in school!

Laugh and cry with Rachael as she discovers best friends are hard to find, and even harder to keep.

Customer Reviews:

All Eyes On Angel Eyes!.......2002-10-06

7th grader, Rachael Miller has a secret. She can see and speak with her guardian angel. And her guardian angel is not just any old angel; she's Rachael's twin sister who'd passed away when they were five. In Angel Eyes, we learn that having a guardian angel can be fun, exciting, and a real learning experience!

I found Angel Eyes to be the perfect book for preteen girls. The parties, the friends, the boys...all hit close to home for girls this age. And with the great pink cover art, it makes a perfect girl gift. I loved this book, and think you'll enjoy it too.

Average customer rating:

A fascinating story, nicely packaged

How the Telescope Opened our Eyes and Minds to the Heavens

Superb little book!

A Gem!

Elegant, terrific, informative
Seeing and Believing: How the Telescope Opened Our Eyes and Minds to the Heavens
Richard Panek
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Astronomy | Astronomy | Science | Subjects | Books
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History of Science | History & Philosophy | Science | Subjects | Books
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Similar Items:

The Invisible Century: Einstein, Freud and the Search for Hidden Universes

Labyrinth: A Search for the Hidden Meaning of Science

The Northern Lights

Stargazer: The Life and Times of the Telescope

A Woman in Amber: Healing the Trauma of War and Exile

ASIN: 0140280618

Amazon.com

Journalist Richard Panek begins his historical essay on the telescope with the Hubble Deep Field. This extended exposure by space telescope is a picture that looks out of our galaxy--farther, immeasurably farther, than the human eye has seen before. It exemplifies the purpose of all telescopes: "To address our place in the universe, literally. To size up all of space and figure out where we are in it." How and why did this particular technology have such profound effects?

Panek first considers Galileo, who "raised his new instrument toward the night sky and understood at once that there was more to see--and more to seeing--than meets the eye.... Unlike spectacles or magnifying lenses, the optic tube offered not just a distortion of what was already there, but more. It revealed evidence that was different from what the naked eye could see, evidence that wasn't otherwise there." Panek goes on to look at the, ahem, luminaries of observational astronomy--William Herschel, George Ellery Hale, Edwin Hubble--showing how faith in the telescope grew and our mental image of the universe expanded until "all the assumptions safely based on observation are gone." Panek's prose is vivid and beautiful, sustaining this (curiously) unillustrated book as it traces the astronomer's quest for light and dark, sight and belief. --Mary Ellen Curtin

Book Description

In the tradition of Longitude comes this story of the telescope and mankind

The human race has not always lived in an infinite universe: for centuries, the earth spun at the center of a giant sphere, and the starlit dome of the night sky marked the ultimate boundary of the cosmos.

The quirky tales of the men who pushed those heavenly limits further and further outward make up Seeing and Believing, Richard Panek's engaging and often amusing account of the telescope, and its significant role in revising humanity's perception of the universe. From Galileo's momentous achievement in 1609 and William Herschel (the musician-turned-astronomer who discovered Uranus) to the crazy brilliance of George Ellery Hale and the minds behind the mighty Hubble space telescope, Panek focuses on the often larger-than-life figures behind our cosmological odyssey. Seemlessly fusing elements of philosophy, politics, literature, and religion, Seeing and Believing chronicles the human mind as it contemplates an ever widening universe.

"Mr. Panek writes about science with practiced fluency. If you haven't yet gotten matter like quasars, pulsars and gamma rays entirely straight in your mind, this book will prove invaluable." --The New York Times

Customer Reviews:

A fascinating story, nicely packaged.......2006-03-10

If you've read "Longitude," by Dava Sobel, and liked it, you'll like Panek's book as well. "Longitude" is the story of the invention of a chronometer sufficiently accurate to allow navigation to a desired longitude. It was instrumental in the mapping and exploration of earth. Similarly, "Seeing and Believing" is the story of another important invention, the telescope, which allowed us to map the cosmos and, as the subtitle says, find our place in the universe.

The story of the telescope begins with glass. More than 100 years before the invention of the telescope people fashioned glass into lenses that corrected poor eyesight, and found practical applications in such things as reading spectacles. It seems odd, I think, that it took so long for someone conceive of using two lenses in a tube to magnify the appearance of distant objects. [Then again, most things seem trivial in hindsight. Original thought is often underrated, and what we mistake as intelligence is often nothing more than the common man's ability to learn tricks taught by genius.]

Most of us have heard of Galileo. He is famous for his use of the telescope, and for his confrontations with the Catholic Church. But Galileo wasn't the inventor of the telescope (though he made significant contributions to the telescope's design). Galileo's genius was in the way he used the telescope to study the heavens, the conclusions he drew from those observations, and how those observations began a scientific and philosophical revolution that emphasized experimentation as the foundation of science.

Before the invention of the telescope the idea hadn't yet been hatched that an instrument could bring distant, essentially invisible, objects into clear view. There were initial suspicions that the telescope was just an elaborate hoax; an optical illusion. This suspicion was aided by design flaws in early telescopes that resulted in large optical aberrations, especially near the edges of the lenses. Placing myself in this historical context I find a certain amount of empathy for the skeptics. But it was overdone. Even when the telescope proved its validity through unambiguous verification, by demonstrating the ability to discern distant terrestrial objects, there was still a suspicion that it might view celestial objects with less accuracy. Old ideas die hard.

It wasn't just healthy skepticism that resulted in initial criticism of celestial observations with the telescope. These observations were diametrically opposed to the philosophical constructs of the day. What these observations showed us was the picture of a universe that was utterly inconsistent with those favored by the religious and philosophical leaders of the day. Eventually, though, even religion couldn't stop the march of progress. The telescope's utility and its power to challenge belief by seeing (as the old saying goes, seeing is believing) led to a revolution not only in our understanding of the cosmos, but the observational bedrock of modern science itself.

A good part of the book takes us up through the story of Galileo, but it doesn't end there. Other astronomers used the telescope to continue to expand our view of the universe. The story has been a rapid one. It wasn't that long ago (within the last century) that scientists weren't sure if the galactic nebula were clouds or groups of stars. Our local galaxy, the Milky Way, was no different. Within the last 100 years the telescope has been at the forefront of a revolution that has expanded the size of the known universe billions of light years and brought into view strange new phenomena like dark matter, black holes, neutron stars, and super novae.

Today's modern telescopes are very different, yet much the same, as the one Galileo first peered through. They are monumental instruments of incredible complexity. Optical telescopes are huge behemoths that use compound mirrors with active focusing to compensate for thermal currents in the earth's atmosphere. Other telescopes, like Hubble, look outside the obscuring atmosphere for an uncluttered look at the universe. Still others explore the universe at very long (infrared) wavelengths, microwave wavelengths, and even radio wavelengths. While they do, a new generation of telescopes, like the European Space Agency's (ESA) XMM-Newton X-ray satellite, explores the universe at wavelengths indicative of the most violent activity in the universe.

Though different in almost all their mechanical respects, modern telescopes do one thing essentially the same as Galileo's instrument; they open up the universe to our view and explode many of our pre-existing concepts about the universe. And, perhaps most importantly, they guide our quest to understand our place in the universe.

This is a small book with a surprising amount of information within its pages. It can be read easily in a week, and it's small enough to carry to the park or library. The book is easy to read, very well written, entertaining and informative. I thoroughly loved it.

How the Telescope Opened our Eyes and Minds to the Heavens.......2002-02-22

The key word in the subtitle is "Minds" as one soon learns. In the first half of the book, Panek describes how the telescope opened our eyes to the heavens and as the second half begins, he opens our eyes to how the progression began in earnest to the opening of our minds to the heavens. Certainly Galileo opened many minds to possibilities in the heavens that they had not considered: mountains on the Moon, moons orbiting Jupiter, phases of Venus, and so forth. What the eyes could see through the Galileo's perspicillum belied what our minds at the time could see, and the stretching of people's minds is treacherous endeavor, as he soon found out. But with stretching, people's minds do open, and the mind-opening exercises of Galileo prepared future centuries of star-gazers for quasars, pulsars, black holes, and a universe far greater than any of Galileo's contemporaries could have ever imagined.

[page 1] "On January 15, 1996, the universe grew by forty billion galaxies."

On the next page, Panek amends his statement to say, "What actually grew that morning, of course, wasn't the size of the universe, but our understanding of it." What happened that morning was a photo made of a single spot of the universe, as small as a grain of sand at arm's length, by the Hubble Space Telescope that was focused on that spot for ten entire days. They found almost 2,000 galaxies in that grain of sand speck of our night sky, which multiplied by the size of the rest of the sky approximates fifty billion galaxies. And this was only looking at visible light. What scientists found was more light than they ever expected and also more dark. Dark spaces for the first time appeared between galaxies, indicating that perhaps we had reached the end of universe with our instruments. Many questions arose.

[page 3] ". . . sometimes the best answer a scientist could want is more questions."

There weren't very many unanswered questions about the structure of the universe when Galileo made his first "tube of long seeing" by modifying a spyglass of a Dutch craftsman and turned it to familiar night sky. Planets and stars were pinpoints of light, everybody knew that; no questions were asked so nobody looked. But when Galileo looked at the night sky through his telescope he saw for the first time in the history of the Earth that planets had size and shapes and colors whereas stars remained pinpoints of light. He saw three pinpoints of light near Jupiter and as he observed on successive nights, sometimes he'd see two of them to the left of Jupiter and sometimes two to the right. How could Jupiter be moving so as to cause theses stars to dart about the planet so? Faced with this unanswerable question, he dared think the previously unthinkable: Perhaps the dots of light were moons orbiting Jupiter! What his eyes saw was incomprehensible until he opened his mind to new possibilities. Each generation since our minds have stretched farther and farther open as our instruments record previously incomprehensible data from the heavens.

This review truncated. To read the rest, a quick search of google will take you there with the following search argument: Seeing and Believing by Richard Panek

Superb little book!.......1999-06-15

This is a very enjoyable book! As a professional astronomer, I can only recommend this book to all people interested on the impact that the telescope had in the history of mankind. Although there is no deep technical description of telescopes here, this is not the point. The telescope has changed and is still changing the way we see the Universe and Panek does a very good job at describing the major contributions of this wonderful invention.

My only complaint is that the last chapter might be a bit too rushed compared to the previous ones since it basically reviews all modern astronomy in about 20 pages. But, otherwise, strongly recommended!

A Gem!.......1998-11-30

Even if you know nothing about astronomy --even if you don't care about astronomy -- you will love this book. It is written so gracefully, so unpretentiously (no 'we are starstuff' bombast) and the story it tells is so intriguing, that even science-shy readers can enjoy -- and learn. (I know because I am one.) The book is very pretty ,too -- small and slender, and with a lovely cover. A perfect present.

Elegant, terrific, informative.......1998-10-19

Richard Panek has outdone even his fine Waterloo Diamonds book. In Seeing and Believing, he unites science, history, and philosophy in a very accessible and dramatic way. I would think anyone concerned with contemporary technology issues will want to devour this book, and that it would make a stellar holiday gift for any thinking person.

5 Titles By Robert Jordan Wheel of Time Series (1-5) : 1. The Eye of the World 2. The Great Hunt 3. The Dragon Reborn 4. The Shadow Rising 5. The Fires of Heaven

Average customer rating:

5 Titles By Robert Jordan Wheel of Time Series (1-5) : 1. The Eye of the World 2. The Great Hunt 3. The Dragon Reborn 4. The Shadow Rising 5. The Fires of Heaven
Robert Jordan
Manufacturer: TOR
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Product Description

5 Titles By Robert Jordan Wheel of Time Series (1-5) : 1. The Eye of the World 2. The Great Hunt 3. The Dragon Reborn 4. The Shadow Rising 5. The Fires of Heaven. Five mmpb books.

Average customer rating:

I just can't be happy with the way it turns out.
Heaven in Your Eyes
Loved it
Heavenly fun
The best Judi McCoy book yet

Heaven In Your Eyes
Judi McCoy
Manufacturer: Zebra
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Romance | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0821774964

Customer Reviews:

I just can't be happy with the way it turns out........2007-08-13

Anne McAllister is married to an uptight controlling jerk. They met in college, where Annie was a criminal justice major with plans of joining law enforcement. All that went out the window when she married Tom. She became his living Barbie doll. Wore her hair the way he wanted, wore the clothes he chose, ate what he ordered for her and basically lived her life to please him. Just as Anne is getting fed up and ready to shake things up Tom dies. Tom somehow manages not to go to Hell or Purgatory, but gets a chance to redeem himself by helping Annie find true love. You see, Annie was supposed to go on to law enforcement training, where she would have met her soulmate, Andrew Falcone, and had a HEA ... only that didn't happen because she met and married Tom before she ever made it that far. So Tom will have to hop into another body, a la Heaven Can Wait, and help Annie find the perfect man for her.

Fast forward six years after Tom's death and Annie's is now a U.S. Marshal and working her first Assignment with the Witness Protection Program. Her charge is one Dominic Viglioni, a mob guy turned informant, who doesn't have long to live. After putting the moves on Annie, during a one-on-one game of hoops, Viglioni is shot by rogue marshals and Tom moves in. They go on the run and soon after Annie, and Tom, figure out that Dominic Viglioni is no snitch. He's an undercover agent trying to draw out dirty marshals and his real name? Yup, you guessed it! Andrew Falcone. So now Tom, who's got pieces of Falcone's personality and memories floating around in his head, is trying to protect Annie until they catch the bad guys. Unfortunately, spending so much time together is proving a hard temptation for Tom to fight. He's finding he likes this new Annie a lot better than the one he tried to make her into. How can he find her a husband when he's falling in love with her all over again? Meanwhile, Annie's terribly attracted to Flacone and a little weirded out by some of his familiar habits. Will she find happiness with her ex in her soulmates body or will the bad guys kill them before she has a chance to find out?

I dunno, I really enjoyed Judi McCoy's Wanted books and Almost a Goddess was a fun, but I just can't like Tom enough to want to see him happy with Annie ... and I'm feeling really bad for Andrew Falcone. Yeah, he was a good guy and went to heaven when he died, but come on! Because Tom's guiding angel didn't do her job Falcone got cheated out of conecting with his soulmate, a loving marriage, kids and the many more years of life he would have lived had he been married and not taken that fatal assignment! WTH?! He deserves better. Tom? Yeah, his parents sucked. I get that. It still doesn't change the fact that he made his wife miserable for years. And so he gets what? A hot new body, many years of life after his expiration date, and a second chance at the marriage he screwed up the first time around? Hello?! Anyone else annoyed by this? And, Annie? Why the hell would she even consider hooking up with a guy that reminds her so much of a man that made her life miserable? Seriously!

The writing was there, and there were some good scenes, but I just couldn't get past my issue with the characters to really enjoy the book.

Heaven in Your Eyes.......2005-08-30

This was a clever little twist on a romantic thriller type story - very cute - couldn't wait to see how it ended. I recommend it highly and her other books too!

Loved it.......2003-09-18

I really liked this story - I found it to be a different kind of romance with a bit of a twist. Putting the book down was almost impossible - I had to find out what was gonna happen. The author has a way of bringing the characters to life and the situation seem real. It makes you think about treating loved ones better and hope that if encountered by an angel in the afterlife, you won't have to return to earth and try again at being nice. I can't wait until the next book in this series is on the shelf, I am definitely a fan of Judi McCoy and hope she will continue writing such wonderful stories years to come.

Heavenly fun.......2003-09-18

THis is a great, fun, fast-paced read that keeps you guessing. I really enjoyed it, I couldn't put it down. At points, it made me laugh out loud. Highly recommended!

The best Judi McCoy book yet.......2003-08-11

Clever plot, witty dialogue and a thoroughly likeable hero and heroine mark this book as the best novel by this author's to date. Meddling angels help fulfill Annie McAllister's New Year's Eve wish: That her husband loves her as much as she loves him.

Six years later, a widowed Annie is fulfilling her dream of being a US Marshal on her first assignment in the WITSEC program. Meanwhile, her former husband is in heaven, making a deal with Annie's guiding angel: He can come back to earth to live out his life if he agrees to help Annie find her soulmate.

Amazon.com

British author David Almond is on a roll. His first book for young readers, Skellig, won a prestigious 2000 Michael L. Printz Honor award, and his second, Kit's Wilderness, won the Printz outright in 2001. Now comes a third, Heaven Eyes, which features a series of haunting, sepia-toned landscapes and a young narrator (an orphan) named Erin Law.

One night, Erin and her friends January Carr and Mouse Gullane flee from the orphanage, sailing down the moonlit river on a makeshift raft. As they are dragged into the mighty current, January's eyes are wild with joy. "'Freedom,' he whispered. 'Freedom, Erin!'" Before they know it, however, the three adventurers run aground in sticky, oily, stinking, quicksand-like mud--the Black Middens. There they are greeted by a moon-eyed, diaphanous girl named Heaven Eyes, who speaks strangely and insists they are her long-lost sister and brothers, albeit "all filthy as filthy."

She leads them back to her bizarre, broken world of abandoned printing works and warehouses full of tinned food and chocolates. Her sole companion is Grampa, who is straggly haired and just plain scary. Cocking a wary eye at the three visitors, he scribbles in his book: "Mebbe they're ghosts. Mebbe they're devils sent from hell or angels sent from heaven." Despite Grampa's frightening demeanor, however, Erin is completely taken by the guileless Heaven Eyes and the idea of being her "bestest friend." The sweet, simple Mouse soon relishes his role as Grampa's Little Helper, digging treasures out of the inky mud night after night. January, however, bitterly resents his o'er-hasty loss of freedom, sacrificed to a crazy world of "bloody freaks." Almond's choreography is masterful, and as the four children dance about each other we learn what, at the core, makes each of their young hearts beat faster.

As always, Almond shows us a world where the joy and terror of being alive coexist. What is real, what is imagined, what is remembered, and what is dreamed, all fuse together--and however dark his tales, he manages to tell stories infused with both hope and persistent, persuasive love. (Ages 10 and older) --Karin Snelson

Book Description

Erin Law and her friends are Damaged Children. At least that is the label given to them by Maureen, the woman who runs the orphanage that they live in. Damaged, Beyond Repair because they have no parents to take care of them. But Erin knows that if they care for each other they can put up with the psychologists, the social workers, the therapists -- at least most of the time. Sometimes there is nothing left but to run away, to run for freedom. And that is what Erin and two friends do, run away one night downriver on a raft. What they find on their journey is stranger than you can imagine, maybe, and you might not think it's true. But Erin will tell you it is all true. And the proof is a girl named Heaven Eyes, who sees through all the darkness in the world to the joy that lies beneath.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

Best Book so far.......2006-05-20

This was an amazing book. It touched my heart so deeply and i would recommend it to everyone.

Heaven Eyes and my view........2005-11-27

Heaven Eyes is written by David Almond. He was grown in northeastern England. He used to be a postman, a brush salesman, an editor, and even a teacher but his writing started after he graduated college. The first novel for children he wrote was Skelling, and this book won a lot of honors, and a lot of best book of the year lists. His second novel, Kit's Wilderness, also won a lot of honors and best book lists for excellence of writing for young adults. He lives in England with his families.
Escaped from their orphanage, Whitegates, on a raft, Erin, January, and Mouse float down into another world of abandoned warehouses and factories, meeting a strange old man and an even stranger girl with webbed fingers and little memory of her past. In this book, Heaven Eyes, the hidden secrets and the surprising past of the strange girl, Heaven Eyes, are hidden in the deep darkness of here, Black Middens.
The reason that I chose this book to read for this assignment is because the title, Heaven Eyes, just attracted my eyes. I am not Catholic and don't believe much about Jesus, so I don't have many relationships with heaven. But I am very interested in reading some mysterious book, and the word, Heaven Eyes, looked like very mysterious to me. I am very bad reader, so I tried to look for the book that I would enjoy to read, and finally I found out that I like to read mysteries. That's why I am interested in mystery books.
The setting of the book was already cool. This book is about orphans, and the way that they live differently from our lives. This book makes reader interested, because readers can have a time to imagine what their lives would look like if they live with their family, or parents. Also this book flows very unexpectedly and mysteriously, it's also fun to read and predict what will be coming out after each chapter. This book might be very interesting and great to people who are looking for a book to read before they sleep.
The best part of this book, in my little thought, is when Erin, January, and Mouse were saved by Grampa, and Heaven Eyes from the mud of the Black Middens. This part got two new characters joined in this story. Meeting with Grampa and Heaven Eyes foreshadows that Erin, January, and Mouse will have conflicts, and happenings between Grampa and Heaven Eyes. The story is going to be about Grampa and Heaven Eyes' hidden pasts and secrets, so their appearance is very important part.
I think that this book would excite readers' brains and thoughts, so for the ones who want to read with thinking a lot, this book would be cool.

Unexpected.......2005-10-07

I was expecting a different story, but I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed the book. Kept me interested.

Stuck in The Middens.......2005-09-28

There are a lot of kids that stay in this foster home called Whitegates. The majority of these children have all tried to runaway but either were caught by police or just decided to come back after a couple of days. Two of the children come up with this great plan to build a raft out of old doors and just sail away to the oceans. On the day of their departure another child asks if he can go with them on their great escape. So now they are up to three children traveling alone on a river. They don't get very far when their raft becomes engulfed with quick sand, a place called The Middens. The children get scared and don't think they are going to be able to make it out so they try to attract attention by yelling and making different noises. A little girl hears their cries for help and she comes running from the woods where supposedly no one has lived for a long time.
I liked this book because it showed well how children without parents or family deal with their feelings and relate to other children and adults. I also just liked how the whole book was laid out and everything flowed really well together. There was one thing I didn't like about this book and that was the ending. It was just like the book was flowing along really well and then all of sudden it ends and it left me with a lot of questions.
You would like this book if you like adventure. It also has some strange things going on that I didn't know could happen or things that people would believe. This book can be read by boys or girls between the ages of 13-18.

The Mysteries of The Black Middens.......2005-09-28

Three kids whose parents have abandoned them are put at a place called Whitegates. They escape and go down river to the worst place you could ever imagine. This is where they meet the grateful Heaven Eye's. They also met heaven Eye's grandpa who is a little weird and scary. The scariest things happen in the Black Middens. They have to try and find out the mystery of the Black Middens, Heaven Eye's, and grandpa
The dislikes I had about the book was every time someone had said something David would write he said, she said. He would never replace said with yelled or screamed or anything. I didn't really like the end of the book that much. I thought the book was a little pointless. The ending didn't really have a reason behind it.
I would recommend this book to people who are into books about people getting stuck somewhere. Also I would recommend this book to people who look at the positives in life.

Average customer rating:

I had to write something to counteract the low ratings here.
One for Leela's History
Read Carefully
Eye of Heaven: Interesting, yet confusing.
A great Easter (Island) gift

Eye of Heaven (Dr. Who Series)
Jim Mortimore
Manufacturer: BBC Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

Customer Reviews:

I had to write something to counteract the low ratings here........2007-09-08

This is a magnificent novel. So it doesn't quite resemble the Leela you know and love, eh? Well, this is who we all wanted her to be. Get your small minds out of the wastes of the ho-hum-ness of the TV-show-like tedium of so many of the Who novels that merely attempt to recreate the three sets and ten characters of the TV stories. This is one of the best Who novels by one of the best Who novelists, Jim Mortimore, whose every book I admire -- flawed or not.

Eye of Heaven is challenging, but mind-blowing-ly huge. The Leela here is far more than what you've seen before. The opening on to another world through Easter Island and the whole passage to it in the first half of the book, tying the needle through the "eye of heaven" at the center of the novel, and then passing backwards back out into our world again at the end, it's all a fantastic ride. What an imagination Mortimore has!

Don't avoid this one, folks! It's one of the very best Missing/Past Doctor Adventure novels. It's on the level of The Witch Hunters, The Plotters, The Dark Path, Last of the Gaderene, Tomb of Valdemar, Managra, and The Well-Mannered War. Treasure it.

One for Leela's History.......2005-05-30

One star as we learn a bit more about Leela, yet her character is written as one step above a chimp in attitude and language. The first person narrative is very confusing as with over six major characters, you never know who is speaking until three lines into their speach, not to mention where they are in the story. Overall a minor sci-fi new concept but for me, the worst 4th Dr. book in my collection.

Read Carefully.......2003-01-21

I think a lot of people have focused on the manner in which the book is written - with the story events told out of order. Some have seen this as an innovation, others have found it confusing.

It would have been innovative if it wasn't for the fact that, with careful reading, the holes became apparent. It strikes me that the author probably jotted down a few ideas and then rather than try to work out the story that tied them all together, tied together what he could and then left the disparate sections as they were in the hope that no-one would notice the gaps.

While the book does try to surprise the reader familiar with Leela by focusing on her as the central character it fails to explore fully her sense of wonder and curiosity about the world around her. It fails to balance her background with the new vistas each journey with the Doctor exposes her to. Quiet often there are contradictions in the character both within the book and set against the original TV series.

If you want a book that ignores the TV series and tells part of a story in an interesting way then you might like this. If you want a book that uses the characters from the original series, takes what we know of them and tells a good story (regardless of whether the timeline is linear, in reverse or in disparate pockets) - then look elsewhere.

Eye of Heaven: Interesting, yet confusing........2001-07-28

I must admit that I felt a little disapointed after reading this book. The sea journey promised to be quite a rousing sea adventure, but I kept being sidetracked with ill-placed chapters of previous events. If Mr. Mortimore had decided to tell this tale in chronological order (no pun intended for you Dr. Who fans!) the book would have been so much better. Saving graces: I liked how he kept switching the narrators; giving the reader a chance to see how other major characters felt and thought. We even get to learn how the Doctor thinks. Using him as a narrator is an unusual plot device, one I'd like to see again. I also enjoyed Leela's importance in this novel. She was always one of my favorite Dr. companions, and I'd like to learn more about her in future novels!

A great Easter (Island) gift.......2000-12-09

The Doctor decides to respond to a call for sponsors for an expedition to Easter Island by Horace Stockwood, whose previous expedition thirty years previously ended disastrously, including the death of his partner. The Doctor and Leela accompany Stockwood's expedition.

The book falls into two parts: the journey and Easter Island. There are a number of incidents on the journey there, making the first half of the book something of a sea-road trip. And then Easter Island, including the mystery of the well-known giant head statues.

Probably the best aspect of the book is the concentration on Leela's character. She was popular on TV, but this book truly concentrates on the noble savage in less-than-noble civilisation that makes Leela unique amongst the Doctor's many companions. Many little details of her life as part of the Sevateem are revealed, so if you are a Leela fan, make sure you get this one.

On top of this, the story is good. Some parts did press very hard against my suspension of disbelief, but it never got to the stage where I couldn't accept the book.

Worth a read.

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