Average customer rating:
- Tal and Milla
- Another winning story by a consistently great writer
- The Seventh Tower - The Fall
- WHAT I THINK
- Intriguing new world.
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The Fall (The Seventh Tower, Book 1)
Garth Nix
Manufacturer: Scholastic Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic
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General
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Nix, Garth
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ASIN: 0439176824
Release Date: 2000-06-05 |
Amazon.com
Tal, a Chosen of the Orange Order, is having the worst luck lately. Just when he is getting ready for the Day of Ascension--a day when all the 13-year-old Chosen from the Castle of Seven Towers enter the spirit world of Aenir--his father disappears with the family's only primary Sunstone, which Tal needs for the ascension. Without it, he cannot enter Aenir and bind himself to a Shadowspirit--a kind of guardian being that serves as a friend and protector to the person it is bound to. And without a Shadowspirit, Tal will lose both his Chosen status and any hope of finding a cure for his mother's mysterious wasting illness, a cure that can only come from Aenir. Tal tries to beg, borrow, and even steal a Sunstone. But his attempts fail, and in his final act of thievery, Tal is thrown off the Castle of Seven Towers by a powerful Shadowspirit Keeper and into an adventure beyond his imagining.
Australian fantasy author Garth Nix (well known for his novels Sabriel and Shade's Children, both ALA list picks) has joined with Lucasfilm to launch a six-book fantasy series about Tal's world, of which The Fall is the first installment. Packed with excitement and wonderfully weird creatures like the living sea of Selski and the hungry, one-horned Merwin, Nix's latest tale will enchant readers. Containing elements of The Golden Compass and the Harry Potter books, The Seventh Tower is an epic fantasy not to be missed. (Ages 11 to 14) --Jennifer Hubert
Book Description
Welcome to the Dark World. Tal lives high above, in a mountaintop castle where light is the ultimate commodity, the spirit world is the only escape and isolation from the outside world is complete. He does not think to question his world. He does not dare to dream of anything else. Then one day he tries to steal a sunstone, the only way of assuring his family's safety. The attempt fails, and Tal falls from the Castle . . . straight into the unknown
Customer Reviews:
Tal and Milla.......2006-10-19
Do you like fantasy books?? If you do, then you will love the fall and all the other "seventh tower" books. The fall is a very interesting book because it does not really make that much sense. then is starts to get better because you know what it is.
The story is about iceships, and mostly hidden magic. tal is the main character because he has to get a sunstone for his family before tal is 13 and 1 quarter old. tal has a mom which is sick and is in bed 24/7. he also has a little brother and sister he has to watch over because his dad ran away a while ago.
I would probably reccomend this book to a friend because it is a very good book and i think any one would like it just as much. you would mostly only like it if you like fantasy and science fiction books. I hope you like my review and i hope it helps.
Another winning story by a consistently great writer.......2006-07-04
Rating System:
1 star = abysmal; some books deserve to be forgotten
2 star = poor; a total waste of time
3 star = good; worth the effort
4 star = very good; what writing should be
5 star = fantastic; must own it and share it with others
THE CONTENT:
This is a story for ages 8 - 12, though as an adult reading it with my kids I'm enjoying the series too. Nix's Abhorsen trilogy is for teens and his Keys to the Kingdom series is also for ages 8-12.
THE STORY:
Tal is in a bind. His father has been missing. His mother is ill. And his family doesn't have a strong Sunstone to elevate their position and provision. It falls to Tal to provide for his mother and little brother by seeking out a sunstone. But there are forces in his way that stop him from achieving these goals. It doesn't help in the opening scene that he falls from the Red Tower in his attempt to gain a stone. The fall leads to adventure Tal never would have thought possible.
THE CHARACTERS:
Tal is a likeable kid caught in a bad situation. He wants to do the right thing and provide for his family, but he just can't. We empathize and sympathize with him as a character. The rest of the cast is equally likeable in their own way and those that are meant to be disliked are definitely dislikeable. Overall, a great cast of characters that add to this story of Tal's quest
THE SETTING:
Not your typical fantasy world, but that is one reason why I love reading Garth Nix's books. . .there isn't anything typical only new and imaginative about them. The world is richly described in just the right words that a short paragraph leaves an easily visualized scene in one's head.
THE PLOT:
A nicely constructed quest story, which leaves our character no choice but to follow certain paths. Helper characters and hindering characters line his path that lead to a world we experience with amazement just as Tal does. The progression is logical and a well paced story. There is plenty of action in this story! Creatures that want to eat people, treacherous "natives" and more.
OVERALL:
My 8 year old and I are thoroughly enjoying this story and each chapter cliff-hanger keeps us turning the pages.
NOTE - This is the first of 6 books. You must keep reading! The first book resolves very little if anything. We are in the 2nd book now and the same great story/writing continues on there.
The Seventh Tower - The Fall.......2006-05-05
Tal is a young teenager who livee in the mysterious world of the Seven Towers, a castle of
towersthat are locked in forever twilight. The people who live there are placed in several
different Orders, or groups, based on a family's strength and power. Tal and his family live
in the Orange Order, or one of the minor orders. Tal dreams of becoming one of the greatest
Shadowmasters ever in the Violet Order, the top Order and the order that the Empress
of the Seven Towers is in. By the time he becomes thirteen and three quarters, Tal will be
able to travel to the world of Aenir, where he will capture a Shadowspirit on the dangerous world.
Tal must enter with his primary sunstone to reach Aenir, or he will never be able to reach
Aenir and he will be forced to become an Underfolk, a servant to the different Orders. He
tries to beg to his cousins, competes in a competition, and even tries to see the Empress
herself. All three of these methods fail. Tal That is why Tal decides to steal a sunstone. He
climbs up the Red Tower, the smallest tower of the Seven Towers, and tries to reach through
the Veil, a layer of darkness, into what is a "gold mine" of sunstones. He almost reaches it
before he falls into a different world of ice and snow, and runs into a battle-crazy, mad,
Underfolk-like girl, except this girl is not like ordinary Underfolk. She has alien blond hair,
and she has a normal Human shadow. He is knocked unconscious by her and awakens on a
ship that has people exactly like the girl. They are a group of warriors known as the Icecarls
and are in search of a sunstone. They assign a mission to Tal and the girl, Milla, and they
travel on mission to retrieve a sunstone for their ship as well. Now Tal has to retrieve two
sunstones. The journey ends when another group of Icecarl-like people take Tal and Milla
after a long trek of fighting creatures and each other. The Seventh Tower: The Fall, by Garth
Nix, is an excellent novel for its vast quanities of science-fiction, its great and unique
description, and for its adventure.
The Fall, by Garth Nix, is an excellent science fiction novel to read. The first reason that a
person should buy this is simply that Garth Nix is a talented and famous science-fiction
writer, and The Fall is definitlyone of his greater writes. Garth Nix's ideas have transformed
into a "masterpiece" that everyone should read. The science-fiction/fantasy in this novel
can easily be detected by reading about the Veil and other wonders in the book, and the
reader gets a whole new point of view of how other worlds are different from Earth.
The Fall is a great novel because it has great qualities of description. The book, when read,
is easy enough for a seventh grader to understand, yet still hard enough for a developing
adult. The book gives enough description to the reader that he or she is literallly able to
paint a picture in his or her head. This helps the reader have a much better understanding
of what is going on the novel, but also gives the reader background information about The
Seven Towers. an example of this comes from the chapter in which Tal goes to see the
Empress, but is blocked by two guards who demand that he plays a game of Beastmaker
with them. This chapter alone is more than enough to describe life on Aenir.
The Fall, by Garth Nix, also has great qualities of adventure. The book compares other
journeys in other adventure stories as mere "little kids' books" to The Fall. A very
adventurous and suspenseful trek is when Tal and Milla are forced to walk across an icy
expanse to gather a sunstone. They have to fight giant Selski and gigiantic Merwin
before they are finally taken to another tribe's camp.
The Seventh Tower: The Fall, is an Excellent novel bby Garth Nix because it's the perfect
science-fiction/fantasy and adventure book, and has a large quanity and quality of detail
that is perfect for any reader. This book is about a young teen who must travel through
a dangerous land so that he can get on with his life in the future. I rate The Fall, by Garth
Nix, a total of five stars out of five.
A. Chappell
WHAT I THINK .......2006-01-27
I found this book fairly interesting.It was an adventure/fatasy book.The best thing that liked about it was the way he could create pictures in your head of people and landscape. Overall I thought it was a excellent book.
Intriguing new world........2005-08-12
My son and I ordered this book because is was a Nix book and we had just finished the Abhorsen trilogy. While it is aimed at younger readers it is a clever story. Entertaining characters, interesting world, clever plot twists. After reading this one we ordered the remainder of the series in one go. It only took us a week or so to read the whole set (one a night for older readers) and the way each of the books end is annoying... I got the impression that it was more like he wrote a book and "serialized" it. If you don't have the next one to hand it could make you crazy. Since we had them all to hand, we really enjoyed the ride. Not as complex as his other stuff but definitely worth the time. Adults and older teens should remember that this is a young peoples series... some questions are not adressed and some are treated fairly simplistically but it's not meant to be deathless prose. I'd classify it as a great summer read.
Book Description
A fascinating look at Pompeii, Herculaneum and the Vesuvius eruption in comparison with other historically significant volcanic eruptions, including the World Trade Center disaster.
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, which obliterated the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, was a disaster that resounds to this day. Now palaeontologist Charles Pellegrino presents a wealth of new knowledge about the doomed towns – and brings to vivid life the people, their last moments, and the aftermath.
The lessons learned from modern scrutiny of that ancient eruption produce disturbing echoes in the present. Dr Pellegrino, who worked at Ground Zero in the aftermath of the 9/11 attack, shares his unique knowledge of the strange physics of volcanic 'downblast' and 'collapse column', drawing a direct link from past to present, and providing readers with a poignant glimpse into the last moments of the 'American Vesuvius'.
Customer Reviews:
An engrossing look at Vesuvius (79 AD) ... and 9-11 (2001).......2007-08-18
[Review of Hardcover edition]
This is a tremendously interesting and engrossing book, on many different levels. "GoV", contrary to what the title might lead one to suspect, is NOT just a book about Mt. Vesuvius - it's a tour de force exploration of the effect of volcanic forces on people, on civilizations, on religion(s), on species and evolution in general, on the landscape, and even on the very formation of life itself ... and the author draws upon a wide array of scientific disciplines in order to tell the tale effectively.
In similar fashion to Brian Greene's "The Elegant Universe", the book opens with a bang ... or more specifically, with the origins of the universe, the formation of heavier elements in the hearts of stars, the evolution of solid matter (planets, asteroids and dark matter), the formation of volcanoes on those planets, and the role that volcanic forces play in the formation of life. From there, the author gives the reader an introductory taste of some of the possible connective threads between volcanic calamities of recent millennia, their appearances in (and possible influence on) religious accounts & beliefs, and how the tripartite aspects of creation, destruction, and preservation directly mimic the aspects of certain deities recurring throughout human history in various different religions ... a theme touched on indirectly by Fritjof Capra's Hindu-slanted poetic paradigm for viewing physical reality "The Tao of Physics".
From there, the authors pauses (in Chapter 3, "The Time Gate") to neatly tie together a broad range of different fields of human study into a single and innovatively coherent view of time. In it, the author telescopes backwards, in accelerating fashion, as he zooms further and further outwards - from recent history, through archeology (deep history), past paleontology (biological history), past geology (planetary history), and onward into astrophysics (stellar history) ... with major volcanic events as the connective thread every step of the way. A larger and more robust treatment of this material is also covered in a stand-alone novel entitled "Time Gate".
Next, the author reels the reader's time focus back in closer to home again, and delves into the heart of the book, and the author's chief love: archeology. In this case, the primary focus are the twin cities destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD: Pompeii and Herculaneum. The author treats us to a veritable smorgasbord of some of the written accounts dating near, relating to, or directly affected by the eruption:
* Historical accounts (ex: the Plinys, Democritus, Josephus, Spartacus the Gladiator, etc),
* Biblical references (ex: the Council of Nicea that originally collated, edited and winnowed down the scattered accounts of the time into "The Bible" as we know it today),
* Legal records (ex: the legal case of the ex-slave Justa who was suing to retain her freedom at the time of the eruption) recovered from the carbonized remains of a large cache of library scrolls.
Reading those accounts drives home in dramatic fashion the terrible and lasting impact Vesuvius had on both the personal lives of the people nearby, on the surrounding nations and empires, and on the bible itself ... effects that are being felt even today, in ways that we're only just now beginning to understand.
From classic archeology, the author then re-focuses closer still into the subtle nuances and intimate details offered by forensic science, and the oh-so-human stories that the latter is allowing to emerge from the archeological strata. The bones can literally speak to us now ... telling us their exact age & gender, their most likely profession and social status, their dietary habits, wounds and diseases they suffered from, and so much more ... details that truly reinforce that archeology is not just about biology or dead civilizations - it's also about individuals.
It was shortly after the author finished writing the draft of this book that history and fate played a cruel joke ... on September 11th, 2001, hijackers crashed two passenger jets into the Word Trade Center in New York City. The buildings subsequently imploded and down blasted into the Manhattan Bedrock, and massive debris clouds radiated throughout southern Manhattan, burying, damaging and destroying much in it's path. The resemblance to Pompeii and Herculaneum was uncanny ... and that brings us to Chapter 10, the final chapter of GoV, in which several archeologists (including the author) converge on NYC to study the still-fresh archeological record.
Central to Chapter 10 is the story of NYFD Ladder 4 that emerged from the archeological evidence, and subsequent attempts (by certain unscrupulous people) to censor/delay/suppress the publication of this very book for daring to tell the truth ... a truth that exposed an earlier journalistic claim (of looting) as a slanderous hoax. For the details on that matter, I refer interested readers to the author's official discussion forum, which contains a thread on that subject, with additional information by the author.
To conclude, GOV is a must-read for anyone who's interested in the sciences in general, in history (both real and biblical), and in the ongoing efforts by determined researchers to carry forward the bright torch of knowledge & truth across the dark wastelands of time, superstition, ignorance ... and sometimes across the barbed wire boundaries of 'accepted theory', through toxic pools of opportunistic lies, and through suffocating clouds of censorship.
To quote Dr. Pellegrino: "History [and Truth] will eventually have it's way ... it always does."
I enjoyed it immensely, and I was engrossed throughout, from cover to cover.
I'd also like to compliment the author for his steadfast commitment to "Keep faith with the dead", regardless of the risk to his career as a published author. I've seen some of the consequences of that decision, first hand.
Self-important Jumble.......2007-05-08
Charles Pellegrino's stream-of-consciousness ramblings about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the collapse of the Twin Towers offer excellent descriptions of just how such catastrophes play out, but little else of interest. Reading the book is an exercise in frustration; just when the author throws out juicy tidbits regarding Pompeii or Herculaneum, he veers off into discussions of conditions on Earth in 1,000,000 B.C. or Gnostic philosophy. Pellegrino clearly possesses an active, imaginative mind but, just as clearly, has difficulty focusing it on something as mundane as maintaining focus. In this manner he reminds one of Tim Robbins' baseball pitcher Nuke LaLoush in "Field of Dreams," who possessed a phenonomenal fastball but was just as apt to hit the team mascot as the strike zone. In "Ghosts of Vesuvius," Pellegrino throws a few strikes. Unfortunately, these are overshadowed by his spectacular wild pitches. Mascots, and readers, beware.
Going To and Fro In The Earth, and Up and Down.......2007-04-12
Ghosts of Vesuvius
by Charles Pellegrino.
Harper. 496 pages.
I picked up this book after listening to the author on a talk radio show. He impressed me, holding forth on the universe in a distinct Long Island accent, so I thought why not? What I got was an incredibly ambitious work that takes the reader back, literally, to the non-time before the universe was born, then barrels forward faster than the speed of light to the non-time post-omega of the universe, and then drops the reader on the edge of the pit left behind after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center after lengthy disquisitions on Pompeii, Herculaneum--the incredible forces unleashed there--and how they were repeated at various intervals of volcanism through the eons. Not content with this, Pellegrino dove-tails these dynamics with the collapse of the Twin Towers and shows how various fire fighters and rescue workers met or survived their fates through the phenomenon of "shock cocoons"--the uncanny interventions that appear in the midst of disasters and which allowed paper documents to survive the searing heat in Herculaneum as well as one fire-fighter to glide on his back for hundreds of feet through the closest equivalent to hell on earth this side of the atomic bomb. A less capacious mind would be content to call it quits after these feats of mental gymnastics, but Pellegrino plows on, Diderot-fashion, to consider, simultaneously, rustcicles, the sinking of the Titanic, the Book of Thomas, Josephus and the early Christian church, the Stoics, the history of Rome, Roman technology and hundreds of other subjects. This man Pellegrino, if he ran a pizza parlor, would most probably offer the Pellegrino Special, which would be the very embodiment of abundanza!--all conceivable toppings, plus a sprinkling of star dust--and all for a reasonable $15.95, U.S.D.! (And, by the way, it appears that the folks of Herculaneum and Pompeii actually had a pizza-like dish, as well as their own hamburgers, hotdogs and a great-tasting fish topping--facts I learned from the author in question.) In addition Pellegrino succeeds in putting a human face on these tragedies--both natural and man-made. We are taken through the last nano-seconds of the life of a beautiful Asian-European slave girl of 14--16 years of age, who was lying on her side with her mistress' baby in her arms trying to comfort it when the searing gasses from Vesuvius caused her brains to boil and explode. We stand on the deck of the Titanic watching an officer with a pistol in his hand holding off the surging crowds of desperate passengers as women and children find seats on the final life boats, the freezing water lapping around their ankles. We are taken into the private hell of a man buried with his dog under tons of volcanic dust, who managed to live for weeks after Pompeii's extinction, yet still died far from the picks and shovels of potential rescuers.
With any such massive undertaking there will be of course some problems. Even War and Peace has arid passages that one would like to tear out and feed to the swine--especially when Tolstoy the philosopher begins to lecture us about history. With the Ghosts of Vesuvius the problems involve structure and editing. Towards the end of the book Pellegrino seems to be writing under the old rule of so many cents a page. We've seen the results in Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi when what begins as an excellent book is buried, in part two, under so much filler. I believe that the author simply had a space requirement that was assigned to him by his agent and by hook or crook, he managed to fill it. In addition, Mr. Pellegrino sometimes needs a fact-checker. However, having said these things, I recommend both the author and his book. Obviously the man is brilliant in the best possible sense of the word, and the book is the near-barbaric yawp of an American original.
Judith Petres Balogh.......2007-03-01
I embraced this book. It is informative, sensitive and superbly written. The paralell Mr. Pellegrino draws between the tragedies of Vesuvius and the Towers in unique, and there is so much information contained on the pages, that at times I had to slow down my reading, in order to fully absorb all the details. I read this book while in Europe, in a Hungarian translation, and it lost nothing through this process; the language is still powerful, even as translated into a language that is not related to any other modern language. As soon as I returned to the USA, I bought his other books.
Rambling........2006-10-30
If this book had a coherent topic I might have enjoyed it. It doesn't. It is supposedly about the explosion of Vesuvius in A.D. 79, the destruction of Herculaneum and Pompeii, and the social and cultural disruptions that followed. For reasons that are quite obscure the author rambles on for the first 127 pages about the origins of the universe, the origins of life, evolution, the appearance of the Big Dipper, panspermia, and more or less everything in between. Why? Who knows? Not me, and I read the book. He then prattles on about the slave revolt of Spartacus, which is at best tangentially relevant - but I guess he has a sense of humor, this chapter is called "Then listen, Josephus, for I digress"- never a truer word. The sections on Vesuvius are gripping and follow a coherent narrative line, until Pellegrino wanders off into yet another massive digression in a disjointed discussion of Gnosticism in the early church. I think the point was that the apocalyptic vision of early Christianity owed its origins to the calamitous explosion of Vesuvius, which is ingenious but he doesn't get even close to proving it, if only because nowhere are his arguments stated, it is all implication, imprecation and hand waving. We are then hurled through time to the sinking of the Titanic, an event that has nothing to do with Vesuvius, the Roman Empire, or volcanoes. The single point of comparison is the loss of life, and nothing in the Titanic chapters serves this book in any way whatsoever; pointless verbiage. Pellegrino then sets off on a gratuitous discussion of the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York. The only link to Vesuvius that Pellegrino could muster was the shared physics of the collapse column in both a volcanic cloud and a falling building. I'd call that a stretch. Perhaps a more valid comparison would have been to talk to survivors of the atom bombs in Japan. Surprisingly, given that the book is about a volcanic explosion, there is no discussion of volcanic events in recent times- Krakatoa, Mount St. Helens, Etna. It is not even clear from the book that Vesuvius is still active, or that the Bay of Naples has been devastated by earthquakes in living memory. This is just lazy. There are errors of fact; a message in a bottle thrown into the Atlantic seems to have washed up in Surrey, England, which is not a small feat since Surrey is a landlocked county with not an inch of shoreline (perhaps it floated up the river Thames?). Pellegrino appears to place the fall of Constantinople to around 535, which is nonsense. This is in the middle of the reign of Justinian I (527-565), who expanded the Byzantine Empire to include all the Mediterranean including Southern Spain, and who between 532 and 537 oversaw the building of the Sancta Sophia- one of the greatest churches ever constructed. These are hardly the signs of a dieing civilization. With inevitable ups and downs Constantinople remained the centre of a major Christian civilization until it fell to the Turks in 1453, whereupon it became the centre of a major Muslim civilization. Finally, the style is clumsy with the same phrase frequently repeated in the same sentence, as in, (just one example of many) "her first officer had (in a manner of speaking) given me a promise to keep and pointed me (in a manner of speaking) toward..." It could have been a good book, it isn't.
Average customer rating:
- Fine early Delany which echoes his more recent, great work
- great read
- Aberrantly poor
- nadir
- Amazing. Proves Oscar Wilde Wrong.
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The Fall of the Towers
Samuel R. Delany
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Contemporary
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Historical
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Delany, Samuel R.
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Nova
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Aye, and Gomorrah: And Other Stories
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Dhalgren
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Einstein Intersection
ASIN: 140003132X
Release Date: 2004-02-10 |
Book Description
Come and enter Samuel Delany’s tomorow, in this trilogy of high adventure, with acrobats and urchins, criminals and courtiers, fishermen and factory-workers, madmen and mind-readers, dwarves and ducheses, giants and geniuses, merchants and mathematicians, soldiers and scholars, pirates and poets, and a gallery of aliens who fly, crawl, burrow, or swim.
Customer Reviews:
Fine early Delany which echoes his more recent, great work.......2006-06-12
Those unfamiliar with Samuel R. Delany's excellent science fiction might be better served by reading his great 1960s work, most notably, "The Einstein Intersection", "Nova", "Dhalgren" and "Triton" than "The Fall of the Towers". Other early novels which I've enjoyed reading include "The Ballad of Beta-2" and "Babel-17". I've stumbled upon by accident this latest reissue of Delaney's early work, which is a fine post-apocalypse/alien contact saga comprised of the three short novels ("Out of the Dead City", "The Towers of Toron", and "City of a Thousand Suns") assembled in this volume. Thematically, 'The Fall of the Towers" is an intriguing adventure saga devoted to the nature of humanity, which Delany would later return to in the more compelling Neveryon fantasy saga.
I agree with a previous reviewer that although "The Fall of the Towers" isn't Delany's best work, it was certainly much better written and far more interesting than much of the mediocre science fiction published back in the early 1960s or frankly, even today. For this reason alone, this early Delany saga deserves ample attention from fans of science fiction literature. I am amazed that at such a relatively young age, Delany was capable of creating a spellbinding literary post-apocalypse fantasy, set sometime in the distant future after a devestating nuclear war on Earth (Most readers may not know that he started writing and publishing science fiction while attending the Bronx High School of Science here in New York City, and decided to pursue a professional writing career without attending college.). Fans familiar with Delany's writing for gay/lesbian audiences may find "The Fall of the Towers" memorable alone for its intriguing cast of characters. For these reasons I can highly recommend reading "The Fall of the Towers", but I strongly urge those unfamiliar with Delany's work to read any of the books I have cited above.
great read.......2004-10-22
This is very different from Delany's later work (of which Triton is my favorite) being more accessible and lighter on hardcore philosophical theories. At the same time, the writing never falls short of brilliant, the storyline will keep you at the edge of your seat till the end, and the author's ideas about the social dynamics of race and sex in the future world are so far ahead if his time that it is hard to believe that the trilogy was finished in 1964.
But more than anything, it's a great story. Read it, and see for yourself.
Aberrantly poor.......2004-10-02
Terribly dated first attempt at speculative fiction by a soon-to-be-great writer... it bears his name but not the quality of Delany's later work. One can only wonder why it is again in print. I can't supply any answers to that but I can say that the absurd writing here borders on absurdism without quite breaking through, even though the extreme hokey-ness of the prose wedded to the writer's modernist aspirations achieves a veritable surrealism that will literally force you again and again to wonder "did I just read that?"
nadir.......2004-04-12
incomprehensionable fools rush for illiterate lame[ARE WE SERIOUS HERE] POORLY executed dismal gives me the tremors Juvenile delerious DROLL hack work of the ponderouslt ripe part flash gordon GEE WHIZZ, part detention attention deficit scrawl CRAWL through one empty sugar coated CYFER /DISCIFER YOWL how BAD NITEMARE MEGA INNANE metaphoors PHOEY, bologna post haunt ART THAT DONT ILLUMINATE,hack hack work pulp weary.. ive read better MUCH BADDEER BEING BETTER fools fluff than this artificial banter.
Amazing. Proves Oscar Wilde Wrong........2004-03-09
Those who come to a Delany novel with preconceived notions inevitably will be disappointed, turning away in disgust and incomprehension, but those who approach his books with an open mind will invariably rewarded. In this brilliant early novel, composed in three parts, Delany examines a society on the verge of change and revolution through the eyes of a collection of laser-etched characters whose lives intersect in complicated and subtle ways. Delany's intelligence at 21 was fierce, and one of the beauties of this novel is the way it intertwines the intellectual and the everyday, how it is beautifully written and fiercely opinionated.
Though the action nominally concerns two gestalt beings from another universe, and their interactions with the empire of Toromon on Earth, Delany's true concern is human society in general, ours in particular, its cyclical fate and all-renewing possibility. It's not your typical science fiction. It's a thousand times better, science fiction idealized, then actualized.
I stayed up late to get to the end of the third volume, "City of a Thousand Suns," and closed the book with one word: "Amazing." Even more amazing, I truly meant it. Oscar Wilde famously said that anyone who seeks to write a novel in three parts knows nothing of Art and Life. Here, Delany gloriously proves him wrong.
Product Description
A penetrating look at Bob Stupak, controversial casino owner and builder of the Stratosphere Tower, the tallest structure west of the Mississippi. Between his early years as the son of a notorious gambling operator in Pittsburgh and the grand opening of the Stratosphere, Stupak raced motorcycles, hustled coupons, gambled for high stakes, and battled the mob while he ran the infamous Vegas World casino.
Customer Reviews:
Love this one..........2004-04-21
stories of these types of guys are fascinating. His first hour ever in Vegas and he blows 12,000 bucks, on marker. Proceeded to go right back to the airport and flew home to Pittsburg. But he fell in love with the place. He didnt go back as a gambler, but to get where the real money is, with intentions on becoming a casino owner. After more than 7 years(most of them in Australia - you'll have to read it) he had acguired a substantial grubstake and headed off to Vegas. He runs an ad in the paper looking investment opportunities. Although the ad did not directly produce investment results, it did provide him with some very important connections. He buys a vacant lot far off the strip, gets licensed, builds a casino, adds a hotel and self-promotes his ass off. To fill in the blanks and know the rest, you gotta read it yourself. He even had ties, loosely at best, to Anthony Spiltro, the real life mobster the Joe Pesci character was based on in Casino. I love this one.
The Stratosphere.......2002-10-29
Most interesting...biography of Bob Stupak. Easy read. If you wonder where did the idea of the Stratosphere come from... this has the answers. Bob Stupak is a fascinating gentleman, this tells his story. I just returned from a visit to Vegas and went to the top of Stratosphere, road the High Roller Roller Coaster and took the Big Shot...came across this book while in Vegas and couldn't put it down. Gives background of several casinos and the personalities involved with them... recommend it.
Dull Treatment of a Fascinating Subject.......2001-03-13
I almost bought this book but was fortunate enough to find a copy at my local public library. (I heartily recommend that alternative to buying the book if you have a choice.) I started reading it with great anticipation, but was disappointed off the bat by all the filler material on Bob Stupak's father, Chester. Yeah, sure, the old man was a great influence on his son, but two paragraphs would have sufficed! Next, I kept expecting to read interesting anecdotes about Vegas World, one of the funkiest gambling joints the world will ever know--the very epitome of cheesy. However, the stories just aren't there, and it is a major shortcoming. Finally, even the manner in which the author addresses the great plunge the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino took after it opened in 1996 makes that event--the repercussions of which are still felt today in Las Vegas--seem anticlimactic and irrelevant.
In short, the tower, which Stupak originally conceived as a cash cow, turned out to be his biggest folly and the instrument of his demise. That is the real story of Bob Stupak, but you won't get it in this jumbled, incoherent tome.
Fascinating.......1999-04-14
Great book. Being a regular Las Vegas visitor I have always been intrigued by the incredible Stratosphere Tower and Casino, and wanted to learn a bit more about Bob Stupak, the Stratosphere creator and infamous Vegas personality. What a fascinating life Stupak has had. Everything from his motorcycle racing days, to his early struggles of trying to succeed in the cutthroat Vegas gaming industry. Here is a man with an 8th grade education that overcame staggering odds to become one of the most successful independent operators in the city. He survived a heavy handed Nevada Gaming Control Board, as well as a motorcycle accident that nearly killed him. There is a lesson in this book for all of us. The key word is DETERMINATION! I hope one day my travels in Vegas will give me the opportunity to meet Mr. Stupak, who no matter what you think of him, has left a lasting impression on the Las Vegas skyline that will be a reminder of him for years to come.
In this book Smith wrote a much better story than the hatchet job he did on casino mogul Steve Wynn. Hey John how about a book on one of the true gentleman gaming legends in Vegas, none other than Jackie Gaughan? If written in the even handed manner of your Stupak book, I'll be the first buyer in line!!
Very good read for those interested in Las Vegas.......1998-05-18
Stupak is a figure who inspires strong (and usually negative) reactions in those interested in Las Vegas. Smith, however, delivers what seems to be an even-handed discussion of the man, and what he's done for Las Vegas, both good and bad. A quick and fascinating read.
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