Amazon.com
One of the most acclaimed "science fantasies" ever, Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun is a long, magical novel in four volumes. Shadow & Claw contains the first two: The Shadow of the Torturer and The Claw of the Conciliator, which respectively won the World Fantasy and Nebula Awards.
This is the first-person narrative of Severian, a lowly apprentice torturer blessed and cursed with a photographic memory, whose travels lead him through the marvels of far-future Urth, and who--as revealed near the beginning--eventually becomes his land's sole ruler or Autarch. On the surface it's a colorful story with all the classic ingredients: growing up, adventure, sex, betrayal, murder, exile, battle, monsters, and mysteries to be solved. (Only well into book 2 do we realize what saved Severian's life in chapter 1.) For lovers of literary allusions, they are plenty here: a Dickensian cemetery scene, a torture-engine from Kafka, a wonderful library out of Borges, and familiar fables changed by eons of retelling. Wolfe evokes a chilly sense of time's vastness, with an age-old, much-restored painting of a golden-visored "knight," really an astronaut standing on the moon, and an ancient citadel of metal towers, actually grounded spacecraft. Even the sun is senile and dying, and so Urth needs a new sun.
The Book of the New Sun is almost heartbreakingly good, full of riches and subtleties that improve with each rereading. It is Gene Wolfe's masterpiece. --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk
Book Description
The Book of the New Sun is unanimously acclaimed as Gene Wolfe's most remarkable work, hailed as "a masterpiece of science fantasy comparable in importance to the major works of Tolkien and Lewis" by Publishers Weekly, and "one of the most ambitious works of speculative fiction in the twentieth century" by The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Shadow amp; Claw brings together the first two books of the tetralogy in one volume:The Shadow of the Torturer is the tale of young Severian, an apprentice in the Guild of Torturers on the world called Urth, exiled for committing the ultimate sin of his profession -- showing mercy toward his victim.Ursula K. Le Guin said, "Magic stuff . . . a masterpiece . . . the best science fiction I've read in years!"The Claw of the Conciliator continues the saga of Severian, banished from his home, as he undertakes a mythic quest to discover the awesome power of an ancient relic, and learn the truth about his hidden destiny."Arguably the finest piece of literature American science fiction has yet produced [is] the four-volume Book of the New Sun."-Chicago Sun-Times"The Book of the New Sun establishes his preeminence, pure and simple. . . . The Book of the New Sun contains elements of Spenserian allegory, Swiftian satire, Dickensian social consciousness and Wagnerian mythology. Wolfe creates a truly alien social order that the reader comes to experience from within . . . once into it, there is no stopping."-The New York Times Book Review
Customer Reviews:
Literary masterpiece?.......2007-10-09
I bought both of the books of the New Sun at once. What a shame. After laboriously reading the first volume, I'm not going to waste my time reading the second one. I think one way that academics and so-called literary types make themselves feel superior is to take confusing, meandering pointless books like this, proclaim them masterpieces and then put themselves on a pedestal and say if you didn't get it, you just don't have the capacity to understand a great literary work.
I see no point to this story. The adventures that Severian has meander all over the place, having no flow, no theme, no plot, and I had to really force myself to finish this book. I read over a hundred books a week, and I have read some "literary classics" that I enjoyed. Some of them were difficult to read, but the story made sense, the character motives could be understood, and eventually I would get drawn in to the story. Not so with this.
Best of genre.......2007-10-09
My first edition paperback came with an encomium by Ursula K. LeGuin on the cover. LeGuin and Wolfe are among the few sci-fi/fantasy writers I feel compelled to re-read every few years. LeGuin once said (in effect) that she wrote not as a prophet of the future, but to explore the human condition by placing her narratives in an alien setting, and Wolfe's work may be viewed best in this context.
Those who find too many loose ends and ambiguities in Wolfe seem to want a neat fantasy adventure, and that is not what Wolfe offers here. Though in form an (anti?) hero's journey, with deep roots back to Homer's Odyssey, it is narrated in the first person. Thus we hear the story from a protagonist who may not feel we require all the background information on his world, and is in any case not omniscient. (Here readers may question the intent of Wolfe's constant iteration of Severian's claim to total memory recall.) The question of personal identity and the "self" is a major theme, which Wolfe handles in a unique fashion from several different aspects. One may note the importance of masks, disguise, play-acting and storytelling in the narrative, though I won't mention Wolfe's more original metaphors, so as not to spoil this for the reader. In the end Severian become the Autarch of the Commonwealth - obviously a metaphorical referent, as Wolfe for once clearly implies, shortly before glossing "autarch" as "the thing itself - the self-ruler". But does he really? (Not to spoil the plot, but this end is revealed early on...)
One may compare Wolfe with Frank Herbert, to name a more well-known and more popular author, but Wolfe is more elusive and open to more varied interpretation.
Though Wolfe's protagonist is a member of the professional guild of torturers, this is not a gratuitously violent book, though set in a rather dark world (as is our own, viewed from a certain perspective.) The few clinical descriptions of torture by Severian are clearly a necessary foil to the other aspects of his character; he is, after all, twice driven from a comfortable position into exile and wandering by acts of mercy, first by granting a merciful death to a "client", then by refusing to perform an execution.
A plot summary of this complex work would be difficult and perhaps futile. In a sense the overall plot is subordinate to the individual episodes of the story. Many elements can be best seen as metaphors, and the referents of those metaphors may be different for different readers, or indeed for the same reader re-reading the book a second time. We are not dealing with relatively simple alegory (as in Swift, for example), which is perhaps why some readers find such difficulties here. Highest recommendation.
Do you like "dense, allusion-rich" prose?.......2007-09-30
I can't recall where I read that description of Wolfe's prose, but it's apt. The writing in this book is dense and full of allusions. Dense like cornbread that's too dry, and murky allusions to things you don't know. If you like your writing foggy and unnecessarily complex, this may be the book for you. Also if you like torture scenes, which I am no fan of.
I hate to be so negative, but that was the case for me with this book. I tried Wolfe because F&SF magazine so highly recommended him, because a number of authors I like (including Gaiman) recommend him, and because I liked his story in F&SF magazine's tribute issue. First I started the Wizard Knight series, and I liked the first book of that fairly well. Then I tried this torturer series, but I found it unpleasant and virtually unreadable. It's just not my cup of tea.
Gaiman likes it; his fans will too........2007-07-26
I felt compelled to renew the idea that readers of Wolfe's work encountering this book for the first time on Gaiman's recommendation should forge ahead--this is good. Incredibly dense, complex and multi-layered, its themes and proto-Victorian style resonate for the Gen-X-influenced-by-the-tail-end-of-New-Wave, Goth-admiring crowd. * Eerily prescient in its anti-big government stance, I would wager Wolfe was working out his own ambivalence towards independence and maturity, using his main character, the Torturer, as a metaphor for the difficulty of a responsible adulthood. (In your thirties, your job isn't to kill people: it just sometimes feels that way.)
* An amusing aside--Wolfe's editor didn't think to take out the word 'delimits', which is generally the province of engineers and math nerds. Apparently that was Wolfe's day job.
A great work of "serious" literature and therein lies the problem..........2007-06-05
I first read the Book of the New Sun as a teenager back in the early 1980s and I must say I understood very little of it except for the basic story. I've now finished reading the series for the 3rd time and my understanding is vastly greater- not due to my greater discernment or maturity, but mainly because I've since read Solar Labyrinth by Robert Borski.
The Book of the New Sun is highly literate puzzle which requires much thought to understand (the real key is to recognize that many of the characters are actually relatives of the protagonist). So why only 3 stars? There are great works of literature that are still highly entertaining and readable-unfortunately, the New Sun isn't one of them. Rather, I'd compare it to something like Moby Dick which I admire but also didn't enjoy reading. I'm glad I've read the book several times (and I've been enriched by the experience), but frankly, it's a book with limited appeal...even many highly-intelligent and literate readers will be put-off by it- I think the main problem is the story isn't grand or epic enough. Also, the puzzles in it require too much thought- reading Solar Labyrinth shocked me in a way because I would never have figured out even half of it on my own. Reading should be entertaining first and foremost- it shouldn't require so much thought with so little pay-off (in the sense that ultimately, the plot doesn't justify all of the complexity nor are the characters likeable enough).
Amazon.com
When Africa makes international news, it is usually because war has broken out or some bizarre natural disaster has taken a large number of lives. Westerners are appallingly ignorant of Africa otherwise, a condition that the great Polish journalist and writer Ryszard Kapuœciñski helps remedy with this book based on observations gathered over more than four decades.
Kapuœciñski first went to Africa in 1957, a time pregnant with possibilities as one country after another declared independence from the European colonial powers. Those powers, he writes, had "crammed the approximately ten thousand kingdoms, federations, and stateless but independent tribal associations that existed on this continent in the middle of the nineteenth century within the borders of barely forty colonies." When independence came, old interethnic rivalries, long suppressed, bubbled up to the surface, and the continent was consumed in little wars of obscure origin, from caste-based massacres in Rwanda and ideological conflicts in Ethiopia to hit-and-run skirmishes among Tuaregs and Bantus on the edge of the Sahara. With independence, too, came the warlords, whose power across the continent derives from the control of food, water, and other life-and-death resources, and whose struggles among one another fuel the continent's seemingly endless civil wars. When the warlords "decide that everything worthy of plunder has been extracted," Kapuœciñski writes, wearily, they call a peace conference and are rewarded with credits and loans from the First World, which makes them richer and more powerful than ever, "because you can get significantly more from the World Bank than from your own starving kinsmen."
Constantly surprising and eye-opening, Kapuœciñski's book teaches us much about contemporary events and recent history in Africa. It is also further evidence for why he is considered to be one of the best journalists at work today. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
In 1957, Ryszard Kapuscinski arrived in Africa to witness the beginning of the end of colonial rule as the first African correspondent of Poland's state newspaper. From the early days of independence in Ghana to the ongoing ethnic genocide in Rwanda, Kapuscinski has crisscrossed vast distances pursuing the swift, and often violent, events that followed liberation. Kapuscinski hitchhikes with caravans, wanders the Sahara with nomads, and lives in the poverty-stricken slums of Nigeria. He wrestles a king cobra to the death and suffers through a bout of malaria.
What emerges is an extraordinary depiction of Africa--not as a group of nations or geographic locations--but as a vibrant and frequently joyous montage of peoples, cultures, and encounters. Kapuscinski's trenchant observations, wry analysis and overwhelming humanity paint a remarkable portrait of the continent and its people. His unorthodox approach and profound respect for the people he meets challenge conventional understandings of the modern problems faced by Africa at the dawn of the twenty-first century.
Download Description
Ryszard Kapuscinski arrived in Africa in 1957, at the beginning of the end of colonial rule -- the "sometimes dramatic and painful, sometimes enjoyable and jubilant" rebirth of a continent. The Shadow of the Sun sums up the author's experiences ("the record of a 40-year marriage") in this place that became the central obsession of his remarkable career. From the hopeful years of independence through the bloodcurdling disintegration of nations such as Nigeria, Rwanda, and Angola, Kapuscinski recounts great social and political changes through the prism of the ordinary African. He looks at the rough-and-ready physical world and identifies the true geography of Africa: a little-understood spiritual universe, an African way of being. And he offers a moving portrait of Africa in the wake of two epoch-making changes: the arrival of AIDS and the definitive departure of the white man. Kapuscinski's rare humanity invests his subject with a dignity and grandeur unmatched by any other writer on the Third World, and his unique ability to discern the universal in the particular has never been more powerfully displayed than in this work. The Shadow of the Sun is a masterpiece from a modern master.
Customer Reviews:
The real Africa.......2007-07-02
You can really feel the heat and human struggle when reading this book. If you read traveller books about Africa you will learn what to see and where to go. In "the Shadow of the Sun" you will read about what you will see if you turn a wrong corner from a main street and meet ordinary people - or get stuck somewhere. I have lived in Ethiopia and visited several other African countries, but this is the first book I have read that describes how it really is if you don't follow the main tourist stream.
Excellent insight.......2007-03-26
Kapuscinski has a knack for describing both the geographic landscape and the human condition in such a way that you can visualize it. He has a keen eye and mind for observation and analysis. All his books should be compulsory reading for anybody and everybody involved in any kind of aid activity in the third world - government agencies or charities.
Africa .......2007-03-10
The best book about Africa I have read. The reporting is balanced and full of insight and avoids falling into the the various traps of tourist brochure over-identification preaching etc. If there is a fault it is that is somewhat fragmentary. a set of excellent snapshots or shorts rather than a feature film.
A wonderful memoir.......2007-02-18
I'm sad to say that I had never heard of Kapuscinski until his recent death. I've known several foreign correspondents in the past and I was surprised that they had never mentioned his work. All of this makes the "The Shadow of the Sun" all that much stronger for me. Kapuscinski was unique in that he worked for a Soviet Bloc country and had fewer resources than his North American or Western European counterparts. There is little, if any, ideology in his writing, although he clearly views slavery and colonialism as having many negative impacts on the continent. Instead, there is an acute sense of observation and an empathy for everyday people that comes from getting out of the expat ghetto and exploring the daily world of ordinary people, as well as the major stories of the day. Kapuscinski clearly learned a great deal about African history, as well as politics. He chronicles the lives of the prominent and the ordinary and is able to write in a way that is dense, but not overwhelming. Kapuscinski is able to concisely summarize and integrate history, politics, economics, and his knowledge of the various societies he encounters with relatively little recourse to stereotype, although he tends to generalize about people's natures a bit too much. Kapuscinski shows great respect for the subjects of his journalism, particularly those who lack power or influence.
The closest comparison to this book is Paul Theroux's "Dark Star Safari" which covers a similar span of time and also includes encounters with the high and low ends of the social spectrum, and many of the same disappointments about the post-colonial era. Where Theroux tends to be grouchy and sardonic, Kapuscinski invests rather less emotion. He clearly loved the adventure of his work but doe not skirt the drawbacks like malaria and threats to his life. This is a great book for people who want to understand recent history and what a real journalist's eye can capture in an age when far too many in the media seem to be suckers for fame and position.
The Gestalt of Africa.......2007-01-02
Understanding the societal structure and the psyche of Africans can help explain their actions. This very well written book gives one the gestalt of Africa. After finishing this then read "A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa" by Howard W. French to bring you up to date (through the 1990's). Highly recommended!
Customer Reviews:
Useless.......2007-07-04
The only reason I gave this product one star is because there's no option for no stars at all. Alchemy cannot be explained by psychology or academia. In fact, alchemy and academia, and especially psychology, are completely opposite in their aims and goals. Psychology reinforces ego while alchemy dissolves it. That is why people like this and Jung should be completely ignored; they speak from a basis of clinical, academic opinion and not actual experience obtained by realization. If you, who are reading this, remembers anything from this review then I hope you at least remember that. Save your money and spend it somewhere else on things that are more important.
Synthesis.......2006-11-16
Stanton Marlan has made a needed and deeply satisfying contribution to literature which synthesizes the obscured but major investigations into alchemy, masculine images of power and suffering, abstract and beautiful passages of negative theology. As a psychotherapist,I am profoundly grateful, excited and helped in my work with male clients. What is more basic or universal than experiences which draw on light and dark.
Unusual and mesmerizing.......2005-09-11
The Black Sun is an extraordinary examination of the alchemical stage known as the "nigredo"..the blackening or mortification, so often experienced as depression, terror, or madness. I was especially transfixed at the way in which Dr. Marlan expresses the paradoxical nature of these experiences in that the darkness itself contains a "shine" or luminescence, that is the light of nature, not that of heaven. The text is richly referenced with the writings of Dr. Jung, several case studies, and many other literary examples. This book is an eloquent validation of a domain of experience that is unavoidable, yet so often denied.
Book Description
This new edition of Eduardo Galeano's riveting commentary on the history and politics of soccer includes newly written material on the 2002 World Cup, which one quarter of humanity watched. Discussing everything from the leveling of the Twin Towers to the death of the sole survivor of that extraordinary match between British and German soldiers in 1915, one of South America's greatest commentators issues forth on robotic soccer in Japan, the mass-production of the game as a sign of the decline of civilization, the amazing success of Senegal and Turkey, and how Nike beat Adidas.
Customer Reviews:
One of my all-time favorite books.......2007-09-01
I liked the my old paperback edition so much, I bought a hardbound version of the new edition. (The new material BTW is just a continuation of Galeano's commentaries this time centered on the 2002 World Cup tournament. Older version just went up to the 1998 tournament.)
Any discussion of Galeano's writing must begin with his inimitable style. For lack of a proper genre, I call his writings "mosaicos", as each little vignette is like an individual tile in a larger, greater picture. Sometimes this format can be a bit disjointed, but in "Soccer Sun Shadow", it works because the Reader understands that the vignettes are organized chronologically. Galeano does have some vignettes about the origins of the game and its spread to the far-flung corners of the world by British imperialists, but by and large the narrative begins with accounts of games/goals/players from the early 1950s. Since Galeano is Uruguayan, he also has a decidedly Latin American bias (so don't expect to be reading about European teams of the era).
I'm 42 years old and a fan of soccer; some of the stories/players mentioned I had never heard of, so it was refreshing to hear a bit of this history. Once Galeano's narrative caught up to my earliest memories of the game (1970/1974 World Cups), I felt like I was talking to an old friend about a subject we both love. I think that's why I like this book so much: it blends my love of literature (I'm an English teacher) with my love of soccer, and it does it so poetically, so precisely, with such quick turns of language, it is a distinct pleasure to read and reminisce.
I'm not saying you should buy two copies of "Soccer Sun Shadow" (like I did), but if you buy one, I'm sure you'll enjoy the read.
My favorite book about soccer.......2007-08-08
This is a beatifully written little book about the world's greatest game. When I come across people who just can't udnerstand why soccer is the favorite sport (in all countries but the US) I give them this book to read.
It is actually a series of elegant little essays -- (it doesn't neccesarily need to be read in order).
Fine writing with or without a game.......2007-01-06
There are few books of non-fiction whose writing transcends the subject matter, but this is such a book. I am not a soccer player but this book made me a fan of the game and a fan of Galeano. He puts us on a field, in the stands, at the goal, in the sun, and under the shadows. He transports us into the game and celebrates its mystique and passion and sadness. And, amazingly, he does it in as few words as possible, giving us just a few paragraphs at a time but creating huge panoramas of emotion with those words. I'll tell you how much I love this book: it sits on my night stand, ready for me to read a paragraph or two and be transported by a magical game and a writer of similar power.
Soccer: game, passion, art.......2006-06-07
This book by Eduardo Galeano wants to show much about the experience of soccer, an international phenomenon of the masses that is fabulous business and demanding sport, but above all, a game with the potential of poetry. In ancient times, 'poiesis' (Greek word) had some power over the ear and thus over the feeling and thought of peoples, back when the written word was in its infancy. 'Poiesis' was life therapy. Nowadays not all of us appreciate poetry, and we moderns certainly do not have that ancient sense of 'poiesis' as "creation"; for us poetry is more or less pretty words, written, barely experienced and poorly recited. Something like that happens with soccer. When Galeano writes in the Introduction, "a pretty move for the love of God," he encapsulates everything he tries to express in this book of the passion for soccer, and invites us to share this yearning reading the histories and legends he documents, in search of that playful, passionate art.
Enjoy!
Pure poetry.......2006-04-08
Galeano's book remains the most lyrical and whimsical book ever written about soccer / football. He is one of the few writers who has managed to both embody and describe the spirit of the beautiful game at the same time. Wonderful to have such a talented writer and spirit give the game the treatment it deserves. A rare book...
Amazon.com
Renowned anthropologist Wade Davis shows us how preserving the diversity of the world's cultures and spiritual beliefs is just as important as preserving our endangered plants, insects, and animals. In this collection of personal essays, Davis tells of dramatic personal adventures during which he visits and often lives with indigenous communities in the remote regions of the world. He offers reports of toad-smoking shamanistic journeys in the Amazon forests, tracking an elusive cloud leopard in the mountains of Tibet, and a soulful lament for the lost American buffalo.
Although he has been called a modern-day Indiana Jones, Davis has far more integrity. His stories are not in service to self-glorification, but rather to one resounding theme:
If there is one lesson I have drawn from my travels, it is that cultural and biological diversity are far more than the foundation of stability; they are an article of faith, a fundamental truth that indicates the way things are supposed to be.... There is a fire burning over the Earth, taking with it plants and animals, cultures, languages, ancient skills, and visionary wisdom. Quelling this flame and reinventing the poetry of diversity is the most important challenge of our times.
--Gail Hudson
Book Description
"One of the intense pleasures of travel is the opportunity to live among people who have not forgotten the old ways, who still feel their past in the wind, touch it in stones polished by rain, recognize its taste in the bitter leaves of plants."
In this riveting collection of stories and essays, gifted scientist, anthropologist, and writer Wade Davis offers a captivating look at indigenous cultures around the world--from the nomadic Penan of Malaysia to the Vodoun practitioners of Haiti--and a poetic, timely examination of the rapport between humans and the natural world. Traveling from the mountains of Tibet to the jungles of the Amazon, Davis delves into the mysteries of shamanic healing, experiences first-hand hallucinogenic plants, explores the vanishing Borneo rain forests, and describes the ingenuity of the Inuit as they hunt narwhale on the Arctic ice.
A compelling and utterly unique celebration of the beauty and diversity of our planet,
Shadows in the Sun is about landscape and character, the wisdom of lives drawn directly from the land, and the hunger of those who seek to rediscover such understanding. Davis shows that preserving the diversity of the world's cultures and spiritual beliefs is as important as preserving endangered plants and animals--and vital to our understanding of who we are.
Customer Reviews:
Recycled a bit, but good.......2007-01-20
At first I thought I had read this book already, and while it's technically possible, I think I am getting that sensation because Wade Davis recycles his stories and essays over and over again. By now I think I've read everything he's written (or getting very close, at any rate) and I love it all. He has great stories. But like a drunk uncle at a Christmas party, they are changing as he gets older and they are also getting a little tired. By my count, I've heard about the running of the borders in the Andes about 6 times now, and it's fascinating, it's a really great tradition and Davis tells it well, but honestly, I expect more from a man who's travelled around the world, lived with the Penan and in the Amazon and in Haiti and in the Stikine...he's got to have more stories than that. So in that respect I found this book frustrating because I kept skipping ahead for something that didn't sound like something I'd already heard. And that's a shame because his stories are enticing and he writing style is engaging, I'm just hungry for more new material.
A Little Bit of Everywhere.......2004-06-11
How tough are we, really? When I was twelve I can assure you that I was not killing polar bears and whales; but Wade Davis introduces the reader to just such an Inuit boy. The boy is special in that he carries on a tradition of providing his community with sustenance; but he is one of many such boys and men in his community. Shadows in the Sun is filled with cultural activities that seem bizzare, terrifying, beautifully exotic, outrageous, and downright strange to those of us whose culture is surrounded by electronics, mass media, and mass prefabrication. It is a beautifully written book that samples human diversity as a threatened and disappearing art form.
A Little Bit Of Everywhere.......2004-04-27
How tough are we, really? When I was twelve I can assure you that I was not killing polar bears and whales; but Wade Davis introduces the reader to just such an Inuit boy. The boy is special in that he carries on a tradition of providing his community with sustenance; but he is one of many such boys and men in his community. Shadows in the Sun is filled with cultural activities that seem bizzare, terrifying, beautifully exotic, outrageous, and downright strange to those of us whose culture is surrounded by electronics, mass media, and mass prefabrication. It is a beautifully written book that samples human diversity as a threatened and disappearing art form.
Profound and brilliant.......2004-04-19
_Shadows in the Sun_ is a collection of essays on biodiversity, from both an anthropological perspective as well as from a biological standpoint. The brilliance of the book is the way in which Daivs illustrates the juxtaposition and similarity between the two.
Davis takes you from the rainforests of Indonesia to the rainforests of the Pacific Northwest, voudon practices in Haiti, toad licking in the Amercan southwest, "surviving" in the Canadian arctic. In each essay, the tremendous variety of life (animal - including human - plant and fungal) and its adaptation to its environment is discussed in detail.
I give it four stars rather than five due to the underlying lament of the loss of bio (and cultural) diversity that is taking place worldwide. Certainly this is a just concern, and Davis is not the first to draw attention to this. However by only discussing the damage the modern, industrialized world is causing without addressing ways of elimintating the harm being done makes such observations a moot point. Even with this criticism, however, I highly recommend this book. It is a wonderful read.
Best book of essays I have read in years........2001-08-18
The author is humane, wise, brilliant and an excellent speaker. One of his talks is on the 'net.
Average customer rating:
- Good travel, good food and good history-great reading!
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Hot Sun, Cool Shadow
Angela Murrills
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Notes from the Languedoc
ASIN: 0749083549 |
Customer Reviews:
Good travel, good food and good history-great reading! .......2006-08-16
For disparate reasons, Diane and I have seen more of Languedoc than any other region of France so it was natural that I would be attracted to this enticing book covering this trinity of ingredients in Murrills' heady book.
The ingredient that binds this wonderful melange of delights together is the interminable hunt for the perfect, at least to them, house. All of the travel throughout the length and breadth of Languedoc-Roussillon and thereby providing the substance, its food and history, is to provide opportunities for the author and her husband to, seemingly, examine every house for sale in the pronvince. The map just before the Prolgue is extremely important to the book because the pot into which these ingredients are mixed is this map showing the many places in Angela's and therefore your journey. With a specific place used as a starting point for each chapter, the book becomes a three demensional map of Languedoc and many of the villages, towns or small cities that she visits in her and her husband's house hunting journey becomes a reason to delve into the history and more importantly the particular food of the area.
My particular interest in the Cathars and their eventual total destruction by the Albigensian Crusade meant that this travel book, more than others, intrigued me. The author visited some of the Cathar sites that I've also visited: Monysegur, Albi and Carcassonne. These places plus a myriad of others that I have not visited constitute the historical backbone of this marvellous book. However, a further ingrdient besides these historical examinations, is the regional food that Murrills exams. She ends each chapter with one of those regional recipes and throughout the preceding chapter, offers traveler descriptions of the foods and acacdotes about its importance and its role in the greater Languedoc community.
This is a wonderful book and deserves attention from lovers of history, food and anacdotal travel.
Customer Reviews:
great book, first person account of lucid dreaming.......1999-03-22
Kenneth Kelzer wrote an excellent first person narrative of his experiences of lucid dreaming and his life. I was able to get a better understanding of lucid dreaming with this book than any other I've read. I wish he'd write another one.
Book Description
Erik Winter is the youngest chief inspector in Sweden; he wears sharp suits, cooks gourmet meals, has a penchant for jazz, and is about to become a father. But he has his share of troubles too; a bloody double murder on his doorstep is only the beginning.
As Sun and Shadow opens a couple entertains a stranger in their apartment in Göteborg, but this particular illicit rendezvous will prove to be their last.
What greets Chief Inspector Winter and his team when they arrive appears as a stage setting, grotesquely symbolic in its composition. While Winter trawls ads in men's magazines in search of the missing party guest, a trail from the clues left by the killer leads into the cult world of the gothic—a riddle of nightmares, of good versus evil, of sun and shadow. When the investigation unearths a possible link between the murders and the police force, even friendly faces are not to be trusted. And when the killer strikes again, possibly closer to home, Winter is in a race against time before someone he loves gets hurt.
Like his fellow countryman Henning Mankell, Ake Edwardson is a brilliant discovery for lovers of intricate, psychologically charged and stylish crime novels, and Sun and Shadow promises to be the season's most exciting crime debut.
Customer Reviews:
Turmoil at the onset of the new millenium.......2007-04-06
Ake Edwardson's "Sun and Shadow" is a worthy addition to the rapidly growing genre of Scandinavian crime dramas being translated for consumption for the English speaking market. Edwardson, however uses a slightly different formula. He devotes nearly one third of his novel developing both his characters, particularly protagonist, Detective Chief Inspector Erik Winter and his setting, Gothenberg, Sweden. He gives us brief glimpses at the heinous crime that will become Winter's focus.
Gothenberg is at the onset of both Christmas and the celebration of the new millenium when a brutal double murder with obvious sexual overtones is uncovered. Inspector Winter whose life is in flux owing to the anticipation of fatherhood, had recently been jetting back and forth to the Costa del Sol in Spain. His father lying on his deathbed had succumbed to his illnesses. With personal issues cluttering his mind, he now must focus on coordinating the investigation of this killing.
We soon learn through the ongoing inquest that the murder seems in some way related to couples who fulfill their sexual fantasies by wife swapping. Eyewitnesses around the crime scene report that a man in uniform was seen around the time of the murders. Could Winter possibly be searching for one of his own?
Edwardson leads us through his plot at a leisurely pace not revealing too much but concluding is a frenetic fashion as time is of the essence, as the murderer is poised to strike again.
Not trying to be Henning Mankell.......2006-11-07
I'm rating this book 5 stars just to bring up the abysmal rating given by the only other reviewer so far; it deserves better. I'm an aficionado of Scandinavian detectives (see my manic list elsewhere). Edwardson's books are as enjoyable as any. "Never End" - the sequel to this book - is maybe richer, but "Sun and Shadow" serves as an excellent introduction to the icy world of Winter & company. The plot evolves in several dimensions and casts its own bleak spell. Connoisseurs of crime fiction won't want to miss it.
Terribly Disappointed!.......2006-10-04
This is the first book I have read by Ake Edwardson, and it certainly will be my last. I love to read Henning Mankell thrillers and wanted to try another mystery by a Swedish author. Near the end, I thought it was going to get interesting, but it never did. Sorry I couldn't say something nice about it! Maybe it just didn't translate well into English!
The jacket of the book said Edwardson is "one of Scandinavia's most successful crime writers." I don't think he can hold a candle to Mankell!
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Shadow of the Torturer (Book of the New Sun, Vol. 1)
Gene Wolfe
Manufacturer: Timescape
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Wolfe, Gene
| ( W )
| Authors, A-Z
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: B000O51OE2 |
Product Description
Sci-Fi 4 Vol. series.
Books:
- Shadow Hunter (Star Wars: Darth Maul)
- Silence on the Wire: A Field Guide to Passive Reconnaissance and Indirect Attacks
- Stalin's Folly: The Tragic First Ten Days of World War Two on the Eastern Front
- Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease
- Tan Tien Chi Kung: Foundational Exercises for Empty Force and Perineum Power
- Thank God I Had a Gun: True Accounts of Self-Defense
- The Apocalypse Code: Find Out What the Bible REALLY Says About the End Times . . . and Why It Matters Today
- The Baseball Economist: The Real Game Exposed
- The Deed of Paksenarrion: A Novel
- The Encyclopedia of Grasses for Livable Landscapes
Books Index
Books Home
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- Peace, Love and Healing: Bodymind Communication & the Path to Self-Healing: An Exploration
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- DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES COOKBOOK, THE: JUICY DISHES AND SAUCY BITS
- Handbook of Water and Wastewater Microbiology
- Fuzzy Sets and Fuzzy Logic: Theory and Applications
- Buddhism and Ecology: The Interconnection of Dharma and Deeds
- Blood On My Briefcase: 30 Years In The Advertising Wars
- Don't Panic!! You Can Still Retire: A Workbook - Planning For The Life You've Always Wanted
Sword & Citadel: The Second Half of 'The Book of the New Sun' (New Sun)
The Urth of the New Sun: The sequel to 'The Book of the New Sun' (New Sun)
Litany of the Long Sun: Nightside the Long Sun and Lake of the Long Sun (Book of the Long Sun, Books 1 and 2)
Epiphany of the Long Sun: Calde of the Long Sun and Exodus from the Long Sun (Book of the Long Sun, Books 3 and 4)
The Wizard: Book Two of The Wizard Knight
