Customer Reviews:
Chaos Unleashed upon your Mind!.......2007-01-06
The Games Workshop chaotic pantheon has always been an inspiring, and at times frightening, expose of evil and horrors. This book was a delight, written with concise detail accompanied by memorable art. I have followed the GW chaos line since the release of the Realm of Chaos books nearly 20 years ago. Those two books are, and always will be, for me the height of GW's chaotic catalog. This book is a perfect edition for anyone wanting to delve into the dark realms of the GW universe without all the game stats. An incredible book that is written with such exactness and detail that one might imagine they might have really acquired an ancient and forbidden text like the Necronomicon. Worth every penny! The only reason I resisted in giving 5 stars is simply because I remember fondly the art of the Realms books, which at times has been duplicated here. It stands out over the new pieces of which many just do not have that feel of an ancient evil text.
Customer Reviews:
A deeply penetrating psychological account.......2000-11-08
Dr. Clark has struck a sensitive nerve in the consciousness of a nation in his 1965 study of black neighborhoods. Revised in 1989 with an introduction by William Julius Wilson, and a foreword by Gunnar Myrdal, it is apparent that other scholars respect Clark's work as well. I was particularly impressed by the self-honesty of his methodology -- he calls it his "involved observer" method, which shows much more concern for the subjects of the study than traditional "disinterested observer" approaches, espoused by so-called "value-free" social scientists. Also recommended are other books by Clark, and most anything by Cornel West, Lewis R. Gordon, Allen Spear, and Alex Kotlowitz. A related book to "Dark Ghetto" is "Racism & Psychiatry," by Alexander Thomas and Samuel Sillen, with an introduction by K. Clark.
Book Description
From the first moment of his papacy Karol Wojtyla sought political influence and a role on the world stage. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, he was a leader to millions of Catholics at a time of tremendous change. Promising a renewed church, he was the first media Pope and travelled around the world to preach his message. It is said that he was central in the fall of Soviet Eastern Europe, in particular his own homeland of Poland. Now, one year after his death, there are already calls for his sainthood.
But is this the whole truth?
David Yallop explores the myths and half truths of John Paul II's long reign and asks some difficult questions ranging from the role of the Vatican in the momentous events in 1989, and the continued mismanagement of Vatican finance which allowed Calvi and others to continue to use the Vatican banks for money laundering to the failure to address the child sexual abuse crisis and the rise of the Opus Dei.
Including explosive revelations from the CIA, the KGB, and the Vatican itself, it is a bold and unflinching look at a man who soon stands to become a saint.
Customer Reviews:
An accurate portrayal.......2007-10-06
It's a very sad day when the Vatican teaches the world more about the ways of the world than about the Faith. That day is here and this book tells a part of the story. Should be required reading for all Catholics.
Put up your guns, girls: this book is pro-Wojtyla, anti-Vatican.......2007-09-02
and so it should please no one.
But first a stylistic note.
The most regrettable loss to our publishing industry in this post-literate age is the almighty, omniscient, self-effacing copy-editor. Without a wise copy-editor much of our 20th century great American novels would not be great (many weren't but seemed so at the time). Even Papa Hemingway blessed his stars for a good copy-editor. It's like our modern super-models blaming their enormous success on their make-up artist, but moreso.
And a good proof-reader. There are several spelling errors and typos and uses of words correctly spelled but incorrect within the context, including a sudden jarring switch to Western Union while discussing Frankel's acquisition of the Western United Insurance Company. Good copy-editors and proof-readers worth their blue pencil catch these things, or once did in the golden past of publishing.
Unfortunately this present work enjoys neither, and grows stylistically tedious.
Much of it reads as if it were copied verbatim from a journalist's notebook, or a student's cribsheet, barren, an avalanche of straight names with little connecting ligature. Often it reads as if edited not by the legendary copy-editor, but an MTV music video editor, blasting through time and space without warning, even within one paragraph, leaving the reader wondering if the writer skipped a page of his crib notes. Readers should not have to work this hard, and the sudden cuts across decades are superfluous, unnecessary and damaging to the flow of the narrative, and pose a further distracting threat to credibility in such an unsourced text.
Other mortal stylistic errors fall from the author's essence as a Britisher. Thus we find modes of speech which are not universal to world-class English, but drawn from a particular level used in London, and thus needlessly incomprehensible.
A fact checker would not have hurt, but they too are as rare as hen's teeth in the publishing world nowadays. For instance the author continually refers to religious habits and other clerical garb as "uniforms." THe first time I thought he was making a snide joke, but then he continue dto use this term for religious habits, and the suspicion crept in under the door that he thought they really are called uniforms, just as Reagan called military uniforms costumes. The irony is he was speaking at one point of Mexico, where it is against the law for priests to wear their collar in public passageways, a law more honored in the breach than in the enforcement, as with so many laws, a vestige of the intense persecution there fifty years or more ago.
Another interesting error while still in Mexico, in recounting the Pope's first trip to Mexico the author writes of green and white papal flags lining the streets. The papal flag is yellow and white. Such things might appear small and insignificant details, until you realize this author relies not on stated and verifiable sources for his writing, but upon the sure voice of his own authority, which erodes which each small error.
The British perspective also colors the narrative, which quickly smells of racism, full of stereotypical French, Italians, Mexicans, Native Americans, American Americans, Spanish, Poles and most offendingly Irish. This author would have us believe what occured to Bobby Sands and the Blanket Boys was not serious and their own fault in every way. We never learn of Judge Dropik, the Rev. Ian Paisley and his Orangemen. Instead we read the Catholic Archbishop and other clergy directed terrorist bombings of civilian targets in Northern Ireland.
This is the epitome of the author's insularly Britisher perspective: he is anti-Catholic to the core, and xenophobic to boot.
But he does greatly support Wojtyla, giving possibly the most glowing and expansive if short-handed account of his life. Look again at the title. It does not read the Dark Heart of John Paul II. Yallop portrays that heart in a much brighter light. Rather he entitles his work the Dark Heart of the Vatican.
Another serious stylistic concern is the lack of footnotes and slim endnotes. In fact his few brief endnotes might have been slipped without distraction into the narrative itself.
Perhaps I have grown used to reading theologians like Father Schillebeeckx and Father Boff who conscientiously and completely footnote every phrase, like anxious postgraduate students defending a thesis, providing endnotes as long as the text, and often more enjoyable and informative. Here Yallop provides strong statements in the text but few backing endnotes.
He does provide a rather complete bibliography of sources unrelated to specific statements within the text, and he tries to explain that so many sources were punished and silenced for providing information in his earlier work In God's Name: An Investigation Into the Murder of Pope John Paul I that he dare not mention them now, but that does not leave us any indication at all how Yallop can with confidence report private conversations, for instance, between Villot and Wojtyla. We have only his word for it, and that is the worst of sources, as we cannot tell if his word is good. Pseudo-authority is the fallacious of argumentation, and so his thesis sinks.
ANoter evidence of the amateur is the propensity to quote entire paragraphs and to italicize tyhe entire paragraph and then to mention in parenthesis italicized emphasis added by author. This is professionally or scholastically done to one or two words within a citation, not the entire selection.
He does nevertheless give us a surprisingly favorable view of Wojtyla, jumping on the pre-hagiographic bandwagon also rejoined, for instance, by the GOP's Peggy Noonan. Although he claims here to serve the traditional role in the canonization process, recently done away with by Wojtyla, of "devil's advocate", he does so very weakly, and without resources, and only serves to show Wojtyla as a shining white knight from the north come to rescue our church after what Yallop considers the mafioso murder of the first John Paul for daring to propose to alter the corrupt administration of the Vatican Bank, deeply discussed in his earlier book In God's Name. In fact in many ways this book simply serves as a sequel to his earlier work, both of which were weak trailing shadows of the great Penny Lernoux's In Banks We Trust.
So save your money and buy Lernoux instead. She covers this same material with much greater foundation and sources, and with much more professional and objective style. This present work is surprisingly weak in every way, disappointing and will please no one. It is Lernoux warmed over, a sort of where-are-they-now twenty years later, and most mortal sin of all, poorly written, perhaps purposefully. THere are those who hold to the Dan Rather Syndrome, that DAn from the single bullet theory onwards was always working underground for the GOP, and that he killed the very substantial concerns about W's military career (or lack thereof) by presenting mistyped documents about it, which when indicated as mistyped, easily dismissed the entire issue. Perhaps this writer wishes to dismiss doubts about Wojtyla in the same way, by writing so badly as to associate any objective voice with sloppiness.
The basic thesis remains: That WOjtyla failed to go after the needed reforms, the hard reforms, the reforms that borught about the murder of a Pope, his predecessor, and instead hit the weak and the vulnerable, the academics and those who stood with the poor and the oppressed and the impoverished, instead of the corrupt bankers who oppress them.
Buy Lernoux instead.
The Author Makes an Excellent Devil's Advocate .......2007-08-22
I notice that, in all the reviews of this book preceding this one, it's either been given five stars or one--no in-between opinions, it seems. Then again, I suppose that any biography of a Pope, or any other well-known and controversial religious figure, is bound to elicit responses of this sort. After having read this book, I can easily see why it could be classified as a polemical work with negative criticisms going somewhat to extremes; but then again, it wasn't David Yallop who abolished the position of "Devil's Advocate" in the Roman Catholic Church's process of beatification and elevation to sainthood, it was John Paul II himself. Popular pressure no doubt will influence some later Pope, whether Benedict XVI or a subsequent one, to canonize John Paul II, but it is still necessary to remember that Karol Wojtyla was human and, like the rest of us, a slave to some aspects of his upbringing. The facts that he was guilty of an autocratic management style and was inconsistent in his policies towards repressive governments, depending on their location and the ideologies of the tyrants in power over them, were well known before Yallop articulated them--as was the Church's inexcusable sheltering of Cardinal Law in the wake of the sexual-abuse scandal.
I gave this work four stars rather than five because of a few instances of typographical errors and slapdash copyediting. Without the presence of those, I would have given it five stars. Love the book, hate it, but let it stand as the Devil's Advocate that no one now in the Church will ever permit to question John Paul II's eligibility for sainthood.
Brilliant study of an overrated celebrity.......2007-07-20
In this extraordinary book, investigative journalist David Yallop examines the record of Pope John Paul II.
Yallop details the many scandals of John Paul's rule, especially the cover-up of widespread sexual abuse by paedophile priests across the world, including 1,200 in the USA. In Britain, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor connived at the criminal offence of abusing children by helping priests to evade justice so that they could continue to abuse. He appointed a known paedophile as Chaplain to Gatwick Airport, where he could prey on new arrivals to Britain. Cardinal Basil Hume covered up the widespread sexual abuse at Ampleforth College, a Catholic private school.
Cardinal Ratzinger, John Paul's close colleague, now Pope Benedict, recently reminded every bishop of the penalties that his Church imposes on those who make allegations of sexual abuse to the civil authorities. The Church puts itself above the law to protect itself, not its victims. They tell us all how to lead our lives, on pain of eternal damnation, while they hide abusing priests and attack those who expose the crimes. What hypocrisy!
John Paul said, "The Roman Catholic Church is not a democracy. Dissent from the Magisterium is incompatible with being a Catholic." The Church is an autocracy and loves other autocracies. John Paul granted a `personal prelature' to Opus Dei, making this openly fascist body answerable to no one but himself.
Yallop depicts John Paul's hatred of Liberation Theology and his consistent support for brutal right-wing tyrannies in Latin America. He shows John Paul's links with the CIA: John Paul and CIA head William Casey had both supported Franco in the 1930s war in Spain. As Pope, John Paul beatified 471 Franco supporters, but not one Republican.
Ratzinger volunteered to join the Hitler Youth and served in the Wehrmacht. It is no coincidence that there is a German Pope, when Germany is trying to foist a Bismarckian Constitution on the European Union.
The Roman Catholic Church operated the infamous ratlines for 30,000 Nazi, Italian and Croat war criminals after World War Two, with the connivance of the US and British governments. (No wonder Blair is so keen to join the Church.) In the 1980s, Germany and the Vatican backed the destruction of Yugoslavia, to `free' Catholic Croatia.
Mussolini's deal with the Papacy is still in force: the Italian state gives half a billion pounds annually to the Church. Yallop shows how John Paul defended the corrupt Vatican Bank, the Mafia's bank, which launders round $50 billion a year. As a member of the Vatican Secretariat said of the absurd `visions of the Virgin Mary' at Medjugorje in Yugoslavia, "Of course it's a fraud but the money is genuine."
What did John Paul achieve? By trying to hide the Church's vice and corruption, he brought it lasting shame. So less than half the world's Catholics even attend Mass and numbers are falling rapidly. 72% of the Spanish people think that the state should stop its £100 million annual handout to the Church. Like other reactionaries, all his scheming resulted only in the failure of his cause.
TRUTH CREATES FREEDOM.......2007-07-14
This book is one of the finest in recent years to excite a discussion on two related areas: A. Who forms the church, and B. What is the role of the Pope and the Holy See in salvation history? The author does not focus on these issues as he shares his well-studied and documented version of recent history. As with any superior writer he invites discussion from readership after finishing the book.
I was pleased as a enquirer while reading the book because it was so focused. Moreso, I was pleased because the style was so engaging. With a certain detachment Yallop presented history and biography as he understood these events and persons. This is what a writer is supposed to do. He makes claims that are different from (the Vatican) spin, explains his position, and provides the documentation and experience which allow him to make his assertions.
To write about John Paul II is no easy task, especially since high emotion surrounds his memory. The author of this tome warns us, however, to look beyond emotion and regard the facts of history. Far from hating the church he writes in a way that we can understand the church more fully in both its human and divine dimensions. He challenges the reader to look at his or her beliefs about the papacy and the Holy See, and to wonder in what ways John Paul became "the Great" when compared with other papal leaders of the past century and a half. With intelligent reflection it is difficult to claim that John Paul was especially great or holy. Compared to Sarto, Ratti, Pacelli or Roncalli, he seems rather ordinary as the one steering the "bark of Peter." His great difference was that he cultivated the media and created local circus. If one believes he was a great leader and reformer of the the Catholic church, ask an ordinary friend about one of his encyclicals. Ask an ordinary Catholic to explain the difference between the Code of Canon Law of 1917 and the revised Code of the 1980s in terms of theology. Ask the youth who so favorably recall this leader because he paid attention to them, to tell of the great things he did for humanity and the Church. Then, compare these answers to the historical findings presented in this trustworthy book. Something is skewed!
My hope is that intelligent and concerned Catholics and others will take time to seriously read this book and discuss its major points. We are only a few years from this papacy, far too few to really be analytical, but we have a guide in this tome as to how to read and review as we seek the truth. After all, we come from a Gospel which claims that "you shall know the Truth; and the Truth will make you free."
Book Description
In this wickedly funny guide, professional astrologer Hazel Dixon-Cooper casts off sugar-coated astrology in favor of exploring the maladjusted side of the universe. If you want the inside scoop, the real deal, the lowdown on each sun sign, then look no further.
It's time to forget those traditional astrology books where Sagittarians are gregarious, Capricorns are ambitious, and Pisceans are dreamers. Instead, enter a world where Archers are loud-mouthed bores, Goats are pompous social climbers, and Fish are chronically helpless. Dixon-Cooper debunks the myths, reveals the flaws, and examines the dubious virtues of each sun sign. Discover how to use your own inner brat to outwit bullies, outmaneuver manipulators, and win those endless games that lovers play. Learn how to deal with those dysfunctional people you encounter every day, including how to:
- contain a Ram's oversized ego
- calm a raging Bull
- keep a fickle Twin faithful
Irreverent, biting, and laugh-out-loud funny, Born on a Rotten Day exaggerates the bad, exorcises the good, and puts a new spin on the age-old question -- what's your sign?
Customer Reviews:
An entertaining book!.......2007-08-01
Shows you the funny side and the bad side of your specific sign and how you relate to others around you and their specific signs.
Incredibly amusing!.......2007-08-01
I knew I was going to enjoy this book from the moment I got it. "Born on a Rotten Day" is everything the title-and the wonderful cover art-suggests. It's a humorous look at the less-than-lovely traits of the various Sun signs in astrology at their very worst. And it contains all the things those other books may be afraid to tell you about yourself.
Each chapter is divided into sections on men and women lovers, family members, bosses, and yourself, all under the sign in that chapter. The common patterns are translated into what it means in dealing with each of these people, and solutions to the best way to defuse bad situations are offered. The book is incredibly well-written, and takes the worst aspects of each sign for an entertaining trip.
Keep your sense of humor intact, though. This isn't meant to be taken 100% literally. What Dixon-Cooper provides is an exaggeration of the negative traits as a way of pointing them out. As a Scorpio, for instance, I may not be so bitchy that my "moods range from irritable to pissed off...on one of your good days". However, it's a good reminder for me to watch my temper and intensity, both when dealing with others and with myself. I got a good laugh out of that entire chapter, but I also learned a few things, too, that put me more into perspective for myself.
Of course, astrology (particularly when limited to the Sun sign) only goes so far. However, this is a great book to add to any astrological library. It's an amusing reminder of our quirks and flaws, and the fact that they're usually not as horrible as they could be (nor are they without counterbalances). I absolutely loved reading this, and I highly recommend it.
Accurate, but boring.......2007-06-13
This book is accurate, but boring. If you are not a serious astrology student, skip it. You can find better books if you just want a comprehensive book on sun signs.
I advise people who want astrology books to go to an actual book store & spend time browsing through what they have. Unless you know someone who has a lot of those books you can borrow, this is the best way to get a feel for astrology books.
Also, there are a lot of astrology books that are accurate but poorly written. I only recommend those books for hardcore astrology students to study and add to their collection.
astrology guaranteed to make you laugh.......2007-05-09
Bought as a gift, and was told, you'd feel better after reading all the pokes and jabs about your horrorscope..makes you laugh!
Loved it, and it is funny!.......2007-04-30
This is one of my 2 favorite zodiac books, and I have several.
Loved reading it, and laughed a lot.
Book Description
Exploring the mystery, wisdom, and power of the dark phase of the moon's cycle--a lunar-based model for moving through the dark times in our lives with understanding, consciousness, and faith in renewal.
The moon's dark phase has traditionally been a time of fear and superstition, a time associated with death and isolation. The mythical embodiment of these fears is the Dark Goddess. Known around the world by many names--Lilith, Kali, Hecate, and Morgana--the archetypal Dark Goddess represents death, sexuality, and the unconscious--the little understood, often feared aspects of life.
Demetra George combines psychological, mythical, and spiritual perspective on the shadowy, feminine symbolism of the dark moon to reclaim the darkness from oppressive, fear-based images. George offers rites for rebirth and transformation that teach us to tap into the power of our dark times, maximizing the potential for renewal inherent in our inevitable periods of loss, depression, and anger.
Customer Reviews:
Mysteries Of The Dark Moon.......2007-05-13
I was and am very pleased with this book.. It is well written with thouhtful insights. The history of the rise and fall of the Goddess with it reference to the Lunar Cycles really gives insight to where our world is heading today into this next century... Demtra George did a greyt job compacting a lot of information into an easy to read and understand book... It has been very helpful to me and given me much to meditate on... Anyone interested in learning about or Following the path of the Dark Goddess will love this book..
PegM
Amazing..........2004-12-11
That such a simple, unpretentious book could be so healing. This book helped me to live through the mysterious, dark cycles of my life and emerge into new life with health and vigor and new love.
The fact that I remember the lessons so many years later is quite a testament.
Innacurate mythology, revisionist history.......2003-11-10
While Ms. George does have some useful things to say about dark moon mysteries, it would be more interesting and engaging (and less likely to have readers throwing the book against the wall) if she did not use revisionist history and inaccurate mythology to support her conclusions. I can think of better books on the subject.
This Book is a Great Resource........2003-02-07
I bought this book 7 years ago, and have referred to it time and time again. I teach Intuition classes. Part of what I teach includes understanding natural life cycles. I use Demetra George's book to show my students all the aspects of a moon cycle and to remind them that all parts of the cycle, including the time of the Void (Dark Moon) are important in life. This book also provides excellent information about the Goddess Hecate, the old wise women who helps us in the night. George's book is very empowering for women and attaches the female spirit to ancient women's knowledge before it was changed and distorted by conflicting religions and societal influences. I recommend this book.
term paper.......2003-01-30
I bought this book after reading all the glowing reviews. It read like a term paper to me. It describes a number of myths in a more or less engaging style, and incorporates a very interesting section on the overlap of astrological, historical, and cosmic lunar cycles, but the author fails to get past description to insight and meaning. She cycles around to the same two or three conclusions about the three part goddess and patriarchy, again and again, without ever saying anything I haven't heard elsewhere. There is, however, an extensive biography of her sources, which should make a good reading list.
Average customer rating:
- Disappointing
- Beer, Vikings, and Vienna.
- Beer, swashbuckling, mythology, and fun!
- Perhaps my favorite book by Powers
- King of the Beers
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The Drawing of the Dark (Del Rey Impact)
Tim Powers
Manufacturer: Del Rey
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The Anubis Gates
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Declare
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On Stranger Tides
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Last Call
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ASIN: 0345430816
Release Date: 1999-11-16 |
Amazon.com
Del Rey's Impact line introduces a list of titles that have "slipped through the cracks and become buried treasure." The re-release of Tim Powers's The Drawing of the Dark (first published in 1979) is indeed worthy of the imprint. It was his third novel and first foray into the fantasy genre.
It is the year 1529 and Brian Duffy, a soldier of fortune, finds himself in Venice. A late-night confrontation with three brothers over a matter of honor convinces Brian to find greener pastures. After a chance meeting with an old monk named Aurelainus, Brian finds himself hired on to be the bouncer at the famous Herzwesten brewery and inn (formerly a monastery) located in Vienna. During Brian's voyage from Venice to Vienna, he crosses the Dolomite Mountains, only to meet assassins who attack him. Dwarves and creatures Brian knew only from mythology assist him in vanquishing his attackers.
The mythical Fisher King is a central character in The Drawing of the Dark, and cameos by the Roman god Bacchus, the Lady of the Lake, reincarnations of King Arthur and Sigmund from Norse mythology, Merlin, and hosts of soldiers, including Vikings and Swiss mercenaries, add to the otherworldly feel. The legendary heroes are allied against legions of soldiers from the Turkish Ottoman Empire under Suleiman and his wizard Ibrahim, who try to repeat the successes of their 1521 and 1526 invasions of eastern Europe by laying siege to Vienna. But just what is their objective? The city or the beer?
Tim Powers does a great job of tying the historical invasion of eastern Europe by the Turks to a rollicking, fun-filled fantasy, which offers its own reasons for the invasion and a wonderful cast of heroes that ultimately repel the invaders. This is a must-read for Tim Powers fans and for readers who have yet to delve into his rich, wonderful worlds. --Robert Gately
Book Description
What does the famous Herzwesten beer have to do with saving the entire western world from the invading Turkish armies? Brian Duffy, aging soldier of fortune, is the only man who can rescue the world from evil--if only he can figure out why the beer was so important to a mysterious old man called the Fisher King, and why his dreams are plagued with images of a sword and an arm rising from a lake . . .
Customer Reviews:
Disappointing.......2007-09-15
After seeing the positive reviews on Amazon, combined with what appeared to be a very intriguing premise, I was very excited to read Powers' "The Drawing of the Dark." I finished reading it earlier today, and as the 2-star review indicates, was not much impressed with the book and am surprised at the praise this novel has garnered. It has a few significant flaws.
First, the dialogue is very generic and flat. It does nothing to make the reader feel like he (or she) is in 16th century Vienna--where the main action takes place--to say nothing of evoking Sigmund, King Arthur or any of the various other mythical figures and far-away peoples who are involved in the story. It could really be from any fantasy novel, in any setting and does nothing to distinguish the novel, the characters, or the setting from any other fantasy novel.
Second, the characters do not show much depth and appear to have been taken directly from a vault of fantasy novel cliches. There's a wise old wizard who makes a grand show of not revealing what he knows, an evil wizard from the East, and a reluctant hero. None show any significant character depth and all appear to be pretty much typecast. I didn't find anything that connected me emotionally to any character.
Third, the plot does not make much sense. As the Amazon and other reviews state, the story is based around the Ottoman Empire's siege of Vienna in 1529, which is portrayed as the decisive battle between the East and West (the West, predictably, are the good guys). However, by overlaying a fantasy story involving long-ago and frequently pagan heroes and myths on this historical battle, the real political, military and religious factors that led to the Siege of Vienna are mooted. For example, the reader can hardly believe that Odin shows up to defend Christendom or cares about the Holy Roman Empire. So why are the East and West fighting? This is never explained. In fact, this whole dynamic is made even more confusing by the fact that a group of Vikings show up to defend Vienna against Surter and the armies of Muspelheim, which in Norse mythology is located in the South not the East!
The book does has some good points. It moves at a good pace, has some nice moments of humor, and I have to admit that the premise is a pretty neat idea. Had I read it as a teen--before I really new what good fantasy writing was like--I probably would have liked it. But the novel's overall execution is not very good, and it pales in comparison to the better fantasy novels that are available. I would recommend spending your hard earned money on other, better books: Earthsea, Neverwhere, Lud-in-the-Mist, and so on. Perhaps Powers' other books are better.
Beer, Vikings, and Vienna........2007-04-22
Although a fan of Powers for many years, this was the first chance that I have had to read one of the pre-The Anubis Gates novels.
Setting the stage for his long career writing secret histories, The Drawing of the Dark tells the real story behind the siege of Vienna. It does so through the eyes of Brian Duffy-- mercenary, drunk, and one-time lover of Epiphany. When he accepts the job of bouncer at the Zimmermann Inn, home of Herzwesten beer, he has no idea that in doing so he is peeling back the face of the universe that he thought he understood.
Powers keeps ideas that could be seen as cliche fresh through his use of humor, character, and historical detail. There is never a retread feel in one of his books. Last Call is still my favorite of his work, but The Drawing of the Dark is a worthy addition to the rest.
Recommended for people who enjoy steampunk, alternative history, and who are generally fans of Tim Powers.
Beer, swashbuckling, mythology, and fun!.......2007-01-01
Wild, raucous, and fun. Simple as that. OK, maybe not;) Tim Powers delivers truly fantastical fiction without being trite, hackneyed, or derivative. And this certainly isn't a run of the mill retelling of early European mythology. How many authors even know about Ragnarok (Norse version of the apocalypse)? How many could use it as a mere subplot? How many could pack all this and keep things lively and fun? This and the Anubis Gates are my favorites, and have been reread a few times. Definitely worth the time!
Perhaps my favorite book by Powers.......2006-04-17
Though not the first work of fiction I have ever read by Tim Powers, THE DRAWING OF THE DARK remains one of my most favorite of his novels. I could not believe how he managed to breathe life into a tired cliche (I cannot say more without spoiling the book). Along the way he gives us very human characters that endear themselves to the readers while not scrimping on the magic and mayhem (some very chilling moments). History blended with wonder and brewed long and dark until one cannot help but finish the book, drain the glass, and sigh contentedly.
King of the Beers.......2005-11-26
It is 1529, and the West is in turmoil. The vast armies of the Turkish Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent have swept north from Constantinople, and threaten to breach the very gates of Vienna and overrun Europe.
Even in Venice the winds of war and carnage and death and madness sweep over the canals and around and about the spires, clattering their razor-sharp claws against the shutters, seeking entry: an itinerant Irish swordsman, Brian Duffy, is accosted and nearly skewered by three thugs on a Venetian sidestreet.
Being in a good mood, he merely knocks the ruffians off into one of the canals. Being lucky, he gets hired for a decidedly offbeat gig.
His new employer: the shadowy Aurelianus, who favors cryptic instructions, keeps his shutters closed tight, and likes to smoke dried-out snake cigars. The gig? Travel posthaste to Vienna to work as hired muscle for The Zimmermann Inn, an---erm, *investment* of Aurelianus's, and the maker of the Hezwesten Bock, the finest beer in Europe.
Did someone say Beer? I'm in---and so is Duffy, with one small caveat: he's gotta be there---up over the Alps, cross the Sava and the Dava, follow the Danube to the City---by Easter.
So---with old loose ends to be tied up in Vienna, stung with the memory of his own inglorious role in a campaign against the Turks on the fields of Mohacs years before, and with the promise of some jingle-jangle in his purse, Brian Duffy squares his gear, polishes his rapier, and heads out.
But what's with this shadowy Aurelianus guy hiring muscle for a hefty premium---in Venice? What's with the bizarre, frightening visions Duffy is starting to see?---cloven footed, goaty barkeeps, gnomes skulking in the Vienna Woods, monsters haunting the craggy passes of the Alps? And why is someone---or some Thing---trying desperately to destroy the Zimmermann Inn?
Whatever. Half the fun in Powers' work is just giving in to the whole sulphurous madness, enjoying the juice, the sense of place, the wildness, the archaic, the delicious heady juxtaposition of the wild and weird and woolly and historic and completely insane.
Not as deep or resoundingly epic as Powers's masterpiece "The Anubis Gates", "The Drawing of the Dark" is a rowdy, tasty little romp, drenched with atmosphere and intrigue. It is rich with Powers's strangeness: the notion of the real centers of the East and the West, and their respective secret Kings; a lost Viking longship and its hoary-bearded crew, in search of Wotan and the end of the World; bat-winged, scimitar wielding assassins, Turkish deviltry, the friendship of a hunchbacked bombardier charged with the cannons atop the battlements of Vienna---and that's just scratching the surface.
Drink long, drink hard, tilt 'em back, and watch that Dark---the potent brew at the very bottom of the old Herzwestern brewing vat. It's got a real kick.
JSG
Book Description
Take a thrilling walk on the dark side with Konstantinos! The author of Nocturnal Witchcraft presents a collection of magickal techniques for working with dark forces. Developed and tested by Konstantinos, these rites and rituals have proven to be quite powerful in harnessing nocturnal energies-even helping the author overcome a serious medical condition in a miraculous recovery that shocked doctors!
Drawn from diverse sources-ceremonial magick, folk magick, ancient Greek ritual, and divination-these techniques enable magicians and novices to conjure and control primal energies, thoughtforms, Lovecraftian entities, egregores, sigils, and other forces. Those attracted to the dark mysteries will relish Konstantinos' bold exploration of sex magick, death magick, altered states, dream grimoires, and forbidden tomes.
Customer Reviews:
Good on the darker aspects of conventional imagination.......2007-07-22
This book is good on the darker aspects of conventional imagination - what most people think the occult to be - but it misses the point.
Sure, drugs can be a shortcut behind the veil, but the experience isn't lasting, and is quite dangerous for a good percentage of the population, especially when undertaken alone.
This book is a lot of things - if you want to imagine occultism as being easy - like it is in the movies - ok, but this book in not for a serious occultist. They will find it laughable.
Fun Transgressive Magic You Can Do At Home.......2007-06-28
Konstantinos certainly seems to have decided that goth atmosphere is more potent for him, personally, than the trappings of traditional magick. He makes some remarkable claims in this little personal grimoire, including powerful personal healing resulting from the techniques he suggests. I see no theoretical reason why this might not have happened, and big results often lead magicians to publish the strange stuff that they did to get there. That's what this seems to be, if Konstantinos is telling the truth.
The book consists of a series of exercises that draw on classic motifs of dangerous or evil occultism - drugs, demons, sex with corpses, etc. In each case we are taught how to imitate some of the atmosphere of those experiences in ways that are, relatively, safe and sane. Of course, the author takes pains to explain why these things are just edgy, not evil - and the instructions are careful to avoid harm.
An effort is made to present entirely new framing rituals, openings and closings that replace 'circle castings' or other temple openings. I think the author sacrifices the baby with the bathwater here, presenting things that are simply not as cool or useful as traditional rites.
Personally, I'm too much of a Lovecraft fan to take Necronomicon occultism at all seriously, though the author explores the idea of the Dream Grimoire nicely. Some time is spent in a simple overview of early 20th century german occultism, and a fairly cool electro-occult rite is offered.
If you dig the notion of the Black Arts, and already have a solid ritual system that you can work in, you might find some inspiration in the Nocturnicon.
Shoveling the old B.S........2007-03-09
If rites,ritual,prayers,incantations,and suchlike actually had any power to"alter reality",everyone-and I do mean everyone-would have everything he/she wanted...The world would be filled with people whose health was great,whose cares were zero,and whose lives were wish fulfilment personified...
Take a look around you now,and with your eyes open...Where do you see such a world,populated by such people?YOU DON'T!
This book,and all of the others like it,are written so that the authors might profit,as well as the publishing houses...And if one is interested in "gothic"styled fiction(and that is fiction with a capital F)then "Nocturnicon"or any of the hundreds of other bogus grimories that are published yearly will suffice...if,on the other hand,you are looking for some sort of an UNREALISTIC panacea,something that will involve a few chants,some sweet smoke,and ,presto!,you have regained your health,or have won the lottery,or have found your"soul mate",then keep dreaming...
"Nocturnicon"presumes that you are weak-headed enough to believe that because you want something enough,and you have a strong imagination,and are willing to follow the directions in this book,you can actually "change"reality or bend it to your will...Now I will be the first to admit that changing reality is easy,in the commonsense aspect..Everyday we make choices,and these choices ,those made and those not made,constitute our reality...Certain things,however,will not be changed just because we want it so,or think that our will is strong enough to make it so...This book,and all of the others like it,tap into that audience out there who will not accept reality as it is,and instead presumes that he/she can change it to his/her will and design,if ONLY the proper spells are cast,if only the right "spirit"is called upon,if only the right incantations are uttered...If this is you,then buy this book..if,on the other hand,you understand that,despite what we may want,or even need,there are limitations to what we can do,and that many aspects of this world are just not amendable to the sort of changes we might wish...if this is you don't bother with this book...
Life Changing.......2006-10-06
To anyone out there book bashing: feel free to ef off. This book is REAL magic, and REAL scary. You will get results if you use the methods in this book with an open mind. If you walk away from the ritual with "I knew it wouldn't work," then you don't yet qualify for having an open mind, FYI. This book has made me afraid of the dark again. Life will never be the same now that I know what is actually out there. This is not Luciferian worship, it's non secular magic that uses dark forces opposed to other types available.
Either grab this book and conquer the night, or turn away without words, because you know not what you speak of. If you'd like to remain in the world of normalcy and live without fear and the 6th sense that this tomb will awaken, don't touch this; it will damage you.
Sweet, sweet reading for all us nocturnal creatures .......2006-01-28
New York-based occult author Konstantinos (and yes, that is his real name) is a famous name within the darker aspects of the occult. Over the years he's published a total of six books with Llewellyn - books that are all aimed at and written for Nightkind; that is, creatures of the night, people with a somewhat darker (but not necessary evil) view of magickal workings and who prefer the darkness of the night to the light of the day. He's also written numerous articles and appeared on many different TV-shows. In other words, he knows what he's talking about.
And in Nocturnicon he talks about magick being done at night. As with other books of the same category (not necessarily about darker aspects of the occult, but definitely about magick), this is not a book written in an attempt to convince skeptics that magick does indeed work. And it's not some sort of summary about the history of magick and the occult, even though historical references does pop up from time to time. No, this is instead a manual for the believer, a tool that you can use to summon the dark forces that are hidden somewhere in the dark and the infinite universe that surrounds this planet of ours.
Many books about magick contain rituals that are very difficult to do, demands years and years of practice, and include accessories that aren't always very easy to find. Nocturnicon is, however, nothing like that. The rituals and exercises described here are easy to do, don't require any bizarre and impossible demands of preparation, and if you do them correct you'll see the results in no time. Konstantinos is an honest author. He discusses how the use of absinthe (not the legal stuff but rather the old, traditional version) can affect the imagination in great ways, he doesn't deny that illegal substances that help in opening up new aspects of your consciousness, and sex magick isn't too taboo to write about.
Still, please note that it's NOT a "pro-drugs book" or kinky anthology about sleazy sex. Far from it.
If you're a diehard skeptic who doesn't believe in anything that has to do with the occult and magick, then Nocturnicon is probably one of the worst books you'll ever buy. However, if you're open to new possibilities and perhaps even feel instinctively that the darkness of the night affects you in a very special way, then there's really no reason for why you shouldn't run as fast as you can to your nearest bookstore and get a copy of Konstantino's latest work.
He actually succeeds in being amusing, thorough, controversial, funny, and serious, all at the same time, and if you add the fact that the book itself if extremely pleasing to the eye you'll realize that Nocturnicon - Calling Dark Forces and Powers is a book you cannot afford to miss.
Note to the reader of this review: I usually don't give 5 stars to a book, since most books have at least a few flaws that lowers the grade, but occasionally it does happen. This time it did, but rest assure that Konstantinos' latest is worth every single one of the five stars.
I give you my reviewer's word on it.
Amazon.com
No one who enjoyed Richard Powers's remarkable breakthrough novel, Galatea 2.2, will be surprised that he has returned to the richly promising realm of cyber-invention, one of our age's few remaining frontiers and a siren call to restless intellects. In Plowing the Dark, an old friend recruits a disillusioned New York artist named Adie Klarpol to work on "the Cavern." TeraSys, a Seattle-based company, is building this virtual environment at great expense in the hope that it will lower its enormous tax liability as well as, in the long run, provide the template for all such virtual playrooms. "Millions of dollars of funding," Adie's friend Steve tells her when she arrives on the job, "and nobody around this dump can draw worth squat." Suitably impressed by the Cavern's programming, and slowly absorbing its dazzling capacity to project vivid and convincing illusions, she sets herself the task of creating a faithful 3-D version of Rousseau's Dream. Her painstaking efforts in the Realization Lab are aided by a host of supporting characters, one of whom, Spider Lim, proves so sensitive that he gets a bruise from bumping into one of Adie's virtual tree branches. And when the central female figure appears among the foliage, Lim is irresistibly drawn in, marveling that
their first successful leaf, twirling in the Cavern darkness, had led to this--this pale, lentil body turning in his mind's dark. This scapular profile, these tow-line braids. Her hips fell somewhere on the Limaçon of Pascal. The squares of her breasts' abscissas and ordinates summed to an integer. This was the math of women, a field he'd given up studying, female equations whose complexities had long ago surpassed his ability to differentiate.
Powers's lush language corresponds to Adie's vision of Rousseau's jungle, and in turn to Rousseau's own ecstatic vision. Yet there is also something elegiac in the author's lavish descriptions of the Cavern's miracles, as if he were offering a late, last flowering of words before the cultural ascendancy of the image. Great, quotable chunks weight every page. Even readers fond of extravagant prose may find Powers's verbal persistence wearying, though it argues that there are still contradictions and subtleties of mind that no image can track. --Regina Marler
Book Description
In a digital laboratory on the shores of Puget Sound, a band of virtual-reality researchers rush to complete the Cavern, an empty white room that can become a jungle, a painting, or a vast Byzantine cathedral.In a war-torn Mediterranean city, a young man is held hostage in another empty white room, equipped only with his imagination and memory to navigate himself through his captivity.How these two disparate worlds come together make up the arc of Richard Powers' most boldly imagined and deeply humane novel to date. AUTHORBIO: Richard Powers is a MacArthur Fellow and a recipient of the Lannan Literary Award.He is the author of Three Farmers On Their Way to a Dance, Prisoner's Dilemma, The Gold Bug Variations, the National Book Award-nominated Operation Wandering Soul, the National Book Critics Circle Award-nominated Galatea 2.2, and Gain, winner of the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Historical Fiction.He lives in Illinois.
Customer Reviews:
Artsy-Smartsy.......2007-06-05
There's something about Powers' "Plowing the Dark" that is both richly compelling and emotionally distant. Like geniuses of all eras, Powers can't help but keep his patrons at arm's length, if for no other reason than because his sumptuous prose lacks enough inlets for interpretation. This is, without a doubt, a brilliant book. But is it good?
It could be argued that I'm simply not smart enough to get how good it really is, and I wouldn't debate that. I will say I'm smart enough to see what a luxuriant virtuoso the man is. The story interweaves via rich, vertiginous artistry the plight of a group of virtual reality engineers in Seattle with the much more serious plight of an American hostage in the war-torn Middle East. Powers' writing is uncannily lustrous, lending even the most innocuous of subjects (crayons or potted plants) a drenching layer of curious import, and making out of the truly menacing (beatings, kidnappings, ambiguous political upheavals) something clean and transient.
Although I liked "Plowing the Dark," I'll readily admit I didn't fully get the whole thing, either. For the first time since my heady college days I found myself re-reading and re-reading entire passages in a book, simply because the meaning was too tightly sown to penetrate. I could see Powers' forest just fine (it's hard not to), but I never got a clear picture of some of its trees. There's really not much to the heart of the book, and Powers understandably spends only a few (slightly sentimental) moments dissecting that heart. The real interest here is in the rest of the story's body, the fibrous nerves, the semi-solids of its life force, the ingrown hairs, crooked scars, and open pores of every character and nuance surrounding its steadily beating core.
As such, much of the book feels a bit repetitive, and even unnecessary. "Ah, but when has art ever been necessary?" asks Powers, over and over again. And each time, it seems like he has a different answer. Since over half of the book concerns an artist (Adie Klarpol) who is working with some nerdy technoids on the VR room, the book has a lot to say on the function of art, but the truest (most potent) answer comes at the conclusion of the work, the final moments of the hostage's story, the novel's denoument a depiction of one of the simplest and most profound kinds of art.
In spite of Powers' elegance and the book's beauty, the whole thing is a bit long-winded. And although I applaud his effort to spin together the two contrasting storylines, I also have to say it doesn't really work. At its most crucial moment, when Adie Klarpol and the hostage find their life lines intersecting, Powers becomes his most obtuse. Perhaps he was simply worried that the almost magical realism of the moment might not jive with either the digitally fabricated realism of the one story or the painfully true realism of the other. In any case, the moment doesn't work, and its failure is as evident in the nuts and bolts of the plot as it is in the breezy and incomprehensible writing used to describe it.
Even with this kind of error soiling the story, the book is still an amazing read, a tribute to the time-tested struggle of imagination versus concrete experience. Just as Adie and company string their ones and zeros into an approximation of man's ugliest worlds and most gorgeous fantasies, so does Powers string together hopes and despairs into something that is amazing to read, even if it's not nearly as easy to understand.
Another great novel from Richard Powers.......2007-05-02
This is the second book I have read by Richard Powers. The first was In the Time of Our Singing, which I loved, and I rated this one a little lower only by comparison. I still very much admired Plowing the Dark, with its beautiful prose, intelligent and complex characters, and challenging themes.
In one room, the Cavern, a group of artists and technicians work to create a virtual world where imagination is the only limitation. In another room, which has no name, an ESL teacher--abducted in Lebanon--struggles to survive years of captivity. His memory and imagination are his only weapons.
The bulk of Powers' novel describes the efforts of the team behind the Cavern, and Powers does a terrific job evoking the atmosphere of a technology project. The details of the technology, while profuse, don't really matter. What we understand is that we have come remarkably close to being able to create reality by properly describing it. Mindblowing, when you really think about it.
The hostage Taimur's story gets less emphasis, but is told more expansively as the novel progresses. The second-person narration is highly effective.
I think we're meant to contrast the imaginative achievements of the Cavern team with the imaginative achievements of Taimur as he endures his captivity. This works as far as it goes, but while the end made me cry (I weep with small provocation), I didn't quite buy the leap that definitively connects the Cavern project with Taimur's experience. For it to work, you'd have to believe that all creative efforts are plowing the same--communal--dark.
I guess that's a little too mystical (or Jungian?) for me.
(2.5): Dated and Uninspired.......2007-01-29
I'm not sure I read the same book that everyone else seems to be raving about. Powers's "Plowing in the Dark" was a dated novel about virtual reality. Although applying the term "dated" is often unfair, a novel can still be valuable and above all entertaining if the story is interesting and the emotional value of the text makes it worthwhile. Unfortunately, the storyline, one of people trying to create the ultimate virtual world and then coming to grips with the misuse of technology came out flat and actually quite boring. I felt no desire to read a novel that aimed to please the visual senses, but was thin on good description. The novel would be a much better movie, and maybe that was its biggest problem: in a market driven by television, books trying to do the same thing only work when they are simply phenomenal. Anything less requires an actual story, one complete with emotive characters that you can care about.
The only thing worthwhile about the tale were the passages associated with the kidnapped schoolteacher. Powers's description of captivity and what it would be like to be locked away in a cell for many years is remarkable. I would actually venture to say that if you simply cut and pasted those parts of the story, this novel would be one of the best written in the past few decades.
The imaginary spaces humans create, furnish, and inhabit.......2004-08-13
The intricate detail, measured pacing, data-packed prose, and clever wordplay of "Plowing the Dark" will awe some readers and simply frustrate (or bore) others. Unlike virtual reality games and its many military applications, unlike the news accounts concerning the many victims of Middle East terrorism, Powers's novel favors description and experience over action and emotion. His novel explores the "virtual" rooms humans create under wildly different circumstances.
Both of the book's storylines, which don't converge until the very end, are about the imaginary spaces we create, furnish, and inhabit. In one plot thread, a team of programmers transform an empty closet-sized cubical into a place of desire--a 3-D theater of the fantastical, an interactive carnival that entices and awes its visitors. On the other side of the world, an American hostage trapped in an equally empty Beirut dungeon constructs a place of need, using the stage of his mind to recreate his past, his present, and an endless variety of elaborate fictions.
Neither of these fabricated realms is real, but only one of them is essential for survival. Meanwhile, in the "real" world outside, tanks are mowing down protesters, iron curtains are falling, and an instantly televised war begins.
The prose is often a challenge and nearly always fascinating--in small doses. Powers's polymath mind is a warehouse of art and music, literature and history, religion and philosophy, technology and science--and he likes to incorporate his genius into every sentence. Although overwhelming, the deluge of data is remarkably seamless, and I never felt like his brilliance is simply for show. As a programmer from the later 1970s and 1980s, I can appreciate Powers's gift of technogab with a certain post-geek nostalgia, but not every reader will enjoy the wit in passages like: "Bergen dreamed that his Tinkertoy docking simulator would one day drive the actual mechanisms it symbolized. In the cybernetics of enzymes, the mousy, invisible man saw the basic switching and feedback networks of natural selection. In these shape messages telegraphing among their senders he heard whole counterpointing choirs, choruses untestable in isolation."
The two main characters are intelligently and sensitively portrayed. Adie, a disillusioned New York-based artist, is drawn to the possibilities offered by the new media. The thoughts and dreams of Taimur, the hostage in Beirut, are both haunting and believable, and the second-person perspective ("Someone brings you food") simultaneously conveys the horror of the experience and evokes the imaginative qualities of role-playing games from the 1980s.
But--and this is probably the novel's greatest fault, the members of each supporting cast (the Islamic terrorists and the team of Seattle-based computer nerds) are nearly impossible to differentiate. And, finally, the "Angels in America"-inspired ending, while oddly emotional and initially satisfying, strikes me (on reflection) as a bit contrived. After 400 pages of both brutal and virtual reality, this climactic, unexpected dose of magic realism seems borrowed from a wholly different software package.
Plowing the Dark.......2004-02-23
An hour after I have finished reading Plowing the Dark, my feelings are still mixed. On one hand, Powers' prose was simply wonderful with detailed, intricate sentences spilling from every page. The two alternate sections were cut to and from in such a way that I never felt like I was reading the 'wrong' part of the storyline, and I was always anxious to return to the other thread. On the other hand, the storyline pretty much didn't exist, it was more of a two year chunk of life, which is fine normally, but when the ending - as such there was - seemed as tacked on as it did, I was a little disappointed.
But first the two plots. One deals with a virtual reality room being created, the 'Cavern', and we watch as the main character, Adie, learns about it and comes to terms with it. The premise for it is very interesting, but it never really went anywhere: They simply sat around making the Cavern better for two years. While the interaction between people was certainly interesting, and the little comments on society that Powers allowed himself were insightful, I was left wondering what the point of it all was.
The second seems completely unrelated, and for the most part it is. A teacher, Tai, has moved to the Middle East to teach willing students conversational English, and soon after he arrives, he is kidnapped and held as a political hostage. Each of these scenes - and there were many - involving his capture and incarceration were written from a 'you look over there, you do this' type perspective, which really worked. Because it is natural for a reader to expect that he will be freed by the end of the book, his section certainly had a clear beginning, middle and end that I could hold on to while the other thread of the story meandered.
But then, at the end, the two storylines come together in a way that to me, seems completely impossible and contrived. The end existed merely to bring an end to the book and to connect two completely disparate lives. Which is a shame, because by the end of the book I was fully immersed into both Adie and Tai's lives, what they had been and what they wanted to become. In a way, I felt cheated by the tenuous link forged between them, but to be honest I had no idea how the author could possibly put the two ideas together. They are not even remotely similar: an artist working on the age's greatest technological achievement and a captured Muslim-American. I certainly couldn't link the two together, and clearly neither could the author.
But the writing was good, very good in some parts, and the philosophy behind the Cavern was interesting. I'd recommend it for a reader who wants to enjoy what is happening, but not to expect anything meaningful in terms of story.
Book Description
The author shows from the Scriptures that God's people can defeat the enemy because of the character of God, the certainity of His promises, our authority as His people, and, most of all, the victory Christ has already won.
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