Beyond World's End (Bedlam's Bard)

Amazon.com

Beyond World's End continues Eric Banyon's tale in the Bedlam's Bard series. Sieur Eric, Knight and Bard to the court of the Queen of Elfhame Misthold, moves back to the Big Apple to take care of unfinished business. Most notably, he wants to finish his interrupted education at Julliard and settle down to a normal life.

As Eric says goodbye to his friends Kory and Beth, he settles into a new apartment and a rigorous schedule at Julliard. However, a normal life doesn't seem to be in his immediate future as he quickly discovers his apartment has unique features, including a living gargoyle named Greystone and four Guardians who have sworn to protect New York from evil. But the evil the Guardians are facing this time is something they haven't seen before.

Unscrupulous researchers have created a drug that briefly unlocks magical powers in a small percentage of the humans it's given to. Unfortunately, it also has a 100 percent mortality rate. But something evil from Underhill has other plans and seeks to use the temporary human powers to threaten the World Above. As Eric gets drawn into the fray, his past catches up with him and good grades become the least of his problems.

Beyond World's End, which takes place in the same universe as Lackey's SERRAted Edge series, combines human evil and magical evil in a compelling way that brings the characters into today's world. Eric is all grown up now and he's a wonderful hero. However, Beyond World's End feels like it's missing the last few chapters. So much time is spent on back-story and the physical setup of the novel that many characters and their stories are introduced only to be dropped with no explanation or resolution. What could have been a great book ends up being ultimately disappointing coming from these two excellent authors. --Kathie Huddleston

Book Description

This is your soul on drugs...

After the events chronicled in Bedlam's Bard, world-saving bard and magician Eric Banyon moves into his new New York apartment hoping to settle down to the quiet life. No such luck: his building is a safe-house for a group of occultist Guardians protecting the city from supernatural evil. And there's a new evil for them to quard against....

When unethical drug researchers discover that they can induce amazing mental powers using psychotropic drugs, they begin planning to raise a drug-enslaved army of mercenaries and grow very, very rich. But this gets the attention of Aerune mac Audelaine, lord of the dark Unseleighe Sidhe, who hopes to use the drugs to break through to the human world and feed on the suffering there. Both plans will bring terror to the world -- and both are threatened by the very existence of Eric Banyon.

With his possibly loyal companions -- a beautiful elven half-breed and a gargoyle -- Eric heads for a three-way battle of wizardry that will determine Gotham's fate -- and his own.

Customer Reviews:

A decent follow-on but not what I had come to expect.......2006-01-08

This is not a bad third book in this series of Urban Fantasy from Mercedes Lackey. However, the plotline is thin and threadbare in many places -- enough there that one won't notice too much on first look, but close inspection really shines through on that point. The character growth of Eric Banyon is stale halfway through the book, but the character development for Ria is stellar throughout. There are nods to her "Elves and Fast Cars" urban fantasy and her Diana Tregarde series throughout -- but the Guardian characters are mere hints and placeholders towards Tregarde, and the "Elves and Fast Cars" gets some cursory nods in places.

All in all, I was firmly disappointed in this effort from Mercedes. The plotline is not at all what I've come to expect from her, and the character development is slightly shaky when compared to the two earlier novels in this series, and her "Last Herald Mage" series in her Valdemar world. There's enough here to call the book an "average" read, but not enough to whet an appetite for those who enjoyed "Knights of Ghosts and Shadows" and "Summoned to Tourney" previously.

disappointing sequel.......2005-06-11

Like the other reviewers, I was annoyed by the inconsistencies that popped up over and over and were impossible to resolve. I did enjoy the first two books in this series, and so was hoping the quality would continue in this one.

The book stopped holding my attention after the concert. I was hoping for more details of Eric's (the protagonist) life at Juillard. There were too many secondary characters whose stories went nowhere and who might have been interesting if properly developed but never were.

I also wanted more on the potential challenges of having and raising a child in the Underling, more on Eric's relationships at Juillard (particularly the bastard teacher) and how he resolved his issues there, and more on Jeanette, who literally just rode off into the sunset without any follow-up.

All in all, a disappointing read. Even the battles between the elves and the humans didn't hold my attention. They just seemed redundant and too similar to the first books'.

Excellent and rousing.......2004-04-20

BEYOND WORLD'S END isn't exactly your normal urban fantasy. For one, instead of a coming of age tale, we have a "how am I supposed to fit in?" tale instead. And the minions of evil are more earthly, and evil; in short, they're drug lords, sane, in control of themselves -- and all the more vile for that.

But maybe I'm getting ahead of myself.

Protagonist Eric Banyon, flutist and Bard, has returned to the World Above to resume his collegiate career at Juilliard. His former lovers, Beth and Korendil the Elf (Kory for short), have definitely paired off, and he's somewhat at loose ends.

But not for long.

He returns to school, meets a gargoyle named Greystone, and becomes friends with him. And through Greystone, he meets the four Watchers living in his apartment building; four individuals pledged to right wrongs other people don't see, mainly because they have the power to do so and the willingness to lay it all on the line for what they believe is right.

At any rate, Eric finds that evil is stalking the poorest and lowest of the citizens of New York -- people no one else seems to care about. Even Ria Llewelyn, erstwhile love interest (and recently healed corporate half-Elven shark), doesn't seem to care about what's happening.

But Eric cares, and he can't just let it lie. He has to do something.

But what?

What he does, and how he does it, I'll leave you to find out. But I will say that I found it a wonderful adventure with unusual depth and breadth, and it set up SPIRITS WHITE AS LIGHTNING quite nicely in the process.

I like this story better because it's based on self sufficiency; simply put, a big part of the story is Eric learning to accept himself and his magic. That's a message that you just don't see much in fiction; most male heroes are Hell-bent on finding a female (or, in some cases, male) lover just as soon as possible, to block out the dreadful loneliness.

In other words, self-actualization is a non-starter ninety-nine percent of the time.

But not here. Despite his initial feelings of loneliness, Eric learns to see his life as interesting and challenging instead. And that attitude makes this book more realistic, not less, because it's what a mature man would be more likely to do (I mean, let's face it, 28 year old men just don't moon over girls all day and all night if they're even halfway normal). And his growing acceptance of himself and his craft allowed me as a reader to enjoy the atmosphere of a pre-9/11 New York City and be swept away by the highlights (and lowlights) of living there.

It's something I never thought I'd see happen, much less convincingly, but Ms. Lackey and Ms. Edghill really pulled it off well.

The only drawback (and it's minor) in this work is that there is a lot of room, years even, between SUMMONED TO TOURNEY and BEYOND WORLD'S END. Why the marked demarcation?

Granted, the changes made (Eric's growing maturity, Beth and Kory being only friends now) made sense to me, mainly because I've never seen a stable threesome in my entire life.

But I'd love to see what happened in between there; maybe one of these days, Ms. Edghill or Ms. Lackey (or both) will write a story about that time period, to better explain what, exactly, put these three back on the road to friendship (rather than love)?

Ms. Lackey had written several tales with Elves in them before, notably SUMMONED TO TOURNEY and KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS (which also featured Eric Banyon, flutist-for-hire). Ms. Edghill had written three books in her Twelve Treasures series, which featured a group of friends in their mid-twenties and their adventures with Elves.

It was an inspired pairing, as the two authors have now combined on three books (this one, SPIRITS WHITE AS LIGHTNING, and MAD MAUDLIN, with MUSIC TO MY SORROW forthcoming) and brought Eric Banyon's character further along the road to maturity without losing any freshness or appeal.

Five stars, highly recommended.

Barb Caffrey

And if you like this book (and I hope you do), go read the other books in this series, along with anything else Ms. Edghill has ever written.

Good read, but I was confused.......2003-11-03

I read the first 2 books about Eric Banyon & when I read this 1 I was confused because it seems like I missed a book or 2 since in the last book I read they'd just defeated the Nightflyers & were about to have a party & in this 1 the 3 have evidently been living Underhill for several years, Eric's a fully trained Bard & is going back to school at Julliard in New York while Beth is pregnant with Eric's daughter & she & Kory are a couple & living Underhill & evidently Beth's being hunted by the Feds. Also Ria is back among the living after Beth beaned her with her guitar in the 1st book. I still understood everything after a bit of reading but I felt like I'd missed something since there doesn't seem to be a book bridging the gap between the 2nd book & this 1.

Rather dissapointing.......2003-08-09

I was really upset that I didn't like Beyond the Worlds End better than I did because I loved the Bedlam's Bard series up until this point. The vibrancy of the characters from the earlier words was strangely abscent here, and I spent a lot of time wondering if I was reading about the same group.

The threesome of Eric, Kory and Beth is apparently over and after the multiple pronounces of equal love for one another in the previous books, which I found very bothersome. The reasons for the breakup (Kory & Beth growing closer while Eric focuses on his music/magic) really annoyed me. It seemed more like they were simply looking for a way to get Eric into a new situation without entanglements. That Beth was pregant with his child irritated me even more. Did not know that part of bardic duties was voluntary sperm donations for cross-species infertile couples.

Ria Lewellen coming back was a welcome move, but again it didn't have the same weight of the previous books. More like "Okay, Eric's single again, so lets bring back the old girlfriend for some sparks".

The storyline was just weak, and I wasn't engrossed at all. I put it down multple times (which is very unlike my normal reading habits), and doubt that I'm going to read further in the series. I was terribly dissapointed with how the authors chose to continue the saga. Very sad after such a promising beginning.

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Fascinating look at threats to our future....

Things we all need to think about

A sobering assessment

Doom gloom and death

Important, maybe even inspiring, but lacks depth

Our Final Hour: A Scientist's Warning: How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind's Future In This Century--On Earth and Beyond
Martin J. Rees
Manufacturer: Basic Books
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Binding: Hardcover

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Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape the Universe

Before the Beginning: Our Universe and Others (Helix Books)

Our Cosmic Habitat

The End of the World: The Science and Ethics of Human Extinction

Countdown to Apocalypse: A Scientific Exploration of the End of the World

ASIN: 0465068626
Release Date: 2003-03-18

Amazon.com

Just when you've stopped worrying and learned to love the bomb, along comes Sir Martin Rees, Britain's Astronomer Royal, with teeming armies of deadly viruses, nanobots, and armed fanatics. Beyond the hazards most of us know about--smallpox, terrorists, global warming--Rees introduces the new threats of the 21st century and the unholy political and scientific alliances that have made them possible. Our Final Hour spells out doomsday scenarios for cosmic collisions, high-energy experiments gone wrong, and self-replicating machines that steadily devour the biosphere. If we can avoid driving ourselves to extinction, he writes, a glorious future awaits; if not, our devices may very well destroy the universe.

What happens here on Earth, in this century, could conceivably make the difference between a near eternity filled with ever more complex and subtle forms of life and one filled with nothing but base matter.

For many technological debacles, Rees places much of the blame squarely on the shoulders of the scientists who participate in perfecting environmental destruction, biological menaces, and ever-more powerful weapons. So is there any hope for humanity? Rees is vaguely optimistic on this point, offering solutions that would require a level of worldwide cooperation humans have yet to exhibit. If the daily news isn't enough to make you want to crawl under a rock, this book will do the trick. --Therese Littleton

Book Description

A world-renowned astrophysicist advances an astonishing and alarming thesis: the odds are no better than 50/50 that our species will survive to the end of the twenty-first century.

A scientist known for unraveling the complexities of the universe over millions of years, Sir Martin Rees now warns that humankind is potentially the maker of its own demise--and that of the cosmos. Though the twenty-first century could be the critical era in which life on Earth spreads beyond our solar system, it is just as likely that we have endangered the future of the entire universe. With clarity and precision, Rees maps out the ways technology could destroy our species and thereby foreclose the potential of a living universe whose evolution has just begun.

Rees boldly forecasts the startling risks that stem from our accelerating rate of technological advances. We could be wiped out by lethal "engineered" airborne viruses, or by rogue nano-machines that replicate catastrophically. Experiments that crash together atomic nuclei could start a chain reaction that erodes all atoms of Earth, or could even tear the fabric of space itself. Through malign intent or by mistake, a single event could trigger global disaster. Though we can never completely safeguard our future, increased regulation and inspection can help us to prevent catastrophe.

Rees's vision of the infinite future that we have put at risk--a cosmos more vast and diverse than any of us has ever imagined--is both a work of stunning scientific originality and a humanistic clarion call on behalf of the future of life.

Customer Reviews:

Fascinating look at threats to our future...........2006-06-25

I'm frankly interested in natural disasters such as tornados, floods, and hurricanes. I find it fascinating how the human spirit can remain strong despite an environment which might at any time become deadly. "Our Final Hour" contains a scientists warnings about spectacular disasters we as human beings might one day have to face, and what if anything can be done to prevent/overcome these unforseen disasters. From flooding, to terrorist threat, this book plays out many scenarios with stunning and interesting outcomes.

This book is not light reading and might take a while to plow through, but I enjoyed every minute. Its interesting stuff, and while I'm not particularly worried about these sort of cataclysmic events included in this book, its nice to be prepared- and it makes good fodder for science fiction writing.

5 stars.

Things we all need to think about.......2004-11-18

A short but very thought-provoking book, this is not a 'doom and gloom' pessimistic view of the future, but an invitation to the reader to seriously think about humanity's long-term survival prospects. A good selection of both natural and human-caused dangers are considered here, though not in a great deal of depth.

There is a focus on space related dangers (and other space topics like interplanetary colonisation as a safeguard against disaster on Earth), which is not at all surprising given the author, and while I would have preferred to have had more coverage on other topics, it was probably a good decision by Rees to focus on those areas he knows best.

One particularly thought-provoking topic is the idea that technology is rapidly reaching a point where individuals (or very small groups) can cause catastrophic global damage, a very new phenomenon. While we generally find the idea of a society with no privacy distasteful, monitoring every individual may become necessary as the only real way to combat this danger. We all may have to seriously start considering how much privacy and freedom we wish to retain, versus how much danger we are willing to accept for the human race.

A sobering assessment.......2004-11-16

An important thing to realize when reading this book is that we will indeed have a "final hour." Whether it comes through extinction or self destruction or through our becoming "posthuman" is entirely uncertain, but come it will.

I have read several other doomsday books, including A Guide to the End of the World: Everything You Never Wanted to Know (2002) by Bill McGuire, and Extinction: Evolution and the End of Man (2002) by Michael Boulter. I have also read some books by futurists like Ray Kurzweil and Pierre Baldi (The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence [1999] and The Shattered Self: The End of Natural Evolution [2001], respectively); additionally I have read some of the books that Rees relied upon while writing this book, including, Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution (2002) by Francis Fukuyama, and so most of the things that Martin Rees is worried about are familiar to me.

But this book nonetheless broadened my perspective because Sir Martin Rees (the Astronomer Royal of Great Britain, and a distinguished astrophysicist) is persuasive in his argument that there may actually be scientific experiments that should not be tried. He warns against some kinds of genetic engineering, especially those attempting to change the DNA of dangerous pathogens, and even rates some experiments in physics as of dubious value. This is a somewhat surprising stance for a reputable scientists to take since most scientists do not relish the prospect of political restraints on their work, and usually afford the same courtesy to practitioners in other disciplines.

His call for taking a close look at experiments with a chance of a "doomsday downside," however remote, is well taken. His sense that some biological experiments have such an unsavory "yuck factor" (e.g., "Brainless hominoids whose organs could be harvested as spare parts," p. 78) that scientists themselves should not be alone in deciding whether such experiments should continue, is also an excellent point.

Rees is characteristically not dogmatic about any of this. He presents the dangers and the objections typically with the proviso that a wider public than an individual scientist, or an oligarchy of scientists, should participate in the decisions made. Indeed Rees is an eminently reasonable man who tries to have as few prejudices (or "yuck factors") about things as possible.

He emphasizes the unpredictability of future developments, noting that "straightforward projections of present trends will miss the most revolutionary innovations: the qualitatively new things that really change the world." (p. 12) Nobody before modern physics could have predicted the power of the atomic bomb, nor could the earliest experimenters with electricity have foreseen how electrical power would transform the world.

Like the futurists named above, Rees sees a posthuman future for our kind, a future in which cultural evolution transforms humans into something beyond human. He recalls Darwin, who wrote, "not one living species will transmit its unaltered likeness to a distant futurity" and notes that "Earth itself may endure, but it will not be humans who cope with the scorching of our planet by the dying sun..." (p. 186) What both Darwin and Rees are acknowledging is that all species eventually become extinct, and so too will humans.

The central point of this book I believe however is to be found further down the page where Rees writes, "Nuclear weapons give an attacking nation a devastating advantage over any feasible defense. New sciences will soon empower small groups, even individuals, with similar leverage over society. Our increasingly interconnected world is vulnerable to new risks; 'bio' or 'cyber,' terror or error. These risks cannot be eliminated: indeed it will be hard to stop them from growing without encroaching on some cherished personal freedoms."

Indeed, this is perhaps the central conundrum of our time made emphatic by the events of September 11th.

One of the most interesting ideas in this book is this from page 154: "Perhaps complex aggregates of atoms, whether brains or machine, can never understand everything about themselves." I am reminded here of Godel's incompleteness theorem in which he demonstrated that mathematics cannot have a truly rigorous logical foundation. I am also reminded of Russell's discovery that the logic of self-referential systems can lead to paradox. Rees's point here is that we may never really know ourselves.

Rees also makes the point on the same page that our machines will accelerate science, perhaps to the point where only machines can understand the new discoveries.

Clearly we are finite creatures in a world that we can never hope to fully understand. Furthermore there will always be dangers that we cannot predict or avoid. These are sobering thoughts for humans to think.

Rees closes by asking if the future will "be filled with life, or as empty as the Earth's first sterile seas" and he opines that "The choice may depend on us, this century."

Here I think he is waxing perhaps a bit melodramatic since, while we may have the ability to destroy civilization here on earth, life will indeed go on since it is highly unlikely that we will develop any time soon the ability to destroy all life. Furthermore, I agree with those who believe that life in some form exists beyond our solar system. Surely we will not be able to destroy them.

Doom gloom and death .......2004-09-21

This is a very clearly written exposition of the major threats facing mankind in the present and near future. It provides sensible discussions of incredible dangers that most of us do not think about most of the time. It is also reasonable in understanding that the nuclear threat has not vanished with the fall of the Soviet Union but has rather transformed. It too presents a picture of possible survival through colonization of other worlds. And it proposes a whole set of possibilities of transformation of humanity into some other form of being which would make our cosmic survival more likely. Its focus however is in discussing the kinds of dangers human tampering with nature and environment bring to the future.
The hopelessness which I personally felt in reading the work comes not only from the possibility that one of the ' doom scenarios' might be realized. It is rather from the strong feeling which Rees is not alone in presenting, that we human beings as we are, are only a temporary stage which will necessarily be transformed into some other more durable, more intelligent kind of ' thing.' I find that this approach undermines the central value of the 'human'as we know it. Human life,individual human beings, human relations in all their complexity, the human relation to the Divine seem to me to be more precious and holy, than our ' survival ' as another ' form of being'. This book is frightening in its negative prospects but too does not console in the picture of the non- human human future, it gives.

Important, maybe even inspiring, but lacks depth.......2004-09-03

I have the greatest respect for Martin Rees both as a leading scientist and as a scientist who believes in making science widely accessible. My sense is that in this book, he presents so much so briefly that the most important themes remain undeveloped.

The doom-and-gloom title only tells part of the story. Rees summarizes the many threats to our civilization, the biosphere, and even to the cosmos as a whole. These risks stem from natural events such as asteroids, comets, or super-massive volcanic eruptions, but even more from human activities. Rees does a good job of reminding us that science and technology are giving individuals, whatever their motivations, access to more and more power. It won't be long before a terrorist group or a Unibomber-type individual could cause enormous destruction, for example by unleashing homemade bioweapons. Other risks come from scientists heedlessly pushing the envelope of fields such as nanotechnology. The cumulative risk, Rees argures, has never been greater, not even during the depths of the cold war.

Still, Rees provides some hope. He advocates a renewed thrust into space, with the idea of establishing self-sufficient groups of humans (or our "descendants" in the form of intelligent machines) away from Earth, where even an Earth-destroying disaster would not bring human (and posthuman) history to a crashing stop.

These are important themes, which Rees backs up by brief references to those who have gone more deeply into them than he has.

I would have felt more satisfied by Our Final Hour if Rees had taken the time to go more deeply into his most important points himself.

Robert Adler, author of Scence Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation; and Medical Firsts: From Hippocrates to the Human Genome

The Final Move Beyond Iraq: The Final Solution While the World Sleeps

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Alarming if only part of it is true!
Prophecy
Very good book
Historical. Insightful. Powerful. Revealing.
Powerful!!!

The Final Move Beyond Iraq: The Final Solution While the World Sleeps
Mike Evans
Manufacturer: Frontline
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1599791889

Product Description

The Final Move Beyond Iraq
By Mike Evans

In The Final Move Beyond Iraq, Mike Evans addresses the greatest threat America has faced since the Civil War: the Islamic revolution, or Islamofascism. While the United States debates the best way to solve the situation in Iraq, the terrorists are claiming victory and planning to take their show to American soil once again.

Drawing from extensive interviews with prime ministers, CIA directors, and other insiders, Evans looks at the history and ideology behind the Islamic revolution to explore its very real threat to U.S. interests why radical Islamic terrorists will only step back when they fear us, why victory in Iraq is important to U.S. security, why the United States and Israel cannot sit idly by and let Iran achieve its desire for nuclear weapons, and why stabilization in Iraq now would sound defeat rather than victory.

The Final Move Beyond Iraq is a wake-up call to mobilize millions to action. America is fighting for its life in the first war of the twenty-first century.

Customer Reviews:

Alarming if only part of it is true!.......2007-10-09

On page 164 the author claims that Bin Laden purchased 48 nuclear suitcases but his note number 44 states that Bin Laden MAY have nukes.
The author may be writing more than he knows. There is enough danger out there as it is, Mr. Evans does not need to over do it by turning terrifying possibilities into facts, he will lose credebility and the book will lose its' effectiveness.

Prophecy.......2007-09-29

Mike Evans is a brilliant writer and gives us facts and figures that is a must for every American to know about. He gives insight into the U.S. policy and Foreign Policy. Great Book !!

Very good book.......2007-08-31

This is a very good book that really helps to put the whole issue of what our world is facing in the future in the war on terror. When you look at the events over the past few years individually, they don't mean much. But Mike Evans does a great job of lining them all up end to end and uses Bible references to point out how close we are to the end times.

Historical. Insightful. Powerful. Revealing........2007-08-25

THE FINAL MOVE BEYOND IRAQ is relevant, insightful, and alarming. Mike Evans goes to great lengths to document his observations and support his conclusions. I appreciate the historical accuracy and honesty of his writing. He successfully (mostly) separates his personal views from the historical record which makes his analysis more objective, honest, and credible.

As believers, we know that God's timepiece is Israel and the final battles of destruction will occur in the Middle East. After reading FINAL MOVE, all of this appears a great deal closer than it did before.

Evans details the historic struggles of Persia, now Iran, Iraq, Israel, and the other Middle Eastern states and kingdoms tracing their grudges and disputes to today's conflicts. Across the broad sweep of history, he helps put the current disasters in context. These are ancient religious struggles reaching tumultuous climax, even though they involve our sons and daughters from a new world actor (the U.S.). Sunni against Shiites, and both against Israel and the United States.

For those of us who lived during Carter's dreadful Presidency, the book revisits the pain that marked those awful years. We also see the legacy of Reagan's leadership, honor and courage having preserved the peace and advanced the cause of liberty throughout the world.

These are dangerous times and Evans has done an important job putting the trumpet to his lips to rally the faithful.

Powerful!!!.......2007-08-23

Brilliantly written, this is a wake up call for America. Every thought provoking word had sense of urgency calling believers to humble ourselves before the Lord and pray for our nation as never before. Thank you so much for all the hard work you put into this book, all the risks you took to bring the truth to Americans and the world alike. You are a blessing, Mike Evans!!! God bless you!!!

On the Lines of Morris' Romances: Two Books That Inspired J. R. R. Tolkien-The Wood Beyond the World and the Well at the World's End

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Excellent bargain

On the Lines of Morris' Romances: Two Books That Inspired J. R. R. Tolkien-The Wood Beyond the World and the Well at the World's End
William Morris
Manufacturer: Inkling Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1587420244

Book Description

Tolkien fans who long for more of the same delight that they get from The Lord of the Rings will find it in the writings of William Morris, for it was he who created the literary style that J. R. R. Tolkien brought to such perfection in his tales. As a young man writing to his future wife, Tolkien mentioned the inspiration he was receiving from Morris:

"Amongst other work I am trying to turn one of the short stories [of the Finnish Kalevala] . . . into a short story somewhat on the lines of Morris' romances with chunks of poetry in between."

Forty-six years later, Tolkien still remembered what he had learned from Morris:

"The Lord of the Rings was actually begun, as a separate thing, about 1937, and had reached the inn at Bree, before the shadow of the second war. . . . The Dead Marshes and the approaches to the Morannon owe something to Northern France after the Battle of the Somme. They owe more to William Morris and his Huns and Romans, as in The House of the Wolfings or The Roots of the Mountains."

As The Lord of the Rings was being written, Tolkien's close friend, C. S. Lewis, wrote that Morris provides his readers with a "pleasure so inexhaustible that after twenty or fifty years of reading they find it worked so deeply into all their emotions as to defy analysis." In words that could apply equally well to Tolkien, he said:

It is indeed, this matter-of-factness . . . which lends to all of Morris's stories their somber air of conviction. Other stories have only scenery; his have geography. He is not concerned with 'painting' landscapes; he tells you the lie of the land, and then you paint the landscapes for yourself. To a reader long fed on the almost botanical and entomological niceties of much modern fiction . . . the effect is at first very pale and cold, but also fresh and spacious. No mountains in literature are as far away as distant mountains in Morris. The world of his imagining is as windy, as tangible, as resonant and three dimensional, as that of Scott and Homer.

If you enjoy what Tolkien wrote about Aragorn, if you admire the bravery of the Riders of Rohan, if you long for more tales of adventure in a vast and unspoiled wilderness, and if you wish that Tolkien had more to say about the courage of women or about romances between men and women, then you will be delighted by these two marvelous tales from the pen of the gifted William Morris.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent bargain.......2005-11-13

This book is a fantastic buy! The Well Beyond The World's End is usually published in 2 volumes, so this edition includes the text of 3 books that would normally cost you about $42 if purchased separately.

The text is printed in two columns, as in a magazine. It's very readable and aesthetically pleasing (don't judge by the unfortunate cover). The only downside is that Morris originally published his books in an elaborate illuminated manuscript style (like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Kelmscott_Press_-_The_Nature_of_Gothic_by_John_Ruskin_%28first_page%29.jpg). Unfortunately no modern printing of Morris seems to include his gorgeous original format. On the plus side, this edition is definitely more readable.

As for the stories themselves, I think it's fair to say Tolkien (and to a degree C.S. Lewis) retained every innovation Morris made, more or less replacing him. It's likely that only hardcore Tolkien/Lewis fans will find these books worth reading. This and the companion volume are the closest thing to the LOTR prequel.

The text is widely available free online (though it's not fun to read on a screen), so you might test a few pages before committing to a purchase:
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/m#a107

Average customer rating:

Excellent Book!

2000 And Beyond
Mark Finley
Manufacturer: Pacific Pr Pub Assn
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Binding: Paperback

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Customer Reviews:

Excellent Book!.......2004-07-04

Insights into prophecy's predictions for this millennium. All based on the Bible.

The Last Man (Second Edition) (Beyond Armageddon)

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Let His Death Crown His Life!
Mary Shelley Fantastic!
Death and disease level all men
The Last Man by Mary Shelley (1797-1851)
"The Last Man," the best of Mary Shelley's "other" works

The Last Man (Second Edition) (Beyond Armageddon)
Mary Shelley
Manufacturer: Bison Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 080329350X

Book Description

Taken from an ancient text found abandoned in a cave, The Last Man ends in 2100, “the last year of the world.” A devastating worldwide plague has annihilated all of humanity except for one man, who chronicles the world's demise. This novel of apocalyptic horror, originally published in 1826, was rejected in its time and was out of print from 1833 to 1965, when the first Bison Books edition appeared.

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At another time we were haunted for several days by an apparition, to which our people gave the appellation of the Black Spectre. We never saw it except at evening, when his coal black steed, his mourning dress, and plume of black feathers, had a majestic and awe-striking appearance; his face, one said, who had seen it for a moment, was ashy pale; he had lingered far behind the rest of his troop, and suddenly at a turn in the road, saw the Black Spectre coming towards him.

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Let His Death Crown His Life!.......2007-03-23

I am in ethereal love with Mary Shelley. Why is her literary importance and fancy not uplifted more than it is? I grimace whenever I go to a bookstore and glance each time at the Mary Shelley section to find only Frakenstein. She has other great books probably not many people know about. Such is the case in The Last Man. I thought Frankenstein was about as sad as one could allow a character to feel but after reading The Last Man Mary out does herself by really putting poor Verney in a pickle. This story really tugged at me hard and actually made me feel for the characters in a way so few books or movies ever have. If you know about Mary Shelley and have read Frankenstein or anything else by this, I feel, greatest author to have ever put word to paper, then you MUST read this beautiful accounting of "the last year of the world". It astonished me to find out that the book was out of print from 1833 to 1965. Wow! I failed to compare the story to such contemporary biological warfare or AIDS for that matter and took the story's meaning for what Shelley may have wanted to get across during her time that had neither. I believe she wants to almost persuade us of a deeper level of human condition and compassion by taking us as low as we can and then allowing us to constantly strive upward from that awful place she leaves Verney. Please, read more of Mary Shelley.

Mary Shelley Fantastic!.......2007-02-03

If you are a fan of the book Frankenstein, then you will
definetely enjoy this book. Mary Shelley is obviously
a gifted writer who is inciteful on human interplay.
The story is not so acurate when it describes the 21st
century, but that is not what the story concentrates on.
It is similar to Frankenstein about doomed characters
in a Greek tragedy. If your a fan of Mary then you must
buy this book.

Death and disease level all men.......2006-08-13

This novel is a combination of a `roman à clefs' and science fiction, with gothic and autobiographic elements.
In her vision of the end of the 21st century, Mary Shelley sees the Greek occupying Istanbul and England as a republic with three political parties (royalists, democrats and aristocrats). The leader of the democrats deserts his responsibilities through fear of the plague, while the intention of the head of the aristocrats (a highly idealized portrait of P.B. Shelley) is `to diminish the power of the aristocracy to effect a greater equalization of wealth and privilege and to introduce a perfect system of republican government.'
Byron (Lord Raymond) is not in the same league: `Power was the aim of all his endeavors. The selected passion was ambition.'

Her vision of mankind is pessimistic: `There was but one good and one evil in the world - life and death.'
For life, `The choice is with us; let us will it and our habitation becomes a paradise.'
But, `What is there in our nature that is for ever urging us on towards pain and misery? We are not formed for enjoyment; disappointment is the never-failing pilot of our life's bark, and ruthlessly carries us to the shoals.'
`It is a strange fact, but incontestable, that the philanthropist, who ardent in his desire to do good, who disdains other argument than truth, has less influence over men's mind than he who refuses not to adopt any means, nor diffuse any falsehood for the advancement of his cause.'

Man doesn't control his destiny and the whole of mankind is wiped out by the plague. But, even on the verge of total destruction, false prophets preach intolerance with their `pernicious doctrines of election and special grace'.

This book is brilliantly written: `He was no longer bent to the ground, like an over-nursed flower of spring that, shooting up beyond its strength, is weighed down even by its own coronal of blossoms.'

It has a few minus points: slow progression, too idealized main characters and a rather too simplistic cause of the whole destruction of mankind.
But, it remains a real discovery and a very worth-while read, with an excellent introduction by Pamela Bickley.

Many novels have the plague as subject. I recommend highly `Bassompierre' by Hugo von Hofmannsthal.

The Last Man by Mary Shelley (1797-1851).......2006-05-31

The book chronicles a great global plague which annihilates the
world except for one man who describes the world's demise.
The work was first published in 1826. It was out-of-print from
1833 through 1965 and has been widely read thereafter. Shelley's
"Last Man" has been resurrected due to the tremendous interest
in potential plagues like bird disease, global warming, continental earth movements, super hurricanes and out-of-control comets randomly threatening the earth of the future on a periodic basis.

Even Nostradamos talked about the world's end in the year 3797.
The volume is written in the English literature of the 1800s.
The language is superior. In spots, the vocabulary is of the
highest order. Here is a sample:

" She dwelt in a cottage whose trim grass-plat sloped down to
the waters of the lake of Ulswater; a beech wood stretched up the hill behind, and a purling brook gently falling from the
acclivity ran through poplar-shaded banks into the lake. "

Another unforgetable passage reminds us of Shelley's poetic
nature interwoven into the overall story. Details follow:

"The golden splendour arose, and weary nature awoke to suffer
yet another day of heat and thirsty decay. No flowers lifted up
their dew laden cups to meet the dawn; the dry grass had
withered on the plains; the burning fields of air were vacant of
birds; the cicale alone, children of the sun, began their shrill
and deafening song among the cypresses and olives. "

Just prior to the year 2100, Shelley paves the way for the
chaos in the making. A sample paragraph describes the
apprehension in the wind:

" This was not universal. Among better natures, anguish and
dread, the fear of eternal separation, and the awful wonder
produced by unprecedented calamity, drew closer to the ties of
kindred and friendship. Philosophers opposed their principles, as
barriers to the inundation of profligacy or despair , and
the only ramparts to protect the invaded territory of human
life; the religious, hoping now for their reward, clung fast
to their creeds, as the rafts and planks which over the tempest-
vexed sea of suffering, would bear them in safety to the harbour
of the Unknown Continent. "

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley published a number of memorable
works around the time of "The Last Man". Her other works were:
- Perkin Warbeck in 1830--the author's fourth novel
- Lodore is published in 1835.
- Faulker is published in 1837

On February 1, 1851, Mary Shelley died.

"The Last Man," the best of Mary Shelley's "other" works.......2003-11-09

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley published "The Last Man" in 1826, eight years after her classic "Frankenstein" and four years after her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley died. Of all of her other novels, "The Last Man" is clearly the one that is of more than passing interest. In her Journal in May of 1824 Shelley wrote: "The last man! Yes, I may well describe that solitary being's feelings, feeling myself as the last relic of a beloved race, my companions extinct before me." The result was one of the first novels to tell a story in which the human race is destroyed by pestilence, which we have seen in novels from Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend" and Stephen King's "The Stand," and films such as the recent "28 Days Later..." However, "The Last Man" is also an early example of a dystopian novel set in the 21st century when England is a republic being governed by a ruling elite. Adrian, Earl of Windsor (and a representation of Shelley's late husband) introduces the narrator of the tale, Lionel Verney, who is the required outsider to describe and comment upon the world of the future.

Shelley's vision of the future is essentially a reaction against Romanticism and the failure of the movement to solve the problems of the world with art and imagination. This would stand in contrast to earlier English utopian works such as Francis Bacon's "The New Atlantis," which reflected the Age of Reason's belief that science would solve any and all problems. Shelley begins the story as a romance, with Lord Raymond (presumed to be modeled on Lord Byron) winning the hand of the lovely Perdita and being elected Protector. In contrast to the dire predictions of Thomas Malthus regarding unchecked population growth resulting in mass starvation, an ideal world seems to have been created. But then the plague breaks out in Constantinople and starts spreading. This plague is grounded more in fantasy than science, with Shelley clearly relying more on Boccaccio and Defoe, for her pandemic, which is not contagious (an interesting plot choice to be sure).

The point of the plague is that it allows Shelley to show the best and the worst of human nature. When the demagogue Ryland abdicates being Lord Protector, the altruistic Adrian takes his place and makes an appeal for brotherhood, even as anarchy runs rampant in the streets and eventually the main characters are forced to flee England, which has strong parallels to the expulsion from Eden. This sets up the idea at the end of the novel that the last survivors might be able to establish an earthly paradise and rebuild the human race after the plague has disappeared. I was rather surprised that Shelley kills off her female characters because I had expectations that this would be more of a feminist work. Of course, this is because I remember who her mother was, but "The Last Man" is clearly concerned more with her late husband.

Customer Reviews:

Not as good as it's for-runner.......2005-02-27

The audio cassette, like the book it is derived from, is very interesting. It picks up William's story from precisely the point at which you leave it in "The Road to Nab End".
The early part of the story I found interesting, it certainly demonstrates that poverty in the early 20th century England was a nation wide issue, amongst the working classes; you could mistakenly believe it just effected the north had you only read the first book. William's journey through education and on to Oxford University, delighted me. But the book is politics heavy and if the history of the Labour movement is not your cup of tea, then you might find you lose your way a touch with this book. Keep on though, it is worth it, it just lacks the evocative magic of it's for runner for the most part. It does cleverly highlight pre-WW2 politics. Some of the early stories capture the old magic, particualry William's cyclehunt for his lost love in driving snow!

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A wonderful book
A Passion for Life on Earth!
Great Pictures from people to places and animals inbetween.

Beyond the End of the World
Peter Tunney
Manufacturer: Universe Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0789301474
Release Date: 1998-11-15

Book Description

Throughout his phenomenal career, photographer Peter Beard has documented the danger of annihilation that threatens both the nature and cultures of Africa. This remarkable visual volume chronicles that world in a series of Beard's fashion shoots--works of unparalleled beauty that depict Africa as a vibrant, pulsating panorama of contemporary cultures.

Customer Reviews:

A wonderful book.......2003-08-17

Beautiful, brutal and inspiring. Each time I open it I find it more touching. It is one of the best gifts to give to someone who appreciates nature, Africa or photography. Peter Beard is a collector of memories and his journals are pieces of art.
As a child, I was impressed by Peter Beard's creativity and sense of adventure. As an adult, I appreciate that he has chosen to share his experiences through his books. He's a man who lives an extraordinary life! His photographs and journals are a must-see if you can catch them in a gallery, however, this book is the next best thing.

A Passion for Life on Earth!.......2001-08-03

If you love Africa, her people and the wildlife, you will enjoy this book by Peter Beard. I first came across his very first published book 'The End of the Game'in 1965 featuring a fascinating look at East Africa's endless game animals and some of the colorful characters who hunted them. He recorded an Africa that is long gone. Subsequently his other works came out - 'Longing for Darkness', 'Eyelids of the Morning''Fifty Years of Portraits' and this title 'Beyond the end of the World' and I was fortunate to have some of them autographed. As always, Beard's photographs and diaries are a delight to read.

Great Pictures from people to places and animals inbetween........1999-04-16

Peter Beards latest book is short on words and long on interesting pictures. It is the most varied in subject content that I've seen in his work. Some of the wildlife scenes are without equal. The only detraction is that it is short on narration. If I could have one wish, I would really like to have him sitting beside me and telling me about each picture. I guess another complaint would be that the book is much too short, I want more. I have two of his other works (Eyelids of Morning, and End of the Game) which are longer and thus more satisfying to an avid reader. Some of this book can be seen in the others. A perspective buyer would also be advised to get more biographical information on Peter Beard to understand the background of work.

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Beyond the wide world's end;
Meta Mayne Reid
Manufacturer: Lutterworth Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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Beyond today
Pearl J Ray
Manufacturer: Harvest Age Ministries
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 0961640502

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