Book Description
Twelve-thousand feet beneath the Atlantic Ocean . . .
scientists are excavating the most extraordinary undersea discovery ever made. But is it the greatest archaeological find in history—or the most terrifying?
Former naval doctor Peter Crane is urgently summoned to a remote oil platform in the North Atlantic to help diagnose a bizarre medical condition spreading through the rig. But when he arrives, Crane learns that the real trouble lies far below—on “Deep Storm,” a stunningly advanced science research facility built two miles beneath the surface on the ocean floor. The topsecret structure has been designed for one purpose: to excavate a recently discovered undersea site that may hold the answers to a mystery steeped in centuries of myth and speculation.
Sworn to secrecy, Dr. Crane descends to Deep Storm. A year earlier, he is told, routine drilling uncovered the remains of mankind’s most sophisticated ancient civilization: the legendary Atlantis. But now that the site is being excavated, a series of disturbing illnesses has begun to affect the operation. Scientists and technicians are experiencing a bizarre array of symptoms—from simple fatigue to violent psychotic episodes. As Crane is indoctrinated into the strange world of Deep Storm and commences his investigation, he begins to suspect that the covert facility conceals something more complicated than a medical mystery.The discovery of Atlantis might, in fact, be a cover for something far more sinister . . . and deadly.
Like Lincoln Child’s spectacular bestsellers coauthored with Douglas Preston (The Book of the Dead, Relic), Deep Storm melds scientific detail and gripping adventure in a superbly imagined, chillingly real journey into unknown territory. Child is a master of suspense, and Deep Storm is his most ambitious novel to date.
Customer Reviews:
Not a Deep Connection........2007-10-09
I just finished reading "Deep Storm". It was okay, but not great.
There was a very...clinical element in the way the story was told. We never really find out any personal details about the characters. As a result, the story ends without the reader forming a substantial emotional bond with any of the characters.
While this doesn't prevent the story from being told, it could definitely have been told better. Adding personal details about the characters is just one way this could have been accomplished. Another missed opportunity was adding more details to those characters who said they were hearing voices. It would've been interesting to eavesdrop on those [Spoiler Warning!] voices/alien transmissions.
The book was a quick read, but unfortunately nothing that I would be motivated to read a second time.
"It's all broken ..." (possible spoilers).......2007-10-04
One of the more idiotic characters of the book keeps uttering this, and boy how right he was. There were a number of just plain holes in the plot. Here's a little one. A character who's role was to just be murdered sets up a meet with a bad guy at a gas station. He has the air compressor tire pump with him. He invites the bad guy into his car. He gets into the car and shuts the door. He *still* has the compressor hose in his hand. Did he thread it through the open window before getting into the car? Who knows? Somehow it ends up being long enough for his killer to take from him, jam down his throat, and turn on.
Here's another one. The bad guy later has to insert an encoded message into an image file. All he has to work with is a dumb terminal with no hard disk. So he writes a program and, uh, *compiles* it, then runs it. First, what dumb terminal is going to have a compiler? Second, if you compile a program you have to save it somewhere. Well where do you save it if you don't have a hard disk?
The book is full of little pieces of foolishness like this. For instance, 2 miles down in the ocean, there's a flash of light, and the ocean bottom is packed with all the funny looking denizens of the deep. If you're going to write a book you should know a little about the location of your main action. Like: the deep ocean isn't just packed full of funny looking fish.
Last one: all marines are violent robots who follow their evil overlord to death without individual thought ... especially the "special ops" ones.
Anyway I could go on, but you get the idea.
His Best Yet.......2007-09-13
This is Lincoln Child's best book yet! I have read every book by Child and his co-author Preston. Loved the imagination that went along with the story, you could almost feel yourself down at the ocean floor with all the characters. The ending, I hope, leaves room for a continuing novel.
Not nearly deep enough for me.......2007-09-12
An adventure unfolds in the deep sea several miles below an oilrig in the north Atlantic in Lincoln Child's Deep Storm, where a phalanx of scientists, doctors and marines in a massive seabed complex prepare to excavate a great discovery, perhaps the greatest discovery of all time, we are told.
And thus the adventure unfolds; it unfolds and unfolds and unfolds and yet, sadly, it never really arrives anywhere special; the author's attempts at any sort of real depth flounders despite his crisply written pages. Yes they are scribed with scalpel-sharp techno description, jam-packed with medical and science fact. But in all honestly, the wealth of research packed into the novel does nothing to develop the spirit of the main character, Peter Crane a navy doctor who's been dispatched to the undersea science complex to help solve the mystery of an outbreak of mysterious illnesses. In fact, none of the characters pop to life in Deep Storm.
The narrative leads Crane and the reader into first believing that Atlantis has been discovered, but that notion is soon dispelled when further investigation reveals that the top-secret mission is actually a dig for some alien technology buried some 600 years ago just inside the Mohorovicic Discontinuity, or "Moho" as it's called, the boundary between the earth's crust and mantle, which under the sea is not as deep as in other areas. It's still deep enough to be causing all sorts of problems and mishaps. For starters, the medical outbreak, (mental disorders mostly, which, for story purposes is quite lame) might be due to the depth or the alien technology or something else. Then there's a saboteur aboard (of course there is, it's one of the elements you need in every undersea tale). There's also a mystery involving some miniature alien technology that appears to be transmitting a binary code warning: do not dig here, danger to the solar system!
Throw into this mix a caricature naval commander hell bent on carrying out the mission at all costs even if it means losing every man and woman on board or, worse, blowing up the entire solar system. But in the end, Crane saves the moment. The earth and the solar system live to see another day. Although in the final page, Child's lays down yet one more spin on the tale: perhaps it isn't over after all. This is an okay read but it's clinical and dispassionate in style. If Crane's character had been built upon, if the author had tempered his urge to reveal all that he'd researched in favor of some heart and passion, if he'd penned it with his partner (Thunder Head, Preston and child, what a ride!) it could have been great. Into the Abyss
Incredible Ride! .......2007-08-11
Ok... so I started reading this and said "been there...done that" then suddenly the story started to morph and one of the wildest and most exciting rides I've been on for a quite a while unfolded! Great read! Well written! Lincoln's best since Utopia (which I also recommend!!)
Amazon.com
A travelogue by Bill Bryson is as close to a sure thing as funny books get. The Lost Continent is no exception. Following an urge to rediscover his youth (he should know better), the author leaves his native Des Moines, Iowa, in a journey that takes him across 38 states. Lucky for us, he brought a notebook.
With a razor wit and a kind heart, Bryson serves up a colorful tale of boredom, kitsch, and beauty when you least expect it. Gentler elements aside, The Lost Continent is an amusing book. Here's Bryson on the women of his native state: "I will say this, however--and it's a strange, strange thing--the teenaged daughters of these fat women are always utterly delectable ... I don't know what it is that happens to them, but it must be awful to marry one of those nubile cuties knowing that there is a time bomb ticking away in her that will at some unknown date make her bloat out into something huge and grotesque, presumably all of a sudden and without much notice, like a self-inflating raft from which the pin has been yanked."
Yes, Bill, but be honest: what do you really think?
Book Description
An unsparing and hilarious account of one man's rediscovery of America and his search for the perfect small town.
Customer Reviews:
You'll laugh, you'll cry. You'll laugh until you cry!!!.......2007-09-13
This book is absolutely hilarious, and Bill Bryson, is, in my opinion, the best writer the planet ever produced. I'm a creative director at an ad agency, and I swear, his writing is so superb that MY writing actually gets markedly better after I read him. But only for about a week. Then it's like Flowers for Algernon...I get all average again!
Boy oh boy do I envy anyone who has not read Bill Bryson's books, because you still have all that pleasure in front of you!
Non Fiction.......2007-09-03
I read this after having been through and in a few of the places Bill Bryson mentions in The Lost Continent : Travels in Small-town America, so at the time I found parts of it highly entertaining. Accounts of Nowheresville, USA are not going to be too interesting if you get lots and lots and lots of them, though.
The Lost Continent..are we there yet?.......2007-09-02
Originally published on SensiblySassy.blogspot.com
Lost Continent:
Well a couple years ago I read Bill Bryson's book Neither Here nor There and it was a hilarious guide through Europe. So when I saw Lost Continent on the shelves I instantly wanted to read about Bill's road trip through the U.S. Within the first five pages I was chuckling to myself and out loud. (Luckily Jon was the only one sitting next to me on the plane as I read) By the time the hour and a half flight touched back down on the ground I had polished off quite a few pages.
As the book went on I began to feel less enamored with the book than I initially had. The tone shifted from funny to cranky as the trip/book wore on. Now I wonder if it is the fact that the trip began to take its toll on Bryson or if he felt that crotchety was a good tone for him to switch to-we may never know. Overall if you were to sample some of Bryson's work I would absolutley recommend Neither Here nor There over Lost Continent . Neither Here nor There gives you a hilarious and personal guide through Europe whereas Lost Continent really helps you remember what it was like to take loooong car rides with your parents-the good and the bad.
satisfied my curiosity towards small towns.......2007-08-30
We all know what big cities are like, but how about small towns? Of course Bill Bryson did not (& obviously could not) visit all small towns in his home country, this book satisfied my curiosity towards small towns in America.
I guess there's always irresistible charm of overland travel, and Bryson described his overland trip with hilarious writing style.
One suggestion: if the editor could add a route map at the beginning of book showing Bryson's itinerary, it would be even better.
A bumpy, yet scenic, road.......2007-08-03
Bill Bryson, a child of the 50s, used to spend each summer with his family on one of those all-American vacations that consisted of endless driving, sweltering heat and the inevitable destination that was, due to his father's preference, free and educational. He always longed for the chance to buy tacky hats with plastic crap on them and other tasteless souvenirs, and now that he's an adult, he finally gets that chance when he embarks on a nation-wide odyssey in the hopes of getting to know the country he left behind in The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America.
Although he was born in Des Moines, Illinois ("Someday had to," he explains on the opening page), Bryson's heart was elsewhere, and he spent most of his adult life living in England. Some 30 years after those summer journeys he's back in the states, and with no specific itinerary or time constraints, he leisurely passes from town to city, looking for the perfect place that survived from his childhood in this travelogue.
Of course, America has changed since Bryson's childhood days, and instead of finding Perfect Town, U.S.A, he encounters a deluge of faceless shopping malls, unremarkable villages and far too many gas stations. His hilarious observations usually come at the expense of the people he talks to and places he visits, which almost seems to suggest an air of British snootiness that he picked up from his years living abroad. Still, there are plenty of irreverent comments ("I only ever knew one journalist with a truly tidy desk, and he was eventually arrested for molesting small boys. Make of that what you will; but just bear it in mind that next time somebody with a tidy desk invites you camping") that are just so outlandishly amusing, that it's easy to forgive him for his treatment of the occasional small town citizen.
Traveling across America and being disgusted with the over-commercialization is hardly groundbreaking material. John Steinbeck, the quintessential American, did exactly that in 1962 with Travels with Charley: In Search of America. While Steinbeck is a folksy, talkative guy, Bryson instead bares his teeth. He travels alone and all along the way he doesn't strike up many conversations aside from brief chats with a plethora of waitresses and moronic country folk. He does meet up with a friend, and later a niece, but they're pushed into the background and the surroundings become the main characters. The closest we get to travel companions is when Bryson vividly describes what the past trips with his family were like. His mom says nothing other than "Would you like a sandwich, honey?" and "I don't know, dear."
Much of Bryson's journey on both coasts, and everything in between, brings up plenty woeful places, yet he does find some attractions worthy of his admiration. A rare few of the stops on his trip nostalgically remind him of his youth, from the sheer scope of the Grand Canyon ("Your mind, unable to deal with anything on this scare, just shuts down and for many long moments you are a human vacuum") and the "sleepy" college town of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania ("You feel at first as if you should be wearing slippers and a bathrobe"). Bryson covers so much ground (38 states) and visits so many similar towns, that at times, his travelogue almost read like a list. Even the memorable places are often described as simply "pleasant," and after a paragraph, it's off to the next destination. Like the long road trip that Bryson embarks on, The Lost Continent captures the vastness and monotony of driving across America. Because of the now-famous Bill Bryson humor, for most of it works well and there are plenty of laughs, The Lost Continent becomes more than another lackluster expressway town.
Amazon.com
It could be true! That's the enthusiasm that author and scholar-mystic Graham Hancock counts on--in himself and in his readers--as he lays down his theories of an ancient (Atlantean, perhaps?) civilization that disseminated a sophisticated religion of ground-sky dualism and a "science" of immortality. Hancock's previous work, including the popular and controversial Fingerprints of the Gods, has drawn criticism for its leaps of faith and allegedly pseudoscientific conclusions, but Heaven's Mirror proves at least a little more substantial. His chief thesis is that numerous ancient sites and monuments--the pyramids of Mexico and Egypt, the ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the monuments of Yonaguni in the Pacific, and the megaliths of Peru and Bolivia--are situated in such a way, geodetically, that they point towards some separate and uniform influence, some lost civilization or "invisible college" of astronomer-priests. And that civilization, as evidenced in the mathematics and architecture of the sites, points towards some gnosis, or body of knowledge, that would allow humanity to transcend the trap of mortality, a worldview in which the knowledge-giving serpent of Eden is not a villain but a hero.
Whatever you think of Hancock's ideas and theoretical musings in archaeo-astronomy, Heaven's Mirror is a gorgeous book, thanks to the photography of Santha Faiia. Lush, evocative photos of the monoliths on Easter Island and temples deep in the Cambodian jungle are enough to set the mind to introspective wandering--maybe, just maybe, Hancock's got it right after all. --Paul Hughes
Book Description
In
Heaven's Mirror, author Graham Hancock continues the quest begun in his international best-seller Fingerprints of the Gods: to rediscover the hidden legacy of mankind and to reveal that "ancient" cultures were, in fact, the heirs to a far older forgotten civilization and the inheritors of its archaic, mystical wisdom.
Working with photographer Santha Faiia, Hancock traces a network of sacred sites around the globe on a spectacular voyage of discovery that takes us from the pyramids and temples of ancient Egypt to the enigmatic statues of Easter Island, from the haunting ruins of pre-Columbian America to the splendors of Angkor Wat. It is a journey through myth, magic, and astounding archaeological revelations that forces us to rethink the cultures of our lost ancestors and the origins of civilization.
The first fully illustrated book by Graham Hancock,
Heaven's Mirror is a stunning and illuminating tour of the spirituality of the ancients--a search for a secret recorded in the very foundations of the holiest sites of antiquity.
Customer Reviews:
Alternate theory of spiritual development compellingly written.......2007-03-23
While I will reserve judgment on the factual merits of this book, it engaged me in a way few books do; I took extensive notes while reading it and plan to do additional research into some of the statements made.
Hancock travels the world, exploring the ancient religions and traditions of several disparate cultures, only to find shocking similarities, especially when combined with an astronomical background.
A fascinating, must-read for anyone exploring our distant past, interested in alternate spirituality or just curious about whatever crosses their hands.
Good summary -- reffer book. .......2007-03-10
I have this book in my native language. But it does not matter. One time my friend let me borrow it from him, i read it really fast (only at home, cause he won't harm the book at all) For me it was like looking to "factography" about the interesting areas, complexes, chambers, pyramids and so on. Some of the facts were already presented by Discovery and NationalGeography channels (Orion mystery document) I was looking forward this document, but with no luck. So this really suprise me, that there are same volume of facts and even more. If you are new in this type of books (2012, prophecies, ancient civs; ...and so on.) It is good start to take this book. Also there is combo with "Fingerprints of Gods" Style of authors are easy to read, few drawings/figures are also there, so imaging of facts is easier.
Some other scholars reffer to this book and this book refer to some others. Like it is usuall. But i recommend to read few of them and collect the facts/myths by own selves. John Major Jenkins's books for instance are also good ones to make bigger picture.
You can use "google earth" and some other software to simulate some viewings mentioned in the book, prety exiting, really.
So finally i found this book in our book store and bought it. Read it again (with my comments written in the book, some notices and i use it as reffer book) I am not happy that this book has brother (fingerprints of gods) and it is not translated to my language.
Nevermind i learn little bit more so English books are no longer problematic for me. So thank to Amazon i got the Graham's combo book :))
I am not going to confirm or be against the facts mentioned in this book. It is up to reader to valuate the facts not me. I already did and i found it generally usefull. But none is perfect so be sure you valuate the facts across the books/documents/your own research.
I think it is not wasting of money to buy this book.
-keep it readin'-
cheers
-vh-
Mirror, Mirror on the Floor..........2006-09-17
"Heavens Mirror" is a lush book of alternative ancient history from Graham Hancock, author of "Fingerprints of the Gods", a book I really enjoyed. Though I definitely did find it interesting, it left me with a bad taste in the mouth after I read it, if that makes sense.
Graham Hancock believes that long ago there was a civilization as sophisticated and thoughtful as ours, wiped out by the last ice age (around 10,500 BC), and whose influence can be seen in cultures round the world. He put forward this theory in his book "Fingerprints of the Gods", a well presented, heavily researched book. Graham is still writing about this lost culture, but rather than focusing on it's apparent influence like he did in "Fingerprints", he focuses on their beliefs and rituals. He finds a lot of things in common between certain cultures of the world. There's the idea of a "navel of the world", the idea of an afterlife world in the sky, references to the procession of the equinoxes, temples and structures in the form of certain constellations. Jumping from continent to continent, he tries to piece things together, hopefully coming to a conclusion.
First of all, I must say, this is a well presented book, just like "Fingerprints of the Gods". Hancock's wife, Santha Faiia, provided the photography, and there are some fantastic shots of famous ancient monuments, taken from angles and distances I have never seen before. It's almost as if you are there. They were a treat to look at, and she rightfully gets co-authorship of the book because of it. There are diagrams, which really, REALLY helped with the astronomical and mathematical elements. The content of the book, the studies on ancient beliefs, was also fascinating to read.
That's not to say this is a book without flaws. Graham doesn't seem to know who he is writing to here, newcomers to his books or old regulars. Sometimes he assumes we've read his books, and other times he repeats himself. He repeats himself in a few ways, actually. He'll make the same point a couple of times, which I found a little bit annoying, and it caused my eyes to wander from the page more than once. He seems a little more intense in his writing that he does in "Fingerprints of the Gods" too, and I can't say it's the most inviting feel to have. Plus, there are hardly as many references as his last books.
I felt a little bit uneasy reading this book, and I couldn't quite put a finger on why. It started when I noticed Graham Hancock was using the word "initiate" frequently when talking about the ancient learned people. The last alternative history book I read that used the word "initiate" frequently descended into obsessive nonsense very quickly, and was almost impossible to comprehend (let alone believe or consider). "What was Graham getting at here?" I thought. I got a little more uncomfortable when he started throwing the the words "gnosis" and "gnostic", and started mixing beliefs together.
Graham had been making all these links, pointing out these common factors, but not really stopping to explain why. The conclusion, when he finally got to it, came as something as a shock, though I felt it coming. He claims to believe that the ancient people were onto something in their rituals. He quotes gnostic gospels of the Christian era as if they were not only correct, but influenced by this ten thousand year old culture he claims existed. Then, came this sentence, wedged within the final paragraph:
"Modern religions, like modern science, have let us down, offering us no nourishment or guidance. Perhaps our only hope ... [is] when certain ideas come to life again, and we should not deprive our grandchildren of a last chance at the heritage of the highest are farthest-off times"
That says it all about why I felt so uneasy about the book, I think. Rejecting basically everyone in favor of his mish mash of ancient beliefs. It's one thing to say that civilizations have things in common, it's quite another to say that they have the answers for the future, if you know what I mean.
It was a very interesting look at ancient cultures, I do agree, very well presented with some fantastic pictures. That's the reason I give it four stars. Graham Hancock's conclusions, however, are rather worrying. I hope he doesn't get too sucked into these kind of theories.
Hangcock is certainly onto something amazing.......2006-01-04
This book is an amazing watch and read. His chapter about the Angkor Thom Temple in Cambodia seems to be the key issue inside his theory.
John Martin reported about that the following: "Hancock and his wife travel around the world and try to tie a lot of historical sites together with magic numbers (72 being the most prevalent but any even number being almost as good.) The problem I had was that the linking of the monuments to stars degrades as the book moves along. The link is clear in Egypt, possibly present in Mexico, requires squinting in Cambodia, and then devolves to a lot of "as ifs" and "rough alignments"."
Well now, things certainly have changed as in 2001 a new Temple object was found inside China ate the same horizontal geographical coordinate as Angkor:
http://www.china.org.cn/english/2001/Jun/13970.htm
"a group of ancient buildings was in an area of 2.4 square km at the bottom of Fuxian Lake in southwest China's Yunnan Province."
De geographical width of this location is 103o E. Which is exactly 72o east of the pyramids of Giza. Hence at exactly the same geographical width as the Angkor Thom Temple in Cambodia. This object was built in the 12th century A.C. To be exact in the year 1150 A.C
Conspiracy theory : Because the Fuxian temples (lets call em this way) are 2200 years old, they are much older as the Angkor Temples. So it could be that the City in the Fuxian Lake indeed is the lost City of Atlantis. The Cambodians built Angkor Thom much later and with these Temples took over the function of the Fuxian Lake temples. It's known that the Angkor temples didn't emit much good vibes. Hangcock writes in his book about this the following : " In the last decades there have been moments where Angkor looked like the heart of darkness - its located in the middle of a dark forest where obscure dark things have happened." Angkor Thom is oriented to the constellation of Draco or 'snake'. So dark forces could have sunk the Fuxia City and caused the rise of a replacing object, Angkor Thom.
Excellent Images + Knowledge of ancient civilizations.......2005-07-31
This book is put together perfect. The images in this book are clear and amazing. You will learn so much from this book and see beautiful pictures. I scanned the images in this book and put them in my computer room. You will not be disappointed with this book.
Amazon.com
Lying some 250 miles off the east coast of Africa, Madagascar is the world's fourth-largest island. It is quite unlike the neighboring continent, and, for that matter, quite unlike any other landmass on the planet. Its plant life is almost wholly endemic: eight out of 10 plants there grow naturally only on Madagascar, and it has an entire ecosystem, the spiny desert, that is found nowhere else on earth. Many of its animal species, too, seem to have emerged from some evolutionary track that runs parallel to the rest of the world's; here can be found lemurs that will fit into a human palm, dwarf hippos, giant chameleons, and other rarities.
These plants and animals constitute an extraordinary diversity, writes science journalist Peter Tyson in this engaging book, and the island's richness of life has long intrigued scientists, who have proposed several theories to explain it. Those scientists, some of whom Tyson profiles at work in the field, are racing against time to catalog island life before it disappears, for Madagascar's human population is rapidly growing, and with that growth, the island's forests and other habitats are falling. The urgency may abate, Tyson writes, with guarded optimism, now that the island's current president has proposed that all of Madagascar be considered as a United Nations World Heritage Site, which would help provide funds to prevent further loss of habitat and diversity. Though this proposal is controversial, Tyson makes a good case for why it should be taken up--and he shows just how high the stakes are.
Throughout his narrative, Tyson mixes scientific reportage with a nicely rendered travelogue that guides readers across the island while outlining key concepts of island biogeography and conservation biology. His book is a worthy companion to David Quammen's Song of the Dodo, and valuable reading for anyone concerned with the world environment. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
Since the age of dinosaurs, Madagascar has thrived in isolation off the east coast of Africa. In this real-life "lost world," hundreds of animal and plant species, most famously the lemurs, have evolved here and only here, while other creatures extinct elsewhere for tens of millions of years now vie with modern man for survival. It's a land of striking geography, from soaring mountains to vast canyon lands, from tropical rain forests to spiny desert. And its people are a conundrum unto themselves, their origins obscure, their language complex and distinct, and their beliefs fascinating. In The Eighth Continent, Peter Tyson will guide you into this, the planet's most exotic frontier, so you can see for yourself why it's been called "the naturalist's promised land."
Part scientific exploration, part adventure saga, part cultural and historical narrative, The Eighth Continent follows Tyson's journeys with four scientific experts as they explore the fourth-largest island in the world:
A herpetologist with a pied piper call to reptiles who has discovered and collected more Malagasy species than any other biologist-and continues to discover more every year
A paleoecologist searching an enormous cavern complex for clues as to why the island's megafauna-Galipagos-sized tortoises, lemurs as big as apes, ten-foot-tall birds, and pygmy hippos, among others-all died out less than two millennia ago
An archeologist trying to answer the most basic and puzzling question about the Malagasy people: Where did they come from?
A primatologist who studies elusive jungle lemurs even as she strives to prevent the island's total ecological destruction
For if Madagascar is one of the most fascinating environments on the planet, it is also one of the most endangered. As the Malagasy hack a subsistence from the island's dwindling forests, they also threaten its diverse habitats and its rich biological diversity. It is not an easy situation to resolve, nor is it easy to answer the burning question at its heart: Can Madagascar be saved? In The Eighth Continent, Peter Tyson navigates this tortuous path as he delves into the island's storied interior as well as its misty past.
Customer Reviews:
It's okay but I wanted more.......2005-06-29
I hate to disagree with the majority of the reviews, but I only found this book "okay." It's worth reading but it's not to rave about. The best parts deal with the Malagsy people, culture and history. The descriptions of the animals, plants, and ecosystems are weak. There are few photos and those are not highly informative or high quality. I recommend sections of David Quamman's book, Song of the Dodo, which has a much stronger biological bent to it.
Incredible Introduction to Madagascar.......2001-12-27
I have come away from this book with a strong desire to visit Madagascar and a good understanding of the country's wonders and challenges. In a very entertaining style recounting his travels and sharing tales of the island's lore, Peter Tyson gives us an overview of both the Malagasy people and fauna ( and somtimes flora ) and how they relate in light of its conservation issues. He also outlines the limited knowledge that exists as to how this unique island has come to be so different from anywhere else on Earth, opening the scope for unlimited wonder and whetting a thirst to find out more. A great starting point for an interest in Madagascar and a thoroughly enjoyable read.
I would recommend reading Mike Eveleigh's, Maverick in Madagascar, after this.
You feel like you're there with the author!.......2001-11-14
This book makes you feel like your on the trip through Madagascar with the author. Very detailed and explanatory.
Very fun to read!
An excellent book about the natural history of Madagscar.......2001-08-11
Madagascar in my mind has always been one those wild exotic places. This book does a very good job of introducing the place and providing insights into wildlife, culture, orgins, and a possible plan for the future of conservation in Madagascar. It reads well and doesn't bog down very often. The chapters about the herps of Madagascar were my favorite, but I am biased towards herps. The conservation issues are presented in a balanced way, and the opposing opinions about the success or failure of the Community development/national park conservation plans are pretty well explained. I recommend this book to anybody wanting to learn more about Madagascar, it is a great introduction would be a worthwhile read if you wanted to travel to Madagascar and be more than just a bumbling tourist.
I love this book.......2001-07-07
I'm a huge Madagascar fan and finiding books on one of my favorite places is a rare treat for me - this book is no exception. It's written wonderfully and has useful factual information. Before travelling here, I would suggest that you find all the information you can and this book is one of about 3 that I could say are appropriate for this.
Amazon.com
Everything changes. The great 19th-century battle between catastrophists and uniformitarians seemed to end with the notion of global cataclysms being dismissed as a back door to the supernatural. But the catastrophist theory has gradually become more and more plausible, so that now, less than a hundred years later, it is widely believed that mass extinctions are linked to meteor strikes. Geologist Robert M. Schoch believes that if a large meteor or comet could extinguish most of our planet's complex life (just ask the trilobites), then a smaller one could destroy a civilization, and perhaps did. In Voices of the Rocks, he tells us how it may have happened.
Asked to investigate the Sphinx at Giza, Schoch was troubled to find evidence of a much greater age than the 4,500 years suggested by Egyptologists. This led him to examine the possibility of a lost civilization dating back to at least 10,000 B.C. Looking at linguistic, geological, and archaeological evidence from around the world, he proposes an outline of prehistory that differs markedly from our received wisdom--after all, if the Lascaux cave paintings really are star maps, then we've got a lot of catching up to do. Schoch's willingness to dismiss implausible evidence and to use Occam's razor to cut away unnecessary complications is admirable and refreshing in a field in which credulity pays and skepticism is viewed with deep suspicion. Ending on a note of warning, Voices of the Rocks reminds us that by weakening the planet, we have made ourselves much more vulnerable to the next global cataclysm, which may come at any time. --Rob Lightner
Book Description
Could the Egyptian Sphinx have been built many centuries earlier than conventional history would have us believe? Could the great natural disasters that propelled the evolution of life on Earth have played a dominant role as well in the rise and fall of civilizations? Could Earth have been home to civilizations far greater in number -- and far older -- than orthodox researchers have suspected? In Voices of the Rocks, Dr. Robert M. Schoch examines these and other crucial questions about our past and shows how the answers can guide us in the future.
In 1990, Robert Schoch, a scientist and tenured university professor, traveled to Egypt and conducted geological testing to evaluate the accepted date for the construction of the Great Sphinx of Giza. His research revealed that the Sphinx is actually thousands of years older than previously supposed, a discovery that upended the standard history of ancient Egypt.
Following the intellectual trail uncovered by his redating of the Sphinx, Schoch became convinced that we are in the midst of a profound scientific paradigm shift. The predominant notion that our species inhabits a slow-changing, steady-state planet is falling by the wayside. Instead, we are coming to see that the history of Earth, all living beings, and human civilizations comprises a series of stops and starts, in which equilibrium abruptly ends during a sudden severe catastrophe, like the extraterrestrial impact that initiated the extinction of the dinosaurs. Meteors, asteroids, and comets are potential sources of such disasters, as are shifts in Earth's axis, movements of the continents, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes.
According to Dr. Schoch, Earth's long, catastrophic history has obscured and obliterated evidence of lost civilizations. But the traces remain for those who know where to look and what to look for. At its core,
Voices of the Rocks is the story of Schoch's own search, his fascinating discoveries, and the warnings we must heed if we wish to survive whatever catastrophes the future has in store for us.
Customer Reviews:
Don't buy this waste of paper.......2004-05-19
Well I got SUCKERED, what a grandly misleading title. Seeking hard science arguments from a reputed ph.D further explaining the anomities of the geological record, as the title suggests, I was greatly disappointed with the lack of story or revelations as claimed, and the petty partual inclusions of airy-fairy wish wash "Hype" themes. Lord behold, I was worried when I read the dubious praises on the rear cover by the renown cranks Hancock, West, and Bauval.
Nothing at all new, the only compelling area covers little more than the intial pages where the dating of the Sphinx
is detailed. The book then slips into crank theories where the author hovers around the sides like a timid scum-sucking iliterate fearful to be judged to be of any persuasion or belief. Everything from Atlantis in Antartica to Hapgood's maps are rehashed revealing zip.
NOTHING new, BIG disappointment, much grandstanding with a hint of "just trying to fill a book". Any beneficial data could easily have been published in a single article, and has been.
A author I would never purchase again.
The Sphinx got wet once; does that make it older?.......2004-03-01
Dr Schoch shows that the Sphinx shows water erosion marks. The last time it rained a lot in Egypt was tens of thousands of years before 4500 BC (the standard built-by date). So, Dr Schoch thinks the Sphinx was really built tens of thousands of years earlier.
Hiroshima shows higher background radiation than most Japanese cities. That's not because Hiroshima was built earlier.
Was the Sphinx built earlier? Did nasty canal-builders wash its builders and their works away?
A book with view (point) ... - Interdisciplinary treat!.......2002-03-21
This was a book I read a few years ago, but re-read recently. Its a book by an archeologist. And it aims to show how one reads history through the glasses of an archeologist.
One gets some pretty good insights into the study of archeology, the tools the subject uses and how inferences are drawn. The book takes some known facts and uses them to extrapolate in very good ways, drawing from other disciplines to construct new viewpoints of the past and our history.
Its pretty elementary in its approach and simple, so in case you're one of the more serious heavy seekers of information, this is not for you. But if you're looking for alternate viewpoints from disciplines you have not much information about, then this is definitely a good place to begin.
Very Disappointing........2001-10-16
If you saw this guy on Discovery or The History Channel, you probably won't find much of interest in this book. The amount of space devoted to the Sphinx and Yonaguni Monument is almost an afterthought. And sadly, this is the only original work in the entire book.
Most of this book deals with uniformitarianism (gradual change) and catastrophism (rapid change) in geology, evolution, and human history. The author's main credibility in presenting this evidence is that he is a dispassionate scientist that went to Yale and you are not. In creating a dispassionate work, Schoch has only managed to write a book that is very boring.
Nearly half the book is simply looking at various theories to explain impacts with space rocks. So we're treated to rocks of varying densities and speed impacting at various angles sometimes on land and sometimes on water and sometimes both. These rocks are used to explain everything from the Ice Age to Polynesian emigration to Genghis Khan leaving Mongolia to conquer the world.
In the end, there is still little science here and a lot of conjecture. Schoch clings ferociously to some "facts" and theories while tossing others aside because they weren't advanced by the right discipline. In the end, I realize that Carl Sagan did all this earlier and much better.
Wishy Washy.......2000-12-20
I was not impressed with this effort by Mr. Schoch. He seems to take a different stand depending on his mood. I would have expected more from a Yale Professor. Since I caught him on the Discovery Channel in a documentary concerning the underwater "Pyramid" off Yonaguni Island I will focus on this portion of his book. In the chapter concerning this debated monument Mr. Schoch states that it's origin is most likely natural in origin, and yet in his final paragraphs of this chapter he postulates a theory based on the idea that it is man-made.
The natural side of his theory on this monument includes erosion that "bores" holes through rocks with the shape of the resulting hole having sharp right interior angles (a perfect rectangle!). He would also have us believe that the strong current of the region has carved out and carried off what would, on land, amount to small boulders! Yet, this powerful eroding current is also supposed to have taken the care to produce inumerable right angles(exterior and interior) to form what others believe to be an ancient monument. He has also ignored the film evidence of careful, though eroded, carvings on this monument which are plainly visible! When asked about the monument onshore of the Island that is strangely similar to the sunken one, Mr. Schoch replied that it was probably a copy of the underwater one. This is the same type of thinking that has had scholars claiming that the clay tablets of Sumer are merely fanciful fairy tales even though they pointed out the outer two planets of our solar system thousands of years before we found them in the middle of this century.
Mr. Schoch is merely restating "approved" science irregardless of the evidence, and I have seen too much of that. In short, if you still believe that the Great Pyramid was the last one built, or that the pyramids were tombs, then this is your man, and your book! If, on the other hand, you feel the theory should fit the evidence and not the reverse then you would be happier looking in the direction of Sitchin or Alford
Customer Reviews:
What has gone before us.......2007-10-07
This book gives a good over view of the past 500,000+ years and where man has been in that time. Including the fact that we had progressed to a very advanced civilization before trying to destroy ourselves. Artifacts that have been found are used to prove this point and shed light on our past. Written in a style that will hold your interest throughout the book. Good read!
Anomalous Civilizations and Technology.......2007-08-24
This book is an excellent overview of cryptozoology, ancient egypt, scientific conspiracy, ancient civilizations, anomalous technology, anomalous artifacts, ancient skeletons of giants and little people, human remnants alongside of dinosaur remnants, and a general overview of civilizations that have flourished before ours.
A Seminal Work Republished.......2007-05-21
Reading through this book, it's hard to believe that it was first published nearly 30 years ago. The information contained within is very intriguing, and written in a form that has seem to be lost in the last two decades, a form which has made Brad a master in the field of research of the unknown...straight forward research journalism. Contained within are arguments which platform thesis of which have gained scaling reviews from academic science...proof that takes both creation and darwinism back to square one... that humans and advanced societies have been around far longer than any textbooks have supposed.
"THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR BURNING"
This is the phrase that open the forward, and has been pertinent with the treatment of this book by contemporary academia. At the time of it's original publication, it was one of two books that gave this topic a "serious" platform, the other being "Chariots of the Gods". The difference between this book and the works by Erich von Danikan is that von Danikan provided sloppy research and laughable conclusions that could be easily refuted by any layman. Brad's research, however is rock solid, and backed up by serious scientists. In a world where academia fights for grants, scientific prestige, and an unwillingness to change the information contained within textbooks, when unable to refute the evidence put forth within this book, all that "academia" could revert to was smear techniques, or outright denial that this book ever existed. Down through the ages, when any work has become so revolutionary as to outright disprove all that "science" has held as solid reality, the result has always been a call to ban or burn such a text (and let's be thankful it's not the middle ages, where such an author would have been burned at the stake as a heretic as well).
Contained within you will find evidence that humanity and advanced societies have not been around for merely 40,000 years, but perhaps millions. Evidence has been put forth that humans may have shared the earth with dinosaurs, giants and monstrous beings written in lore and the bible have a basis in reality, there is more than a good possibility that ancient societies knew about flight and may have produced flying machines, produced batteries and artificial light sources beyond torches, and we have had metal working techniques predating Greek and Roman civilizations. All are presented with scientific backing, and no theories of help from "little green men".
If you've ever proposed that civilization is far older than what the mainstream scientists have decreed, this is a must read. All evidence within is presented in a manor very difficult to refute, much of it provided with mainstream scientific data, such as geological strata. This book will cause you to question everything you learned in school.
Customer Reviews:
The Shaver Stories Plus New Age History.......2006-05-02
I purchased "Lost Continents & The Hollow Earth" by David Hatcher Childress & Richard Shaver because I was interested in reading the two Mutan Mion stories by Richard Shaver which are included. Although originally published in "Amazing Stories" (a fiction magazine), the author insisted that the stories were true, and many readers wrote in with their own experiences with beings from inside the Earth.
The first story in this book and the series is "I Remember Lemuria", a novella which was first published in "Amazing Stories" in March of 1945. In this story we are introduced to Mutan Mion (the Atlan whose memories Richard Shaver claims to have) who discovers that Mu (Earth) is being controlled by deros (detrimental energy robots). The story takes place in the far past, and uses myths such as Atlantis and the Titans in its subject matter. The story would fall into the category Space Opera, so if you enjoy that subgenre you may be interested in reading it. If one were to rate this story based on the impact it had at the time, it would have to get five stars, but in reading it now I would only give it three. It is difficult to understand how anyone would take it to be real, and there are much better Space Opera stories out there, such as the Lensman series by Dr. Edward E. Smith.
The second story is "The Return of Sathanas", which was first published in "Amazing Stories" in November of 1946 as a novel. However, it only runs about 100 pages, so it is really a novella size story. This is another of the Mutan Mion stories, and in this one he is in pursuit of Sathanas, a dero, and chases him back to Mu. This story brings some of the Norse mythology into play, but overall the story is nothing special. This story rates two stars by itself. This story was co-authored by Bob McKenna, but he is not credited in this text.
Also included in this book is the foreword to the 1948 book which contained both of these stories, and there is also an introduction (by David Hatcher Childress), a copy of the Shaver Alphabet, and a short piece called "The Shaver Mystery" (also by David Hatcher Childress) which talks about the controversial stories and their impact.
The rest of the book includes four short pieces by David Hatcher Childress which deal with "new age" theories about technologically advanced ancient civilizations which may have lived in the "Hollow Earth" or at least used vast networks of tunnels under the continents. While these are entertaining to read, they are not very good science as Childress will often describes how a source is discredited for certain reasons, and yet he continues to use some of their ideas as sources to support the existence of these ancient civilizations.
At this time, this book is the only place where one can find any of the Shaver stories, and so for that reason it might be of interest to some people. As a source of information about ancient civilizations it is entertaining, but much of it is based on questionable sources and it should not be taken as fact.
Not so great.......2005-04-25
This book didn't turn out to be as interesting as I thought it would be. He reprints the entire 1948 book "I Remember Lemuria" by Richard Shaver. Which I found pretty boring. Childress' comments on the hollow earth were interesting though, but I wouldn't have bought the book for them.
If you're into the Occult Buy this book..........2003-10-05
I bought this book thinking it would be a good interesting read. It was for a couple chapters and I couldnt finish it for fear of being ill. He basically borrows theories and other tidbits from other books by Occult authors. It talks about "The Great White Brotherhood" but doesnt mention that this Brotherhood is the top echelon of the Illuminati Occultists who rule this world. The first story was good because it shows what mind control can do to a person and reminds me of what Philip K Dick once went through. This book has limited documentation if any and no definitive answers and just mystery and doesn't resolve much. If you want a good read with documentation pick up "Bloodlines Of The Illuminati" by Fritz Springmeier. Its probably the most amazing book you will ever read!
Some interesting stuff at the end.......2001-02-07
The book is split into 3 parts: two sci-fi stories from Richard Shaver's Lumeria series and three chapters on hollow earth history. The stories are stupid and boring. The only reason you would want to read them is if you were into Sci-Fi history. I couldn't even finish the Return of Santhas. The last three chapters on hollow earth history were quite interesting though. They follow some quack and some reasonable theories about tunnels in South America and Asia. He does a good recap of the Incan/Spanish conflict that led to the theories on lost cities of Gold. So parts 1&2 (no stars), part 3 (4 stars)
lost continents and the hollow earth.......2000-04-21
david hatcher childress has presented one of the best reads on this subject! excellent illustrations great layout and even if you dont believe this it's a great science fiction read to say the least!
Book Description
Once again, Diana L. Paxson has beautifully elaborated on Marion Zimmer Bradley's beloved Avalon saga with this dramatic new installment, which for the first time reveals the past of the ancestors of Avalon, from their beginnings on the doomed island of Atlantis to their escape to the mist-shrouded isle of Britain. It follows the extraordinary journey of two powerful women whose destinies will shape the fates of their physical and spiritual descendants: Tiriki, a high priestess exiled by the fall of Atlantis, torn between the claims of love and duty, and Damisa, a young acolyte of royal blood, tempted by ambition to forsake her spiritual path.
Hints of this mysterious past have haunted all the novels of Avalon, but until now the full sweep of this rich history has not been revealed. Dramatic, peopled with the remarkable women who have always inhabited Avalon, and set in a world of enchantment that will sweep readers to a richly imagined time and place, Marion Zimmer Bradley's Ancestors of Avalon is another spectacular epic that is sure to please Bradley's many ardent readers.
Customer Reviews:
Took a long time to read.......2007-10-04
I had read all of MZB's books and got through them very quickly -- they were all so delightful to read -- books you could not just put down. Then, I read this one. While it was not an "awful" book like some reviewers say, it did take a LONG time to get through.
It was a complicated story and I had to reread some parts several times to understand what was being said or going on.
No, it may not be a true MZB book, but it was a decent read, if you have a lot of time.
Not MZB but a decent read.......2007-07-22
I have read " The Mists" at least twice in the past 20 years, enjoyed as well "The Forest House" and "Lady of Avalon" and the story and characters are imprinted in my heart. Recently I came upon "The Fall of Atlantis" and although the amount of characters in such a small book was rather overwhelming, I managed to love and understand each of them as only MZB can make you do.
"Ancestors of Avalon" connects MZB's Atlantis story to Avalon and makes us believe that both places did actually exist. Diana L Paxson has her own style and takes a little getting used to on the heels of a MZB read. I had to console myself once or twice at her usage of modern vernacular that totally shocked me out of this wonderful world of the ancient past. All in all it was an entertaining visit to places that could have been real and an interesting method of weaving the two stories to each other, and to present day.
SO SO.......2007-01-19
Well, I can tell you that Marion Zimmer Bradley may have started to write this book....or had the idea of writing it, but Diana Paxon is not, and never will match the gift that Marion Zimmer Bradley had with words and story craft.
I couldn't get into it...I may finish it one day. Then again, maybe not.
I'm glad I read it but..........2006-08-09
As other reviewers have said this book does not do MZB justice. however I have read other books where MZB was not the only writer and felt I new what to expect.
For me I loved the book. It is true for several other books that I have read that once I get into a series I want to read everything in it, no matter how good it really was I still find myself enjoying the book.
It is true MZB is greatly missed and while I have read others In search of her likeness and still cannot find one. Of course I do not have as much time as I would like to read. Does anyone have any recommendations? I'm reading MZB's Sword and Sorceress novels now in hopes of finding new authors.
Worth reading but disappointing too.......2006-07-18
Tiriki and Micail are married to each other and are highly ranked priests on an island of Atlantis when their world is swallowed by the ocean in a volcanic eruption. Separated they make their way on separate ships north to the the island of Britain. Neither knows if the other is alive, and they must survive in radically different situations that will not only challenge their marriage vows, but also their view of their life's purpose.
In "Ancestors of Avalon" Diana Paxson weaves the story of the founding of the order of priestesses on the Isle of Avalon and the building of Stonehenge in with the fall of Atlantis. This is a moderately interesting book that tells a big story, spans about a decade of time, and answers a lot of questions raised by Marion Zimmer Bradley's Avalon series. A good novel not only draws you into a cleverly conceived situation, but it makes you care for the people in the situation. Although I rooted for the good guys I was not emotionally involved. Paxson could have done a better job on character development. However, the book was fun to read during that hour before I go to sleep at night.
Book Description
During the nineteenth century, Lemuria was imagined as a land that once bridged India and Africa but disappeared into the ocean millennia ago, much like Atlantis. A sustained meditation on a lost place from a lost time, this elegantly written book is the first to explore Lemuria's incarnations across cultures, from Victorian-era science to Euro-American occultism to colonial and postcolonial India. The Lost Land of Lemuria widens into a provocative exploration of the poetics and politics of loss to consider how this sentiment manifests itself in a fascination with vanished homelands, hidden civilizations, and forgotten peoples. More than a consideration of nostalgia, it shows how ideas once entertained but later discarded in the metropole can travel to the periphery--and can be appropriated by those seeking to construct a meaningful world within the disenchantment of modernity. Sumathi Ramaswamy ultimately reveals how loss itself has become a condition of modernity, compelling us to rethink the politics of imagination and creativity in our day.
Book Description
Charles Darwin was a bumbling neophyte naturalist when he boarded the Beagle in 1831. Through the five years that followed, as the ship hugged the coastline of South America, Darwin found himself wading through waist-deep mud, climbing towerlike trees in the rain forest, and scaling craggy Patagonian cliffs as he closely observed the relationship between the wild creatures he stalked and the astonishing, utterly unfamiliar landscapes where he found them. At the end of these adventures, Darwin emerged a philosophical naturalist who could draw scientific truths from the simple stories contained in the creatures he encountered. What happened to Darwin? Thats the question Lyanda Lynn Haupt engagingly explores in a narrative that puts us inside the young Darwins shoesand brings us nose to nose with dung beetles, ostriches, and all forms of native wildlife. By focusing mostly on the birds Darwin observed, and by brilliantly mining his lesser-known writingsdiaries, correspondence, ornithological journals, unruly little pocket notebooksHaupt illuminates the process of discovery that shaped Darwins vision. Her book not only chronicles Darwins transformation from uncertain amateur to genius but reminds us how and why, in our own world as well as Darwins, attention to small things can make a big difference.
Customer Reviews:
The Meaning of the "Beagle".......2006-09-25
This is a tale of Darwin's becoming a true naturalist. Haupt believes that this happened sometime during the five years he spent with the survey ship Beagle, mostly ashore. Darwin was intent on absorbing and recording everything as the ship ranged up and down both sides of South America. He wanted to learn the geology, the fossils, the animals and the plants wherever he went. Occasionally, Darwin even looked up from his studies and described the human inhabitants.
By "true naturalist" Haupt means something more than a mere busybody, recording observations and collecting samples. She has used Darwin's notebooks of the Voyage (rather than his polished published account) to follow the changes in his attitudes from dutiful outside observer to a state that sometimes seemed to be a mind-meld with his subjects -- or really, by now, his fellow participants in life. Nothing was too small or ordinary to catch and hold Darwin's fascinated gaze. Perhaps, even as a young man still steeped in the traditional Chain of Being and the Christian doctrine of special creation, he tacitly believed that everything was important, everything held a clue to...what? Later, when he came to reflect philosophically on the Species Question, this great mass of detail, lightly and lovingly held, indeed served him well.
Haupt is an excellent writer and, herself a bird expert, uses Darwin's awakening to the birds of South America to locate his transformation to Naturalist. This is a book of natural history, biography, and philosophical observation that makes no pretense to be definitive. Our author is really using Darwin as an exemplar of a certain type that she admires: someone who loves Nature in all her messy particularity. As a result we get to read more about that endlessly charming man and about nature, and we get Haupt's interesting and often pointed reflections on it all. I was afraid, at the start, that my rather low level of natural history ability would hamper my understanding. Not so: anyone who cares about nature or is just curious about Darwin can enjoy this book.
Beautifully written.......2006-06-26
Both casual readers and high school to college level students of natural history and science will relish the beautifully written PILGRIM ON THE GREAT BIRD CONTINENT: THE IMPORTANCE OF EVERYTHING AND OTHER LESSONS FROM DARWIN'S LOST NOTEBOOKS. It's a different portrait which covers not just his works but the image of a naturalist who trusted his observations more than the political influences of his times or the research before him. Darwin was a bumbling amateur naturalist when he boarded the Beagle in 1831 to journey through the Galapagos. The young Darwin and his observations come to life in a survey rich with first-person reflections by the author, on her own wildlife observations.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Amazing...........2006-05-22
This is an amazing book. I am a biologist and a follower of Darwin, so I ordered this book right away when I saw it reviewed in the paper. Whether your interest is in Darwin or in science and nature more generally, this book is a stand-out. The author has a solid background in philosophy of science, but she's a creative nonfiction writer. Her prose and use of language are definitely a cut above the norm for these subjects. Haupt's focus on birds and her knowledge of ornithology will please any bird-lover. In addition to offering a unique, and endearing portrait of Darwin, this book is really about a way of seeing and understanding the human relationship to the natural world. It is a reminder, as Haupt says, that "we too are animals,connected to life, past and present...that nothing in the natural world is beneath our notice." A beautiful book that will give you fresh eyes.
Pleasant & enlightening.......2006-05-02
A short review of this book in the 4-8-06 issue of `Science News' prompted me to order it. I'm interested in the genesis of radical new ways of viewing our world to see how it might apply to my book's proto-theism concept.
Haupt, by studying Darwin's lesser known writings, surmises his growth as a rich-kid college drop-out from both medicine and the clergy in favor of dabbling with bugs. For an adventure, he signed on to the `Beagle' as the expedition's amateur naturalist for a two-year voyage which lasted nearly five-years. Haupt pictures him gradually finding his own style of observing, collecting and pondering as he gains confidence and learns to respect and love his subjects and nature. She focuses mostly on his birds perhaps more than necessary but that's her field. She debunks the legend that, toward the end of the voyage while in the Galapagos, Darwin's seminal insight flashed on him. Instead, it slowly dawned of him back in London with the help of a skilled taxonomist and in spite of his sloppy labeling of the Galapagos' specimens.
She also depicts the two decades after the voyage as he cautiously built his arguments for the "Origin of Species", then she goes on to describe his later years ensconced at Down House. Perhaps she does a little too much of her own philosophizing but I wasn't put-off by it. I'd give her book five stars except for the omission of an index (altho' Amazon's `Search inside the book' is an alternative). All in all, it's a pleasant and enlightening, well-made little book.
Another inspiring book from Haupt!.......2006-04-24
I greatly enjoyed Haupt's first book "Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds" and ordered this one not knowing much about it. It was wonderful too! Haupt's warm, lyrical prose is well matched to her topic, which is to mine Darwin's little-known pocket notebooks for new insights. She paints a compelling story of him circumnavigating South America as a humble and patient observer, though as she puts it, "This book is not in any way meant to pose as a biography; it is a gleaning of those instances in Darwin's life and work that inspire a renewed vision of the relationship between the human and natural worlds." So... what meaning does Darwin's vision hold for us today? Haupt reminds us that there are lessons in Darwin's story, and especially in his approach, to inspire all of us - even those of us who had never read anything about him before!
Books:
- Deep Storm: A Novel
- Dorsai (Dorsai/Childe Cycle)
- Eating the Big Fish: How Challenger Brands Can Compete Against Brand Leaders (Adweek Book S.)
- Eden in the East: The Drowned Continent of Southeast Asia
- Exile (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, Book 4)
- Extraterrestrial Contact: The Evidence and Implications
- Falling Stars (Andrews, V. C. Shooting Stars.)
- Favorite Folktales from Around the World (Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library)
- First Spanish Reader: A Beginner's Dual-Language Book (Beginners' Guides)
- Foot Soldiers: Stories from the Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk
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Contemporary
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The Wheel of Darkness
The Judas Strain
The Alexandria Link: A Novel
The Book of the Dead (Pendergast, Book 7)
The Terror: A Novel
