Customer Reviews:
Great colloction of short stories for Star Trek Voyager fans..........2007-08-16
I enjoyed the stories in this volume some more than others, but overall I thought the entire book was worth adding to my collection and well worth reading. In fact, there are a couple stories that had some real depth to them. I hope to see more collection like this one in the future.
Voyager Roads Not Taken.......2007-06-09
DISTANT SHORES is simply an excellent collection of Voyager stories that span the entire run of the series. The stories focus on previously unexplored plots, based on episodes or events referred to in episodes. And many of them would have made great shows: Kes and Neelix in "Closure", Chakotay and Tuvok in "Command Code", B'Elanna & Kes in "Winds of Change", Chakotay and Janeway in "Isabo's Shirt", as well as stories with former memebers of The Equinox, and the Borg. If there was any disappointment with the book, it is that I wanted more stories!
If you like Voyager, pick up this wonderful book that fills in the spaces between shows.
Voyager Season 7.5.......2007-01-27
Voyager was exasperating. The crew never ran out of fuel, food, or shuttles, the characters never really changed, and there was never any sense of peril, that the characters might die or that Voyager might not make it home. But still, after seven years together I couldn't help feeling a little wistful after the last episode knowing I'd never see those characters again, except in reruns.
Which is why Star Trek Voyager: Distant Shores was such a pleasant companion for a couple of weeks, a collection of 12 short stories each of which reads like a typical television episode. The stories cover all seven seasons and with the exception of Tuvok, all the major characters are featured in at least one story.
The writers in this volume must be great fans themselves. They've succeeded in capturing the essence of the show and the characters, recreating in print what we saw each week on television. Their faithfulness, however, sometimes goes too far and as a result we get ridiculous plot contrivances, such the first season story in which Tuvok withholds the command codes from Chakotay even though the ship is under alien attack and Janeway incapacitated because, well, Tuvok's not really sure if he can trust the former Maquis. There's also the sentimental, ripped-from-a-Harelquin-romance episode in which Chakotay confesses his love to Janeway, and 38 pages of stuporous logs recorded by the doctor while stranded on the planet Tahal (which answers the question of how a being made of light could have a "son.").
The better stories in this collection equal and even outdo the better televised episodes. Harry Kim finally gets the girl, a very special person who teaches him the value of living in the present. At Janeway's suggestion, the crew puts together a talent show, full of wit and humor with a rather sorrowful and touching ending. And perhaps the best episode of all, the story of how Kes and B'Elanna learn to build a windmill and in the process learn something about themselves and each other.
You're sure to find something of interest in Distant Shores, a wonderful volume for anyone who has ever enjoyed Voyager. Even those of us who sometimes couldn't wait for it end.
Perfect for a short attention span.......2007-01-10
Distant Shores is the perfect collection of 'novelettes' by previously-published Star Trek novel authors. Focused around the Voyager cast and crew, with most episodes being placed after the 5th season, it is a mix of stories that (a) further explore the emotional psyche of characters whilst experiencing events already told in the series (e.g. there is a story of how Janeway's ex fiance processed her being 'lost in space' and moving on shortly prior to receiving confirmation that she was still safe and sound); and (b) introduce new storylines around the already established events. Both are enjoyable in their own way, if not a little saccharine-sweet sentimental - but that's just a matter of taste. This bag of mixed lollies certainly has enough variety of sweets to appeal to all tastes. A recommended read for all.
New Appreciation.......2006-08-14
Made me realize how much I miss Star Trek! Voyager was not a favorate of mine, but I guess I was more attached to the charactors then I thought. Want to buy the series and live it again.
Book Description
A chilling novel about the nightmare of a corrupt and brutal dictatorship.
The star of Roberto Bolaño's hair-raising novel Distant Star is Alberto Ruiz-Tagle, an air force pilot who exploits the 1973 coup to launch his own version of the New Chilean Poetry, a multi-media enterprise involving sky-writing, poetry, torture, and photo exhibitions.
For our unnamed narrator, who first encounters this "star" in a college poetry workshop, Ruiz-Tagle becomes the silent hand behind every evil act in the darkness of Pinochet's regime. The narrator, unable to stop himself, tries to track Ruiz-Tagle down, and sees signs of his activity over and over again. A corrosive, mocking humor sparkles within Bolaño's darkest visions of Chile under Pinochet. In Bolaño's world there's a big graveyard and there's a big graveyard laugh. (He once described his novel By Night in Chile as "a tale of terror, a situation comedy, and a combination pastoral-gothic novel.")
Many Chilean authors have written about the "bloody events of the early Pinochet years, the abductions and murders," Richard Eder commented in the The New York Times: "None has done it in so dark and glittering a fashion as Roberto Bolaño."
Customer Reviews:
over hyped.......2007-08-09
Schematic and poorly resolved. Details, situations and descriptions largely uninteresting. Seems the work of an epigone. Disappointing after all the build-up.
The Poetry of Fascism.......2007-06-27
Like a lot of people in the English speaking (or reading, rather) world, I cannot seem to get enough Roberto Bolano. Would that I had discovered his writing at least prior to his death. There is reason to be optimistic in any event as there is still a substantial body of his work that has yet to be translated.
Concerning the matter at hand, Distant Star has once again proved to me that there are a seeming unlimited number of things that Bolano can say using the same basic elements. Like most of his other prose works, Distant Star features exiled Chilean and Latin American poets and writers struggling in the wake of Augusto Pinochet's coup to stay alive and stay relevant. Bolano mixes the story up in this case with the addition of the autodidact Alberto Ruiz-Tagle, nee Carlos Wieder. Unlike most of the other members of the narrator's poetry workshop, Ruiz-Tagle does not find himself in personal danger with the overthrow of Allende's government. In fact, the newly ensconced military junta headed by General Pinochet provides the perfect stage for the flowering of Ruiz-Tagle's new poetic movement. This is fascist poetry at its height, a poetry of actions, glorification of violence, and a reassertion of ancient religious mythology through skywriting. Ruiz-Tagle takes the lessons of the junta's techniques to a level with which the military government itself is uncomfortable.
What follows is a sort of literary/political detective story with the narrator tasked--somewhat unwillingly--to find the now legendary Ruiz-Tagle. Sorting through reams of literary and poetic journals, apocryphal sightings, and even pornographic films in order to determine his location. Throughout, Bolano takes the time to meditate on many of the issues that make his work so vital: exile, violence, poetry and the all too human quest for immortality. Oh, and I must not forget to take the opportunity of singling out Chris Andrews for the extraordinary job he has done in translating Bolano's poetry for English language readers.
Honestly, if you have not read Bolano yet, I cannot urge you strongly enough to do so. Distant Star is as good a place to start as any. From here, you have Chris Andrews's translations of By Night in Chile, Amulet and Bolano's short story collection, Last Evenings on Earth.
Poignant, poetic, unanswerable.......2005-08-29
This is an almost perfect short novel. For this American reader, it was an eye-opening introduction to the nightmarish world of the early Pinochet years, and yet it bears kinship to other novels about political alienation, like Koestler's Darkness At Noon. But it's not a typical denunciatory polemic (although Pinochet makes an easy target)--it examines the complex relationships (potential and actual) between poetry and politics, and in the end makes one wonder whether poets can be culpable for political outcomes by virtue of their supposedly greater access to truth. This is a compelling novel and makes one yearn for more Bolano to appear in English.
Excellent novel and translation.......2005-07-29
I chose this book because I had enjoyed Bolano's By Night in Chile. I was not disappointed - this is another excellent book on liturature and politics in the years surround Pinochet.
Distant Star has the tone of a well told autobiography - the reader has to remind themself that this is fiction, compelling fiction that requires response. The narrator of the story is not omniscient - rather after presenting an event, the narrator calls the veracity of the event into question. In this way, the author provides a continuous narrative as experienced/pieced together by the narrator. This reflects the way we fill in the gaps in real life and adds to the reader's sense of the reality of the story.
The story includes three themes regarding the literary scene - the unreliability of literary criticism, the self-conscious choice of literary heroes by young poets, and the relationship between poetics and politics. These are much the same as the themes in By Night in Chile. The story follows a poet (leftist)following a fellow poet (rightist) over twenty some years - both literary and politically. The leftist goes into exile; the rightest, after engaging in brutal executions, also, ends up in exile. In a wonderfully ambiguous climax, their paths cross again. As in real life, not all questions are answered, not all threads pulled together.
Theater of Cruelty.......2005-03-15
Distant Star is one of the best books that I have read recently, and one that I highly recommend.
The realism in this book is not magical so much as it is fractured. In the world of Distant Star, poetry is powerless and power is used to write lines in both blood and the clouds. It holds a faceted lens to the atrocities of the Pinochet years. At the same time, it muses on a world where the people need ever-increasing atrocities to make art that can have any meaning at all. It asks important questions (makes important statements?) about collaboration, poetic form, reception and artistic impact.
The Andrews translation felt smooth and pleasant to read. I wish very much that my Spanish were up to reading the original to compare, but it is not. In any case, I did not feel the translation as a barrier or as too much of an artifact.
Recommended for Borges fans, people with a taste for Chilean history or literature, or general readers with a taste for finely written novels. I will be reading more Bolaño in the near future.
Average customer rating:
- One of the most beautiful love stories
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The Voices of a Distant Star -Hoshi no Koe -
Mizu Sahara
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Voices of a Distant Star
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Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days, Volume 2
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Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days, Volume 1
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Haibane Renmei Anime Manga Volume 1 (Haibane Renmei Anime Manga)
ASIN: 1598165291
Release Date: 2006-08-01 |
Book Description
To what distance would you go for your one true love? In a future filled with a boundless potential for interstellar peace and prosperity, Mikako joins a research team to explore the recent contact between humans and alien races. She ventures out into space, leaving behind Noboru, the one young man she loves. As she travels deeper into this new frontier, her only connection with her boyfriend is through cell-phone text messages. But the years pass, and Mikako barely ages in the timelessness of space--while Noboru grows older and considers moving on with his life...In this timeless romance between star-crossed lovers in the most tragic of settings, there are some places man may not be ready to go.
Customer Reviews:
One of the most beautiful love stories.......2007-01-10
I was really suprised to learn that "Hoshi no Koe" actually had a manga version, which was illustrated by Sumomo Yumeka (a.k.a. Mizu Sahara). Just as I thought, the book was gorgeous and the "feelings" were beautifully conveyed. I fell in love with this wonderful love story once again after reading the book!!
For those who love the anime: this is a must have!! Get it now or you will regret it!!
For those who have never watched the anime or read the book before: same as above. This heartwarming (as well as heartbreaking) love story is not something to miss.
Average customer rating:
- Distant Star
- Wonderful book!
- GREAT HISTORICAL RESEARCH - ROMANCE READERS CAN'T BE UNHAPPY
- I Loved this book!!!
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Distant Star
Barbara Bickmore
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
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Beyond The Promise
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The Back of Beyond
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The Moon Below
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Deep In The Heart
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Whitethorn Woods
ASIN: 0345361091
Release Date: 1993-03-02 |
Book Description
China in 1923 was a far cry from the exotic land Chloe Cavanaugh envisioned; but Chloe was married to the Chicago Times' most famous correspondent, and this squalid, teeming land was her new home.
Yet the winds of change were blowing the sleeping giant of revolution was awakening. Chloe befriends Madame Sun, wife of Sun Yat-sen, the people's hero, who is fighting for modernization and for a government that will finally free China from feudalism. Chloe's friendship with Madame Sun will lead her to realize her own dreams -- as a famous own right. and as a woman whose soul is ignited by four unique men.
From the violent cities Shanghai and Canton, to the war-torn mountains from the private tables of Chiang Kai-shek. to the bitter struggle of a country at Chloe grows from being a naive girl in a strange, forbidden land being a courageous woman, whose ideals, enthusiasm. and to a land, a people, and the sweet calling of her heart lead her on a breathless odyssey.
Customer Reviews:
Distant Star.......2007-05-09
I used to know Barbara Bickmore when i lived in Mexico. We attended same course in Espanol in Ajijic.Jalisco,Mexico. i love all of her books,specially East of Eden and Below the Moon.
Best regards
GSH
Wonderful book!.......2000-11-10
It is too bad that this book is currently out of print, as it is an excellent story! I discovered Barbara Bickmore at the library!! I have currently read three of her books and enjoyed ALL of them! "Distant Star" is a BIG book and full of history of the Chinese Revolution. I didn't think I would even be interested in this topic, but found it absolutely fascinating! The book begins with Chloe as a young woman and you see her change and mature throughout the book. The romances Chloe encounters were all touching although this story is much more than a romance story/book. I loved this book and passed it on to another friend who also loved it! Search for Barbara Bickmore books. It is worth the search. An excellent book and one I highly recommend.
GREAT HISTORICAL RESEARCH - ROMANCE READERS CAN'T BE UNHAPPY.......1999-12-15
I have actually gone backwards with some of Bickmore's books. Read Moon Below first, the Back of Beyond - then East of the Sun. Found this book and loved it, however, I was surprised at her many - best loves ever! - episodes. I think she is a fine writer. In my mind she shouldn't have to push the romance so much.
I Loved this book!!!.......1999-01-09
I can't believe that I am the first to review this book. It was great. I loved it. I'm used to reading romances so when I saw this in a book club selection I got it just for the romance. But as I read it I was instantly caught up in the sweeping tale of love, trust, honor,and courage. I hadn't read a book this good in a long time and it made me remember why I loved books in the first place. It wasn't just a romance it was a story about human drama. It's the story of all our lives. The things you go through as an unsure girl and then as a woman to become simply who you really are. The story of Chloe's loves will leave you wanting more and the backdrop of revolutionary China will spellbind you and keep you up late at night. Read it and weep.
Average customer rating:
- Empty Rehash at a Middle School Level
- Does life exist anywhere but Earth?
- A readable but limited introduction to astrobiology
- Good, but where's the Politics?
- Interesting ideas
|
Faint Echoes, Distant Stars: The Science and Politics of Finding Life Beyond Earth
Ben Bova
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
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ASIN: 0060750995
Release Date: 2005-03-15 |
Book Description
Our neighboring planets may have the answer to this question. Scientists have already identified ice caps on Mars and what appear to be enormous oceans underneath the ice of Jupiter's moons. The atmosphere on Venus appeared harsh and insupportable of life, composed of a toxic atmosphere and oceans of acid -- until scientists concluded that Earth's atmosphere was eerily similar billions of years ago.
An extraterrestrial colony, in some form, may already exist, just awaiting discovery.
But the greatest impediment to such an important scientific discovery may not be technological, but political. No scientific endeavor can be launched without a budget, and matters of money are within the arena of politicians. Dr. Ben Bova explores some of the key players and the arguments waged in a debate of both scientific and cultural priorities, showing the emotions, the controversy, and the egos involved in arguably the most important scientific pursuit ever begun.
Customer Reviews:
Empty Rehash at a Middle School Level.......2006-12-12
I guess you can't tell a book by the cover. I read WHERE IS EVERYBODY (Stephen Webb) at the same time as I read this work. A flying saucer with little green men adorned EVERYBODY whereas a majestic Milky Way galaxy was the selected cover art for this book. The contents, though, was exactly opposite of what one would expect. Where EVERYBODY is erudite, FAINT ECHOES is almost junior high level. EVERYBODY asks, explores and attempts to formulate answers to deep philosphical question / FAINT ECHOES is a light review of well-known knowledge with a dose of politics.
First complaint - the font is huge and there's LOTS of empty space. If the same font as EVERYBODY had been used and the useless, numerous subtitles had been omitted it could have been reduced by half. Second complaint - the science is a stripped down MTV version for those who want quick, glib answers without a lot of serious inquiry. A case in point - the evolution from prokaryotes to eurakyotes is discussed in both books. EVERYBODY offers a vibrant detailed discussion; FAINT ECHOES has a breezy, overview that hurriedly skips to the next subject. EVERYBODY has an extended, in-depth discussion (with multiple illustrations) on the role of amino acids, the building blocks of genes. FAINT ECHOES makes a few references to the subject. It's dreamlike, one of those streams of consciousness where the next thought simply spills out on the page - Mars Rover, Drake Equation, asteroids, evolution, SETI, blah blah. To generate a little interest he throws in such nonsense as ancient astronauts, Roswell, abductions, Velikovsky, Martian "canals", etc
Finally the author admits he is a true believer in intelligent life beyond Earth and issues a call to unite and become brothers and sisters of humanity. Calling all Kumbaya singers for the next rehearsal. My grade: F.
Does life exist anywhere but Earth?.......2006-05-15
A nice introduction to the nature & requirements for life.
Will we someday find life in our own solar system (outside of earth)? I personally think so. Will we find signs of INTELLIGENT life in the universe?
Food for thought.
A readable but limited introduction to astrobiology.......2004-04-28
Science writer and science fiction writer extraordinaire, Ben Bova (only people like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and Carl Sagan, and maybe one or two others, have done those two things any better) has two primary purposes in writing this book. The first is to bring the general reader up to date on the current status of the search for life beyond earth and the likelihood of its existence. The second is to report (and critique) the state of the political and economic wars pertaining to that search. Along the way Bova updates us on how the solar system was formed, concentrating in turn on each of the planets. He reports on the status of extra-solar planets (over 100 have been discovered as he went to press) and on why it is now believed that life may (in the form of "extremophiles") exist in places previously thought to be completely inhospitable such as deep underground, at the bottom of deep oceans, such as under the ice of Jupiter's moon, Europa, or even in interstellar clouds.
The main strength of the book is Bova's always readable prose; the main weakness is a kind of "introductory" treatment that may be too limited or simplistic for more sophisticated readers. For myself--a reader somewhere between the extremes of novice and expert--I found the book reasonably informative and certainly in no sense dumbed-down. Of course I did not need to be told (as Bova does in a gray sidebar on page 80) that "a meteorite is what is left of" a meteor "if it survives to the ground." Nor did I need to be reminded that "Einstein's special theory of relativity showed that matter can be converted to energy" as Bova does in a footnote on page 67. Or even that living organisms seem to (but do not) violate the law of entropy. There are many other examples of this concession to the beginning reader, but not so many that I was annoyed or felt my time was being wasted. The editors are to be commended for putting most of the elementary material in gray boxes, footnotes, or in some of the eleven appendices.
The book is organized into five sections beginning with what Bova calls "The Path to Astrobiology," and ending with "Tomorrow," in which he laments the lack of consistent funding for space exploration and argues that, if humans are to survive any of the catastrophes likely to strike earth (including the near certainty of the sun's expansion, explosion, and collapse in the very, very distant future) we must learn to live in places other than earth.
For the real afficionado of astrobiology, this book will indeed be much too basic. For the fairly well-informed reader wanting to know just where we are in the search for life beyond earth, there are several better books. Two that I can recommend are, Stephen Webb' outstanding Where Is Everybody?: Fifty Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life (2002), the excellent The Life and Death of Planet Earth: How the Science of Astrobiology Charts the Ultimate Fate of Our World (2002) by Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee, and the delightful Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life (2003) by David Grinspoon. Bova includes a discussion of the famous Drake equation and his take on the probabilities implied therein, but if you want the real in-depth treatment read Stephen Webb's book
As far as the politics at NASA and in the Congress of the United States goes, I cannot recommend a better book, but can tell you that Bova's treatment here has taught me little that I didn't know. That the late Senator William Proxmire stupidly bestowed upon SETI one of his infamous "Golden Fleece" awards is old news, as is the fact that Nevada Senator Richard Bryan ridiculed the search for extraterrestrial life back in 1992 and helped to persuade Congress to cut SETI projects from NASA's budget. However Bova does report the efforts of private citizens (notably Microsoft's Paul Allen) to fund SETI projects as well as the efforts of some people at NASA and in Congress to emphasize the possibility of finding at least microbial life under the surface of Mars or elsewhere in the solar system as a means of exciting the public's fancy. If the public's fancy can be sufficiently excited, that will surely persuade our representatives to vote funds to support such projects.
Certainly Bova has a clear understanding of what goes on in Congress. He writes, "Politicians make their decisions for political reasons, not scientific. The first question a politician asks when faced with a decision is, How will this affect my chances for reelection?" (p. 273)
Nothing is going to change that. That is the way a representative democracy works. What needs to be done is to educate the public (and Congress itself!) on (1) the real value of the search for life beyond earth and (2) the real value of being able to colonize, e.g., the moon and Mars. In the first case we have that most beautiful quote from Lee DuBridge (or was it Pogo?) that sets the tone for Bova's book: "Either we are alone in the universe or we are not; either way it's mind-boggling." (p. ix) In the second case we have the specter of any number of earth-confined catastrophes that colonists on the moon or Mars might avoid, such as an unstoppable disease, nuclear warfare, or a huge meteor striking the earth.
Good, but where's the Politics?.......2004-04-09
I enjoyed this light work of nonfiction, but was disappointed. Bova's insights science-wise are very good, there is very little to do with politics in the the book besides Congess cancelled these missions, this happened when he becamre head of NASA, and so on.
Interesting ideas.......2004-03-03
Noted author, Dr. Ben Bova evaluates the age old question of whether humanity is alone in this vast universe. Whether he looks back to Copernicus and earlier or to the SETI project, Dr. Bova provides insight into the past and present scientific wars, the religious dogma, and the political benefit/cost analysis skirmishes. The author uses planet earth to make a case that life probably exists on other orbs in the universe and even in our solar system. He argues that life on earth survives hostile planetary environs that for centuries was assumed nothing could live there and bacteria brought to the moon thrives in conditions that would kill humans. Perhaps the Martian icecaps or the Jovian moons will prove to have living organisms.
FAINT ECHOES, DISTANT STARS: THE SCIENCE AND POLITICS OF FINDING LIFE BEYOND EARTH is at its best when Dr. Bova makes the inductive case that we are not alone. The nonfiction is also quite fun to read when it looks into the past to show those times that science clashed with politics/religion. When the book goes deep into the current skirmish over funding something somewhat esoteric and not easy to see the benefits, it is fascinating but loses some of the propulsion that the history and the science provides. Still this is another strong effort by Dr. Bova, who makes no pretense on which side of the debate he supports.
Harriet Klausner
Average customer rating:
- Not Free SF Reader
- Important voice in sf
|
Distant stars
Samuel R Delany
Manufacturer: Bantam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 055301336X |
Customer Reviews:
Not Free SF Reader.......2007-10-05
An Ibooks reprint of an earlier collection. having never seen the earlier one, not sure if it was illustrated the same way, but there is a lot of drawing in here, and even one page montages throughout showing several of the illustrations in one circle.
Empire Star here it would seem was actually published as a book quite a long time ago when people still published very short books.
A combination of science fiction and fantasy here.
Distant Stars : Prismatica - Samuel R. Delany
Distant Stars : Corona - Samuel R. Delany
Distant Stars : Empire Star - Samuel R. Delany
Distant Stars : Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones - Samuel R. Delany
Distant Stars : Omegahelm - Samuel R. Delany
Distant Stars : Ruins - Samuel R. Delany
Distant Stars : We in Some Strange Power's Employ Move on a Rigorous Line [Lines of Power] - Samuel R. Delany
A bit of colour about the joint would be good.
3 out of 5
Telepaths can use a good band.
3.5 out of 5
Time to teach ourselves.
3.5 out of 5
Singing shiny password.
4 out of 5
Power symbols.
3.5 out of 5
Ordinary thief problem.
2.5 out of 5
Devil and demon energy overcomes angels.
4 out of 5
Important voice in sf.......2000-04-29
DISTANT STARS is a curious re-collection of Delany short stories. It's perhaps notable most for including the story "Omegahelm", which is unavailable elsewhere but interesting in that it is uses the same narrative setting as Delany's well-known novel STARS IN MY POCKET LIKE GRAINS OF SAND. Most of Delany's best-known and award-winning stories are here, alongside several previously-uncollected lesser efforts. The volume also includes some ambitious, if not always entirely successful, illustrations to accompany the tales. In any case, probably a must for Delany devotees, and it's a shame the collection is out of print.
Customer Reviews:
great book.......2000-03-28
This is a wonderful book. I loved it and will continue to read more of Ms. Avery's books.
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