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by nature more of a philosophical debate in a fantasy setting than a fantasy adventure, though set in a place somehow adjacent to the - forever repeating - events of "the worm ouroboros" (q.v.), investigating by argument (with references to the many worlds) the nature of life, conflict, love and the divine, this is an absorbing and rewarding read - if one can get over its not being in any ordinary sense a story - let alone a fantasy adventure with heroes, villains, struggles for worldly power, armed conflict, displays of magical powers with which to attack, defend or to otherwise gain advantage. . .

this is also an aspect of the reward bestowed upon the philosopher-soldier-statesman and, above all, servant for the life he lived dedicated to her, by the goddess: as, indeed, the whole of this world of zimiamvia and all it contains may be, in fulfilment of her promise to him.

not the easiest of reads, but one that informs "mistress of mistresses" (q.v.), the start of "the worm ouroboros" and the nature of its major characters, if not the events thereof (save, the ending), and what eddison achieved of his only very partially-composed intended major work, "the mezentian gate" (q.v.).


4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
It never fails to amaze me...

... how different these classic tales are in the reading, than what you think you know about them, as gleaned from the filmed versions, and even literary discussions on arty programmes and such.

This, for instance, leaves a very different impression in the mind than the sight of Mr Squarehead - bolt neck - Karloff, or those Hammer productions with Christopher Lee lumbering around as a monolithic, mute, and intellectually impaired American quilt of human bits 'n' bobs in some loose arrangement of anatomy would make of it.

No, this is a very different creature than such liberties and licence over the intervening years since it's publication have created in the mind of popular culture.

In fact, the first thing that struck me, and which even the notes by scholars here (and subsequent moseying around he net at other opinions) have failed to draw attention to, is that there is very, very little by way of detailed descriptions of persons, processes, or places in it.
Indeed, the only thing said about the creation of "the creature" is that Victor Frankenstein gives him "The spark of life" - and hey-presto, the creature is born. No bubbling test-tubes, no grand mechanisms, lightning, castles, angry, torch bearing villagers, no grave robbing, stitching of pieces or even the source of the components that go to make him.

No, the only thing we are told is that Victor discovers the secret to giving life... and Shelley makes a particular point of not saying how he does it (the point of the book, is not to follow his folly, and so he tells Walton; A man on a similar scientific expedition who finds Victor pursuing the creature through the northern Ice cap in order to destroy it; that hill will not tell him that secret, but simply relates his tale to warn him off his endeavour.

The structure of the book is a bit of a Russian doll of narratives, opening with Walton sending letters home to his sister Margaret, relating how he found Frankenstein, and in these, he relates Victor's narrative, who in turn relates the creature's narrative, as told to him (yes, the creature speaks, and in fact, is articulate, eloquent, philosophical, and highly intelligent).

And perhaps this is the power of the book on the imagination, which subsequent film-makers have learned... that the less you describe, the more you allow the reader / viewer's imagination to make the horror for themselves (like Ridley Scott's: Alien)...

(There's barely enough description of protagonists to fill a paragraph, in terms of concrete facts)

...And in fact he only descriptions we are afforded of the creature, over and above judgemental characterisations of him as a "demon", "hideous" etc. Is that he has a watery-yellow eye (conspicuously, this reference is very closely followed by reference to the moon...

((The sun and moon are very strong symbols in the this book, from what I gleaned))

...and that he is eight feet tall, with "flowing black hair", and moves with superhuman strength, speed and agility (Have a look at Lord Byron - could he be a source of inspiration for this creature?).

In fact, the very strong impression grew in my mind of an alternative theory about the story than those I've found elsewhere... that "The Creature" is not a physical entity within the story at all, but is Victor Frankenstein's psychosis, that he is the killer and the monster in this work, and that the creature is a split element of his own personality - his own murderous ambition, against which he is struggling, and which may well be the Hyde to his Jekyll that he cannot contain. For it seemed to me that there are many very suggestive clues all through the book which point to this, including the creature's narrative (later related) having taken place at exactly the time, early in he book, after he is created, where Victor spends months wandering, delirious, and semi-conscious.... and the general Superman thing, where neither seems to be where the other is, in the sight of others, at the same time.

Victor Frankenstein is the creature... the creature is his own split personality?

This is only a very short book in fact (How penguin and the like stretch this out into hundreds of pages in their editions is beyond me), as once you take all the introductions, out, it probably boils down to only 150 pages or so, and it only took me two days last week, so it can be gotten through easy enough.

Great read though, another one to finally tick off the list!

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
This book will convert the chronic loser into a confident and serious winner.
Covers all the important strategies; what and when to buy, the important color groups to acquire and improve, which properties bring the largest return in rent, investment vs. dividend ratios.
And the all-important death strategy...understanding and creating the 'housing shortage' - guaranteed to cripple and bankrupt your opponents.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
An incredible book and an incredible labour of love.

Full of pages of wonderful OZ Punk, Post Punk and D.I.Y. singles some of which are so rare that I've no much chance of ever finding them in the UK. This book is the next best thing and with the added bonus of two previously unreleased coloured vinyl singles to listen to while I drool.

Alas this book hasn't managed to get large scale European distribution which is probably due to it's weight. It's an absolute monster!

So although I can't deny that this works out as a pretty expensive purchase for anyone based in the UK I still think it's worth every pound.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
The Subtitle says it all . All these new words are actual place names and can be found on the map of the world.


For Example

BINDLE To slip foreign coins into a customer's change

BRADFORD A school-Teachers hairy old jacket, now severely discoloured by chalk-dust, ink, egg and the precipitations of unedifying chemical reactions

DUNOLLY An improvised umbrella

FARRANCASSIDY A long and ultimately unseccessful attempt to undo someone's bra

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Ken Scott's "Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust" is a great read. The book follows Ken's life chronologically from when, as a teenager in the 1960's, he applied to to work for EMI at Abbey Road through to about 2006 when he remastered George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass". In between Ken learned his craft as a recording engineer and worked with a who's who of popular music including The Beatles, Bowie, Elton John and Supertramp.

Now there is a fair bit of information on the technical side of recording in the book but Ken manages to appropriately slip it in, in segments, that relate to whoever he was working with at the time. This strategy neatly avoids the problem of the technical details becoming to boring or in this case getting in the way of a good story. This is perhaps most skillfully done when Ken offers his insight on the recording of Lou Reed's "Transformer" which is full of human drama and technical recording and studio problems.

The book moves from the 70's to 80's via Ken's connection to Supertramp and in the book he gives vivid insight into the band and how their major albums were produced. To this point the book is very open and Ken seems happy to let us into his life and work. This seems to change after Supertramp break up and Ken decides to stay in Los Angeles and work from there. From here on in there are only hints of Ken's inner thoughts and a glossing over of his personal life which was full of drama throughout this period. This is a minor flaw but it does nag at the reader who by this stage has got to know Ken through the previous 260 pages. Perhaps this part of Ken's life isn't one he was really ready to discuss but needed to be included to maintain the chronology of events.

If you persist through this section though you will be rewarded. The last 50-60 pages are great and offer more insight into his key works as albums are remastered, people pass away and Ken offers his philosophy on recording and the music business in general.

If you've ever wondered just who is this Ken Scott and why is his name on so many of my favourite albums this book will give you the answers. A very enjoyable read.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Mick has participated in Japanese Death Matches, which replace the ropes with barbed wire and pack the corner posts with C4 explosive that detonates on impact.His body is covered in scars and burns, and he lost an ear when his head got caught in the steel ring ropes, but he still continued the match. In "Mankind Have a Nice Day!" he recounts how he got into the business, met his wife, and how he became known for taking some of the hardest knocks in the pro-wrestling business. From his days as Cactus Jack, the WWF (as it was then) and WCW, to the WWE "Attitude Era", wrestling as Mankind, he relates on the road tales with his fellow wrestlers.

He recalls matches like his "Hell In A Cell" match (a steel cage with a top on it) with the Undertaker, which shocked the fans when the 'taker threw Mick through an announce table from the top of the steel cell, only for him to get back up and climb to the top again (despite a dislocated shoulder) where the Undertaker rewarded him by chokeslamming him through the top of the cell to the ring below. When the unconscious Mankind recovered enough to get back to his feet one of his teeth was lodged in his nose. No wonder the wrestling fans started proclaiming "Foley Is God".

"This book is not for the squeamish" the front flap of the dust jacket states, and it's true. However, it's a fascinating insight into the world of "hardcore" wrestling, and is written by Foley himself (no ghost writers here). Mick Foley has gone on to become an accomplished author, following up this book with a childrens fiction tale, and several novels. His writing style is easy to read, and he has made this a very entertaining book which you'll be reluctant to put down, even if you are the most casual of wrestling fans. There's a saying in pro wrestling: wrestling is as real as you want to make it. Well, it doesn't get much more real than this. I highly recommend.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
This is one of only a couple of books I could claim to have changed my life.

(I never liked such claims, as I don't really like to think I'm so easily moved by anything I happen to read... not healthy to buy into any single piece of literature absolutely I think)

It's not a big book by any stretch of the imagination... more of a pamphlet, or brochure for Jung's theory, from which you can jump off into his other works, which go into much greater depth on each of the aspects of the theory.

Like many, I never liked the Idea of Freud's rather reductive view of human beings as little more than mechanical animals driven by primal clockwork impulses, and which seems to exclude any possibility of attaching any inherent value to a person by so reducing them.

Jung doesn't do that, but in fact digs a little deeper into that very clockwork to discover meaning... and value.

From here, the other small Routledge books on Modern Man In Search Of A Soul, The Nature Of the Psyche, are a good route to take, before getting into the nitty gritty of Dreams, and The Science Of Mythology, and then the bigger editions which are presented more as the original essays and lectures.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
I remember Charlie and his huge Guild guitar and his early tour of England when we were fascinated to see the original US artists . Those very few who came to the UK in those early days have obviously left a lasting impression.
According to Charlie, he was already a fantastic, seasoned young performer by the time he got to Cameo records and was earning good money singing in clubs and dances but argued with this new started,unsure, struggling little label about his earnings from two best selling records. This got him into lots of trouble and his career was doused forthwith.
From that point on he became a local musician struggling to keep bread on the table.

Personally I am not interested in watching singers from the 1950's hobbling around and singing their teen-age hits. Those little records were of their time..and of my time..AT that time. Hearing their take on the happenings of those times is far more interesting.

This book is full of Charlie meeting famous singers who say "Wow!!! I can't believe its you. You are the reason I became a showbiz personality". Charlie makes a point of being a humble guy but manages to teach Eddie Cochran to play cool guitar licks and describe Buddy Holly as fantastic although he wasn't much of a guitar player and didn't have much of a voice.

....and his faith in God also helped of course

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
This is one of those books that i wish i'd come across earlier.It's very handy ,especially when trying to decipher terms more commonly used in classical music,but also covers most other genres as well.It also lists weird and wonderfully named instruments from around the world,and has a brief biog. of artists/composers at the back.Can be picked up fairly reasonably priced online.All in all,good value for your money.Recommended.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
makes a decent "small present" - and's a good "bog book". . .

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Perhaps the most rewarding read I've ever had... and the hardest read too.

This book actually hurt my brain to read it. My brain... In my head. Hurt!

It's commonly thought of (some say erroneously) as a manifesto of existentialism, and while it is philosophy, which implies thick academic logic and the consideration of existence (Ontology) from a scientific perspective, you actually come away from it feeling that you've read one of the greatest works of spirituality ever written. (Religious Scriptures aside)

It can change your world view, and make feel... yes feel spiritually enlightened.

But to get there you have to get stuck in the mire of some very dense concepts, which are hard to get your head around... such as: "beings for themselves", "beings for others", "beings in themselves" etc. As well as the truly mind melting concept of temporality, whereby we don't actually exist, and neither does anything else, because as soon as something something happens, it no longer exists, and likewise, if it hasn't happened yet, it doesn't exist either, and we exist in the crack of the existence of now, which doesn't exist, but is defined be movement of future to past, and exists between the two, but as it is neither past or future but constantly moving from being the future (which doesn't exist), to the past (which doesn't exist)...

So we exist between two states that don't exist, that define a state which doesn't exist because they don't, but does, because it is... yet is not.

OK?

I promise you there is more of a sense of what you might define as "God" in this, than you may find in a thousand other books.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
You have to be very careful with which edition of this work you get...

It's one of those stories that has a timeless and general appeal, and has been taught in schools for many years.

And this has meant it has had to have some real editing down to make it appropriate for younger minds.

In schools, most of the book is missing, mainly for reasons that after he's been small in a large world, and large in small world... the point has been felt to have been made adequately, and the rest deemed unnecessary.

In this way it offers a boldly drawn story that would catch the younger reader's imagination, but this was originally written as biting satire, both social and political, and the "further adventures of Mr Gulliver" that are usually omitted serve to hammer home this point... and Swift pulls no punches in doing so, often in quite a Bawdy way too (he pisses on the lilliput palace to put out a fire there in one scene - the politically satirical point there rather unceremoniously made)... so all of this has had to have been "disappeared" too, to make it appropriate for younger ages.

This edition is the unedited - "complete, and unabridged" variety, aimed at an older reader... so another edition of the edited kind should be sought for younger readers.


Sing along now:


"There's Lilliput and Brobdingnang, the Laputans, Balnibarbi and Luggnagg, Glubbdubbdrib and Houyhnhnms and..............

..................... Japan (!?!)"


(A few more besides too - Haven't quite worked out the rhyme yet, but I'm sure there's a song in there somewhere along the lines of that song about the elements)

(((Oooh, almost forgot, it does contain what is thought to be one of, if not the earliest descriptions of a calculating machine... a computer. (And a floating city too, which is always good!))))

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
I don't speak Latin... hence the dictionary.

I got this as I was coming across many words I wanted to get to the bottom of in other books (and in general), and this fitted the bill perfectly.

The same size as a standard paperback novel, it is quite like a Tardis, in that I was worried when I got it that it might not be big enough to contain all the words I might possibly need to translate... but so far, every word I wanted has been found in it.

It has sections on Grammar etc. apart from the dictionary, but that's a bit beyond me to be honest (both my need and my interest too, as well as my capability).

It has a front section of Latin to English, then a back section of English to Latin, which is very important in some circumstances.

And having lived with it for a good couple of years or so now, I can even begin to decipher general meaning in Latin phrases when I come across them, even if the exact translation still escapes me (I can get the gist).

Does what you want it to... in a nut shell.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
A short book, and this translation makes for an easy read.

(You could get through it in a couple of hours or so)

But it is one of the staple texts of Arthurian literature (of this very early stage in the development of Arthurian legend especially).

Elegantly, and poetically written, it conjures strong mental images, and the narrative is easy to follow.

However... if you are to understand Arthurian literature, you have to learn to decipher symbols, and decode the symbology which these romances are thick with.

Honestly, I have come to understand that not only specific things within them are symbols (the individual knights, their attire, their names (etymology rapidly becomes a new interest when you get into these works), but how knights interact with objects, and other knights, speech patterns, and even the structure of the narrative is symbolic, and has deeper, and more obscure meanings than is immediately evident.

As such, these tales often seem mystical and obscure... but this is where their power (and the power of the Arthur legend) lies... they weave a spell, through fascinating the mind of the reader, and drawing you in.... and ultimately, that is how they are designed to function, and their purpose.

As well as to encode, or "hide" what they would have understood to have been truths from unwelcome eyes, but be apparent to those who knew how to read them.

For instance:

This particular work has the entirely nutty premise of a "head chopping-off" contest between Mr Sir Gawain and the titular Knight of the distinctly (and conspicuously) Green variety....

Following a pattern for Arthurian romances (which if not established first by Cretien De Troyes, is certainly to be found there),

...the quest begins at Arthur's court (they usually do, and Arthur himself does not feature quite so strongly in them as you'd imagine ((and Sir Gawain, more than any other knight, features in almost all of them, often to parallel, or analogue the narrative of the quest of the other knight - maybe he's the most significant figure in Arthurian Literature!-))... The Green knight comes in and offers a challenge to the court, that he will accept a blow from anyone (He first offer it to Arthur) to cut off his head, in return for that knight riding out to his Green Chapel in a distant woods, exactly one year later, to receive a like blow in return.
Gawain takes up the challenge, and lops the Green knight's head orrf... which the Green knight (now sans head), picks up (it still talks, as he reminds Gawain of his vow to meet him in a year), and gets on his green horse, and rides off.

This bonkers story continues on from here, following the story of Gawain meeting this obligation (which I won't ruin with spoilers).

One article of great interest within this book, and of tremendous general significance, and which is highly unusual in that it gives an overt explanation of what one of these symbols actually means, is when Gawain is armed and horsed in preparation for setting out on this quest, he is given a shield which bears a device (the picture) of a golden Pentagram (pentangle) on a red background...

This, it explains in detail, is not, as it has come to be thought of more recently, a "satanic" symbol, and in fact, is as far from devil-worship-ry and all as is possible to get in it's origins.

It is in fact Solomon's Knot, or Solomon's Seal (yup, biblical Solomon), which once stood as the seal on the pillars of Solomon's temple where the Ark of the Covenant was kept... so actually one of the most sacred CHRISTIAN (Judeo-Christian (-Islamic?)) symbols of that ancient world.

But even at face value, it makes for an entrancing read, even if it is a bit grim :)

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
superb storytelling in a particular, peculiar sing-song style that is the voice of the eponymous itinerant entertainer, making a living (or failing to) by retelling well-known traditional stories in the precise form to audiences who collect in, or just outside, villages in a china that never truly was, where mandarins who are bitter enemies are oh-so polite to one another, and courteous to a fault, as they deftly slip a dagger from out a voluminous brocaded sleeve and into the side of their unsuspecting target, all the while protesting their total insignificance and lack of lineage and honour in comparison with their now exquisitely painfully-expiring rival. . .

also published by penguin were ernest bramah's ''the wallet of kai lung'' (penguin #39) and ''kai lung's golden hours'' (penguin #174); and ''max carrados'' (penguin #436), & ''the eyes of max carrados'' (penguin #303), collections of detective stories in which the investigative central character just happens to be blind.

"ernest bramah" is the form of his name chosen by ernest brammah smith (1868-1942) under which to publish his writings.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
This book does not need a review, as it is as un-review-able, as it is unreadable.

It rather needs a warning instead... like those found on cigarette packets:

-Reading, or attempting to read this book will seriously screw with your mental health -

It is James Joyce's epic "stream of consciousness" "masterpiece", and it is so obscure that nobody has even worked out exactly what it's about (indeed, whole literary groups and societies get together at weekends and such to devote their time to decoding and trying to decipher meaning in it... an occupation which is only probably akin to trying to calculate Pi to the most decimal places).

It was this that made me buy it... thinking: "I'm a pretty good reader, I'll have a crack, to see what the fuss is about".

Error.

My own personal record for this book is 50 pages in, before my brain began to implode, and I started chewing my eyelids.

I begin to wonder if Joyce didn't actually write this as the greatest joke ever told, perpetrated against the intellectual pride of the "literati" persons... to serve up a book that would drive them all crackers trying to understand it and look for meaning where there is none.

It's long, it begins where it ends, and ends where it begins, it makes zero sense, and even one paragraph will cook your neurons.

My advice: Give this one a miss, and read something else instead.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
An incredible work. 99.9% of UK Punk and New Wave singles are here with exact release dates, issues, printing details - everything!

The attention to detail is incredible and apparently the book took over a decade to complete. I have to say I'm not surprised. Anyone who tracks down an original bass player to find out whether there were 300 or 500 of their self released white label hand stamped 7" deserves R.E.S.P.E.C.T

This book isn't cheap (if you can track it down at all) but it's worth every single penny. It oozes quality and the design and printing is lovely.

Can't wait for another volume!

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Very comprehensive, though attracted later criticism for including pre-release or proposed entries that were subsequently shelved. A lot of the information was apparently sourced from John Peel's record collection, so maybe some of the rumoured-to-exist records actually do exist in some form.
The entries are for worldwide releases, though the majority are from English speaking countries. Honorary mentions are given to most of the important proto-punk bands. Each page has unique doodles/art to fill in blank spaces and maybe helps to take the strain off your eyes. Every so often you get a page crammed with pics of record sleeves.

If I can remember correctly volume 1 of this book was fairly slimline and had a red cover (all entries duplicated in this volume 2).

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Bit of a monster this book!

I have the 1992 restored text version, that runs at over 600 and some pages...

...But this is a monster in more ways than one, as, in taking it's central premise of a "Man from mars" (frequently referred to this throughout the book), who is in fact, the illegitimate human child of a couple of expeditionary astronauts sent to Mars to engage "diplomatically" with native Martians (No other, underlying exploitative agenda, of course - ahem - (Avatar vibes?!), who is brought back to Earth, having been raised as a Martian, according to their ways, and as such, is a Human, who is also an alien on this planet, and viewing earthmen, and their ways through the un-prejudiced lens of a visitor to this planet...

...And how very strange we are, in our ways!

But here's he crux: This book is basically an protracted excuse for Robert Heinlein to critique human society (as he fond it then, and as it, in many ways, remains) by looking at as an outsider would... so the Man from Mars acts as a device through which he can do this, having a perfectly naïve figure who can ask the kind of uncomfortable questions usually forthcoming from human children to their uneasy parents (chuckle) and at the same time, adopt the persona of the Man from Mars' mentor, adviser, and guide, in the shape of Jubal Harshaw, a world weary old professor type, and cipher for Heinlein to set the world to rights and hold forth on every aspect of human strangeness with lecturers, monologues, acerbic asides and biting cynicism, having had the Man From Mars provide the excuse to do so, through the posing of these questions.

As such, it's more of a "talky" science fiction book, or like the philosophy of Plato and such, who used this basic device of fictional meetings of functional characters, leading to dialogues in which the philosophy is found.

(If Plato were alive today... he'd be writing Science Fiction! - for these are our modern philosophers)

For this reason, I can see why a lot of it was originally cut out, in order to cut the book down a bit, as there is, perhaps a lot of "banging on" here, but none of what may have been cut (I haven't read the cut version, so don't know what they did remove) is necessarily flabby, excessive, or superfluous... there's just a lot of it!

But of course, the other (Perhaps, main) reason to cut a load out of this, is that it is extremely radical in it's thinking, beyond what any would dare today, much less, at time of publication, in questioning every moral construct, idea, institution, faith and religion, social convention, basis of human relationships and moral boundary you can think of...

...There is free love, polygamy of sorts, atheism, pantheism, cannibalism as a notion of an accepted normal social and "religious" practice (on Mars), the formation of a cult, or commune, and it savagely represents a deeply cynical view of politics, organised religions, media, and individuals in their habits and conventions, as they all scrabble to get a piece of the visitor for their own ends, or to make him go away...

(So as not to call into question their own positions - don't want the ordinary folk thinking too deeply about stuff, do we now?)

...And so, if you are not the kind of person who would find this funny, enjoyable, and eliciting a kind of cheerleading response to what it has to say, you would most likely fall into the category of "everyone else", who will find this almost universally offensive on every point, even (especially?) today.

You could not publish this today, I feel, as a new book, as the angry villagers, and worse, would be on your doorstep the very next day!

(As, funnily enough, happens in the book itself :)

And for all these reasons, it's well worth reading.

((Just maintain perspective, and don't get too carried away with it, or else you may take it as a cue to start your own cult, or "religion", and thank goodness that hasn't happened yet! (...er.....))

But then, what do I know, for in the words of the man from Mars himself:

"I Am Only An Egg."

(You Grok?)

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
hugo award-winning novel voted best science fiction novel of the year 1988 by the members of the 1989 world science fiction convention.

ariane emory, highly respected, one of the most powerful people in resuene - and therefore, in the union, leading socio-political theoretical and practical scientist behind the development, production, education and (some) socialisation of the ''azi'', the ''bottle'' or ''test-tube'' clones who've provided the man- - and woman- - power for union's successful revolt against rule from light years away - and years, even decades behind the times - earth company, and earth company's fleet - and for the absolute requirement that all azi education, socialisation, including military, ''tape'' programming be supervised and controlled by reseune -

- feared by some - and hated - perhaps by even more -

- ariane emory is working late in an old, familiar lab with its known faulty door propped open, to compensate for its failing heating, and with known inadequate security because of its age -

- and is discovered in the morning frozen to death, with the faulty door slammed shut - but also with a bad head wound sufficient to've knocked her unconscious.

- was it an accident ? - if so, it was remarkably convenient for her political and business competitors and enemies, inside reseune as well as outside, and for her personal enemies, too - one of whom is known to have visited her that evening, and argued vehemently with her...

- was it the accidental outcome of this vehement argument's becoming literally violent - or, with the known suspect's storming out unaware that by letting the door slam shut, he was condemning her to a slow freezing to death, in the course of which she got up, fell, and accidentally knocked herself out?

- or was it out and out murder ?


- and whichever it was, can reseune retain its power - even survive - without her insight, her ability, and without her clear-sighted steering - or, as her rivals and political opponents within and without reseune might prefer to term it, her bloody-minded dictatorial and domineering directorship of reseune - can the company that is the heart of union, and the dominant power on cyteen, steering the union's politics and colonisation programmes always in the progressive - or ''expansionist'' - directions that also - purely incidentally, of course - ensure reseune's continued domination of the union's policies, budget and politics - can reseune and even the union survive ?


(more follows during december-january) (sorry: yr hmbl srppnt. got distracted...) (''more eventually'')

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an irish-american divorcée still bruised and battered from the experience looks to find refuge and a peaceful life for herself and her twin children when she inherits her aunt's estate in ireland; but what with disappointed local heirs and her ex-husband's ugly determination to get equal, things do not turn out quite as she hoped...

(there may be some elements anne took from her own experiences around the time this novel was written, but it is not autobiographical.)

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aloysious smallcreep has tended his machine press in the great factory faithfully and unquestioningly, stamping out the same part day in, day out, since the first day of his employment; now, upon the day of his retirement, he is suddenly taken by the notion to discover what it is the widget he's been making for so many years is actually used for, what it does:

and so, for the first time ever, and on the very last day it will be possible for him, he sets off upon an adventure into the unknown...

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AgHauler
Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2019
GREAT NWPRR book
Well researched, with many photos, especially some that bring back personal memories of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad! Wonder book with a lot of information.

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it's now too many years since i read these, really, for yr hmbl srppnt. to review them - or the first five of them - but the young me was still in the process of attempting to read almost everything in three children's libraries that fell into ''sf'', ''historical fiction'', ''fantasy'', ''biggles books'', ’'history'', ''world war one & two pilots' biographies & autobiographies'' - plus trying aught else as happened to catch my eye and looked interesting; so yr hmbl srppnt. was still in the middle of learning what ''well written'' was, and only beginning to learn that some authors' books just were all too poorly written, to be worth starting another book by them.

so i don't remember these as being particularly poorly-written, and do remember some of the parts of the stories - mostly plot elements - with at least a little fondness; but i cannot judge them fairly, nor recommend them - nor give a ''warn off!''; but a ten-to-twelve year-old ppint. read the first five - almost all that'd been published at the time - and enjoyed them.

they start off with a space ''race'' to reach the only very occasionally near-earth small planet whose previous near approches have coincided suspiciously often with unusually-extended periods of peace and the flowering of civilisations on earth, and (on the part of the british-based western team, at least) to discover whether there is life upon the wandering planet°, and whether it truly has been influencing us to concentrate upon constructive activities, rather than upon warfare. the rival mission, however, based in one of the countries of the eastern bloc, has less sporting an approach to the race - and seeks to sabotage the uk-us effort...


° - yes, this is technically a redundancy, at least by linguistic derivation

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Beautiful book of the golden era of Hollywood.
A detailed anthology of the stars that made the American movies so great and rare.
Many splendid black and white photographs portraying those stars..

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From the author's website:

“This encyclopedia is crucial for any music library.” — V.J. Novara, Choice

“With The Beatles Encyclopedia, ‘Everything Fab Four’ has been placed at our fingertips. . . . It will enlarge considerably our conception of what the Beatles accomplished, just as it will strike us as practical, fun, and, most important of all, indispensable. Certain it is that fans and scholars of the Beatles will find themselves describing the feat that Kenneth Womack has achieved in compiling The Beatles Encyclopedia in adjectives such as these.” — Steve Hamelman, Popular Music and Society

“Intended for a wide audience, The Beatles Encyclopedia is accessible for new and younger listeners yet serves as a convenient reference tool for serious fans.” — Kit O’Toole, Something Else! Reviews

“The entries are well-written and should be clearly understood by a general reading audience. The sheer amount of information contained between the covers is impressive and certainly helpful to anyone interested in, or researching, Beatles-related information.” — American Reference Books Annual

“Numerous Beatles books tell the group’s story or focus on specific periods in their history. Now, all of the major topics are included in one convenient place. The Beatles Encyclopedia: Everything Fab Four, the latest work by Beatles scholar Kenneth Womack, is an educational and entertaining addition to any Beatle fan’s library.” — Radio Teresa

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Reviews on the publisher's website:

Amazing… the detail in this book is staggering – beautifully illustrated and covering every album The Beatles ever made in a truly original way. This is a book that every true Beatles fan will want to own’

Bev Bevan (Drummer, Black Sabbath and ELO)

‘Arresting…“see” John, Paul, George, and Ringo in vastly new and revealing ways’

Kenneth Womack, Huffington Post

“Entertaining, informative, and beautifully presented…contains detailed research that will surprise even long time fans”

Jon Stewart, Sleeper guitarist and Total Guitar columnist

The evolution of the Fab 4 has never before been documented in such a concise, exciting and beautiful way

Damian Keyes, Bass Player & Founder of Brighton Institute of Modern Music

‘Gorgeous infographics … a fun, well laid out look at the data behind some of the catchiest and most influential songs ever written’

Gizmodo

‘What happens when data nerds consume a music album’

Kickstarter (Staff Pick and featured on Projects We Love)

‘For Beatles superfans and data geeks, this book is a dream’

Column Five

‘A gorgeous product … I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these copies!’

Tiny Light Bulbs

‘The Beatles catalogue is so vast and influential, only a data-led approach like this can help us truly make sense of it. Love *is* all you need, but visualisation can help too’

Simon Rogers, Data Editor at Google and author of Facts Are Sacred

Source: Orphans Publishing

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....this is by far the best and most complete collection of Dezo's pictures of The Beatles....the pictures speak for themselves.

Bill Harry, The Beatles Volume 3 - Paperback Writers (1984, Virgin Books)

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i didn't realise there were ten of these books. nor that i'd read - perhaps - as many as eight of them.
since i can (dimly) recall the plots of a few, and the set-ups of a number - possibly most - of them, through the eighth book in the series, i think it becomes more understandable that they made and left a permanent impression upon yr hmbl srppnt. - if mainly that one of the - always humanoid - aliens the crew makes friends with continues for years after to make diversions from his trips to other planets in order to visit them in their castle in one particularly isolated scottish valley, "because it's the only place in the solar system he can get a properly-made cup of tea."

they may conceivably possess period charm for people of a generation prior to that of this ppint., but they are not well-written science fiction, as w. e. johns' grasp upon scientific knowledge, even that of the twenties and thirties, was weak, verging upon non-existent; and he regarded what he did know as being tantamount to magic - which puts an enormously strong restriction upon an author's ability to imagine the problems and opportunities that science-based technological and social advances° might present his or her characters, let alone how they might react differently to these, each in their way, and how they might match up to these challenges.

- the result is that these adventures are essentially westerns, or pale - and very tame - sub-h. rider haggardian exotic adventures in foreign lands, that just happen to be set on imaginary other worlds -
- with added properly-made pots of tea, in a castle in a scottish glen. . .


° - through into the nineteen-sixties, scientific discoveries and technological change were almost always presented as advances - despite hiroshima, despite nagasaki, despite the holocaust of the industrialised slaughter of civilians in wwII and of armies upon the battlefields of wwI. . .

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

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