Dante Books

This book was amazing: the stories within the story, the characters and the way Andrew Davidson describes everything was beautiful. You can tell he is going to be a very successful writer, especially since this is his very first book! I can't wait to read book 2, 3, 4.....etc!

This book fits into a few different genres. It is, in part, a historical fiction novel. In part, it is a love story. And finally, it is also a bit of a mystery. I think all three parts work well together, complementing not overshaddowing each other.

The book chapters jump back and forth from the present to one of many pasts. It also moves around different parts of the world, including Japan, Iceland, Italy, and Germany. Though some do not like this style, I think it really helps to keep the reader interested from the variety.

The writing is good, though sometimes it seems that the author plays a bit too fast and loose with grammar rules. But, still, it does not really detract from the overall enjoyment of his word choice, for example.

In terms of the mystery part of the book, there does seem to be an element of The Da Vinci Code type of thing in the book, especially as there is some sense of the religious in the entire story.

While the novel is thoroughly engaging, it has the issue that many books do: the end cannot live up to the rest of it. That is a problem with The Gargoyle as well. Davidson could, perhaps, have done more to flesh out the reveal at the end, making the last chapters more substantial. For this, I would probably give it a 4.5 if I could. Still, the book is so interesting to read and there is enough of a resolution at the end that it deserves high marks. But it is certainly not for those who need all strings tied up at the end.

I am not a student of English or history, so I can't say if this book qualifies as a "great novel." I can say, however, that I read this book over the course of a few days, making sure to read a few pages, paragraphs, or sentences whenever I got the chance. I put aside the other fiction book that I was reading and made sure to finish "The Gargoyle" as soon as I could.
I will not recap the novel (as it has been done before, and better than I could ever hope to do), but I will simply say that it was engrossing and un-put-downable (if that could ever be a real word).

I will begin by saying that perhaps this book should have been exactly my cup of tea. A love story between a disillusioned, cynical burn victim (and victim, arguably, of his own excesses) and a schizophrenic sculptress, who've loved each other before, time and again? I mean, I should have swallowed this book overnight! Instead...
God, this was painful to read. I couldn't believe just how overwritten this novel was. I couldn't sympathize with either of the characters, though I've tried to find something to like about them. It's not the yuck factor, either - I've tolerated much more gross descriptions than the total body burn and other atrocities that are inflicted on the protagonist of The Gargoyle. Rather, it's the quality of writing itself, which seemed to delight in breathless descriptions of atrocities (take, for one example, the suicide plan that the protagonist hatches prior to deciding to give love - or insanity - a chance) that put me off to the point where I could barely finish the book. Overindulgent character torture is definitely not my cup of tea. So, basically, thanks, but no thanks.

As the last of my Costco book table purchases, I read The Gargoyle at my daughter Dee-Dee's suggestion. As I mentioned in a previous post, my daughter Colie picked out Water for Elephants, because I collect elephants, and I purchased it from Costco. As Dee-Dee is one of the "always competing" twins, she picked out The Gargoyle and told me that she thought I would like it because I liked Season of the Witch. OK... so, I bought them both and have already read and reviewed Water for Elephants. Picture now, Dee-Dee bugging me... "Mom, when are you going to read the book that I picked out for you?"

"Next, babe, next... I promise."

First, let's just say that I thought this book was VERYgood! I'm a bit surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. The book is very different than the types of books that I typically gravitate towards. Just goes to show that "you can't judge a book by it's cover!" Oh, and Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants , quotes on the back of the book cover:

"I was blown away by Andrew Davidson's The Gargoyle. It reminded me of Life of Pi, with its unanswered (and unanswerable) contradictions. A hypnotic, horrifying, astonishing novel that manages, against all odds, to be redemptive."

The Review:
Author: Andrew Davidson

Book Website: [...]

Publisher: DoubleDay

ISBN: 978-0-385-52494-0

Type: Fiction

This novel is a bit difficult to describe, in terms of a story-line... at least, for me. This novel has a main story, which is the tale of the narrator (I don't think we ever get his name). He was a "porno" star, drug addict, very dark and obviously unhappy man. One night, high on drugs, he's driving a windy road and suffers a haleucination of a "flight of arrows" coming towards him. To avoid the arrows, he crashes off of the road and heads down a ravine. The car catches fire and he nearly dies.... but, the car eventually falls into a creek and he is saved by the water.

He undergoes extensive treatment in a burn-ward of a hospital. There, we meet several of his doctors and nurses, who become an integral part of the main story line. My favorite of the group is Sayuri, his Japanese physical therapist. During his very long and painful stay, he meets Marianne Engel, a patient from the "psych" ward. He believes her to be schizophrenic or bi-polar, after concluding that she is not an actress nor a "porno stalker." She is an interesting creature, this Marianne Engel... covered in tattoos, her backside is depicted on the cover of the book. She is eccentric and beautiful... and mysterious and crazy. Nevertheless, the reader grows to love her... as does the narrator.

Mariane Engel visits the narrator throughout his recovery and helps to nurse him back to health in more ways than one. In this duration, she tells him stories. These "side-stories" in the book were, by far, my most favorite part of the novel. They were all great, but I loved Sei's story (see video below) the best! The Viking one, not too shabby!

The narrator makes his way out of the hospital and moves in with Marianne Engel, who claims to have been alive since the 1300's. Apparently, she was given thousands of hearts by God, and it wasn't until she'd given all of them away that she could return to heaven. The last of the hearts would belong to her true love and she must give it to him and he must release it back to her. Marianne is a stone-carver and makes her living carving gargoyles and the like. Of course, she has crazy amounts of cash money and is able to take on the financial burden of caring for him. In her care-taking of him, she continues to tell him about those "side stories," now which include the story of their love in a past life.

I'd rather not give the ending away by continuing my rendition of the story-line. But, the narrator has to overcome many obstacles to find his way to true happiness. You see, while he was in the hospital, the only dream he had was to kill himself as soon as he was released. As horrible as his life was before the accident, he now viewed himself as a monster and less than a man (he lost his "P" in the accident). What the narrator learned was that, while his physical appearance and ability was completely shot, he actually became alive and happy for the first time in his life after the accident. All that he had before was physical beauty... but not an ounce of joy. Now, not an ounce of physical beauty, but a heart that was full.

Sei's Story:

[...]

The author and DoubleDay have a wonderful site with many resources that tie to the novel. I might spend some more time there reading up on the historical data beneath this novel. It is obvious that Davidson spent an incredible amount of time in the research phases of this debut novel. On the site, there are questions for book clubs/readers:

For Discussion: Throughout each liaison, how do the novel's lovers honor their fate? They realize that they are dying in the name of true love.

For Discussion: The Gargoyle begins with arguably one of the most stunning opening scenes in contemporary literature. How was the author able to make horrifying details alluring? What was your initial reaction to these images? I was very visually connected to the author's description of the crash and the fire. For me, it was totally engrossing and I couldn't put the book down. Although, I understand from other reviewers that they were repulsed by the opening.

There is much, much more that I can write about this novel... however, the reader's journey in this book is such a personal one that I find it best to end the review here. God, heaven, hell, the devil, love, life, death, faith, and the lack thereof, are all major concepts in this work. Therefore, it is within the mind of the reader that this book breathes life into... it's a journey for you to take on your own.

My favorite quotes from the novel:

"No, it's the opposite. I'm a vessel that water is poured into and splashes out of. It's a circle, a flowing circle between God and the gargoyles and me, because that is what God is-a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere."

"Skin is the dividing line between people, where you end and others begin. But in sex, all that changes. If skin is a fence that divides people, sex is the gate that opens your body to the other person."

"Some day soon," Lance said, "you'll walk out of here and have to decide how you're going to live the rest of your lives. Will you be defined by what other people see, or by the essence of your soul?"

"Any man who believes he can describe love," I answered, "understands nothing about it."

On the Sher's "Out of Ten" Scale (ten being the best), I'd give this book an 8.75-9! The only trouble I had in the book was the journey with getting the serpent out...

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If a person wishes to understand a basic but thorough overview of Buddhism during it's development, this book is very good, in fact, excellent. With a 3 year background of studying Buddhist texts, I found this book to be a Go-To primer to recommend to folks who are interested in the Buddha and want to know more.
HikerBOB

Karen Armstrong's BUDDHA is the first book I would give to someone who is "going forth" on a personal spiritual quest. My own Dear One gave me a copy of the book shortly after I'd begun my serious study of Tibetan Buddhism, and though I earnestly commenced reading, I found it tough going. Armstrong's historical perspective seemed vast, too much for me to absorb and make meaningful sense of.

But a year later, something happened that proved to me all over again my belief that it's magic when a book finds you, when your spirit is aligned with the author's intent. I picked up the book one morning, beginning where I'd left off on page 14, and could not put it down. It was all so clear to me! Rather than putting me off, Armstrong's historical perspective seemed like a gourmet feast to a hungry traveler. I delighted in contemplating the rise of Buddhism on the tableau of history that included the founding and significant principles of all of the world's great religions.

Armstrong succeeds in humanizing a figure who lived and died 2,500 years ago. In the process, she vividly evokes the political intrigue, social and popular culture that formed Guatama Buddha and struggled to comprehend and adjust to his marvelous message of freedom and living for the benefit of others.

One of the most fascinating aspects of Armstrong's narrative involves the revelation that The Buddha's world before him was so ego-driven, and that in many ways his message actually begins where our understanding of modern psychology ends! Indeed, what is new is old, sometimes so old we have forgotten it!

Read this book to discover many more examples, and read it and talk about it to continue your individual spiritual journey. As a history, as a spiritual and psychological text, Armstrongs BUDDHA is magnificent!

--Robert McDowell, The Poetry Mentor (www.robertmcdowell.net), is the author of POETRY AS SPIRITUAL PRACTICE (July 15th, 2008) from Free Press.

By staying objective, and only telling us what can be known without making any outside assumptions, Karen Armstrong truly delves further into the life of this amazing man than anyone could have otherwise. There is not a single book on the subject of Buddhism that I find myself mentally referring to more often, simply because of her objective nature on the subject. Extremely well written and worth the read for instruction, an introduction on the philosophy or simply a history lesson.

This book is below the expectancies the reader might have from other works by Karen Armstrong. The relationship between Siddhattha Gotama's life and his Teachings is essentially the intermediate path (the eightfold noble path). The tradition says the noble path balances the luxurious life of Gotama's first twenty nine years against the following painful six years of ascetic life. You do not need half of the book to explain this. There is no biography of the Buddha for the next forty years (no sequence of events, no chronology), neither in this book, nor in the Pali Canon. Only his last three months are described in detail in the discourse of the last days of the Buddha. Karen Armstrong packs Buddha's message in the middle chapters (Dhamma and Mission) with a final result which is neither a biography, nor an essay. There are no references of the author's own experience with the application of Buddhist messages in her own life. I did enjoy Ms. Armstrong's narrative, which is excellent as the good writer she is, particularly in the Introduction section.
Gustavo Estrada Hacia el Buda desde el occidente: Sus Ensenanzas sin mitos ni misterios

It's difficult to fit this subject into the usual "Penguin Lives" format. As Armstrong acknowledges, we really know hardly anything about his dates of birth and death, many of the places mentioned in the early Pali texts (she uses this form of transliteration which differs from traditional Western spellings of even the name of the Buddha let alone terms for his concepts) no longer can be found, and the scriptures tend towards supernatural contests as often as they do pithy exchanges between mortals with names, if not developed characterizations. The absence of the texture of daily life that we gain from more familiar Jewish, Christian, or Muslim texts makes the study of the formative years of Siddhama Gotana challenging even in simplified form in a couple of hundred pages for the general reader.

However, as I'm that reader, wanting a introduction to a topic I know next to nothing about, Armstrong's succinct summary met my needs. On the other hand, parts of even this short text dragged-- the fourth chapther on "Mission" with its accounts of internecine warfare between chieftains and strife within the burgeoning communities of adepts who followed the "dhamma" failed to rouse much of my attention. The most moving section can be found in her paraphrasing of the end of the Buddha's life. She tells the story well: "the Buddha experienced an extinction that was, paradoxically, the supreme state of being and the final goal of humanity" (187); she shows how he struggled to overcome "the distorting aura egotism that clouds the judgment of most human beings" (187).

Especially strong are the background chapters that place the birth of Buddhism within the yogi practices and Hindu caste system, and that compare the rise of the new "dhamma" within the contexts of the Axial Age's shift from unchanging, unquestioned roles for gods vs. humans into a restless, almost existential, despair that Siddhama himself experienced. Armstrong shows how and why he left his sleeping wife and child, and why this separation would have been seen as necessary.

Similarly, she explains the persistent structure of gender roles and how the women were placed in a subordinate position even as followers; likewise, the laity had to assume an auxiliary status and could not attain the full potential that only the monks could aspire towards. While Armstrong compliments Buddha's teaching as the first that broke out of a tribal or specialized group to offer enlightenment to all, it remains inevitably disappointing that the everyday pursuits of making a living, raising families, and tending to one's necessities turn into barriers to fulfillment, then as now, for most of the religious and spiritual paths that have been developed with roots in the Axial Age of 800-200 BCE. This isn't a fault of such systems as Buddhism, and Armstrong does her best to place this approach to holiness within the confines of its feudal times, but it does keep the full realization of what the Buddha offered to the rest of humanity at a bit of distance from the mundane preoccupations that consume much of our efforts.

The liberation and the freedom from such worldly concerns turns interior for much of this narrative, and it's difficult material to make vivid on the static page. Armstrong relies on both the primary texts and interpretations to try to enliven this journey within to those of us who stand outside of the process towards "Nibbana" and away from "samsara." A list of further reading might have aided us after we close this study.

Armstrong's a skilled interpreter for popular readerships of monotheistic faiths from the Middle East. The strengths lie in how she compares and contrasts the traditions more familiar to Westerners with the more esoteric nature of a less theistically based, more subtle and ethically centered tradition in Buddhism. However, I also wondered if Armstrong found herself a bit out of her familiar expertise with this daunting subject. She's a well-placed interpreter, but I did keep aware that she, not speaking from within the tradition, might not have been able to master the nuances and lived experiences that could have clarified and revivified what remain rather unfamiliar concepts for most of her English-speaking readers.

This book bridges the gap between book 1 and the death of Japh and book 3 where Japh is back.
This book deals with Dante's grief and her way of coping bu throwing herself into any form of work she can find.
When she gets asked to help in a police case where people from her old school are being murdered so horribly that their ghosts cannot tell secrets, she has to face her own grief and horrible nightmares of her past to help the people who helped remove a sadistic headmaster ten years ago.
A lot of people wanted another book like book one, but for the character to grow she has to work through her intense grief at losing her lover and closing her cycle of dispair. I found it a good story, not as absorbing as book one, but just a good. We see Dante overcome her greatest fear and triumph. (We know this as there are more books)

I found this second novel in the series to be a disappointment. For me, Danny just does way too much whining and complaining about the same things over and over in this novel. There's not really much room in here for the development of an interesting plot, most of the pages are dedicated to her personal diatribes about: Jace and Japhrimel and the boarding school. There are a few new characters but they are pretty much relegated to very minor contributions. Overall, I didn't find this novel to be very eventful. The first one was really eventful and not solely focused on Danny's whining. I'll probably check out the third one eventually but overall the second novel was a disappointment.

I really, really liked the first book in the Dante Valentine series by Lilith Saintcrow. Dead Man Rising (the second book in this series) was a disappointment.

You meet up with Dante (Danny) a short time after her hunt in the last book and the "death" of Japh. Dante has been recklessly taking bounty after bounty to distract herself from her grief over Japh. Jace shows up to help her out on her bounties and has forsaken all of his connections with the mob for her. Gabe ends up calling Danny in on a grisly murder and Danny finds that these murders may be linked to something that happened at Rigger Hall (the horrible school where Danny was first educated as a psion and tortured, etc, etc).

This book had a lot of action but it wasn't nearly as interesting and crisp as the first book. This book makes no progress in Danny understanding her new half-demon nature. Danny spends most of the time grieving over Japh's death and, when she is not whining about how much she misses Japh, she is sitting around talking about how horrible Rigger Hall was and how she can't bear to even enter the place or think about it. I thought it was all a bit over the top and dramatic, even for Danny. I mean the Rigger Hall incidents were years ago. We all have bad memories from childhood, and hers were much worse than most, but in the first book she seemed to be a reasonably well-adjusted person despite her tough beginning. She spends this whole book whining, grieving, and falling to pieces. I understand Danny is going through rough times but, come on, that doesn't need to be the content of the *whole* book.

I found myself rolling my eyes at Danny's dramatic and strange behavior a number of times. I was hoping all of this was going to lead somewhere profound but even the climax of her facing her fears at Rigger Hall fell dead for me. I really, really hope the third book is better. I liked the first book a lot so I will read the third, if the third follows the second I am done with this series. So in summary this book was passable but not nearly as good as I was expecting.
[...]

Welcome back Japh! I loved this book, it was a solid read. Very entertaining and action packed.

Better than the first book in this series. Same gritty feel but with better insight into the main characters. Great fight scenes.

For me it is a welcome thing to find a sci fi novel
that reminds me of Arthur C. Clark's "City and the Stars"The City and the Stars (Millennium SF Masterworks S). It also reminds one of Michael Chabon's SummerlandSummerland with it's ladder of parallel worlds. Chabon's Pulitzer winner also had a kabbalah sub-theme. It is hard with science that is probably not right to make a convincing novel as is achieved here. It tests new themes of religious
philosophy being parallel to science. At least one Jewish genius of the WW II era seems to fit Rabbi Yosef Kobinski: F. Hausdorff who died rather than go to the camps.The dichotomy of morality and science that gripped Robert Oppenheimer seems to form the theme of this excellent novel.

I couldn't wait to get to the next page. I felt I understood each character and their motives so well. Going into such depth with each character gave me a sense of compassion for all of them. I don't think a book has ever made me feel compassion for every character.

The beginning of the book did not hook me as much as it did towards the middle when things started coming together.

It is so exciting just writing a review about the book it makes me want to read it again. It blows away the Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. to me those books seem like Hollywood fluff compared to this book. Although I think if I hadn't read Dantes Equation first I might not have expected so much more.

This is not a fast read book, and as another reviewer noted (unhappily) it makes some rather drastic changes in venue near the end of the novel.

However, it is well-worth reading. A good story, with some very imaginative ideas about the balance of good and evil and control vs chaos. I didn't completely agree with the unbalanced worlds that she created and how they applied to and affected the people who went to them, but I liked the idea of them and marvelled at the amount of creativity and imagination that went into creating them.

I am going to try some more Jane Jensen novels as a result of reading Dante's Equation.

PLOT: In 1942 outside the camp in Auschwitz the rabbi Yosef Kobinski disappeared in front of several witnesses. Today several different individuals are after his legacy - but all of them for different reasons.
Danton Whlye is an author for a mystery magazine and only interested in a sensational story.
Dr. Jill Talcott only wants to proceed in her work regarding wave technology and stumbles about a principle that might alter the state and fate of the world.
Calder Farris works for the Department of Defense and is spying on scientists all over world to discover a new possible weapon before others do.
And finally there is Aarhon, a rabbi in Israel, who works on secret codes and messages hidden in the Torah.
Basically they do not really have anything in common except that they all stumble over the sensational story of Yosef Kobinski. His legacy takes them to places where no man has ever been before. Places that none of them ever wanted to be and might never leave again...

The book is divided into 3 bigger chapters:
First the introduction of the lead characters and their search/hunt for each other. This part is mysterious, well written and easy to enjoy.
In the second part each of them disappears as well - separately. But why do all of them end up in extremely different places with completely dissimilar surroundings, creatures and threats? Is it each personal Garden of Eden? Each ones own personal hell? Or is each place just a simplified mirror image of the person that is captured there? These are the questions that concern the reader in the second part, the largest part of the book. Some of these "worlds" are very interesting and fascinating, other scenarios are a bit dull. Therefore some chapters are more entertaining than others. Sometimes the reader is tempted to skip a chapter to get to the better scenarios. On top it seems as if the timing is inconsistent - in some "worlds" only days pass by whereas in others several weeks go by. Overall chapters in this part slow down the reading progress.
The third part is back in the real world - and the search/hunt continues. Old enemies, old threats and of course filled with lessons learned from each personal experience.

The title "Dante's Equation" goes back to Dante's book "Inferno" which consists of several hells. But this is not to be seen as a full explanation for the second part of the book.
This second part is one reason that sets the book apart from others in the market. The other reason is the interesting mix of cutting-edge technology, relevant history, and in-depth philosophy.
If you are looking for a book different from the rest and have enough time and energy to read almost 700 pages, this story might be really entertaining.

What could have been an interesting plot - it sounds like a Tim Powers novel when described - wasted by horribly shallow, one-dimensional and utterly unsympathetic characters. I managed to drag myself through it, but the conclusion was ultimately unsatisfying, the turn-arounds in the characters unexplained an unbelievable. Don't bother.

I was dying to read this book. I anticipated some amazing work on part of the author to bring her protagonist back from the emotional, physical and mental hell she had left her in. I wanted to see resolution of the many, many loose ends from the last four books. I wanted to a character who, literally, dragged herself from the depths of hell into triumph.

What did I get? More of the same from book four. Dante is still completely effed up. Still has no idea why Japh is with her, what's going on, what's happened to her, who's her friend, who's her enemy, what any of it means. So I was left with a character that is nothing less than pathetic. I just felt sorry for Japh, stuck with what amounts to an incredibly damaged permanent appendage.

I read and enjoyed the first 4 books but this one left me very reluctant to give time or space to any of the author's other books. I read Steelflower and enjoyed it also. However, its two main characters had many similarities to Japh and Dante. The similarities were enough that I wonder if this kind of damaged character and relationship is Saintcrow's "writer's kink." The kind of issue that shows up in the majority of an author's work. I hope not because the first 4 books were lots of fun.

I loved the first couple books of this series and was so engrossed in the storyline. By book three, I was actually upset in knowing that there were only a couple books left in the series. However, the ending of this last book was so disappointing and so depressing to me. The ending w/ Japh and Dante was just a fizzle. I was glad the situation w/ Eve ended the way it did but never fully confirmed or denied my main question about her. It's ashame because this particular book had non-stop action and hardly any down spots. It seems like the author tried to be to mysterious and went a bit overboard for my taste. I was ok reading this book until the ending. That just totally ruined it for me. What ashame.

I'm suffering from "bad series ending angst" right now. Never have I wanted to rewrite the ending to a book so much. I thought that since this was the last book in the series, that all the loose ends would be tied up, and we'd actually get some information from Japh. I won't repeat the complaints others have mentioned here but I agree with them. I think I finally lost all respect for Dante when she opened a gate to Hell just to "create a distraction". Untold suffering would be unleashed on humanity, but at least Japh might live... hmm.

Dante didn't even get to be the heroine, no reason was given for Anubis' request, and so many questions go unanswered. It was like at the last minute the author decided she might just want to write another one someday, so we're all left hanging until then. Not appreciated.

I truly really enjoyed the Dante Valentine's story. I devoured all the books. But this one... this one stalled. Maybe it was because I couldn't stand Dante whinnings. I understood how she felt about Japh and his misleadings in the previous book, but in this one it gets tiresome. How many times has he to prove her that he loves her, cares for her just to have her run away again just because she has this kind of infatuation with Eve? Even when she's proved who Eve really is, she still keeps running from Japh to her. And every time when she founds herself into trouble, she just begs for him to be there. Which he does. To be scorned again by her.

It get to its weights when (spoilers ahead) she prefers to jump from a tower and kill herself before going back to him because he's tried to pull a move on Eve and get her killed. She is gonna die when she impacts against the floor, and Japh just jumps after her saving her. He getas attacked, and then she goes mad because she loves him and tries to help him before losing concience. Japh tends to her lovingly, and when she gets up you expect her to behave better than just trying to smack him, hurt him and run from him just because she has to come back to Eve.

It worked ont he previous book, because it was understandable, but on this one... it became odd after half book like this. It looked like there wasn't enough plot to pull a whole book and all revolved around the above stated.

All in all, when I put all the five books onthe balance I found I'm in love with them and with the story they tell, and I don't regret having read this book, as it gives closure to the story. And I loved the work of Lilith Saintcrow so much that I'm waiting for her next book, NIGHT LIFE, to come out. This author is this good, after all! ;)

This is the 5th (and last) book in the Dante Valentine series by Lilith Saintcrow. It was okay; not as good as some of the previous ones, but okay.

The book starts with Dante (Danny) being expelled from Hell in an alley; she has taken quite a beating from Lucifer and can't remember much of it. Lucas comes to her rescue and Danny is soon reunited with Japh. Danny finds that in her absence Japh has been tearing apart the world looking for her, and he has declared rebellion against Lucifer. In order to kill the devil Japh is determined to get a special knife that was made for hedaira to wield against demons. He has determined that Danny will use it to kill the Lucifer. Of course Japh, is also out to kill Eve and Danny is hell-bent on protecting Eve. Danny exerts her independence against Japh and makes a "hell" of a mess out of everything...again.

There were a lot of things about this book that bothered me. I don't understand why Danny is so blindly faithful to Eve; Eve jerks her around just as much (if not more than) Japh. Danny is not blindly faithful to anyone; why should she be faithful to Eve? On the flip side Danny is horribly unfaithful to Japh. I don't understand why. Both characters lied to her a ton; yet only one of them was supportive of her.

By the end of this book I really, really disliked Danny as a character. She was a physical and emotional mess the whole book. She rarely took any action on her own. When she did take action, the action she took seemed to be thoughtless and to just be an excuse to use power. Danny basically screwed up through this whole book.

While Japh is not a perfect character; he seemed to act at least consistently throughout the book. It would have been nice to know a bit more about Japh and his past. It would have been nice to know more about why Japh fell for Danny. The only explanation he gave was that "She treated him like a human"; you can't tell me that that has never happened before to him in all of the thousands of years he has existed.

For some reason a lot of this book kind of got under my skin and irritated me. Maybe it was too drawn out or just too inconsistent. It left you with more questions than answers. While it was a decent ending to this series; I think it could have been better. Maybe Saintcrow will write a series about Japh or Lucas; I think they were much more interesting than Danny. I guess we will see.
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I love the chemistry between Japh the Devil's Eldest and Dante the devil's new right hand woman/necromancer. A great and interesting twist on what the future might be like.
I strongly suggest you check out all the books in this series. Its amazing

I liked this series at first, but it's sounding more and more like the overwrought self-examination and self-justification of the Laurel Hamilton books. Can we spell P.A.D.D.I.N.G.? I found about a third of the way through that I simply wasn't interested in finishing, because it was clear that nothing was ever going to HAPPEN.

How many stupid mistakes can Dante make, let me count the ways...... Although this book was a bit annoying at times, it still has plenty of action and will not put you to sleep. Japh is always a pleasure and Dante doesn't know which way is up.

I loved the first two books in the series. So much so that as soon as I could I ran out and bought all the rest of the books in the series. I read the third and found myself not only bored and annoyed by her whining, complaining and general 7year old behavior I was appalled by the blatant way that the men in the book just suddenly took to disregarding her. Now to be fair it could be because she was so immature about everything.

It took me a while before I could bring myself to pick up book number 4 and god not only have I put it aside several times in favor of other things but still I hate to leave any book unfinished and tried yet again.

I am disturbed by the way she cringes from the Japh's every move afraid that once again he's going to hurt her. Its way too battered wife syndrome for my taste. What started as a great series has turned into a whine fest with domestic violence thrown in for the heck of it.

Wish i could give it no stars but it wont let me rate that low. heck i'd give negative stars if i could.

The "I love him but I can't trust him" has gotten pretty old by this book in the series, with not enough new to justify buying the book or its successors.

Most translations of Dante sound like they're stuttering through the poem rather than rendering it into understandable English. But this one's different. It's readable. I mean the guy wrote it so it sounds like your neighbor talking, clear as a bell, no antiquated language. It's as easy to understand as the "No Fear Shakespeare" translations. Plus it adds some contemporary references to make up for all those old-fashioned outdated allusions Dante stuffed into the Divine Comedy. I'm a Dante aficionado and have read almost every translation and also some of the original Italian, and, in my opinion, this is the best English translation. Not that I don't love the John Ciardi translation (I do; it's terrific.), but this one tops them all for clarity. You won't be disappointed. Remember, Dante wrote in the vernacular so people of his day could understand him. He would have approved of this.

I remember reading "Inferno" for the first time. I was avidly turning pages and I continued through into the heavens (which it got a little dull after purgatory). Inferno is a great book, and I would recommend it highly.

With this adaptation, I have to admit, I was smitten with the cynical artwork of this book and it's move into modern life. The actual writing was a little harder to swallow. It's kind of like someone took a really amazing story and decided to do a remake that didn't quite hit the mark. The original in this case was much better, but the artwork of this new version helps it sing (so to speak). If it had stood alone, it might have appealed to a couple of college kids looking for an alternative to "Cliff Notes", but not to many others.

The depressing landscapes and the illustrations of the modern damned helped pull it together. I was a little disappointed with the language (not that I'm so offended there is "foul" language, just that Dante's journey wasn't supposed to be akin to Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure...)

Not bad, but I'd recommend it mostly for the artwork.

The book is of brand new condition as advertized...content of book is mystical very good reading...

This was required reading for a graduate course in medieval history.
Dante Alighieri's (1265-1321) "Devine Comedy" weaved together aspects of biblical and classical Greek literary traditions to produce one of the most important works of not only medieval literature, but also one of the great literary works of Western civilization. The full impact of this 14,000-line poem divided into 100 cantos and three books is not just literary. Dante's autobiographical poem Commedia, as he titled it, was his look into the individual psyche and human soul. He explored and reflected on such fundamental questions as political institutions and their problems, the nature of humankind's moral actions, and the possibility of spiritual transformation; these were all fundamental social and cultural concerns for people during the fourteenth-century. Dante wrote the Commedia not in Latin but in the Tuscan dialect of Italian so that it would reach a broader readership. The Commedia was a three-part journey undertaken by the pilgrim Dante to the realms of the Christian afterlife: Hell, (Inferno), Purgatory, (Purgatorio), and Paradise, (Paradisio).

The poem narrated in first person, began with Dante lost midlife. He was 35 years old in the year 1300 and in a dark wood. Being lost in the dark wood was certainly an allegorical device that Dante used to express the condition of his own life at the time he started writing the poem. Dante had been active in Florentine politics and a member of the White Guelph party who opposed the secular rule of Pope Boniface VIII over Florence. In 1302, The Black Guelphs who were allied with the Pope, were militarily victorious in gaining control of the city and Dante found himself an exile from his beloved city for the rest of his life. Thus, Dante started writing the Commedia in 1308 and used it to comment on his own tribulations of life, and to state his views on politics and religion, and heap scorn on his political enemies.

Dante's first leg of his journey out of the dark wood was through the nine concentric circles of Hell (Inferno), escorted by his favorite classical Roman poet Virgil, author of the Aeneid. Dante borrowed heavily from Virgil's Aeneid. Much of Dante's description of hell had similarities to Virgil's description in his sixth book of the Aeneid. Dante's three major divisions of sin in hell where unrepentant sinners dwelled, had their sources in Aristotle and Augustinian philosophy. They were self-indulgence, violence, and fraud. Fraud was considered the worst of moral failures because it undermined family, trust, and religion; in essence, it tore at the moral fabric of civilized society. These divisions were inversions of the classical virtues of moderation, courage, and wisdom. The fourth classical virtue, justice, is what Dante came to believe after his journey through hell that all its inhabitants received for their unrepentant sins. There were nine concentric circles of hell inside the earth; each smaller than the previous one. For Dante the geography of hell was a moral geography as well as a physical one, reflecting the nature of the sin. Canto IV describes the first circle of hell, Limbo, which is where Dante met the shades, as souls where called, of the virtuous un-baptized such as Homer, Ovid, Caesar, Aristotle, and Plato.

In the four circles for the sin of self-indulgence Dante met shades who where lustful, gluttons, hoarders and wrathful. In the second circle of Hell, lustful souls were blown around in a violent storm. In Canto V, one of the great dramatic moments of the poem, Dante had his first lengthy encounter with an unrepentant sinner Francesca da Rimini, who committed adultery with her brother-in-law. Like all the sinners in hell, Francesca laid the blame for her sin elsewhere. She claimed to be seduced into committing adultery after reading the story of Lancelot and Guinevere. At the end of the scene, Dante fainted out of pity for Francesca.

In Canto X, the sixth circle of hell reserved for heretics who are punished by being trapped in flaming tombs, Dante took the opportunity to use the circle to chastise political leaders for participating in political partisanship. A Florentine who was a leader in the rival Ghibbelline political party, Farinata degli Uberti, accosted Dante. Both men aggressively argued with each other, recreating in hell the bitterness of partisan politics in Florence. Farinata predicted Dante's exile. Dante used this Canto to show the dangerous tendencies of petty political partisanship that he harbored.

The seventh circle of hell was subdivided into three areas where sinners were punished for doing violence against themselves, their neighbors, or God. In Canto XIII Dante encountered Pier della Vigne in the wood of the suicides. The shades there were shrubs who had to speak through a broken branch. Pier spoke to Dante about how he had been an important advisor to Emperor Frederick II, and how he blamed his fall, and his suicide, on the envy of other court members. This Canto was especially important because Dante came to grips with his own "future" fall from political power and exile. Pier's behavior served as a strong example to Dante how not to act in exile. Whether he had been tempted to commit suicide is not clear; however, he certainly had been prone to the selfish and despairing attitude that Pier represented.

The last two circles of hell contained the sinners of fraud. In the eighth circle, there were ten ditches for the various types of fraud such as Simony, thievery, hypocrisy, etc. Canto XIX described the third ditch, which contained those guilty of Simony, the sin of church leaders perverting their spiritual office by buying and selling church offices. Simonists were buried upside down in a rock with their feet on fire. Pope Nicholas III mistakenly addressed Dante as Pope Boniface VIII who was the current Pope in 1300, and whose place in hell was thereby predicted. This is not surprising since Boniface was the person most responsible for Dante's exile. In an interesting literary twist, Nicholas "confessed" to Dante, as if he was a priest, his sin of greed and nepotism. He admitted that even after becoming Pope he cared more for his family's interests than the good of the whole Church. Dante responded to Nicholas' "confession" with a stinging condemnation of Simony drawn from the Book of Revelation. After this encounter, Dante came to understand that hell was a place of justice.

Canto XXXIV, the last one in the Inferno, depicted Satan with three heads. Each head was chewing the three worst sinners of humankind. The middle head was chewing on the head of Judas Iscariot, who was a disciple to Jesus and his betrayer. The other two heads were chewing Brutus and Cassius; the murderers of Julius Caesar, and the two men Dante faulted for the destruction of a unified Italy. Dante considered the two ultimate betrayals against God and against the empire as the worst betrayals perpetrated in the history of humankind.

Thus, Dante's intent in his Commedia was to teach fourteenth-century readers that if one wanted to ascend spiritually towards God then one needed to learn the nature of sin from the unrepentant. By doing this, one could learn to overcome the same tendencies found in themselves. He wanted people to realize what he had come to learn that political partisanship would only stand in the way of unifying Italy and keep it from regaining any of its former glory that it enjoyed during the time of the Roman Empire.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in literature and medieval history.

It is an up-dated version; but as far as I can tell it has kept the 'feel" of the origional

It's a little high-level, but it contains many useful ideas and uses of different algorithms for game programming.

If you are a software developer this series should be somewhat mandatory reading. While the focus is on games much of the material should be common knowledge for software engineers. I did however like all of the book because it really shows that these authors are "in the trenches" so to say. For the seasoned developer it may be somewhat a waste of time but I would be surprised if everyone did not take something away from this book. The low level compiler examples for instance, using Lex and Yacc was pretty interesting but it left me wanting more and I ended up researching it on the Internet.

The first two books seem to pack more for the punch.

I've noticed several scathing reviews from folks who admit in the review that they aren't even game programmers. Am I missing something? How in the world could this book be at all useful or interesting to someone who admittedly has no interest in programming games? Unbelievable.

For anyone specifically interested in actually using this book to develop games, you're going to get your money's worth.

I got his book for my husband, who is a programmer, and this one is his favorite of the series. He refers to it on a regular basis, and he says it has saved him valuable time. The graphics sections are especially usefull. A handy reference book for any programmer.

The Game Programming Gems books are fat and full of good ideas. Unfortunately, these ideas are only really useful to beginning programmers; anyone who has programmed seriously for more than two years will know 90% of the material in the book series.
The remaining 10% of the book is remarkably good, with innovative ideas on how to approach problems. But Charles River Media decided to lengthen the book with such trivialities as how to use the C++ Standard Library and using Direct3D. Most of the material in the GPG series is covered better, and in more depth in other books which don't have the word "game" in their title.

Dante's Cure: A Journey Out Of Madness by Daniel Dorman (Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, School of Medicine University of California at Los Angeles) traces the history of Catherine, a woman suffering from severe schizophrenia in the 1970s and was admitting at a UCLA hospital as an adolescent anorexic who was suicidal and heard murderous voices in her head. Dr. Dorman describe's Catherine's condition, her background, and moments of interpretative breakthroughs, and his work with her in resistance to collegial pressures to medicate Catherine. Dr. Dorman set up in private practice and continued his sessions with Catherine. Gradually she was able to begin a recovery, live in an apartment, attend college, and eventually qualified as a psychiatric nurse. Of special interest is Dr. Dorman's epilogue setting out his rationale in opposition to the dominant psychiatric view of schizophrenia as a "brain disorder" requiring medication. He persuasively advocates a humanist, patient-doctor collaborationist approach as illustrated by his years of work with Catherine. Dante's Cure is a welcome and valued contribution to psychiatric medicine and a recommended addition to personal, professional, and Mental Health Studies library collections.

Dorman's book illuminates the inner world of a young girl with schizophrenia. Although there are no cut and dry explanations given for how she ended up the way she did, the book illustrates how life experiences can detour someone from the norm when they have never been exposed to a different social dynamic.
The final chapter alone is worth the purchase. Dorman grapples with the knowledge that modern medicine defies its own conviction in scientific methodology by putting the scraps of information about neurobiology into effect through the use of psychiartic medication, while completely ignoring the recovery of all schizophrenics who haven't used medication.
Dante's cure is a good read over all. It doesn't contain all of the answers one may be looking for but what it does contain will hopefully be common knowledge in the near future.

I wonder if schizophrenia is a correct diagnosis for this woman, it sounds more like a personality disorder. Schizophrenia is a REAL brain dysfunction that up to now, doesn't have a "cure" and medications help some symptoms but the illness doesn't go away. It is irresponsible of a physician to attribute his sessions "curative" powers without any clear methodology. Pharmacotherapy is not about drug companies, is about quality of life, I wonder who can wait 20 years and see someone 6 days a week to "improve". Again I doubt this person had schizophrenia.

This book is dangerous and self-deluded bunk.

Dr. Dorman tells the story of a young woman patient he began treating when he was a psychiatric resident at UCLA in the 1970's. He was under thirty and she was nineteen. Apparently, after seven years, the patient, Catherine Penney, was cured by Dr. Dorman.

Dr. Dorman is still so in the thrall of his "curing" of this woman, that now some twenty-five years later he has written what amounts to a romance novel about this treatment. He has supposedly practiced psychiatry for 30 years. What has happened since? Has he "cured" anyone else? Perhaps he's had some failures? The rest of his practice is a blank slate.

It may be admirable to attempt to treat schizophrenia without "drugs," but perhaps it is only Dr. Dorman who can do this. Is this really a viable treatment paradigm? And based on this one case, Dr. Dorman seems to extrapolate that "chemical imbalances" relating to schizophrenia don't exist. Dr. Dorman comes across as downright dangerous in his rigidity and self-inflation, and seems to have skipped all his classes in medical school relating to scientific methodology.

In a recent publicity interview found online, Dr. Dorman claims that Catherine Penney is permanently cured, although, short of having God-like foresight, how he can make such a statement is mind-boggling. But Dr. Dorman does say that "he can't cure everyone." Really? Now there's humility for you.

This book is an awe-inspiring account of a psychiatrist's refusal to do anything less than cure his patient. He did this without the use of drugs, in itself an amazing thing. It was not an easy road to a drugged recovery but a thorough, life-affirming process which allows his patient to live life as it is meant to be lived.

This review relates to the volume 1 of Dante Alighieri's
-The Divine Comedy-, Hell; Translated by Dorothy L. Sayers,
Penguin Classics, 1949. 346 pp.
Other reviewers have spoken to the perceived weaknesses
and problems with this particular translation and
volume, with Ms. Sayers' "Introduction" and "Notes."
Perhaps one should be warned before entering its portals,
as constructed by Ms. Sayers, that this is not an "easy"
Hell to assimilate.
Yet, at the beginning of her "Introduction," she presents
the offering in an inviting fashion: "The ideal way of
reading -The Divine Comedy- would be to start at the first
line and go straight through to the end, surrendering to
the vigour of the story-telling and the swift movement
of the verse, and not bothering about any historical
allusions or theological explanatios which do not occur
in the text itself. That is how Dante himself tackles
his subject."
Some readers may not find Ms. Sayers' translation to be
one that lends itself to "swift movement of the verse."
The value here, however, is the wealth of information
provided in both the "Introduction", the Notes, and
in the map drawings which clearly help the mind's eye
understand the "lay-out" of Hell as depicted by Dante.
The value of Ms. Sayer's "Introduction" is its clear
presentation of HER view of Dante, his work, his value,
his meaning, and his emphases.
She concentrates on the Images of Hell and on the Christian
doctrine implicit in the work. This translation is in
keeping with that emphasis, for it is structured,
somewhat restricted, and presents "Dante's" voice
as more attuned to the didactic and lecturing. Even the
voices of the denizens of Hell have the tones of
stern lesson-learning rather than evoking pity for
their failed virtue and blind human proclivities.
The problem with some readers, and some viewers of
Christianity, is trying to reconcile the idea of
stern, unrelenting, eternal Judgment and damnation
for sins with the idea of God's eternal Love, or as
Ms. Sayers translates the second tercet of Dante's
*terza rima* on the lintel of the entrance to Hell:
Justice Moved My Great Maker; God Eternal
Wrought Me: The Power, And The Unsearchably
High Wisdom, And The Primal Love Supernal.
Ms. Sayers will have no human shilly-shallying with
Dante's intent or the purpose of Hell. And that,
though it may appall some readers, is to the good;
for it forces the reader to confront whether or not
he or she accepts or does not the Christian doctrinal
views -- and helps the reader to understand the
serious nature of choosing one's faith and one's
religion, or not.
After each Canto, Ms. Sayers uses the same very
helpful devices for explaining the preceding Canto:
first, she discusses the main Images to be found in
that particular Canto in a very clear, full, doctrinal
way -- and then, she has the numbered notes which
explain allusions and phrases which Dante uses in
the work.
For instance, after Canto I, we find: "The Images.
-The Dark Wood- is the image of Sin or Error -- not so
much of any specific act of sin or intellectual perversion
as of that spiritual condition called "hardness of heart",
in which sinfulness has so taken possession of the soul as
to render it incapable of turning to God, or even knowing
which way to turn." Similarly, after Canto III, we find
this note concerning the phrase "the good of intellect":
"In the -Convivio- Dante quotes Aristotle as saying:
'truth is the good of the intellect'. What the lost souls
have lost is not the intellect itself, which still functions
mechanically, but the -good- of the intellect: i.e., the
knowledge of God, who is Truth."
This is an excellent edition for the scope of Ms. Sayers'
medieval scholarship and doctrinal insights. Though it
may be hard sledding for the tender-hearted. There
have always been several ways of seeing the road to
Hell -- in this version, once one strays from the
straight and narrow, there is only the crooked and
pit-full, not pitiful.
-- Robert Kilgore.

Having wanted to read Inferno for a long time, I was glad to find Dorothy Sayers' translation since I value her own writing. I'm no scholar, so I can't compare this critically to the numerous other translations available. I just come looking to enjoy reading and understanding great classic literature on occasion. It takes a great deal of background information to appreciate this work. The Divine Comedy can be examined from many different angles: Poetry, allegory, theology, a spiritual journey, a love story. Sayers' introduction and notes, and the diagrams and drawings in this book were a great help to me. Some may argue that the scholarship is a bit dated, but Sayers clearly loved The Divine Comedy and wanted her readers to appreciate it also. The result of her work was a very interesting reading experience for me, better than I expected. I particularly enjoyed the insights she incorporated into the notes from Charles Williams' book, The Figure of Beatrice. (Sayers dedicated her translation of The Divine Comedy to Williams.) The verse might make it a little more difficult to get the meaning until you get used to it, but I think it's worth the effort. Once I found a good reading pace, I didn't find the rhyming forced as some readers have. (It might seem that way if you look for it.) It must be a difficult thing to try to give readers of English the same experience that Dante's Italian readers had and I think that was Dorothy Sayers' goal. She got me interested enough to take seriously her claim that readers of Dante are cheating themselves if they stop after Inferno. On through Purgatory to Paradise ... It must only get better from here.

Dorothy Sayers was a fine mystery author and a knowledgable scholar of medieval literature. And once upon a time, this *was* one of the best available translations in English. Times change, however, and new English translations have come along that do a far better job than Sayers' does.

The biggest problem with Sayers translation, in my humble opinion, is her attempt to preserve Dante's rhyme scheme. In her introduction, The fact of that matter is that Italian is a language in which rhymes are frequent, easy, and melodious. In English, having every other line rhyme just sounds cloying and contrived. It also makes the reading more difficult, because of the inverted syntax, archaic vocabulary, and awkward rhythmsand that Sayers has to use in order force the rhymes in there. Oh sure, the fact that she was able to it at all is impressive. But it still doesn't make for a palatable rendition Dante's supple language (which, even to modern Italians reads smoothly and vernacularly, and not at all awkward.) Those who really want some retention of Dante's rhymes would do far better with Robert Pinsky's translation (which uses 'soft rhymes' and doesn't force them when they won't fit). Alan Mandelbaum's and John Ciardi's translations are good too.

Another problem with Sayers edition are the notes. While, on the one hand, they can very helpful to a first-time reader, they are also outdated. If you want to know what Oxford scholars thought about Dante a half-century ago, Sayers notes are great for that. And I don't say that to be dismissive, those 1940's Oxford medievalists had a lot of very good things to say. However, the fact of the matter is that Dante studies-- and medieval scholarship have changed a lot in the past half-century-- and reading her notes is something like reading a half-century old textbook of American history. They leave out a lot of things that probably ought to be discussed.

An even bigger problem with the notes here, I think, is that the author too readily presents her notes as "The Truth" (with a capital "T") about the poem-- as if there were only one correct way to interpret it and its details. Her interpretations are often insightful, suggestive, and they will greatly help the first-time reader-- but they are so didactic in their style that they may overlyy contrain the reader's freedom of interpretation. It's more like she's trying to use her notes to tell you, "The poem means this", rather than using them to background information and context so that you can figure out what *you* think it means on your own.

And, at the risk of sounding like I'm "politically correct", the fact of the matter is that there also are some biases in her notes that, to me, seem rather glaring today. This is particularly evident where she explains why Dante places Mohammed in the part of Hell with the schismatics. Rather than simply pointing out that medieval Christians erroneously believed that Islam began from a schism within Christianity, Sayers uses the occasion to make a few denigrating comments about Islam (which she insists upon referring to as "Mohammedism"). Again, I don't hold this against Sayers per se... She wrote this book among and for a coz y community of Oxford Christians over a half-century ago.... and it's naturally going to be show its colors in that regard. But, for us folks who are reading it today, in the 21st century, well... maybe the notes just need to be updated a bit.

Anyway, when all's said and done, Dante's work is masterful, and even Sayers' awkward translation and outdated notes can't completely conceal that. However, I really think readers would be better off sticking to the Ciardi, Mandelbaum, or Pinsky translations of the _Inferno_. (My preference is for the Pinksy, but to each his own...)

The greatest strength of Dorothy Sayers's translation of The Divine Comedy is its notes. Sayers considered this translation her finest work and spent years of her life on it, though she died before she could complete Paradise. Having read The Comedy dozens of times myself, along with many books on Dante and his work, I liked Sayers for her dedication, but her translation--and even her notes--has some problems.

The biggest flaw of the translation is that it's just not literal enough, due mainly to Sayers's attempt at rhyming. Dante invented terza rima ("threefold rhyme") for his Comedy, and trying to use the same rhyme in English is a noble effort but ultimately hopeless. She frequently strays from the original or, worse, obscures something very clear in the original so that she can fit the lines into her rhyme scheme. Her English is also littered all over with strange syntax and archaic words, some of which worked while others left me scratching my head and, in at least one case, laughing out loud.

But for all that, her translation is entertaining and still allows Dante to speak, if through an imperfect medium. There were some sections in which the wording and rhyme worked so well I was thrilled as I read it--most of the work, however, is not up to that standard.

As I said at