Cosmos Books

It actually kept me wanting to read more. Which is something that happens less often now a days. Some of the stuff included in the story was a bit jarring and could have bene taking out all togethter (Robot with a howitzer for a penis) and the story would have remained the same. Other than that nothing really bad about the book.

This book starts with a comedic situation (Interplanetary Church of Cosmic Chickenhood) but quickly drifts to cynicsm about all religions. It's basic idea is that one religion is as good as another, and none of them are worth much except as a means for individuals to accumulate power. Herbet's portrayal of God is a disappointment, but the reader is well-prepared for the let-down by the time that point in the book is reached. The author creates a few interesting situations, e.g. an almost indestructable android, but can't deal with problems the android creates, so he simply shuts him off or leaves him walking up a cliff at the end of the book. In summary, anyone expecting that the title is an indication of philosophical insight is sure to be disappointed.

Have you ever read a story that didn't seem like a story but instead felt like an author telling you his views on life, the universe and everything (apologies to Douglas Adams who is a fantastic author)? Talk about being beaten over the head with an opinion! This should have been a essay instead of a novel - and a bad essay at that. I'm sorry but this was a great idea that was simply not executed well at ALL.

Brian Herbert's amazing characters, from all different fields of reality and imagination, bring to life the one true doubt that has plagued and been so wonderfully covered up by humanity: religion.
It also deals with the sexual part of our human nature, examining enough to make you think for a moment where your own thoughts are coming from: your head, or the page.
From the necrophilic, Harley Gutan, to the Grand Exalted Rooster himself, Evander McMurtrey, Herbert enlists you in a race to visit Tananius-Ofo, the home planet of God.
And maybe, if you're lucky, you'll even hear a yapping voice screaming, "O Chubby Mother, Let me rubba your belly...."

This book is one of the hardest books I have ever read. Toolan describes everything in a train of though manner that would have gotten him a D or lower in any college English class.

His facts are semi-indisputable. Our environment is in trouble. It may not be dying, it will probably recover after we are gone, but we are making it an unfavorable place for ourselves to live in.

That is the basic message. Unfortunately, Toolan gives this in a disjointed fashion, introducing experts that he gives little to no background for and having them give quotes. Some of his logic is also fuzzy, stating the beginning and the end of a line of thinking, but doesn't say how he got from the problem to the solution, yet we are forced to take his conclusion as fact to finish the passage.

David Toolan's At Home In The Cosmos blends science and theology to reveal the meaning of the world and the poetry that fills the universe. As Toolan unites the spiritual with the scientific, he accents the idea that our evolutionary cosmos is filled with promise, is Christ-centered, with incarnational faith providing the appropriate setting for a contemporary scientific cosmology resulting in a fresh basis for an ecological ethic and a new social contract with nature. At Home In The Cosmos is enthusiastically recommended reading for students of Christian theology, the balanced roles of science and religion, and environmental issues within a Christian philosophy and perspective.

I added this book to my wish list with high expectations. I received it as a gift in Christmas of 2002.

I have finished reading all but one of the stories and all that I can say is: what were the editors thinking?

Not one of the stories was at all satisfying. The stories are either boring, or become engaging only to end with a completely unsatisfying ending.

With all due respect to the editors, I must inquire as to their state of sobriety when they decided that this collection deserved its own volume.

This is the second volume of a collection of stories with a remit that seems to include anything that might be even remotely termed supernatural, and hence has a refreshing range and variety. I myself found it much better than the first volume. Like that volume, it contains a couple of weakish stories that tread old ground, and a large group of stories which are more than competent and perfectly readable and entertaining. (And I say this as a person not greatly into supernatural fiction.) But - and this is where it has the edge on the earlier book - there is also a group of really outstanding stories, whatever criteria you apply. Steve Duffy's 'Todhunter's Rock' is a brilliant tour de force, starting off in a metafictional way a la Calvino, then playing with the tropes and topoi of the bunch-of-marooned-suspects detective story, excellent vignettes within the genre, but also adding so much more, bringing in real excitement, and finally standing everything on its head, yet at the same time making you feel that's the way it has to be. Rhys Hughes' 'The Century Just Gone', after a slightly imperfect start - too much info dumping, however cleverly done - then takes off into an amazing concept (about the most evil people in the twentieth century) that only he is capable of, with a denouement utterly unexpected, and horrifically logical (and even throws in a Supermaggot!). Excellent! Steve Lockley and Paul Jones introduce the big boss of all angels in their story 'Gabriel Restrained', and at first I thought 'Oh no!', but they actually made it work, and the image of the angel patiently sitting there on the bed is still with me! (The story does suffer from a common flaw in this sort of thing - why would any god judge a whole race based on the actions of a single person?) Iain Darby has a most original story in 'Phylotas' Tomb' (think perfidious maiden and peculiarly nasty sacrifice!) with another perfect twist at the end, which brings together ancient Greek treachery with modern day error. And William Simmons' 'The Wind, When it Comes' is baffling, haunting, beautifully written. Also highly recommended are stories by Adrian Versteegh and SJ Pinborough (the latter recommended for people dissatisfied with their spouse!) Altogether,an admirably eclectic collection that should satisfy (and in some cases surprise)both new readers, and others already familiar with the editorial work of Maynard and Sims.

It's rare that I just can't finish a book because I find it an unproductive read. Darwin, Divinity and the Dance of the Cosmos was the exception. I hung in for a hundred pages or so, and only vaguely got his point. Extensive borrowing of material from Brian Swimme made me think he should just tell us to read Swimme's books. Such a radical reinvention of Christianity seems offensive to Christians and "heretics" alike. I certainly wouldn't subtitle the book An Ecological Christianity because it flies in the face of 99% of historic and modern Christian theological treatments. I categorize it in the vast genre of New Age "what was that?" literature. For what it's worth, I have a Ph.D. in ecology and have followed the religion and science debate for about 40 years as an orthodox Christian who holds a deep time and evolutionary view of the universe. I don't consider this a valid contribution to that debate. Read Thank God for Evolution for a serious treatment of the subject, with rave reviews from qualified people.

Darwin, Divinity, and the Dance of the Cosmos., An Ecological Christianity, by Bruce Sanguin.

Bruce Sanguin's book creates a new genre of literature through the integral/integrated development of the sciences, faith/spiritual experience, theology and scripture. The book is spirit driven and becomes a thin place itself into Spirit, and the divine. We have been taught since childhood to fear pantheism,(and now Pan-en-theism) but in this book the cosmos and the planet Earth itself becomes alive in ways thought impossible before.

I approached this book concerned that I could not handle the science in the book, but found that Bruce Sanguin is as great a teacher of science as he is of theology. The most challenging thing I experienced in the book was the need to see all species as important as the human species.

The book begins with an inspiring personal story of how the work of Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry totally transformed Bruce's life and ministry. Evolution is then interpreted as a Divine Unfolding. On page 124, a faith-ful covenant is "written in the words of the ultimate" that will transform you.

Just as the fans of Ken Wilbur will be inspired by the content of this book, readers of Marcus Borg will appreciate chapter five that unfolds once again, the four overarching narratives of scripture and the meaning they bring to our place in the cosmos. They are, the Story of the Exodus (Freedom), The Story of the Exile (Homecoming), and the Story of the Temple (Sacrifice). Bruce adds his own; The Story of call and response: the God of allurement. The Gospels are then opened up in relevant interpretations, as if seen for the first time. Other Gospel stories are provided through renewed midrash interpretations.

The most inspiring thing about Bruce Sanguin's book is that he brings us to an epiphany of hopefulness through a review of the science of the Earth's capacity to renew itself. We have a short time to turn things around. If we don't, the earth may still renew itself, after appearing to die. But, then our great grandchildren do not benefit. In the reading of the book the following saying/quote constantly resurfaced in my mind; "Without God, we cannot, Without us, God will not." Clearly this book helps us really understand what divine wisdom is all about.

While this book is written for a Christian audience, any person of faith will be inspired by reading it. Bruce Sanguin calls us to a spiritual, international and nonexclusive faith experience that will bring us to our knees. Certainly, we will rise with the rest of the world to assist the Earth in its renewal, and with the rebirth of Earth, be reborn in our sense of AWE. Be prepared to be transformed and renewed in the reading of this book.
G. Eddey, Columbus, Ohio. [...]

[...]

I am a education major at Macon State college. John Dewey's book is simply a summary of three talks Dewey gave to parnets and students at the University of Chicago Laboratory school in 1896. The book covers topics that are often very diverse and shares conflicting political and philosophic positions in education. I found this book hard to read and very wordy. I did not enjoy the read at all.

I liked the book overall. The content was excellent, and the educational ideas which Mr. Dewey expressed, are terrific. To me, the style of the writing was the problem. The book was written in 1899, and the wordy, pedantic style was common at that time. The main ideas in the book are hands-on education, and students' learning by doing. The first three chapters were taken from a lecture by Mr. Dewey that he delivered three years after he opened his University Elementary School in Chicago. The fourth chapter began by telling some of the financial information about the school. The average cost per student was $120. Mr. Dewey thought that advances in education were not keeping pace with advancements in society. He found it interesting that fourth graders in Moline, Illinois, did not realize that the Mississippi River in their geography books, had anything to do with the stream of water that flowed by their homes. This is a fairly small book, but I recommend The School and Society, if you can find the time to read it several times.

I found the chapters of this book to be of very uneven quality. While I generally agree with Professor Lyle that the mythic cycles show a high degree of isomorphism, sometimes she seems to overdo this isomorphism without checking her case thoroughly enough.

The areas I found the most difficult to accept were the sections on seasonal attributions ahd the assignment of Dumezil's functions to the directions and seasons, as if this was a unified model. In this area, she ends up with Spring associated with the West and harvest associated with the East (I think there are sound reasons for reversing these, but doing so breaks the unified system she is trying to show).

On the other hand, I thought the section on the cosmology of the Roman Circus and the ideas of alternate succession were clearly laid out, well supported, and generally difficult to reject.

On the whole, I am not convinced of Prof. Lyle's methodology in pursuing the general principles of this archaic cosmology she seems to explore. However, there are well thought out sections in the book and even those sections which are somewhat questionable have a vast amount of source material to ponder. On the whole, however, I would only recommend this work to fairly advanced students simply because of the problematic aspects of the work.

"Brooklyn station terminus cosmos" [Brooklyn Station, Last Stop the Cosmos] is episode 10 of the long-running sci-fi comic strip "Valérian, agent spatio-temporel" which originally appeared in 1981 in the legendary French cartoon anthology, PILOTE. Valérian, space-time agent of 28th century Earth, travels from contemporary Paris to Brooklyn while investigating the mysterious appearances of bizarre elemental beings - and the involvement of powerful U.S. corporations. Meanwhile in the future his partner Laureline discovers that the key to the mystery lies in Cassiopea - she solves the problem by dressing in a leather thong!

Childhood friends Pierre Christin (story) and Jean-Claude Mézières (art) created the "Valérian" saga in 1967. In this, part two of a two-album story arc, Mézières mature art is very good and Christin gives him wide-ranging action to illustrate.

A couple of time travel theories to get you thinking, here.

A particular society is very conservative and racist, and the Titanium Legions insist on strict racial purity tests.

An organisation opposes them, but it may all be moot, as an alien time wave, in opposition to their own, is coming, and when the two meet, the old 'poof', not there any more is a distinct possibility.

A high powered crazy sort of Marvel adventure. The heroes in this one
have to deal with the problems the cosmic cube can cause if it is in
the wrong hands, and will of course generally get involved in a race to
get it, or get it back, from those villainous and nefarious bad guy
types that the gamemaster sees fit to bedevil them with.

"A Dog Ear'd Cosmos" by David Mitchell Boie. Appropriately my new puppy, Brody, ate the corner of the book as I read it to him this morning. After Brody consumed his part of the wisdom contained within Boie's book, Brody and I realized that both Boie and I seem to have each independently discovered the same universal imperative, me through accident of transformational dream-visions and life reflections, Boie through the power of logic and education, life reflections and personal discovery: All things are interconnected; science and faith will merge in peaceful understanding; God gives us powers to see and understand things far beyond ourselves thus affirming our purpose and God's; our specie's survival stems from love; choose life because we live. Live to love and love to live. I think that's what Brody told me.