Space Books

Meet Alexand and Rich, two sons of Lord Dekoven Woolf. Alexand is the heir, an intelligent, controlled young man undergoing his apprenticeship in politics. Rich is the gentle, brilliant younger brother who becomes fascinated -and deeply involved-with some sociological problems in their society. The brothers are very close, and they face many problems together. The bond between them brings about many of the events that occur throughout the trilogy.

Ignore the cover art. This is a great trilogy that spends time on characters, plot, sociology, politics and religion. The actual science in the science fiction is a bit lacking. So if that will bug you, you might have a problem with some of the issues in the series. Beyond that, the scope is wide, the plot is gripping, the characters are people you care about, and the writing is seamless.

I loved this story as a kid, and it still holds up well under adult scrutiny.

As a life long fan of SiFI and History I rate this book among my favorites along side the Foundation series. I found Vol. 1 at a used book sale and located the rest. Good Character development and realistic plot line based on past history. When I finished the series I was sorry there weren't more.

I recommend this book, but only if you can get hold of all three in the series. This is the first, "Shadow of the Swan" is the second, "House of the Wolf" is the third and final of this "The Phoenix Legacy" series. I would say this is one novel in three installments. In my 1981 edition the second and third books both have maps, previous part synopsis (there are 6 parts altogether), and a cast of characters; the third book also has an extensive glossary. It unfortunately has some pretty lame cover art. You can easily find plot synopsis elsewhere. I want to say that this book nicely combines political intrigue with some hard science fiction and social idealism in the context of a far future feudal society. One plot element involves a pseudo-christian religion, but it is not thematic and there is no supernatural, fantastic, or faith-based action. There's enough action and plot twists to keep you turning the pages, but the real strength of the novel is in the characters and the drama. To my mind, there is nothing particularly profound or inventive about this series, but it is well written and entertaining.

The Legacy of the Phoenix series is a little soap opera-ish, but the characters grip you, and once you start on the first book you will get sucked in and want to read the next two. I recommend the series full heartedly, though I wouldn't start reading the first one unless I was sure I was able to procure the next two, as once you are hooked on the series you will want to blow through all three books back to back. Not five star, but the series is very close to it, and well worth the read.

Beautifully crafted. I was delighted to have the opportunity to replace my original extremely battered books. Among science fiction books that examine or explore socio-political structures, these books rank at the top of my list along with the Ender's Game trilogy by Orson Scott Card and "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Heinlein.

Probable-Possible, my black hen
She lays eggs in the relative when
She doesn't lay eggs in the positive now
Because she's unable to postulate how.

One of the guilty pleasures of reading Old SF, is seeing just how badly the imagined futures of the past tend to hold up, "..as the room-sized master computer blinked and clacked in the background, our hero picked up the heavy handset and dialed the number of the rocket taxi company on the black and white rotary video phone...", but you will have to forego such joys with this surprisingly modern half-century old wonder. Not to worry, though, because the timeless hilarity more than makes up for it!

Contained within its covers are some 45 hysterically modernized Mother Goose classics with a few originals tossed in, charmingly illustrated by Marian Parry's deceptively simple line drawings, ending with a useful though slightly warped glossary to help you (or hinder you as the case may be) in getting the jokes. (Some recourse to an unabridged dictionary or a good encyclopedia may also be required.) Open the book, and you will enter a marvelously twisted universe in which Miss Muffet's arachnophobia is eased by a force field, Little Jack Horner extracts cube roots, three men go to sea in a Klein bottle, and Jack builds a Theory.

Defects? None that I can think of! One can argue that many of the in jokes will not be gotten by young children but such is true of the original nursery rhymes: Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind the Rhyme. Frederick Winsor tragically passed away while working on a sequel, but one might hope to someday see an expanded edition containing whatever he managed to produce before his death. Meanwhile, thanks to Purple House Press, here is a back in print book you won't mind reading over and over to your children...

in fact your children might have to remind you to quit giggling about it all to yourself and share the fun!

This wonderful little book is one that I have owned several times since I first read it around 1961. Unfortunately, every time I managed to find a copy, I loaned it to someone. Of the several people I loaned each hard-won copy, none ever returned it. I guess that means people like it. For me, it has been a never-ending source of delight, even though I didn't understand most of it when I first read it at the age of 12. (Be warned: This is not a book for children. Nothing offensive; they just won't get it.) This time, I am not loaning my copy. Get your own. (And thanks, Amazon.)

Rubber-band mathematics, telekenisis, Moebius strips and Klein bottles, multi-dimensional space-folds, a model of a scientific theory, postulates and relative time frames would not seem to be material suitable for children, but this slim book will quickly disabuse you of that idea. This book is a marvelous re-working of the old Mother Goose rhymes, updated to today's scientifically oriented world.

I first read this book just after it was published, when I was about eleven years old, and was immediately captivated. It made no difference that I didn't understand some of the terms being used. The thing that caught me was the skill with which these modern-day and science-fictional items were folded into those well known rhymes, how well they fit and gave new, quite twisted, and in many cases hysterically funny meaning to them. Reading them today, these verses are still just as funny, if not more so than I found them to be in my youth, as I now can catch the fact that Winsor buried many sly references to Greek literature, outmoded scientific theories, and even satire about academic politics within their brief lines. My favorite along this latter line is `The Theory that Jack Built', which contains a fatal flaw, hidden by mummery, obfuscation, and bells and whistles, which all gets blown away when the Space Child presses the `Go' button.

The illustrations are just as marvelous, and do much to help someone who might not completely understand the scientific terms to see just what is being referenced, while being very individualistic in style and maintaining the humorous tone of the whole book. Along with these visual aids, there are often `definitions' at the bottom of the page, some even more abstruse than the item being defined, but just as funny.

Don't forget to read the `Answers' at the back of the book, which in addition to some appropriate real definitions, also provide some rather unique explanations of some of the terms used in this book, including one which takes a viscous dig at Congress.

Give this one to your son or daughter, but not till you've read it yourself. You might get a few questions, and there might be a few puzzled frowns, but I'd almost guarantee you'll also be the recipient of some laughs and smiles.

--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

I was born in 1952. This is the second book I remember having owning, after Dr Suess. I can't place the year exactly, but it was in the 50s.

I still have that first copy. I still read it. I enjoy it just as much or more now than I did way back when dinasoars roamed the earth.

Books don't come any better than this.

I read this book about three years ago, and enjoyed learning more about Elliot See, Ted Freeman, C.C. Williams, Ed Givens, Charlie Bassett, and Roger Chaffee. I didn't know that Freeman graduated from Annapolis in the same class as Ross Perot (1953), and I didn't know that both See and Chaffee were both Eagle Scouts. See is often noted as a "civilian", but he was a Navy Reservist, and stayed that way throughout his time in the Astronaut Corps.

It was nice to learn about the Russian Cosmonauts, since I was familar with the deaths of Vladmir Komarov and the Soyuz 11 crew only. However, I was disappointed that Robert Lawrence was omitted. Lawrence was a MOL astronaut who was killed in a plane crash in October 1967. MOL was cancelled around the end of 1968. There were two other former MOL astronauts who were killed in plane crashes, but not while they were part of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) project.

The gravesites of Freeman, Williams, Chaffee, See, and Bassett can be found at Arlington National Cemetery. A few years ago, I found them and put flags on their graves. There's also a section of the Electrical Engineering Building at Texas Tech University named for Charlie Bassett. The library in Clear Lake is named for Ted Freeman. Colleagues of Freeman and Bassett have said that these men would most likely have had moon missions if they had not succumbed to early deaths. Buzz Aldrin dedicated his first book Return to Earth to Charlie Bassett, saying "to Charlie..whose place I took."

Another excellent book from Mr. Burgess. I especially enjoyed the great level of detail in this book. Mr. Burgess even provides the astronauts' mothers' and wives' maiden names, their childhood addresses and many obscure yet interesting facts about their early careers. It was also interesting to learn how many of the astronauts had interacted with each other in the years before they joined NASA. While you know the eventual outcome of each chapter, I still found myself hoping it would somehow turn out differently.

I had just started working for McDonnell Aircraft on Gemini 9 a few months before the crash of See and Bassett into the Gemini manufacturing building in St. Louis. This book clarified several details of the accident that had become fuzzy over the years.

The epilogue was of interest to learn how many of the relatives and colleagues have moved on.

If you grew up in the 1960s and could name every astronaut and recount the details of each Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo mission (or, if you didn't), this outstanding work is a very important milestone and accurate record that enables us to remember the sacrifices made to reach the Moon. In great detail from the impressive research conducted by the authors, this book provides very rare insights into the lives of Astronauts Freeman, See, Bassett, Grissom, White, Chaffee, Givens, Williams, and the cosmonauts from the former Soviet Union. The book also dispels some rumors with respect to the accidents that took the lives of these skilled pilots and astronauts, as many of those rumors have been reported, merely repeated, and accepted in other accounts unfortunately as facts.

Thank you for reminding us of a time when America tackled a monumental challenge, and allowing us to be more fully grateful for the lives lived and lost so that we could meet that national challenge and extend the spirit of exploration to the heavens.

As a keen observer of the space program from Mercury through Apollo, I was very impressed by the scholarship and professionalism of this book. Although I have researched many of these incidents, this book provided details that I had never seen. Congratulations on an excellent tribute to these brave individuals.

I'm keeping it short and sweet - If you want to know about the "unsung heroes" of the early space programs in the USA and former USSR, pick this book up and read it - you will see who these men really were, and how any one of them (Americans) could have been first on the moon, instead of Neil Armstrong.

In the spirit of Volume 1, this volume has extensive behind the scenes information and interviews. A MUST for any Firefly fan.

Great resource for the true Firefly fan. The show scripts are fun to read, especially with the chinese words translated, so you know what the gorram they were really saying. I loved the section: Jayne's Weapons, with a detailed look at Vera, one of the most notorious guns ever to grace the small or big screen. They discuss how they designed Vera, where the original gun came form, and how they added the special touches to make it unique to the Firefly 'verse.
A plethora of inset comments from the actors, and production crew, throughout the book, add insights into the action behind the scenes of making the show. Floor Plans of Serenity, and displays of various prop models of the ship, and many other props used make a nice addtion to the wealth of information.

If you're reading this review, then you must not own volume one of Firefly: The Official Companion. If you did, then you wouldn't need a review to sell you on this one. So I have a piece of advice for you: buy both books. If you have a place in your heart for Firefly, then make a place on your coffee table for these books. Each one is overflowing with behind-the-scenes information about every episode of Firefly. There's sure to be something to interest every fan. I particularly enjoy all the prop info. You get detailed views of props and weapons, along with insight from the prop team as to how they made or modified each item. Fascinating stuff, and indispensable if you're a gamer.
Treat yourself to these books. You won't regret it.

I missed Firefly, the first time around, and didn't discover the series until after I'd rented Serenity. I can't call myself a confirmed browncoat, though I really *really* liked everything about the show.

But when I saw this book on the library's New Books stack, I grabbed it. I think you should grab a copy, too, even if you're no die-hard fan. Because this book is _fun_.

Most of the book is episode scripts (half of them; the other half are in Volume One). That's worth the price alone, because the scripts are immensely readable. Like other intelligent shows, the dialogue is both fast and thoughtful, and you might not have caught everything when you heard it the first or second time around. In particular, the scripts include the translations from the Chinese expletives, and most of them are _very_ funny.

And the "stage direction" is not the dispassionate descriptive sort ("Man enters, wearing a hat"). It reflects the entire mood of the show:
INARA walks towards them, heading for the stairs up to the shuttle catwalk. She's dressed with stunning elegance.
KAYLEE: Hey there, 'Nara. Heading off for some glamorous romance?
Simon turns, momentarily stunned by her elegance.

If you're a screenwriter, this is absolutely a must-have.

The book is also peppered with cast interviews, stories about the creation of Firefly's theme song, production explanations on how, for example, they created Niska's Skyplex. In this book, you can spend an enjoyable few hours investigating how a show can be done *right*...even if the network screwed it up.

Just to let future buyers be aware....this book (and Vol. 1) are basically just the scripts to the (REALLY FUN) shows. As my husband put it, "It's just the lines, without the wonderful delivery the actors achieved in the shows." I thought it would be more like the various other "about" books that exist about popular movies/TV shows - full of pictures and other fun "about" stuff. In my opinion, these two books were not that.

I had read this story decades ago when I was young, and revisiting again as I am older, it was amazing to see how William Sleator writes so many science fiction / thriller type stories for young readers without dumbing down the story for the sake of the reader. This was the first of his books that I found, and I have been reading his short stories ever since. I hope to pass them along to my kids once they are old enough.

Writing for young adults, Sleator is a master of twisted and subtly terrifying sci-fi/horror. I read this many years ago and the story of Tycho and his demented future self has been lodged in the back of my mind ever since then. If your tastes run towards left field like mine do, you'll find a kindred spirit here.

I first read this book when I was in forth grade. It made a great impression on me. During a move a year later the book was lost. I recently found it on auction and read it again. I am amazed at how wonderfully complex the story is for both young and old readers. Certainly a story for all. Happy reading.

My dad read this book to me and my little brother twenty years ago when I was [...]. I remember being so enthralled by the story. It wasn't until yesterday that I finally remembered the name of the main character and found the book here on Amazon. I just ordered it and I can't wait to read it!

When I read the book "The Green Futuers Of Tycho", I was amazed at how well William Sleater( The author) Put together this Science Fiction book. My teacher read it to the class, and right after she finished the book, every one wanted to read it once more. I was trying to get my hands on one of the copys, to unfortunatly find that the book was out of print. I defenetly reccomend this book for anyone, and esspecialy those who like Science Fiction.

This book presents some interesting concepts on Process Design and Performance.

This is a classic text that hardly needs my endorsement. However, if I can bring it to the attention of people who might not have benefitted from its proven insights and wisdom, I am happy to do so. The basic notion of the book is that too many people run their companies in the silos of the traditional org-chart. This creates all kinds of communications and management problems that must be broken down to get the optimal performance from your firm. This need has only grown since the first edition of this book came out in 1990. This second edition came out in 1995.

The authors want you to think of what your company is trying to accomplish rather than as a bunch of fiefdoms hanging from a hierarchical org-chart. They use a matrix of three levels of performance (Organizational, Process, and Job/Performer) and three performance needs (Goals, Design, and Management). Using the nine areas these create the authors show you how to handle focusing, operating, and managing every aspect of your firm. Sure, the book requires more thought and concentration than your typical "business book", but the substance it provides is well worth the effort.

Use it.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

Don't let the date this book was published influence your decision to buy - it is timeless. I am on my second copy of this book and would characterize it as the best book on business process management that has ever been published. This is "The Book". Everyone I know in the Business Process Management field has this book. I recommend it to every client and every business improvement team member that I work with.

The information contained in this "gem" can help anyone involved in process improvement. Consultants, executives, managers, process team leaders, process team members - it doesn't matter whether you are working in manufacturing, finance, logistics, sales or human resources. It also doesn't matter whether you are new to BPM or have been in the field for 20 years. This book will change the way you think about organizational structure and approaching business process.

Trying to characterize what parts of the book were best, would be like trying to dissect what parts of the blue sky you like best. It is all great stuff - each chapter is better than the next, and will help you understand what needs to be done to make business improvement initiatives work. It is well written, easy to understand the concepts, with hundreds of useful illustrations and models to learn from.

I would give this book 6 stars if I could ...

This book will survive the trends, since most of the trends are based on the principles in this book. The names will change (Quality Circles, Just In Time, TQM, Re-engineering, Six Sigma, ...), but these principles and how well they are implemented will determine a companies' efficiency and quality.

As a business process and systems analyst, I have used the techniques in this book extensively to document existing and proposed processes and systems.

The diagramming techniques ensure thorough identification of all relevant interfaces and will assist in identifying those frustrating and toxic business processes that defy verbal description, but once diagrammed, seem to become clearly understood. I cannot count how many "Ah-ha" moments I have seen when confused managers, too deep in the trees to be able to see the whole forest, finally see the problems with their business laid out in clear pictures drawn with the techniques taught in this book.

After years of feeling alone in the universe, a stunning discovery occurs when a repeat transmission of radio waves emulates from Mars. NASA maintenance engineer Tyler Anderson, toilet unclogger superstar works on translating the incoming message though he is unaware of a conspiracy involving his superiors. Instead he soon realizes that someone on Mars is begging for help, but first he must fix a stuffed toilet.

The world's space exploration community puts together a manned space mission that includes Tyler to investigate the transmission at its source. On Mars, the crew finds an abandoned still functioning complex, apparently built by an alien civilization that for whatever logistical reason left behind their junk but technological treasures to the earthlings who came after them. However, the crew is soon going to learn how Pandora felt when she opened the box. Things begin to wrong and some of the crew die while communication with mission control fails. Tyler concludes that the message was not a call for help, but a warning that may prove too late to heed.

Once readers accept the Walter Mitty like Tyler turning into Rocky defeating Apollo Creed by translating what everyone else thought was noise and being added to the astronaut team, fans will enjoy a strong science fiction thriller. The story line makes the flight to Mars, the subsequent landing, and the climax seem so real that readers will believe NASA and the Russians conducted a joint mission to the Angry Red Planet. Tyler may not at first be suited for the job, but the audience will like him and forget his job description as he is the hero of this epic space adventure.

Harriet Klausner

This is a great read for anyone who loves action packed adventure ! I got so involved in the story , I lost all sense of time while I was reading this story. I could not wait to find out what was going to happen next!

Once I started reading this book, I could not put it down. Honestly, I got the book from a family member rather than buying it, and had not planned on reading it upon first look, even though highly recommended. Had I known I would have purchased. I don't consider myself a critic, but would recommend this book to most anyone who wants to go on an adventure far from Earth.

A friend of mine recommended this book. At first I was not interested in reading it because I am not a science fiction fan. But as soon as I began reading it, I could not put it down. I literally read the entire book in one sitting! I would recommend this book to anyone. Very suspenseful, very believable characters whome you will feel that you know.I would love to read more work by Mr Jackson!

I must admit that I'm not much of a sci-fi reader, but when I started reading "The Mars Transmission" I couldn't put it down.
I was very much drawn to the chracters and story line.
This story really stired my immagination. I was captivated by the story and the way the writer described Mars. Seemed surreal. I especially loved the free CD included with the book. I've listened to it many times and will continue to enjoy.
I have recommended this book to all of my friends and I look forward to reading more books from Ronald Reed Jackson.
Once again, wonderful story.

Pale Phoenix is a wonderful book. so detailed and well written that you can see your self there with the main characters. enchanting and a joy to read. i first discovered it 6 years ago at the local library and ive been rereading it(and i dont like to reread books *nods*). adios

This was a great book. The author kept you in suspense until you figured out what was going on. It is about a girl named Miranda and her parents. They take in an orphan named Abby. It was going okay, and then Miranda realized there was something weird about Abby. Then she started searching Abby's past.

This is another fine example of Kathryn Reiss's writing. I think it was a great book. I read atleast 4 times because I loved it so much. I really hope Kathryn Reiss becomes well-known. She has a great imagination and sense of literature. This classic tale about a pheonix rising from the ashes is a great story for young and older people to enjoy. I'd give it 10 stars if I could.

The only way that you will reall you will really understand this book fully is if you read the first book, Time Windows. The basic plot is that a girl , Miranda has a very great life with her parents and neighbors in her small Northeastern town until they take in this orphan named Abby to live with them. Miranda and Abby do not get along a weel and things change for Miranda. She beginds to start uncovering Abby's amazing past and helping her deal with it. If you read this book you will really benefit from it becuase, if you read anymore books by this author, the character Abby appears in many of them breifly.

This story is so suspenseful, that I was kept on the edge of my seat the entire time! This time-travel book, involves a young, thirteen-year-old girl by the name of Abby Chandler, who mysteriously and magically escapes a horrific fire, in which her family was killed. Abby does not know it, but a small, magical, stone flute carved in the shape of a phoenix, given to her by a Native American woman, Willow, saved Abby from dying in the fire with her family. But the flute did not only save Abby's life, it also threw her ahead in time by at least three hundred years! One second Abby was living in the colonial era, and the next second she was in a field of snow, without any knowledge of the buildings and houses around her.

Eventually Abby crosses paths with a young, fifteen-year-old girl, Mandy Browne, of Massachusetts. Unknown to both girls, but the day these two meet is the day Abby is rescued from her seemingly inevitable fate of living forever.

Mandy discovers there is something about this girl that isn't right. Whenever Mandy hears Abby hysterically crying, she goes to her room, but Abby is not there. What is even more strange, is that Mandy's parents do not hear Abby's wretched crying. In addition, Mandy discovers pictures of Abby's dating back hundreds of years. The strange thing is though, is that in all of the pictures there is a girl who is the splitting image of Abby, with the exception of clothes from each time period.

Twice, Mandy confronts her parents about Abby's crying, and twice Abby somehow returns back to her room, denying all of it, to which Mandy's parents take sides with Abby. Abby now knows that Mandy can unquestionably hear her crying when she has traveled back to her home of ruins. Since no one else has been able to hear her crying when she has been there, she decides to tell Mandy what really happened to her. Shocked and surprisingly moved by Abby's story, Mandy has no idea what to say and she is left speechless. Abby thinks that because Mandy can hear her crying, she will be able to help Abby save her family.

The rest is up to you to figure out what happens to the two girls. I loved this book and I know that anyone who reads it will too!

Anybody with a high school diploma can read this book and walk away with a good understanding of the concept of time and time travel. Cliff presents these complex concepts and theories in ordinary terms and practical examples that are easy to comprehend and won't leave you with brain burn out. I've read other books on this topic(including a Brief History of Time) and none of them were able to make me understand these concepts like this book was. After reading this book, I feel intimately familiar with the possibilities of Time Travel and the theories behind it.

This book is one of the bet novelles I have read about temporal mechanics in years. The engrossing yet comical plot will keep you enthralled for hours on end. At times the math gets a tad overwhelming (even for a lover of math such as myself), but it is well worth the knowledge you take away from it.

Pickover brings to life time travel in stunning detail. It not only contains and engrossing yet comical plot, but is punctuated by a consistent simplicity for reader's of all ages. The mathematics can get a little heavy and times (don't get me wrong I love math), but it is well worth it. I recommend this book to anyone who wishes to explore the depths of their mind.

An outstanding book - I have never before read a book that dealt with such advanced concepts that was so easy to read and comprehend and as hard to put down (I read it in a weekend). Dr. Pickover's style of making the first half of each chapter a sci-fi story, with the second half "the science behind the story" makes this book fun and teaches you without having to work. Definately inspires creative thought.

I have a few more Pickover books on order and look forward to more. (...)

If you ever wanted to learn more about time travel, pick up this book! Time: A Traveller's Guide combines mathematics with an intruiging plot. He weaves some non-fiction into the math and information to make it all the more interesting. I have had the privilige to contact Mr. Pickover myself and he is an amazing man! This book is one of the best I have read!

Perhaps looking forward to this book raised my expectations. I thought the previous two in this series were simply some of the best space opera combined with social commentary scifi available. This book simply does not deliver.

First, there are continuity errors. In one page of the novel, literally, one page, prepackaged meals are called 'prepacks'; in the rest, they're suddenly 'preheats'. Huh?

Second, she changes POV character waaaay too often. You can't even really call this a Koscuisko novel because he appears in less than half of the scenes, and is very rarely the POV character. I don't mind multiple POV novels, but someone as accomplished as Matthews should know that readers need some kind of clue at the beginning of a section as to who is narrating that section. Even just some geographical locator "on board _ragnarok_" or some such would have been an immense help. Half the time I had to go back after a page, when I'd figured out where and who 'we' were, to realign that information in my brain. Sometimes I had to stop in the middle of a section and wonder if she'd changed POV character on me or just got her pronouns confused (which she did, at least twice).

The whole novel has a sloppy feel to it. There's no compelling plot for Andrej; one never feels an awful lot of empathy for Ivers, and even though the surface plot tensions are resolved at the end, the internal problems for Andrej or Ivers are never resolved. And I don't mean 'unresolved' in a way that screams 'sequel'. She wraps everything up pretty tightly, so that I wouldn't be surprised if this is the last novel in the series--everyone's off to a Brave New World, inside the Judiciary or not, and hope is in the air, and.... all the loose ends are just oh so conveniently tied up. (Except the rioting and bombing and looting and why have a prologue in a place that's never EVER mentioned again in the novel?) It's a fuzzy and unfocussed novel that actually at times was a chore to read. I loved her other Andrej novels, but this...well, I wish I could go back in time to a week or so ago and still have hopeful expectations for this novel.

I think Matthews is taking the Conan Doyle approach and chucking Holmes off the cliff in a hope to be done with the whole mess. A shame, really.

You should buy this book.

HOWEVER, I reccomend doing so only if you've read the other Jurisdiction novels-- Exchange of Hostages, Prisoner of Conscience, Hour of Judgement, and Devil and Deep Space. It's not that Warring States isn't a coherent tale on its own-- it is, and a good one. But you won't enjoy it as much if you don't know the context, especially since a fairly major plot in the book hinges on a conflict begun two books ago. Besides, these are all fine characters who deserve some getting to know.

To those who have read the others-- Warring States is a little different from what we've seen before. There's a little less focus on Andrej Koscuisko, and a little more on the workings of Jurisdiction. It isn't a bad thing. All the old themes are still there-- love, and sacrifice, and willful stupidity, and good intentions. And they're just as satisfying as they've ever been.

As in the previous books, the author demonstrates a really refreshing grasp of a universe that exists outside of her main protagonists. Conflicts do not arise in a void; they exist because of other characters-- whose point of view you also get to see things from. None of the characters in Warring States are just handy plot devices.

One of the really nice things about reading Susan Matthews' writing is that if a person is antagonistic, she does not tell you so. She shows you so, by letting you into their head and letting you see how they understand the world. Look, ma, they've got motivations! Ditto her protagonists, and she doesn't exactly attempt to gloss over their flaws, either. None of these people fell from Krypton to leap tall buildings in a single bound. They're just people-- like the villains-- doing what makes sense to them.

It's nice.

So she's got a bunch of great characters. And? And they exist in a well-planned world. There are well defined cultures and governments and it makes SENSE that thus-and-such a character came out of this-and-such a culture. It's all internally consistent, which means there's nothing to jar you out of what is really a fascinating universe.

In the end, Warring States is a compelling book (and we shouldn't expect anything less of this particular author) and a well written one (ditto) and a satisfying one (see previous).

Well, as satisfying as a cliffhanger could be.

Susan R. Matthews returns, after a long wait, with "Warring States," the latest in her "Judiciary" novels featuring Andrej Koscuisko. It's packaged well--a large-size paperback on good paper, and it solves the murder of First Secretary Verlaine that occurred at the end of "The Devil in Deep Space." This time Andrej, after setting one of the two plots in motion, becomes more or less tempest-tossed as the action switches to the doings of Bench Specialist Jils Ivers, who's part of a convocation assembled to pick the next First Judge (while also being a suspect in the murder).

Ms. Matthews tries hard to overcome the inherent clunkiness that she's set for herself by blending the two plots together, and if she doesn't quite succeed, she certainly fails honorably, and it's definitely worth your time. As before her sense of place is extraordinary (when Jils orders a meal in a luxury hotel suite, you'll almost taste the food; when she descends underground where the convocation is being held maybe you'll feel claustrophobic too), and her chilly prose is as lucid as ever. Unfortunately, Andrej, who's worked hard to overcome his sadomaschoism (he refuses to torture people anymore), is a crashing bore after the tempest starts tossing him about after that opening act of his--he seems to have no willpower, nor control over his own life, and his motivations seem principally to have become those which Ms. Matthews assigns him, rather than having grown organically from the story.

In short, the author probably would have been better off writing two novels instead of cramming two stories into this one.

Notes and asides: Bench Specialist Vogel, who used to be Garol Vogel has become Karol Vogel. The handsome cover, by Christian McGrath, depicts, almost certainly, Jils Ivers, but who the man in uniform is could be any one of several characters. That might just be the point.

This is a thoroughly enjoyble book! Especially if you've been reading Susan Matthews before, you'll like this one.

Why? I think that, in the previous 2, Susan couldn't make up her mind about giving Koscuisko a happy ending or getting him killed. The fact that she couldn't make up her mind, hurt those plots. Now she's made up her mind: not to kill him, not to give him a happy ending and nevertheless to change his entire universe. And that brings so much new freshness to this book...!

The plot? Warring states (I think) refers to colliding realities: the Judiciary order with its rules and regulations versus the chaos and turmoil because of the departure of its Enlightened ruler (the First Judge). Free individuals versus slaves. Loyalty to principles and people, versus loyalty to ambition and selfishness. In Koscuisko the warring states are guilt (over the anguish caused by his legal exercising of torture) versus eagerness to relive the thrill caused by the adrenaline rush provided in the act of torturing.

It's a good book in this series, on many levels. Sometimes it's a bit slow, because the dramatic tensions makes you want the action to speed up (skipping forward solved that problem for me).

You'll enjoy it.

The eagerly awaited next installment of The Life & Hard Times of Andrej Koscuisko is here! All major points having been covered in previous reviews, I'll just add my opinion that Susan has done it again. Our beloved favorite characters are all here (even Joslire through his family), including cameos from those we might have forgotten about. The emotions run just as high or higher than in previous books, despite the reformation of certain characters. Hints of what is yet to happen in this universe will keep you checking to see when the next novel is scheduled for release.

I will reiterate the warnings of previous posts, however. This is a volume of a series, so it's best to begin at the beginning with Exchange of Hostages. Otherwise, some of the shocking page-turners in this book just aren't as shocking.