Lost Girls

Book Description

For more than a century, Alice, Wendy and Dorothy have been our guides through the Wonderland, Neverland and Land of Oz of our childhoods. Now like us, these three lost girls have grown up and are ready to guide us again, this time through the realms of our sexual awakening and fulfillment. Through their familiar fairytales they share with us their most intimate revelations of desire in its many forms, revelations that shine out radiantly through the dark clouds of war gathering around a luxury Austrian hotel. Drawing on the rich heritage of erotica, Lost Girls is the rediscovery of the power of ecstatic writing and art in a sublime union that only the medium of comics can achieve. Exquisite, thoughtful, and human, Lost Girls is a work of breathtaking scope that challenges the very notion of art fettered by convention. This is erotic fiction at its finest. Similar to DC's Absolute editions of Watchmen and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Lost Girls will be published as three, 112-page, super-deluxe, ovesized hardcover volumes, all sealed in a gorgeous slipcase. It will truly be an edition for the ages.

Customer Reviews:

I feel validated in my disappointment..........2007-09-11

When I first read Lost Girls, I was so deeply disappointed in the flat, amateur artwork that it took me a while to realize how flat and unexciting the storytelling is as well. I can't believe that the book made it to production with the ridiculous dialect Alan Moore assigns to Dorothy, which is tremendously distracting in and of itself. I was expecting a magical experience from this collaboration - and to me magical doesn't mean it can't also be creepy and disturbing, which Lost Girls definitely is - but found this book to be the least imaginative of any Alan Moore I've read. At one point I thought the creepy factor might be clouding my view, but after reading other reviewers' comments, I felt validated to see that others share the same opinions about its shortcomings.

Enjoyable erotica.......2007-09-01

OK, some will balk at the premise. We all know Dodgson's Alice, Baum's Dorothy, and Barrie's Wendy as little girls, in the familiar fictions built around them. This takes the fiction a step beyond, imagining the girls as grown women, thrown together in an isolated resort on the eve of the first world war. Alice, the grande dame, stands aloof from political unpleasantness. Wendy is wed to an industrialist more interested in armored boat hulls than in breakfast (or in her). Dorothy appears as a plain old farm girl, who can't imagine that grand duke Ferdinand might affect her little life. Geographically isolated at this odd resort and culturally isolated by their individual circumstance, they break their personal isolation in each others' company.

They succeed, and break each others' inhibitions as well. With Moore's script and Gebbie's delicate colors, we follow a delightful debauch. Alice takes the two younger ladies under her opium-scented wing, for languidly choreographed affections of the sapphic kind. Dorothy brings her farm-girl awareness of livestock breeding to her human relations, male and female. Wendy, the ignored housewife, blossoms under any attention at all. Other characters round out the goings-on with straight, gay, and solo loving. The happy and consensual tone could appeal to readers who've been turned off by harsher kinds of erotica, and Gebbie's delicate artwork treats it all with lucious respect.

Make no mistake, this is smut. Decide whether that's what you want. It's good smut, though, of a female-friendly kind - the kind that also appeals to men tired of all that negative imagery. If you often find your genitals requesting the company and comfort of your hands, this could be a story for them to read to each other.

-- wiredweird

Absolutely brilliant.......2007-08-10

A must-read for anyone who can handle it -- this is not "erotica," this is porn. The stories and illustrations are EXTREMELY graphic. Some of them are unbelievably hot, some are unbelievably disturbing, many are both. Not all the sex in this book is fun.

It's also a brilliant piece of literature. What Moore did previously with League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, he does again here, on a grander and more ambitious scale. He deconstructs these tales with a ruthlessness that is both horrifying and inspired.

A solid piece of erotic fiction.......2007-04-02

While the art style may not appeal to everyone, "Lost Girls" is certainly worth a look if you like erotic fiction with a little more substance. The books provide an amusing interpretation of the "real" events behind "Alice in Wonderland", "Peter Pan" and "The Wizard of Oz". While the first two books do not appear to be particularily thought-provoking at first, they set the stage for some potent character development in the third book, when the formerly frivolous stories are cast in a harsh, new light.

Of note is that while events take on a darker tone in the third book, "Lost Girls" does not contain any particularily violent scenes. Unlike in most adult media, the focus of these three books is not the gratuitous depiction of extreme sexual acts, but raising questions and telling a solid story with believable characters. Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie have done a great job, showing that pornography doesn't necessarily belong in the gutter.

All things said, "Lost Girls" is a charming, bittersweet tale about saying goodbye to your childhood, leaving your make-believe world and growing up, and well worth the price.

Not what I hoped.......2007-03-06

I thought it was boring and a bit pointless. The illustrations were childish but the story line was interesting if a little disjointed. I wouldn't recommend these books unless you're somewhat innocent and looking for a thrill.

Average customer rating:

Not a Deep Connection.
"It's all broken ..." (possible spoilers)
His Best Yet
Not nearly deep enough for me
Incredible Ride!

Deep Storm: A Novel
Lincoln Child
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0385515502
Release Date: 2007-01-30

Book Description

Twelve-thousand feet beneath the Atlantic Ocean . . .
scientists are excavating the most extraordinary undersea discovery ever made. But is it the greatest archaeological find in history—or the most terrifying?

Former naval doctor Peter Crane is urgently summoned to a remote oil platform in the North Atlantic to help diagnose a bizarre medical condition spreading through the rig. But when he arrives, Crane learns that the real trouble lies far below—on “Deep Storm,” a stunningly advanced science research facility built two miles beneath the surface on the ocean floor. The topsecret structure has been designed for one purpose: to excavate a recently discovered undersea site that may hold the answers to a mystery steeped in centuries of myth and speculation.

Sworn to secrecy, Dr. Crane descends to Deep Storm. A year earlier, he is told, routine drilling uncovered the remains of mankind’s most sophisticated ancient civilization: the legendary Atlantis. But now that the site is being excavated, a series of disturbing illnesses has begun to affect the operation. Scientists and technicians are experiencing a bizarre array of symptoms—from simple fatigue to violent psychotic episodes. As Crane is indoctrinated into the strange world of Deep Storm and commences his investigation, he begins to suspect that the covert facility conceals something more complicated than a medical mystery.The discovery of Atlantis might, in fact, be a cover for something far more sinister . . . and deadly.

Like Lincoln Child’s spectacular bestsellers coauthored with Douglas Preston (The Book of the Dead, Relic), Deep Storm melds scientific detail and gripping adventure in a superbly imagined, chillingly real journey into unknown territory. Child is a master of suspense, and Deep Storm is his most ambitious novel to date.

Customer Reviews:

Not a Deep Connection........2007-10-09

I just finished reading "Deep Storm". It was okay, but not great.

There was a very...clinical element in the way the story was told. We never really find out any personal details about the characters. As a result, the story ends without the reader forming a substantial emotional bond with any of the characters.

While this doesn't prevent the story from being told, it could definitely have been told better. Adding personal details about the characters is just one way this could have been accomplished. Another missed opportunity was adding more details to those characters who said they were hearing voices. It would've been interesting to eavesdrop on those [Spoiler Warning!] voices/alien transmissions.

The book was a quick read, but unfortunately nothing that I would be motivated to read a second time.

"It's all broken ..." (possible spoilers).......2007-10-04

One of the more idiotic characters of the book keeps uttering this, and boy how right he was. There were a number of just plain holes in the plot. Here's a little one. A character who's role was to just be murdered sets up a meet with a bad guy at a gas station. He has the air compressor tire pump with him. He invites the bad guy into his car. He gets into the car and shuts the door. He *still* has the compressor hose in his hand. Did he thread it through the open window before getting into the car? Who knows? Somehow it ends up being long enough for his killer to take from him, jam down his throat, and turn on.

Here's another one. The bad guy later has to insert an encoded message into an image file. All he has to work with is a dumb terminal with no hard disk. So he writes a program and, uh, *compiles* it, then runs it. First, what dumb terminal is going to have a compiler? Second, if you compile a program you have to save it somewhere. Well where do you save it if you don't have a hard disk?

The book is full of little pieces of foolishness like this. For instance, 2 miles down in the ocean, there's a flash of light, and the ocean bottom is packed with all the funny looking denizens of the deep. If you're going to write a book you should know a little about the location of your main action. Like: the deep ocean isn't just packed full of funny looking fish.

Last one: all marines are violent robots who follow their evil overlord to death without individual thought ... especially the "special ops" ones.

Anyway I could go on, but you get the idea.

His Best Yet.......2007-09-13

This is Lincoln Child's best book yet! I have read every book by Child and his co-author Preston. Loved the imagination that went along with the story, you could almost feel yourself down at the ocean floor with all the characters. The ending, I hope, leaves room for a continuing novel.

Not nearly deep enough for me.......2007-09-12

An adventure unfolds in the deep sea several miles below an oilrig in the north Atlantic in Lincoln Child's Deep Storm, where a phalanx of scientists, doctors and marines in a massive seabed complex prepare to excavate a great discovery, perhaps the greatest discovery of all time, we are told.

And thus the adventure unfolds; it unfolds and unfolds and unfolds and yet, sadly, it never really arrives anywhere special; the author's attempts at any sort of real depth flounders despite his crisply written pages. Yes they are scribed with scalpel-sharp techno description, jam-packed with medical and science fact. But in all honestly, the wealth of research packed into the novel does nothing to develop the spirit of the main character, Peter Crane a navy doctor who's been dispatched to the undersea science complex to help solve the mystery of an outbreak of mysterious illnesses. In fact, none of the characters pop to life in Deep Storm.

The narrative leads Crane and the reader into first believing that Atlantis has been discovered, but that notion is soon dispelled when further investigation reveals that the top-secret mission is actually a dig for some alien technology buried some 600 years ago just inside the Mohorovicic Discontinuity, or "Moho" as it's called, the boundary between the earth's crust and mantle, which under the sea is not as deep as in other areas. It's still deep enough to be causing all sorts of problems and mishaps. For starters, the medical outbreak, (mental disorders mostly, which, for story purposes is quite lame) might be due to the depth or the alien technology or something else. Then there's a saboteur aboard (of course there is, it's one of the elements you need in every undersea tale). There's also a mystery involving some miniature alien technology that appears to be transmitting a binary code warning: do not dig here, danger to the solar system!

Throw into this mix a caricature naval commander hell bent on carrying out the mission at all costs even if it means losing every man and woman on board or, worse, blowing up the entire solar system. But in the end, Crane saves the moment. The earth and the solar system live to see another day. Although in the final page, Child's lays down yet one more spin on the tale: perhaps it isn't over after all. This is an okay read but it's clinical and dispassionate in style. If Crane's character had been built upon, if the author had tempered his urge to reveal all that he'd researched in favor of some heart and passion, if he'd penned it with his partner (Thunder Head, Preston and child, what a ride!) it could have been great. Into the Abyss

Incredible Ride! .......2007-08-11

Ok... so I started reading this and said "been there...done that" then suddenly the story started to morph and one of the wildest and most exciting rides I've been on for a quite a while unfolded! Great read! Well written! Lincoln's best since Utopia (which I also recommend!!)

Average customer rating:

Too Short
comic book style
Warriors Manga?
The Lost Warrior: Graystripe In Twolegplace
bought this for a niece...

Warriors: The Lost Warrior (Warriors)
Erin Hunter , and Dan Jolley
Manufacturer: TokyoPop
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0061240206
Release Date: 2007-04-24

Book Description

When the Twolegs destroy the warrior Clans' forest home, Graystripe—second in command of ThunderClan—is captured trying to help his comrades escape! Trapped in the pampered life of a kittypet, Graystripe has all the food and shelter he needs from his affectionate Twoleg family, but this is not the way he wants to live. The forest is calling him, and he never stops longing to go home. When he makes friends with a feisty kittypet named Millie, she encourages him to go in search of his lost friends. But will Graystripe ever find his way back to the Clan?

Customer Reviews:

Too Short.......2007-09-29

Well, as usual, this book was written masterfully, and I would expect nothing less from the Erin Hunters. The artistry was amazing, but it was just too short. I finished it in under half an hour, which is just not like any of the other books. All in al, though, this book was pretty good.

comic book style .......2007-09-26

My two boys (ages 11 and 8) LOVE the Warriors series. However, this particular book is written in comic book style and they read it in less than an hour. They liked it, but it wasn't what we expected.

Warriors Manga?.......2007-08-23

I tell you, this was interesting. It was very good though. Graystripe was one of my favorite characters, and I was so disappointed when he left. I'm glad they're addressing that. I'm not sure about the manga, which makes the cats look odd. But I guess since I'm not much of a artist myself I can't say anything. This isn't a must-read, but it's quick, easy, and fast-paced.

The Lost Warrior: Graystripe In Twolegplace .......2007-08-01

As anyone who's read Dawn knows, Graystripe was captured by Twolegs when rescuing cats from their traps. This manga follows his adventure in Twolegplace and his desperate attempts to escape...and what happens when he meets Millie, a kittypet in the same Twolegplace.
The Lost Warrior is good...just not spectacular. They could have made the story a lot longer and made a better, more detailed manga.
Now for the storyline. It's good. But... a little boring. And short. Graystripe wants to get out of Twolegplace but seems to have given up hope. He's seemingly lost all his warrior instincts, and after (spoilers begin here) losing a fight with a kittypet, Graystripe begins to believe he'll never get out of there.
Then he meets Millie, another kittypet. Fascinated by the forest life, she wants to be taught how to fight and hunt, and Graystripe meets her demands. Slowly, his warrior instincts begin to return, though Graystripe still has little hope. Eventually Silverstream convinces Graystripe to look for the Clans, and he goes, though he meets obstacles along the way. (spoilers end here)
So it's good. But not totally awesome, and the plot could have been expanded a lot more. I HAVE flipped through it again and still enjoyed it, but don't expect the most amazing book in the world...it pales much in comparison to the regular Warriors.
So this book is worth buying, just don't walk into the bookstore expecting the best manga there is to read. If you do, you may be a bit disappointed.

bought this for a niece..........2007-07-25

I bought this for a niece ( 9yrs ) and she loved it, of course she had already read every other book in this series and loved all of those as well.

Average customer rating:

A different kind of fairy tale that will make you think.....
Lose Yourself in The book of Lost Things
A Creepy Adult Fairy Tale
One of the best books ever.
Faulted beginning and antagonist, but delightfully dark and twisted with meaningful themes. Hard to put down. Highly recommended

The Book of Lost Things: A Novel
John Connolly
Manufacturer: Atria
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0743298853

Book Description

New York Times bestselling author John Connolly's unique imagination takes readers through the end of innocence into adulthood and beyond in this dark and triumphantly creative novel of grief and loss, loyalty and love, and the redemptive power of stories.

High in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mourns the death of his mother. He is angry and alone, with only the books on his shelf for company. But those books have begun to whisper to him in the darkness, and as he takes refuge in his imagination, he finds that reality and fantasy have begun to meld. While his family falls apart around him, David is violently propelled into a land that is a strange reflection of his own world, populated by heroes and monsters, and ruled over by a faded king who keeps his secrets in a mysterious book... The Book of Lost Things.

An imaginative tribute to the journey we must all make through the loss of innocence into adulthood, John Connolly's latest novel is a book for every adult who can recall the moment when childhood began to fade, and for every adult about to face that moment. The Book of Lost Things is a story of hope for all who have lost, and for all who have yet to lose. It is an exhilarating tale that reminds us of the enduring power of stories in our lives.

Customer Reviews:

A different kind of fairy tale that will make you think............2007-10-03

This story grabbed me from the start and pulled me in to the fantasy world. Is it real, fantasy, or a figment of a boys imagination? The story makes you wonder throughout each page you read. The remaking of old fairy tales we have all grown up with puts a interesting twist to the world the boy travels through trying to get back home. Is it real, or just his imagination? An amazing story all the way to the end! I highly recommend this book, that you won't want to put down until your done!!

Lose Yourself in The book of Lost Things.......2007-09-30

David has been buried in his books since his mother's death. His father remarries and he and David move into the new wife's home. Typical story? Not this time. This story is written as a fairy tale, complete with a moral.

Feeling like a stranger in his new home, David eventually begins to hear his beloved books calling to him. One day, the Crooked Man, a sinister fiend with ghastly intentions appears in his room. The adventure begins!

One lonely night, David wanders into the backyard to the sunken garden, just as a World War II plane crashes nearby. Lured by his ddeceased mother's voice, he squeezes between the rocks in the garden, escaping his loneliness into a mythical land, one in which the stories in his treasured books intertwine. In order to escape this dangerous and frightening foreign land, David must learn the value of a selfless heart.

This is a tender story, with excellent and heart-warming characters and vivid settings. This book reminds me of C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but it retains its own flavor, style, and identity.

A Creepy Adult Fairy Tale.......2007-09-21

Much like last year's cinematic masterpiece, "Pan's Labyrinth", John Connolly's novel is an eerie return to a fairy tale world that we all knew deep down as kids was meant to be much darker than the Disneyfication of these classics would lead us to believe. It revolves around the tale of David, who has recently lost his mother and finds his father remarried, a situation he is none too happy about. Soon, the young bibliophile immerses himself in the world of books, only to find that he can hear them speaking to him. More unsettling, however, is the appearance of the Crooked Man, who suddenly appears in David's room from another world. When shortly thereafter David finds himself trapped in this "Elsewhere", he must go on a Dorothy-like quest to see the king and seek out a Book of Lost Things, which he hopes to hold the key to his return home.

Some reviewers incorrectly accuse the author of "stealing" ideas or plots from "Wizard of Oz", Gregory Macguire, "Pan's Labyrinth", or the many tales that Connolly is playing around with, such as Rumplestiltskin, Hansel and Gretel, Bambi, and Snow White. He is not stealing, however. The whole book is instead purposefully revisiting these tales and revealing their darker realities that lurk around inside them. Furthermore, the talented Macguire was not the first one to take an old tale and turn it on its ear.

The quest that David takes in the book is filled with encounters with strangely familiar characters and tales, yet Connolly's characters are not simply "fractured" versions of the ones we know. They are fully developed people whose motivations are realistic. The book's tone , while sometimes playful, is usually quite scary and we empathize with David as he must make his way through this frightening world towards adulthood. Most memorably in the novel is the Crooked Man, a villain in my mind that is equal to the likes of Hannibal Lecter, in his long-lasting and powerful effect he on the reader.

Although I have never read anything else by this author, |I can truly say that this is one of the best books I've had the pleasure to read this year.

One of the best books ever........2007-09-12

Beautiful, sad, suspenseful, perfect. I was so incredibly moved by the end that every time I think of it, my eyes well up with tears. I hope John Connolly will write more in this genre.

Faulted beginning and antagonist, but delightfully dark and twisted with meaningful themes. Hard to put down. Highly recommended.......2007-09-11

Not long before the start of World War II, a boy named David loses his mother. David has always been an avid reader, but now his books begin to speak; his father remarries, his step-brother is born, and the war begins. Suddenly, David is pulled into a new world--the world that lives in his fairy tales, only darker and more dangerous. With his way back to our world blocked by the Crooked Man, David must journey through this new world to find a way back home--and he must become a man. Although this book begins slowly and unsteadily, it soon builds up into a twisted story that is hard to put down. Thrilling, frightening, and imaginative, this is a fairy tale for adults and a unique coming of age story. Despite its faults, I enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.

The Book of Lost Things begins slowly. The language is clunky, thick with adverbs and one-sentence leading paragraphs. The characters are predictable, especially that of the immature child David who, however realistic or compassionate, is neither admirable or interesting. However, as the book sweeps into the land of fantasy, the plot becomes richer and more exciting and the David's character becomes immediately more complex. From this point on, the book is both good and engrossing. Be prepared to stick through the slow beginning--it is worth it.

The other faults of the book are some failed attempt at satire and, perhaps most disappointing, an antagonist that is evil simply for the sake of being evil. However twisted (and often, detailed) the plans, malice, and sins of the Crooked Man, the lack of justification or complication to his evil nature makes him less interesting. It contrasts with the exceedingly complex nature of the rest of the fantasy world. The more you know about him, the less frightening he becomes. Thankfully, the book's climax is still skillful and scary, but the major antagonist is neither.

The fairy tale world of The Book of Lost Things is corrupted, twisted, and almost gratuitously violent, making this an fairy tale that is very much intended for adults despite the young protagonist. These themes also create the book's intense, dark atmosphere, and so make it a compelling, thrilling read. Connolly sustains tension throughout the book, and there are authentically frightening parts. In many ways the stories setting, themes, and atmosphere resemble that of the film Pan's Labyrinth: the fantasy world becomes a realm for David to tackle his own issues of jealousy, loneliness, and fear in the face of his changing family and changing world. The fantasy world, however, holds real consequences and often violence and death, and by the end of the book the reader is not sure how much of the world is real--and how much is David's own creation. This makes for a book that remains actively engrossing, and build a truly unique coming of age story. I may not agree with all of the conclusions on the themes, I don't much care for the antagonist, but this book is still wonderfully written. It is just twisted enough to give me shivers, the plot is steadily paced and the action makes it hard to put the book down, and David's own character growth brings the book to a complex and meaningful climax. This book is faulted, but nonetheless I greatly enjoyed it and I highly recommend it to all mature readers.

Average customer rating:

An Exciting Tale
Major Creep Fest
don't waste your time
Dickensian
Great, up until...

The Secret of Lost Things: A Novel
Sheridan Hay
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Booksellers & Bookselling | Books & Reading | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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Ghostwalk
The Book of Air and Shadows
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ASIN: 038551848X
Release Date: 2007-03-06

Book Description

A missing manuscript
A young woman's voyage of discovery
And the curious bookshop where it all begins...

In this charming novel about the eccentricities and passions of booksellers and collectors, a captivating young Australian woman takes a job at a vast, chaotic emporium of used and rare books in New York City and finds herself caught up in the search for a lost Melville manuscript.

Eighteen years old and completely alone, Rosemary arrives in New York from Tasmania with little more than her love of books and an eagerness to explore the city she’s read so much about. She begins her memorable search for independence with appealing enthusiasm, and the moment she steps into the Arcade bookstore, she knows she has found a home. The gruff owner, Mr. Pike, gives her a job sorting through huge piles of books and helping the rest of the staff—a group as odd and idiosyncratic as the characters in a Dickens novel. There’s Pearl, the loving, motherly transsexual who runs the cash register; Oscar, who organizes the nonfiction section and shares his extensive, eclectic knowledge with Rosemary, but furiously rejects her attempts at a more personal relationship; and Arthur Pick, who supervises the art section and demonstrates a particular interest in photography books featuring naked men.

The store manager, Walter Geist, is an albino, a lonely figure even within the world of the Arcade. When Walter’s eyesight begins to fail, Rosemary becomes his assistant. And so it is Rosemary who first reads the letter from someone seeking to “place” a lost manuscript by Herman Melville. Mentioned in Melville’s personal correspondence but never published, the work is of inestimable value, and proof of its existence brings the simmering ambitions and rivalries of the Arcade staff to a boiling point.

Including actual correspondence by Melville, The Secret of Lost Things is at once a literary adventure that captures the excitement of discovering a long-lost manuscript by a towering American writer and an evocative portrait of life in a surprisingly colorful bookstore.

Customer Reviews:

An Exciting Tale.......2007-09-24

Lost things, dreams, letters, her ideas of people and place permeate Sheridan Hay's lovely, first novel. Here is an energetic story teller, masterfully embodied in the young Rosemary Savage who, after her mother's death, travels from Tasmania to New York to shake herself from grief, or perhaps from the sheer routine of life on such a faraway isle.

Her job at the Arcade bookstore brings Rosemary in touch with all kinds of zany characters. As she helps Geist with his mission of secretly procuring a lost novel of Herman Melville, Rosemary enters the world of people who deal in books for the thrill of their possession as well as their contents. Each has his or her own agenda. Hay's ability to bring a little of American literary history alive amidst her fictional millieu kept me turning the pages. Her voice has the quality of a writer who has lived a bookish life, but her turn of phrase displays the lighter touch of one who still believes in fairy tales.
I found The Secret of Lost things a very satisfying novel on several levels and I am very glad to have read it.

Major Creep Fest.......2007-08-17

Ok. So I was given this book to read by my local book store to get my opinion on it. So, I read and was highly desturped. That creepy old guy like raping her and her being okay with it. I'm younger then she is and yet, I still would never submit to something that vandelizing. Not even worth a glance at the title!

don't waste your time.......2007-07-19

Truly this is one of the worst books I have wasted my time reading. One keeps hoping it will get better but it does not. The end is disappointing and leaves one feeling that the author got tired of this book as well. The only good thing I can say is that I checked it out from the library and did not waste any money on it.

Dickensian.......2007-07-17

More a coming of age story than a true mystery, The Secret of Lost Things is populated by a strange assortment of psychologically stunted characters who are memorable by virtue of their eccentricities. Poor orphaned, heartbreakingly young Rosemary travels to New York City from Tasmania, of all places, to recover from the death of her beloved mother, and finds herself the center of a whirlpool of desire and greed. Her struggle not only to establish her own independent identity, to support herself financially, and to find love and friendship is considerably complicated by the denizens of The Arcade. The quest for Melville's mysterious manuscript takes, while nominally the focus of the plot, takes a back seat to Rosemary's courageous attempt to remain true to herself while being pulled in various unsavory directions by others who want to use her. She does so admirably.

Great, up until..........2007-07-12

Rosemary allows the creepy Walter Geist to get off on her. I was really offended by this turn in the story near the end. So much so that I don't feel like picking the book up again to finish it. It's like ready Mary Poppins and then at the end she gets raped by her neighbor and enjoys it. NOT what I had in mind when I purchased this book. Not at all.

Lost in a Good Book (Thursday Next Novels)

Average customer rating:

Loved getting Lost
Lost plotlines
I was lost in this good book
Impressive yet again!
Funny, original, but poor plot and villains

Lost in a Good Book (Thursday Next Novels)
Jasper Fforde
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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Women Sleuths | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

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The Well of Lost Plots: A Thursday Next Novel
The Eyre Affair: A Thursday Next Novel
Something Rotten: A Thursday Next Mystery
The Big Over Easy: A Nursery Crime
Thursday Next: First Among Sequels

ASIN: 0142004030
Release Date: 2004-02-24

Book Description

The inventive, exuberant, and totally original literary fun that began with The Eyre Affair continues with Jasper Fforde's magnificent second adventure starring the resourceful, fearless literary sleuth Thursday Next. When Landen, the love of her life, is eradicated by the corrupt multinational Goliath Corporation, Thursday must moonlight as a Prose Resource Operative of Jurisfiction—the police force inside books. She is apprenticed to the man-hating Miss Havisham from Dickens's Great Expectations, who grudgingly shows Thursday the ropes. And she gains just enough skill to get herself in a real mess entering the pages of Poe's “The Raven.” What she really wants is to get Landen back. But this latest mission is not without further complications. Along with jumping into the works of Kafka and Austen, and even Beatrix Potter's The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies, Thursday finds herself the target of a series of potentially lethal coincidences, the authenticator of a newly discovered play by the Bard himself, and the only one who can prevent an unidentifiable pink sludge from engulfing all life on Earth.

Customer Reviews:

Loved getting Lost .......2007-07-23

The second book of the Thursday Next Series is a delight! Jasper Fforde writes for people who are creative, people who are well read, and people who like a good mystery. The more read you are, the more inside jokes you will understand.

This books carries on from the end of the first in the series, nicely builds more depth inthe characters by going a bit farther into the history of some, while still leading you through a mystery, laughing along the way.

Lost plotlines.......2007-07-02

I really enjoyed the first one, "The Eyre Affair", and mostly enjoyed this one. It wasn't as tight a story, and there were too many introductions of new characters (and too many dropped ones) to truly be called a sequel, but it was well done and interesting.

I'd have liked to know a little more about Aornis Hades, and her seemingly tossed in for good measure and as an afterthought plot. I hope that in the next book her character is developed more, though Acheron as the villain will be hard to top. He was fantastic.

I thought the introduction of Miss Haversham was fun and appealing. However, she seemed to completely take over each scene she was in, and pushed out characters from the first book I found much more interesting. I didn't feel Thursday's reaction to Miss Haversham all that realistic, based on the first book, and again, she was overwhelmed by the secondary character.

I like Thursday's ability to jump into fiction books, but couldn't quite connect the first one with this one - I'm not sure we were meant to, actually. Where's the larger-than-life (and horribly cliched) Goliath? What about her father's severely diminished role? And Spec Ops? They're reduced to nothing more than caricatures of their caricatures. And poor Landon, will he ever have a continuous storyline? Or a jumbled mess of a forgotten one?

Over all, this was a good sequel but I have to agree with previous reviewers: without reading book one, it's mind-bogglingly difficult to follow. Still, it won't stop me from reading "Well of Lost Plots".

I was lost in this good book.......2007-04-05

After having not only successfully defeated the evil Acheron Hades in The Eyre Affair (book 1) but also having married the love of her life Landen Parke-Laine one would think the main character Thursday Next hasn't a care in the world. However, after only a brief episode of happiness where she finds out she's pregnant, her husband is `eradicated' and someone is trying to kill her. Thursday must not only uses all of the tools available in real life to battle these problems but also those only available in fiction. Together with Thursday the reader visits books by Kafka, Austen, Dickens, Poe and others.

I've decided I do like Fforde's books after all. After reading The Eyre Affair (#1), which I didn't care for too much, I thoroughly enjoyed The Well Of Lost Plots (#3), and now mostly enjoyed Lost in a Good Book (#2). What made one book more enjoyable than the others? I've gotten more of the hints in books #3 and #2 than in one and the absence of scenes with Landen. I don't care for Thursday herself because she shows too little emotional depth for my taste and especially in scenes with Landen that seems to bug me more than at other times. And don't get me started on Landen ... I can't stand him, he seems so diffuse and bland it makes me wretch. Thank goodness Fforde has filled all of his books with vivid supporting characters of wit, interest and vigor as well as fascinating ideas! Whether it's Dicken's Miss Haversham who has a penchant for racing cars, the Cheshire Cat, who's the librarian, or one of the members of Thursday's family the other people in Fforde's books make them interesting and fun to read. His ideas ranging from footnoterphones to entroposcopes are amazing and hilarious. His hints and references to other books make me want to read more and more variety and that's always a good thing, isn't it? Fforde's book are on my shelves now and they're there to stay and to be read again.

Impressive yet again!.......2007-03-07

Thursday Next is back and newly married in this sequel to The Eyre Affair!! This time a manuscript written by Shakespeare but never heard of is sounding suspicious and she's back to work! After her husband is lost in time and only exists in her memory, she is more than happy to get lost in an unpublished book. This is a fantastic follow up... can't wait for the "Next" adventure!!

Funny, original, but poor plot and villains.......2006-12-03

Thursday Next's adventures continue.

A very random book without much in the way of a plot. This doesn't have to be a bad thing - and wouldn't be if Fforde wisely chose to simply let us revel in ludicrous episodic adventures. Something like a Dr. Who or Sherlock Holmes structure, where there doesn't have to be some big linking overstory, but enjoyable characters can pop up here and there in different distinct episodes within a loose framework. Fortunately you don't need a workable plot or antagonist to make the story enjoyable: Fforde's sense of humour playing with literary conventions and his ability to create a stream of eccentric characters in imaginative settings are enough.

However, the unnecessary poorly executed plot (Landon is erased, and Thursday doesn't quite get around to restoring him - end of part two) does dilute the pleasure of the book: Plot is the second weakest aspect of this series so far. Yes, I understand that central to the fun of this book is playing with things without them having to make rigorous scientific sense, but it is possible to work towards satisfying resolutions consistent within the imagined (if surreal) world. It is annoying that supposedly super-perceptive street-wise Thursday only uses her unique and impressive powers to serve - with childlike trust - people who have only ever lied to her. This just doesn't work with what we know of Thursday. The line `blinded by love' doesn't cut it - Goliath is her enemy, and it is totally out of character that she never tries to take them on. It also is dodgy that she is happily distracted by adventures with Miss Havisham and a nice holiday by the sea, when she's supposed to be a driven, intelligent, highly resourceful and supernaturally gifted hero with her one true love to restore. It'd be great if Fforde could combine his impressive imagination with a robust novel (or even series) structure - but here it would be better if he dropped the deeper plots.

And while he's at it, it'd be great if his dodgy villains were collateral damage in this process. They're the weakest aspect of the series. This book's Hades is similarly paper thin: handed super-evil powers without even a whiff of explanation, and the motive, "You killed my brother," only making sense until you trace it back to the total lack of motive in her sibling. Likewise the Goliath corporation - the merest carbon shadowy mega-company lifted from a hundred bad derivative Hollywood flicks - which Fforde can't even bother giving a history.

So, sure, this is OK, and could even have been outstanding - Fforde has some real originality and talent - if not for the couple of glaring flaws.

Average customer rating:

The Rum Diary
Best book ever
Great book
hunter s. doesn't disappoint
Quality ish...

The RUM DIARY: A LONG LOST NOVEL
Hunter S. Thompson
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Action & Adventure | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga (Modern Library)
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Screwjack: A Short Story

ASIN: 0684855216

Amazon.com

"Disgusting as he usually was," Hunter Thompson writes in this, his 1959 novel, "on rare occasions he showed flashes of a stagnant intelligence. But his brain was so rotted with drink and dissolute living that whenever he put it to work it behaved like an old engine that had gone haywire from being dipped in lard." Surprise! Thompson isn't writing about himself, but one of the other, older, aimlessly carousing newspapermen in Puerto Rico, a guy called Moberg whose chief achievement is the ability to find his car after a night's drinking because it stinks so much. (I can smell it for blocks, he boasts.) The autobiographical hero, Paul Kemp, is 30, trapped in a dead-end job (Thompson wound up writing for a bowling magazine), and feeling as if his big-time writer dreams, soaked in Fitzgerald and Hemingway, are evaporating as rapidly as the rum in his fist.

In fact, Thompson was only 22 when he wrote The Rum Diary, but his fear of winding up like Moberg was well founded. What saved him was the fantastic conflagration of the 1960s, a fiery wind on which the reptilian wings of his prose style could catch and soar to the cackling heights of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Puerto Rico in 1959 doesn't have bad craziness enough to offer Thompson--just a routine drunken-reporter stomping by local cops and a riot over Kemp's friend's temptress girlfriend, a scantily imagined Smith College alumna who likes to strip nude on beaches and in nightclubs to taunt men.

Thompson's prose style only intermittently takes tentative flight--compare the stomping scenes in this book with his breakthrough, Hell's Angels--but it's interesting to see him so nakedly reveal his sensitive innards, before the celebrated clownish carapace grew in. It's also interesting to see how he improved this full version of the novel from the more raw (and racist) excerpts found in the 1990 collection Songs of the Doomed (available on audiocassette, partly narrated by Thompson). --Tim Appelo

Book Description

The Rum Diary was begun in 1959 by then-twenty-two-year-old Hunter S. Thompson. It was his first novel, and he told his friend, the author William Kennedy, that The Rum Diary would "in a twisted way...do for San Juan what Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises did for Paris." In Paul Kemp, the novel's hero, there are echoes of the young Thompson, who was himself honing his wildly musical writing style as one of the "ill-tempered wandering rabble" on staff at the San Juan Daily News at the time. "I shared a dark suspicion," Kemp says, "that the life we were leading was a lost cause, we were all actors, kidding ourselves along on a senseless odyssey. It was the tension between these two poles -- a restless idealism on one hand and a sense of impending doom on the other -- that kept me going."

The Rum Diary is a brilliantly tangled love story of jealousy, treachery & violent alcoholic lust in the Caribbean boomtown that was San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the late 1950s. "It was a gold rush," says the author. "There were naked people everywhere and we all had credit."

Puerto Rico was an unspoiled tropical paradise in those years -- before Castro, before JFK, before civil rights & moonwalks & flower power & Vietnam & protests & even before drugs -- but the San Juan Daily News was a vortex & a snakepit of all the corrupt new schemes & plots & greedmongers who swarmed in. Paul Kemp, The Rum Diary's narrator, speaks for the unfocused angst of those times: "In a sense I was one of them -- more competent than some and more stable than others -- and in the years that carried that ragged banner I was seldom unemployed. Sometimes I worked for three newspapers at once. I wrote ad copy for new casinos and bowling alleys, I was a consultant for the cockfighting syndicate, an utterly corrupt high-end restaurant critic, a yachting photographer and a routine victim of police brutality. It was a greedy life and I was good at it. I made some interesting friends, had enough money to get around, and learned a lot about the world that I could never have learned in any other way."

Customer Reviews:

The Rum Diary.......2007-09-24

Thompson's best work for beginners as well as a favorite for seasoned fans. Written more like a screenplay than any of his other works, The Rum Diary takes you on the journey of a degenerate journalist's time as a sports writer for an English rag in San Juan. From the interesting characters to the usual Thompson antics this book will not disappoint. The length lends itself to consumption of an afternoon, so if you are easily engulfed with storylines make sure you have the time. This is one of the most heavily used books in my Thompson collection as it is a great story that never seems to grow old. I can't wait to see what happens when the movie starts filming.

Best book ever.......2007-08-14

This is honestly the most enjoyable book I've ever read. Hunter S. Thompson is absolutely brilliant. You would have no idea that this was his first novel. I kept having to limit what I read in a day so that I could read it longer. I would recommend this book to anyone (and have!)

Great book.......2007-08-03

This little book was such a find. It is one that once you stop you cant put down. A good read and interesting topic.

hunter s. doesn't disappoint.......2007-07-26

this is a really good book. the pace is really quick, yet there is enough dialogue to connect you with the characters and settings. it is a real fun book to read.

Quality ish..........2007-06-06

I just finished this and it is a real hoot. I have never read any of his other works and intend to. I recommend this book for anyone who wants a laugh and enjoys reading about people who live at the bottom of the bottle. Enjoy!

Average customer rating:

When will it end? Where will it end?
A Unique Read
Read it twice to love it
Lovely book
Involved but touching at places

The History of Love: A Novel
Nicole Krauss
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Suite Francaise
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel
On Beauty
The Glass Castle: A Memoir
Water for Elephants: A Novel

ASIN: 0393060349

Amazon.com

Nicole Krauss's The History of Love is a hauntingly beautiful novel about two characters whose lives are woven together in such complex ways that even after the last page is turned, the reader is left to wonder what really happened. In the hands of a less gifted writer, unraveling this tangled web could easily give way to complete chaos. However, under Krauss's watchful eye, these twists and turns only strengthen the impact of this enchanting book.

The History of Love spans of period of over 60 years and takes readers from Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe to present day Brighton Beach. At the center of each main character's psyche is the issue of loneliness, and the need to fill a void left empty by lost love. Leo Gursky is a retired locksmith who immigrates to New York after escaping SS officers in his native Poland, only to spend the last stage of his life terrified that no one will notice when he dies. ("I try to make a point of being seen. Sometimes when I'm out, I'll buy a juice even though I'm not thirsty.") Fourteen-year-old Alma Singer vacillates between wanting to memorialize her dead father and finding a way to lift her mother's veil of depression. At the same time, she's trying to save her brother Bird, who is convinced he may be the Messiah, from becoming a 10-year-old social pariah. As the connection between Leo and Alma is slowly unmasked, the desperation, along with the potential for salvation, of this unique pair is also revealed.

The poetry of her prose, along with an uncanny ability to embody two completely original characters, is what makes Krauss an expert at her craft. But in the end, it's the absolute belief in the uninteruption of love that makes this novel a pleasure, and a wonder to behold. --Gisele Toueg

Book Description

A long-lost book reappears, mysteriously connecting an old man searching for his son and a girl seeking a cure for her widowed mother's loneliness.

Leo Gursky is just about surviving, tapping his radiator each evening to let his upstairs neighbor know he's still alive. But life wasn't always like this: sixty years ago, in the Polish village where he was born, Leo fell in love and wrote a book. And though Leo doesn't know it, that book survived, inspiring fabulous circumstances, even love. Fourteen-year-old Alma was named after a character in that very book. And although she has her hands full—keeping track of her brother, Bird (who thinks he might be the Messiah), and taking copious notes on How to Survive in the Wild—she undertakes an adventure to find her namesake and save her family. With consummate, spellbinding skill, Nicole Krauss gradually draws together their stories.

This extraordinary book was inspired by the author's four grandparents and by a pantheon of authors whose work is haunted by loss—Bruno Schulz, Franz Kafka, Isaac Babel, and more. It is truly a history of love: a tale brimming with laughter, irony, passion, and soaring imaginative power.

Customer Reviews:

When will it end? Where will it end?.......2007-09-29

This book was so well reviewed by the majority of readers that I feel I have to weigh in since my thoughts on the book are not as appeciative. Krauss can turn a phrase deftly and beautifully at times and there were some passages in the book worth writing down and saving but the story, essentially one of plagiarism, ill-fated love and missed opportunities becomes a slog. In fact, whenever the narration leaves Leo's first person and switches to Alma, or Bird near the end (why Bird!?), it loses strength. The story, convoluted as it is, doesn't sustain itself and in the end you just want it all to get wrapped up. It does but in a sketchy kind of way that still leaves lots of questions (but not in an interesting literary kind of way; more a "Oh please get on with it" kind of way). I started not to care about any of the characters except Leo who I just wanted to win one at last. Even his second book is-- unwittingly-- plagiarized by being pubished under his dead son's name. The fixation on Alma is obviously an Alma of the past because the Alma Leo meets once he arrives in America basically sends him on his way. Leo's story is the most compelling and the whole book, as far as I'm concerned, could have been about him and then might have been a great book. The book suffers from the hype of being fashionable but I don't think will stand the test of time.

A Unique Read.......2007-09-24

This book about the history of a book called the History of Love was a joy to read. Intelligently written, unique characters, and out and out funny at times. Wish there were more of these out there.

Read it twice to love it.......2007-09-23

This is a book you will love or hate. It takes time and rereading to understand it. If you put in the love and the time, just as in life, it will bring you understanding.

Lovely book.......2007-09-08

"History of Love" is compelling story, told in a non-linear fashion, so the experience of reading the book resembles the experience of being in love. This author is quite wise for someone her age -- she depicts an old man, young teenage girl, and other characters with depth and interest.

Involved but touching at places.......2007-09-05

Leo Gursky, a Polish Jew, loves a girl and, unknowingly, gets her pregnant. She goes off to the U.S., expecting him to join her there. He fails to and the War intervenes. She gives birth to Isaac and finding her boss's son treating the baby sweetly, and finding that Leo had not come over, marries the boss's son and gives him a son. Meanwhile Leo having written, in Yiddish, "The History of Love", gives the manuscript to Litvinoff to be kept till they meet again. Litvinoff takes it to Chile and after some time publishes it in Spanish as if it were his own work.Years pass. Isaac, now a renowned author, comes across the "History of Love" and sends it to Alma's mother to be translated into English. Alma, eager to see that her mother, a widow, finds a man, tries to trace Isac and ends up with finding Leo.That briefly is the story. Leo met his girl friend in New York after escaping the horrors of the Holocaust and the War, and askd her to come away with him. She refuses, being the wife of another and again a mother of their child. Leo remains single. This would have made for a very moving story by itself.Krauss does not develop this aspect. Leo attends incognito the funeral service held for his son, Isaac,and is taken to his house by Bernard, Isac's step-brother, where he sees the photo of his girl friend. He is unable to reveal to Bernard his relationship to Isaac. This is another part of the story which, if developed, would have been emotionally fulfilling. Leo had written another book titled, "Words for Everythig" and sent it to Isaac. This book gets published after Isaac's death as though it had been written by Isaac. Leo muses that Isaac should have read it and understood Leo was his father. Another aspect fit for development. Here also Krauss has failed. Instead there is the involved use of a girl, Alma, whose role does not jive well with the main part of the story. But there are gems of observations such as, "There is nothing to match God's silence", "the role of a father is to teach his son how to live without the father", "when a Jew prays, he is asking God a question that has no end". Also where Krauss writes about Leo thinking in retospect of all whom he had lost during his life, it is touching. The book is a good read but cannot be rated as high as it seems to have been. Sampath

Average customer rating:

A bawdy academic intrigue
One of the best novels I ever read!
A Fun Read You Don't Wan't to End
Excellent, excellent read
Excellent Read with Great Research

Gospel: A Novel
Wilton Barnhardt
Manufacturer: Picador
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Fiction | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0312119240

Amazon.com

An intellectual detective story with the grand entertainment of a nineteenth-century novel, Gospel concerns the search for a lost first-century gospel of the Bible, a document that could shake the foundations of Christianity. Theological student Lucy Dantan and disillusioned ex-Jesuit Patrick O'Hanrahan pursue clues to the gospel's whereabouts across three continents through dozens of colorful locales. This book is a literary delight in the vein of Possession and The Name of the Rose.

Book Description

Gospel concerns the search for a lost first-century gospel of the Bible, a document that could shake the foundations of Christianity. Wilton Barnhardt's narrative races through three continents, nine countries, and dozens of colorful locales, as two character--shy theological student Lucy Dantan and hard-drinking, disillusioned ex-Jesuit Patrick O'Hanrahan--pursue rumors and clues about the gospel's whereabouts and contents. In the end, what they discover will challenge and forever change the nature of faith.

An intellectual detective story with the erudition of Umberto Eco and the grand swirling entertainment of a nineteenth-century novel, Gospel is exciting, profound, reverent, and terrifically funny.

Customer Reviews:

A bawdy academic intrigue .......2007-05-26

An academic romp of a novel. This book is a lot fun...it's like listening to your funniest, most irreverent professor, and then having sex with the boy in the next desk. It's a bit like reading one of my favorite authors, Robertson Davies. And like Davies...this author's characters travel the world, voyaging from mundane Chicago to Ireland, Italy, Israel and Africa.

One of the best novels I ever read!.......2007-01-05

Bravo Wilton! This guy knows his theology and his history! In this tour de force, the author takes us on a journey in search of a mysterious Gospel (according to Matthias, the thirteenth apostle) written in ancient Meroitic, a mysterious language which at the end of the book turns out to be Greek written in special characters. What does this Gospel say? What will be the consequences of its translation and publication on Christianity and on the world? The main characters of the book are Lucy Dantan, a theology doctoral candidate; Patrick O' Hanrahan, an ex-Jesuit (whom I imagined to look like the mentor of my dissertation); Rabbi Morey Hersh; and God, yes God!I greatly enjoyed the way in which God speaks (sentences in parenthesis), thus becoming a real character in the unfolding story!
Barnhardt does a fantastic life in breathing life into his characters. At one point, we read a fantastic characterization of Dr. O'Hanrahan through a soliloquy he engages in, as he is stranded on Mt. Athos. We could entitle it "The Married Life of An Alcoholic Professor".
What can I say theologically about the book? It is certainly written from a liberal, if not skeptical perspective. The Church as an institution is badly mauled, and yet without a polemical spirit. All the popular superstitions and cults are allowed to speak for themselves, and yet there is no sense of superiority or condescendence toward them. The characters we encounter are either scholarly geniuses or fundamentalist simpletons; men and women of great piety or opportunists and scoundrels. We occasionally encounter intellectuals in search of a stronger faith (Lucy). What ever happened to conservative, intellectually honest minds?
The conclusion reached by Barnhardt seems to be that faith is an attitude of the heart that needs no reasons or defenses: it is, after all, what matters (Isn't this Bultmann all over?)
I would not recommend this book to young believers, as it may disturb their faith. I would recommend "A Skeleton in God's Closet" first. This book may, indeed should, be used, as a corrective to a superficial faith. It can also be used to spark debate about Jesus' resurrection (see "The Resurrection Debate," by Pannenberg)
Barnhardt does have a great sense of humor! (Check out the acknowledgements too)

A Fun Read You Don't Wan't to End.......2006-03-27

If you liked Da Vinci Code or Geographers Library, you'll LOVE gospel. I read this book several years ago and the story was exciting and fun. After several years, it still sticks in my mind, not just for the story, but for the travelogue as well. The many geographic destinations the book takes you to, both on and off the beaten path, are inspiring! You truly won't want to put the book down.

Excellent, excellent read.......2005-12-29

I don't know if this book made much of an impact when it was first published, but it would be a real loss if it never did. Ever since The Da Vinci Code, many books have tried to follow in its success but this book blows them all away.

Gospel is about the search for the loss first-century gospel, and the impact that such a find will have on our understanding of Christianity. The central characters are Patrick O'Hanrahan, a professor emeritus from the University of Chicago, a drunk and disillusioned academic in search of the glory he once had; and Lucy Dantam, a young doctoral student at the same school of Theology, also disillusioned and yet still looking for her own path in life. The two of them take a journey through Europe and Africa in search for this loss gospel, while battling endless intrigue that involves a mad monk, a rabbi, the CIA, a TV evangelist, a multimillionaire, the Iranian government, spies, and much more!

I really enjoyed the characters in this novel, who are laugh-out-loud funny at times. They all battle their own demons, so to speak, and you soon see how their own personal quest to make sense of their lives is interwoven with their larger quest for the lost gospel. There is also the quest of the gospel writer as well, who too is looking for the Truth. Some people seem to dislike the characters for one reason or another. That is fair, but it is surely a good break from the stereotype of the handsome professor and his beautiful sidekick.

Understandably, the length of this novel may be an obstacle to some, but if you enjoy books like The Da Vinci Code or other historical books, this is it. This book was tremendously well-researched, but as with all books like this, I highly encourage you to do your own research to verify what you believe. This book had me scrambling to google every few pages to wonder: Wow, is this really true? Was there really a female pope? Was this saint really martyred in such a grotesque way?

It is unfortunate that Wilton Barnhardt hadn't written more books. I wonder if he would return to this same theme, or similar theme. He seems to have done an extraordinary work in this one.

Excellent Read with Great Research.......2005-12-03

It is rare to have a compelling story with such great research backing it up.

The story line is two academics, one eccentric ex-Jesuit, "has been" and a young stereotypical Catholic woman, in search for a missing gospel. The book is interspersed with passages from the missing gospel, asides from God, and the quest itself; which is funny and entertaining. With that entertainment, comes references of church and bible lore which for their irreverence would surely offend some, so if you are dogmatic, better not read it (no put down intended; you would find it offensive).

However, if you are have an interest in historical aspects of how the gospels in the bible were accepted, the politics of the church and the region, and day to day issues of early and mid millennium Christianity, this is a great read without plowing through scholarly texts.

One can compare it to the "Da Vinci Code" but the "Da Vinci Code" does not come near the scholarly references "Gospel: A Novel" uses. What is even of greater interest is "Gospel: A Novel" was written ten years before "Da Vinci Code" and is as a good as a read now as it was then. Do not be concerned by its length, it should hold your interest like a long, slow smoking cigar.

Night Lost: A Novel of the Darkyn (Signet Eclipse)

Average customer rating:

Two loosely connected shorts. Darkyn fans only. Newbies will not appreciate this story.
It wasn't bad enough to give 1 star
A Satisfying Read
This book is uncentered...
Best of the Darkyn Series

Night Lost: A Novel of the Darkyn (Signet Eclipse)
Lynn Viehl
Manufacturer: Signet
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Fantasy, Futuristic & Ghost | Romance | Subjects | Books

General | Romance | Subjects | Books

Gothic | Romance | Subjects | Books

Fantasy, Futuristic & Ghost | Romance | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

General | Romance | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0451221028

Book Description

Abandoned by his fellow Darkyn, Gabriel Seran is in continual torment as a prisoner of the religious zealots known as the Brethren. His only hope for rescue lies in Nicola Jefferson, a thief seeking a holy relic-and connected to Gabriel in more ways than she can possibly imagine...

Customer Reviews:

Two loosely connected shorts. Darkyn fans only. Newbies will not appreciate this story........2007-09-14

Night Lost is probably the most lightweight of the Darkyn novels, it is on the short side and has about 4 different threads going in the beginning. The two new love interests Nicola and Gabriel are likable, but they pretty much just go on a road trip and though they do end up in the same place with everyone else at the end, they could have been left out. Even better yet this would have made two really good short stories for a paranormal romance anthology.

While the author does make an attempt to give you a little of the background of what has gone before, I cannot see this book being all that interesting to a reader that is new to the series and I find it hard to recommend that someone start at the beginning or the series with If Angel's Burn. I really did not like that book. It had several scenes of sadistic torture that I thought were really unnecessary. In fact throughout all the books, there is the whole "Inquistion" thing going on with religious zealots out to expunge the Darkyn from the world - because when the good guys are natural preditors then the bad guys have to be really really bad.

For those committed to the series, a few interesting things happen, so you'll need to read this one to find out what happens to Alex who was kidnapped at the end of the last book. For Newbies check out the "So you want to " lists and find a real good series to put your time and money into.

It wasn't bad enough to give 1 star.......2007-07-21

This book has been advertised that it is about Gabriel, a vampire who is being tortured by the brethren and Nicola (Nick) who saves Gabriel and is a thief of religious artifacts but the three hundred page book spends more time on secondary characters. For the first two hundred pages I found this extremely annoying. You would be getting into Gabriel and Nick's story when it cut to other characters.

There was no flow to the story.

I think the writer just did not have it him/her to give Gabriel and Nick a full length story.

After reading it I remembered why I had not bought the last book.

I like a book that when you start reading it you get lost in the story. It comes alive and it feels like you are watching a movie. This book chopped and changed so much that I felt as if someone kept pressing pause.

A Satisfying Read.......2007-07-06

I actually enjoyed this book quite a bit but might not recommend it as a stand alone novel. As a continuation of the other Darkyn books it is satisfying. The male leads in her last two books were more fleshed out and more interesting than the ones in the first two books. That leads me to believe that Veihl is improving with each endeavor, a welcome change. Initially, I was looking for a replacement for Larrel K. Hamilton's vampire series, which has fallen so low as to be virtually unreadable. I've inhaled Viehl's entire Darkyn series over the last week and will read more when they come out. That being said, the characters could still use more depth and, while I like the erotic elements, they seemed incomplete somehow as if they were thrown in as nothing more than fanservice. Even though this series may not be capable of filling the gaping crater left by Anne Rice I still had a good time reading them.

This book is uncentered..........2007-07-04

If you want to read a general romance book, buy this one. The main characters become secondary to the secondary characters. The only reason I rated it 2 stars was because the secondary plot, the kidnapping of the doctor from the american princep, was good. If the book was entirely about that, maybe it would have been better. The reader cannot even get a good feel for the primary characters before the writer shifts the story back to the secondary characters. It was a waste of money--I will gladly sell it back.

Best of the Darkyn Series.......2007-06-15

After reading the last novel in this series I had decided not to read anymore. They just did not appeal to me and I found them redundant. However, this one is different and I very much enjoyed the story which did not get bogged down but held your attention as the two adventures merged. It also gave me a better understanding of the Darkyn and was a very good tale.

These books are all set in a short period of time about 6 mo to a yr. So some of Gabriel's torture takes place while Alex and Michael are finding each other.

Nicola Jefferson is a thief, she is searching for the Golden Madonna, she finds the treasures of the Church and steals them she also releases any of the Darkyn she comes upon who are being tortured by the Brethren. On her motorcycle she travels all over Europe and England. She is small, but determined to find the statue which was taken from her parents.

Gabriel Seran is a Darkyn who has been held for over six months he has been tortured unbearably and blinded. The thing that has kept him sane is visiting the nightlands, a place in his mind, and enjoying the company of the young woman he meets there. In this place he is safe with her, and to her he is her Greenman.

Michael Cyprian and Dr. Alexandra Keller are brought togather in the first Darkyn book, IF ANGELS BURN, now Alex has been abducted by the king of the Darkyn. He is dying and going mad, his body is being deformed and he is desperate to find help, so he has kidnapped Alex and is trying to force her to help him. Meanwhile, Michael prepares to go to Scotland and rescue her from his adopted father

Gabriel tries to protect the secrets of the Darkyn and Nick has secrets of her own, only at the wonderful, astounding end do we learn these secrets. I loved the way the book ended and this will definitely wind up on my keeper list.

The action was non stop and I liked the way the two stories blended at the end. I don't know if I will buy the next novel in this series, but this one was definitely worth the time and money. I really, really enjoyed it.

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