Gotham Central Vol. 4: The Quick and the Dead (Batman)

Customer Reviews:

A great read... crime fiction meets the superhero set.......2007-08-10

Another fine entry in this compelling series set in the gritty underbelly of Batman's Gotham City. The plot increasingly focusses on Det. Rene Montoya, which is fine by me (although I'm waiting for her partner, Crispus Allen, to come out of the box a bit more...) Author Greg Rucka's debt to HBO-TV's "The Wire" is increasingly obvious, but that's mighty fine source material.

In this volume, a booby trap set by one of the Flash's foes, Mr. Alchemy, sets Montoya and Allen on a trip to Keystone City, where Alchemy pulls a "Silence Of The Lambs" taunt-the-cops number... Although the story gets more wrapped up in super-doings than earlier story arcs, Montoya's eventual beat-down of the bad guy, though emotionally satisfying, sets the stage for her to begin questioning her own attraction to extreme violence. I predict an even stronger, richer storyline further down the road.

Great entry in a very strong series, compulsively readable from start to finish.

Good Cops in a Bad Land.......2007-07-18

This entire series is excellent! Rucka & Brubaker are NOT my favorite people for Superhero books but they do EXCEL at crime stories. Gotham Central is an excellent "reality" approach at one of comic-dom's most famous cities. Not everything in a town like Gotham is about Mr Freeze or the Joker but even when they are, Batman isn't the only one working on it. Love this series and highly recommend it to ANYONE who likes Law & Order, Batman and maybe even The Untouchables.

Average customer rating:

The Quick and the Dead
It's about...
A Great Title!
Late Fer Dinner?
Aaron's Best Book Review On The Quick and the Dead

The Quick and the Dead
Louis L'Amour
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0553280848
Release Date: 1982-05-01

Book Description

Con Vallian knew the best way to stay out of trouble was to mind his own business. Then he stopped for a cup of coffee at a stranger's campfire and found himself guiding a family of greenhorns across the prairie -- fighting a pack of rustlers on one hand and some mighty unpredictable Indians on the other!

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Customer Reviews:

The Quick and the Dead.......2007-01-10

I rated this book a 5 star rating. I am a fan of Louis L'Amour because his books are clean, not full of sex and other junk. I bought this particular book because I wanted to compare it to the movie with the same title (with Sam Elliott). You have to buy the book to see if there is a difference.

It's about..........2006-06-29

A family traveling west. They meet a man named Vallian who helps them along to the west. Pa doesn't trust him much. But Tom (The boy) does and Ma does. If vallian hadn't been there, though, the men chasing them who thought there was gold in their wagon would have killed them. This is a really good Louis L'amour book. I have about thirty-five or fourty.

My VERY favorite is, THE MAN CALLED NOON.

William Andrews

A Great Title!.......2005-01-05

I really like the title of this old Louis L'Amour book. Obviously Hollywood liked it as well since you can find several movies with the same name. After the title, I found the book to be a little of a let down. When a band of outlaws decide to take a wagon load of goods going west from an unsuspecting and unprepared family of three, they never counted on Con Vallian. He could care less about anything but himself, but the coffee that lady made sure was good. He found himself entangled in a fight that they could not win without him. There must have been some decency in him afterall. He hangs around to save the day. It is short and worth the read, but don't expect too much!

Late Fer Dinner?.......2002-04-09

I started reading The Quick and The Dead in New Mexico last year at a bed & breakfast and only now got a copy and finished it. L'Amour's style of writing is exceptional and his ability to spin a yarn is enviable.

The Quick & The Dead is a page-turner and, like other works of the author, can teach people about the rough and rugged outdoors and the challenges faced by trekking out into the wilderness. It cannot, however, convey what would possess a sophisticated family to leave the safety and security of the East and head out to a land with no doctors, no lawmen, but with plenty of Indians and bad sorts.

The suspense in the book may keep you up late at night reading it, but the last few pages wrap up very quickly -- maybe too quickly. Almost as if L'Amour was late fer dinner and his wife was callin' him to c'mon. But it also ends wonderfully and the book is highly recommended.

I want to read more of this author. And there's plenty to choose from.

Aaron's Best Book Review On The Quick and the Dead.......2001-11-06

The Quick and the Dead is about a family traveling west and meeting up with a stranger named Vallian.There's also a band of murders who think they are carrying gold.It is full of action-packed adventure!I liked it.Maybe you will to!

Average customer rating:

good read
The Slow and the Inane, II
I was born in the desert... I been down for years.
A comedic tour de force of language and character
Ode to Joy

The Quick and the Dead
Joy Williams
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375727647
Release Date: 2002-01-08

Amazon.com

Don't read Joy Williams if you're looking for Oprah-style stories of redemption--stories in which the human spirit triumphs. And don't look to her for a mirror of reality; with this author, there's never the sense that "I've been there" or "I identify." Williams creates novels and stories that operate under a tightly wound surrealist aesthetic. She distorts the world, but her distortions are subtle enough that you don't see them coming. You can't predict when the logic of dream will take over the logic of the text. Like the filmmaker David Lynch, Williams sees pathology and the ominous everywhere; she renders a world that looks familiar but is slightly off. Like Don DeLillo, she's a sprawling, ambitious writer whose characters often talk in a lovely, unbelievable poetry, as if they were prophets, or preachers, or ghosts.

The Quick and the Dead, Williams's fourth novel, follows a series of linked stories, all taking place in Arizona. Indeed, it could be called a desert epic, so dependent is its narrative momentum on the desert's eventual consumption of its inhabitants. These characters are consumed by thirst and mirages, by dry dreams of a lifeless landscape. They reside in a state of spiritual flatness and emptiness.

At the heart of the book, three motherless teenage girls befriend each other, go on camping trips, lay out in the sun by the rich girl's pool. Corvus, Alice, and Annabel are, respectively, spooky, apocalyptic, and prom-queen vain. In the course of things, they encounter, among others, a gay piano player named Sherwin who lives in a smelly apartment and constantly wears a tux, and a retirement-home nurse who entertains her patients with one-liners like: "Thoughts are infusorial" and "The set trap never tires of waiting." Perhaps most memorable is a cowboy-hatted stroke victim called Ray who believes a monkey lives in the back of his brain. Ray hitchhikes and steals credit cards. When he hasn't eaten for a while, the animal takes over: "The little monkey was climbing the walls in his head, making clear that it wanted out. Any avenue along the capillaries would do. There was an awful craving to get out. Ray didn't feel well."

Other lively phenomena interrupting the prevailing desert stillness: an injured deer leaping over a fence into a swimming pool in the middle of a party; a man shot in the desert by a couple of stoned guys shooting at cacti; a reappearing ghost called Ginger (Annabel's mother) who arrives every night to rail at her alcoholic widower husband, berating his clothes and his investment strategies.

In the hands of a lesser artist these various, often forcefully bizarre characters and events could have seemed like the work of someone out to impress with her weirdness. But Williams is the real thing, and The Quick and the Dead is her visionary world--a place so unmistakably doomed, it literally gives you the chills. --Emily White

Book Description

Misanthropic Alice is a budding eco-terrorist; Corvus has dedicated herself to mourning; Annabel is desperate to pursue an ordinary American life of indulgences. Misfit and motherless, they share an American desert summer of darkly illuminating signs and portents. In locales as mirrored strange as a nursing home where the living dead are preserved, to a wildlife museum where the dead are presented as living, the girls attend to their future. A remarkable attendant cast of characters, including a stroke survivor whose soulmate is a vivisected monkey, an aging big-game hunter who finds spiritual renewal in his infatuation with an eight-year-old–the formidable Emily Bliss Pickles–and a widower whose wife continues to harangue him, populate this gloriously funny and wonderfully serious novel where the dead are forever infusing the living, and all creatures strive to participate in eternity.

Customer Reviews:

good read.......2007-08-31

It was definitely a good read. The author did a great job developing the characters.

The Slow and the Inane, II.......2005-03-09

Read the review by Matthew S.; I agree completely. I am amazed by all the 5 star reviews, so I must be missing something (like drugs). I got all the way through the book and took myself out for dinner as a treat for accomplishing the task. I give this book 1 star as there is no selection for 0 or, better yet, -1. I found the characters to be out from left field and behaving and thinking in ways far beyond their years. The book was not believable and was boring.

I was born in the desert... I been down for years........2003-06-03

This is one of my favorite novels of all time. It is absolutely flawless - a deranged, bizarre trip into the heart of the desert and the mind's of the characters who populate that arid climate and their own internal, personal, emotionally devastating landscapes. Joy Williams creates a world of heartlessness, beauty, insincerity, twisted motivations, utterly believable and flawed characters, and the most quotable dialogue I've found in any book. This novel was up for the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 but Michael Chabon's "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" took home the prize. Joy should have won, no question, but if she had to lose to someone I suppose I'm glad it was Mr. Chabon. Anyway, back to Joy - not only does she create a world of dazzling brilliance, she quite effectively mocks our modern culture and comes up with characters that are utterly distinct and memorable and also human - I dare anyone to read this novel and not find at least two characters they can strongly relate to and could mistake for themselves. Joy Williams, simply, is one of the best writers around, and this is one of the best things I've ever read. It's absolutely teeming with originality, genius ideas, and wonderful execution. I wish I'd written it. It's a novel that you don't so much read as experience, it's something that pulls you in with it's hooks and releases you, at the final page utterly changed. It will stick with you. I loaned out my hardback copy almost two years ago to my cousin, who is an English teacher, she's read it several times now and has yet to return it. I had to go out and buy another copy, just because I couldn't handle being without it for so long. When I first discovered this book, I carried it with me nearly everywhere I went, just wanting to keep the characters and the pages close within my reach - it's hard being away from this book, it's become a part of me, almost as vital and important as an organ. This book has a heart of it's own, and you can feel it beating below the surface, you can taste the blood and muscles and sweat when you read. It's simply impossible to describe the passion and art that are contained within these pages. I think everyone could benefit from reading this. It is the great American novel - it touches and comments upon nearly everything in our society that one can think of, it points out what is wrong, it so perfectly describes people and their personalities and actions and it even has elements of the supernatural. Yet for all of Joy William's sarcasm and harsh wit, she loves her characters and does not judge them. Ultimately, we may not be left with answers to every question, but we are left with hope, as delicious as honey from a thorn.

A comedic tour de force of language and character.......2002-07-28

This is a darkly comedic novel by one of America's premiere writers of fiction. Reviewers have compared her to Flannery O'Connor and that comparison is valid in terms of originality and the ability to cut through the pretense of life and reveal what people do and what they think beneath the surface of convention. But Joy Williams does not have Flannery O'Connor's polished sense of story and structure; however she doesn't need it. She has instead an eagle's eye for detail and an awesome command of language. Her characters are alive with the quickness of life, its strange twists and turns, its Shakespearean absurdity and its banality and wonder. So insightful and so sharply rendered is her prose that it alone carries us along. Into the mouths of babes she puts words of wisdom and out the mouths of her everyday people emerge worldly philosophies.

Thus 8-year-old Emily Bliss Pickless, who likes to pour dirt on her head and to pretend she doesn't know how to read to see if adults will try to mislead her, observes, "You had to act dumb around adults, otherwise there was no point in being around them at all." Assessing her mother's new boyfriend, she concludes, "...mother lacked all discrimination when it came to men." (p. 167) When she has finished re-educating the proprietor of the stuffed animal/trophy museum, we find it shut down with her sign out front, accurately announcing, "CLOSED FOR RECONSIDERATION."

Thus Nurse Daisy, as she washes Freddie Fallow, an elderly 350-pound mountain of an old man (who had to be hoisted into the tub with the aid of block and tackle), muses, "Isn't water a remarkable element? It's exempt from getting wet. It's as exempt from getting wet as God is exempt from the passion of love." (p. 169) Or, "Birth is the cause of death," and "The set trap never tires of waiting." (p. 170) Or even, "Our capacity to do evil has nothing to do with our innocence." (p. 171) Or--most especially--her description of Freddie's impending death as, "the evaporation of your little droplet above the sea..." (p. 172)

This last is an echo of Buddhism that Williams wants to satirize, as she does through the person of the undead Ginger, whose husband Carter has taken a fancy to his gardener, Donald, who espouses trendy Eastern philosophies. She begins, "What's he doing tonight, out hand-pollinating something?" She goes on to say, "Slow white dudes studying Buddhism make me sick," and finishes up with, "I can just hear him. It's only death, Ginger. Everything is fine...Does he say, Thank you, Illusion, every time he manages to overcome some piddling obstacle in his silly life?"

Thus Joy Williams's characters are vehicles for the author's expressions and her starkly original slant on the living and the dead. But what Joy Williams does so well is that she plays fair. The words of quirky wisdom come not necessarily from characters who represent her own views, such as Alice and Emily (although sometimes they do) but they can even come from the most minor of her human creatures. Thus Ottolie "who resembled an iguana" tells Alice from her bed, "I never sleep, you know...Never. Someone sleeps for me. She lives in Nebraska." Ottolie adds, "Aksarben. That's where I get a lot of my people. You have to learn how to delegate tasks." (p. 117)

Some have criticized this novel as "structurally a mess." Not so. Williams has her own organizing mechanisms. Characters flow from one to another; incidents are connected by invisible synchronicities; people appear to further the plot, and then disappear, but they are melded into the psychological and atmospheric structure of the novel. One sees this in the rednecks who seem to appear just to finish off poor Ray of the slanted mouth, but actually they are essential fixtures of the landscape as they smoke dope and shotgun saguaros, observing that "Shooting felt good..." consisting in "the increase of one's power," or that "Paranoia is having all the facts." (p. 152)

Sometimes what is best about Joy Williams is the sheer dazzle of language. Thus the unrelenting Arizona sun is made manifest through metaphor: "The sun shone like oil upon the limousine's hood, which had been waxed to the shine of water." Or the boy Alice sees whose hair was "as white as glare." (pp. 303-304) And sometimes the best thing is her revelation of character with just a phrase or two. Thus we know what Annabel is like because she worries about things like running out of avocado butter or whether she can actually wear beige or not. On page 163 a waiter, who wore "white clinging plastic gloves" comes to life with just these words:

"Have a nice remainder of the rest of your life," the waiter said. "Gotta cough." He turned away.

Or the two loud women at a nearby table who "had poured sugar on their food so they wouldn't eat anymore."

People yearn for things that cannot be, and that is life. Thus Ginger yearns for Carter to renew their vows of love and for him to join her, but he prefers to conjoin with Donald. And Alice is strangely smitten with the tuxedo-wearing piano player who is (unknown to her, but Annabel sees this clearly) irrevocably gay. But some people do indeed find love or something akin, as the stuffed animal museum owner and his adored Pickless, or Carter with Donald, or Annabel and Paris. Or the "pretty lizard" with J.C.'s missing "Little Wonder."

"The Quick and the Dead" (Second Timothy: 4:1; also The Book of Common Prayer) is a work of art that finds its own structure, that reveals itself to us in its own way. It is a fascinating reading experience, alive and vital, a tour de force of language and character, a darkly comedic romp through the sunshine of our psyches.

Ode to Joy.......2002-07-20

First off,to the Reader From Toronto above:the answer to your question is YES!Ms.Williams other works are just as wonderful as TQATD.Especially the novel, "Breaking and Entering",which is somewhat similar in feel.And the book of stories,"Taking Care",which is where I first discovered Williams work.And I do agree that this should have won the Pulitzer.But why should we expect those judges to ever think outside the box and use their imaginations-LOOSEN UP already!And I'm in agreement with the prior reviewer that Flannery O'Connor is Williams'obvious antecedent -an excellent model to follow,nuff said.

The Quick and the Dead: Artists and Anatomy

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From the inside to the 'in'-side
beauty of the human body!

The Quick and the Dead: Artists and Anatomy
Deanna Petherbridge , and Ludmilla Jordanova
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0520217381

Book Description

The human body has long been central to Western art, and in order to represent the body in all its manifestations many artists have studied anatomy: dissecting the dead to better depict the living. The Quick and the Dead focuses on a range of artists, among them Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Albrecht Dürer, William Hogarth, George Stubbs, Théodore Géricault, Kiki Smith, Joel-Peter Witkin, and Cindy Sherman to show the great richness and complexity that can result when art and science intersect. The drawings, prints, photographs, and objects in this book span five centuries and mark numerous cultural shifts, yet their imagery is as powerful today as when it was created.
Bodily representation has shadowed Western art since the High Renaissance, particularly in the form of atlases of anatomical prints, detailed drawings, and wax cadavers used for teaching purposes. Studying anatomy was deemed so essential that it was part of the instruction program in the earliest Italian academies. Now contemporary artists interested in cultural constuctions of the body are reinvigorating the subject, with the fragmentation of human form being a prime concern.
Since 1858, Gray's Anatomy has served to legitimize notions of "serious" science unchallenged by the frivolity of art. But in recent years a kind of rapprochement between medical history and cultural theory has occurred, and new medical technologies have become a wellspring for artists as well as for doctors. As The Quick and the Dead makes clear, the human body--symbolic and intimate, material and sacred--is a vital cultural resource and a site where various social constituencies find relevant meaning.

Customer Reviews:

From the inside to the 'in'-side.......2002-09-16

Gross Anatomy has always sounded to the lay public as some kind of perjorative about what medical students due, what pornographers do, and what artists perch above the cadaver to represent. Actually nothing could be further from the truth. For centuries artists and scientists have been joined at the hip - witness Vesalius and his immaculate engravings of the musculature and skeltons of the dissected bodies obtained by grave robbers under the umbrella of education. In this superbly written and illustrated volume Deanna Petherbridge and Ludmilla Jordanova have gleaned some of the finest examples of the study and representation of the human body resulting from this still ongoing duplicity between anatomists/physicians and artists. The journey here is well documented from the earliest forms to the latest depictions of how intensive visual and manual dissection of the human body has contributed to some of the finest art in the world. Bravo to the authors for opening a door to the lay public to once and for all subsume the negative implications of the term Gross Anatomy. Superb book!

beauty of the human body!.......2000-06-06

be amazed at the beauty and delicay in which different artists at different times try to express and show the wonders of the human body.

Book Description

This compelling "myth buster" isolates the 5 key disciplines of fast, agile organizations and the people who lead them. Discover the core principles of High Velocity Leadership, learn to avoid the speed-crippling barriers that destroy momentum, and establish a practical plan for producing Better Results in Less Time.

Customer Reviews:

A veritable primer of tips, tricks, and techniques.......2002-12-12

Never Fry Bacon In The Nude And Other Lessons From The Quick & The Dead by business consultant and management trainer Stone Payton is a veritable primer of tips, tricks, and techniques for improving business performance, as well as other aspects of life in general. Focusing on the importance of speed in order to optimize the effectiveness of business processes, sales, adjusting to transitions, and to keep a consistent and successful position in the "fast lane", Never Fry Bacon In The Nude clearly outlines key disciplinary strengths with solid point-by-point recommendations and informative checklists which anyone can follow. Never Fry Bacon In The Nude is enjoyable reading and very useful and "user friendly" compendium of practical, "real world" advice.

QUICK -- Buy this Book!.......2002-11-04

You'll be glad you did. I sure was! Though it's touted as a "business" book, its five vital tenets of SPEED will help you in every facet of your life, from school to home to relationships to self-worth. It's short, it's sweet -- it works!

Pick this one up -- FAST!.......2002-10-08

This book talks about SPEED, and how we can all use it to better our lives. Although it's billed as a business book, and I use it as such, it's also helped me act more SPEEDILY in my personal life, from accepting personal responsibility for my actions to not making excuses for others. With these fast-paced times, can't we all use a little more SPEED in our lives? Author Stone Payton thinks so . . . and so do I! Read this book -- and so will YOU!

Quick and the Dead Louis Lamour Collectio

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Quick and the Dead Louis Lamour Collectio
Louis Lamour
Manufacturer: Bantam Doubleday Dell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Leather Bound
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The Quick and the Dead (Wraith - the Oblivion)

Average customer rating:

Overall a disapointment

The Quick and the Dead (Wraith - the Oblivion)
Beth Fischi
Manufacturer: White Wolf Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1565046137

Customer Reviews:

Overall a disapointment.......2000-10-04

Well when I first got this book, I was expecting information on how to use Ghost hunters as enemies in an adventure. While the info is there, most of the book (95% of it) is devoted to playing a ghost hunter. Not a bad idea if most of the organisations weren't incredibly boring. There is a few gems here and there. The Benandanti, for example, are great in any adventure. But bright spots aside this book was a letdown. Your better of with Mediums: Speakers with the Dead. Overall a much better book.

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The Quick and the Dead
Rob Kantner
Manufacturer: Harpercollins (Mm)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Quick and the Dead

Manufacturer: Bantam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: 0553107615

Product Description

Con Vallina knew the best way to stay out of trouble was to mind his own business. Then he stopped for a cup of coffee at a stranger's campfire and found himself guiding a family of greenhorns across the prairie--fighting a pack of rustlers on one hand and some mighty unpredictable Indians on the other!

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