Yoda - Dark Rendezvous (Star Wars: Clone Wars Novel)

Book Description

As the Clone Wars rage, Jedi Master Yoda must once again face one of his greatest adversaries: Count Dooku. . . .

The savage Clone Wars have forced the Republic to the edge of collapse. During the height of the battle, on Jedi Knight escapes the carnage to deliver a message to Yoda on Coruscant. It appears that Dooku wants peace and demands a rendezvous. Chances are slim that the treacherous Count is sincere but, with a million lives at stake, Yoda has no choice.

The meeting will take place on Djun, a planet steeped in evil. The challenge could not be more difficult. Can Yoda win back his once promising pupil from the dark side or will Count Dooku unleash his sinister forces against his former mentor? Either way, Yoda is sure of one thing: This battle will be one of the fiercest he’ll ever face.

Customer Reviews:

Five Stars.......2007-08-07

A great Clone Wars book. We got to learn more about Yoda which is always interesting. Count Dooku has requested a meeting with Yoda. Although Yoda knows its most likely a trap he decides to meet Dooku anyways because Yoda thinks it might put an end to the war. Its was very interesting as Yoda reflected on his former padawan which is very interesting. You have to wonder what a master would think and reflect on a padawan who ends up taking the wrong path despite all of the training. Dooku also takes the time to reflect on moments from his Jedi pasted which gives us an insight into Dooku and perhaps what lead him to the Dark Side of the Force. We also get more of a veiw inside the Jedi Temple which I enjoyed and a sense of how overwelhemed the Jedi are with Jedi masters fighting in the war or dying this is leaving a void for the padawans for their are far too many padawans and not enough masters. We got to meet Scout a Jedi who has a limited amount of the Force in her. This was an interesting twist as most of the Jedi we read about are very strong in the Force. Scout's worried that her limited connection in the Force will leave her to be a Jedi washout. I enjoyed reading about her. The same with Whie a padawan who's been having dreams of being killed by a Jedi. We of course know this is Anakin's future raid of the Jedi Temple when he turns to the dark side. I found it very interesting that a padawan was actually having a premontion of Anakin's future Sith deeds as we see in Revenge of the Sith Whie will be seen being killed on the security hologram. But to Whie this must mean he his evil because he can't think of any other reason why a Jedi would be trying to kill him. It also raises the question that if Whie had told someone else could anything had been changed? Could the Jedi Purge had been prevented? We'll probably never know the answers.
Scout and Whie go with Yoda and their masters in order to sneak Yoda out of the Temple and off Courscant without anyone finding out. The meeting between Yoda and Dooku was predictable after all Dooku can't be saved but it was still very good.

Interesting story line.......2007-05-31

I really enjoyed the story line. It fleshed out a lot of Yoda history that we've never encountered before. It also made Count Dokue (sp??) more human by providing an interesting back story.

This book is a good quick read. One of the better of the recent Star Wars books. It's not spectacular or overly deep but it is entertaining.

Yoda is not really the main character.......2007-05-22

Yes, Yoda is featured heavily, both in his training role in the Jedi Temple and also as he takes action in leading some padawans without masters through the adventure. And a fairly strong attempt was made to portray Yoda as both the wise master saddened by the harsh realities of war and also as the mischevious little green elf who tests Luke's patience in The Empire Strikes Back.

But like a lot of Star Wars novel, author pride doesn't allow them to just create new supporting characters, they have to feature their own creations as main protagonists, in this case a couple of padawans. Obi-Wan and Anakin are barely present at the end of this book.

And even though this novel shows Yoda's only confrontation with Count Dooku since Attack of the Clones, I still came away disapointed that it was over so briefly. Another Yoda/Dooku fight cut short.

Overall this novel wasn't a bad book. I guess I can accept this as canon, but it is simple not an exciting part of canon. But this is yet another author's entry into the Star Wars Expanded Universe, and not extremely relevant to the film saga.

Instead of this book, I highly recommend the following 5-star novel to fans of the movies:

Labyrinth of Evil (Star Wars, Episode III Prequel Novel)

One of the best.......2007-02-07

Hands down, the best Star Wars novel from the Clone Wars era. The added information about Dooku and his relationship with Yoda is crucial to understand his turn into the darkness. And, unlike most Star Wars novel, there is actually an elegance to the writing in this novel that simply isn't present in most others. The bad part---or, shall I say, the dark side?---is that, after reading this one, my standards have been much higher for other Star Wars novels ... and most of them, while enjoyable, simply haven't delivered.

Excellent all around.......2007-01-05

I was very pleasantly surprised by this novel. Having read a couple of slower-paced Star Wars novels, I was beginning to despair of finding one that was really well-written, but this one had it all: good characterization, action, writing. An all around winner. Highly recommended.

Rendezvous in Black (20th Century Rediscoveries)

Average customer rating:

Operatic, energetic, schematic
The Hitchcock of the Written Word
"Now you know what it feels like. So how do you like it?"
Yes, a masterpiece!
Titanic and soul shattering

Rendezvous in Black (20th Century Rediscoveries)
Cornell Woolrich
Manufacturer: Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0812971450
Release Date: 2004-03-16

Book Description

On a mild midwestern night in the early 1940s, Johnny Marr leans against a drugstore wall. He’s waiting for Dorothy, his fiancée, and tonight is the last night they’ll be meeting here, for it’s May 31st, and June 1st marks their wedding day. But she’s late, and Johnny soon learns of a horrible accident—an accident involving a group of drunken men, a low-flying charter plane, and an empty liquor bottle. In one short moment Johnny loses all that matters to him and his life is shattered. He vows to take from these men exactly what they took from him. After years of planning, Johnny begins his quest for revenge, and on May 31st of each year—always on May 31st—wives, lovers, and daughters are suddenly no longer safe.

Customer Reviews:

Operatic, energetic, schematic.......2006-07-30

RENDEZVOUS IN BLACK, one of the final novels in Cornell Woolrich's famous "black" series that have formed the basis for so many films noirs, is one of his most highly praised works. It is enormously suspenseful: an anonymous young man whose fiancée has been killed in a freak accident instigated by a group of wealthy hunters in a low-flying plane takes his revenge by systematically murdering the woman most beloved to each of the five men so they can share in his grief. Each of the five murders occurs in a different chapter and told in a different style: we know that a woman is going to get it and when, but we don't know how and sometimes we don't even know who. Simultaneously, a police detetctive begins assembling clues to catch the killer. Certainly Woolrich can draw out the suspense in each chapter, and the schematic narrative (which often refers to the characters as "the man" or "the woman") invests the narrative with an almost allegorical quality that makes the whole work seem over-the-top. But there's very little character development in the text, and the shoddy ironic twists in several of the stories seem telegraphed a mile away. Also, the misogynistic undercurrent to most romans noirs seems queasily overemphasized here: except for the first victim (who dies the most gruesome of the deaths), each of the killer's targets intentionally defies the dictates of male authorities in her life, as if to suggest she deserves what's coming to her. Although on one hand this seems almost a pure distillation of the operatic fatalism of the roman noir, it's simply not as good a work as Woolrich's more fleshed-out books like WALTZ INTO DARKNESS or I MARRIED A DEAD MAN--not to mention such superior suspense novels of the period as (for example) Kenneth Fearing's THE BIG CLOCK or Elisabeth Sanxay Holding's THE BLANK WALL.

The Hitchcock of the Written Word.......2006-06-02

The introduction to this novel says that Woolrich has been described as the "Hitchcock of the Written Word," but adds that maybe he wouldn't have liked this description. It might be even more accurate to say that Hitchcock is the Cornell Woolrich of the cinema - since many of Woolrich's works came before Hitchcock's, and Hitch even adapted one of Woolrich's stories into one of his most famous movies, Rear Window.

The point, though, is that this guy writes suspense like you've never seen. I say "seen" because reading his novels is really a visceral experience. I don't know how he does it but Woolrich can write a beautiful, elegant story that you can sort of just almost SEE unfolding like a movie --- a movie that will move you emotionally and also scare the bejesus out of you.

Rendezvous in Black contains six interlinked stories about six doomed love affairs threatened by violence. Five of these are labelled "The First Rendezvous" through "The Fifth Rendezvous." The sixth is the story that ties them all together (but it comes first in sequence). I don't want to spoil the experience of reading this book for anyone, but overall it is just amazing and I cannot recommend it more highly. Woolrich, as has been noted here already, was a protege of F. Scott Fitzgerald's. Like Dashiell Hammett, he's an author who makes mysteries somehow as beautiful as what passes for "literature" - yet so emotionally gripping that you hardly notice till you are done how beautiful the craft of what you just read really was. The characters are spectacular and each one is described with wonderful psychological details. One of my favorites is this description of the police detective:

"He was too thin, and his face wore a chronically haggard look...His manner was a mixture of uncertainty, followed by flurries of hasty action, followed by more uncertainty, as if he already regretted the just preceding action. He always acted new at any given proceedings, as if he were undertaking them for the first time. Even when they were old, and he should have been used to them."

Little gems like this are on almost every page of this book and they make for a wonderful reading experience you won't forget.

I envy anyone about to read Cornell Woolrich for the first time. This book is a great place to start.

"Now you know what it feels like. So how do you like it?".......2006-05-31

On a mild midwestern night in the early 1940s, Johnny Marr leans against a drugstore wall. He's waiting for Dorothy, his fiancée, and tonight is the last night they'll be meeting here, for it's May 31st, and June 1st marks their wedding day. But she's late, and Johnny soon learns of a horrible accident - an accident involving a group of drunken men, a low-flying charter plane, and an empty liquor bottle. In one short moment Johnny loses all that matters to him and his life is shattered. He vows to take from these men exactly what they took from him. After years of planning, Johnny begins his quest for revenge, and on May 31st of each year - always on May 31st - wives, lovers, and daughters are suddenly no longer safe ... Cornell Woolrich's most justly famous novel is one of the true masterpieces of suspense. Johnny exacts his revenge in five meticulously planned and utterly unpredictable murders that Woolrich unfolds with an almost demonic fatalism while the marvellously unheroic police officer MacLain Cameron is in accelerating pursuit. Woolrich's prose is unique. His style is strongly visual - we'd now call it cinematic even though it prefigured much of the film-noir effects that render it, today, almost cliché. His syntax is occasionally tortured, his word choices odd. Yet as his biographer Francis Nevins has noted, Woolrich's imperfections are a happy marriage of form and function. Without the sentences rushing out of control across the page like his hunted characters across the nightscape, without the maniacal emotionalism and indifference to grammatical niceties, the form and content of the Woolrich world would be at odds. Between his style and substance, Woolrich achieved the perfect union. There are moments when the melodrama builds to such an intensity that it tumbles over into a kind of empathy, e.g. Cameron's late visit to Dorothy's childhood home. You know it's ridiculous, but you feel something all the same. As monstrous as Johnny Marr's revenge is, few readers will be able to damn him completely. This kind of amoral centre is the dark sun around which much of the noir world turns, and Woolrich gives us one of the genre's finest examples. The Modern Library's 20th Century Rediscoveries edition is particularly valuable for its Reading Group Guide, and for Richard Dooling's fine introduction which points to further reading and finds the origins of the novel in Woolrich's own startlingly sad biography. Strongly recommended.

Yes, a masterpiece!.......2005-02-19

This is a suspense story in which one knows the killer and his victims and where there is nothing random about his choice of victims. The murders are acts of revenge against an unpremeditated, accidental death - a death that one can only characterize as 'fateful.' A bottle has been thrown from an airplane, killing a young woman standing by a store window in a busy street. She is waiting for her fiance. Out of the hundreds of people walking that street, it is she who has been dealt this fatal blow. It is an accident that could not have been foreseen, though it can be argued, that its negligence might have been anticipated.

That is the beginning of the story. Woolrich wastes no time in setting the psychological tone. Her fiance arrives at their place of rendezvous, the scene of the accident, looks at the stricken woman, denies that it is his "Dorothy", then leaves the scene. Despite this initial denial, he knows, of course, that it is she, and from that moment a cataclysmic change occurs in his personality and his present world falls apart - a world of romance, marriage and well being. He sheds all innocence and becomes a man singularly possessed - a man seeking revenge against the carelessness of other men - determined to have them pay for this carelessness in the same way he has been forced to pay - destruction of what they prize most.

It is a story, wonderfully told - direct, gripping and so thoroughly credible that you read through it quickly, hoping against hope that it will have a happy ending. But it doesn't.

Titanic and soul shattering.......2004-08-20

How could anyone not love Cornell Woolrich? He ranks right up there with James M. Cain, Dashiell Hammett, and Raymond Chandler as one of the godfathers of pitch-black noir. Unfortunately, Woolrich's voluminous short stories and his many novels for the most part remain out of print. No excuse exists to merit such blatant disrespect. Happily, several Woolrich works have begun to reemerge to the delight of noir fans. For example, Woolrich biographer and all around noir aficionado Frances M. Nevins edited a collection of fourteen delightfully bleak stories in the recent "Night & Fear." Now we have "Rendezvous in Black" thanks to the Modern Library publishing house. We can only hope that other novellas head to store shelves soon, specifically "The Bride Wore Black" and "Night Has A Thousand Eyes." But even more fascinating than his stories is the author's life. Cornell Woolrich lived from one black depression to another. He worshipped his mother, drank incessantly, and kept his true sexuality repressed. It was an overriding fear of his mortality and the cruel randomness of the world around him, however, which fueled his desolate visions. Sad to say, but Woolrich's miseries have given generations of fans something to sing about ever since.

"Rendezvous in Black" excels as an archetype of white knuckled, totter on the edge of your seat noir, a story even better than the author's phenomenal and oft copied "I Married a Dead Man." This yarn concerns the activities of one Johnny Marr, an ecstatic young man set to marry the love of his life. When his girl, Dorothy, perishes in a freak accident involving a bottle dropped from a low flying plane, Marr's sanity melts away. The desolate young lover discovers the names of five men who bear the blame for the tragedy that destroyed his life, and he promptly embarks on a mission to wreak bloody revenge on these strangers. Marr will go after the people these men love the most in life, using any tricks he can muster in an effort to avenge his shattered life. Woolrich makes sure the reader understands exactly how far gone Marr is in the first chapter, as we see the young man continue to turn up at the couple's favorite meeting place night after night, waiting desperately for a woman who will never show up. Marr's activities assume a mindless repetition, an unremitting yet senseless hope that Dorothy will eventually appear, thus setting the tone for his single minded, relentless revenge plots later on.

A rendezvous for each of Marr's enemies, five in all, unfold with cold, methodical precision. The first rendezvous achieves the least suspense of the five, a short chapter serving as a post-mortem of Marr's first act of revenge. It is here we learn how Marr will attack his enemies (through important women in their lives), and meet the cop, Detective Cameron, who takes on the case. The second rendezvous will set your nerves on edge as an illicit affair leads to disastrous consequences, including a vengeance seeking wife and a walk to the electric chair, for the second man on Johnny's list. In the third rendezvous, a wedge driven between a man and his wife results in a murder and a suicide. As the fourth act unfolds, a conceited, secretive daughter discovers the hard way that she should have listened to Detective Cameron and her parents. The denouement, the fifth rendezvous, involves that last man on the list and his childhood love. It also tries to show that nothing, neither running to the ends of the earth nor the best laid plans, will deter fate. If you feel like you've been chewed up and spit out by the time you reach the end of the book, don't fret. This reaction is normal when reading Cornell Woolrich. It is, in fact, exactly what you want to feel.

The strength of "Rendezvous in Black" comes not from its staccato prose and descriptive metaphors, although these elements do play a large part in the success of the novel, but in Woolrich's bleak cosmology built on an unholy trinity of love turned bad, paranoia, and crushing fate. The accident that claims Dorothy, a bottle falling from the heavens, and the subsequent disasters visited upon those individuals Marr deems responsible, displays the writer's belief in a unsystematic, frequently cruel world where events unfold with ruthless certainty. Love is a good thing, or can be a good thing, but too often it morphs into something that can fuel neverending hostility and destruction. Richard Dooling, the author of the introduction to this edition of the novel, does an excellent job explicating the numerous themes in Woolrich's writings, a better job than I could possibly hope to do in a short review. But you don't need really need an introduction to see that the mindset behind the book is seriously depressing.

The number of continuity errors, implausible events, and other mistakes in "Rendezvous in Black" leap off the page. I find it impossible to believe someone could drop a bottle out of an airplane as late the 1940s, for example. Too, I kept wondering whether Johnny Marr ever aged, as a considerable period of time passes from Dorothy's demise to the end of the book. How could Johnny possibly have wooed the teenaged Madeleine if he was in his late twenties? And considering Woolrich describes Detective Cameron as a bumbler, the cop possesses a tenacity that eventually pays off in the end. None of these problems takes anything away from the sheer power of the novel. There were times I literally felt like I couldn't stand the tension anymore, and any book that can cause that sort of sensation deserves attention. If you love noir, you need to read this one immediately.

Star Wars Yoda Dark Rendezvous A Clone Wars Novel (Hardcover)

Average customer rating:

Star Wars Yoda Dark Rendezvous A Clone Wars Novel (Hardcover)

Manufacturer: Ballantine / Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0739450026

Heaven Is a Long Way Off: A Novel of the Mountain Men (Rendezvous)

Average customer rating:

An incredible tale of courage, beautifully told
Ending should've ended differently

Heaven Is a Long Way Off: A Novel of the Mountain Men (Rendezvous)
Win Blevins
Manufacturer: Forge Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0765305763
Release Date: 2006-10-03

Book Description

Sam Morgan, once a young runaway from Philadelphia, now a seasoned fur trapper and mountain man, faces the most daunting task of his adventuresome life. It is 1827 and he, together with the trapping brigade commanded by Jedediah Smith, has been expelled from Mexican California. To his unending sorrow, Meadowlark, Sam's beloved Indian wife, has died in childbirth and he has been forced to abandon his infant daughter, Esperanza. Now, Sam is determined to reclaim his baby and take her to Meadowlark's village on the Wind River of Wyoming.In Santa Fe, Sam meets a beautiful widow known as Dona Paloma and the two become lovers. Then, after the herd of horses belonging to Sam and his companions are sold for a healthy profit, he returns to California to reunite with his daughter only to learn she has been taken captive in an Indian raid.Sam's desperate mission to rescue his daughter, their escape in a frail craft down a rampaging river, and their long trek to Santa Fe, is a harrowing tale told by a master of the historical novel.

Customer Reviews:

An incredible tale of courage, beautifully told.......2006-10-09

Strictly a non-western book about the West. Slave trade among the Indians, overcoming racism that was/is part of every group--I've never read these topics covered so vibrantly. Working to build a life, getting lucky, meeting catastrophe and facing challenges: these are not only what we consider to be the strength of the American character, they are the strengths of any human fully living his or her life. Then, as now, life was complex, bringing about complex choices. Those that are the most difficult often place another's welfare ahead of our own. That brings out the finest in us--finding strength in many situations, that's what Heaven is a Long Way Off is all about. A terrific read for anyone.

Ending should've ended differently.......2006-10-08

Great book. I have the first three in the Rendevous series. My problem is with the ending. Sam Morgan, after all he went through to retrieve his daughter, decides to leave her with her mother's family and tribe, who are openly hostile to him, because he is not one of them. If I wrote this book, I would've had Sam keep his daughter and move to another Crow village, who would accept him and his Half white, Half Crow Indian daughter. I'm sure his brother-in-law, Flat Dog would've moved with him. It's because of this I gave this book 3 stars.

Rendezvous: A Barnaby Skye Novel (Wheeler, Richard S. Skye's West, 9,)

Average customer rating:

Mr. Wheeler call Mel Gibson or Kevin Costner!!
An Epic Adventure
Rendezvous: Skye's West (a Barnaby Skye novel)
History -- in living Color!

Rendezvous: A Barnaby Skye Novel (Wheeler, Richard S. Skye's West, 9,)
Richard S. Wheeler
Manufacturer: Forge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0312863195

Book Description

Barnaby Skye, a pressed seaman in the Royal Navy, jumps ship at Fort Vancouver in 1826 with little more than the clothes on his back and a belaying pin for a weapon. Fighting for life, starving, hiding from his pursuers--the Hudson's Bay Company and the British Navy--he follows the Columbia River inland toward a fate he never anticipated. In a trapping brigade, Skye falls in with legendary mountain men such as Jim Bridger and Tom "Broken Hand" Fitzpatrick and in the fabled Rocky Mountains finds another unexpected turn in his life when he meets the Crow maiden, Many Quill Woman, who will become his wife.

Customer Reviews:

Mr. Wheeler call Mel Gibson or Kevin Costner!!.......2006-09-26

This book was completely all that, that the author should contact Mel Gibson or Kevin Costner and sell the movie rights to turn this terrific novel into film. I would prefer Mel Gibson to turn this into a film, because his movies about alot better, when he directs them, than Kevin Costner. The book is that good, that it would be a terrific movie. If that happens, Orlando Bloom would be the perfect actor to play Barnaby Skye and Tonatzin Carmelo can play Many Quill Woman.

An Epic Adventure.......2001-12-15

Richard S. Wheeler's Skye's West: Rendezvous and his character Barnaby Skye...eh, make that Mister Skye! offers a reading treat for anyone who wants something out of the ordinary with their adventures.
Besides providing a good story Wheeler's writing is grown-up good as it leads us into an historical realm and offers a well- crafted look, convincing dialogue, and characters who breathe.
It's easy to see why Wheeler has won the SPUR Award for his western writing and easy enough for a reader to be spurred on with his stories.
There's only a handful of talented writers in this genre out there and Wheeler is one of them.

Rendezvous: Skye's West (a Barnaby Skye novel).......2001-01-22

This is a good read, with a lot of historical facts mixed in with the fiction. It describes life in the wilderness of the Northwest in what is now the United States, and the struggles people faced just to survive. Has a good story line and keeps your interest. This is the first of the Barnaby West novels I have read and I would like to read more books about this character, if I could just figure out which one I should read next. I can't find anything that gives me any indication of which book in the series comes next.

History -- in living Color!.......1998-09-23

From the time that Skye deserts the British vessel holding him captive to his meeting with the mountain men and Indians, I was held captive and felt as if I took each step into this new world with him. Mr. Wheelers use of historical facts and people, ie: the Hudson Bay company, Jim Bridger etc. just added to the overall effect of the story. I feel as tho I have gained a little more insight into the way the early trappers lived and faced death on a daily basis.

I will look forward to reading his previous novels on Mister Skye -i backward order to see just where he went from this point on. Anyone who enjoys the historical novel will enjoy this one. Thanks for a trip into the past!

Average customer rating:

A Mixed Collection

Get out your dictionary

Reprint this!

A good intro to CAS, but a bit lacking in story selection

Have superbly weathered the decades

A Rendezvous in Averoigne: The Best Fantastic Tales of Clark Ashton Smith
Clark Ashton Smith
Manufacturer: Arkham House Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
20th Century | United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0870541560

Amazon.com

In 1927, H. P. Lovecraft wrote about Clark Ashton Smith: "In sheer daemonic strangeness and fertility of conception, Mr. Smith is perhaps unexcelled by any other writer dead or living. Who else has seen such gorgeous, luxuriant, and feverishly distorted visions of infinite spheres and multiple dimensions and lived to tell the tale?" If you relish horror or dark fantasy, and you have yet to discover Klarkash-Ton, you have a real treat in store. This beautifully produced Arkham House collection is a bejeweled corridor into the dark worlds of vampire-cursed Averoigne, Zothique of the dying sun, primordial Hyperborea (which, with its black, amorphous god Tsathoggua, is close in spirit to Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos), and others. Smith is a consummate stylist whose evocations of lush exoticism and languid evil led critic Brian Stableford to call him "the poet of American Decadence," and yet his tales are also humorous--in a wry, macabre way. A Rendezvous in Averoigne collects 30 tales, with illustrations by J. K. Potter and an introduction by Ray Bradbury.

Customer Reviews:

A Mixed Collection.......2005-09-21

On a technical level as a writer, Clark Ashton Smith had no peers. His use of words, his sentence structure, and his vivid descriptions of alien worlds is always brilliant. Like his contemporaries Lovecraft and Howard, I enjoy his writing for the writing itself as much as for the actual stories.

What his stories in this collection often lack is the pay-off; that ironic twist at the end which brings the tale full circle. All to often , the story just falls flat at the end, leaving you wondering "what was the point?" A perfect example is the "The Seven Geas".

Still, when CAS gets it right, he knocks it out of the ballpark. "The Planet of the Dead" is both sad and poiniant, as is "Necrcromancy in Naat" where two seperated lovers are finally reunited and "live" happily ever after. I also enoyed "The City of the Singing Flame" and "Genus Loci", where the protaganists embrace the horror. "The Empire of the Necromancers" is very creepy. In my opinion, his Zothique stories are the most satisfying as a whole.

CAS is not as gifted a fantasy writer as Robert E. Howard, nor are his stories as horrific as H.P. Lovecraft's best. However, I would still highly recommend this collection. BTW, it is still in print, and available from Arkham House.

Get out your dictionary.......2005-07-11

There's nothing wrong with good reading that challenges your vocabulary. I think a lot of Lovecraft fans can make the jump over to Clark Ashton Smith; Lovecraft used verbiage to invoke an atmosphere, while Smith used his to evoke sensations. Neither one is stingy with their writing. I have been a Lovecraft fan for years but was never able to appreciate Smith - his work is hard to find. RENDEZVOUS IN AVEROIGNE collects representative stories from many of Smith's themes, perhaps as a sample of the Smith canon. From ancient Hyperborea to watery Atlantis to medieval Averoigne to decadent Zothique, Smith's prose does not disappoint. But don't expect to read it quickly - good writing is dense writing.

There may be better collections of Smith's writings still available - if so, I haven't found them. This collection has a real breadth of Smith's writing that isn't found in other collections; five different settings, and thirty stories total. I waited almost 6 months to get RENDEZVOUS IN AVEROIGNE and it was worth the wait. But I'd recommend that you get your copy while you can.

Reprint this!.......2004-07-03

If you made a list of the most influential science fiction/horror writers of the 1930s, Clark Ashton Smith would rank in the top three. Along with his protégés H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, Smith wrote bleak tales of mind bending horror set in weird, alien worlds. A man lacking an extensive education, he nonetheless made a name for himself writing poetry while living in a small cabin in California. In 1928, Smith contributed a short story to Weird Tales, that august publication that still influences writers of the macabre. Over the next decade, the author's stories gained legions of fans in love with Smith's opulent prose and lush atmospheres. After 1937 Smith, for reasons never adequately explained, suddenly dropped out of the limelight when he cut back on his dark fiction output. "A Rendezvous in Averoigne" gathers under one cover thirty of his Weird Tale stories, most from the 1930s but a few from the 1940s and 1950s as well, lumping them into five distinct categories: Averoigne, Atlantis, Hyperborea, Lost Worlds, and Zothique. No less a figure than Ray Bradbury wrote the introduction to the book, in which he credits Smith as a major influence in his decision to become a writer. Clark Ashton Smith passed away in 1961

The Averoigne, Atlantis, and Hyperborea stories could easily fit under one rubric as they are quite similar. Arguably the best Averoigne tale, "The Colossus of Ylourgne, describes what happens when an evil sorcerer seeks revenge against the residents of Smith's fictional French province. Probably the worst story in the book is unfortunately the first one, "The Holiness of Azedarac," where a monk in Averoigne travels back in time due to the plans of an evil officer of the church. The Atlantis stories, three in number, deal with activities taking place on the fabled lost continent. "The Last Incantation" and "The Death of Malygris" describe a powerful Atlantean sorcerer's quest to recapture his loved one and the men who wish to unseat him. "A Voyage to Sfanomoe" has as much to do with science fiction as it does with Atlantis. As the continent begins to sink beneath the seas, two super genius technicians build a spacecraft and fly to Venus. Finally, the Hyperborean tales explicate the unfortunate adventures of a greedy pawnbroker ("The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan"), the horrific yet highly humorous circumstances of a hunting expedition gone horribly wrong ("The Seven Geas"), the inherent dangers of robbing a religious temple in a plague cursed city ("The Tale of Satampra Zeiros"), and the emergence of a Lovecraftian god on an icy rampage ("The Coming of the White Worm").

The Lost World stories, nine in number, are a cut above the Averoigne, Atlantis, and Hyperborea stuff. You get a Lovecraftian tale about an author stepping into another dimension long enough to witness a singing flame that enchants anyone who hears it ("The City of the Singing Flame"), a doomed expedition on Mars ("The Dweller in the Gulf"), a reincarnation yarn with horrific consequences ("The Chain of Aforgomon"), and one of the best stories in the collection, "Genus Loci," about a possessed pond's sinister machinations and the painter who discovers them. The second Mars tale, the short "The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis," reveals the inherent dangers of mucking around in a deserted alien city. "The Maze of Maal Dweb" is another evil sorcerer tale, this time involving the abduction of a young woman and the man who attempts to free her. "The Uncharted Isle" involves a shipwrecked sailor and the discovery of a civilization lost in time and space. The Lost World stories conclude with "The Planet of the Dead" and "Master of the Asteroid," about a futuristic civilization on the verge of destruction and a marooned spacecraft respectively.

Fans remember Smith most fondly for the Zothique cycle. All of these tales take place in the far future when the sun has changed into a red giant and the earth is about ready to take a permanent vacation. You get stories about sorcerers raising people from the grave, evil wizards taking terrible revenge on old enemies, an island full of torturers, and gardens full of human/plant hybrids. The best story included here is "The Dark Eidolon." In this magnificent yarn, we get a wizard whose revenge against those who wronged him as a child receive more than their just desserts. Imagine a magician so powerful that he calls forth demons powerful enough to level an entire metropolis. The story has an apocalyptic feel to it that doesn't appear in any of the other entries. With only ten stories in the Zothique section, you quickly wonder what the editors omitted. Sadly, "A Rendezvous in Averoigne" has been long out of print. I am not aware of any other collections of Smith stories available except for one in the United Kingdom. There is something fundamentally wrong about that.

The first thing you will notice with these stories, if you are lucky enough to find a copy, is the ornate language. Clark Ashton Smith writes on a level that may at first dumbfound the casual reader. Not to worry, though, as persistence allows you to absorb his writings fully without constantly plumbing the depths of an Oxford English Dictionary. If you've read Lovecraft before, you already have an idea of what you'll find prose wise in "A Rendezvous in Averoigne." Horror writers today simply don't write like this anymore, excepting someone like Charlee Jacob, perhaps. I just thank my lucky stars the local library had a copy of this book, in great condition, with which I could spend a few magical days. Fans of the masters of the 1930s already know about Clark Ashton Smith; new readers pondering Lovecraft for the first time would do well to check this author out as well.

A good intro to CAS, but a bit lacking in story selection.......2003-11-25

Though his name is usually associated with HPL's Cthulu mythos, CAS is one of the most brilliant and unique fantasists of the 20th century. Unlike his peers, who set about creating gargantuan, multi-volume tomes, CAS works entirely within the short story format. CAS is as adept at world creation as Tolkien, LeGuin or Dunsany. His stories fall into major cycles based on the imaginary settings in which they are placed, such as Zothique, the last continent of an ancient Earth where decadent emperors and omnipotent necromancers bask in the glory of a dying sun, Hyperborea, an advanced ice-age civilization frequently terrorized by nightmare gods, and Averoigne, a province in medieval France where sorcery is rampant. The Zothique tales are particularly good; displaying a morbid fascination with decadence and decay not to be found in the pastoral settings and simplistic Good Vs. Evil themes of Tolkien-influenced fantasists. CAS writes in a highly atmospheric and poetic style, often utilizing severly archaic vocabulary (you'll need a good dictionary at hand to read him) and beautiful metaphors to evoke richly detailed and decadently exotic settings. His grim irony and morbid sense of humor are refreshing in a genre populated with bombastically self-important authors.
This collection is a good intro to CAS's work, including 10 tales of Zothique and 4 of Hyperborea, as well as some of his outstanding work in the SF and horror fields. However, this volume really reveals its inadequacies in story selection. An overly large portion is devoted to Averoigne, Smith's weakest major cycle. Hyperborea, perhaps Smith's second greatest cycle, is slighted by its relegation to a tiny section of the book, and gems such as "The Testament of Athammaus," "The White Sybil," and "The Door to Saturn" are not collected in this volume. One of the best tales of Zothique, "The Weaver in the Vault," is not to be found, and there are other notable omissions, such as "A Night in Malneant," "The Double Shadow," and "The Plutonian Drug," which are all passed over in lieu of some questionable choices in the Lost Worlds section. Also, the edited Weird Tales versions of Smith's manuscripts (which excise some of the violence, sexuality, and atmosphere from the stories) are reprinted here. All in all, a good introduction to Smith and one of the few volumes of his stories in print, but I would recommend The Emperor of Dreams for the Smith neophyte. It is available from Amazon UK, and the selection of tales is far superior to Rendezvous. Also, be sure to visit the excellent CAS website at www.eldritchdark.com.

Have superbly weathered the decades.......2003-06-13

Ideal for introducing a whole new generation to one of the greatest fantasy authors ever to set pen to paper, A Rendezvous In Averoigne is an impressive collection of the classically horrific fantasy writings by Clark Ashton Smith, a man who wrote for "Weird Tales" alongside such legendary and groundbreaking authors as H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. The fantastic settings, the plottings of dire necromancers, the perilous quests, and the struggles to survive in mysterious and hostile worlds, fill the pages of this macabre yet inviting anthology. The short stories comprising A Rendezvous In Averoigne have superbly weathered the decades since their original publications.

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Beautiful, heartfelt, lyrical novel
The reason why we have the cliche "Show don't tell"
Well-written novel of a newcomer. Appeals to anyone under 30
An autobiographical novel that hurts

The Rendezvous: A Novel
Justine Levy
Manufacturer: Scribner Paper Fiction
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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Nothing Serious

ASIN: 0684846322

Amazon.com

The first love affair most of us have is with our mothers. In The Rendezvous, 18-year-old Louise sits in the Parisian cafe where her divorced parents met, whiling away a long, fruitless wait for her mother, Alice, by replaying scenes from their lives. Gorgeous, absentee Alice is a supreme narcissist and completely unconvincing liar who dabbles in hard drugs and spends time in prison. Though Louise affects a dispassionate cool as she conjures her up, her descriptions are those of a jilted suitor still longing for the lover who razed her heart. Alice is enticingly wild and generous, too, a horrendous parent but a shining chimera who goes up in flames with a grin. Translated from French and billed as a roman à clef that is "part memoir, part fiction," this debut novel by Justine Levy, the daughter of French philosopher Bernard Henri Levy, is slight in scope but addictive and elegant, even as the scenes inscribed rival those in Bosch's paintings of hell.

Book Description

The Rendezvous is a beautiful and evocative first novel that blurs all lines between memoir and fiction. In a painfully sentimental journey, Louise, a sophisticated eighteen-year-old Parisian student, sits in a café awaiting the arrival of her long-absent mother, an aging hippie and former fashion model.

As the hours pass and Louise waits, she reaches deeper and deeper into her store of memory, recalling the early failure of her parents' marriage. Louise remembers how brief and unfulfilling meetings with her mother have punctuated her safe and secure life with her father, a world-renowned conductor. Carefully walking the balance between anticipation and fear, Louise meditates upon the chaos of her mother's life, a life of decadence, drugs, and irresponsibility.

Coming face-to-face with the powerful love she feels for her mother, Louise wryly acknowledges the complexity of a relationship filled with countless letdowns and unwavering devotion. Written with a wisdom that transcends age and the wit and savvy of a true survivor, The Rendezvous is a poignant examination of the transition to young adulthood and the often startling awareness of a parent's fallibility.

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful, heartfelt, lyrical novel.......2002-03-30

...The author does an wonderful job of making the protagonist sympathetic without vilefying the mother. My heart went out to the girl as she sat and waited for her mother, knowing, on some level, that she wasn't going to arrive. The use of flashbacks to tell the story of the girl's childhood neglect by her mother is well done. Some of the descriptions are captivating. It is amazing how much depth that the characters have, given that the story is really an interior monologue from one person's perspective. This is a book about hurt, disappointment, hope, regret and loss. Even if the reader hasn't experienced the sort of neglect that the lead character does, we can relate to her pain -- the emotions she is feeling are ones we have all felt at one time or another, for one reason or another. As such, the device of not giving her a name works really well.

This book may be hard to find now, but I strongly reccommend that you make the effort, ...(it seemed more like a short story than a novel), so as well written as it is, I can understand why a person wouldn't want to spend too much to get it.

The reason why we have the cliche "Show don't tell".......2000-03-19

The only writers who can get away with telling, telling, telling are writers with great voice and masterful use of language. This was flat and silly and needn't have been longer than a two page short-short. Exemplifies what's wrong with the state of French letters which is nothing more than navel gazing.

Well-written novel of a newcomer. Appeals to anyone under 30.......1999-08-11

This book, at least in the Spanish version is a very interesting monologue about the relationship between a young woman and her mother, who always lived an independent life, following the May '68 values as much as the elder generation followed the old ones.

Promising debut for the daughter of a well-known French philosopher. Makes you want to read her next book.

An autobiographical novel that hurts.......1997-11-20

A beautiful teenage daughter waits patiently, loyally, dreamily; by turns hopefully and hopelessly for a fickle, messed-up mother; they've a lunch date in a Paris cafe. The size and the scope of the daughter's bereavement take up the whole of this slim book. She's had a lifetime of gentrified confusion, short bursts of happiness, rejection, and grief. Levy recounts this skillfully and stylishly, and with a blameless bitter heart. The remembered details of her childhood (toys, clothes, mundane events) take on a burning importance, as if they're all that's left -- after a catastrophe. There's a growing genre of these memoirs of yearning and loss, and this one is a fine addition.

3 Great Novels: Rendezvous in Lisbon, Doctor at Villa Ronda, Hotel Belvedere

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3 Great Novels: Rendezvous in Lisbon, Doctor at Villa Ronda, Hotel Belvedere
Iris Danbury
Manufacturer: Harlequin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000UHRBOQ

Bear Chief's War Shirt (A Rendezvous Book)

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Bear Chief's War Shirt (A Rendezvous Book)
James Willard Schultz , and Wilbur Betts
Manufacturer: Mountain Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Cedar City Rendezvous (An Evans Novel of the West)

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Too Much Dust

Cedar City Rendezvous (An Evans Novel of the West)
Douglas Savage
Manufacturer: M. Evans and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Customer Reviews:

Too Much Dust.......2001-02-12

If this were a movie it would be rated "R". It does not include foul language, erotic nudity, but it is filled with bloody and gory violence.

The story is about the Hart Brothers (the good guys) and the odd characters they pickup on their way to the anticipated Cedar City Rendezvous. There is a lot of dust flying around in the scene descriptions of this book; however, the dust does not subside when we are trying, for example, to understand the premise, rules, and outcome of the Cedar City Rendezvous. At times through the dust Douglas Savage gives us some redeemable moments. One learns of the need for horse care on the trail and the inadequacies of that day's "handirons". We also get a taste of "blinding sun", "rancid buckskins" and "ammonia vapors simmering up from pools of horse urine". On one hand we discover of the Cheyenne's respect for the bear and on the other we read a gratuitous account of descriptive mayhem committed by the Third Colorado Cavalry at Sand Creek in 1864.

This novel is not one of the brightest stars of story telling; much less of the Western genre.

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