Eagle Reviews

This is an excellent story. I love Ms. Harrod-Eagles' characterizations, both of her key players as well as the secondary ones that appear in each novel. This particular book has some wonderful secondary charcters - Busty Parnell and Jay Paloma and Slider's new partner - (while Atherton is recovering in hospital) Hart are wonderful! We see more of Ms. Harrod-Eagles cracking wit in this book. Her puns in the chapter headings are still wonderful. In this book we see the murder of a homosexual dancer, and Slider sets out to find out who killed him and why. Slider enters the netherworld that all police officers are exposed to - notorious nightclubs, table-top dancers, drugs, etc. etc. in order to track down the killer. I love this series!

When exotic dancer Jay Paloma has been receiving poison pen letters for months so he tells London detective Inspector Bill Slider, but it is not until now that he decides to do something. He is getting worried he is going to leave town and settle back in Ireland - so he says. But he wants protection. Unfortunately he failed to keep any of the letters and Slider can't do anything. So when he is found murdered Slider feels some guilt and responsibility to track down his killer - but he has little to go on.

Killing time is the 6th book in Cynthia Harrod-Eagles series of Shepherd's Bush Inspector Bill Slider. Slider's normal Side-kick is still in hospital recovering from a stab wound got in the course of the investigation of the previous murder Mystery - "Blood lines" so Slider is pared with a sassy young Black woman - detective Hart.

There is also a clash of personalities in Slider's own Police station with a colleague not wishing to share information on another investigation which might cross with his own - and then there is one of Slider's own colleagues - PC Cosgrove in the thick of the investigation with everything pointing to his possible involvement in the crime.

The mystery is very good - the personal side of things tends not to be - luckily there is very little delving into the personal life of Slider, his soon to be ex-wife Irene and his lover Joanna to distract from the real focus of this book - the solving of the murder. I do like the way Harrod-Eagles slowly reveals each level of clues so you follow with Slider the whole way to the solving of the crime. Harrod Eagles also has the tendency to be a bit smart with the puns - each chapter has a sort of pun title which I find alternatively mildly witty or not so witty. And the characters tend to pun with one another a lot. Perhaps I just don't appreciate that too much as funny and find it at times a bit distracting more than anything. I wish Harrod-Eagles would stick to her amazing mysteries.

I love this series because it is different. Funny, witty, streetwise. I'm always looking forward to the next instalment. The only disappointment for me was that some of the characters were a tad too quirky.

Here we have someone who tries to forcibly mix two different paradigms, that of (not-so-modern) quantum physics and that of (not-so-archaic) shamanism. Had FAW been a really good theoretical or experimental physicist, or an impressive shaman, this work might have been a monumental achievement. Unfortunately, here we have a small time college physics teacher dabbling amateurishly with medicine work and - unsurprisingly - getting "insights" which never transcend the banal first-derivative of the simplistic analogy. This book is sentimental to boot and self-indulgent to the point of exhaustion and the unfortunate cayote reader can only growl with irritation at the lack of philosophical rigor combined with the shallowness of the author's autobiographical profile. I am sure Fred is quite a likeable guy and he appears to have dabbled in enough fields to gain some notoriety in New Age circles chasing a New Unified Theory of Everything. Those will find the book enjoyable. To everyone else I say: if you must read it, borrow it from the local library.

Dr. Wolf has accomplished what many cannot, he has written a highly interesting book about his journey to discover the parallelism between quantum physics and the knowledge / wisdom of the ancient shamans -- and has done so without getting lost in the scientific jargon. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it for those who are interested in joining their scientific interest with their spiritual journey.

I speak with Mr. Wolf from time to time and find his knowlage very interesting, but still find it hard to believe that someone who has such knowlege still charges a buck to answer small questions to students! The world goes round by momentum! Not money!

There have been some turkeys over the years. The terrible trio (108-110), some of the last Will Murray's, and some fill-in-the blank episodes in mid-stride. The new author seems to have a firm handle on the characters. What's more, he is bringing a bit of an edge back to the series that has been missing (just compare with some of the earlier entries). While there is some prolonged silliness in this one poking fun at Trekkers and UFOlogists, the overall tenor of the story is a bit harder edged than Murray's. For me, that's a good thing. Remo doesn't have to pile up the body count for my tastes, but he is involved in a grim occupation. The writing should reflect that, and it does now. Favorite among the scenes (and what helps make the book) is Smith's involvement in the plot and the fact that - if not for the intervention of a foolish character - he would have been the hero of the story, having stopped the bad guy with intellect and incredible though understated daring. A good book in the pantheon, and, according to others, they only get better from here!

The Destroyer series are a series of books about Remo Williams and his teacher/adopted father Chuin, the Korean Master of Sinanju. The books have been around since the 1970's and have thrived for all this time for good reason. They are great fun to read. This entry continues the tradition. It pits our heroes against a "ZAPtacular" new foe with deadly powers. If you haven't read this book DO IT! If you haven't even heard of the Destroyer START READING IT NOW! It is best to start with the old volumes but they are out of print and hard to find. In conclusion five star fun must go for this book and the whole Destroyer series. Still great after all these years. Keep em' coming, guys. A loyal fan.

The books just keep getting better and better. I read alot of books but The Destroyer series has been my favorite for years. This book puts Remo and Chuin against one of their most dangerous foes. It seems the future Master of Sinanju is still learning he's not indestuctible. The book is fun with alot of actions and humor. I recommend this one to all Destroyer fans. Enjoy!

Disliking an Oxford Press book makes me feel like a heretic. The majority of their Companion books are superb, remarkably concise yet thorough works of scholarship. The English Companion is an unfortunate and surprising exception.

The entry for 'New Criticism' is an efficient example of the book's shortcomings. For one thing, there's a laundry list of authors, dates, and books but very little is said of the IDEAS that characterize New Criticism. The entries are generally hamstringed by a focus on the sociopolitical and historical aspects of writers and works. The effort is laudable but inappropriate and uneconomical for a reference work. In its most extreme form, the historical emphasis goes into bizarre detail about an author's upbringing -- is it really necessary that we know where an author went to grade school and when? Entries love to entertain tales of writers' deaths and and of their insignificant travellings. I often felt as though I were reading minibiographies.

One will also notice, in the case of 'New Criticism', the absence of any mention of the 'organic'. This is ridiculous and indicative of the book's lack of attention to concepts as such. There is a non-cross-referenced mention of 'organic' under Coleridge, yet even there it is only mentioned as one of his ideas, not in terms of what the theory tried to say. I would compare it to someone's asking, 'What does X mean?' This book's reply: 'X was one of so-and-so's ideas'. Too often, the response ends there. Literary theory entries are usually on the thin side, though the deconstruction essay is solid. However, even in the longest lit theory essays there is more of an emphasis on people and movements -- far less on ideas.

Along with the lack of depth (or conceptual emphasis), there's little sense of the overall significance of ideas, works or characters (ironic given the attempts at a social-historical approach): Caliban is mentioned in the Tempest entry, and even gets his own paragraph elsewhere, but there's nothing about his character as it's been re-elaborated and re-invented by a long tradition of English writers (Auden, Browning, Joyce, and Wilde for starters). There's nothing about Caliban's portrayal in that tradition, nor mention of Caliban's mirror, etc. Under 'hubris' (which is found, in turn, under a terse account of 'the Poetics'), there's nothing about Icarus, nor is there anything about hubris as a specific theme in so many works.

Speaking of hubris, it's baffling to me that Drabble's entry is longer than either Hill's or Heaney's. The general editor would have been better off focusing more of her energy on other writers: that expansive babbling space could have been put to stronger use had a more thorough background been given on either of those poets, among others.

Readers seeking to understand why an author alludes in his work to a character or poet will be little helped by nebulous terms like 'icily poised' or 'sensuously textured', which are more suggestive of gastronomic, rather than literary, criticism. To my mind a reference's primary function should be to offer a quick source of the 'essentials' of a book or of a writer's ideas, an understanding of which would illuminate one's reading of the alluding work. While I appreciate that entries shy away from 'this or that' critiques or strict (canonical) interpretations, giving lists of facts does an injustice to the works themselves and to the way these works have been interpreted by others. (Believe it or not, people CAN come to their own conclusions even after being introduced to an opinion.)

The book's scope is appropriate to literature, as literature tends to allude to so many disparate disciplines. But if one were truly trying to give an encyclopedic account of literature, the book would have to be much bigger. In this case, specialization suffers. I would have preferred a much more focused account of 'literature' as such; I'd then supplement this with other references focused, for example, on English history. One gets the sense that too many entries end up attenuated in this book.

On the positive side the plot summaries are strong and more nuanced, though many entries are badly written (full of odd, obscuring, convoluted syntax). Again, good editorship would have recognized this.

The book primarily succeeds as an enervated survey. Nevertheless, readers will occasionally happen upon some interesting, well-summarized topics.

I'm going to check out the Cambridgean counterpart to the Oxford Companion, and I'm hoping it will give a more in-depth account of ideas and themes. The other Oxford Companions are, however, truly amazing works and deserve a close look.

An excellent resource of information about English works of art

The first 'Oxford Companion to English Literature' was published in 1932 under the editorial direction of Sir Paul Harvey (no relation the American radio commentator). Half a century and five editions later, this is still a standard, authoritative reference work necessary for scholars and interested non-experts alike.

Under the editorship of Margaret Drabble, author and biographer (known for 'The Witch of Exmoor' and the more recently published 'The Peppered Moth'), this volume remains faithful to Harvey's intention of placing English literature in its widest possible context while exploring the deep classical and continental connections that underpin much of the history.

How can literature be divorced from cultural context? Surely it cannot be -- hence the newest entries into the edition include topics that read as if they were taken from today's best-seller shelf:

- Anglo-Indian Literature
- Simon Armitage
- Kate Atkinson
- Louis de Bernieres
- Censorship

- Ben Elton
- Gay and lesbian literature
- Hypertext
- A. L. Kennedy
- Lad's literature
- Literature of science
- New Criticism
- New Irish Playwrights
- Carol Shields
- Travel writing

This sample listing of the latest entries is representative of the more established categories, in that the entries (encyclopedic in character) include Authors, Subjects, Titles, Events, Characters and Critical Theory. The entries are unsigned (an ever-controversial practice in reference works such as this) -- well over a hundred contributors assisted in this volume, including the likes of Matthew Sweet, Salman Rushdie, Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan, Katherine Duncan-Jones, and Brian Vickers.

This volume serves the general reader well in that one may follow cross-reference trails through the text. Take, for instance, Aaron the Moor -- the reader will be directed to Titus Andronicus, to which one is directed to Shakespeare, and from there a host of other cross-references historical and modern. Under the entry of Gabriel Josipovici, one is led back the entries of Rabelais and Bellow, influences as well as objects of Josipovici's study.

The appendices are new features of this edition. The first appendix is a Chronology that lists the chronology of the production of English literature from c.1000 to 1999 side by side with major historical events in Britain and beyond, and the significant events in the lives of literary figures. Appendix 2 lists the Poets Laureate in chronological order, from 1619 (when the office unofficially began) to the present -- surprisingly, there have only been 21 (19 official). Appendix 3 lists major literary award winners: Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize, Library Association Carnegie Medalists, and Booker-McConnell Prize for Fiction. Obviously not all of these are British authors, but it helps to place British literature in the wider world context of the twentieth century (as all of these prizes are twentieth-century creations).

In addition to the encyclopedic entries, there are major essays scattered through the text. These include the following topics:

- Biography
- Black British Literature
- Children's Literature
- Detective Fiction
- Fantasy Fiction
- Ghost Stories
- Gothic Fiction
- Historical Fiction
- Metre
- Modernism
- Post-Colonial Literature
- Romanticism
- Science Fiction
- Spy Fiction
- Structuralism and Post-Structuralism

These essays include history and current development of the genre or topic, as well as bibliographic information for further research, which (regrettably) the smaller encyclopedic entries rarely have.

This is a terrific, one-volume reference that should serve well anyone with a need for quick and ready reference material. It should find a welcome home on the shelf of any avid reader, fan of literature and modern fiction, history, religion, or any devoted Anglophile.

Alejandro Monahan is the son of a NY cop and Mexican Indian mother. The old man "retired" to raise his family in the Baja and was killed by drug lords tied to the title drug. Alejandro is now a sexy club singer and also Chilebean, a deep cover agent with the NYPD looking to avenge his father's death.

Ther characters are great: Che-Che, Roberto Barrios and Pizzaro on the drug side; Too Tall Paulie, Sal Elia and Joey the G-man for the cops. You're never sure who's the real boss is or where the line between undercover agents and the drug business is drawn. Amidst a lot of action Alejandro convinces Che-Che he can guarantee safe importation of heroine using a military guided parachute technology.

With 100 pages to go, the shipment has landed and the multiple Cleopatra lines develop: the drug, the queen and a woman whose father called her that. I had it at five stars until the end, which was just too Hollywood and dropped it down to four. A lousy ending, but an otherwise great cop / druggie story.

I'm used to reading page turners. There were too many characters in this book and I found it a bit hard to catch up to them, and who was the good guy or the bad guy. However, there were plenty of action going on enough to make this book into a movie--people getting shot and killed, cars blowing up, etc., drug abuse, sex, blood everywhere, and ridiculous spy devices put inside genital orifice unheard of in real life. I wasn't too happy about the ending and I thought the Alejandro character wasn't appropriate. A latin singer and a cop? Come one! I found that tacky!

Author and former lieutenant of the NYPD Caunitz is the best of the police procedureal novelists, the most innovative, and one writer who gives you uncensored dialogue. You recognize it as fact; he's been there. His other books tell stories from the police side of things. This one tells about the narcotic trade from the inside as the reader follows the dangerous life of a detective who goes undercover. There is a crushing anaconda, a mysterious feminine killer, and much more. Novelists are able to deduct travel from their income tax which is why we see so many exotic locations in these books and this one is no exception. Some authors end up sounding like travel writers but Caunitz makes it work. Other thriller writers have achieved more fame but no one makes police/detective stories LIVE the way this author does. Try it, you'll like it.

This extension of the familiar nursery rhyme takes readers through several other verses dealing with the weather as well as the Old Mans weight problem. Kin Eagle writes an amusing account of how grandpa responds to different environmental conditions. Hyperbole is rampant but charm is the main ingredient.
Several reviewers have commented on the "weird rhymes" used in this story. However I extend accolades for Eagle on originality. I've always thought there should be more to it than some old man snoring in a coma from a head injury the night before. Now thanks to Eagle I even know the old man's name!
The illustrations are what really make this book a good find. The old man pictured in this book is a very familiar looking man somewhat like the typical grandpa stereotype. Rob Gilbert also draws in a wife. My favorite part of the illustrations though is the use of bright cheery colors. A special treatment has even been given to the raindrops, snowflakes and dragonfly wings that makes them sorta shimmer and stand out from the surface of the rest of the picture. (Library bound version). The pictures are amusing and popping.
Best of all, kids liked it. I listened to this one as my wife read it to 16 preschoolers during story time at the public library. They liked the story. With a large group like the one we entertained, a story that captures the children's attention and imagination is great. The familiarity of the song helped, but the originality of the story was probably the greatest asset to the experience.

This board book extends the traditional rhyme, "It's raining it's pouring, the old man is snoring, he bumped his head and went to bed and couldn't get up in the morning." For instance, another rhyme starts, "It's windy, it's breezy" and "It's snowing, it's blowing..." etc. The illustrations are thoughtful, colorful, and visually interesting, but as the Horn Book reviewer notes, the new rhymes are not particularly appropriate...some are kind of weird. For example, one is "It's snowing, it's blowing, the old man is growing, he ate too much one day for lunch now every part of him is showing." I'd like this book better with different rhymes. I enjoy creative extensions of traditional rhymes (like I really like Iza Trapani's Itsy Bitsy Spider, but this book just didn't do it for me.

This book is great to teach children how to read . It has very good ryming and is very entrtaining.

I do not know how difficult it is to find a proper editor these days, but it is clear that this English version of the book was not translated by one born to speak the language. With that out of the way, This book offers rich uniform plates and maps depicting the twin victories over Prussia by Napoleon. Not exactly in-depth, it does claim title to being one of the few dedicated volumes on these battles.

The reforms of the Prussian army did away with the individual regimental uniform distinctions that had been characteristic since Frederick the Great. I eagerly purchased this work for its many illustrations, as I have been unable to find precise details even in Kling. Unfortunately the illustrations are not very accurate. Problems can be detected even by a novice, simply by noting that the facings of the regiment and its grenadier company are at times depicted with two different colors! Hopefully, the rest of the book is better...

I found this book difficult to read. The narrative does not flow smoothly and the structure is awkward (it is a translation). However, the splendid illustrations more than make up for that. In addition to contemporary prints, numerous color uniform plates are provided. Even if you're not into painting miniatures, it is a joy to browse these plates. The production quality of the book is superb. For the illustrations alone, I recommend this book.

I first picked up A SMALL TOWN IN GERMANY in the late 60s, but, finding it too slow, couldn't finish. My appreciation of John le Carre having increased over the years, I recently gave it another go.

The book is set in the then West German capital of Bonn during the heyday of the Cold War. The British Embassy is beset with a number of mysterious disappearances: a document trolley, a tea machine, an electric fan, and some cups from the Caf. Oh, and a twenty-plus year employee named Otto Harting and a Top Secret "Green File". Meanwhile, on the other side of the embassy fence, a West German industrialist, Karfeld, is inflaming the populace with nationalist speeches, advocating stronger ties with Moscow, and undermining Bundesrepublik support for Britain's entry into the Common Market.

Has Harting bolted to Moscow? The Foreign Office in London dispatches its troubleshooter, Alan Turner, to Bonn to ferret out some answers.

Like le Carre's other books, A SMALL TOWN IN GERMANY is short on action and long on character and plot development. For these very reasons, my appreciation of his later books, especially TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY and SMILEY'S PEOPLE, both featuring the author's most famous hero, George Smiley, lead me to think that my literary tastes have matured over the years, at least when it comes to trashy novels. If the reader of this book squints, he may perhaps see in Turner's dogged pursuit of the puzzle pieces a forerunner of the Smiley character, though the latter is infinitely more subtle and imperturbable. And Turner is not above slapping a lady in his quest for the Truth. Such conduct would be anathema to George, always the gentleman.

That Turner never endears himself to the reader is perhaps the novel's greatest shortcoming. More than that, however, is the fact that the plot is dated. Germany is now re-united, and the capital moved back to Berlin. Bonn is once more a relative backwater. Powerful Germans with an unsavory Nazi past are practically extinct. Moscow is no longer homebase to the pesky KGB and center of the Evil Empire. But the Brits, God love 'em, having told the rest of Europe to take their euros and stuff it, are still stolidly aloof in their island fortress (despite the Chunnel).

A SMALL TOWN IN GERMANY, a must read for all le Carre fans, isn't one of his best efforts when compared to later works. But, I did finish it the second time around!

A delicately woven plot of political power, personal power, and national pride make a thick blanket behind which the powers of the nation-state operate.

The British embassy in Bonn is depicted as a reflection of the Empire. Each character displayed, pinned to a board as one might an insect collection: to be completely examined and scrutinized for flaws, defects, and identifying characteristics. Perhaps most appealing is not being innundated with detail at the beginning. We find the strings along with Alan Turner, secrutiy expert, wondering where they will lead us. A missing man, Leo Harting, Harting Leo, a German war refugee who returned to his Fatherland, is also a mystery man: spy, patriot, or simply a nobody? Nobody seems to know the same version of the man.

A skillful display of the politics and social up-heaval in early 60s Germany as a mighty nation struggled to determine its own future once again. Le Carrè's experience working in the very same Embassy in the early 60s no doubt provides the truly realistic vision he paints so skillfully with words. The entire profession of diplomacy is not painted in a particularly flattering light - the supremecy of the nebulous national goals reigns over the reality of the individual's life.

As a first taste of his writing, I am eagerly looking forward to more.

This might be Le Carre's most ambitious and best written book. It contains a host of well drawn characters and the clever plotting typical of all Le Carre's best work. As with his other good books, Le Carre uses the spy novel format to investigate matters well beyond the usual formulas of thrillers. This book is set in Bonn, in the late 50s or early 60s. Almost all the action takes place within the British embassy. The latter is depicted as a microcosm of British society, with its class, ethnic, and religous divisions, its repressions and emphasis on maintaining British prestige. This book is an allegory and devastating critique of British national policy in that period. Le Carre shows the insularity of British society, its inability to deal with reduction to a second-rate military and economic power, and its preference for preferring shabby deals maintaining British prestige to concrete achievements.

I read this book, the 2nd in the series I think, after I'd read the first 'The Dream Catcher' and the third 'Enchanted By You'. I was very impressed by the first and liked the third one, but I was pretty disappointed with this one. The main female character was a little too vapid & annoying - could never make up her mind among other things. The plot was a bit too formulatic and didn't captivate my interest like the other books in the series. It would be better if you read the other two - I highly recommend them.

It surprised me, it was well written with likable characters. What I loved most was the interaction and dialogue which displayed a real connection between the two main characters. So much of romance is formula but somehow Ms. Harrington was able to surprise me. I was expecting a typical (mediocre) romance but the story lingered with me even after I closed this book. Its on my "keeper" shelf and I know I will read it many more times.

I loved this book! This is not your run-of-the mill romance. The characters and the relationship of the hero/heroine were well developed consistently through this book. The plot had some refreshing surprises from beginning to end. I love the romance genre but bored after reading so may predictable plots. I bought this book desperate for a change in the romance "formula" and was not disappointed!

'The Eagle and the Sword' is an incredibly heavy-handed dull book. Attanasio uses a running narrative for the entire 340 pages, so that instead of feeling like a part of the action, the reader is treated to a history lesson. (Example: This happened, then this happened..and then this happened..That's the basic gist of it)

At several points I found myself wondering whether English is Attanasio's original language, or whether this book had been translated from another tongue. It's hard to believe that this is the same author responsible for the stunning Adam Lee 'Dominions of Irth' trilogy.

The eagle and the sword proved to be a very entertaining continuation of Mr. Attanasio's very literate version of the Arthurian legend; however, I must say that it did not fully live up to it's predecessor, the dragon and the unicorn. The book has less of the beautiful mysticism and focuses more on the life of Arthur (I suppose it is Arthurian legend after all). To me, the best ingredient in this book is the character of The Demon Lailoken, aka Myrddin, aka Merlinus, aka Merlin. The characters of Arthur, Morgeu the Fey, and The Furor are well thought out and vivid, but Merlin and Prince Bright Night(a prince of the Daoine Sid) steal the show. For me, the most fabulous section of the story was when Hannes (an unlikely apprentice of Merlin) enters the shadowy twilight world of the "hollow hills" to bring back Excalibur. The preternatural, eerie scene almost wails it's otherworldly ululation right off the page. Overall, the book is a very interesting read. I reccomend it (and the series) for anyone interested in Arthurian Legend that is tired of the same old, worn out stories endlessly circulating through the halls of bookstores everywhere. This is a fresh, creative and ingenious new take on the once and future King. Finally, I must say that the archaic and oft difficult to comprehend language of The Dragon and the Unicorn is not carried over to the Eagle and the Sword. This book is a bit easier to read, but just as entertaining.

Lailoken, a.k.a. Merlin, Aquila Regalis Thor, a.k.a. Arthor, and Morgue the Fey are the three main characters in the book. In this book, a demon-turn wizard in a human guise, creates the glorious kingdom of Camelot, while looking for a true king, despite complications by the powerful sorceress Morgue who seeks to avenge her father who had accidentally been killed by Merlin. However, as Arthor takes his title as king, Merlin discovers that Arthor is but a callow youth whose only joy is killing and destroying; can he be stopped? I was greatly entertained by this fantasy novel with all of its action and suspense. The way the author displayed the legendary events in Arthor's time was very detailed and vivid; it allowed the book to come to life. I could see and feel Merlin's long battles with Morgue. It felt like I had a front row seat as a spectator when Arthor pulled the sword Excaliber out from the giant stone! I also enjoyed how the author created distinct, unique, and bold personalities for each of the main characters in the story. What the characters wore was interesting because their attire had come to symbolize each of them: Merlin with his glamorous and magical robes, Arthor with his sharp and heavy suit of armor, and Morgue with her light and seemingly swift sheets, appearing and disappearing with the wind. I thought the characters were magnificently done. So, I would like to conclude my review of The Eagle and the Sword by congratulating the author, A.A. Attanasio, on doing a great job of compiling all of the widely known, as well as some not-so-well known, characters and events into one fabulous book. I highly recommened reading this book to anyone at or above the age of 12! I assure you that you will enjoy this book as much as I did!