London Bridges (Alex Cross Novels)

Book Description

Alex Cross is back--and so is the Big Bad Wolf. Terrorists have seized the worlds largest cities. London, Washington, DC, New York, and Frankfurt will be destroyed, unless their demands are met--and their demands are impossible. After a city in the western United States is fire bombed--a practice run--Alex Cross knows that it is only a matter of time before the bombers threats to the other cities are brutally executed.Heading up the investigation by the FBI, CIA, and Interpol, Alex Cross is stunned when surveillance photos show Geoffrey Shafer, the Weasel, near one of the bombing sites. He senses the presence of the Wolf as well, the most vicious predator he has ever battled. With millions of lives in the balance, Cross has to see if the most powerful law enforcement agencies in the world can stay ahead of these two mens cunning.

Customer Reviews:

Big Fan Felt very dissapointed.......2007-09-20

I am big fan of James Patterson. But this book disappointed me so much that this is the first time, I am writing review any book. This book forced me write this review. If you are big fan of James Patterson, please please skip this book. Because this is nothing but big big disappointment. The story takes you to a peak and drop you from 50,000 foot free fall till you hit the rocky ground and felt I have wasted all this time on this stupid book. I am sorry to say this, but it is very true.

Poor Attempt.......2007-07-12

It seems as if the author wrote this while running for a plane at an airport. Short, meaningless chapters, poor pacing, and inferior character development. Does anyone really care what happens to these characters? Not me.

London Bridge Fell Down.......2007-07-08

This book seemed a formulaic labor that Patterson had to get through and be done with. Once he got to the point where Cross was going to capture the criminals he wanted to get, the rest seemed matter of fact. Cross chased these two guys through two previous novels, and this book - where he finally got them - seemed, to me, anti-climactic.

Definitely not his best ...........2007-05-30

I'm a big fan of Patterson's "Alex Cross" series, but this one was just not very good. It was very far-fetched and the ending was like hitting a brick wall. It was also tough to keep up with all the characters that were introduced. It's not the worst book I've read and it does keep you turning the pages ... just don't expect too much, and don't expect to have all your questions answered.

One of the worst books I've read in months.......2007-05-09

As I read through this book with its 4 paragraph chapters, I kept wondering how this book ever got published? London Bridges reads like an outline of a book, a skeleton -- where's the beef? Maybe it was just meant to be a pitch for a summer movie - lots of blowing things up, unbelievable plotlines, and underdeveloped characters. I wish I could be a literary bulemic - purge myself of this book's stupidity and get back my time spent reading it. Now I'm even hungrier for Lee Child's new Jack Reacher book due out in a week.

Bacon's Up to Date Map of London 1902: Showing electric railways, Tubes and Tramways, with an illustrated guide to Public Buildings, Palaces, Picture Galleries, Bridges, Hospitals, Markets, Parks, etc

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Bacon's Up to Date Map of London 1902: Showing electric railways, Tubes and Tramways, with an illustrated guide to Public Buildings, Palaces, Picture Galleries, Bridges, Hospitals, Markets, Parks, etc

Manufacturer: Old House Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Map

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Alexander's Bridge (Virago Modern Classics)

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Cather's first novel
An ersatz Edith Wharton masquerading as Willa Cather
A Bridge to Her Better Work
Clearly not her best...

Alexander's Bridge (Virago Modern Classics)
Willa Cather
Manufacturer: Virago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1853811637

Book Description

Bartley Alexander, an engineer famous for the audacious structure of his North American bridges, is at the height of his reputation. He has a distinguished and beautiful wife and an enviable Boston home. Then, on a trip to London, he has a chance encounter with an Irish actress he once loved. When their affair re-ignites, Alexander finds himself caught in a tug of emotions—between his feelings for wife, who has supported his career with understanding and strength, and Hilda, whose impulsiveness and generosity restore to him the passion and energy of his youth. Coinciding with this personal dilemma are ominous signs of strain in his professional life. In this, her first novel, originally published in 1912, Willa Cather skillfully explores the struggle between opposing sides of the self, a facility that was to become a hallmark of her craft.

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Alexander's Bridge (1912), Willa Cather's first novel, tells the story of Bartley Alexander, a successful engineer torn between duty to his career and wife, and his passion for the Irish actress Hilda Burgoyne. In spare but often searing prose, Cather's taut novella traces a mid-life crisis of self-doubt and disappointment that ends in a spectacular catastrophe. Cather's portraits of indomitable women on the Nebraska frontier in the novels O Pioneers! and My Antonia are well-known, but Alexander's Bridge shows her working in another, equally important mode, using urban settings and the figure of the bridge-builder to analyse America's emergence as an international industrial power at the turn of the twentieth century. Both anxious and celebratory, Alexander's Bridge anticipates The Great Gatsby in trying to reckon with the social and emotional costs of a new era in American life.

Customer Reviews:

Cather's first novel.......2006-04-02

Willa Cather's first novel, it concerns the life of engineer Bartley Alexander, the bridge he's building across the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, and the triangular relationship he has with his wife and mistress. The bridge becomes a symbol for his failures: the great bridge he's building collapses (causing his death) at the same time his affair with Hilda collapses. Cather had only published short stories before this, and was reluctant (though resigned) to writing a novel. It's a short work, and Cather herself thought it was shallow and trite (she almost disowned it). Her next work, O PIONEERS, would be much better.

An ersatz Edith Wharton masquerading as Willa Cather.......2003-02-13

Light on plot, heavy on symbolism, and a little predictable, Cather's first novel (a novella, actually) still contains moments of brilliance, especially in its strong characterizations and occasional flashes of wit. The story concerns a Boston architect who is contendedly married but suddenly embarks on an affair in London with an old flame from his youth. He soon becomes tormented over his double life but finds himself unable to resolve his conflicted feelings. Heavily indebted to the Gilded Age novelists, "Alexander's Bridge" reads like a typical first novel from a writer who shows a lot of promise.

Later in life, Cather wrote an essay entitled "My First Novels (There Were Two)," as close to an apology for a first novel as most writers ever make. She admitted that most of the "younger writers" in her peer group followed the manner of Henry James and Edith Wharton, "without having their qualifications"; she "thought a book should be made out of 'interesting material.'" Only while writing her next novel, "O Pioneers!," did she realize that "taking a ride through a familiar country"--the rural Nebraska of her youth--was "a much more absorbing process." Nevertheless, "Alexander's Bridge" hints at the virtuoso novelist she was later to become, and it's certainly better than many writers achieve in an entire lifetime.

A Bridge to Her Better Work.......2000-11-16

This was Willa Cather's first novel, and, while showing glimpses of her later talent, is mostly disappointing. The metaphor of the bridge--the conduit to both the past and the future--figures prominently in this story of a Boston architect torn between his ongoing "mid-life" crisis and his energetic, passion-filled past.

The story contains some heavy-handed symbolism (e.g., the bridge), melodramatic action ("With one [hand] he threw down the window and with the other--still standing behind her--he drew her back against him), and awkward phrasing: "'He was simply the most tremendous response to stimuli I have ever known.'"

Still, the story moves along well, and there is an interesting Henry James-like contrast of Europe and America. The beginning nicely portrays the Boston upper class, and the dramatic conclusion includes passages of great strength and imagination. It is in this last chapter, especially, that her skills are most evident. Willa Cather is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of "O Pioneers!" "My Antonia," and other great works. Definitely recommended for those with an interest in her work.

Clearly not her best..........2000-09-17

I'll make this review brief:

Cather didn't know how to write very well when she put this novel together. I have read iher style here as being comparable to Henry James... no way. This novel is too short, too abrupt, and too lacking in the details needed to pull off decent character motivation, somethng I find vital to novels dealing with infidelity and love.

Book Description

London Bridge has been the subject of landscape painters and the inspiration of writers, poets and creators of nursery rhymes for centuries and is crossed by thousands of people everyday. This publication from the Museum of London presents a 13-step guide to the history and archaeology of London Bridge from prehistoric times to the present day. Bruce Watson describes the evidence for the first timber river crossing of the Roman period, the Saxon bridge and refortification of London c.AD 1000, the medieval bridge as well as more recent periods of collapse, dismantlement and rebuilding. Based on information and finds from excavations taking place around the bridge since the early 19th century, this is an excellent history of an important London monument.

Building World Landmarks - The London Tower Bridge (Building World Landmarks)

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Building World Landmarks - The London Tower Bridge (Building World Landmarks)
Margaret Speaker Yuan
Manufacturer: Blackbirch Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

The London Tower Bridge is one of England's most recognized landmarks. Completed in 1894, the bridge features a system that allows the roadway to open so that tall ships can pass through. Learn about the bridge's design and how it has stood the test of time.

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london bridge
Celine's self-parody wears the reader's nerves to a pulp

London Bridge: Guignol's Band II
Louis-Ferdinand Celine
Manufacturer: Dalkey Archive Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Guignol's Band

ASIN: 1564780716

Amazon.com

A hilarious novel about the dark and devilish London underworld during World War I, London Bridge follows Celine's autobiographical narrator through his tumultuous relationships with London's pimps and whores, a mystical Frenchman, and the narrator's lover: the daughter of an English baronet whose fall from grace is amazingly -- suspiciously -- swift. If you've read Celine, you'll again enjoy his trademark style of brusque observations and short bursts of prose and ellipses. If you haven't, you're in for a wild and wonderful ride.

Book Description

a novel, GUIGNOL'S BAND II, tr Dominic Di Bernardi

Customer Reviews:

london bridge.......2001-11-29

actually the rating is for the translation.

when i saw "london bridge" (guignol's band II), i was ecstatic as i had read all of celine's work available in english before it had come out (even searching out the then-out-of-print "north"-"castle to castle"-"rigadon" trilogy).

to my dismay i did not care for it as much as i had hoped.

for me (and others may have a different experience), i did not like the tone of the translation (but i did not like the translation of guignol's band I either). for me, london bridge felt self-conciously hip.

i much prefer mannhiem's translations of celine's work. perhaps i have come to equate his tone with celine's.

i think that journey and installment plan (both 5-star ratings)are better places to start with celine, then moving on to the afore-mentioned trilogy (4.5 stars each). if completeness is needed, i'd move on to the guignol's band series.

others may have a different viewpoint.

Celine's self-parody wears the reader's nerves to a pulp.......1997-03-26

Louis-Ferdinand Celine has called his prose style 'the little music'. Celine is certainly capable of delicate, ironic, 'musical' writing, and you can find it easily in 'Journey to the End of Night' and 'Death on the Installment Plan'. Take one of his perfect, casual aphorisms in 'Journey': "[He] had the vice of the intellectual: he was futile." 'London Bridge' is the most excessive of Celine's books, flooded with exclamation marks and ellipses. Celine does not so much write as yell prose in 'London Bridge'. This is a book written entirely in italics, managing to sustain a mood of delirious excitement which never once modulates into anything more interesting or musical. It is a story of a youth and his dubious mentor, two Frenchmen, who are travelling abroad, and have found themselves in London. Ostensibly they are in London to get rich on the proceeds of the older man's invention - a revolutionary gas mask that will save the lives of Allied soldiers. But everything goes completely wrong from the start. The book is dominated by the protagonist Ferdinand's careening, drunken tours of the city's filthiest, sexiest precincts, and he has lots of wild violent adventures. No-one makes any money on the invention, of course. Everyone is broke and in a state of physical collapse by the end and the endless exclamations, bangings, crashings and frantic, sweat-slicked pursuits seem to have been calculated to wear the reader's nerves to a pulp. At its best, 'London Bridge' is funny, high-speed, carnivalesque farce. But so is the rest of Celine's output, and this book entirely lacks the backhanded profundity of, for example, his treatments of World War I, the follies of the bourgeoisie, colonial power and madness in 'Journey to the End of Night'. 'London Bridge' is more difficult to read than any work of Beckett. I never thought I would find a writer of whom I could say this. 'London Bridge' is the worst possible introduction to Celine - in it, he parodies himself. This work contains all of Celine's irritations and none of his rewards.

London Bridge: 2000 Years of a River Crossing (Molas Monograph, 8)

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London Bridge: 2000 Years of a River Crossing (Molas Monograph, 8)
Bruce Watson , Trevor Brigham , and Tony Dyson
Manufacturer: Museum of London Archaeological Service
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Book Description

The very existence of London came about because of its bridges. The Romans realized that it was the most convenient place to bridge the Thames estuary, which offers an excellent navigable routeway from the North Sea westwards far into central England, and constructed a series of bridges, which went out of use during the 4th century AD. The great stone bridge lined with houses and shops was constructed c. 1176-1209, and it became one of the most recognizable visual images of London between the 13th and 17th centuries, one of the most important structures and spaces in medieval and early modern London, rich in historical events, contemporary activities and symbolism. It was home to a thriving residential and working population, but gaining access to the bridge was also vital to the success of protesting crowds and rebel armies. Twice in 1281-2 and 1437, parts of the stone bridge were broken by a combination of ice and neglect. It was demolished in 1831-2 after the construction of a new bridge upstream.

This volume is based on the 1984 investigation of the Southwark medieval bridge abutment and combines the archaeological, architectural, historical and pictorial evidence for London's greatest bridge. The scene of battles and pageants, London Bridge was also where the 'keep left' on the road rule began in 1722.

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A Maxwell's Demon on the brink of collapse.

On the Bridge...

London Bridge
Louis-Ferdinand Celine
Manufacturer: Dalkey Archive Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Guignol's Band

North North

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Conversations With Professor Y

ASIN: 1564781755

Book Description

In this widely acclaimed translation, Dominic Di Bernardi expertly captures Celine's trademark style of prose which has served as inspiration to such American writers as Philip Roth, Kurt Vonnegut, William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski, Norman Mailer and Joseph Heller. One of the last major untranslated works by France's most controversial author, London Bridge is a riotous novel about the London underworld during World War I. Picking up where Guignol's Band (1944; English translation 1954) left off, Celine's autobiographical narrator recounts his disastrous partnership with a mystical Frenchman (intent on financing a trip to Tibet by winning a gas-mask competition); his uneasy relationship with London's pimps and whores and their common nemesis, Inspector Matthew of Scotland Yard; and, most scandalously, his affair with a baronet's 14-year-old daughter, an English angel whose descent into vice is suspiciously smooth. He dreams of escaping with her to America to start a new life, but he, his mystical partner, and his underaged mistress finally awake to reality crossing windswept London Bridge. Written in his trademark style--a headlong rush of slang, brusque observation, and quirky lyricism, delivered in machine-gun bursts of prose and ellipses--Celine re-creates the dark days during the Great War with sordid verisimilitude and desperate hilarity, expertly captured in Dominic Di Bernardi's racy translation.

Customer Reviews:

A Maxwell's Demon on the brink of collapse........2002-05-15

'London Bridge' continues the misadventures of Ferdinard, anti-hero of 'Guignol's Band' and altar-ego of Celine. Exiled in the London underworld during the Great War, having served at the front and been decorated for bravery, a shellshocked Ferdinand, shrapnel in his brain, prone to fits and blackouts and a gammy left arm, on the run after the violent death of an associate, has hooked up with Sosthene de Rodiencourt, an aging Orientalist mystic. To finance a trip to Tibet, both have offered their services to a wealthy baronet, Colonel O'Collogham, who is testing military gas-masks in the hope of landing a lucrative contract. While Sosthene and O'Collogham test the masks, rattling the large house with bombs and chemicals, Ferdinand attempts to resist the lure of his host's angelic, underage, skimpily-dressed ward, Virginia, whom the Colonel humiliates by whipping in front of the servants. Terrorised by paranoia (that both the police and his old cronies are after him), a trip into the city for supplies sees Ferdinand confronted with unwelcome shades from the past.

The exhausting, febrile, exclamatory style of 'Bridge' takes its cue from its two protagonists, the mentally disoriented Ferdinand and the rythmically possessed Sostehme, with his epileptic Eastern dances. Comprising a handful of extended set-pieces, Celine doesn't so much describe the action so much as circle around it like a deranged vulture, skirting it with an excess of repetition, obscenity and slang. Ferdinand's 'reportage', coloured by paranoia, hallucination, spasms, fantasy, desire, dream, rage, confession, frustration, guilt, fear and shellshock is further disoriented by the skittish rhythms of his partner, whose possessed, frenzied dances imitate cod-Oriental texts. Many of the teeming set-pieces reveolve around literal dances - the acrobatic choreography of a ghost in a pulsing nightclub; the attempts by Sosthene to stop traffic in Picadilly with a ritualistic dance - and the style mimics their wild, jerking, swaying movements. The novel's coup-de-grace is an astonishing 100 page parody of Proust's 'Time Regained', using the same subject matter - Zeppelin air-raids, a phantasmagoric social occasion in which the hero meets figures from his past; the disorienting mix of aristocracy and criminality - but grinding it through a snarling demotic, brutal lowlife energy and slapstick violence, culminating in the arrival of a four months-long decomposing corpse.

This misanthropic catalogue of degraded and violent, if vibrant, human interaction finds room for some of the most vivid, hyperbolic and poetic descriptions of (a re-imagined) London in literature, with its labyrinthine back-streets, infernal hideouts and hangouts, and the teeming, larger-than-life activity of its ports, just as England's imperial glory is coming to an end.

The compulsive present-tense immediacy of the narrative is occasionally broken off by reminders of the narrator's vantage-point in the hell of World War 2, with the full knowledge of civilisation's embrace of the abyss. This twisted nostalgia, complete with incredulous winkings with the reader, mixed with Shakespeare, fairy tale and the Arabian Nights, illuminates the violence and grime with a genuine enchantment.

The full flavour of Celine's complex, neologistic verbal onslaught can never be caught in English, but translator Dominic di Bernardi comes closest yet, capturing rhythm, pace and the sheer overabundance or words, and is a vast improvement on the existing version of 'Guignol's Band' (any chance of having a go at that now, Mr. di Bernardi?)

On the Bridge..........2000-10-04

The manuscript was found in the ruins of a post war Europe, "London Part 2" was the continuation of "Guignol's Band"...set in England amidst the lower denizens of the underworld during World War One, Celine invites us to walk down the dark paths once again...

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Another good one in a series
A good pre-trip read

The Bridges in London (Going to)
Michele Spirn
Manufacturer: Four Corners Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1893577007

Book Description

There are many mysteries to be solved when Robin Bridge gets to London with her sister Jo and their mom. But none of them stop Robin and Jo from having the time of their lives exploring the fabulous sites and sights of the British Capitol.

Customer Reviews:

Another good one in a series.......2003-08-09

I bought this book as well as the one about Paris for my 2 children before our European trip. We found them to be very helpful to the kids and gave them things to look for and be excited about on our trip besides the ravens at the Tower of London.

A good pre-trip read.......2001-03-30

We bought this slender book before taking our 4 kids on a trip to London and wanted reading material that would give them a sense of the place; it's an overview of the major sites loosely tied together with a mystery narrative. It also contains a list of about 20 must-sees described from the point of view of Robin, the fictional narrator; also a glossary of British slang terms. It's not great fiction, but it's a good starting place for kids wanting to know more about modern London. I wish the 2 kids in the story (ages 12 and 14) were more enthusiastic about the places they visited... they give the impression that London is a stodgy place through which their parents drag them... but it all comes out right in the end.

Book Description

A KISS IS NOT JUST A KISS

When ten-year-old prodigy Negi Springfield graduated from university with a degree in magic, he never imagined he would soon be teaching English to a bevy of gorgeous high school girls. Now Negi’s old friend Chamo, a lecherous weasel from Wales, and student Asakura have arranged a competition among the girls to see which of the lovely students will be the first to kiss the teacher! Sure, a kiss will strengthen Negi’s magical abilities, but doesn’t this contest just support Chamo’s voyeuristic proclivities? On the other hand, Negi needs all the help he can get when the magical creatures of western Japan strike back!

Customer Reviews:

what's in a kiss? plenty, for Negi!!.......2007-05-25

I'm making it a personal mission to review every Negima! novel before the start of June. Here I go on number five. (Update: it ain't happening. lol)

Volume five seems to be one of the most confused novels of the series, but on no fault of either Akamatsu-san or Del Rey Publishers; it's all due (in the first part) to Asakura-san, who teams up with the pervin' ermine Chamo for a little contest on the Kyoto/Nara field trip. The point of this wild little romp? Face off against nine other opponents in order to get a kiss with Negi-sensei- except since Chamo has drawn a magic circle around the perimeter of the hotel, the girl who kisses Negi will also become one of his temporary partners. Nodoka enters the contest, and her teammate (the 10 contestants are split into five groups of two) is Yue Ayase, who reveals that she, too, has very intense feelings for Negi. The inclusion of five fake Negis (due to his failure to write his name correctly on four talismans, but finally getting the fifth one right so he can go out on patrol) and their unfortunate side-effects (they explode once kissed) add for some more hilarity. But in the end, all is well- the talismans are all destroyed and Nodoka ends up being the one to kiss Negi, though only because Yue trips her and she falls on Negi, kissing him in the process.

Thus ends that story arc, and begins the next. Setsuna and Konoka set out on a trip through Nara, and its famed Cinema Village, while Negi and Asuna (and, unbeknowst to them, Nodoka) try to deliver the letter. Negi and Asuna are ambushed by Kotaro, a master of the dog onmyou and little brat who simply wants to fight Negi to see how strong he really is (Kotaro knows Negi is the Thousand Master's son). Setsuna and Konoka, on the other hand, are forced to face off against Tsukuyomi, Setsuna's former kouhai (or student, since Tsukuyomi calls Setsuna "sempai"), and they eventually drag in Asakura-san, the Class Rep, and a bunch of other people into the fight. At the end, something is revealed, although I won't tell you what. (I'm bad, aren't I? lol)

Volume five is better than all the other ones, and the series just keeps getting better than ever. A good bit of the humor is lost from this volume, as one of Del Rey's main publishers who worked on volumes 1-4 did not work on 5, unfortunately; this doesn't mean, however, that there is a lack of fan service, which there is not- it's still there, and in full force (fortunately). All in all, volume 5 of Mahou Sensei Negima (the title in Japanese) is another wild little excursion for our pint-sized wizard and his harem of junior-high lovers.

Enjoy!!

~andy~

The field trip continues..........2006-11-06

A Negi-kissing contest. A magic picture diary that can read minds. Negi gets trapped in a walkway. And a showdown with those after Konoka.

Negi times six, Kotaro the dog-boy, and Asuna gets more use of her battle fan. I love this series!

Kisses and battles.......2005-10-27

Field trips are almost never so much fun -- or so dangerous. Negi Springfield makes some new enemies in the fifth volume of "Negima: Magister Negi Magi," a volume almost evenly split between romantic hijinks and lethal magical battles. Keep it up, Ken Akamatsu.

"Paparazzi chick" Asakura has found out about Negi's magical abilities, and has teamed up with pervy ermine Chamo to exploit them. She arranges a "kiss Negi" competition among the girls, in order to get him more probationary partners. Problem is, Negi has botched a doppelganger spell, and now there are five half-witted Negi clones wandering around the building. Will anyone kiss the real Negi?

Meek Nodoka comes out of the deal with a magical card, which transforms into a mind-reading book. Meanwhile, Asuna and Negi prepare to deal with a thuggish band of eastern wizards. Unfortunately, they end up trapped in a bamboo forest with one of them: Kotaro Inugami, a lethal dog-boy. And finally, a strange girl with a crush on Setsuna challenges her to combat...

The fifth volume of "Negima" is probably the first one where we see a completely equal balance of fights and comedic problems -- one is fight-based, one is comic, and the third is both. This is probably the best balance that Ken Akamatsu has, and he does a pretty good job.

The story is still littered with underwear shots, crushes on a preteen, and the might-be-might-be-not interpretations of Setsuna and Konoka's relationship. And the humour is getting even funnier, with the exploding Negi duplicates causing mass confusion. But the magical duels are becoming more complex, and the enemies are getting a lot more lethal -- Kotaro is perhaps even worse an enemy for Negi than Evangeline the vampire was.

More and more girls have found out Negi's secret, and with the addition of Nodoka as a second probationary partner (nobody permanent yet), there's a bit more romantic tension. Negi himself undergoes a bit of growth, as he talks about his determination to become more powerful, and Asuna finally admits that she could "never hate anyone who gave his all." Although it's anyone's guess who she hasn't made Chamo into ermine mittens yet.

More probationary contracts, magical enemies and funny competitions are the backbone of the fifth "Negima" volume. It started off weakly, but keeps getting better.

School Trip Part 2 of 3.......2005-07-01

Volume 5 picks up where Volume 4 left off and while half of the manga is dedicated to a humor story (though an important one), the 2nd-half is dedicated to the main story arc with new enemies, new allies, and further proof that "Negima!" is much more than a lolicon ecchi-fest.

With Asakura (Kazumi) having learned Negi's secret, Chamo-kun uses her to scout out potential partners for Negi. Chamo-kun will get ermine dollars and Asakura gets to have some fun and more. A contest between several pairs of girls we've been previously introduced to is formed with the goal of kissing Negi. Asakura has rigged video monitoring in the inn for the contest and provides the play-by-play for the rest of the girls who are watching it on TV. What they don't know is that Se-chan provided Negi with paper dolls which when activated create a duplicate of him so that he can help Se-chan and Asuna patrol the inn grounds. The duplicates cause all sorts of fun and the girls that kiss them create flawed magic cards. Only Miyazaki manages to kiss the real Negi and create a real card, which she is given a copy of though she doesn't know its true nature.

Meanwhile Asuna is given a copy of her card so that she can activate her special weapon when she wants and she can communicate with Negi no matter how far apart they are. Miyazaki overhears this and discovers the card creates a book for her, which then reveals to her information of things going on in the form of a picture diary. So as Asuna, Negi, Chamo-kun, and a paper doll in the form of a mini Se-chan head to the temple to deliver the letter and finish Negi's quest, Se-chan guards Konoka-chan along with Yue and Saotome.

Negi and Asuna soon find themselves in a magic trap where they battle Kotaro, a powerful kid in the Kansai Group. Miyazaki follows the action from her book and eventually comes upon the fight in person. Using the book, she helps Negi and Asuna as they fight for their lives. Meanwhile Se-chan is attacked as another kidnapping attempt is made on Konoka-chan and has to defend Konoka-chan with her life.

The story continues to become more interesting. Even the kiss contest was very interesting though it only added little to the main story arc. However, the groundwork is clearly being laid for some of these girls to have greater roles as we see with Miyazaki. I like how her character is being brought along. The amount of fanservice has dropped off in this volume. It is still there, but considering the sheer amounts of it in Volume 4, it is a relief to have it cut back so much.

Peter David is not part of the English adaptation in this volume, so his trademark humor is missing. That's not a problem, just an observation. Del Rey continues to do a good job with the honorifics, translator notes, spell dictionary, a display of the botched cards, some character sketches by Akamatsu-sensei, and an English preview of Volume 6.

Bottom line: "Negima!" continues to impress with its interesting story and is turning into a favorite manga title of mine. I look forward to buying Volume 6!

Pillow talk and movie magic.......2005-05-24

More crazy adventures from Akamatsu Ken, featuring his young wizard Negi Springfield and the girls who have the hots for him.

If you have been following the series to this, Volume 5, then you are familiar with the style of the book and its characters. Here, it's part two of the school trip, with the kids in Kyoto facing off against menaces of their own creation as well as new challenges

The Kissing Contest in the first section is hilarious, with Asakura and Chamo arranging a contest amongst the students to see who will be the first to kiss Negi. Of course, things never go as planned, and hijinks ensue, even in this unorthodox situation. The romance between Negi and Nodoka heats up from her attempted confession last issue, and Nodoka is determined to be the kisser. However, there are some unexpected twists, and even the stalwart Yue reveals secret longings and gets into the game.

Next up is the revelation of new player, Kotaro, who challenges Negi and Asuna, after isolating them from the rest of the crew. Nadoka's new abilities are revealed, and she lends a hand to the two battlers. (Powers which manage to flip up her skirt every time they are used. Ahhh...Akamatsu...) Kotaro is a great new character, one who will play an even larger part as the story unfolds.

Finally, a trip to Movie Village in Kyoto, famed as the place where Samurai dramas are filmed, allows for more action from Konoka and Setsuna. This is a good chance to get the gals in period costumes, and for Sestuna to play the Knight Errant.

Volume 5 is a somewhat transitional book, setting the stage for the climatic battle that will come in future volumes, and allowing some of the girl's to get charged up. It is nice to see the Konoka/Setsuna storyline expanded on, and Kotaro is a great character and an interesting foil for Negi.

Magister Negi Magi Vol. 5 (Mahousensei Negima!) (in Japanese)

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Magister Negi Magi Vol. 5 (Mahousensei Negima!) (in Japanese)
Ken Akamatsu
Manufacturer: Kodansha
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Comic

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ASIN: B000LMIFMM

Negima!: Magister Negi Magi #05: Negima! 5: Magister Negi Magi

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Negima!: Magister Negi Magi #05: Negima! 5: Magister Negi Magi
Ken Akamatsu
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OVGQZI

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