Turbulence: A Novel (Pegasus Prize for Literature)

Book Description

In this dazzling, earthy novel -- winner of the prestigious Pegasus Prize for Literature -- Jia Pingwa presents an unforgettable chronicle of rural China, a world at once utterly alien and uncannily familiar. Called "impressive and revealing" (Kirkus Reviews), Turbulence follows the lives of two peasants, Golden Dog and Water Girl, through the post-Mao years and sets their star-crossed love for each other against the political upheavals of China itself. Pitted against the bureaucracy that hamstrings modern China, Golden Dog is an idealistic reporter not afraid to lash out at the abuses and corruption of the rival Tian and Gong clans. As he winds through a fascinating cast of revolutionary cadres, bureaucrats, fortune-tellers, blacksmiths, farmers, and artisans, Golden Dog, however, suffers a series of setbacks. Despite his love for the saintly Water Girl, the two seem destined to be kept apart by the vicissitudes of politics and culture -- she twice widowed and he pressured into an engagement with the seductive Yingying and, racked by guilt, turning at times to the lovely Shi Hua for solace. Part epic story, part love story, part political parable, Turbulence places the reader in a world where the I Ching exists alongside The Thoughts of Chairman Mao. Yet the sheer humanity of the novel transcends both cultural and political differences and makes it stunningly resonant to our own culture. "A rare, richly detailed, and insightful account of life in a Chinese village ... With earthy language and bawdy humor." -- Ann Scott Tyson, The Christian Science Monitor

Customer Reviews:

Great Insight into Chinese culture.......2006-02-03

I found this book very good and very insightful into the minds of the average Chinese person. I highly recommend this book.

dumb book.......2004-03-27

It was dumb. Why do I care about Chinese peasants? Peasants are never interesting. It has a dumb ending.

Best Chinese Novelist's Best Book.......2000-03-24

Jia Pingwa in his country, just like Faulkner in Mississippi. He knows the people, he loves the people and he writes the people. Read his book, you will know them.

Average customer rating:

Little Log Book with Great Big Art
Fascinating but
inside an artist's head

Turbulence: A Log Book
Henrik Drescher
Manufacturer: Chronicle Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0811828700

Book Description

Turbulence: A Log Book is an intricately produced artist's book that provides a narrative experience like no other. A tour of the vividly imagistic world of renowned illustrator Henrik Drescher, Turbulence follows one man through a troubled past, the uncertain future, and into the timeless realm of myth. A man boards a ship with a valise. In his cabin he opens the case, revealing a small replica of the boat he's on. Through its portholes he embarks on a journey filled with strange and terrible visions...Incorporating the symbolic language of Drescher's trademark illustration and collage style, Hindu mythology, and remarkable production elements, Turbulence is a rare occasion for a world-class artist to create a unique piece of art in book form, and a total immersion into a sophisticated visual experience.

Customer Reviews:

Little Log Book with Great Big Art.......2004-07-23

This was a fantastic recent find at a used bookstore. The art is amazing. The story...so-so. I bought it for the art. Visually stunning, Henrik Drescher is someone I'm going to pay attention to in the future.

Fascinating but.......2004-04-25

Henrik Drescher is an amazingly talented man and this book certainly is evidence of both his skill and creativity. However, I find more and more I want books to endure more than one read or more than one view. After I went through the book once, I found it languished on my shelf. It is nonetheless worth that one long view.

inside an artist's head.......2001-12-04

i was not able to really follow the story, and that was a little frustrating, but i came away grateful that i had the opportunity to glance into the most personal depths of a man's mind.
drescher's images conjure up dark feelings, yet they are fascinating in their seeming honesty.
I recommend this book for people who enjoy personal looks at artists.

A novel approach to model turbulence Part I: theoretical formulation.: An article from: Journal of the Alabama Academy of Science

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A novel approach to model turbulence Part I: theoretical formulation.: An article from: Journal of the Alabama Academy of Science
Abdel K. Mazher
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of the Alabama Academy of Science, published by Thomson Gale on January 1, 2006. The length of the article is 7068 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: A novel approach to model turbulence Part I: theoretical formulation.
Author: Abdel K. Mazher
Publication: Journal of the Alabama Academy of Science (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 77 Issue: 1 Page: 18(14)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Novel diagnostic techniques and actuator technology for turbulent shear flows

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Novel diagnostic techniques and actuator technology for turbulent shear flows
Ari Glezer
Manufacturer: School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Book Description

"Something's Alive In There!"

She was just a little girl, with a tiny horn in the center of her forehead, funny-looking feet, beautiful silver hair, and several curious powers: the ability to purify air and water, make plants grow, and heal scars and broken bones. A trio of grizzled prospectors found her drifting in an escape pod amid the asteroids, adopted her, and took her to the bandit planet Kezdet, a place where no questions are asked and the girl might grow up free.

But Kezdet has its own dark secret. The prosperity of the planet is based on a hideous trade in child slave labor, administered by "The Piper" -- a mystery man with special plans for Acorna and her powers. But free little girls have a way of growing into freedom-loving young women, and Acorna has special plans all her own. . .

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"Something's Alive In There!"

Customer Reviews:

Pure Entertainment with Little Substance.......2007-01-21

McCaffrey and Ball have set out to entertain, period. Tight writing, originality, and careful character development were obviously not on their minds. This looks like the sort of book two talented writers could pound out over a long weekend. But they succeeded at their main goal: The novel is enormously entertaining.

The universe is that of an old-timey space opera. The story begins with Acorna's alien parents, who fortunately die right away and thereby save their child from a lifetime of exposition-laden dialogue. Picked up by a trio of kind-hearted asteroid miners (a popular career choice in old-timey space operas), the babe Acorna rapidly grows into a young anthropoid unicorn with the power to heal. In the process of keeping their charge safe, the miners manage to annoy half the galaxy, creating a number of madcap conflicts that end up resolving themselves anticlimactically, probably because the authors didn't know what to do with them.

The loose plot skips along and brings our four heroes to Kezdet, a nasty world with a believable laissez-faire economy built on child labor. Less believably, the entire system is perpetuated by one evil individual known as "The Piper," and the children enslaved in the mines and factories all conveniently believe in a goddess who will come to save them. Opposed to the hideous extortion of children is the Child Labor League, something like a cross between a human rights organization and a mafia, which has a particular interest in Acorna and her powers. You can probably fill in the rest from there, even if you haven't read the book.

Brainy it isn't, in spite of some technical details about astronomy, space mining, and economics, but it is fun. Lacking, however, is a developed central character. The book is about a girl who is half human and half unicorn, an appealing idea, but the authors don't seem to realize that this ought to be more about a person than a planet's economics. Stuff happens to Acorna, and the authors seem to think she's assertive, but she does very little besides what she's told. She comes across as more of a convenient plot device than either a believable woman or an archetype of all that is pure and good in the world. Maybe McCaffrey and Ball should have spent a week instead of a weekend.

The Unicorn Girl ( Acorna).......2006-07-07

This book was surprisingly disappointing. The author is well known and well loved for good reasons. However the main chracter was poorly developed. It was difficult to feel much empathy for her. The plot was good and the conflicts clear. However a friend of mine said it was like reading a book without a main character. I agree.

Morality.......2006-06-24

At first I really enjoyed this book but as it progressed I found it to be quite disturbing morally. The main Character, Acorna, was innocent and pure (at least as far as I read) but the behavior of those who are the antagonists are vividly described in a manner I found extremely disturbing especially on the abuse of young children. It got so bad I couldn't finish it. I was extremely disappointed.

A True Hero.......2005-10-31

Picture this, a green pod shaped object drifting toward your ship. Oh and this isn't just any normal ship, this ship is totally different from any other ship. This ship is a space ship that is where this great story's plot is placed. As I read the beginning of this book I found it interesting and wanted to keep reading more. I found it having a great plot and was wonderfully descriptive. The characters were also easy to follow and to me that is very important in books. My only problem with this book was that it was a little slow for my taste, but don't let that hold you back from reading this book, that is just one person's opinion. My favorite part is at the last 5 chapters of the book, that's when it gets really interesting. Its when the book finally picks up the pace and makes me want to never put it down. I love how the beginning is too, it has a lot of detail and is very descriptive, the only part that made me want to stop reading is in the middle, that's when it got a little confusing.
This book is great and even though the middle is a little slow, I would read it again and again. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did because it is just a great rainy day type of book. Don't forget that this is just one person's opinion of a book, you might love it even more than I did.

Fantasy, adventure and a touch of magic.......2005-10-05

I picked this one up in my local used bookstore just before I headed off on vacation to Las Vegas. I figured that reading a light fantasy in the land of adult make-believe would be just the thing to do. It had been years since I read a McCaffrey book, but I had an image in my mind of what I imagined it to be like. It turns out that the book wasn't quite what I expected it to be: it was better.

At the beginning of the book the reader is introduced to a race of people in an unexplored galaxy far, far away. One particular family's spaceship broke down and stranded them in the midst of their people's dreaded enemy. Facing torture and murder for themselves and their child, the parents decide to commit suicide. But before they do, they try to save their infant daughter by putting her into a deep sleep and launching her into their life boat pod. Eventually, the pod is found by a trio of men; rough but good hearted asteroid miners. Initially forced to take care of her by fate, they become her stalwart guardians. They name her Acorna and raise her as a foster child.

Acorna grows up to be a fetchingly beautiful young lady, albeit one with a horn in the middle of her head. The horn has curative powers and Acorna is also blessed with uncommon good sense and charisma. She uses these talents to assist a mogul in his quest to do good.

This is the first in a series. I hope that the others are as complex and entertaining as this one. Acorna turned out to be a much more interesting character than I expected. The three miners also have unique storylines to follow in the future.

Acorna's Triumph: The Further Adventures of the Unicorn Girl

Average customer rating:

Even the best books can annoying
pretty good conclusion
Happy Ending but so many Plot Holes
Targeted To Younger Readers
Abrupt, choppy, and in the end . . .

Acorna's Triumph: The Further Adventures of the Unicorn Girl
Anne McCaffrey , and Elizabeth A. Scarborough
Manufacturer: Eos
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0380979004
Release Date: 2004-03-02

Book Description

Beloved by millions of readers, Anne McCaffrey is one of science fiction's favorite authors. Writing with award-winning author Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, she has created the bestselling Acorna series, focusing on the adventures of the brave unicorn girl.

Now, with Acorna's Triumph, they turn to the dramatic conclusion of the series, as Acorna faces her most difficult challenge ever. She has defeated slavers, a deadly international conspiracy, and the vicious alien Khleevi, only to endure the loss of her beloved Aari, distant in both time and space.

Now, finally, Aari has returned, and together they can finish rebuilding their home world. But Aari is oddly changed, to the point where he barely remembers Acorna -- much less their love -- and his actions grow more and more sinister ... As Acorna tries to stop a vicious criminal from destroying innocents, a new complication arises. Sensing the Linyaari weakness, the deadly Khleevi return, determined to take back the planet—for good. In this dark time, it will take all of the unicorn girl's courage and determination to rescue Aari and stop the alien menace once and for all.

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Aari has returned! Now he and his lifemate, the brave and beautiful Acorna, can finish rebuilding their once-decimated homeworld. Yet Aari's travels through time have left him oddly changed, and he barely remembers Acorna or their love. And as Aari's actions turn more sinister, Acorna must shift her attention to stopping the destruction of innocents by a vicious criminal. It is precisely the sort of weakness and confusion the dreaded Khleevi have been hoping for, as the brutal insectile oppressors set in motion their final invasion and the total destruction of the Linyaari and the conquest of their world. Though Acorna's heart is wounded, her courage and determination must remain strong in this dark time -- for only then will she be able to rescue the Aari she knows and adores, and halt the bloodthirsty alien menace for good and for all.

Customer Reviews:

Even the best books can annoying.......2006-10-12

This book--and, indeed, the entire acorna series--is amazing, don't get me wrong. But I, being the sciency type, got a bit annoyed with it. Throughout the entire series, you are exposed to technical and science experiences, and most of them are definately plausible, if not probable, such as sentient creatures being out there somewhere. However, in this book, and the previous book, there is another concept: time travel. Time travel, even though it seems like it could be possible, is NOT, no matter what we do. We can't go back and change things. Maybe forward in time, but not backwards, and this bugged me, as the entire book is based on time travel. Also, even if time travel WERE possible, the way it is in this book doesn't seem likely: someone being stuck in a different time. I like the way JK Rowling writes time travel, with everything they did in the past already THERE (as in, Harry sees himself across the lake), whereas here, it's all changeable. And also, in Harry Potter, it's magic, so it's all possible.
But other than that, this is an amazing book. I sucked the entire series dry in less than a week. It's one where you become anxious about what's happening to characters. I love it, even with the time travel thing. And that's saying a lot--the time travel thing really annoyed me, so the rest of the series/book more than made up for it :D

Enjoy an awsome book, unless you're a scientist!

pretty good conclusion.......2004-11-21

I enjoyed the twist in the story, it kept it from being too predictable, everything turns out ok but it does make you wonder if it will, which keeps you reading. I enjoyed it but you could never read it if you hadn't read the others in the series.

Happy Ending but so many Plot Holes.......2004-09-01

Like many others I have enjoyed the Acorna series for years. I started when I was a kid and have looked forwarding avidly to each new book being released. I'm afraid all my waiting was a bit of a let down this time.

While the book was an enjoyable read, it didn't really have the same viseral appeal of the other few books. It was very much like eating a large amount of cotton candy, you may like it at the time but you beginning to doubt how wise a chioce it all was towards the end. While not something I was hoping for it wasn't something I take major points away for, even I love a happy ending.

What truly got to me was the rules set down about time travel in the previous books were basically ignored and tossed aside. It seemed to me that two books back, "Acorna's Search" if I remember correctly, it was basically established that even though you didn't know you were going to effect the past you already had. As established by the rock paintings already being there about what Acorna had done in the past. Here in "Triumph" that is ignored with people and objects suddenly appearing where they should have easily already been discovered.

Also I am confused as to why people bother to appear later on in the time stream from when they left. Why didn't Grimalkin just appear right after Aari left Acorna the first time? Why wait all those many months? Though I must thank him because I enjoyed "Acorna's Rebels". They explained this away with the double helix which only makes a moderate amount of sense considering all the other time sliding they did. The concept of time being a double helix, while interesting, seems to need more thought to it.

All in all I enjoyed this book and the entire series. It became a bit heavy in the story book ending feel but was still enjoyable, I just wish a few more of the concepts were either explained or atleast stuck to in their original forms. It does seem to me with so many unanswered questions that we might see further works in this world maybe centered around a second generation? That I think I shall enjoy reading. But even if not it was a fun, if sweet, ride while it lasted.

Targeted To Younger Readers.......2004-03-19

Acorna's Truimph is the seventh and final book in the Acorna series by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. Acorna is a young linyaari (a humanoid-unicorn species) who was raised by humans. In previous books, she has had many adventures to be reunited with the other linyaari and free their home planet from the insect-like khleevi. In Acorna's Truimph, Acorna is reunited with her missing lifemate Aari who has been time-traveling with the feline shape-changer Grimalkin. Acorna bounces from one crisis to another across space and time, chasing thieves and rescuing people, all while trying to solve the mystery of Aari's strange behavior.

The plot reads like a series of television episodes -- each crisis is neatly wrapped up and then the characters move on to the next adventure. Several of the supporting characters aren't much more than cliches and even the main characters seem shallow at times. However, it is entertaining in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way and the action does bop along fairly swiftly.

This light-hearted jaunt through space and time with almost-magical unicorn people will mostly appeal to young adults. Older readers might want to try Scarborough's Nothing Sacred or books from McCaffrey's Pern series.

Abrupt, choppy, and in the end . . ........2004-03-15

The one word I find that comes to mind to describe this book is, unsatisfying. I've loved the Acorna books since the very beginning, but I've found that the last few were disappointing, and Acorna's Triumph was no exception.
The story was light, and missing the detail and emotion that I'd grown to expect from the Acorna series. The storyline itself was so flighty, jumping around from one time to another with no purpose, but rather with the randomness of a bad dream. The ability to move from time to time so easily cheapened all of the struggles that the characters had gone through before.
And was it just me, or were there some strange gaps in the story?
Okay, here I'm going to mention a few things that may spoil the story for those who haven't read it yet. Sorry, but I feel I must.
The fact that characters such as Aari's brother, and Acorna's parents even! were brought back in with such casual disregard for how their deaths had shaped the story up to that point was shocking to me. That, and other events that had no point but bringing in a few seemingly random characters to be used for one transparent purpose or another, made it feel like the Authors were trying up loose ends, and neatening everything up for a fairy-tale happy ending. And the reason that was so disappointing to me was that the Acorna series had never been a run-of-the-mill fairy tale, where everything is always perfect.
And now, the thing that bothered me the most. Throughout the whole series, Acorna has always been in charge of her own destiny. But suddenly, there is an unseen manipulater behind the scenes, making everything just the way he wants it.
It just seems to me that maybe the series was simply running out of steam, to use so many obvious shortcuts to bring things to a happy conclusion.
But you'll notice at the top, I gave it three stars. And that's because, in spite of everything, I still love Acorna, her people, and her world.
Plus, I have to admit, sometimes I'm a sucker for a happy ending. Even if it's missing some of the trials and triumph that I'd enjoyed, and respected, in the books preceading it, there's still something about Acorna' Triumph that makes you smile.

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Acorna - The Unicorn Girl

ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: 0736643400

Product Description

Three space miners, Gill, Calum, and Rafik, find a survival pod drifting in space: inside sleeps Acorna, a furry, unicorn-like humanoid infant. Young Acorna soon manifests special powers such as the ability to purify water and air, to make plants grow and to heal injuries. When Acorna is almost snatched by scientists who want to study her as an anomaly, the miners must flee and whisk Acorna away to the planet Kezdet, a planet known to deal in child slave labor, and the last place they wanted to go.

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Acorna The Unicorn Girl
Anne and Margaret Ball McCaffrey
Manufacturer: Harper Collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MVU9V2

Acorna's People - The Further Adventures of the Unicorn Girl

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Acorna's People - The Further Adventures of the Unicorn Girl

ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
ASIN: 073664847X

Acorna's Quest - The Adventures Of The Unicorn Girl

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Acorna's Quest - The Adventures Of The Unicorn Girl
Anne and Ball, Margaret Mccaffrey
Manufacturer: Harper-prism
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000U94KEI

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Acorna's Quest - the Adventures of the Unicorn Girl

Manufacturer: HarperPrism
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HK46VW

Acorna's Search (The Further Adventures of the Unicorn Girl)

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Acorna's Search (The Further Adventures of the Unicorn Girl)

Manufacturer: Books on Tape, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
ASIN: 0736685669

ADVENTURES OF THE UNICORN GIRL: Acorna; Acorna's Quest; Acorna's World

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Fantastic!
Acorna: The Unicorn Girl, More than it seems

ADVENTURES OF THE UNICORN GIRL: Acorna; Acorna's Quest; Acorna's World
Anne (with Margaret Ball and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough) McCaffrey
Manufacturer: Corgi Books; Harper Prism
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0552146218

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic!.......1999-03-09

The book Acorna is a story about 3 miners in space that raise an orphaned alien child that has a horn in her head that resembles a unicorns. This wonderful story will not let you go until it is done. Acorna is one of the best books I have read from Anne McCaffrey and Margret Ball.

Acorna: The Unicorn Girl, More than it seems.......1998-12-21

Anne Mcaffrey and Margret Ball team up to write a simply amazing, terribly absorbing novel. Acorna: The Unicorn girl is about a young alien child found by three rough-n-tough space miners, and their struggle to raise her. Kind of a 3 men and a baby set in the future, plus some added excitment. One more thing though..she does not remain a child through the entire book. But the book does not span a human girl's life time. I highly reccomend this book.

Anne McCaffrey - The Acorna's Series (First Warning, Second Wave, Acorna's Quest, Acorna - The Unicorn Girl)

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Anne McCaffrey - The Acorna's Series (First Warning, Second Wave, Acorna's Quest, Acorna - The Unicorn Girl)
Anne McCaffrey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000QDC7SE

Product Description

Anne McCaffrey and Margaret Ball, two great names in the genre, join forces to create the first in a stunning and magical series about Acorna

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