The Shiva Option

Customer Reviews:

Too Much Information.......2007-06-10

It seems that every other chapter of this book starts thusly:

Admiral Nelson Halsey looked about the command bridge of his flagship, the Superduper Kickbutt Attack Ship "Sharon Sanchez de Casador y Nichols." All of his staff were working diligently, professionally, and without error, setting up the attack on the Bug fleet. That fleet appeared undefeatable, preceeded by ninety-bazillion kamikaze corvettes. However, his 33rd Fleet, consisting of eleventy-seven Superduper Kickbutt Attack Ships of the latest Paris Hilton class, six and a half dozen Semi-Superduper Kickbutt Attack Ships, many of them of the Scared-Of-Nothing carrier class carrying the newest Barfgag type fighters, along with a profusion of Kinda-Superduper Kickbutt Attack ships, a myriad of Not-So-Superduper Kickbutt Attack Ships armed with up-to-the-minute Mark XLIV OMGIGFAMABB (Oh My Goodness It Goes Fast And Makes A Big Boom) missiles, multitudinous fleet carriers, a horde of other carriers, and more smaller ships than he could shake a stick at, was quite capable of defeating the Bugs.

White and Weber get bogged down in detail, of which the above is not so much a parody as an over-simplification. On pages 239-240 of the paperback edition, there's a description of part of Raymond Prescott's Seventh Fleet. A sample sentence reads "Either could call on Vice Admiral Janos Kolchak's Task Group 71.3, with its twelve fast superdreadnoughts and thirty-four battlecruisers, for assistance." Do we really care how many ships are in TG 71.3?

After the first hundred pages, when it's discovered that the Bugs go stupid if a planet full of them gets wiped slick, there's no doubt as to who will win the war. The overwhelming industrial might of the Terran Confederation and the Orion Khanate produces overwhelmingly large numbers of ships, which wipe slick various Bug planets and then wipe out the various Bug fleets supposedly protecting them. When the Star Union of Crucis, the Bugs' "Old Enemy," show up, the end is in sight, but not for several hundred pages.

Individually and collectively Weber and White have written some excellent space opera. THE SHIVA OPTION is not one of their better books.

Neocon HEAVEN.......2007-01-08

It's a universe where things really ARE black & white, the enemy really IS worthy of no respect or sympathy, all civilians are morons, all progressives are closet traitors, and "political" admirals are color-coded to easily distinguish them from REAL military heroes.

The irony is that the chief difference between "us" and "them" (the latter being the Arachnids) is that THEY have no liberals, no progressives, no moral qualms, no sympathy for anyone different from themselves, no "humanist" qualities whatsoever.

It's unintentional satire, I think. Does someone out there believe the real world resembles the Weber-White universe in any way?

Aside from the politics of it, you can start anywhere in the 800-page "brick" and be sure that the next 100 pages are JUST like the previous 100 pages.

Finally, an ending.......2006-10-10

If you love space combat, you love Weber. This book is a wrapup of the war against the bugs, and thankfully, the book has an ending. That sounds like something you would expect, but about halfway through, you may begin to wonder if the book will ever end.

I get that Weber wants the reader to know that this war was a kill or be killed struggle. A war of extermination. Only one can survive. I just think he could have wrapped it up a little quicker, or if that weren't possible, he could have shifted the focus around a bit. Tell me a story about something that brought some more life to the story. As it was, there was a lot of hardship and pain, and then it ended. I felt it was a bit hollow on the storytelling and more like an account of trench warfare in space. If too much space combat were possible, this book would be the shining example.

Still, Weber continues to be the master of the space opera. In this case, I think it went on too long.

Hopefully the last of the "Starfire" books.......2006-08-26

This book is based on a boardgame, and it shows.

"The Shiva Option" is the sequel to "In Death Ground". I cannot understand why, when both authors developed enormously as individual writers in the five years between that book and this sequel, "The Shiva Option" improved so little. It is by no means a bad book if you are into military SF, but I was disappointed, because I was expecting something brilliant and this is merely good.

Back when I was a student, there were two popular space battle games: "Star Fleet Battles" set in the Star Trek universe, which more recently became a computer game, and "STARFIRE," set in a universe heavily influenced by Heinlein's "Starship troopers." Like many simple wargames, Starfire is characterised by absurdly high casualty rates and the successful admiral has to treat spaceships as expendable "Missile fodder."

About fourteen years ago the creators of "STARFIRE," Dave Weber and Steve White, launched themselves as successful science fiction authors by writing two books based on the game, "Insurrection" and "Crusade". A few years later they followed these with "In Death Ground" which chronicled the first half of the war against the Arachnids or "Bugs".

After getting their first "Starfire" books published, Weber and White wrote a large number of other works, some of them highly original and most of them very well written. Both particularly expanded their horizons between 1997 when "In Death Ground" came out and 2002 when they published "The Shiva Option." So when they came back to the Starfire universe to finish the story of the war against the bugs, I expected to be enthralled to see how much more they could do in the second volume with all that extra experience under their belts. Sadly the answer was rather less than I expected.

There are some clever twists in the book, but rather too much is taken up with descriptions of larger and larger fleets of bigger and bigger warships. And, like the game, the book produces preposterous casualty lists. The reader is not meant to approve of the craven politicians in the book - the admirals and marines are the heroes and the politicos are meant to appear almost as despicable as the "bugs".

But if, God forbid, the human race ever finds itself in a war which racks up a body count remotely like those in the book, I hope our politicians do ask the admirals searching questions about why they are throwing away ships and lives in a way that makes First World War generals seem overcautious by comparison.

Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad book. Anyone who enjoyed "In Death Ground" will enjoy "The Shiva Option." And although neither is in the same league as "Starship Troopers," if you liked that book you might find it interesting to read two books which provide a panoramic overview of a war very like the one in which Heinlein's bildungsroman is set.

Nevertheless, the worst thing about this book is the fact that the authors left themselves the option of a sequel. Had we but worlds enough and time I would not object to this, but both Weber and White have written other work which is so much better that I hope they will concentrate on finding pastures new.

A disappointment.......2006-05-29

I should say at the outset that I stopped reading this book half-way through, not because I hated it, but because there seemed little point in continuing.

The problem with this novel is that there is no plot tension - you know exactly what is going to happen about 150 pages into the book. Not just because it is predictable (this I can forgive - surely no-one believes the bugs will actually win), but because the authors basically lay it out for you. Not only is the ending known, but they also lay out how we're going to get there.

In the absence of plot tension, we might still care about the characters (everyone knows how Titanic was going to end up, but something still made us watch). Unfortunately, the characters are clumsily rendered in a two-dimensional, black and white manner - either the noblest of heroes or the vilest of villains.

The authors also do a poor job of immersing the reader in the action. Despite all the efforts the authors went to in mentioning the "unspeakable horror", and the "awful carnage", I found myself unmoved. Its not enough to just pepper you prose with those phrases, you actually have to render this in the story for it to have any effect.

So, while I highly recommend "Insurrection", I would say stop there. "Crusade" and "In Death Ground" were fairly good, and recommended for fans of this genre, but "Shiva Option" is a non-book.

Customer Reviews:

poignant reflections by renegade christian.......2007-01-18

If you were raised in the south as I was, have an interest in the civil rights movement, or want to enjoy one of the most irreverent Christian curmudgeons ever to irritate the church, then read Will Campbell (b. 1924). Campbell was born and raised in the rural and very poor deep south of Amite, Mississippi, "ordained" by family members at a local Baptist church when he was seventeen, and, in a delightfully improbable life, played a central role as an activist and agitator on behalf of African Americans. But to leave it at that would badly misrepresent him.

After World War II Campbell studied at Tulane, Wake Forest, and Yale. He served as Director of Religious life at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), but left after two years because his controversial views attracted death threats. He then did a stint for the National Council of Churches where he worked with most of the civil rights luminaries. In 1957, Campbell was one of four people who escorted the nine black students who integrated Little Rock's Central High School; and he was the only white person to attend the founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. So, how did he come to sip whiskey with the KKK and get hate mail from the left?

Campbell came to distrust all movements and institutions, especially the church (he once referred to television preachers as liars, frauds, and "electronic soul molesters"). He dismissed all politics as impotent. It was less than Christian, he realized, to agitate for the oppressed but to hate the oppressor. No, one could not preach what Luther called a "fictitious grace." God loves the redneck Klansmen as well as the disinherited blacks. For the most part, Brother to a Dragonfly tells the story of Campbell's deep love for his brother Joe, and how the latter's tragic demise to alcohol, drugs, and domestic violence led to his premature death. But it was through Joe and an overtly pagan family friend that Campbell had a conversion later in life. Without realizing it, he recalls, his twenty years of ministry had become one of "liberal sophistication. An attempted negation of Jesus, of human engineering, of riding the coattails of Caesar, of playing on his ballpark, by his rules and with his ball, of looking to government to make and verify and authenticate our morality, of worshipping at the shrine of enlightenment and academia, of making an idol of the Supreme Court, a theology of law and order and of not only denying the Faith I professed to hold but my history and my people--the Thomas Colemans [who murdered two civil rights workers]. Loved. And if loved, forgiven. And if forgiven, reconciled." There was all the difference in the world, he realized, between being a "doctrinaire social activist," however laudable, and a follower of Jesus. The key? "I came to understand the nature of tragedy. And one who understands the nature of tragedy can never take sides."

Christian renegade, preacher, author of twenty books and plays, farmer, country musician, friend of Thomas Merton, and agent provocateur, Will Campbell loves a good chew of tobacco and will strike many as enigmatic. Not everyone will appreciate his rapier wit. But PBS profiled him in their documentary "God's Will," in 2000 President Clinton honored him with a National Endowment for the Humanities medal, and Brother to a Dragonfly won numerous literary awards.

More than a memoir.......2006-10-23

Brother to a Dragonfly is the story of 2 brothers who, in their own way, idolize each other. Will looks up to his older brother Joe. Joe is the protector. He always wants to make things right. And Joe knows that Will is destined to have a mark on the world. But Will D. Campbell has written more than a memoir in writing about growing up with his brother Joe in rural Mississippi. He has captured a piece of America's past. This book reads like a novel - poverty, war, race relations, the civil rights movement, drug addiction, domestic violence - it's all there. Occasionally Campbell makes an awkward jump in the story, but this some how enhances the voice and reminds the reader that this is life. Life doesn't always flow like we would like it to. While telling the story of his brother, Campbell paints a portrait of southerners (himself) during the civil rights movement that don't always get the recognition they deserve. I was surprised by the insights he had 40 years ago about both sides of the civil rights movement. I was even more surprised to find that I had bought into many of the southern stereotypes, and I'm southern!
If you are interested in southern literature, coming of age stories, family relationships, American history from 1930's to 1960's, or the Civil Rights Movement, you need to add Brother to a Dragonfly to your list of reads. Will D. Campbell gives a first rate account of his experience. While it is only one man's view, it is a rich one!

Life changing.......2006-07-09

I've read this book several times, and it never fails to move me. I don't think I've read a more powerful book. Oprah needs to get on this one.

The Bond Between Brothers.......2003-11-11

This book sets the standard for brotherly love: through the joyous days of youth, through sickness, through the reversal of who worships who, each standing up for the other no matter what.

This book also wrestles with faith, guilt before the law versus guilt before God, examines stereotypes and throws them away.

"Suddenly I knew a lot of things I had not known before. I knew that I had been caught in my own trap. (In a discussion with a Klansman) Suddenly I knew that we are a nation of Klansmen. I knew that as a nation we stood for peace, harmony and freedom in that war (Vietnam), that we defined the words, and that the means we were employing to accomplish those ends were identical with the ones he had listed."

Follow Will Campbell in his journey with his brother and your horizons will be broadened.

The finest coming of age story I have encountered.......2001-02-05

Brother to a dragonfly, Will D Campbell's brilliant,evocative, nostalgic luminous memoir teels the story of his family in the pre-tva rural south. Though much much more then a simple coming of age story,it is the story of 2 brothers,their lives amid the greatest change in this ountry since the civil war. Will D Campbell and his brother Joe stories are told so movingly,and with such deep power that ,by the end it will move you to tears. It is the sory of a man,family,RELIGION,the south,race,addiction,love and death. It will shatter any preconcieved notions and stereotypes,for Will D Campell is a true iconoclast. I run out of superlatives to describe this book. Read it.

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A great adventure story
Keiths Book Review
Randy Miller Jr. Nadia The Willful
Nadia teaches us that the ones we love live on in our hearts

NADIA THE WILLFUL (Dragonfly Books)
Sue Alexander
Manufacturer: Dragonfly Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 067983480X
Release Date: 1992-09-08

Customer Reviews:

A great adventure story.......2002-12-10

Nadia the Willful was a great story. The setting of the story was in the Middle East many years ago. The main characters were Madia, Sheik and Tari. My favorite character was Nadia because she always helped people. I would recommend this book to people ten to thirteen years old.

Keiths Book Review.......2001-11-06

This story started in the desert were this little ear tipered girl was and her brother was the only one who made her happy.But one day her brother hamed went in the desert and never came back and her father said any one who spoke of his name they would be puneched.And one day a sheperd boy got couht speaking of Hameds name and he was going to be vanesed .But Nadia spoke to her father and they speak of Hameds name today.

Randy Miller Jr. Nadia The Willful.......2001-11-06

This story is about a girl and her dead bother. She talked about her brother and it eases the pain. She lived in a tribe. Her tribe lived in the desert. They owned a bunch of sheep.

Nadia teaches us that the ones we love live on in our hearts.......1999-02-25

This is a wonderful story about the different reactions to death told through a child's eyes. It is a somewhat simplistic story about a sister and her family's loss of the oldest brother. When you lose a loved one you have two choices; to try to block out the pain and in the process block out the memory of that person or to celebrate that life keeping the memory alive in your heart.

Mirandy and Brother Wind (Dragonfly Books)

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Lush Illustrations
Can the wind be a partner?

Mirandy and Brother Wind (Dragonfly Books)
Patricia Mckissack
Manufacturer: Dragonfly Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Picture Books | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0679883339
Release Date: 1997-01-13

Book Description

Illus. in full color."Mirandy is sure she'll win the cake walk if she can catch Brother Wind for her partner, but he eludes all the tricks her friends advise. This gets a high score for plot, pace, and characterization. Mirandy sparkles with energy and determination. Multi-hued watercolors fill the pages with patterned ferment. A treat to pass on to new generations."--(starred) Bulletin, Center for Children's Books. Cassette running time: 20 min.

Customer Reviews:

Lush Illustrations.......2005-11-24

An effort by these two terrific professionals is bound to have many good qualities. This won a Caldecott honor designation, and rightly so. Pinkney's watercolors are intricate, absorbing, a real pleasure. The multicolored dresses of girls at a dance are especially pretty. I notice he uses two motifs in his books, chickens and quilts. Both are included here.

This book begins with an author's note on the history of the cakewalk in African American culture. The story is based on a photograph of McKissack's grandparents, who won a cakewalk in 1906 before they married. The photo was taken after they won.

Mirandy is longing to win the upcoming cakewalk, but she needs a partner. Her friend, Ezel, might fit the bill but doesn't seem too keen on participating. He teases her that he is going with another girl. Mirandy thinks she will win the contest if she can capture Brother Wind, an imaginary character drawn like a bluish white ghost. His grace and speed are what she thinks it will take to finish first. Of course, Mirandy and Ezel end up together, and win the cakewalk with their sassy moves.

Can the wind be a partner?.......1999-05-29

This children's book, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney, is about a young and joyous African-American girl who hopes to win a prize at a cake walk by capturing the wind as her partner. The story takes place around 1900 and is a beautiful view of a happy people. The book was a 1989 Caldecott Honor book (i.e., a runner-up to the Medal winner) for best illustrations in a book for children.

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Brother to a Dragonfly
Will D. Campbell
Manufacturer: New York: Continuum, 1977
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NXJ4H4

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The warm, emotional colors of award-winning artist Barbara L. Gibson
Jewel's Reading Excellence Review: Helps children understand nature's life cycle
A Message of Hope for Children Who Are Grieving
Beautiful and excellent for all who grieve

The Dragonfly Door
John Adams
Manufacturer: Feather Rock Books, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1934066117

Product Description

Parents will help children identify the beauty and hope in all cycles of life as they follow two insect friends, Lea and Nym, and the struggles one of them endures when her friend disappears. This is a tender story about loss and change, written to help parents express their views about life and death. The book may serve many purposes, such as comforting a grieving child who has lost someone close or providing facts about dragonflies to inquisitive minds. Lea's transformation into a dragonfly may even be used as a metaphor for life-after-death. The Dragonfly Door is beautifully illustrated by award-winning artist Barbara L. Gibson. The book is cherished by parents, grandparents and teachers. It was recently brought to life as a mini-play in Alabama to help children cope with the loss of their classmates. The following is an excerpt from the book: While Nym slept, she heard Lea's voice saying, "Follow me, Nym. I'm going to show you where I am." "Will I see you again?" Nym asked. "Only when it's time for you to die too," Lea replied. "You won't see me in the marsh ever again. But let me show you what I will look like the next time you see me. Here, close your eyes." Nym closed her eyes. "Now look at me," Lea said. Nym opened her eyes and saw ...

Customer Reviews:

The warm, emotional colors of award-winning artist Barbara L. Gibson.......2007-09-07

The debut children's picturebook of author John Adams, The Dragonfly Door dares to confront serious topics - of loss, death, grieving, and transition. Nym and Lea are two close insect friends, but one day after Nym yells at Lea, Lea disappears. Nym searches everywhere for her missing friend, and can't find her. At last Nym falls asleep, grief-stricken, and finally hears Lea's voice one more time. "'I died and went to this special place,' Lea said, her voice full of love. 'But I didn't want you to leave,' Nym pleaded. 'I'm sorry I yelled.' 'I know you're sorry,' Lea assured her. 'I left because my water nymph body died while I was picking flowers in the reeds, not because you yelled.'" The warm, emotional colors of award-winning artist Barbara L. Gibson illustrate this highly recommended picturebook for sharing the bittersweet realities of life with young people.

Jewel's Reading Excellence Review: Helps children understand nature's life cycle.......2007-05-10

John Adams brilliantly invites the reader into the world of Nymphs and Dragonflies to explore the changes that take place when Nym's friend goes to a special place.

When I had lost a family member I had read a wonderful story called, "The Water Bug Story." John Adams adds a fresh approach to this story by focusing on friendship loss and giving a voice to his characters. With the help of Gibson's eye-catching nature illustrations, "The Dragon Fly Door" answers general questions surrounding loss, such as feelings about loss, what happens to the nymph's body when he dies, and how a nymph is transformed into a dragonfly.

Adams creatively normalizes typical friendship rivalry and takes the reader on a nature journey to discover that one chooses to resolve conflict, loss, and changes in different ways. Adams concludes the book with uncomplicated educational facts for the inquisitive science mind.

This is a great educational tool for parents, grandparents or professionals to use to help explain the uncontrollable life cycle changes and loss.

Reviewed by Jewel Sample, MS
Award-winning author of Flying Hugs and Kisses(2006), also translated: Besos y Abrazos Al Aire(2006, Spanish edition) and Flying Hugs and Kisses Activity Book(2007)

A Message of Hope for Children Who Are Grieving.......2007-02-26

As President of a nonprofit organization that reaches out to those who are grieving, I was very pleased to read a book such as The Dragonfly Door. This book provides a much needed way to offer children (and adults) a message of hope following the death of a loved one.

Children can relate to the playful nature of Nym and Lea who are the two young nymph friends, the sorrow of Nym when Lea dies, and the comforting feeling when when Nym realizes that he will one day see Lea again as a dragonfly, when he too has made his transformation into a dragonfly.

Our nonprofit organization recommends this book so highly that we have decided to make it available for purchase at all of our events.
-Valerie Marquardt

Beautiful and excellent for all who grieve.......2007-02-18

I received this wonderfully beautiful book on the 8th anniversary of my son's graduation to Heaven ... that evening, I was able to read it with his daughter, who is now 9... I believe she gained another understanding of her Very Own Daddy in a beautiful place that we have not seen just yet ... and though she already knew he is waiting for her, this was another good reminder of that ... I was unaware of the dragonfly's life cycle and was so blessed to see how it seemingly parallels this life and the next. Thank you, John, for a wonderful way to help us all in our continuing journey with grief and the Hope we can have.

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Brother to a Dragonfly
Will D. Campbell
Manufacturer: Continuum
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NURKXM

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BROTHER TO A DRAGONFLY
Will D. Campbell
Manufacturer: Seabury Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HEOLFE

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Brother To A Dragonfly
Campbell
Manufacturer: Continuum
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000JGP32U

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Brother to a Dragonfly
Will Cambell
Manufacturer: Seabury Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IMR9U4

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Brother to a Dragonfly
Will D. Campbell
Manufacturer: Continuum
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000QHHT92

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