Escaping the Giant Wave

Book Description

The worst vacation ever!

Thirteen-year old Kyle thought spending a vacation on the Oregon coast with his family would be great. He'd never flown before, and he'd never seen the Pacific Ocean.

Kyle's perfect vacation becomes a nightmare while he's babysitting his sister, BeeBee. An earthquake hits the coast and starts afire in their hotel. While fighting their way through smoke and flame, Kyle remembers seeing a sign at the beach that said after an earthquake everyone should go uphill and inland, as far from the ocean as possible. Tsunamis, giant waves that often follow earthquakes, can ride in from the sea and engulf anyone who doesn't escape fast enough.

Can Kyle and BeeBee outwit and outrun nature's fury to save themselves from tsunami terror?

Customer Reviews:

Who will escape fast enough?.......2007-04-02

A thirteen-year old boy named Kyle thought spending a vacation along the Oregon Coast with his family would be a great experience. He'd never flown before and he'd never seen the beautiful Pacific Ocean.

Kyle's perfect vacation becomes his worst nightmare while he's baby-siting his six-year old sister Bee Bee. An earthquake hits the coast and starts an enourmous fire in his hotel he's staying in. While fighting his way smoke and flame, Kyle had remembered seeing a sign on the beach that stated....After an earthquake everyone should go uphill and inland, as far from the ocean as possible. Tsunamis' giant waves that often follow through earthquakes can ride in from the sea and engulf anyone who doesn't escape fast enough!

Very exciting by RD from North Boulevard.......2006-12-20

The book I read is Escaping the Giant Wave by Peg Kerhet.It deserves 5 stars because it is very adventurous. This book is about a boy named Marty and his sister. His dad wins a trip to Oregon. There were three problems to this story First the hotel was set on fire. Then there was an earthquake. Last there were two tsunamis. The boy saved himself and his sister. They get help from their elderly friends and a dog along the way. This all happened when the parents are at sea on a cruise. This problem is solved when the children and the elderly couple climb a hill escaping the tsunami. I recommended this book to anyone who likes adventure and it is a very exciting book.

Escaping the Giant Wave.......2006-11-30

This is an excellent book, it's about a kid named Kyle with his younger sister named Beebee, and yes that is her real name. Their parents leave them to go to an all adult party. When their gone, an earthquake happens. The hotel catches on fire, Kyle gets out of the hotel and 2 killer waves happen. If you want to know the ending and how it turns out you should read this awsome book.

Escaping the Giant Wave.......2006-05-16

If you want to read an exciting book about two kids running for their lives this book will keep you on the edge of your seat. Escaping the Giant Wave is an adventure fiction book by Peg Kehret. This book takes place on Kyle Davidson's summer break at the Totem Pole Inn is Northwest Oregon.

In the beginning of this book Kyle's parents won a trip to the coast of Oregon. Next Kyle and his sister, Bee-Bee, witnessed a tsunami while their parents were out on a dinner cruise. Would they be safe alone? Would their parents ever find them? You HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK ro find out what happens to Kyle and Bee-Bee.

The theme of this story is be alert to signs. They are put there for a reason. This book reminded me of the big tsunami that hit Thailand 1 1/2 years ago. Boys and girls who are 4th-5th grade would love this book!

M.H. in Annapolis

Escaping the Giant Wave.......2006-05-11

If you love suspense and adventure you must read this book. Escaping the Giant Wave, by Peg Kehret, is set on Fisher Beach in Oregon. The problem starts when Kyle and his sister, Beebee, are hit by a tsunami.

In the beginning of the story the school year ends and Kyle's family goes on vacation. Next when Kyle's parents are on a dinner cruise a tsunami hits. To find out what happens you have to read the book.

The theme in this book is better safe than sorry. This book reminds me of Hurricane Katrina. Boys 4th-6th grade will like this book.

J.G. in Annapolis

Tsunamis and Other Natural Disasters (Magic Tree House Rsrch Gdes(R))

Average customer rating:

Tsunamis and Other Natural Disasters (Magic Tree House Rsrch Gdes(R))
Mary Pope Osborne , and Natalie Pope Boyce
Manufacturer: Random House Books for Young Readers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375832211
Release Date: 2007-02-27

Book Description

What are the warning signs that a tsunami is on the way? Can scientists predict earthquakes? How do volcanoes form? Find out the answers to these questions and more in Magic Tree House Research Guide: Tsunamis and Other Natural Disasters, Jack and Annie's guide to geological disasters. This is the nonfiction companion to High Tide in Hawaii (Magic Tree House #28).

Average customer rating:

Time for a New Edition
A Good Read on the Subject But Fairly Technical

Tsunami: The Underrated Hazard
Edward Bryant
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Geophysics | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Natural Disasters | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 052177599X

Book Description

In the past decade over ten major tsunami events have impacted on the worldâ€™s coastlines, causing devastation and loss of life. Evidence for past great tsunami, or â€~mega-tsunamiâ€™, has also recently been discovered along apparently aseismic and protected coastlines. With a large proportion of the worldâ€™s population living on the coastline, the threat from tsunami can not be ignored. This book comprehensively describes the nature and process of tsunami, outlines field evidence for detecting the presence of past events, and describes particular events linked to earthquakes, volcanoes, submarine landslides and meteorite impacts. While technical aspects are covered, much of the text can be read by anyone with a high school education. The book will appeal to students and researchers in geomorphology, earth and environmental science, and emergency planning, and will also be attractive for the general public interested in natural hazards and new developments in science.

Customer Reviews:

Time for a New Edition.......2005-03-29

I purchased this book in 2004 for it's original retail price of US$27.95. Now I see used copies selling for more than $300 on amazon.com. This book is a terrific analysis of what we now know, as the sub-title 'The Underrated Hazard' suggests, an extraordinarily prescient work outlining the causes and historical occurences of one of the earth's more destructive natural phenomenon, tsunamis.

Please, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, encourage Mr. Bryant to update this extraordinarily informative book with an analyse of the earthquake and tsunami of December 26, 2004.

A Good Read on the Subject But Fairly Technical.......2002-04-18

In a lot of science books written for the general reader, the complaint is that the material is sensationalistic and over-simplified. Edward Bryant almost errs in the other direction. His evidence that very large Tsunami have played a key role in shaping many coastal regions is extremely well-presented and will contain lots of new information for even dedicated followers of Earth Science news.

On the other hand, while reading information about landscapes re-arranged by truly massive "mega-tsunami," one sometimes longs for livelier prose. The book may also be something of a slog now and then for people with no background in Earth Science.

Book Description

An enormous tidal wave on the West Coast of North America has just killed thousands. Lenie Clarke, in a black wetsuit, walks out of the ocean onto a Pacific Northwest beach filled with the oppressed and drugged homeless of the Asian world who have gotten only this far in their attempt to reach America. Is she a monster or a goddess? One thing is for sure: all hell is breaking loose. This dark, fast-paced, hard SF novel returns to the story begun in Starfish: all human life is threatened by a disease (actually a primeval form of life) from the distant prehuman past. It survived only in the deep ocean rift where Clarke and her companions were stationed before the corporation that employed them tried to sterilize the threat with a secret underwater nuclear strike. But Clarke was far enough away that she was able to survive and tough enough to walk home, three hundred miles across the ocean floor. She arrives carrying with her the potential death of the human race, and possessed by a desire for revenge. Maelstrom is a terrifying explosion of cyberpunk noir by a writer whose narrative, says Robert Sheckley, "drives like a futuristic locomotive."AUTHORBIO: Peter Watts lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Download Description

This is a dark, fast-paced, hard SF novel that returns to the story set up in Starfish: all human life is threatened by a disease (actually an early form of life) from the distant prehuman past. It survived in the deep ocean rift where Lenie Clarke and her companions were stationed before the corporation that employed them tried to sterilize the threat with a secret tactical nuclear strike. But Clarke was far enough away that she was able to survive and walk home, 300 miles underwater. As this book opens, Clarke walks onto shore, carrying the potential death of the human race, and possessed by a desire for revenge.

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic sequel to _Starfish_.......2007-06-04

Peter Watts' _Starfish_ introduced the reader to a fascinating, very well-developed dystopian world, the sometimes wonderful but often frightening world of the mid-21st century. In _Maelstrom_, Watts shows how that world comes to an end.

_Maelstrom_ begins right where _Starfish_ left off. Lenie Clarke and Ken Lubin, "rifters," people modified to work at a deep sea power-generating station (practically cyborgs in some respects), are the sole survivors of an attempt to contain the deadly pathogen dubbed Behemoth, discovered at the deep sea geothermal vent where Bebee Station was located. As the reader learned in _Starfish_, the strange and extremely deadly microorganism lived at that particular vent and was isolated until humans set up shop in its habitat. Aware of the unbelievable risks posed by the microbe, the government of North America used nuclear weapons to destroy the potentially biosphere-ending benthic organism at the end of _Starfish_, hoping to destroy the vent, the station, the rifters, and anything remotely associated with Behemoth. The resulting tsunami and earthquakes - made worse by the very nature of the smart gels assigned to handle the Behemoth problem - killed millions.

Unfortunately, Behemoth was not contained. Not only had it already spread to the North American Pacific coast, it was being carried further inland by Lenie Clark. Quite angry at the betrayals and lies she had been subject to, she journeyed inland to seek answers and revenge of a sort, unfortunately sowing the seeds for North America's if not the world's demise. Wherever she went, she spread Behemoth.

Lenie Clarke became far more successful than she had any right to be, owing to an unusual concentration of forces and alignment of events in her favor, as Clarke became not only a societal force but also a force of sorts in Maelstrom, the whirling, chaotic, violent successor to the modern internet, a place dominated by increasingly intelligent and dangerous "wildlife," rogue computer programs, future descendents of today's computer viruses but much more troublesome. The author's description of the evolution of such electronic organisms and the conditions prevalent in Maelstrom in the mid 21st century were fascinating and chilling. It made me very concerned about my virus protection software on my computer (not that any modern program could hope to prevail against the monsters of Maelstrom)!

Other major players include two members of the "Entropy Patrol," two "'lawbreakers" by the name of Achilles Desjardins and Alice Jovellanos. Given enormous power to react quickly, ruthlessly, and efficiently to mounting global crises, they are information experts, able to interpret, analyze, and quickly act on mounds of data in any field, be it economics, ecology, disaster management, or any other sphere (aided by the fact that they were given incredibly enhanced intellectual reflexes and pattern-matching skills). At first the Entropy Patrol was designed to act quickly and globally in an era of quarantines, diebacks, and crop failures, acting to quickly contain diseases and invasive organisms as they spread over the world as to well as to contend with other things such as global terrorism, they increasingly came to include in their sphere other sources of concern, with the power to instantly ruin millions of lives economically or to even physically end lives with powerful weapons (as long as it served the greater good of course). More powerful than any despot or emperor ever dreamed of being, only one thing stood to keep them in check, a biochemical fix known as Guilt Trip, which prevented `lawbreakers from acting against the greater good. Derived from chemicals used by parasites to control the behavior of their host, Guilt Trip paralyzed anyone with guilt - literally paralyzing them - if they ever sought to do something against the greater good. Guilt Trip was the only way anyone would ever sleep soundly knowing people like Desjardins had such enormous power at their fingertips.

Other players included Sou-Hon Perreault, a botfly operator (botflies are remotely operated flying machines, able to hover or speed to trouble spots and bring to bear as needed a battery of sensors, instruments, and in some cases weapons) and Patricia Rowan as well (a "corpse" - or corporate executive - from the first novel).

An interesting and well-written book, it was a little dark at times though generally never truly disturbing. You can see the large amount of research the author has put into this novel (but not to such an extent that the action drags or characters come off as flat or anything).

Everything that Wm Gibson was supposed to be...........2005-09-19

I finished Maelstrom over the weekend. In case you didnt' know, its the sequel to Starfish and number 2 of 4 in the Rifters series. The third and fourth parts are two halves of one book that have been published separately because together it was more than 110,000 words, an obscure number in publishing that means the book can't make enough to be worth publishing alone.

Starfish was one of the more imaginative sciece fiction novels that I've ever read. If you remember the hype that surrounded William Gibson when he wrote Mona Lisa Overdrive, you might also remember how disappointing those books were. More about style than substance. Peter Watts delivers both style and substance in an elegant and beautiful writing style. His books are HARD sci fi. You'll have to pay attention but its very much worth the trip. Watts delivers what Gibson was supposed to...in spades.

Starfish was about adapted humans living in the deep sea vents, mining geologic heat to convert into energy for the world above the waters. They have been modified to be able to live underwater (I want to be one!) and they're psychotic.

Maelstrom picks right up where Starfish ended and turned up the dial about a thousand percent. Wow. What an amazing read!

If you like science fiction, you'll love these books. They are the gold nuggets that we will read a thousand books to try to find. Save yourself the nine hundred ninety nine books and go get this one.

Five stars, which I'm not sure I've ever given before.

Disappointing Sequel.......2004-01-14

I bought this sequel to Starfish, and to be frank, was disap-
pointed. Narration seemed disjointed, couldn't follow it very
well-may have been too cyber-punk for my tastes. I ended up skipping to the very end to read the conclusion, and it still
disappointed me. I don't think I'll keep it, either, that's how
disappointing it was to me. Too many disaparate strings of the
story just did not seem to be resolved in a satisfying way. Too
cool and too hip a story for me. Needed better editing, perhaps
not enough resolution to keep me interested very much.

An Intriguing Novel from One of Canada's New SF Writers.......2002-10-05

I inadvertently picked up "Maelstrom" at a local library recently and found it hard to put down. Peter Watts is a splendid, hard science fiction writer whose technological descriptions rival many I've seen from the likes of Gregory Benford and Greg Bear, among others. Unfortunately, his characters are not nearly as well fleshed out as theirs, often resembling one dimensional figures whose existence merely serves to advance the plot. Nor is his writing as lyrical as theirs, which I found rather surprising since one of his acquaintances is Canada's best young writer of science fiction, Nalo Hopkinson. Yet fans of technological science fiction will undoubtedly find "Maelstrom" quite intriguing, even if it only resembles in tone and substance, genuine cyberpunk fiction.

Dark, gritty fiction.......2002-02-19

First off, if you haven't read Peter Watts' first novel, "Starfish", don't start with "Maelstrom". While this is theoretically a stand-alone novel, the reader unfamiliar with "Starfish" will miss out on a tremendous amount of back-story and character development. ...

As for "Maelstrom" itself, Watts has easily cleared the high bar he set with his first novel. All too often, sequels are rehashes of old conflict, but that is not the case here at all. Watts takes his already complex characters from the first novel and adds several more layers of texture; at the same time he adds just enough new characters to keep things interesting. These characters are equally well developed, and overall, Watts' writing is even sharper than in the first book.

The writing has to be sharper, because this is a much more complicated novel than the first. While "Starfish" took place in the relatively limited space of a deep ocean outpost, and dealt primarily with human interactions, "Maelstrom" sprawls across the Pacific and North America and a significant portion of the action takes place in cyberspace. Moreover, the plot is significantly more complicated. I don't want to get into it in too much detail, as doing so would ruin much of "Starfish" for those who haven't read it. But the general theme of this novel, like its predecessor, is the impact that the unforeseen consequences of exponentially growing technology can have on humans as a species and on the planet as a whole. In a dystopian setting of environmental havoc and human violence, two new scourges have emerged. One is spawned by nature, the other, inadvertently, by man. The result is a bizarre, but believable synergy that threatens the entire biosphere. It was particularly interesting how Watts explored the nature of consciousness by subtly comparing the burgeoning life of a piece of code with the flawed memories of the main character.

By now you may have guessed that there is a lot of science in this novel, and you'd be right. There is a great deal that is cutting edge, and even more that is purely speculative. Watts makes use of some pretty heavy biology and AI science that may intimidate readers at first blush. It would be a mistake to avoid this novel for that reason because the science is just there to set the stage for the story. If you understand the detail of it, it definitely adds many intriguing twists; but if you only understand it at the surface level, you could still easily follow the story. That's the beauty of Watts as a writer: he's pigeon hold as hard-SF, but the SF is just a means to the end of writing incredibly complex, beautiful characters struggling with problems we can easily empathize with. Finally, Watts has included an appendix discussing the key science in some detail, and also provides a bibliography of sources he used.

"Maelstrom" is an outstanding novel set in a believable, terrifying future. It was undeniably entertaining and I tore through it at a breathless pace. It also left me thinking about technology and its impacts in some new ways. Watts is no technophobe, but he makes a strong point about the lack of responsibility in many arenas of scientific endeavor. "Maelstrom" is a must read for anyone who enjoys a great story, rich characters and a thoughtful message.

Average customer rating:

Maybe I'm hormonal...

Sometimes Momma's are lost and baby's are placed gently in others care

Scary for little ones

Winter At Her Absolute Best

A PERFECT Picture Book

MAMA: a TRUE story, in which a BABY HIPPO loses his MAMA during a TSUNAMI, but finds a new home, and a new MAMA
Jeanette Winter
Manufacturer: Harcourt Children's Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Owen & Mzee: The True Story Of A Remarkable Friendship

Owen & Mzee: Language Of Friendship

Flotsam (Caldecott Medal Book)

Lost and Found

The Secret Science Project That Almost Ate the School (Paula Wiseman Books)

ASIN: 0152054952

Book Description

Set during the devastating tsunami of 2004, MAMA is the touching true story of a baby hippo that was separated from his mother when the wave hit. After struggling alone for several days, the baby was rescued by Kenyan wildlife officers and brought to live in an animal refuge. There, all by himself, he adopted a new "mother"--that just happened to be a 130-year-old giant male tortoise. And they've been inseparable ever since.

Although MAMA takes place against the backdrop of a terrible human tragedy, at the heart of this story is a moving and original tale of adoption--and of finding love and companionship in the least likely of circumstances.

Includes an author's note.

Customer Reviews:

Maybe I'm hormonal..........2007-05-20

...but every time I read this book I get teary eyed. Of course I use the word "read" loosely as there are only two words in the whole book: mama & baby.

I found this book after reading Owen and Mzee (Isabella Hatkoff) which was a short non-fiction book with photographs detailing the remarkable story of a baby hippo that lost his mom in the 2004 tsunami; he is later rescued and sent to a zoo where he is "adopted" by a giant 130 year old tortoise.

This picture book attempts to condense that incredible story in a handful of pages that are illustrated with simple and homely images using only the word "mama" to move the story line along. (There is also an author's note at the end which explains more about the true story.)

It's a pretty bold concept but I think it works. I'm still not a very big fan of the illustrations and the story is troubling but as a book it really does resonate for me and honestly I wouldn't change a thing about it. It's perfectly imperfect.

There are lots of reviewers that will argue it's a scary book thematically, but I think it's also very touching. I probably wouldn't recommend it to everyone but it's certainly one of the most moving picture books I've happened across.

I think this book may also find a welcoming home on the bookshelves of children who have themselves been misplaced from their parents and adopted by surrogates...or anyone who has tragically lost something and found it again in the unlikeliest of places.

Essentially it's a story of trauma and loss and hope and love. It's a story about life.

Sometimes Momma's are lost and baby's are placed gently in others care.......2006-11-02

To understand this book it helps to have a child placed in your classroom who has lost her momma. In my room this year is a sweet little one who lost her young momma at two. She has at 6 been placed into my hands and no day goes by that I don't feel the dissonance of realization of what this loss means for this little one. It's not easy being different than the other children, but its far worse when others cannot accept and process and care about this-preferring to "never ever speak" of such things. That's a real rejection of the experience of loss. This story is one of a baby hippo told in pictures...hippo baby goes in the world following mama, losing momma to a tsunami and then finding an old tortoise to call mama. As the journey is told through the pictures we feel the bonds of mother and child, the sadness of this tragedy, the honoring of the tragedy, the way the baby is able to go on through the disaster and be loved by another as the love of mom, our first love, is transformed into the love of a friend. This is a refugee story. In the end it is my belief we are all refugees, all searching for mother love, all looking for acceptance and love. This is a story to tell of that life journey. Absolutely poetic, absolutely charming. Children will relate, feel , learn if this is presented with love and context.....

Scary for little ones.......2006-10-19

My 1st grader said it best: "Cute pictures, but scary story!" She had tears in her eyes as she realized the Mama was gone and the baby was alone. He gets a new mama when he's rescued, but the ghostly outline of his lost mother is present on the last page. However, sometimes bad things do happen and for a parent who is interested in introducing the concept of death or losing a parent in some way, this book could be helpful. As an everyday bedtime story thought, I would say skip it. Could really worry some children.

Winter At Her Absolute Best.......2006-06-16

As a children's book librarian, I've been following Jeanette Winter's books for many years, and I have always been struck by how child-friendly they are. They are books written and illustrated for children, not for adults, and this is what makes them such welcome additions to any children's book library. With MAMA, we have the ultimate example of this. In life, even in a child's life, difficult things happen. Tsunamis happen. Hurricanes happen. Divorce happens. Rather than being told such things aren't real, children need to deal them, to process them, and in a way that provides comfort. And so it is that Winter, as a children's book author, fearlessly, and with the utmost of grace, tackles a difficult thing that really did happen, ultimately providing much hope and joy. Bravo, Ms. Winter!

A PERFECT Picture Book.......2006-06-16

This is perhaps the most beautiful and perfect picture book I have ever read. Using just two words throughout the entire text, brilliant author/illustrator Jeanette Winter conveys the most basic of all human emotions: the bond between a mother and child. This most universal of subjects is something every child will understand -- and not just understand, but feel. And with the beautiful, equally minimal illustrations depicting the big, blue ocean, this book is certain to put every child, and every parent, in a trance -- from beginning to end. And the ending is ultimately a very happy, life-affirming, love-affirming one -- that will leave most readers with a big smile tempered with tears, like the sunshine that follows, say, a tsunami.

Elemental: The Tsunami Relief Anthology: Stories of Science Fiction and Fantasy

Average customer rating:

Disappointed
Not Free SF Reader
a great selection & some real stand-outs
Good not great!
Some gems, overall great

Elemental: The Tsunami Relief Anthology: Stories of Science Fiction and Fantasy
Steven Savile , and Alethea Kontis
Manufacturer: Tor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0765315637
Release Date: 2006-05-16

Book Description

In the winter of 2005, after the horrifying natural disaster of the tsunami in Southeast Asia, Steven Savile and Alethea Kontis joined forces to raise money to help the distressed survivors and created Elemental. They solicited SF and fantasy stories, all new and never published elsewhere, from many of the top writers in the genres, and received immediate responses in the form of the excellent stories in this book. Elemental has an introduction by Arthur C. Clarke and more than twenty stories by Brian Aldiss, David Drake, Jacqueline Carey, Martha Wells, Larry Niven, Joe Haldeman, Eric Nylund, Sherrilyn Kenyon writing as Kinley MacGregor, a Dune story by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, and many others. Elemental is one of the most important genre anthologies of the year, but it is more than that: in giving real value for the purchase price, everyone who sells this book can be proud, and everyone who buys it will be richly rewarded for supporting the tsunami relief effort. All of the publishers and authors profits will be donated to the Save The Children Tsunami Relief Fund.

Customer Reviews:

Disappointed.......2007-08-09

There were so many different authors - with not much in common as far as topics or themes. The stories were so short that it left much to be desired as far as plot and character development. It really was a waste of time for me.

Not Free SF Reader.......2007-08-04

This is unfortunately a pretty mediocre anthology, but for a good cause, so worth a bonus for that, and there is an intro by Arthur C. Clarke. Perhaps put together pretty fast, and money is donated so a cool idea.

Elemental : Report from the Near Future: Crystallization - David Gerrold
Elemental : And Tomorrow and - Adam Roberts
Elemental : Abductio ad Absurdum - Esther M. Friesner
Elemental : In the Matter of Fallen Angels - Jacqueline Carey
Elemental : Tiger in the Night - Brian Aldiss
Elemental : The strange case of Jared Spoon who went to pieces for love - Stel Pavlou
Elemental : The Solipsist at Dinner - Larry Niven
Elemental : The Wager - Sherrilyn Kenyon and Kinley MacGregor
Elemental : Expedition with Recipes - Joe Haldeman
Elemental : Tough Love 3001 - Juliet Marillier
Elemental : Chanting the Violet Dog Down: A Tale of Noreela - Tim Lebbon
Elemental : Butterflies Like Jewels - Eric Nylund
Elemental : Perfection - Lynn Flewelling
Elemental : The Compound - Michael Marshall Smith
Elemental : Sea Child: A Tale of Dune - Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
Elemental : Moebius Trip - Janny Wurts
Elemental : The Run to Hardscrabble Station - William C. Dietz
Elemental : The Last Mortal Man - Syne Mitchell
Elemental : The Double-Edged Sword - Sharon Shinn
Elemental : Night of the Dolls - Sean Williams and Shane Dix
Elemental : The Potter's Daughter - Martha Wells
Elemental : The Day of Glory - David Drake
Elemental : Sea Air - Nina Kiriki Hoffman

Very solid LA traffic is en fuego.

3.5 out of 5

MacBeth, immortal on MacDuff technicality, but bored, finds android taxman terminally enlightening.

3.5 out of 5

Stranded alien Satan.

3 out of 5

Boring supernatural does nuffink.

2.5 out of 5

Open the cage, see if the big cat appreciates poetry.

1.5 out of 5

Freezers usually for sides of lamb, not human.

2.5 out of 5

Imaginary loops.

2.5 out of 5

Merlin et. al. a bit grumpy with Malory.

2.5 out of 5

Surviving undesirable cuisine.

3.5 out of 5

What to do with a group of writer wankers, in the main.

3.5 out of 5

Doing dead stuff.

2.5 out of 5

Reality division is simpler with fireaarms.

3.5 out of 5

Architectural sneakiness.

3 out of 5

Domestic death duty dreams.

3.5 out of 5

Matre bitch-slapped Bene Gesserit's desperate motherhood seababy safety attempt.

3.5 out of 5

Otherdimensional reflection.

3.5 out of 5

Supplyside mutiny.

3.5 out of 5

Death decision.

4 out of 5

Paralysis no longer in the cards.

3.5 out of 5

Posthuman puberty.

3.5 out of 5

Fairy girl's hands like clay.

2 out of 5

Tank mercenary tedium.

2.5 out of 5

Garden monster penchant for swimming is infectious.

3 out of 5

a great selection & some real stand-outs.......2006-11-27

This anthology, like the Legends series of novellas, is a great introduction to the writings and worlds of some of our best writers going today. The big names are folks I hadn't gotten around to reading yet, and it was nice to get a glimpse of what they can do.

I'll certainly be looking for more from Syne Mitchell ("The Last Mortal Man") as this is the first time I've read a second-person story that really made good use of that unusual viewpoint. Also, Nina Kiriki Hoffman's story was highly engaging, and an enticement to more of her work.

Some stories are simply odd, others more light-weight, but overall one of the most enjoyable collections I've seen in a long time.

Good not great!.......2006-11-10

All in all a decent collection of tales. The reason I purchased it was for the "Dune" story which alone, justifies the buy. Oh, and it's for a good cause, too..............

Some gems, overall great.......2006-09-27

Several stories stood out in this charitable collection. First and foremost was David Gerrold's opening piece. In fact, I call this one a tour-de-force and hopefully it will gain some notice during award season. It's a fictional recounting of a day (in the near-future?) when the insane Los Angeles traffic becomes completely grid-locked. Gerrold does a masterful job of showing the trickle-down effects of such an occurrence, showing the potential of a full-blown disaster.

Sherrilyn Kenyon contributes a well-written piece based in her Camelot world.

Scifi master Larry Niven writes a heartwarming story about the perception of reality.

Also of note, Michael Marshall Smith and Tim Lebbon....two Brits who write two moody, intruiging pieces that would do well as Lynch movies.

Overall, a great book. Goes for a nice charity. Check it out!

DoCoMo--Japan's Wireless Tsunami: How One Mobile Telecom Created a New Market and Became a Global Force

Average customer rating:

simply the worst
Why the Japanese are so in love with Technology.
Not bad. Not amazing
Packed with important business insights
Not really about about DoCoMo

DoCoMo--Japan's Wireless Tsunami: How One Mobile Telecom Created a New Market and Became a Global Force
John C. Beck , and Mitchell Wade
Manufacturer: AMACOM/American Management Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Cellphone: The Story of the World's Most Mobile Medium and How It Has Transformed Everything!

ASIN: 0814407536

Amazon.com

America is just waking up to the vast potential of the wireless Web. In Japan, nearly a third of the population already works, plays, and shops with wireless, continuously connected to a universe of data, services, and communities. The force responsible is a young company with a name that means "anywhere" in Japanese: DoCoMo. Another case study that examines a specific corporation for management lessons it can share with others, DoCoMo--Japan's Wireless Tsunami takes a riveting look at the world's second-largest mobile phone service that has, after only two years, a customer base as big as AOL's. Don't think of this book as an apology for the languishing telecom industry. Instead, it's an inside look at how creativity and innovation were nurtured at one of the world's stodgiest companies--Nippon Telephone and Telegraph--and how a small team of committed visionaries never said "Never" and created DoCoMo's extraordinarily popular I-mode technology.

For those who've read of the importance of "intrapreneurship" in corporations, here is a real-life exploration of that principle in action. Noted business strategists John Beck (The Attention Economy) and Mitchell Wade give us story upon story of the dynamic personalities behind I-mode, from NTT Chairman Kouji Ohboshi--who saw DoCoMo through a series of crises that would have meant early death for most U.S. startups--to CEO Keiji Tachikawa, whose post-WWII childhood gave him a keen grasp of the economics of disparity.

With chapter headings like "People-People Who Need People" and "Passion Is Destiny," this book sends the strong message that every successful business model depends so heavily on the human factor--a point that seems lost in the venture-capital-dominated model of the West. With lessons for all business leaders, in any industry, this book stands as a testament to the pivotal role of conviction, integrity, and personal passion in business success. --Charles Decker

Book Description

Almost a quarter century after their core management principles put them in nearly unassailable positions of market dominance, Japanese firms like Toyota, Sony, and Honda are still the standards to which other corporations aspire. Today, Japan's NTT DoCoMo is on the verge of attaining equal stature. DoCoMo is the world's second-largest mobile phone operator and, with its I-mode system, the first to roll out real, viable third-generation applications like Internet-ready mobile phones. This quantum leap in technology will very soon change the way we all send and receive information, from e-mail, paging, and voice to graphic business applications and entertainment. But DoCoMo's success came not as a result of following the hard-and-fast models of its illustrious predecessors. In fact, it is much more a reflection of the ability of DoCoMo's management to carve out a creative niche within the confines of legendarily traditional Nippon Telephone and Telegraph.

Beck (co-author, The Attention Economy) and Accenture senior consultant Wade examine the enormous risks that DoCoMo took in pursuing a "bleeding edge" technology which analysts thought was superfluous, and how their daring almost single-handedly brought an entire global market into existence. It is this extraordinary story and the simple, powerful management themes ingrained in it that will drive companies the world over to emulate DoCoMo as they did the previous giants of Japanese industry.

Customer Reviews:

simply the worst.......2005-10-01

Chapter one of this pathetic book begins by informing us that "Business cases aren't romance novels. Things begin, and end, with the numbers". Not so this book. As well as seemingly endless diversions into such eclectic themes as post war land reform in Japan, General MacArthur's victorious cavalcade into Tokyo, hitch hiking in New England, some unfathomable nonsense about the "mystic Southwest" of the United States, a reference to Mary Poppins, a couple of paragraphs on Bruce Springsteen, the problems of mowing lawns in Utah, the relatively high mortality rates of upper class Britons during both world wars, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the usual sociological drivel of upwardly pointing nails getting hammered down in Japan, some buzz words from complexity theory, some tips on putting golf balls and interminable pages of insipid tips on how to turn your (non Docomo related) work into fun, we are given six shallow chapters respectively titled Love, Inequality, Impatience, Luck, Fun and Strength with a further appendix called Intimacy and M-Commerce. That is followed by a mercifully short interview with Docomo President Kouji Ohboshi, which, because it was originally carried in 1996, is, like the entire book, totally irrelevant to the current market conditions Docomo faces.
Although the book's blurb claims the authors had unprecedented access to Docomo's top executives, there is no evidence of that in this over priced book. We are, however, told that Ohboshi "looks like a conventional Japanese executive. He is tall". We are also told that he has the style of a cockroach, meaning that he is impatient and hurries around a lot. Because cockroaches tend to get stamped on, it is a dangerous and, at best, very silly metaphor to describe a dynamic CEO of a thriving company.
It is almost as silly as the 20 or so pages given to the digital experiences of Yasuko Sato who, we are told, had to overcome the sad fact that "Mama and Papa Sato lovingly, relentlessly instilled good old-fashioned analog values in their daughter." Although Mama and Papa Hayes did the same, I have used mobile phones in the jungles of the Golden Triangle and the Andes Mountains as well as in a fishing trawler 300 miles off the coast of Iceland. Talking about the wonders of i-mode or mobile phones in the tones Mitch and John (as they annoyingly call themselves throughout the book) is like talking of the wonders of black and white TV; they are old news.
To impress on us how successful Docomo has been, we are supposed to be amazed that its headquarters are in "a skyscraper so large that each elevator holds sixty-three people. Sixty-three! In just one elevator!" As if that was not penance enough for us to bear, the authors appeal to our vanity by telling us that we are the new "cosmopolitan, global kind of thinker" because we are reading a "whole book" on Docomo.
Instead of giving us a "whole book" on Docomo, all they serve us up is the most shameless padding that would make the laziest high school student blush. Only two paragraphs after mentioning "those alphabet soup economics equations that make so little sense to most of us", we read "Okay, enough about boring economic theories" and we are back to the problems of mowing the lawns of Utah.
Technical details are also, we are told on page 127, "perennially boring" even though they are vital to understand Docomo's short history as well as its prospects for future success. The mobile telephony industry Docomo finds itself in is a young industry, one that will mature in time just as wireless, television and the Internet did before it. Until that happens, the industry's many intangibles will complicate our best efforts to predict the industry's future trends. Instead of trying to identify those intangibles, the authors let us know that "what we can tell you, after years in think thanks and universities and high-powered consulting firms" is that luck is paramount in a successful business.
This is easily the worst business book I have ever read, let alone reviewed.

Why the Japanese are so in love with Technology........2005-03-20

I've been looking for literature that explores why Japan is so technology obsessive, they have to have the latest of everything and feel utterly out of touch if they dont. Technology is fashion.

Having lived there a year i instantly recognised the name 'DoCoMo' and thought it was the perfect forum to analyse this exact phenomena, DoCoMo is the mother of all technology companies over there and really has become a part of the way of life there.

This book separates into chapters based on emotion, an odd idea, but one that works quite well. For me the Love and Fun chapters accurately depict the passion the Japanese have for technology and how DoCoMo capitalized on that.

However I wasn't looking at this book as an example of a business model. I skipped most of the facts and figures, though they are easy to read and very relevant. People who are skepical of this books practical use offering a business model that has a totally different approach, probably havent spent enough time in Japan to see how successfully DoCoMo has been. I believe this may be the future of the business model. But essentially i think this book would fit much better in the 'Technologies Influence On Society' section of the bookshelf.

Those who are researching technology as part of society are the ones who will really get a kick out of this book, there are so many interviews with developers, users, fanatics and novices, it is a feast of information that explains just why the Japanese are atleast a year ahead in the Mobile Industry. And why the Japanese are so passionate about their gadgets.

Not bad. Not amazing.......2004-11-07

I picked up this book with the hope that it would share some insight into why i-mode was such a big success. It did that only.

This is an extremely 'business/management' style of book. Full of hullabaloo, simple to read and gets somewhat preachy at times.

However I did enjoy reading it, although I sometimes doubt validity of some speculations made (Such as Singapore eradicating paper and coin based money entirely by the year 2008).

I'll give it 3 stars because it did give me the answer I was looking for but it wasn't a life changing experience reading it. Sorry.

Packed with important business insights.......2003-03-06

How has Japan's NTT DooMo become as big as AOL's customer base - five times as fast? This is Japan's mobile phone service, who grew to second-largest in the world in just to years. Insights into industry secrets, Japanese business, the wireless and computer worlds like make DoCoMo--Japan's Wireless Tsunami: How One Mobile Telecom Created a New Market and Became a Global Force a book difficult to easily categorize, but packed with important business insights. Highly recommended for all readers.

Not really about about DoCoMo.......2003-02-16

This book doesn't give a clear understanding of DoCoMo and it's mechanisms.
It's more of an unctious eulogy about people at Do-Co-Mo and the enterprise itself.
What we learn: Keichi Tachikawa had a keen sense of inequality, former Chairman Ohkochi is impatient, impatient etc., Keichi Enoki seems to be the lucky guy.
This is a latter day celebration of a Japanese enterprise. The rendering of the story could have been influenced heavily by the style of a communist storyteller, writing a biography of communist saint Breshnew or marshal Shukow.

Few facts. Tons of incense. Sprinklings of modern management thought.

Not devoid of facts, but these are incoherently interspersed into a rambling storytelling about all and everything.
This book did waste my time and continuous factless ramblings made me feel angry at times.

Average customer rating:

Cogent, powerful, speaks beautifully to the hope and promise of God

A tough but worthwhile read

Eerdman's missed the mark on this book...

Fantastic, poetic, beautiful.

Absolutely Brilliant--a masterpiece

The Doors of the Sea: Where Was God in the Tsunami?
David Bentley Hart
Manufacturer: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Beauty Of The Infinite: The Aesthetics Of Christian Truth

Acts (Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible)

God & Human Suffering: An Exercise in the Theology of the Cross

Encountering Evil: Live Options in Theodicy

Evil And the Justice of God

ASIN: 0802829767

Book Description

As news reports of the horrific tsunami in Asia reached the rest of the world, commentators were quick to seize upon the disaster as proof either of God's power or of God's nonexistence. Expanding on his short piece in the Wall Street Journal, "Tremors of Doubt," David Bentley Hart clarifies the biblical account of God's goodness, the nature of evil, and the shape of redemption.

Hart incisively reveals where both Christianity's critics and its champions misrepresent what is most essential to Christian belief. While responding to atheist skeptics, Hart is at his most perceptive and provocative as he examines Christian attempts to rationalize the tsunami disaster. He contends that the history of suffering and death is not simply part of a divine plan that will make sense of evil. Rather than appealing to a divine calculus that can account for every instance of suffering, Christians must recognize the ongoing struggle between the rebellious powers that enslave the world and the God who loves it.

This meditation by a brilliant young theologian of the Eastern Orthodox tradition will deeply challenge serious readers grappling with God's ways in a suffering world.

Customer Reviews:

Cogent, powerful, speaks beautifully to the hope and promise of God.......2007-01-10

Take a $10 chance and buy, read and consider this remarkable and enormously important Christ-centered (read: love-centered) book. Be not, as another wisely observes, mislead by the title: this is a book of keen theological perspicacity, scholarship and complexion, the catastrophic Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 but, however difficult and unthinkable, the backdrop upon which these beautiful, hope-filled words on the amaranthine love of God are cast. In many ways, the most important, with one exception of course, book I've ever read.

A tough but worthwhile read .......2006-08-19

"The Doors of the Sea" subtitled, "Where Was God in the Tsunami?" It's written by an Eastern Orthodox theologian, David Bentley Hart. And it's a fine work that demands careful reading. I read and then re-read it. It is short (109 pages), lyrical and literary.

The title tells it all. Hart's book is an expansion of an op ed piece he wrote entitled "Tremors of Doubt: What Kind of a God Would Allow a Deadly Tsunami?" that was published in the Wall Street Journal, on the last day of the year in 2004.

As a couple of other reviewers have noted, Hart can be obscure at times, but persistence with this book will pay dividends,

The title "The Doors of the Sea" is a loose reference to Job, chapter 38.

Eerdman's missed the mark on this book..........2006-06-14

They could have published a book that would have been a tremendous comfort to lay readers. Unfortunately, Hart's academic language is maddening--there are words here that will not be in your dictionary, and you will have to re-read parts several times to understand what the author is saying.

I would guess that most readers will give up before finishing the book. That's too bad, because Hart has important things to say. Some of the other reviewers seem to cherish his obscurity. I don't. It IS possible to present important, even complicated, ideas in an elegant way that can be also be readily understood.

To prospective buyers: skip the book and find the Wall Street Journal column. It's much more to the point. To the author: please read "Simple and Direct" by Jacques Barzun.

Fantastic, poetic, beautiful........2006-05-19

Christian theodicy (that is, its defense of an all good, omnipotent, omniscient God in the face of the nihilant evil and suffering of the world) in its variegated forms has the unfortunate tendency to be cold, sterile, and hopelessly esoteric. Hart's book provides an illuminating critique of standard theodicic rebuttals within the world of Christendom, but also a staunch and unrelenting deconstruction of standard atheistic aggrandizing of the "failure" of the Christian system due to misunderstood theological tenants on both sides (that is, both Christian and atheist).

Hart views with a critical eye the notion that the world process as it stands, evil and all, is part of some diligent calculus on God's part, some equilibrium of the "best possible world," or a necessity for God to show his grace. In this brushtroke of his mighty pen he chastizes epigones of Leibniz, Calvin, and others by working through the complaints of Voltair, Dostoevsky, and Mackie. Hart points out that if this were the case, that God has either made this evil for the greater good, or that evil actually has in itself a higher purpose, God would not be the God he is without the evil of this world. His Goodness would necessarily be reactionary, comparative, not essentially good or pure, always caught in the undulating dialectic of good/evil where God, though champion over evil, is the Good Savior only in reference to evil. Rather Hart points out that a truly biblical conception names no purpose to evil, superimposes no grant of life to death. Evil is in fact the ultimate meaninglessness of sin, and has no instrinsic purpose. The death of a child, the rape of a mother, the malignancy of a car crash, have no ultimate machination or design, but are all rendered ultimately meaningless as they are the privation of God's goodness. Hence God's goodness is not a dialectical goodness always paired as that good which overcame evil, but rather evil, in the ultimate illumination of God's effulgent glory, is defatigated and palliated into the nothingness that it truly is. To answer one question below, however, in regards to Noah, Hart is not denying that God might turn evil (or denying the Old Testament, as a reviewer below ponders) for the purpose of the Good, merely that evil has no ultimate design in the tapestry of God's economic plan.

There have been a number of critiques faulting Hart for what is otherwise an impressive utilization of the spectrum of the english language. For its part, they who would chastize Hart in this way are correct in pointing out moments of obscurity due to the poetic flourish of language often pervading the text. And I sympathize in part with those who find Hart's language pompous and perhaps isolated from a more general audience, as a reviewer above notes there ARE ways to state Hart's arguments otherwise than through obscure words. These are, of course, things to be considered (and I would recommend a dictionary as a compliment to Hart's compendious vocab) Nonetheless I find it a somewhat irritating and unfair analysis that seems much akin to faulting a painter for the complexity of brushtroke used in the architecture of a sunset, or the hyaline beauty of a midnight sky. Surely it is an unjust criticism to say Hart was writing "to impress other theologians or his mother" (as a somewhat pretentious reviewer notes above) Could not also his exuberance and excess of language be due to a love for poetic analysis, an enlightened aesthetic appreciation of the wax and wane of language's metaphorical landscape? God forbid we should learn something as we read! Whether or not Hart goes overboard with his word choice is debatable, and just how much the clarity of the arguments suffer as a result is also hard to determine, but at any rate I would urge readers not to pass up this book because of a smattering of difficult words.

This is all in all a fantastic book that both provokes and satisfies. Hart is truly a fantastic theologian with an ability for complex thinking (see his The Beauty of the Infinite for a truly staggering read) and it is very refreshing to have an approach to theodicy that doesn't seem to disrespect through the intrepidity of its logic, the utter cthonic nothingness,the morose and horrifying events of this fallen reality. Highly recommended. I can think of no other book that crams so complex and beautiful a Christian response to evil as this.

Absolutely Brilliant--a masterpiece.......2006-03-18

I have bought countless copies of this book as gifts. It is a stunningly beautiful, elegant, rigorous meditation. The prose alone is worth the price, but what so impressed me was the powerful articulation of the orthodox Christian understanding of good and evil. There is no mawkish sentiment, no appeal to pure emotion, no obscurantism. I have never encountered another book that, in so short a space, made me see how internally coherent and how revolutionary the Christian vision of reality is. The book is also a kind of poem to the beauty of creation, and a haunting lament over its sufferings.

One of the reviewers below grows a bit petulant over a scattering of large words in the text, but that's a silly complaint against so distinguished a stylist. Hart uses the exactly appropriate word in any given context, and the euphony of his sentences is majestic.

Average customer rating:

Horrible! Avoid this book!
So So
Too Easy
Illogical and Awful
poorly done

The Official Book of Hanjie
Timothy E. Parker
Manufacturer: Plume
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0452287928

Customer Reviews:

Horrible! Avoid this book!.......2007-09-24

This is the WORST book on Hanjie I've ever seen. The author has tried to construct on the regular 5 block grids, but he can't seem to get the hang of it, so on almost every puzzle, you have rows and columns, sometimes up to three or four on each side, that you have to black out. This makes the 5 block grid almost useless for counting and placement. The easy puzzles are too easy and the hard puzzles have too many puzzles that you have to guess where to start. I am really, really sorry I wasted my money on this book, and I recommend that nobody else do it.

The only reason I gave this book even ONE star is because Amazon won't let me do this review without a star rating. In reality I would rate it as a -3 stars!

So So.......2007-05-09

I am not sure the author of this book understands the nature of the puzzles. Some puzzles listed as easy were not doable, some were very boring with no logic involved in solving, some had no starting point and some were good.

Too Easy.......2007-04-06

I am looking for more difficult books or books which require you to use different colors to solve the puzzles.

Illogical and Awful.......2007-03-21

I have been playing these pencil puzzles for over 15 years, and I have never seen a book with so many illogical puzzles. Nearly half of these puzzles are insolvable unless you cheat, which is incredibly frustrating. Many of the puzzles are also illogical, with the numbers on the sides not matching up to the numbers on the top. DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK! Buy "Paint by Sudoku" instead.

poorly done.......2007-02-01

I agree with the other reviewers about the myriad problems with this book.

The puzzles are graded as Easy, Medium and Hard depending on the size of the grid the puzzle is printed on, with no actual evaluation of the difficulty of the puzzle itself.

The grids are 3 set sizes, and in many cases very poorly related to the size of the puzzle.

Easy puzzles are all printed on 25 x 25 grids, but the puzzle images may be much smaller (example, puzzle #7 in which the image is only 25 x 11, and would have been better printed on a 25 x 15 grid; as it is, you are left with 8 empty rows on the top and 6 on the bottom. It's just annoying.) 13 of the 36 "easy" puzzles are printed on grids at least 5 lines too large (leaving 5 or more completely empty rows or columns across the top & bottom edges together, or across the right & left sides together).

Medium puzzles are on 30 x 30 grids. Of the 26 medium puzzles, I count 12 which have 5 or more completely empty lines at the top/bottom edges or the right/left edges. All of those puzzles should have been put on smaller grids to begin with. One of the more egregious examples is puzzle #45, a very simple 30 x 15 puzzle printed on a 30 x 30 grid (thus graded as "Medium"), but with 8 empty lines across the top and 7 empty lines across the bottom.

Hard puzzles are on 35 x 35 grids. There are 38 in this category and 9 have the same problem of being printed on grids at least 5 rows/columns too large.

A major problem with this book: there are quite a few puzzles that do, in fact, require you to guess. An absolute no-no in a logic puzzle book!

More minor quibbles with the book:

lower grade paper used (thinner and grayer than in other similar books I've enjoyed)

the heavy bold grid lines (the ones used every 5 squares vertically and horizontally) don't extend into the clues section. So you have to be especially careful, for example, when working on the bottom section of a 35 x 35 puzzle that the squares you are filling in line up correctly with the line of clues at the top of the puzzle. The bold grid lines every 5 squares usually alleviate this issue, but not when the bold lines don't show in the clues at all!

the completed images themselves are, to my mind, inferior to what I've encountered in other puzzle books. Puzzles titled TV Set, Brick & Trowel, Screw Head, Paint Can, Sugar Bowl, and Skull are examples that would have benefited from more detail and/or better definition.

I don't exactly hate this book; it would be more accurate to say I really haven't enjoyed it. I give it one star because it is by far the worst book of its type that I have encountered.

Save your money, find another book or dig this one out of a super-bargain bin!

Average customer rating:

Courtesy of Teens Read Too
The Killing Sea
This book brings the human touch back to a global tragedy
Recommended for ALL readers
Great Writers Make Great Books

The Killing Sea
Richard Lewis
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1416911650

Book Description

Ruslan slipped away from the café and the curious onlookers. He began to run, not knowing exactly why, but instinct making him head away from the sea....

And in the distance, along the seafront of Ujung Karang, screams rose from a hundred, a thousand, mouths.

Aceh, Indonesia. December 2004.

Ruslan, an Indonesian boy, and Sarah, an American girl, are brought together in the aftermath of the devastating tsunami. Ruslan is searching for his missing father, while Sarah is trying to get medical treatment for her sick brother. Together they travel through the destruction, barely believing all that they see.

The Killing Sea is a high-stakes survival story that puts a human face on a terrible tragedy. Richard Lewis, who lives in Indonesia, was there during the tsunami and worked as a relief worker in Aceh in the days and weeks following it. This novel is based on his firsthand experiences.

Customer Reviews:

Courtesy of Teens Read Too.......2007-05-25

THE KILLING SEA is a thrilling book that talks about a tsunami hitting the coast of Indonesia. There are three main characters involved in this fictionalized account: Ruslan, who is an Indonesian, and Sarah and Steve, who are Americans that are visiting the country.

Sarah's and Steve's mom and dad asked to see Ruslan's dad to repair their boat that they needed to have fixed. Ruslan doesn't have a mother because she died a few years ago so he has to work. His dad is a mechanic.

Then a tsunami hits the coast. Ruslan knows that his dad is working on an oil tanker out at sea so he thinks he is okay. Sarah and Steve are on their boat when the tsunami hits. They run for their lives but lose track of their parents.

The book tells you those two stories and what they do after the tsunami. When an exciting part happens, they switch over to another point of view to make you want to read more.

I loved THE KILLING SEA and I hope when you read it you do, too.

Reviewed by: Mike

The Killing Sea.......2007-05-22

Ruslan slipped away from the crowd and the curious onlookers. He began to run, not knowing exactly why. But instanced told him to get away from the sea.
INDONESIA DECEMBER 2004

An Indonesian boy, and an all American girl are brought together in the aftermath of the devastating tsunami. The girl Sara has a 15-year-old brother named Peter that is with her. Sara and Peter have lost their mother in the tidal wave but their dad is still alive. But Sara And Peter are separated from their father by all of the rubble on the ground beneath there feet. The Indonesian boy is on Sara's and Peters side the whole time. Ruslan, the Indonesian boy has no mother but has a father but lost him like Sara and Peter. They are living on the ocean side in a tent that one of the tourists had waiting for rescue. Will Sara, Peter, and Ruslan be rescued or will they be there for a while.

Opinion

I thought that this book was the best book in the world and every one should read it. It gets you hooked from the very first sentence. It is a must read.

This book brings the human touch back to a global tragedy.......2007-02-20

Richard lewis has through this story portrayed the victims of the asian tsunami as human beings. He has maintained their dignity, this is a rare skill in writing that should be praised. I would recommend this book to those who have spent time helping after the tsunami as well as those who only know of it from the news.
From one who did go to help thank you for telling this important story, it was important for me to read. Thank you Richard Lewis!

Recommended for ALL readers.......2007-01-31

So glad I'm not alone in giving this wonderful book 5 stars! It a small masterpiece.

Other reviewers have already done a great job of summarizing the plot, so I'll just say that this gripping young adult novel about the tsunami is so much more than a heart-thumping page-turner. It's about family, culture, religion, redemption, love and God. I'm eager for my children to read it, and recommend it to all adults, as well.

-Ellen Meister, author of Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA

Great Writers Make Great Books.......2007-01-30

Richard Lewis's The Killing Sea is a fast-paced adventure based on the 2004 tsunami in Aceh. Skillfully crafted chapters alternate between telling the story of Indonesian boy, Ruslan, and Sarah, the Western tourist.

After surviving the tsunami (and witnessing a haunting amount of people who didn't), Ruslan begins searching for his father, who he believes has gone to Ie Mameh. After being held hostage by the military and then kidnapped by rebels, Ruslan escapes and eventually meets up with blue-eyed Sarah.

Sarah must also find her father, but first she needs to get her younger brother to a hospital. Peter swallowed a lot of water and is getting sicker by the day. Along with Aisya (whom Sarah pulled out of corpse-ridden waters), the three of them set off in search of medical attention.

A tug-of-war between hope and despair occurs, as they trek over mountains only to find more flattened villages. They are joined by fellow survivors and finally arrive in Calang. There they are told that the hospital has been destroyed and the medicine, washed away.

The Killing Sea is as visually stimulating as watching a movie. It's tastefully written and surely a winner with proceeds going to local Acehnese charities. The most compelling thing about the novel, however, is its sincerity. Even though the book is a work of imagination, Lewis creates a reality. From the water buffalo trying to clamber onto the fishing boat to the detachment Sarah feels upon finding her dead mother, I believed every word.

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