Book Description
Organized by such common subjects as Home, Work, Eating Out, Transportation, Health and Sports, these bilingual visual dictionaries give students and business people quick access to foreign terms in the simplest and most intuitive way.
Customer Reviews:
Very Cute Book!.......2007-05-06
This is a fun, but very useful dictionary. I think being able to see the picture along with the word actually helps with remembering it. Several people in my adult immersion French class own this book--in fact, we call it 'the magic book'. I highly recommend it for beginners as well as interdiate and even advanced speakers.
Awesome resource.......2007-01-05
I just love this dictionary! It has actually motivated me to learn some new French words. And, for me at least, having the pictures makes the words easier to remember.
An Excellent Resource for Building Vocabulary.......2007-01-03
I bought this book yesterday at B&N. For $12.95 it is an amazing deal and, in terms of vocabulary, you cannot get more bang for your buck. It is neatly organized, the pictures are great and it is the perfect size. I moved to Germany two years ago without an adequate vocabulary so I was motivated to not make that mistake twice. I did not go wrong with this dictionary. The best part is that covers so many aspects of daily life - almost too much information - put you can just focus on what's important to you. - James
Illustrated Bilingual Dictionary.......2006-01-23
Dictionaries with pictures are a true favorite and this on will also be loved by anyone who loves cooking or eating French foods. The chapter on eating out will be especially helpful to travelers who may be required to order food in French.
This book is also small enough to keep in your backpack and many of the translations are very easy to learn. Like pizza is la pizza and sandwich is le sandwich. So reading menus will become much easier if you have this guide with you or could be useful while reading cookbooks.
The Dictionary is divided up into main sections:
People
Appearance
Home
Services
Shopping
Food
Study
Work
Transportation
Sports
Environment
Each picture is accompanied by a French and English Word. Each language also has its own index so you can look up words either way. A short section on useful phrases is also included. This makes the book especially useful and highly recommended. A speaking/talking dictionary (ASIN: B000BXIDFK) may be useful when learning pronunciations.
What is truly amazing about this way of learning French is that you remember the picture and almost instantly the name of the item appears in your mind as if you have developed a photographic memory. I love it! Also look for additional books to learn Spanish, Italian and German.
~The Rebecca Review
EXCELLENT VISUAL REFERENCE.......2006-01-23
I minored in French when I was in college. The other day I stumbled upon this book @ a local Border's store. I had to buy it! This is a complete visual reference for those wanting to learn French or wanting to brush up on what they know already, or simply lear new words. I have always been a visual person, and this dictionary helps me remember the vocabulary since i can match it up to a picture.
The best thing about this dictionary is that it covers almost every topic imaginable, topics not even my French textbooks would cover such as health, clothing, services, shopping, food, studies, work, transportation, sports, leisure and the environment.
It covers such details such as computer and camera parts, to the positions in a football game, or members of a rock band. At the end of the book there's a list of useful phrases in french for everyday use.
I recommend this wonderful book. Kudos to DK publishing!!!
Book Description
A photographic and comprehensive guide of how to express everyday occurrences in five different languages. With over 10,000 terms, 1,600 full-color photographs, and a comprehensive index, the Five-Language Visual Dictionary is a powerful tool for beginners learning the five major European languages: English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian. Ideal for students, teachers, business travelers, and tourists alike, this reference is also perfect for anyone studying English as a foreign language. Featuring a complete range of objects and scenes from everyday life, this is a great way to make learning quick, easy, and fun.
Customer Reviews:
Great with one major flaw: ambiguous gender.......2007-07-31
While I enjoy the real live pictures used to illustrate the vocabulary, I am frustrated by the fact that they use the indefinite pronoun to identify gender. For many words, this is not a problem, but for some words, the indefinite pronouns in French and Italian are ambiguous.
For example: garlic - l'ail - der Knoblauch - el ajo - l'aglio
Are "l'ail" and "l'aglio" masculine or feminine? No respectable dictionary should ever leave the gender of a word ambiguous. I hope that they correct this problem in future editions. Until then, I prefer the Firefly Five Language Dictionary, which tastefully adds a gender flag as a superscript after each word:
The Firefly Five Language Visual Dictionary: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian
Just a fun book.......2006-03-25
I give it 5 stars because it does an excellent job of presenting the top 5 European languages in an easily comparable way. It will NOT teach you a language. But it's intriguing to see word similarities. I've studied all 5 languages (and am currently studying German full-time). I can't say whether folks who have no background in any more than one of the languages would find the book as much fun as I do. But as soon as I saw it I wanted a copy. Too bad it's out of print, although Amazon still has copies available (3-6 weeks' wait).
Pictures worth a thousand words.......2004-12-15
I found this book most helpful in tutoring adult ESL. When tutoring one might have a Spanish speaker one hour and a student from Vietnam or Ivory Coast who may have some second language knowledge of French the next hour. Importantly, the pictures are engaging, clear and interesting. Now, I miss this book because it passed the ultimate test: it was stolen from the tutoring center.
Useful, informative and enjoyable.......2004-07-18
This visual dictionary has more than 1,600 colourful images and its 400 pages are divided into 19 chapters as follows: About the dictionary, How to use this book, People, Appearance, Health, Home, Services, Shopping, Food, Eating out, Study, Work, Transport, Sports, Leisure, Environment, Reference, Index and Acknowledgments.
For each picture you get its meaning in five languages, and for each word you have its definite article showing the gender. Very interesting is the presence of pictures showing actions, so that you get the verbs as well as some useful phrases. At the end of the "Reference" section you have "particles and antonyms" and "useful phrases" - essential phrases, greetings, signs, help, directions, accommodation, eating and drinking. The index is divided into five parts, one for each language, and the names have their gender shown by means of the letters m, n, f .
I particularly enjoy playing with this book by showing a picture and letting my friends guess its meaning in the foreign languages they have studied, and think it's a useful tool for teachers, students or professionals, for the topics are covered in detail. Last but not least, the dictionary is published by DK, i.e. it's a Dorling Kindersley Book, a Penguin Company.
not a pedagogical tool.......2003-10-28
Although, in theory, one might consider books such as this helpful in achieving fluency in five languages simultaneously, this is false. Anyone who speaks more than two languages knows that we store each language in its own special place in our brain, and that location is determined by similarity to other languages also located in our brain. So, when learning Swedish, all of my errors were in German. Never did I mistakenly select a French word while attempting to speak Swedish. Similarly, when learning Italian, never did I reach for a German word by accident. My mistakes were nearly always in Spanish (occasionally in French). The best example of all may be Japanese, for which there was no transfer effect whatsoever. Every mistake I make in Japanese is just bad Japanese, not a word from one of my other languages.
The point is: due to the compartmentalization of languages, this type of book does not facilitate language learning. While I am a big advocate of simultaneous translation, this book, unlike dual language literary texts, offers only individual words, not phrases, for the many colorful entries presented.
I will say that the book is filled with photographs, and this is its true virtue. You may have been wondering how to describe a particular food item in German, Spanish, Italian and French. If so, you may be able to find out the answer to your question here. The sections are thematically arranged, so you can turn quickly to your area of interest, say, auto care, to find out all of the vocabulary that you are looking for. But, of course, a person only needs car part vocabulary when dealing with a broken car, which can happen in only one country at a time.
Average customer rating:
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French (Bilingual Visual Dictionary)
Manufacturer: Dorling Kindersley Publishers Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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| Dutch
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ASIN: 1405311207 |
Average customer rating:
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Visual French Dictionary
Jean-Claude Corbeil
Manufacturer: Qa International
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
English (All)
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Foreign Language
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| Albanian
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| Slovenian
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French
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General
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ASIN: 0198608675 |
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Milet Bilingual Visual Dictionary: English-French
Jean-Claude Corbeil
Manufacturer: Milet Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
English (All)
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Polyglot
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Dictionaries; Polyglot
| Instruction
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French
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ASIN: 1840593350 |
Book Description
A new edition of the definitive and popular Milet Bilingual Visual Dictionary. More than 5000 terms identified and illustrated by more than 700 brightly colored state-of-the-art illustrations, covering subjects like Sky, Earth, Animal Kingdom, Human Being, Architecture, Sports, and Music. Each illustration is clearly labelled with terminology that identifies its parts in both languages. An essential and enjoyable bilingual resource.
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Online Dictionary (TELL Consortium S.)
C. Zahner ,
M-.J. Hamel ,
B.N. Azeh , and
A. Journo
Manufacturer: Hodder Arnold
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD
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| Finnish
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| Gaelic
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| Hawaiian
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| Hungarian
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Online Searching
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ASIN: 0340673591 |
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Box Set: Dragons of Deltora #1 Dragon's Nest, #2 Shadowgate, #3 Isle of the Dead, and #4 Sister of the South and Free Dragon Pendant (Dragons of Deltora, Volumes 1,2,3,4)
Emily Rodda
Manufacturer: Scholastic, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Similar Items:
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Deltora Shadowlands/ Special Edition Books 1-3 (special editon books 1-3)
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Deltora Book Of Monsters (Deltora Quest)
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Tales Of Deltora
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Deltora Shadowlands #1: Cavern Of Fear (Deltora Shadowlands)
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Deltora Quest (Special Edition) Books 1-4 (Deltora Quest, books 1 through 4 (The Forest of Silence, The Lake of Tears, City of Rats, The Shifting Sands))
ASIN: 0439795761 |
Average customer rating:
- Rodda manages to put some spooky into her fantasy
- James' Review
- DRAGONS!!!!! YAY!!!!!
- Their next destination, the Isle of the Dead.
- THE DRAGONS KEEP ON COMIN'
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Isle of the Dead (Dragons of Deltora)
Emily Rodda
Manufacturer: Scholastic Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Similar Items:
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Dragons Of Deltora #4: Sister Of The South (Dragons of Deltora)
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Shadowgate - Dragons Of Deltora #2 (Dragons of Deltora)
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Dragon's Nest (Dragons of Deltora, Book 1)
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The Shadowlands
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The Isle Of Illusion
ASIN: 0439633753 |
Customer Reviews:
Rodda manages to put some spooky into her fantasy.......2007-10-06
Emily Rodda continues her sheer and most impressive imagination in this book that takes on the aura of a ghost story in the nautical sense with creativity and plot only seen in the best. Oddly (and I mean this as a compliment) I almost felt as if I were playing a fantasy video game as I read this.
The subject of the spooky is an old lighthouse that must always remain lit to assist travelers to Deltora. It is more than a job, it is a calling, and it is a crime of the highest to let the light burn out. So of course the answer is why? Why would anyone let the light go out?
The answer lies in paintings and glass windows on a haunted ghost ship that is mysteriosly attached to sneaky characters of Deltora.
Emily Rodda makes a story that relies so much on that eerie feeling to tell an already great story.
James' Review.......2006-12-11
This book was a really goog book and it exited me from the moment that I picked it up to the moment I finshed it I loved the way they got stuck In that ghost ship And how when they got off it followed them! But the ending wasn't that good but I still can't wait to read Sister of the south!
DRAGONS!!!!! YAY!!!!!.......2006-03-07
I read Dragons of Deltora: Isle of the Dead by Emily Rodda. It is the third book of four in the mini series, Dragons of Deltora. The entire Deltora Set is comprised of three mini series, including Dragons of Deltora.
In the Deltora Series, the three main characters are Lief, Jasmine, and Barda. Leif is the young king of Deltora; Jasmine, the friend of Lief, grew up in The Forests of Silence; Barda, the head of Dels' guards, grew up in the palace when the Shadow Lord took power. They are on a mission to destroy all four sisters in Deltora who slowly poison the land.
In Deltora, there are seven dragons left, one for each gemstone of Deltora, diamond, ruby, amethyst, opal, lapis-lazuli, emerald, and topaz. Doran the Dragonlover, also known as Dragonfriend to the dragons, asked all the dragons to go into a deep sleep, until the king, wearing the Belt of Deltora, calls upon them.
Dragonfriend discovered the Shadow Lords plan of starving the people of Deltora using the Four Sisters. He tried to tell every one of the Sisters, but no one believed him. He left a map marking the locations of each Sister and went to the Isle of the Dead to find proof, but failed to complete his mission.
Lief, Barda, and Jasmine try to kill the Four Sisters, and in order to do so, they must awaken the remaining seven dragons. To be able to defeat a sister, they must have the power of a dragon and the power of a gem in the Belt of Deltora. The Shadow Lord found the map that Doran left behind, tore it into four pieces, and hid each piece in separate corners of Deltora. Lief found one of the map sections that led them to Dragon Nest, in the East. They woke the Ruby Dragon, slay the Sister of the East, and discovered a second quarter of the map, leading them northward to Shadowgate. In Shadowgate, they put an end to the Northern Sisters song, awaken the Emerald Dragon, and found the third portion of the map which leads them to the Isle of the Dead, and the Sister of the West.
In order to reach the Isle of the Dead, they must row to the Scarlet Island and cross by foot, over a bridge to the Isle of the Dead. They seek help from a blind prophet, by the name of Ava, to request the use of her boat. On the Scarlet Island, Lief finds the Diamond Dragon in an appalling state, and buried under her chin they find a little baby dragon egg starting to hatch, keeping the Diamond Dragon species alive.
With the Diamond Dragon, Forta, being only a baby, Lief can not depend on her help in killing the Sister of the West. So instead, he calls upon the old Amethyst Dragon, Veritas, but is not sure that he will be able to have the strength to fly to the Isle of the Dead to help defend against the Guardian of the West, and hell take down the West Sister. Is Veritas strong enough to fly from Dune Island, in amethyst territory, to the Isle of the Dead, in the diamond territory? Or will his lack of food in many years make him to weak? Or does the long flight make him too weak to fight? Read Dragons of Deltora: Isle of the Dead to find out the answers to these questions, and to find out the rest to the story, read the fourth book Dragons of Deltora: Sister of the South.
I really like the genre Emily Rodda uses. She takes dragons and magic and incorporates it with adventure. There are a lot of puzzles in the book, which are fun to figure out before finding out what the answer is. When a letter is received or a sign is spotted somewhere, instead of just describing the sign or reading the letter out loud, a picture of the letter or sign is put in the book. That way, if there is a hidden code in a letter that was sent, you get the chance to figure it out before the code is revealed. I like the adventurous plot in this book along with the constant puzzles, plus the traveling in different methods is cool, like flying on Toran magic or on a dragons' back. Another reason I like this series is because of the Belt of Deltora, which is made up of seven very magical stones. Each of the seven stones has different powers and abilities like different types of healing, warning, and cleansing powers. I think people who like magic and adventure would like this book.
Their next destination, the Isle of the Dead........2005-07-16
Lief, Jasmine and Barda are now on the track of their next destination, the Isle of the Dead.Their next quest will be their hardest and most quizical yet, losing track of their friend and companion, Jasmine, Lief and Barda find themselves in the middle of a mystery between a beautiful young girl with red hair, a lighthouse and his keeper and a ship called the Lady Luck.When they find themselves in the middle of the Lady Luck's gambling and game room, they find themselves in the midsts of many puzzles and secretive tricks.
Well done Emily Rodda!This book is definitely your best yet in your thrilling new series!I loved the dragons and the mysteries with exciting and deadly answers.I especially loved the wonderful secrets about Tom and his siter Ava.This is a magical new fantasy book to this award-winning series.
THE DRAGONS KEEP ON COMIN'.......2005-02-06
Here it is THE ISLE OF THE DEAD! Once again our heroes are tailing the next sister this time to the dangerous Isle of the Dead. After the Kin whom we last saw at DREAD MOUNTAIN are halted in their progress of taking our heroes to the Isle of the Dead by an enraged Emerald Dragon they must take off from Bone Point lighthouse. There they are haunted by the spirit of Red Han the light keeper and his daughter Verity whom were led to disaster by the villainous Laughing Jack. Unfortunately Red Han is the only one who can light the lighthouse light and he has disappeared so millions of ships cannot enter without crashing. As the mystery unravels they encounter a gambling ship, extreme sibling rivalry, a soon to be ally Veritas the amethyst dragon, the return of Manus, a dragon of old lost, a new baby dragon and the villainous Kobb. Yet another classic by Emily Rodda.
Book Description
Through this vivid study, Jean-Claude Schmitt examines medieval religious culture and the significance of the widespread belief in ghosts, revealing the ways in which the dead and the living related to each other during the middle ages. Schmitt also discusses Augustine's influence on medieval authors; the link between dreams and autobiographical narratives; and monastic visions and folklore. Including numerous color reproductions of ghosts and ghostly trappings, this book presents a unique and intriguing look at medieval culture.
"Valuable and highly readable. . . . [Ghosts in the Middle Ages] will be of interest to many students of medieval thought and culture, but especially to those seeking a general overview of this particularly conspicuous aspect of the medieval remembrance of the dead."—Hans Peter Broedel, Medieval Review
"A fascinating study of the growing prevalence of ghost imagery in ecclesiastical and popular writing from the fifth to the fifteenth century."—Choice
Product Description
#1 Dragon's Nest, #2 Shadowgate, #3 Isle of the Dead, and #4 Sister of the South
Average customer rating:
- A great novel, a diffent style
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Isle of the Dead
Julia Gray
Manufacturer: Orbit
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Contemporary
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Ice Mage
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Alyssa's Ring (Guardian Cycle)
ASIN: 1857239784 |
Book Description
Like all twins, Sayer and Aphra share a special bond. When, as children, they are abducted by soldiers and told that they will never see their parents or home again, that bond is strengthened even though their fortunes are very different. Sayer's talent as a Seeker makes him one of the most important men in Tirok, for using it he can locate the sacred fragments of the ruined Temple of Qara. But his greatest triumph, the recovery of one of the most important stones, is shattered when his beloved twin sister, Aphra, contracts the plague and is sent to the island colony of Jazireh. Investigating further, Sayer discovers secrets about his twin which will mean that he has no choice but to confront the powerful council of archivects. But Sayer has learned to enjoy the privileges of his position, and it now seems that he is in danger of losing everything he has valued.
Customer Reviews:
A great novel, a diffent style.......2001-06-18
This book by Julia Gray has some great elements of fantasy writing and is well written. The characters are appealing and likeable and the plot is original around a common one.
I seemed to like it better than Eddings style. It is similar to Eddings, The Redemption of Athalas but with greater language and a better world. Julia Gray has created an intriguing world and character base. I can't wait for the next book!
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Archaeologies of English Renaissance Literature
Philip Schwyzer
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0199206600 |
Book Description
This study draws on the theory and practice of archaeology to develop a new perspective on the literature of the Renaissance. Philip Schwyzer explores the fascination with images of excavation, exhumation, and ruin that runs through literary texts including Spenser's Faerie Queene,
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, Donne's sermons and lyrics, and Thomas Browne's Hydriotaphia, or Urne-Buriall. Miraculously preserved corpses, ruined monasteries, Egyptian mummies, and Yorick's skull all figure in this study of the early modern archaeological imagination. The pessimism of
the period is summed up in the haunting motif of the beautiful corpse that, once touched, crumbles to dust.
Archaeology and literary studies are themselves products of the Renaissance. Although the two disciplines have sometimes viewed one another as rivals, they share a unique and unsettling intimacy with the traces of past life--with the words the dead wrote, sang, or heard, with the objects they made,
held, or lived within. Schwyzer argues that at the root of both forms of scholarship lies the forbidden desire to awaken (and speak with) the dead. However impossible or absurd this desire may be, it remains a fundamental source of both ethical responsibility and aesthetic pleasure.
Book Description
Isle of the Dead
Centuries in the future, Francis Sandow is the only man alive who was born as long ago as the 20th century. His body is kept young and in perfect health by advanced scientific methods; he has amassed such a fortune that he can own entire planets; and he has become a god. No, not a god of Earth, but one of the panetheon of the alien Pei'ans: he is Shimbo of Darktree, Shrugger of Thunders. Yet he doesn't believe that his personality has merged with the ancient consciousness of Shimbo, that he really can call down the skies upon his enemies. The time comes, however, when Francis Sandow must use these powers against the most dangerous antagonist in the universe: another Pei'an god -- Shimbo's own enemy, Belion. And Belion has no doubt whatever of his own powers....
Eye of Cat
A retired hunter of alien zoo specimens, William Blackhorse Singer, the last Najavo on a future Earth, is called upon by the World Government to aid in protecting an alien diplomat from a powerful and hostile member of his own species. Singer, in turn, seeks the aid of a shape-shifting alien known as "Cat" in carrying out the mission. Cat accepts, with one condition: when the mission is over, he wants a return bout with the man who captured him -- a chase with Singer as the hunted instead of the hunter....
Customer Reviews:
Two Mismatched Stories in One Book.......2006-07-20
I feel sort of bad about rating this book at only 3 stars. But, the two stories in this book are just worlds apart in how good they are. The 2nd story (though listed first on the cover) is "Isle of the Dead," which is a really good story in classic Zelazny fashion. The other story, "Eye of Cat," is not that good at all. Now, if the publisher had put "Isle of the Dead" together with its sequel, "To Die in Italbar," I'd have given the compilation a 5 star rating. But, since the actual two stories have nothing in common, I'm forced to just take an average of my two ratings. For ease of reference, here are my write-ups for the individual stories:
Isle of the Dead: This is classic Zelazny: the merging of man and mythology. In this case, the mythology is entirely alien (the Pei'an pantheon), and, as seems to be the norm for Zelazny, the man (Francis Sandow) is darn near immortal. Also, as usual for Zelazny, the magic is there. My only complaint with the book is that I wish there were more of it. There's an awful lot of stuff that Zelazny hints at that could form entire books on their own. Unfortunately, the only other book with this main character in it is "To Die in Italbar." It's been a while since I read that book, but I remember it as also being very good. Wishing for more, I rate this book at a Very Good 4 stars out of 5.
Eye of Cat: Usually, I really like Zelazny's work. Unfortunately, in this case, he's just gone too far with his mythological basis. I'd estimate that more than half of this book consists of nothing but his interpretation of snippets from Navajo mythology stuck smack in the middle of a story. There IS a decent action-packed plot buried in there, but it's just overwhelmed by the mythology. By the end, the whole thing becomes a psychological "experience" as Zelazny basically drops the plot so the protagonist can confront himself. Even worse, the very last pages leave me unsure about whether or not he succeeds. With a tighter linkage between mythology and plot, this could have been an excellent book. But, because the two elements are so disjoint, and because Zelazny emphasizes the mythology over the plot, it just fails. So, unfortunately, I have to rate this book at a Not Very Good 2 stars out of 5.
The Waters of Acheron.......2005-02-28
Roger Zelazny has a tendency to create main characters who are either eternal or have lived a very long time. This isn't a fault, because he relies on this only to establish the depth of the character, not as a major plot device. In fact, perhaps the biggest lesson his heroes learn is that, if you live forever, you can make a lot of enemies. Some of them aren't even your enemies.
Francis Sandow is on such mein character. After a shaky star in this century, modern science and sheer luck have contrived to make him the worlds oldest rich man. The luck was falling into the hands of the Peians, who taught him how to create worlds and some experience in the fine are of revenge. Worldscaping is the basis for his money, but it didn't save him from offending people.
One such antagonist has taken up stealing the dying personality tapes of some of Sandow's best friends and enemies in an effort to lure him to the Isle of the Dead. His offense was to be a human and qualify for the honor of bonding with a Peian god and becoming a planetscaper. A Peian who didn't pass the grade took offense and has spent several hundred years working on getting even. Now he has reconstructed the people and Sandow bites the lure.
Of course, the revenge you see is not necessarily the revenge you get. Things go awry in spectacular style. Sandow is forced to incarnate Shimbo, the Shrugger of Thunders, and suddenly the scope of the conflict goes out of control. Anotherr truth about Zelazny is that even his villains have redeeming traits, and in this wry but tragic tale, the reader will find it hard to dislike anyone.
For some reason, Isle of the Dead has remained one of my favorite Zelazny stories. I won't claim that it is his best, but it pushes all the right buttons for me and I keep coming back to it. Sandow is my kind of hero - a bit of a rat, but basically a good guy in a tough universe. He has every excuse to be bitter, but he refuses to crumble. In any case, this book has a habit of regularly going out of print. If you are a Zelazny fan than find it how you may, I promise you will find it worth the effort.
1 great book, 1 good chunk of Zelazny........2002-08-17
I'm writing this because nobody else bothered, and a writer of his caliber deserves reviews on everything he ever produced.
Well, this is the trouble with double editions: it's impossible to issue a single rating, especially when the two works have markedly different levels of quality, as in this one. So, I'll just do the two separately.
Isle of the Dead: Really ... cool. THIS is why we read Zelazny 30-odd years after he set this stuff to paper. Of the SF novels of his I've read, this belongs on that top tier, shared with Lord of Light and at most one or two others. Where sometimes his dazzling style wanders a bit into navel-gazing(which is why he was so bloody good at short stories: they minimize such tendencies), here the descriptions are sharp, the narrator is one of his classics, and the ideas are captivating. The controlling metaphor is pretty cool, the action is exciting, and the psychology of the narrator kept me riveted. In short, this novel is EXACTLY what one thinks when s/he thinks of "good Zelazny". 5 stars.
Eye of Cat, on the other hand, seems more like what happens when the old master just sits down and decides, "hey, I'll write a story about X". It's still good; I mean, the man's talents wouldn't have let him write complete tripe if he tried. There are some very interesting moments, too; Cat is a striking presence, and some of the throw-away lines are great. His exploration of "primitivism", however, is patchy, and some parts aren't very convincing; in certain spots he even sounds almost a bit bigoted (people from old tribal cultures can't order their thoughts?), even though it is clear he has respect for Native American cultures. Also, parts of the plot meander and drag. All in all, it's a must-read for those of us hungry for more books that have that signature Zelazny style, but if it weren't in this double, I'd tell you to leave it for later.
So: one good + one great novel by Roger Zelazny makes this a good value and a must-buy, but remember, it's the second, shorter one that's the best part.
A concise, compelling epic.......2000-09-25
One of Roger Zelazny's finest novels, this tale of a man who embodies an alien god encompasses science-fiction, mythology, psychology, and the poignancy of being human - and does so in well under 200 pages. There's no overload of unconvincing background minutiae here - with no more than a few colorful strokes, Zelazny creates a rich and meaningful universe for his flawed protagonist Francis Sandow. What begins as a confrontation between two powerful men swiftly becomes a private apocalypse between two gods ... without ever losing its human scale. Dazzling, exciting, moving, satiric, this book deserves to be reprinted soon!
A concise, compelling epic.......2000-08-31
One of Roger Zelazny's finest novels, this tale of a man who embodies an alien god encompasses science-fiction, mythology, psychology, and the poignancy of being human - and does so in well under 200 pages. There's no overload of unconvincing background minutiae here - with no more than a few colorful strokes, Zelazny creates a rich and meaningful universe for his flawed protagonist Francis Sandow. What begins as a confrontation between two powerful men swiftly becomes a private apocalypse between two gods ... without ever losing its human scale. Dazzling, exciting, moving, satiric, this book deserves to be reprinted soon!
Product Description
Volumes 1, 2, and 3 in the Dragons of Deltora series(Dragon's Nest, Shadowgate, and Isle of the Dead), foil dimensional-effect covers, factory wrapped package (not boxed). RL4 ages 8-12. An ancient curse. Seven mysterious dragons. A race against time. A young king and his companions face the challenge.
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