Reviews and Comments

Not nearly as good as the previous book in the series "...and the Dance of the Giants." While the adventure at stone henge ended with Diedre having second thoughts about marrying Indy, leading to believe we'd probably never see her again, but their on-again-off-again relationship is on for most of the book, with a note that her mother died, which I don't recall being in the last book. returnreturnBrody thinks he has found proof that there were European explorers to the Americas long before Columbus (& Leif Ericson though no mention of him) & there is one eccentric English explorer who agrees, Jack Fawcett. Of course, he disappears while in search of proof, Deidre and Indy go looking for him with very little evidence to go on. At times the book is hard to follow, the "seven veils" from the title refer to a way the people in this lost world work, through magic, mystery & dreams, the convoluted plot, particularly near the end, reminds me of Illuminatus! returnreturnThe middle was quite blase and easy to put down. The ending was not a total surprise, though it kept you guessing till you got there, and somewhat of a letdown.

Significantly better than I expected. Like many I first came to know of this book a number of years ago when it was "banned" for having nudity. Like so many "banned" books I feel its often a ploy by the publishing company to sell more books, particularly when they are books like this that have been in publicization for a long time. returnreturnI expected it to need the help because it wasn't that great. However I found it a pleasant read, granted you probably aren't supposed to get a pleasant read out of a holocaust book but I digress. I really appreciated the Vladek character when is so much a character of a miserly Jewish American that even the author notes he isn't sure he should include it because of how stereotypical it is. returnreturnA good look at the insight of a particularly family and there making, and no so making it, through the holocaust.

I really wanted to like this book. But it was so out there I couldn't even force myself to pick it up most days. Pseudoscience doesn't do it justice with what this book was about.

Jon Moxley has wanted to be Mick Foley his whole life. He talks in the book about loving Cactus Jack in WCW. And it continues with his attempt at being a New York Times best selling author. And just like in everything else, Mox is good but its no Have a Nice Day. Its very much a string of concisouness, and it ver much could have used a ghost writer, or at least a better copy editor. The story isn't told cronologically. That jumps back and forth between incredibly interesting, and incredibly impossible to follow. Moxley also interlaces with recommendations for his favorite movies, and favorite music. Perhaps the best part is "Jokes Claudio told me," that my wife appreciated me telling her each day as I read them, sprinkled between storis of loss, of having sex and more F words than I've ever heard from a protagonist narrator. Its not bad, I'd read it again.

A very good read. light and fast. I did have to re watch SG-1 S04E10 "Beneth the Surface" to get some of the subtext of the immediate previous mission. returnreturnWhile still recovering from memories of someone else living in their head, SG-1 advances to a new planet in search of the "Shield of the gods" hoping that its a defense mechanism against the Go'ahuld. returnreturnThey find another very clean happy advanced city protected from the sun that would otherwise burn them to death, think climate change 40000 years from now. They all have accepted the same religion, which is lived out through the daytime soap opera of Sunrise teaching the beatitudes of their sun god. returnreturnThey find the daughter of the pastor knows of a whole beyond their ark. They meet people who are barley surviving and have mixed feelings about sun rise. returnreturnThe sun god they worship and fear is not Ra but their sun itself. SG-1 must find forbidden knowledge to save the people, the planet, and maybe someday mankind itself.

This book was written in the sixties, yet, I find its recommendations and requirements for software development are just as helpful, humorous and educational in the 21st century. I still don't understand how they got any work done back then with manually teletypes, printed requirements documents being updated everyday and the like, but they still had the exact same problems we do now. returnreturnThe two things I took away most, "the more people you add to a late project, the later the project is." Along with the title of the mythical man month, is the idea "nine women can't make a baby in a month." The other point, was that whatever your estimate is for development time, you need to consider at least twice as much for validation. This is counter intuitive, you develop it once, you test it once, and that test takes less time than writing code did, but there is so much more. The covers testing for each release, it covers finding regressions later, and any other issue that may be written against that piece of code that wasn't exposed when it was first authored. These good testers make bug fixing much easier.

It was pretty OK as far as old fashioned Sci-Fi goes. I certainly preferred the Heinlein Juveniles which I had just finished up before picking this one up. returnreturnAn earthling raised on the Moon is selected to be one of the first men to fly to Mars, by the UN (which now is the only government that matters in like 1990 or something). But they shift the date of launch to prior to his 18th birthday so he's not allowed to go. The Chinese are happy because they can send an American Chinaman instead. Our hero sneaks aboard, and all is happy. Until they land on mars, and they land hard and break the ship, they will all day. An extra mouth to feed doesn't help. They spend all their time trying to fix the ship and don't get to go find Martians, until the Martians find them.

I liked most of the Heinlein Juveiniles, and this was the last to add to my library. I think I may have liked this the best. It certainly seemed one of the most believalbe of them all. returnreturnRod starts as a dual enrolled High School student in a survival class, like a hard core version of one of my ORLM courses from NMU. Many in class will quit before the final exam, two weeks on a far off planet with no information on where they are going. returnreturnThe "Tunnel in the Sky" that the title references is apparently whatever teh Heinelin Jiveinles universe equivelant of the Stargate. I don't think I realized how many such variants on that duty exist, particularly as this is at lest 40 years before stargate was authored. returnRodturns up on his planet with nothing but a fear of the unkonw Stober he is warned of. He just needs to survive fore 2 weeks, and with 26 hour days he's arleady further along. returnreturnBut after he's taken out by a wild animal he mises reyndavous. Or maybether iw as a super nova that blew up the whole stargate system. Regardless he finds others for survival and after months they realize no one is coming and they just need to make this their own little planet. You keep expecting something and sure enough it happens, but I won't spoil it.