Product Description

Measurement and Evaluation in Human Performance, Third Edition, offers unmatched, in-depth instruction in measurement and evaluation techniques. Thoroughly revised and updated, the third edition features a new section on epidemiology and further develops international perspectives. This edition also features improved readability in measurement statistics and enhanced efficiency in solving measurement and evaluation problems through the use of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).

Additional features that are new to this edition:

-Revised first chapter that lays the groundwork for improved learning throughout the text

-Inclusion of a specific downloadable data set that is used as an example in many chapters

-Removal of outdated and complicated statistical techniques, eliminating the need for a background in higher-level mathematics

-Additional computer tasks in each chapter that tie earlier learning to specific applications

-Decision scenarios similar to those made by human performance professionals to help students apply decision making skills to practical, real-life problems
The text also increases the number of problem sets and places a greater emphasis on student-friendly learning through its learning aids, including chapter objectives, measurement and evaluation challenges, highlight features, mastery items, and new computer tasks for each chapter. Measurement and Evaluation in Human Performance, Third Edition, will appeal to students by engaging them in the material to increase their comprehension, and to professionals through its depth of information and ease in locating it.

Includes an online study guide!

Customer Reviews (4)

Good condition
I was impressed by how fast I received the book.The book was in the condition that it said it would be in.I was impressed with the condition because for a used textbook it is in very good shape.

Measurement and Eval
This book came surprisingly early and in excellent condition. Still in shrink wrap and perfectly well kept. I love it and the seller was very efficient.

Amazing
The book came before my classes started even though I waited until last minute to order it (go figure).I used and enjoy the material, it is in perfect condition.

Measurement & Evaluation in Human Performance
Good book, but some things were hard to understand.Professor did a better job of explaining some things in class. ... Read more

Product Description
The discovery of God's corpse in the mid-Atlantic poses a menace to navigation and to faith. Charged with captaining a supertanker as it tows the two-mile long corpse northward to the Arctic so that it can be preserved, Anthony Van Horne must contend with sabotage (both natural and spiritual) and mutiny along the way. An allegorical tale certain to entertain and provoke. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (56)

Like other Morrow I have read
Morrow writes a good story, little strange sometimes, but a nice tale. The writing is concise, clear, and pleasant to read. This book suffers from same problem that his other books suffer from, the characters are cliches and the story is more of a parody than a real story. The problem arrives because it balances between parody and story, and this leaves the reader unsure if they should be laughing at the parody, or thinking about the merit of the characters. The purpose and reason for the characters actions sometimes seems intentional and well considered, like true character development... And other times seems flippant and shallow like a satire to make a point. It can be disconcerting.

Still, a pleasant read if you expect or understand that the book is both a story and is trying to make a point through vague absurdity. A enjoyable read.

Interesting Story
This book feels almost satirical in some places. It is told in very serious, no compromise prose. This is not a tongue in cheek introspection of what if's, it is a serious novel that just happens to be based on a completely ridiculous premise.

If you're expecting comedy it's not really there. The story deals with parental relationships, destroyed careers, and succumbing to the most basic of human instincts.

Overall it's a captivating story that will keep you interested throughout. The ending is odd and leaves a bit to be desired for me personally but definitely worth the purchase.

Starts off great, winds up good.
When I started to read this book, I was physically jealous of Morrow. What an absolutely great idea for a novel. God is dead, and his body has fallen into the sea. The captain of an infamous Exxon Valdez-type tanker gets hired by the Vatican to go tow him... somewhere.

For the first third of the book, I was entranced. I kept tapping my husband on the shoulder-- "What a good idea for a book. Listen, isn't this clever?"

And with this build up it kind of feels as though I'm going to say that I didn't like it in the end. But I did. It was okay. It was even pretty good. Sadly, it didn't live up to its promise. (How could it? is another question. But a question for another person another day.)

The major issue lay with the characters-- somewhere halfway through Morrow changed the book from being concept driven to character driven. He just wasn't quite as convincing or clever with Van Horne and his supportive characters.

It reminded me of Oh Pure and Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet. Another book that just couldn't live up to its own wonderful premise.

An appetizing dissection of our morality
God is dead.No literally, the giant, physical body of god is dead and it is floating in the ocean.This premise is used by the author to poke at the readers sensitive beliefs, to tease apart the sacred in order to get the reader out of their comfort zone.By the time the starving characters find a divine solution to their sustenance, the reader will be completely desensitized.The author uses these tools to remove our preconceived notions in order to examine the source of our morality.In a world where you can literally walk on the rotting carcass of god, where does our morality come from?This is something that challenged Nietzsche, who famously pronounced the death of the deity.He felt that although modern rationality had rendered the death of god, he feared that the christian ethos was necessary for the stable functioning of society and the loss of this organizing principle would be devastating.Nietzsche's pessimistic view is countered in the book by a catholic priest/quantum physicist who has made it his life's work to wed science and religion, the rational and the divine.I appreciate the author's inclusion of such a paradoxical character.This priest hopes that Immanuel Kant is correct in his assertion that we have an internal moral compass and that the loss of god won't lead to a loss of morals.In addition to the priest, we are introduced to a biology professor who gets stranded when her ship sinks on a re-enactment of Darwin's famous voyage to Galapagos on the Beagle.This character is a feminist, skeptic who is determined to literally sink god in to the bottom of the ocean to prevent the world from the old testament, misogynistic, anti-rational onslaught that would occur if god was proven real.Through this character, the author pokes a great deal of fun at the skeptic's societies, staunch feminists and atheists that was extremely amusing.All these forces collide in to a blasphemously hilarious seafaring journey that most readers will enjoy.

Adventurous satire
When the mile-long corpse of God plummets into the ocean and the angels begin to die of grief, the archangel Raphael's final act is to engage a disgraced freighter captain to tow the body to an Arctic tomb, where it will be preserved for eternity.His mission is complicated by the Vatican, militant atheists, and the World War II Reenactment Society.

James Morrow has written an extraordinary novel that succeeds on several levels.First, it is a rousing adventure, full of danger, setbacks, and action.Second, it is an amusing satire that exposes the foibles of humanity from every point on the spectrum.Neither devout believers nor committed atheists are spared.Finally, and most satisfyingly, it is a serious meditation on the necessity of the concept of God for humanity and what it would mean if we ever lost it.This novel is the first of Morrow's Godhead Trilogy.I shall certainly read more of them.
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Product Description

Jennet Stearne's father hangs witches for a living in Restoration England. But when she witnesses the unjust and horrifying execution of her beloved aunt Isobel, the precocious child decides to make it her life's mission to bring down the Parliamentary Witchcraft Act. Armed with little save the power of reason, and determined to see justice prevail, Jennet hurls herself into a series of picaresque adventures—traveling from King William's Britain to the fledgling American Colonies to an uncharted island in the Caribbean, braving West Indies pirates, Algonquin Indian captors, the machinations of the Salem Witch Court, and the sensuous love of a young Ben Franklin. For Jennet cannot and must not rest until she has put the last witchfinder out of business.

Customer Reviews (31)

Exuberant and intelligent
Newton's Principia Mathematica narrates the story of Jennet Stearne, who determines to stamp out laws condemning sorcery by proving that science (not demons) is sufficient to explain the behavior of the natural world after her beloved and learned aunt is burned at the stake for witchcraft. It's an exuberant book crammed with wit, intelligence and wordplay -- bursting (as they say) with imagination and verve. For its sheer energy, it reminded me of Tim Robbins. It also shows impressive erudition, even though Morrow claims to have read just enough to make the book authentic.

Breakneck fantasy plotting (pirates! shipwreck! Indians! Newton! Salem witch trials!) combines with philosophical probing and with humor.

Strange Times Indeed
After young Jennet Speare witnesses the burning of her beloved Aunt for witchcraft she dedicates her life to fighting the nonsensical belief in witches and demons that plagues society in the late 17th century.Some things that complicate matters are her father Walter who is, the Royal Witchfinder General, her brother who is his apprentice and his fanatical witch-hating girlfriend. The story covers the majority of Jennet's long eventful life which includes witnessing the Salem Witch Trials and living among the Algonquin Indians. Jennet and her friend, Ben Franklin (yes that Ben Franklin), try to inject intellect and reason into a very resistant society. The Last Witchfinder provides a deep, satisfying and witty look at a time when sorcery and magic provided an answer to the many mysteries of the world. It is an overall excellent adventure which reminded me of Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver for ability to bring an era to life with wit and depth of characters.

James Morrow: Literary Genius
This rousing tale is pure literary genius. It has been a long time since I've read something so thoroughly entertaining and scandalously wicked. Aside from the story itself, the use of language is astonishingly brilliant and laugh-out-loud hilarious. Have I used too many adjectives? Would that I had the same gift of illustrating the English language as employed by James Morrow! He must just tickle himself pink while creating the scenarios that fill this volume. Ironically, I found this for $4.00 on a sale table and thought, what the hey - if it's no good, well then I only spent X amount on it so no great loss. Great would have been my loss had I not purchased and read this scathing satire of colonial American witch trials. But it is so much more than just a tale of Jennet Stearne and her quest to abolish the witchfinding profession. Morrow has plied his story with famous real-life characters and has run a thread of philosophy throughout.
What a shame that it ended up on a bargain table, but I think I know why. Books like this seldom make bestsellers, and there are others who state in their reviews that it was difficult if not impossible to understand all the scientific and philosophical jargon. (The book even lampoons itself on this point). I myself am not college-educated, nor am I the most ponderous of thinkers, therefore some of it was over my head. But I enjoyed the book nonetheless, and have walked away from it with a fresh view of life as we know it. I received a history lesson, a course in philosophy, instruction in the use of biting wit, and a science reader all rolled into one. So if you are put off by the heft and science/philosophy of this tome, consider these lines: "The magistrate sat behind his desk, signing arrest warrants with such broad gesticulations as to suggest an orchestra maestro conducting a tumultuous finale." Would you really want to deprive yourself of such devilish wordplay? If you've laid it aside, I beg you to reconsider on the basis of literary merit alone. By God, this is literature as I've never read before.
My apologies for the lengthy, gushing review. Normally I like to keep my reviews much shorter. I think this book deserves an even better review and my intellect is not equipped to deliver one. But I do believe my IQ shot up at least 20 points by absorbing the contents within it! I can compare Morrow to T.C. Boyle and even Tom Robbins, but I daresay he has surpassed even those two great satirists. And for me, that's saying a lot.

Great Read
This book is a combination of science, philosophy, history and a good yarn.It gives a very different perspective on the witch trials at a personal level and has characters you can root for.It also provides and insight into the social history of the era.

Historical Fiction with Style - and Attitude
Give James Morrow high marks for originality in "The Last Witchfinder", a gregarious, rollicking, swashbuckling (do women swashbuckle?), satirical and, at its core, enlightening tale of those pious, dour soles who persecuted witches and warlocks in 17th and 18th century England and her American colonies.It is the adventures of Jennet Stearne, the bright and daring fictional young women who, after seeing her beloved aunt and tutor burned at the stake by her "witchfinder" father, vows to end this barbaric and misguided practice through science and natural law.

It is also the first book I've ever read that is narrated by another, um, "book" - specifically Sir Isaac Newton's "Mathematical Principals of Natural Philosophy", the landmark tome that set the foundation for about three centuries of physics.But if the concept of a book writing a book turns you off, hang on a minute - it actually works - a clever means of providing historical and future context in science, culture, religion, and politics.As well as an outlet for some wry wit and Twain-like cynicism and editorial comment.

Morrow's story takes a far more ambitious course that a simple expose of the lunacy behind the state-sanctioned crusade to rid the world of those accused of consort with the devil.That's been done before - and more thoroughly - but never with Morrow's dry humor and keen insight.Instead, the author also takes the reader - and his heroine - throughIndian raids and Indian captivity, shipwreck on a deserted Caribbean island, child births and untimely child deaths, and a full plate of historical fact, trivia, and fantasy, much of it centered whimsically around a young Ben Franklin and his illegitimate son, William. What - Ben Franklin?Did I mention the scope is ambitious? By comparison, the tedious adventures of Frazier's "Thirteen Moons" play like a Disney cartoon.

Morrow's prose soars and stalls, moving at a breakneck pace through some chapters, while bogging down in repetitive drivel in others.Yet this rambling freehand and untamed verse creates a rhythm and style of its own, lending enough frivolity to take the edge off topics that range from mathematically dull to grotesquely lurid.And while Morrow certainly doesn't pretend to answer missing chunks of the brilliant and enigmatic Ben Franklin's life with scholarly thesis, his fictional relationship with our Jennet is entertaining, and hopefully doesn't have old Ben spinning too rapidly in his Philadelphia grave.

Ultimately, an epic yarn that bends and stretches and tests the bounds of credibility in many places along the way, but wraps with a punch that is fulfilling and even suspenseful, capped by a closing that is poignant and satisfying.American history has rarely been so cannily wrought - "The Last Witchfinder" is in deed a rare find that deserves to be read.
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Customer Reviews (13)

Monster Mash
In a slightly alternate-reality, the Manhattan Project isn't working out too well so Plan B is to mutate some lizards and let them rampage Japan Godzilla-style. But before releasing Iguanas of Mass Destruction, the military plans a demonstration, involving a guy in a rubber suit stomping a scale-model city.

This book was a real hoot. It's funny/tongue-in-cheek as it is, but it's especially enjoyable if anyone has a soft spot for old b-level monster movies. The writing style, and a few of the underlying themes, reminded me of Kurt Vonnegut.

Highly recommended.

Almost Fantastic
I think this is a wonderful book.I think that anyone interested in cheesy horror, vintage hollywood, or the end of ww2 should read it.The reason I don't apportion 5 stars for this slim gem is this: contra Morrow's own opinion I think that the central conceit could support a longer exploration, perhaps incorporating a look into the responses of the japanese and the postwar world.

James Morrow--Shamblin Towards Hirosima
James Morrow, is an author who does his homework and research very well and provides delicious stories with quirky angles but because of his meticulous research, he gets just about everything right."Shambling Towards Hirosima" is a twisted little tale about the end of WW II and creates the mood, color and ambiance of Hollywood "behind the scenes" in making of low budget sci-fi movies (he plays a little loose with time-lines).It is filled with his satirical and irreverant humor and is just a plesant and enjoyable read.

Just Got Back Into Reading
I recently began reading books and this was the second one I'd picked up.I originally heard about it on a sci-fi forum and as a fan of Godzilla I thought it might be able to keep my interest. The writing style was humorous enough and did not feel like the author was looking for a way to force the humor in.I will say that the book is very short. I'm not the most speedy reader but I was able to finish the entire book within a few days.

This book was not good
Perhaps I am not the target audience for the book; it is the first James Morrow book I have read.

I did read the entire book, and it had moments that I liked.But I kept waiting for the payoff for slogging though the early parts of the book, and that payoff never came.I found myself at then end wondering why I had bothered to read it.

I figured that a book about genetically engineering Godzilla like creatures to attack Japan with during WW2, would be funny, or witty, entertaining in some way.It wasn't.

The other reviews seem to love the book, so you might too.I didn't and can't recommend it.
... Read more

Product Description

A brilliant philosopher with a talent for self-destruction, Mason Ambrose gratefully accepts an offer no starving ethicist could refuse. He must travel to a private tropical island and tutor Londa Sabacthani, a beautiful, brilliant adolescent who has lost both her memory and her moral sense in a freak accident. Londa's soul is an empty vessel—and Mason's job will be to fill it.

Customer Reviews (25)

Take it for what it's worth
This was a dime store pick up for me. I have never Read James Morrow, but took a chance on this find. Taking a chance is an accurate description of what I feel the reader is doing when they read this book.

The first half of the book was pleasantly imaginative with a tropical back ground and free weilding main characters Mason Ambrose, Londa, and her extended family. This book started off well written and easy to follow. My only complaint at this point was a small one, the average reader might want a dictionary next to them for the first few pages are crammed with handfuls of complicated jargon. Overall, it was a set up for a great read. I can not say the same for the second half of the book.

After meeting the characters and believing the rehabilitation of Mason Ambrose's student Londa is the main plot, the reader is thrown into a whole other set up. The reader is tossed back and forth between topics such as Ambrose and his off the wall and rocky relationship with his wife, the controversial subject of abortion, and philosophy in a "ten years later" kind of scenario. Unless the reader is familiar with Philosopher's and their works, the principals and teachings are confusing and irrelevant. The second half of the book seems completely disconnected from the first half other than the characters themselves. A thin thread connecting the two is the concept of creation.

I would not reccomend this book to anyone unless they were looking for a headache.

Great book, but bring your Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy
What happens when a washed up philosopher takes on the role of educating a woman without a conscious.A truly amazing book, however brush of that Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy as you will need it.

+ 1/2 - Disturbing
Having read and loved The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow, I was looking forward to more of the same madcap adventure and wildly inventive wordplay that he demonstrated in profusion in that book. There is madcap adventure galore in The Philosopher's Apprentice, and some brilliant wordplay, yet this story did not satisfy nearly as much as TLW. While not sorry I read it, I feel let down, perhaps due to my own expectations. The story held my interest about 60% of the time; Part One was brilliant, Part Two slightly less so and Part Three an absolute Theatre of the Absurd. Normally I'd forgive Morrow for that, for his great talent lies in lampooning societal injustices punctuated with absurd scenarios, but it just did not work for me this time. When Londa makes hostages of first-class citizens on a recently commandeered replica of the Titanic, intending to redirect their moral centers through terrorism, I got lost and ultimately bored.
Quetzie the feathered iguana was one bright spot in the book. His spontaneous utterances of "Quetzie is a handsome devil", "Love is all you need" and "Mason is a genius" had me laughing out loud many times. Just as funny but more disturbing were the repeated appearances of Mason and Natalie's aborted and revived (don't ask) son, who shouts out such things as "Tossed away like an orange peel!", "Booted into the abyss!" and other accusatory remarks, disrupting their personal and professional lives. I wish there had been more of these quirky (understatement) characters.
I never warmed up to Londa or Yolly and the Sabachthanites (blindly devoted, militant followers of Londa's peculiar brand of philosophy), who inhabited and defended Londa's palatial compound, were just too over-the-top. If you are a diehard Morrow fan, you may enjoy this more than I did. I won't stop reading Morrow's books, but will try to be more selective next time.

Starts with promise, ends with incoherenence
In the opening pages of this novel, I thought I was back in the magic land created by John Fowles in "The Magus." A young philosopher with a rebellious bent is recruited to go to a secluded island and tutor a teenage girl, daughter of a billionairess. He's told his student has lost her memory in a horrific accident. His task: to restore her sense of right and wrong.
It's a promising premise and I looked forward to an interesting novel of ideas with some sexual tension thrown in. How wrong I was!
It soon becomes clear that this cover story is false and there is more going on than meets the eye. Who for instance is the 5 year-old girl sequestered in a different portion of the island being tutored by two other men?
It transpires that the billionairess, stricken by an incurable cancer, has hired a mad scientist to clone three versions of herself -- one aged 16, one 11 and the third 5. Together, they add up to one complete childhood.
This first part of the book has a certain interest and narrative thrust. Then we hit Part II and the plot begins to turn bizarre. The billionairess dies, everyone leaves the island and our hero goes back to Boston, starts a second-hand bookstore and gets married. (PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD, BE WARNED)His wife becomes pregnant but has an illness which makes it dangerous for her to have children. They decide on an abortion. But the mad scientist from Part I has now fallen in with crazed anti-abortion activists and they begin to clone thousands of aborted fetuses to form an army. Yes, it's weird; it's also politically questionable and in literary terms quite silly.
If Part II is bad, Part III is quite beneath any rational criticism. It revolves around the eldest sister from Part I forming her own feminist army and hijacking a cruise liner carrying some of the world's worst industrialists and polluters and subjecting them to a forcible re-education regime. Just writing these words evokes the utter idiocy to which this novel sinks.
Some of the characters in this book come to life through weird science but none of them live convincingly in a literary sense. I simply cannot recommend this book.

Do you like your Sci-fi high-brow?
Set for the most part on the exotic "Isla de Sangre," in Boston, and afloat a newly constructed simulacrum of the Titanic, Morrow's "The Philosopher's Apprentice" is part science fiction, part pedagogy, and part Academic action-adventure novel.

Written like a fictional memoir, the first-person narrative tells the story of a would-be philosopher's reluctant relationship with a modern-day Dr. Frankenstein and her daughter, Londa. The latter is said to be devoid of any sense of ethics or morality, and the philosopher--Mason Ambrose--is paid handsomely to see that this void is filled. It soon becomes clear, however, that more is going on on "Blood Island" than philosophy lessons: Isla de Sangre, we learn, is the strange island of Dr. Moreau incarnate, complete with sentient trees, feathered iguanas, and human clones ... then, Morrow throws in the Heidegger lessons.

The book is not nearly as anti-academic as it wants to be, nor as contrived as the plot-line and numerous allusions might suggest, and this is probably because Morrow generally does two things fairly well: one is to create likable, if flawed ("human, all too human") characters; the other is humor. Indeed, the book is almost worth its price just for the opening pages, which recount Mason's disastrous dissertation defense. Though (and this may or may not be a flaw), to really appreciate the humor you must be in the know--familiar with humanities departments, post-modernism and the culture wars that have played out over the last decade or so, et cetera.

And the book does require some difficult suspension of belief. Not, strangely enough, with the technology used, but with some of the characterization. Yes, I know I said the characters are likable, but I cannot help wondering what feminists will have to say about Morrow's "feminist" characters, for example, or what academics will think about some of the socio-political commentary that is peppered throughout the book.

Despite these problems--perhaps despite myself--I continued to read Morrow's book enthusiastically, readily enjoying this fantastic, high-brow, academic adventure novel.

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Customer Reviews (6)

Not Just for Completists
James Morrow is a gifted, funny writer, and this is immediately apparent in this collection's first short story, "The War of the Worldviews." But that lead-off story is SO good, this collection suffers from the same syndrome as a pop CD that's front-loaded with its best single: There's nowhere to go but down.

Don't get me wrong, most of the pieces in THE CAT'S PAJAMAS are eminently readable. But they are perhaps not Morrow's finest work. To continue the analogy, there is a feeling that some of this work are B-sides. I can't remember the last time I read a short story collection with three plays, for examples. Rather, they come across as a bit rough, a trifle obvious, particularly in "Auspicious Eggs" and "****ing Justice." (Hey, I see they spelled that title out in the editorial summary above!)

So, while this book is recommended and not just for completists, it is not the place to for readers new to this extraordinary writer to begin.

Also recommended: The Last Witchfinder: A Novel (P.S.)

Great Satire.
I loved Morrow's Only Begotten Daughter, so I picked up this collection.Now, it's clear to me that Morrow is a gifted writer at any length.If you love satire with a bite, you'll love this book.

a book for book lovers
Everything about the Cat's Pajamas by James Morrow is first rate, from the teriffic stories to the exceptional cover art to the maroon and gold binding.I particularly enjoyed Morrow's sendup ofshlocky horror movies shown late at night on weekend television, "Come Back, Dr. Sarcophagus" (an original to this collection).Fun fun fun.

Grand Satire
Jim Morrow is one of the few writers consistently writing effective satire in science fiction and fantasy.Fans of his novels will be delighted by this collection of his short work.If anything Morrow's grand conceits play better at shorter length: Alien races battling over philosophical differences; Columbus landing in a newer world than the one he discovered; sports fans who control the fate of nations.Morrow's work is not for the humorless or the unimaginative.He is science fiction's Swift; as a writer he is Gulliver among Lilliputians.

Has some problems
I have to agree with the reviewer who noticed this book's political slant. However, I'd like to mention something else about it. I got the impression that Morrow doesn't often venture far from the New York/Pennsylvania area, not only from the narrow viewpoints he expresses, but also because of some glaring geographical errors.

In "Isabella of Castille", Columbus sails his caravels from Manhattan to Hispaniola in a mere 6 days.

Even worse, in "Auspicious Eggs", a rant against the Catholic church, our protagonist priest lives on Boston Isle, created when global warming melted the polar ice caps. Yet he attended seminary on the Isle of Denver. Hmm. Boston Isle must be a pretty damp place. (This story also contains what appears to be some unintentional, given its tone, satire; when our heroes escape Boston looking for freedom from oppression, they cannot find any in the segmented communities of America; instead they set sail for that hotbed of freedom, Europe.)

Excusing these kinds of errors as "part of the satire" gives the author a pass to publish sloppy work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (36)

Interesting
What an interesting book! It will throw you through a couple of loops and you might even find yourself asking "what the heck just happened?". but don't you worry it is a good book. Well worth the read!

The Milk of Human Blindness
Not a book for anyone whose religious beliefs won't allow questions or alternatives. In fact, it's not for anyone who can't suspend belief for 300+ pages. Not really science fiction or fantasy, Only Begotten Daughter is more of a "what if".

It's impossible to describe much without using spoilers. Amazon's description and other reviews give away more than they should. Since I presume you have read them, I will add that Morrow's effort will both amuse you and scare you.

This is one of his early books and not as accomplished as his later ones. However, it is a good place to start reading Morrow.

A Joy to Read
This book beautifully combines biting satire with wonderful prose.I truly enjoyed reading every page and I would have to rank this book among my favorites.

Several other reviewers have remarked that pace through the middle third of the book "sagged" a bit and I agree with that but, on the other hand, I was grateful that the author gave me a little time to catch my breath before diving into the ending.

Reading a book like this, I always feel a little nervous as the end approaches like watching figure skaters near the end of a flawless routine... will they blow it right at the end?Well, Morrow makes it through the final act without a wobble and I can't wait to pick up more books by him.

Know the true nature of God when you read this book!
All right, perhaps you won't, but didn't that catch your attention?It's actually the book's title character, Julie Katz, who tries to fathom the nature and will of God.But despite her own semi-divine parentage, this Jewish girl from South Jersey has no clue what the eternal Mom wants her to do on this Earth.

Julie does get a lot of advice and ideas from others, however. That sets forth a chain of events which sometimes parallels Julie's more famous half-brother, who coincidentally is one of the main characters of the all-time best selling book.

Instead of dwelling on "the power & the glory" - though there is that aspect to the book as well - Morrow mostly focuses on how an average woman with divine powers gets on in life. Julie's attempts to seek the truth lead to a miracle-filled ministry, a trip to a fascinatingly-devised Hell and her returning to a warped future Jersey where the Revelationist sect holds sway but an underground Church of Uncertainty holds her words quite literally as "gospel."(By the way, as a one-time New Jerseyan, I can appreciate the irony of Morrow's turning my former home state into an autonomous right-wing fundamentalist theocracy in the latter part of the book.)

Morrow's novel hits home on multiple levels.In particular, he boldly satirizes religion as practiced by various denominations of Christians.If you are easily offended by religious satire (especially those who believe The Rapture may be imminent), this is probably not the book for you.Those who are somewhat more open-minded will appreciate Morrow's biting wit in this well-paced novel.

Top-notch satire
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel! The satire was spot-on and very prescient. The baroquely grotesque dystopia built by the Revelationists in this novel is perhaps more frightening (and less hyperbolic) now than when Morrow wrote it, given the gradual mainstreaming in the U.S. of fanatical evangelical perspectives on "the End Times." If the loud intolerance of many modern fundamentalist Christians keeps you from comfortably embracing Christianity, this may be the book for you. I found it at turns laugh-out-loud funny and heart-breakingly poignant. Morrow's prose is rich and eminently quotable; I couldn't stop reading choice bits and pieces to my family. This is my first Morrow novel, after having read many of his short stories (I recommend "Bible Stories for Adults"), and I was fully satisfied with the expansion of Morrow's narrative powers into the novel form. Enjoy and be enlightened! ... Read more

Product Description
George Paxton was an ordinary man until something extraordinary happened--nuclear holocaust. Now George Paxton is about to discover what happens after the end of the world. "Astute, highly engaging, and finally moving".--Los Angeles Times. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (27)

bad,very bad
This novel is very possibly the worst storyline I have ever read; oh wait, forget possibly, it IS the very worst story I have every read.Don't buy it, borrow it or steal it.It is nonsensical dribble.

Who Will Inscribe Humanity's Epitaph?
Why this has been classified as a science fiction novel is quite frankly beyond me. Its not. Its an absurdist satire on the nature of strategic Nuclear doctrine which takes as its ingredients elements of Joseph Heller, Jonathan Swift, Lewis Carroll and Kurt Vonnegut. Ostensibly, it relates the adventures of George Paxton, a Unitarian tombstone inscriber, in the run-up too and aftermath of a full scale thermo-nuclear war. To go into more detail would be to deprive you of the joys of taking one of the most unpredictable, haunting, amusing and touching journeys ever related in a novel of this nature. Vignettes like the testament of Victor Seabird, the last moments of George's family, the final gasp of the last woman on Earth and George's final haunting fate will stay with me for a very long time. Highly recommended.

One nuclear bomb can ruin your whole day.
Written in 1986, _This Is the Way the World Ends_ is one unique book that combines elements of _On the Beach_, _Alice and Wonderland_, _Twelve Angry Men_, and _It's a Wonderful Life_.The hero of our story is a Massachusetts tombstone engraver named George Paxton.Paxton is just like any other muddle class man trying to support his family, but one thing stands in his way.The Cold War, which in the book extends well into 1995, keeps getting hotter and hotter every day.The media in conjunction with The Defense Department is trying to sell SCOPAS (Self-Contained Post-Attack Survival) suits.Unable to afford one for his only child on his meager salary, George travels to a mysterious hat shop in Boston to obtain one for free.However, there is a catch.In order for him to have the suit, he has to sign a paper that places him in direct complicity for perpetuating the arms race.

Just before he comes back home with the suit, the bombs fall and in one fell swoop destroy everything he holds dear.Before a second wave falls on his hometown, he finds himself "rescued" by a nuclear submarine crew.Paxton meets several other survivors including a former Air Force General, a young ultraconservative televangelist, an Assistant Secretary of Defense, a thing tank nuclear weapons genius, and an Arms Control Agent.As these survivors soon discover, there was a reason for their "rescue".The Unadmitted, the countless multitudes of people from the future who were denied the opportunity to even exist because of World War III, want answers in the form of a trial that will result in execution if the verdict is guilty.Being the last people on the planet, George and his fellow survivors must make not only the best case they can for their own survial, but for the future of the human race itself.

If one were to only read the first half of _TItWtWE_, one would believe that it is staunchly anti-nuke.The depiction of the blast in George's hometown is brief but extremely graphic. The long-term effects of the war (nuclear winter, starvation, sterility, disease, and radiation poisoning) leave even less room for optimism.Morrow also makes a good point by saying nuclear war is catastrophic for the present (causing massive destruction in the here and now), the future (denying future generations existence), and the past (invalidating all that our ancestors achieved).The word "deterrence" is thrown about in so many different ways that it seems to lose its meaning.Then, we also have self-contradictory phrases like "anticipatory retaliation".

But as one reads along further, Morrow also allows the pro-nuke side have their say.During the trial, the defense attorney presents a very strong case stating his clients were ultimately acting in the best interest of peace.He accurately states that the tyrannical Soviet government frequently violated many arms limitations treaties, sent people to hellish gulags for dissenting political opinions, and murdered tens of millions in the name of the soul destroying ideology known as Communism.Furthermore, the notion that disarmament works when one side disposes of their weapons while another side secretly keeps theirs is absurd.I have to borrow a quote from the movie _Air Force One_: "Peace is not merely the absence of conflict, it is also the presence of justice."

By presenting both views of the arms debate, Morrow comes up a valid third opinion.The nuclear weapons problem is not an easy one to solve, but it is an essential one.It is not only the responsibility of our elected officials, it is also the responsibilty of the average citizen to assume a greater role in ensuring the survival of our world.Again, not an easy task, but an essential one.

In closing, I believe that books like _TItWtWE_ are just as important now as they were 20 years ago.The Cold War may have ended, but we still face threats from Iran and North Korea while the vast majority of world leaders seem content to sit back and twiddle their thumbs.If that thermonuclear Sword of Damocles descends upon us what will we say? "Non mea Culpa!" "We were only following orders!" "You can't fight city hall!"Or better yet, will we be smart enough to just say nothing and grab the sword by the hilt before the rope breaks?

Kurt Vonnegut Wannabe
I was disappointed in this novel.I was expecting science fiction and got fantasy.

Morrow seems to want to be Kurt Vonnegut.His plot twists, unfortunately, don't measure up to those of Uncle Kurt.

The Lewis Carroll references were overdone.

I can't see this being recommended along side THE LAST SHIP, ON THE BEACH, and similar books.If you are looking for apocalyptic fiction, look elsewhere.

This is the way it's done
It's easy to guess from the opening pages exactly how James Murrow plans to conclude This is the Way the World Ends, his dark satire of the demise of people. Nevertheless, by the time he finally tosses that last shovelful of dirt onto the grave of humaity he sees to it that a good time has been had by all. Morrow has managed to craft a brisk and economical tale that wades hip deep into the nonsensical details of nuclear war doctrine while never forgetting to bring the funny.

Read this book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (24)

Don't read it if you're hypochondriac
Great novel, great writing, great cynical sense of humour. Definitely a page turner. Sort of an "Answer to Job" of the modern day with a twist. Don't read it if you're hypochondriac though, I mean seriously.

Author Puts God on Trial - Literally
I reviewed Morrow's first book in this series, "Towing Jehovah," in which God's enormous body is found floating in the ocean.The Pope arranges a secret proper burial in an ice vault in the North Pole.I criticized Morrow for wasting numerous opportunities to more fully develop the religious conundrums he developed.

No such criticism is merited for this book.In another wild tale with a new set of characters, God ends up being sold to the Baptists, who plant him in Orlando next to Disney World.They are making tons of cash as believers show up by the hundreds of thousands to pay respects and/or be healed.Enter our hero, Martin Candle, dying of prostate cancer, who somehow manages to get God put on trial by a world court in The Hague, Netherlands, for allowing evil to predominate in our world.

Fantasy prevails as our hero gets to discuss theodicy issues (Theodicy: a vindication of God with respect to the existence of evil) with Abraham, Isaac, The Ram, Noah, Jesus, Job, Satan, Adam, Eve and others.With clever dialogue interspersed (INRI means "I'm not returning immediately"),Morrow maintains an irreverent tone throughout the book.

Opening arguments for the prosecution:..."They said God was merciful, loving, and just...The prosecution intends to show that exactly the opposite is true...we shall prove that whatever debt we may owe the Defendant for our existence, He has continually acted in a fashion that must be called criminal..."

This paves the way for Morrow to present real arguments, carefully worked out over the centuries by great religious philosophers.The defense attorney presents the equivalent opposing views.The trial is a mini-course on the subject of theodicy for those who wish to be educated on this subject and builds lots of suspense toward the climax.

This inventive yarn shows considerable theological scholarship.Warning: Fundamentalists who stick it out and finish this book may be offended by perceived "sacrilege," and a few neurons and synapses may be singed in the "religion modules" of their brains.First rate book!

Light a Candle
I've now read all three books of Morrow's trilogy and think that Blameless in Abaddon is the best of the three.Each book is quite good and contributes to the overall plot and set of ideas behind this uncanny device: namely, the dead body of God.Morrow exploits this idea with aplomb, giving us a comprehensive and thorough analysis of God's presence in the modern world and the various issues associated with this.For believers and non-believers alike, these ideas need to be carefully surveyed.

Blameless in Abaddon seems to be the most philosophical of the three novels and does a fine job explaining theodicy and its various `solutions.'Theodicy is a philosophical/theological concept that tries to rectify the existence of God (a given in this plotline) with the existence of evil (a given everywhere).The traditional formulation goes: since evil exists then either God is not all good or God is not all powerful.A number of theologians have tried to rectify the existence of evil as: 1) instructive for our spiritual development; 2) unavoidable in the structure of the universe; 3) due to our capacity of free will (and thus our own doing, not God's); 4) an illusion.

While theology can sometimes seem abstract, Morrow achieves a fine balance between providing the details of these matters within the context of fiction and character development.These theological matters are of great significance and do affect how people think about God and the world.Morrow's main character in this book, Martin Candle, is enraged with God and is trying to convict him before the entire world.In order to do so, he needs to explain why it is unforgivable that God has allowed so much evil and further provide true evidence of this evil to sway judges and jury alike.

To the list of righteous and spiritually advanced dissenters-from Job to Ivan Karamazov-we can now add Martin Candle, aka Blameless in Abaddon.

Gullivers Travels & Fantastic Voyage......!!
..make for a whopping good read! Our intrepid hero, a Justice of the Peace/ Magistrate in the Philly Suburbs, gets cancer, and his wife, a professional pet-lover, dies while avoiding a dog on a termite infested bridge. He decides he's had enough, he wishes to take on God, 2 miles long and recently comatosely discovered, to Court, at the Hagues' International Court of Justice. At first, this seems too large a task, until he is assisted by a strange Harvard professor who made millions writing children's books. This same professor takes on the "Not Guilty" side, and this begins our journey through on a hallunicatory, fanatastic, trip through good and evil. Journeying through the Body and Mind of God Himself, we meet the "platonic/ideal" visions of Adam, Even, Lot's Wife, St. Augustine, the Devil, and many others. At the trial, we witness some very serious discussions on the nature of good and evil, as some expert witnesses are brought along. This is a real mesmorizer,a book that should last a very long time! The ending may be a slight disappointment, but given the circumstances, is as fair as one could expect.

Interesting at first but putters out
I really enjoyed Towing Jehovah.However, Blameless in Abaddon does not live up to the same standards as Towing.

For me, it bogged down in the middle.I think I got tired of all the satire based on biblical figures being sexually depraved.The trial also was just too slow for me.I understand the need to show all the evidence but it was just too overwhelmingly boring.

If you are interested in religious philosophy it is probably worth the read. I was looking for an interesting book that made me think a little and was just happy that I was able to finish it. ... Read more

Product Description
Jack leads a rather routine life as a "deconstructionist," destroying old works of art, until his beloved son contracts a rare disease. Jack must now somehow learn to lie if, as he comes to believe, lying is the only way to give young Toby enough hope to effect a cure. Morrow is the award-winning author of Only Begotten Daughter. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

The plain truth is...
Everyone goes through a stage of frustration with society's inherent dishonesty.In "City of Truth", James Morrow shows us that the alternative may prove even worse.The city of Veritas has strict prohibitions against any form of dishonesty, and each citizen is subjected to electroshock treatment during their teenage years to wean them off disengenuousness.The result is inevitable: people drive Ford Sufficients and threaten their neighbors with Smith&Wesson Metapenises; they leave their children at Camp Ditch-the-Kids and burn the works of great poets for excessive use of metaphors.The opening section of the book is the funniest part, with Morrow throwing out these one-liners fast and furious.Unfortunately there needs to be a plot.The protagonist learns that his son has contracted a fatal virus.His only hope for survival is to be buoyed by a misleading prognosis, thereby giving him the will to survive.Hence our hero embarks to Satirev, the city of lies, where pigs do fly and the Pope really is Jewish.Further adventures down there show him that lies also leave a great deal to be desired.All in all, a decently funny and appropriately short social satire.

Sucky New-Age Tripe!
Don't waste your time trying to join the Cult of Morrow. There are plenty of deserving writers who need your support. This book...sucks!

I�m all right, Jack. Who cares about you?
"City of Truth" is really two short stories, three if you count the brief final section. Each section is almost worth its own review, because they are so different.

City I is a description of a society where people have perfect honesty literally burned into their brains. It's incredibly funny because it contrasts so completely with our own feel-good consumer society. Politicians candidly admit that they accepted kick-backs; a salesperson tells you where to buy an item more cheaply from a competitor; restaurants sell "murdered cow" sandwiches with "wilted lettuce."

The odd thing is that the city is rather a flat, cold place. Parents critique their kids' drawings ("It's pretty ugly.") and romance is replaced by the brutal, hurtful truth. After a while, you long for someone to say "Have a nice day!" with a big smile, instead of truthfully expressing their complete indifference.

City II describes a rebel group which teaches people to lie again. The treatment involves exposing disciples to genetically-engineered impossibilities: pigs that fly, dogs that talk. Why this is supposed to help isn't entirely clear, but it enables a father to tell "kind lies" to his terminally sick child. The problem is that the boy can see that his father is lying: This is one case where honesty would be the best policy. City II is a real tear-jerker.

City III has the family leaving both the Truth Tellers and the Liars and settling for the kind of messy mix that we have: trying to tell the truth as far as possible, but making space for poetic license and white lies. That's fair enough, but there are no revelations here. Most of us feel this way already.

Consider the five stars all for the first section and well worth them.

Empirical or True
Here is an initially sharp social satire set in a city where you must tell the truth and lies are against the law. The authorities have literally scared lying out of the population. The book starts hilariously with the citizens of Veritas telling it like it is - ending letters with "yours up to a point" and eating at a restaurant called Booze Before Breakfast. It turns out that Veritas is really obsessed with empiricism (based only on observation and rules) rather than the much deeper "truths" of life. Morrow brings up this point very briefly in chapter 5, but unfortunately fails to expand on this intriguing theme. After that brief insight, the book becomes nonsensical and melodramatic, as the main character escapes to the secret city of Satirev to deal with the real truth about his son's fatal illness. The city of Satirev, in which people are allowed to lie but ultimately are more truthful, is a ridiculous construct that is hard to take seriously, while the story devolves into sentimentality rather than the sharp social observation that was hinted at earlier. Morrow's examination of the real meaning of truth, even if lying is necessary to achieve it, ultimately does not materialize even though he was really onto something big for a while.

Audacious
James Morrow is a writer after my own heart. In City of Truth, he takes an audacious idea--what if everyone always told the truth?--and uses it to show that there's something much deeper. We learn that while truth is beautiful, it can also be incredibly ugly. And that, while lies are despicable, they also have a place. And while we learn these things, we also get to laugh at some great imagination, as what would advertising be like if it had to be truthful (I especially enjoyed the "new" Surgeon General's warning on a pack of Canceroulettes, not to mention Camp Ditch-the-Kids). Morrow's got a way with this; his Full Spectrum story, "Daughter Earth," contained many of the same elements: a light, humorous tone encasing a serious, yet not dull, meaning. ... Read more

Product Description
Game theory is the mathematical analysis of strategic interaction. In the fifty years since the appearance of von Neumann and Morgenstern's classic Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (Princeton, 1944), game theory has been widely applied to problems in economics. Until recently, however, its usefulness in political science has been underappreciated, in part because of the technical difficulty of the methods developed by economists. James Morrow's book is the first to provide a standard text adapting contemporary game theory to political analysis. It uses a minimum of mathematics to teach the essentials of game theory and contains problems and their solutions suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in all branches of political science.

Morrow begins with classical utility and game theory and ends with current research on repeated games and games of incomplete information. The book focuses on noncooperative game theory and its application to international relations, political economy, and American and comparative politics. Special attention is given to models of four topics: bargaining, legislative voting rules, voting in mass elections, and deterrence. An appendix reviews relevant mathematical techniques. Brief bibliographic essays at the end of each chapter suggest further readings, graded according to difficulty. This rigorous but accessible introduction to game theory will be of use not only to political scientists but also to psychologists, sociologists, and others in the social sciences. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Great for the Novice
If you have never heard of Game Theory before and want to know how it can be applied to many real life situations in easy non-technical vernacular, this book is for you. It recognizes that highly technical definitions are only important for the high theorist and instead relates information on Game Theory almost as a story that can be understood by anyone interested in the topic. It's a great read and has definitely sparked my interest in the field.

Good concepts, bad writing
I am currently using this book as a text for a graduate level game theory course for political scientists.Although Morrow does a good job covering the important concepts, the writing is wordy, awkward, and confusing.It makes it difficult to follow some of the more complicated problems, especially when learning the ideas for the first time.I would only recommend this book for people who already have a grasp of the ideas and want to learn more and see examples -- not so useful for first-time game theorists.

Answer keys are a little bit questionable.
There are apparently two versions floating around (from the same edition and same printing) with different answer keys in the back for some of the more difficult problems.

Otherwise, this is the standard textbook for game theory for political science.I'm inspired to read Schelling!

Excellent graduate level textbook
This book is an excellent introduction to game theory for the politicalscience graduate student.Although some prior knowledge of economics andgame theory would certainly help, the early chapters in the book areexcellent in familiarizing the reader with basic formal concepts.

A fewcomments by the previous reviewer may be misunderstood by some readers. This is NOT a "general concepts" book - in other words this isNOT game theory for poets - not that I hold anything against poets.Thisbook does require some undergraduate level mathematics, mainly differentialand integral calculus.Those looking for rigorous formal proofs of alltheorems will be disappointed, but this is a technical book with anemphasis on demonstrating the application of formal tools to commonproblems in political science.Some of the material such as the chapter onperfect and sequential equilibria can be quite challenging.

If you merelywish to get a sense of what formal political science is all about and donot intend to actually fire up the old calculator, I suggest RobertAxelrod's excellent book "The Evolution of Cooperation".

Excellent introductory text: it's as technical as you want
One of the nice things about this book is it can be as technical or mathematical as you want.If you just want the concepts, you won't be jarred by lots of equations.But if you like the technical aspects,they're all there, especially in the appendix.

Great simple treatment ofeverything from basic Nash Equilibrium to more sophisticated concepts suchas Bayesian information analysis.

The only potential disappointment ofthis book is if you know game theory well and are looking for somethingvery sophisticated, this is not the book for you -- not because there'sanything wrong with this book, but because it wasn't designed for thatlevel. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (4)

Not Free SF Reader
I suppose the problems with this anthology start with the title, in that there are no Masterpieces to be found, and it isn't all science fiction.

In the introduction the editors talk briefly about the history of European SF, and the semi-chance encounter on a train that got them to talking about translation and how this anthology came about - which includes some help from SFWA, hence the title.Pointing out not having the resources to make a big volume (what would you call that now, Hartwellian?) so just picking some stuff that they could describe with some adjuectives that pleased them.

It would seem pretty strange, apart from on the already translated front so less work, to not be able to find 16 decent SF stories, no matter what editorial hand waving and apologetics might appear next to some of them to argue for inclusion.
Obviously it is much harder, if not in English.

In no universe except perhaps one full of drunken book nerds with lots of cheap wine down them could you call Between the Lines a masterpiece, for example.I would think very few (if any) people would call it science fiction.You can forgive a 'Jeffty' or 'Road Dog', but not something so ordinary.

Picking on that story aside, there are some good (4 star) stories here, and also some of the humorous variety - the editors point, via quote, that surrealism is quite common in Euro-SF.The introductions to each story backgrounding the authors is pretty well done, and probably a bit more important here than in your garden variety yank or pommie book.

However, perhaps a bit too much of please themselves, as opposed to please the what would seem to be the target audience, which is perhaps more understandable if a shoestring-budget type project I suppose.

Still, what we are left with is a decent and somewhat interesting anthology.

SFWA European Hall of Fame : Separations - Jean-Claude Dunyach
SFWA European Hall of Fame : A Birch Tree A White Fox - Elena Arsenieva
SFWA European Hall of Fame : Sepultura - Valerio Evangelisti
SFWA European Hall of Fame : The Fourth Day to Eternity - Ondrej Neff
SFWA European Hall of Fame : Baby Doll - Johanna Sinisalo
SFWA European Hall of Fame : Yoo Retoont Sneogg Ay Noo - Marek S. Huberath
SFWA European Hall of Fame : The Day We Went Through the Transition - Ricard de la Casa and Pedro Jorge Romero
SFWA European Hall of Fame : Athos Emfovos in the Temple of Sound - Panagiotis Koustas
SFWA European Hall of Fame : Some Earthlings' Adventures on Outrerria - Lucian Merisca
SFWA European Hall of Fame : Destiny Inc - Sergei Lukyanenko
SFWA European Hall of Fame : Wonders of the Universe - Andreas Eschbach
SFWA European Hall of Fame : A Night on the Edge of the Empire - Joao Barreiros
SFWA European Hall of Fame : Transfusion - Joelle Wintrebert
SFWA European Hall of Fame : Verstummte Musik - W.J. Maryson
SFWA European Hall of Fame : Between the Lines - José Antonio Cotrina
SFWA European Hall of Fame : A Blue and Cloudless Sky - Bernhard Ribbeck

The Ship Who Stardanced. Repeatedly.

3.5 out of 5


Out Of the Silent Planet. Please!

3 out of 5


Ripper removal kid kill cull diversion ectoplasm meld snake escape jailbreak.

4 out of 5


Time raid researched tanked.

3.5 out of 5


Accelerated cradle snatching.

3.5 out of 5


Personhood test pieces.

3 out of 5


Time agent Spanish troubleshooting relationship.

4 out of 5


Coin deal equation.

3 out of 5


Hairy mutant mercenary close shave.

3 out of 5


Constant inevitability.

3.5 out of 5


Jovian mistake.

3.5 out of 5


Thumbing it to the hot chick show.

3 out of 5


Demon, no seed, maybe.

2.5 out of 5


Nobeing ratio point kill Keeper.

4 out of 5


Double booking.

3 out of 5


Colonization time adjustments.

3 out of 5




3.5 out of 5

A different approach to science fiction
I grew up loving Science Fiction, and still re-read The Martian Chronicles (1950) by Ray Bradbury and A Canticle for Leibowitz(1960) by Walter M. Miller. But for me Star Wars Trilogy changed SF from a small group of enthusiasts into a huge conglomerate.

Many SF books and movies are now tied tightly together, and it's harder for a general reader to find the really good work. I also think it's tougher for writers to produce truly original work. My personal solution since 1980 or so has been to rely on "Science Fiction" and "Fantasy Writers of America" to sift and winnow the best SF, especially relying on the Nebula Awards® and the SFWA Hall of Fame series.

This anthology, excellent as it is, doesn't seem to be chosen by any representative group knowledgeable in SF in the various countries. Instead, the Morrows seem to have found excellent translators in various countries, asked them to pick great "representative" SF, and then worked with them over a period of years to present the stories to English speaking readers.

They've come up with an extraordinarily long title, a very interesting albeit alliterative Forward by James Morrow, helpful commentaries and biographies, and a fascinating collection of 16 very different stories, which originally appeared between 1987 and 2005. Altogether they constitute a superb anthology.

In Joao Barreiros "A Night on the Edge of the Empire" (1996) a giant peacock and a mammalian Chriptic seek an embassy and confuse humanity about their relationship.

In W.J. Maryson's "Verstummte Musik" (2005), a computer culls people from an over-populated world.

Panagiotis Koustas's "Athose Emfovos in the Temple of Sound" considers music's and mathematic's power to prevent war.

Cezar Ionescu's "Some Earthlings' Adventures in Outrerria" explores the problems of imperialism faced by human mercenaries.

Jose Antonio Cotrina's "Between the Lines" is a coming of age story about a college student.

These stories couldn't be more different from Bradbury and Miller, from more recent English Science Fiction, or from each other. They opened my mind to new possibilities.

Robert C. Ross 2008

Not your typical strange new worlds
The SFWA European Hall of Fame is worth checking out for at least a couple of reasons. Not only does it give American exposure to authors who deserve it, it's also a good read, pure and simple.
Even if you're not familiar with the writers featured, this is a great way to get a taste of the styles and topics that appear in European sf. The 16 stories range from classicsurrealism ("The Fourth Day To Eternity" by Ondrej Neff) to satire ("A Night On the Edge of the Empire " by Joao Barreiros) to near-future extrapolation ("Baby Doll" by Johanna Sinisalo).In addition to "Baby Doll," some of my personal favorites in this volume include "Between the Lines" by Jose Antonio Cotrina and "Athos Emfovos In the Temple of Sound" by Panagiotis Koustas.

Fascinating and fresh
The twenty plus contributors to the original SFWA Hall of Fame were all authors I read previously.However, this European version is quite the opposite having read only one of the sixteen contributors prior to this introduction to these talented writers.This brings a unique freshness as the American audience is introduced to the cross Atlantic writers that the Morrows felt were deserving of wider readership.In the Introduction James Morrow explains the difference between Americans and Europeans as follows: "Europeans think one hundred miles is a long distance, and Americans think one hundred years is a long time".In many ways this sums up the similarities and difference.All the tales were written over the last two decades; none originally in English though translated for this compilation; this adds to the feel of visiting new realms.The authors come from all over Europe: France, Russia, Italy, Czech Republic, Finland, Poland, Spain, Greece, Romania, Germany, Portugal, and Holland.The stories are all well written and obviously translate smoothly into English.They run the gamut from a Dutch Orwell (see W.J. Maryson's "Verstummte Musik") to a "Swift" Finish A Modest Proposalthat is a condemnation of free trade that exploits children.These are fabulous entries that belie the fact they are translations.SFWA's European vacation is a terrific collection, which begs to ask other translation anthologies from Asia, South America, and Africa to follow?

Harriet Klausner
... Read more

Product Description
The author of Only Begotten Daughter unabashedly delves into matters both sacred and secular in this collection of eleven short stories buoyed by his delicious irreverent wit. Humorous, cheerfully blasphemous, and ultimately poignant, these tales show Morrow at his divine best. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

"Where are my dinosaurs?" she shrieked. "I can't feel my dinosaurs!" - "Daughter Earth"
Morrow does indeed revisit some classic tales from the Hebrew scriptures, but the "Bible stories" he retells here involve the sacred (as in sacred cow) more generally. In his sights are such unassailables as God, the Unknown Soldier, Darwin's theory, and masculinity itself. Given that these stories, according to the title, are for "adults," one should not be surprised to be thrilled, shocked, and even offended by some of the author's jibes, yet each shot he takes is precisely aimed and well-deserved. Every story in this book was entertaining; several were masterfully crafted thought-provoking works suitable for extended rumination and discussion.

In the first story, Nebula-winning "Bible Stories for Adults, No. 17: The Deluge," we observe along with our prostitute protagonist that, "When I destroyed my unwanted children, it was murder. When Yahweh did the same, it was eugenics." Morrow simply applies a single moral standard to the old tale of Noah and the Ark, to wicked effect. "Known but to God and Wilbur Hines" tells the story of a murderous, racist deserter who, through a twist of fate, enjoys a hero's burial and anonymous immortality in Arlington.

"Bible Stories for Adults, No. 20: The Tower" inverts the traditional telling of the Tower of Babel legend, so that instead of confusing the human race with a gibber of languages, God trips up humanity by allowing them to communicate "without the benefit of semantic doubt." "So My plan is working. Half the planet is now a graduate seminar, the other half a battleground." Morrow likewise turns the entire Intelligent Design debacle on its head in "Spelling God with the Wrong Blocks," a story in which science missionaries confront a race of androids who insist that they originated through natural selection, when in fact they were created as an experiment by Harvard sociobiologists. When the science missionaries try to explain the androids' error, they are tried as heretics for speaking against the Two Testaments...of Darwin, of course.

Morrow concludes the collection with the fantastic "Arms and a Woman." This story explores the life of Helen, lover of Paris and wife of Menelaus. When she discovers that the Greeks and Trojans have been fighting for a decade over her, she tries to win the peace by going back to her husband. But she has aged, and is now slightly less than launching-a-thousand-ships-beautiful, so the men don't want to hear it. That, and they really like the glory that comes from the battle. It turns out that Helen's abduction by Paris was really just an excuse. As the council of Greeks and Trojans explains to Helen, if they can make ten years of warfare over a single woman look rational, then men could make war over just about anything, and she wants to spoil all that fun.In Morrow's hands, the gentle anti-heroism of the feminine is lauded while the foundational epic of Western civilization is revealed as a work of a banal, baleful masculinity that has provided the rationale for millennia of braggadocio and pee-pee waving.Brilliant!

Science fiction satire by one of the best modern proponents
"Bible Stories for Adults, No. 17: The Deluge"--Not for the squeamish, this retelling of the Flood touches on some of Morrow's recurring themes. Why is it murder when humans kill, but not when God kills? What is the value of life? How should we live our lives? I did not find this as disgusting as when I first read it, but I'm also 10 years older.

"Daughter Earth"--I've written about this story before, and it was a pleasure to reread it. It is one of my favorites--a strange metaphorical tale that has character, humor, and a biosphere. This is the kind of story I want to write when I grow up.

"Known But to God and Wilbur Hines"--Well researched tale of World War I and how war is hell. It is okay, but we have seen the sentiment elsewhere, and, while the details are sharp and fresh, the actual plot and manner are a tad warmed over.

"Bible Stories for Adults, No. 20: The Tower"--I like this one a lot better than "The Deluge," possibly because of the great humor inherent in a story narrated by God himself. Morrow has a real gift for merging humor into his satire, and this is a prime example. The story itself, with its criticism of Donald Trump and the hubris of the well-off, and its method of turning the tables on the idea of Babel, is just marvelous.

"Spelling God with the Wrong Blocks"--This is a fabulous story. I finished this and, as with "Daughter Earth," thought, "This is the kind of thing that I try to write. A story that transposes one set of beliefs into the reference frame of another set of beliefs to put serious question marks into both absolutes." In this one, natural selection is seen as the "correct" and holy interpretation of evolution, and when the science missionaries try to convince the planet of androids that instead they were actually the result of special creation, things don't turn out so well. God, what a funny, but not so funny, story. Check double plus, highly recommended, in my top 20.

"The Assemblage of Kristin"--Another great story, about an organ donor whose parts don't seem to want to give up life. Wonderful details, interesting characters, and a marvelous story structure. You know, if this book continues with stories like this, Morrow is going to move into real favorite status with me. Is this his only story collection (well, no, there was the Pulphouse Author's Choice one, but this is the only major publisher collection, I think)?

"Bible Stories for Adults, No. 31: The Covenant"--Like "Spelling God..." this drops us into a apotheosis wherein what we find normal is switched. Instead of having Moses' law for over 2,000 years, this world has had to go without it, instead preserving the shattered bits of clay from Mt. Sinai. The purpose of the computer they build is to put the tablets together again, to reveal the holy word. But is it worth it? Great social commentary. Question: What is the purpose of the numbers to these bible stores for adults? In this collection, there are only four, but the last is numbered 46. Are there 42 more that Morrow has not published?

"Abe Lincoln in McDonald's"--A little like the last story except the strange twist of having a very real Abe Lincoln in the future is almost too bizarre for words. The concept of slavery and society is always good for another story.

"The Confessions of Ebeneezer Scrooge"--Similar in style and substance to the Bible Stories, at least in that it picks grits with a story that ostensibly provides for modern morals. Morrow feels that greed shouldn't get off with just providing a turkey at Christmastime.

"Bible Stories for Adults, No. 46: The Soap Opera"--An examination of God's role in the life of Job. I'm reminded of XTC's "Dear God," and the line about how God has a lot of questions to answer about suffering. That's a great thing about the Bible Stories--the God of the Old Testament was so capricious that moving his actions into modern times make him look truly ridiculous. I was thinking that Morrow needs to tackle a New Testament story, but I guess that is what Only Begotten Daughter was about.

"Diary of a Mad Diety"--Great concept for a story--a man with the most extreme multiple personality disorder. And I liked several parts it this, but the latter third just did not seem. to match the inventiveness of the earlier parts.

"Arms and the Woman"--This is an example of the Iliad for Adults. What happens when Helen decides that she is not worth a war, a la Shaw. Nice idea, and the best part is the heroes over the truce table talking about how this is the war to make all war seem rational.

Boring stuff...
What can I say, it was a drag.Reading stories that had not one ounce of original creativity as it was all based upon existing bible stories, characters and stuff.

Clearly this guy feels that writing books he feels are controversial will sell.Maybe they do, fortunately I read this from the library.

Where is the real science fiction these days???

Sigh.

A great collection of short stories
James Morrow's ideas are sometimes preposterous, sometimes pretentious, but always wildly inventive, and Bible Stories for Adults is no exception. While a couple of the included stories might cause the reader to roll his or her eyes in the presumptuousness of the author, or the wild implausibility of the ideas involved, it's a good bet the story will still get read -- if only because it's wonderfully entertaining.

My personal favorite from this collection was "The Tower," in which God, fed up with human vanity, makes a personal appearance on Earth and creates a tower of Babel in reverse -- a world in which every human being understands one another implicitly, and no secret is left unrevealed. The impact to humanity is cataclysmic, and the resulting story is both humorous and unsettling.

Bible Stories for Adults also makes a great introduction to the reader starting out with James Morrow, as it is lighter in tone and easier to digest than his (equally excellent) novel-length works.

Quality collection of short stories
After reading this book, I place James Morrow in the same spot I hold for Joe Haldeman: favorite short-story writer.Simply put, the stories contained in this book are EXCELLENT! Morrow has a true economy ofwriting - he says so much with very few words, and his subject matter isvery well chosen, most of the time taking a fresh look at historical eventsor Biblical stories.

I guess the majority of the stories vaguely qualifyas science fiction, but each one has a profound message under its slightsci-fi trappings.Two definite stand-outs are "The Deluge",showing how evil remained in the world after the great flood (and makingsome nasty implications for the lineage of the human race), and "Armsand the Woman", a hilarious yet totally relevant retelling of theTrojan War from Helen's perspective.These two stories alone are worth theprice of the book, but there's many more gems included.I'm still confusedabout the story concerning Job, but that's a minor detail; the others morethan make up for it. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume serves as an introduction to the Kodaira-Spencer theory of deformations of complex structures. Based on notes taken by James Morrow from lectures given by Kunihiko Kodaira at Stanford University in 1965-1966, the book gives the original proof of the Kodaira embedding theorem, showing that the restricted class of Kähler manifolds called Hodge manifolds is algebraic. Included are the semicontinuity theorems and the local completeness theorem of Kuranishi. Readers are assumed to know some algebraic topology. Complete references are given for the results that are used from elliptic partial differential equations. The book is suitable for graduate students and researchers interested in abstract complex manifolds. ... Read more

Product Description
Light blue boards with black lettering on cover and spine. Blue endpapers. Contents: "Benefits Forgot Dearer Than All and The Lost Speech of Abraham Lincoln. " Illustrated frontispiece. Printed March 1938. ... Read more

Product Description
No Native American in U.S. history has provoked more emotion and interest than Sitting Bull. His often misunderstood role in the Battle of the Little Bighorn and his subsequent self-imposed exile have rarely been explored. The events that followed the demise of General George Custer and his 7th Cavalry when they fought Sitting Bull's warriors brought together some of the most fascinating characters of the post-Civil War frontier era. In the after-math of battle, Sitting Bull's Sioux eluded U.S. Army commander Nelson Miles while gradually moving north to the border or "Medicine Line" as the Sioux nation knew it. There Sitting Bull and 5,000 followers met a man wearing a red coat. He was James Morrow Walsh of the North West Mounted Police and he represented the "Great White Mother of the North." Walsh was the only white man Sitting Bull would ever trust.

This is a story of two men and how their unlikely bond built on truth and respect would be buried by the hubris of politicians. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A fascinating look at a Canadian hero
Ever wonder where the myth of the stalwart Mountie, righting wrongs and doing good, came from? After reading this book, I am pretty sure it started with the Mounties themselves. When the Canadian government created the North-West Mounted Police to maintain law and order in the largely unsettled West, the call went out for "men of good character." It's clear that James Morrow Walsh was that and more.

This book, written by a former Mountie, follows Walsh's career and Sitting Bull's in parallel tracks. It's a story of deceit and betrayal, and also of honour and decency. The bond between Walsh and Sitting Bull was never broken, and is shown under the most unlikely circumstances. At the same time, the behaviour of the much-maligned Sioux people demonstrates the full injustice of what was done to them by the governments of both the United States and Canada.

There are times when one person, or a very few people, can make a difference just by their own personal qualities. When the NWMP were the only law in the Canadian West, interpreting it as justly and fairly as they knew how, men like Walsh did just that. It's a shame the governments in Ottawa and Washington didn't make more of an effort to do so, too. ... Read more

Product Description
This classic book/workbook helps readers who feel underprepared for writing tasks move step-by-step toward writing competency. Using a clear, informal, light-hearted narrative and intensive practice, it guides readers assuredly through the process of organizing a paragraph, structuring its sentences, and choosing effective wording and punctuation.Explains how to apply the details and methods of arrangement required to compose unified, coherent, and well-developed paragraphs for all major modes of writing -- narrating, describing, explaining a process, explaining with examples, comparing or contrasting, classifying, defining, persuading. Intersperses grammar instruction between writing instruction and word instruction. Features anecdotes, student and professional examples, cartoons, and exercises throughout. Provides a "Do's and Don'ts" section in all chapters. Includes numerous boxed Guidelines for a convenient quick overview or review of important concepts in encapsulated form.For anyone needing to develop writing competency at the paragraph level. ... Read more

Product Description
On March 27, 1950, the author turned 17; ten days later he enlisted in the U.S. Army. During his training in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, he first learned of the "police action" in Korea, and like many others he volunteered for duty there. His biggest fear was that the action would be over by the time he arrived in Korea.

Private Morrow was assigned as a rifleman in the 24th Infantry Regiment Combat Team, one of the most outstanding units in Korea and the last all black army unit; he served with distinction until he was wounded. After a short stint in Pusan, he became a paratrooper and rigger in the 8081st Airborne and Resupplying Company stationed in southern Japan. Throughout his time in the service, Private Morrow had to face the institutional racism of the U.S. Army where black soldiers consistently served longer and performed more dangerous duties than white soldiers. The effects of this on the 18-year-old private were longterm—and are described here. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

BUGOUT BLUES (?)
I also served in the Korean war and the memories I have of the 24th Infantry Regiment, under the condition they fought under, (segregation,racist & etc)they was out standing in combat & bugged out no more then any others combat soldiers, including the almighty marines and that's a fact. In fact when the enemy's incoming firepower is greater then your outgoing fire power,believe me its time to get out of range or stay & die. Or end up a capture. Everyone there knew that when things went bad, it was usually the old 24th RCT, the 65th Porto Rican RCT, or the South Koreans ROK soldiers, or some other non-white combat unit that got the blame. Now here's a well kept secret for you, in reality, the term "Bug out Boogie" originated from the 24th Infantry Division. Shssss, now don't go telling anyone it a well kept secret. But you would've had to be there to know the truth. Or ask anyone that was there at the time. Wars, are nothing like the one's fought in Hollywood

What's a Commie Ever Done to Black People
I think this is a great book for not only black people, but for white as well. We are all God's people and we should only see people not color. A must read book for all.

It's About Time
So much has been published on WW II in the past few years due to the 50th anniversary, that it is discouraging that the contribution of Black Americans has been so neglected, both in the picture books and text.Bravo to Mr. Morrow for his courage then and now, because many who felt the sting of racism in the military refused to write about it. Despite Truman's mandate to desegregate the military in 1948, the armed forces, particularly the Army, strenuously resisted, and it was years before the mandate was fully implemented.Many Americans do not realize that the Army was segregated, and wonder why there were no Black soldiers in the movie "Sergeant Ryan."Mr. Morrow's book will help open the door to the truth, and help us take one more step forward in ending racism.

Coming of Age
Many coming of age stories have been written, but rarely from the viewpoint of an African-American soldier, even more rarely from the viewpoint of an enlisted man with only a grade-school education. Morrow joins the US Army at 17 during the Korean �War� to satisfy his thirst for adventure and demonstrate his patriotism. He volunteers for front line combat in Korea and finds out on arriving that life ain�t like the movies. We live through his eyes and thoughts as he is forced to kill or be killed. After heis wounded and sent to for rest and recuperation, we also share his experience of wartime romance. However, this is not your usual jingoistic, gung-ho, shoot-em up war story. Morrow also allows us to experience the questions that haunt him as he trudges through the deadly countryside. This is an educational and entertaining book for any reader interested in African-American and/or military history. I would also recommend this book as a gift for a young man or woman as a Rites of Passage present. I am a woman, who does not usually read war stories, but this held my interest and provided an in depth, positive, human account of one man�s war experiences. It should be made into a movie. It has all the qualifications: a quest, adventures, and love interest.

Review of Curtis Morrow's What's a Commie ever Donme to Blac
I think it is wonderful that someone was thoughtful enough to write down a personal experience during a war that was very unpopular at the time.This is recorded history for generations to come. It is a touching story. I urgepeople to read about our history. It may be one step toward making theworld a better place. ... Read more

Product Description
In a geographically arranged collection of travel essays and letters, the author of The Portrait of a Lady expresses his response to Italy's dramatic geography and extroverted people as they contrast with his own staid Victorian experiences. 10,000 first printing. ... Read more