Product Description
This digital document is an article from Science and Its Times, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 113 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.The histories of science, technology, and mathematics merge with the study of humanities and social science in this interdisciplinary reference work. Essays on people, theories, discoveries, and concepts are combined with overviews, bibliographies of primary documents, and chronological elements to offer students a fascinating way to understand the impact of science on the course of human history and how science affects everyday life. Entries represent people and developments throughout the world, from about 2000 B.C. through the end of the twentieth century. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Macmillan Reference USA Science Library: Mathematics, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 784 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Explores the functions of math in daily life, as well as its role as a tool for measurement, data analysis, and technological development. This illustrated set also explains basic concepts of math and geometry, and provides information on historical milestones, notable mathematicians, and today's career choices. ... Read more

Product Description
Beyond the Limit, a novel researched for more than ten years by mathematician and educator Joan Spicci, is the true story of Sofya Kovalevskaya'sremarkable personal journey, from the constricted life of a teenage girl in St. Petersburg to the triumph of becoming the first woman to earn a doctorate in mathematics and join the ranks of Europe's great mathematicians of the nineteenth century.

For more than one hundred years, Kovalevskaya's struggle has inspired women of all nations to fight for educational opportunities equal to those available to men. But while she is known for the science and mathematics Opportunity Days sponsored in her name at major universities, the full drama and power of her life has never been told as it now unfolds in this thoroughly researched novel.

Based on Kovalevskaya's own writings, and many other primary sources, the story of her life plays out against a panorama of the turbulent, intellectually challenging 1860s and 1870s, as it follows a brilliant, complex woman on a quest that seems almost impossible to imagine, more than a century later. Friends with some of the intellectual giants of her time, ranging from Dostoevsky to Darwin, she was the equal of them all, as chronicled in this extraordinary work.

In the Russia of the 1860s, young women did as their fathers bid them, and after marriage was arranged, they did what their husbands told them to do. But Sofya Krukovskaya was different. Born to a family in which science and mathematics were already part of its heritage, Sofya takes every opportunity to learn more about mathematics in tutoring sessions. But her tutors know that if she is to realize her potential, she must study at a university. In order to do that, she lies to her family and makes a marriage of convenience with archaeologist Vladimir Kovalevsky, enabling her and her sister Anya to leave Russia and seek education at a German university.

However, leaving Russia is only the first hurdle she must vault to pursue her dream of becoming Europe's first woman mathematician. When she applies for admission, she is refused by stubbornly prejudiced university officials, forcing her to study covertly with the great mathematician Karl Weierstrass, under whose guidance she is at last able to gain her doctorate.

Very close to her sister Anya, a talented writer whose revolutionary fervor takes her to the powder keg of the Paris Commune of 1871, more than once Sofya has to forsake her own goals to save Anya from ruin, and even death.

Married in name only for many years, Sofya and Vladimir have a complex, volatile relationship. Loving each other, they're forced by the needs of their careers to withstand long separations and other trials. Across Europe, through tragedy and finally triumph, their story is richly told against the backdrop of history.

Mathematician and educator Joan Spicci's compelling narrative accurately documents Sofya's educational and professional struggle, in Beyond the Limit.

This fascinating, intimate portrait of Sofya Kovalevskaya's life confronts issues of women's rights and feminism that continue to face women who pursue careers in the sciences in the twenty-first century.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Personal interaction with Author
Joan Spicci brought enough drama to this biography of Sofya Kovalevskaya to make the story of the first woman PhD in Math a compelling read. Kovalevskaya was not shy about writing her own story and documenting her life. Ms. Spicci clearly spent a lot of homework time studying these materials. Inspiring read for teachers and future mathemagicians.

Beyond The Limit - great book!
I found the book a very quick read because I just couldn't put it down.The author definitely has done her research as I am a M.Sc. (Mathematics) graduate.

truly compelling!
This is a true piece of art, a compelling love story wrapped into the trials and tribulations of humanity's pursuit of balance with being true to oneself and to those you love.This true story is beautifully told of the tribulations faced by a woman in pursuit of mathematics in a world unaccustomed or accepting of women.I couldn't put it down!

Beyond The Limit
We enjoyed this book immensely and recommend it to all readers who enjoy history.The book captures the struggles of women who persued higher education in a time of world governmental and social change.The romantic twists and turns of the characters are sure to keep the reader's interest from cover to cover.

Brilliant, inspirational, important
I highly recommend this book!From the very first page, the story engages the reader and the writing dazzles.This true story is about the trials and struggles of a brilliant, Russian female mathematician, Sofya Kovalevskaya, in the late 1800s.This was not a popular time to be a woman in Russia, and certainly not popular to be a smart woman -- especially if you wanted to study mathematics!However, the development of mathematics and science in Europe at this time was on fire (as was the politics), and Sofya was right in the thick of it all.

This work of historical fiction is well researched, with information gathered from many sources (including translations of personal letters), and masterfully retold.It's romantic, exciting and fascinating.A true gift to be able to walk these years in Sofya's shoes.

If you've ever struggled against societial prejudices, or struggled to succeed in a field of work not intended for your race, sex or color, you'll find this book an inspiration.

I anxiously await the sequel! ... Read more

Product Description
Special Forces operative Blake Jantzen's mission is clear: protect Eve from the psychopath targeting her. His soldier instincts are put to the ultimate test when guarding her leads them both into a dangerous web of secrecy and deceit. Everyone has something to hide—including the beautiful pregnant woman whose life rests in his hands…and whose presence stirs a passion that even he cannot control.

Eve Weathers is a brilliant scientist…and a virgin. After learning she's been impregnated as part of an experiment, she knows trusting Blake is the only way to keep her unborn child safe. It seems the baby she carries is the key to exposing a killer…and unlocking a mystery that will forever link her and Blake. ... Read more

Product Description
Sophie Germain overcame gender stigmas and a lack of formal education yet proved, after Euler, that for all prime exponents n less than 100 Fermat's Last Theorem holds. Hidden behind a man's name, her brilliance as mathematician was first discovered by three of the greatest scholars of the eighteenth century¿ Lagrange, Gauss, and Legendre. In Sophie's Diary, Germain comes to life through a fictionalized journal that intertwines mathematics with historical descriptions of the brutal events that took place in Paris between 1789 and 1793. This format provides a plausible perspective of how a young Sophie could have learned mathematics on her own-both fascinated by numbers and eager to master tough subjects without a teacher's guidance. Her passion for mathematics is integrated into her personal life as an escape from societal outrage. Sophie's Diary is suitable for a variety of readers¿both young and old, mathematicians and novices¿who will be inspired and enlightened on a field of study made easy as is told through the intellectual and personal struggles of an exceptional young woman. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Review of Sophie's Diary

I really enjoyed reading Sophie's Diary. It is a wonderful book and its description of struggle of young Sophie to teach herself basic mathematics is fascinating. I'm amazed by a broad spectrum of topics, ranging from history of mathematics to history of the French Revolution, covered by this book and by a perfect balance between fiction, historical facts and the fundamental concepts of mathematics introduced in the book. In addition to an engaging story of Sophie's personal struggle and a thoughtful account of life of ordinary people during the French Revolution, the book's greatest value is educational with its profound message of how a mixture of wonder, resourcefulness and hard work can get you to the top of the field of your interest. Indeed, this is a beautiful book, one of its kind, and it'd be a must read book for students and instructors interested in this subject, as well as for anyone trying to encourage young women into science and mathematics. This is a book to buy for yourself and then buy ten more copies to give as gifts to your friends.

Mathematics and Historical Fiction
This book is not for little girls! Actually, it is a book for adults with knowledge of mathematics or at least some interest in the subject.
Someone gave "Sophie's Diary" to my 13-year old niece, thinking that it was like other books for young adult readers, but after she read about 20 pages my niece gave up for there was "too much math".
"Sophie's Diary" should be advertised as containing a great deal of math analysis, history of mathematics, and historical facts from the French Revolution.

Knowing that, one can enjoy reading about the struggle of a teenager teaching herself mathematics amidst the chaos of the social conflicts that led to the French Revolution. The author put in perspective the topics of mathematics that the girl had to learn in order to become one of the greatest mathematicians of all time.

Very interesting take on Sophie Germain
Although the character in Sophie's Diary is fictitious, one can easily believe the diary was written by the real Sophie Germain, who grew up to become a great mathematician. Reading this book one gets a sense of the world in which Sophie Germain grew up. I liked the book, but sometimes it gets hard to read because of the mathematics. However, one can imagine that a girl who likes mathematics would write a journal that not only describes what is going on around her, but also the things she is learning, since she did not have anybody to share that with.
Good book to motivate and to be a source of inspiration for young women interested in mathematics, and for anyone who likes to read about the history of mathematics. ... Read more

Product Description
A mind-bending code spawned from the mind of a madman...or maybe just a jealous ex.

A desperate race through the cathedrals and hotels of New York City...with a teeny bit of time for shopping, it's true.

An astonishing truth concealed for years, unveiled at last...with more than a little help from a supercute new guy.

As if a recent breakup, scrounging for rent money, and lusting after designer shoes weren't enough, Melanie Prescott starts receiving obscure codes and clues from a menacing stranger. She attempts to solve the mysteries -- enlisting the help of a tall, dark, and handsome new friend -- with high hopes for the multimillion-dollar reward guaranteed at the end (handbags, sunglasses, and shoes, oh my!). That is, if she can survive the deadly game. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (29)

Sexy and Scary
Melanie Prescott's life is complicated enough with picking up doggie doo to make her rent payment and stressing about her dissertation. She definitely doesn't need her ex-boyfriend trying to bribe her back with a pair of Givenchy shoes. But hey, they are Givenchy! How could she possibly say no to his offer of a simple dinner as the price of such fabulous shoes? But when a stranger hands her a mysterious coded message and then she discovers her ex-boyfriend dead, her life is suddenly spiraling out of control. The doggie doo and dissertation suddenly don't seem like that big of a deal, anymore.

When Mathew Stryker checks his e-mail, he can't believe it's all happening again. The last time he received an e-mail entitled Play.Survive.Win, a woman ended up dead because he hadn't believed. Not wanting to be responsible for another senseless death, he vows to keep this one alive.

The Givenchy Code is a life or death race as Mel and Stryker make their way across New York, all the while keeping one step ahead of a killer. I loved this story. It has suspense, a thrilling chase, amazing riddles to unravel and a romance hidden in amongst it all. This book is one of my top five favorite books of all times; right next to The DaVinci Code.

While you're at it, check out the other two books in the trilogy; The Manolo Matrix and The Prada Paradox. Ms Kenner does a fabulous job of keeping her characters on their toes and the reader glued to the pages.

Thriller-Romance
Take this book for what it is, fluffy, funny chick lit. I enjoyed it and love those kinds of fun reads. One of the most thrilling/fun suspense novels I have read in a long time. It's like a chicklit version of Da Vinci Code. I enjoyed the real-life tie-ins, the fantasies about bumping into celebrities, shopping in NY, being Sydney Bristow in ALIAS--becuase who doesn't want to be cool, sexy and smart. It was cool and creepy that the clues where specific to the target's life. Much more intellectually stimulating than your typical Bridget-Jones type novel.

Funny
It's really funny i just started with this so i hope to finish soon and enjoy it a lot, thanks for your mail.

Clue Lover's Delight
What a fun premise, even though death and mayhem are woven through the story. For anyone who likes to solve puzzles and figure out clues, this trilogy is a a good read. The first two books in the series are better than the third, but to figure out who is behind the nuttiness, you have to read all three, for it all to make sense. Some romance of course but that aspect is less important to the main character than solving the primary clue. Overall, an easy read that at times, will keep you guessing throughout the story.

I Could NOT put this down!!!
This book was so good, I finished it in one night. I loved the suspense and they way the book went from Third person to first person, giving more than one POV of what was going on.

I picked up this book on a whim at Borders earlier this week, and I'm very glad I did. ... Read more

Product Description
"[A] colorful cast of luminaries and rogues . . . This biography provides an intriguing glimpse into the beginnings of computer science and a reminder that character is destiny."­­Wall Street Journal

Known in her day as an "enchantress of numbers," Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace, daughter of the poet Lord Byron, was one of the most fascinating women of the 19th century. In collaboration with Charles Babbage, inventor of the mechanical "thinking machine" that anticipated by more than a century the invention of the computer, Ada devised a method of using punch cards to calculate Bernoulli numbers and thus became the mother of computer programming. It was in her honor that, in 1980, the U.S. Department of Defense named its computer language "Ada." In this critically acclaimed biography, Benjamin Woolley, author of The Queen's Conjurer, portrays Ada Byron's life as the embodiment of the schism between the worlds of romanticism and scientific rationalism. He describes how Ada's efforts to bridge these opposites with a "poetical science" was the driving force behind one of the most remarkable careers of the Victorian Age. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Window into early nineteenth century England
More than just a biography of Ada Lovelace Byron, this is a narrative of the social setting of early 19th century England. In the span of under 4 decades of Ada's life, Charles Babbage had demonstrated his Difference Engine with a working model, created the design for his Analytical Engine, many scientists were performing experiments related to electricity and magnetism, and some were dabbling in their relationship to the human mind, the great railway system emerged with the steam powered engine making distances shorter and travel less of a hardship. The debates surrounding progress of science versus keeping the tranquility of nature undisturbed are well represented in this narrative.

The story covers a lot of the scandals of incest associated with Byron and his separation from his wife - this separation dominated Ada's life and had far-reaching effects on her children as well. Ada's mother Annabella - Lady Byron comes across as a domineering, influential, cruel and manipulative woman.

Speculation, reconstruction, historical evidence all play their parts in this most fascinating story of the "Enchantress of Numbers" as Ada came to be known. This well written biography talks about Ada's early interest in flying and other "impossible" projects, absorption with mesmerism, phrenology, and above all, her quest for tying the cold mathematical world (of her mother) to the hot, passionate, poetic world of her father. Due to the unique legacy of her parents, Ada sees her purpose in life as one of somehow reconciling the two disparate worlds.

Despite her mother's best efforts to keep Byronic passions out of Ada's personality, those are what Ada naturally leans towards, as is evident from her failed elopement in her teens, then several "episodes" with men at various points in her life, and her obsession with gambling, her (medically prescribed) consumption of laudanum / opium, and subsequent addiction. Her professional relationship with several imminent scientists including Charles Babbage, her writing of "notes" on scientific subjects, study of mathematics in her adulthood, her desperation to immerse herself in science in order to avoid her father's legacy - in spite of all her efforts Ada proves to be a Byron more than a Milbanke (her mother's maiden name).

The human story is more in evidence than the story of a scientific or mathematical mind. So if you are looking for just facts and details related to Ada as a scientist or "first computer programmer" this book will not be enough.

Byron's daughter: spawn of acrimony
I bailed out of this about a third of the way through, having gotten extremely frustrated waiting for the author to discuss Ada Lovelace.She never was as vividly portrayed as her parents; I have learned more about her from snippets in books about Victorian intellectual life.Even when she is on stage, it is as the puppet of her domineering mother - the incidents are at least as much about Lady Byron as about Ada.I suggest that my review title would be a more accurate description of the contents.Or perhaps, the Martyrdom of Lord Byron at the Hands of His Demented Wife.

It appears that the author's real interest is Lord Byron, who appears in what is supposedly a biography of his daughter more than can be justified, since he had virtually no involvement in her life after the shipwreck of his marriage.I am somewhat skeptical about how good a father Byron would have been in any case - writing touching lines about the loss of one's child is a far cry from the actual inconveniences of being a parent. This really isn't the point.Byron must have haunted Ada's life: he was famous, and Woolley would have it that cleansing his daughter of any similarities was the obsession of Lady Byron's life. But this wasn't the flesh-and-blood Byron, but society's and Lady Byron's view of him.Woolley rambles on about his doings that were probably irrelevant to Ada.Meanwhile, she is a dimly glimpsed cipher.

Despite the one star, this might be an interesting book for someone who wants to read about Byron and his marriage, particularly a reader who isn't expecting something else.

It's a pity that the Byrons' marriage was such a disaster, but really, I picked this up to learn about Ada Lovelace, not how vicious unhappy marriages can get.For that purpose, an article would have sufficed.

Not bad, but not really that great
As a historian of science and technology, and also a person very interested in computer science and fascinated by poetry as well, this book looked like a full 5 stars at first. Like some of the other reviewers, I felt swamped by the details of Ada's emotional life; yet, there are flashes of brilliance where the author makes a clear connection between her social position, her interior life as we can best judge it, and her pursuits. I wonder if there would have been a better way to organize the book; as it stands now, the book is almost purely narrative (with some asides and flashbacks), and appears to be aimed at the popular reader with a seasoning of technical information to goad the more serious critic into reading on. On the positive side, I was pleased to read a clarification of Ada's role in the Babbage Difference Engine's precocious presentation. And at times, the story was fascinating. Other times, it was just plain soggy.

A Huge Disappointment
Ada Lovelace had a rich intellectual life.

As a huge disservice to her, this book is one extended gossip column of speculation and opinion about her personal life and that of her parents. In contrast, only a few pages are devoted to the Difference Engine and Analytical Engine.

At first I thought the author was gossiping about her parents as what he considered a necessary background to understanding Ada, so I kept reading, hoping to get to the substance of the book soon-- but the gossip never stopped, right through the description of her death.

If you too have a rich intellectual life, you will enjoy this book as much as you enjoy reading gossip about celebrities in the National Enquirer.

A fascinating woman in a fascinating age
Every computer programmer knows (or should) that Ada Lovelace was the first computer programmer, honored with the name of the DoD's official programming language. What I didn't know was that she was the daughter of Byron, the poet.

Her parents were a very strange match, actually: Byron the flamboyant Romantic poet and Annabella Millbanke, a coldly rational woman he dubbed "the Princess of Parallelograms." Their relationship was a brief one, followed by a bitter estrangement, but it produced a daughter, Ada.

Ada was raised exclusively by her mother, seemingly more as a science project - a demonstration of rational childraising principles - than as anything involving parental affection. Not surprisingly, she grew up to be a brilliant woman prone to nervous disorders which, when combined with attempts at treatment, led to a short life, with her dying at 37.

The focus of this book is set by the dichotomy between science and poetry exemplified by Byron and Annabella. The time period is one of extraordinary technical advancement, with the locomotive and the telegraph shrinking the world in a way that even our jet planes and satellite links can't compare. Some embraced this revolution, even some of the poets, while others rejected it.

Those like me who came to this book looking for a detailed account of Ada and her association with Babbage and his Difference Engine will come away disappointed. It is indeed covered, and Woolley describes Ada's monograph on the principles of the Engine as being a hundred years ahead of its time. But after providing a copious lead-in (to such an extent that Annabella seems as much the subject as Ada), he quickly moves on to the latter part of her life.

Still, this is an interesting book about a fascinating age and fascinating people. ... Read more

Product Description
The daughter of mathematician Theon, Hypatia grew up on the northern tip of Egypt in the great city of Alexandria in the 4th century A.D. Unlike most girls of her time, Hypatia learned to read and write, and as she grew older was tutored in mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy. In time, word spread of her brilliance and scholars from all over the world came to her seeking her advice and opinions in these subjects. Records of her fame as a teacher can be found in the writings of Socrates. One of her most famous students, Synesius, developed the astrolabe under her direction. ... Read more

Product Description
To Talk of Many Things is a remarkable account of a remarkable life. This story covers two world wars and the near sixty years that followed in a life dominated by mathematics and public service. Profoundly deaf from birth, Dame Kathleen has never seen her condition as an obstacle. She traveled widely through Europe between the wars, was a wartime don at Somerville College, Oxford, served on national education committees from the 1950s onwards, has been at various times on the Boards of the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester Polytechnic and Lancaster and Salford Universities and in the 1990s chased total eclipses of the sun around the world. A former Lord Mayor and Freeman of the City of Manchester, Dame Kathleen writes compellingly of her greatest enthusiasm--mathematics. The publication of her work on Magic Squares and her presidency of the Institute of Mathematics have been high points in a long and distinguished career.
... Read more

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Customer Reviews (6)

Does Princeton U Press have no shame
As a work of fiction this doesn't hold up---it's merely a badly written pastiche of earlier secret society novels. Dan Brown comes to mind. Now Dan Brown is by no means a literary stylist but he does have the formula for a page tuner. Here the author doesn't really have a decent plot.PythRev is just a disconnected collection of episodes with stock cardboard characters--padded with info from wikipedia about few math topics and a bit of classical history. The math is not developed to the point that would convey any of its depth. What I find most shocking is that a distinguished university press--Princeton--would publish such obviously clumsy, amateur junk(as in 'junk food for the mind'). The author is a mathematician. He should have stuck to abstract formal systems and left writing to the writers.

Not a mystery at all. A ghost/reincarnation story
Basically, as admitted by the author in the preface, the book is not a mystery, but a popularized account of the life of Pythagoras and the school/cult he founded. The only "mystery" is why anyone would care who is the reincarnated Pythagoras.

original and entertaining math-thriller
This is an original and entertaining math-thriller. Its strength is the care and detail that have gone into the historical elements, and into the threading of the various plot lines. It is a peculiar novel; it reads like an action thriller for teenage boys, but the main protagonist is an aging, and rather unsympathetic academic. And at it its heart, one has to suspend disbelief over two rather indigestible tenants: that the key figures would play along with the notion of reincarnation, and that the modern day Pythagorean sect wouldbe so powerful. But these are completely consistent with the Pythagorean theme, and the book displayed a remarkable coherency. I hesitated between rating it 4 or 5, but was convinced by the appendices, notes and bibliography. The author put a lot of effort into this book.If you like math-fiction, you will very likely enjoy this. I did.

Good introduction to Pythagorean philosophy
Every high school mathematics student thinks they know everything about Pythagoras, as soon as they master the formula for finding the hypotenuse of a right triangle if you know the two sides.Hardly any go on to learn that Pythagoras founded an important school of philosophy, one that has implications even to today's considerations of vexing questions in mathematics and science.

This fictionalized account of the search for a particular artifact that will reveal even more truths about the world is a fun way of absorbing what is actually known about Pythagoras, and what is suspected.

A literary jewel
Masterfully written gripping plot with unexpected ending.
Fully suspenseful all along.
Mathematically instructive even for the novice.
Philosophically challenging.
Technically well documented.
Historically substantiated.
Vividly depicting numerous colourful characters, old and recent times and obscure places.
Highly recommended.
A literary jewel.

... Read more

Product Description
NO SURRENDERRenowned cryptologist Noelle Blanche refuses to have blood on her hands.So when the military asks for her help in a covert operation, she refuses--until masked gunmen raid her home and threaten her life.Suddenly it's all too clear that any blood spilled may be her own.Noelle has no choice but to trust the dangerous stranger sent by the military to safeguard her.A stranger who is everything she detests, everything she fears...and everything she desires.NO LOOKING BACKFormer Delta Force operative David Wolfe thought he had left it all behind--the horror, the hurt, the guilt.But now the men who savagely murdered his wife have set their sights on a brilliant cryptologist who can lead them to the cache of weapons they prize.As passion ignites between David and the woman he's sworn to protect, what began as just a mission escalates into the fight of his life.But can he prevent history from repeating itself?NO REGRETS ... Read more

Customer Reviews (24)

another good Butcher book
Young college professor, who liked to dabble with cryptology, resists breaking the cryptic code that US govt is paying her to crack & that torture-happy villains called the Swarm are also interested in for moral reasons.But her life becomes endangered when the Swarm tries to kidnap her for her skill in breaking the code.Former Delta Force hero is sent to protect her but he only agrees to do so b/c it'll lead him to the Swarm members who he plans to deciminate for killing his wife. H & h develope strong feelings for each other, which complicates the job they were sent to do.

This Butcher book was well-paced, exciting, & had a well-developed romance.The main characters were likeable. I liked heroine's intelligence & strength mixed with her innocence & quirkiness.Although hero was tortured & hardened, he was also emotionally vulnerable enough to fall in love with heroine without the usual denial & major resistance to love that the usual alpha-male romance heroes usually do. Action-suspense was riveting & the gore wasn't too detailed. Sexual chemistry & love scenes were good. Good balance of suspense & romance.

Recommended.

Romantic, Suspenseful, Strong Leads
This is a great introductory novel to a trilogy of three compelling men who are best friends from Delta Force.It's always nice to see true friends who don't turn out to be the enemy betraying you at the end and the author writes their relationship well.No regrets focuses on former operative David Wolfe who's last mission two years prior was spent exacting revenge against a terrorist group who brutally raped, tortured and killed his wife.Thinking he wiped out the entire faction, he learns that the faction is back and are after a woman who is the only hope the government has for recovering some lost nuclear weapons.

Dr. Noelle Blanche, a mathematical cryptologist, is an extremely sheltered idealistic genius who vows that no government will ever use her expertise and creations to kill another human being and believes the government will only use her work to do more harm than good.The terrorist group targets Noelle for her code breaking abilities to also retrieve the nuclear weapons and David is pulled back into duty to protect her and to go after the terrorists. Noelle learns very quickly that she's been naive in her thinking and after flatly refusing to help the government David has dedicated his life to, he shows Noelle the pictures of horror these people are responsible for.She finally sees that although her work can be used to kill people, it can also be used to stop killers.She agrees to help them and this leads them on a non stop chase for safety.

David and Noelle have great chemistry and bond very quickly and Noelle, although in the beginning seems like a ninny, turns into a wonderful strong willed and intelligent woman.The author makes it very clear they want one another right from the start and their eventual love scenes are long and steamy.The introduction of David's friends Caleb and Grant (subsequent books) are a nice distraction and I'm looking forward to reading their stories.

It could have been a five, but between the irritation of Noelle not wanting to help the government and a very stupid scene where David might have gotten Noelle pregnant and says he would adopt the baby just didn't work for me. Noelle, a doctor mind you, is touched by this sentiment and all I could do was ask myself, since when do biological parents need to adopt their own children????I could see him saying something like, we'll get married, or I'll support him if they don't get married, but adopt your own child? It was strange.Anyway, it was just a small part and overall it was still a great read.

GOOD READ . . .
This was the second Suspense Romance I've ever read and I enjoyed it very much.(Considering this is not my usual genre.)I loved the fact that even though Noelle was "Freakishly Smart" living a pretty ordinarily uneventful life, when the time came, without hesitation she showed extraordinary strength time and time again.

I liked David, the troubled hero, who was determined not to let the past repeat itself.Trying his best to focus on "The Job", and not his . . ., even after he developed real feelings for Noelle.He was focused to the end.

The storyline was decent.You can tell S. Butcher did her homework/research. :)Damn good first attempt.

I understood where the author was trying to go with the romance but I did not feel the depth of it coming of the pages as I should have.But in the end the love they felt for each other popped off the pages appearing more real and hey that's what a girl like me wants when I curl up with a book involving anything Romantic.

Nice Read with some problems
This book was decent.The first half dragged quite a bit and I kept putting it down for 2 or 3 days.It picked up during the second half and I finished it in about an hour.If you're looking for a nice middle of the road read and you're not too picky, it should suit.The plot made sense even if it wasn't one of my favorite types (more on that below).The romance element was nicely done.Especially in the second half of the book. Still, it had a few problems that may matter more to me than to others.

SPOILERS BELOW


First the bad guys, the Swarm.Hokey name and worse than that we are never told what kind of a terrorist group this is. Is it Al Quaeda?Home grown terrorists?Russian mafia?Canandian School Teachers? :-)I don't like it when things are vague.Second they called the hero, David, back to the military after he had been out 2 years because he was the only one who could protect this girl.Once you're out of the military, you're out.They've got plenty of other guys in Delta Force who I hope are just as good. Or should I be scared for the safety of everyone they're tasked with aiding/protecting? Third, I found it a bit ludicrous that a Colonel in the US Army felt it would be okay to kill a civilian who wouldn't help out the military.And he's a good guy?I'm kind of scared of that idea too.Fourth I had a problem with the heroine's idea that the military would use her code breaking for evil.I would have thought she'd think, 'If it's unbreakable think of all the US soldiers whose lives could be saved.'Fifth, I'm kind of tired of plots where the guy has to save the girl so she can save the world.Not everyone is the princess who, though born in a mud hut, is destined to save the world and become a goddess/queen. Sixth the book was overly wordy.A lot more telling than showing.Seventh how good of an operator is he if he is followed and doesn't even know it?If he's so good they had to call him back, shouldn't he have realized Owen was watching the whole time?If you're going to write an alpha hero, make him be good at what he does. Eighth he didn't seem very manly to me.By that I mean I was very aware that I was reading about a man written by a woman.

All that being said, I will probably try the next in the series.

A good first book but not great
This book shows real promise that Shannon K. Butcher will become an amazing author.I only needed one day to finish it and I will definitely read the other 2 books in the trio.The characters were interesting enough.The relationships were relatable enough.The big wham bang ending was ridiculous but not the worst I have read.I actually prefer SKB's Sentinel Wars series to this one because of the sci-fi aspects.I recommend giving this book a try for a light and simple read. ... Read more

Product Description
In this engrossing biography, Dorothy Stein strips away the many layers of myth surrounding Ada Lovelace's reputation as the inventor of the science of computer programming to reveal a story far more dramatic and fascinating than previous accounts have indicated. Working with original sources, Stein clears up a number of puzzles and misinterpretations of Ada's life and activities.

Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace, was the only daughter of the poet Lord Byron and the close friend and associate of a number of the foremost scientific, literary, and artistic figures of the early Victorian period. She enjoys a growing reputation today for her report on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine—considered to be the first computer. Yet Stein shows how the often self-serving Babbage conspired to create the legend, using the Countess to promote his projects and make exaggerated claims for his engine. By placing Lady Lovelace's report in the social and cultural context in which it was written, she finds that, far from being a clear and masterly exposition of the structure and logic of the computer, it was a rather mystical tract that dwelt on the inventor's outdated philosophy of mathematics, and his mechanistic view of theology and the workings of capitalist economics.

Ada's own life is vividly told, often in her own words, as Stein weaves into her narrative excerpts from letters, memoirs, and little-known documents to create an account that is at once black comedy, detective story, psychological drama, and scientific explanation. She examines the barriers and opportunities that Ada faced as she strove to develop her ambitions and search for truths that would free her of that shadow of her mysterious father and her overbearing and manipulative mother.

Stein reveals a turbulent and complex woman who tries to run away, who marries and bears three children, attempts to bury herself in the study of mathematics, and to find herself in a career in music or in writing. Ada corresponds and associates with men as diverse as Dickens, Chadwick, Quetelet, and Wheatstone. She sickens and attempts to find the cause of her malady by exploring the fringes of several sciences. Her interest in the use of electricity to treat nervous disorders involves her in the controversies over mesmerism and phrenology, and turns her from Babbage to Faraday and to Andrew Crosse, the "electrician" whose work served as the model for Frankenstein. With Ada, Stein examines the roots of the fear, fascination, and mystic awe with which we still regard the impact of high technology upon ordinary life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

complicated personality
If you are a computer programmer, you should know that the first programmer is often considered to be Ada Lovelace. And her name lives on as a US Department of Defense computing language. (Though that language has gained no traction elsewhere.)

But who was the real Ada Lovelace? Stein has done some solid research into what is actually known and recorded about her. We see a complicated personality. Whose precise relationship to Charles Babbage is still somewhat unclear. Where they lovers? Or just friends? What we have is seen through the prism of Victorian Britain's mores, and the surviving documents are perhaps deliberately ambiguous on this point.

Ada's guesses about software that might run on Charles Babbage's machine were inspired. All the more so because there was no precedent, beyond the cards used for looms. It remains a historical pity that the machine never fully worked. In effect, she could never compile and run her code. ... Read more

Product Description
The award-winning author of A Small Death in Lisbon brings an exciting richness to the long shadow of evil in this crackling new novel of spycraft and international intrigue.

Lisbon, 1944:
Andrea Aspinall, plucked out of academia by British intelligence so that her mathematical knowledge might help in the hunt for atomic secrets, disappears under a new identity in Lisbon, where such secrets are easily bought and sold.
Karl Voss, already experienced in the illusions of intrigue when he arrives in Lisbon, is an attachŽ at the German Legation, though he is secretly working against the Nazis to rescue Germany from annihilation.

After a night of terrible violence, Andrea creates a family for herself from Voss's memory and the clandestine world they knew. In Portugal, in England, and in the chilly world of Cold War Berlin, she discovers that the deepest secrets aren't held by governments-and that death is a relative term. In The Company of Strangers, Robert Wilson takes the chilling irony of "secret intelligence" to a new and more poignant human level, as he shows that the heart is both more knowing and more secretive than the mind.

Amazon.com Review
Robert Wilson, whose award-winning A Small Death in Lisbon broke him out as an international thriller writer in the Ambler, le Carré, and Furst tradition, scores with this exceptionally well-plotted novel of wartime intrigue in England and Portugal. Andrea Aspinall, a brilliant young British mathematician, is recruited by the British Secret Service and put through a rush course in spycraft before being sent to Lisbon, where she quickly falls in love with a disenchanted German agent and, in less than two weeks, manages to lose her virginity, unmask a conspiracy, and interrupt Germany's plan to build the first atomic bomb. The action covers a long time span--from the early years of Word War II to the era of glasnost, when Andrea, now an Oxford mathematician long retired from spying, encounters the man she once loved and lost. Karl Voss has become an East German double agent who's bent on revealing the Russian mole in England's service. The narrative wanders a bit, but the strong, spare writing and deft characterization set this apart as one of the year's better international espionage novels, one that should introduce Wilson to a bigger audience. --Jane Adams ... Read more

Customer Reviews (44)

Love the author but this is not his best work by far
The Company of Strangers reminds me of several books depending on which part I'm in.However, the different parts are quite disparate and this interferes with the coherency of the book.

The first part of the book takes place largely in Germany and WWII Portugal and can't help but draw comparison to his excellent A Small Death in Lisbon.There's lots of intrigue, people who do not act like they really are, and lots of great color about Lisbon and the surrounding area.

But then the book leaps forward to the 1970's, and it feels very much like Smiley's People.Finally, in the last hundred pages it morphs again, but this time into something very much like The Company.

All three of the works I've referenced are highly recommended, but each one stayed true to itself throughout each work and that is a formula that pays off.

Unfortunately, the transitions in TCOS don't work that well, and in particular, it feels like the last 100 pages were pared down significantly from their original form because this part of the book is quite sparse whereas the middle section seems overly long.

It's worth noting that this is his longest book.Wilson seems far better suited to works in the 300-350 page range.

If you've never read Wilson before, run, don't walk and buy either A Small Death or start his 4 volume masterwork about contemporary Seville, The Blind Man of Seville.Both are 5 star books and will not disappoint you.

Not his best work
As much as I have liked the 4 other Robert Wilson books I have read, I found "The Company of Strangers"very disappointing. The central plot device would be more appropriate for a television soap opera.It is reminiscent more of "The Thorn Birds", or "The Winds of War" than Wilson's other books.As wild as his plots are in his Seville series, they are tempered by character development and a sense of place that render this series very satisfying.All I felt when I finished "The Company of Strangers" was cheated by last half of the book.

The Woman Mathematician As Spy
Robert Wilson's "The Company of Strangers" is, for me, a difficult book to review. Why?

First, it's really 3 books: The author himself divides the story into 3 books.Book 1 is 286 pages long and takes place in the 1940's in Germany, Portugal and England. Book 2 encompasses the next 158 pages and takes place from 1968-71 in England and East Germany. Book 3 is really an epilogue, encompassing the final 48 pages, set in England. Thus, we must travel through about 46 years with the primary characters, all of whom are elegantly tragic.

Second, the story is basically about one mildly interesting British woman mathematician - Andrea -- and her 2 very brief, bizarre episodes as a spy. Of course, there is her German love interest - Karl -- and his considerably more interesting personal life story and high risk service as a spy. Double agents abound. Intrigue is everywhere.While the story is clever, the gist of the actual work of all these spies is commonplace. Andrea is quite clever, resourceful and brave. Karl, in a time of utter conformity, is a true individual with a conscience and practical street sense.I liked him a lot.

Third, the story is very complex, a bit obscure from time to time (though not as mind-numbingly incoherent as John Le Carre's "Most Wanted Man"), and way too detailed with way too many shadowy and unnecessary characters. Additionally, Robert Wilson LOVES detail, especially environmental sights, sounds and smells. He also LOVES kinky and often gruesome and demeaning sex and terribly violent murder and death scenes. The overdone detail smudges the story and makes a reader read rapidly to escape it.He really need not regale a reader with a description of what one sees from a car window while driving on EVERY street in Lisbon, London or East Berlin.

That said, except for a really dead part from pages 290 - 330, the book is surprisingly interesting, at times absorbing and often exciting. The final chase scene in Lisbon (end of Book 1) is excellent. To be sure, the World War II era is the best part, truly interesting, but then again, those Nazis were are great fodder for such novels, no?I'll never grow tired of them. The Cold War espionage era never was, to me, all that interesting, but Wilson does pretty well in making all those ugly people and their entirely idiotic conduct, relatively interesting, but - to be honest - never exciting.

So, we have 3 books to try to absorb. Book 1 is a 4+. Book 2 is a 2+. Book 3 is ---- well, just an epilogue, purportedly tying it all together - sort of. By then, I honestly didn't care that much about what had become of the aging Andrea and Karl. The end was disappointing.

All-in-all, there is too much detail, it's a bit too gruesome, it's way too complicated, and there are too many characters.

But, its' excellently written and quite entertaining, with several memorable phrases and lines, such as the extraordinary "retrospective genius" phrase found on page 434.

Balancing everything it's a 3.

Great first half not quite sustained
Reading this thriller was like reading two separate books inexpertly stitched together. In the first half, a young English student is recruited by her country's secret service and sent to Portugal in 1944 for the purpose of espionage, although her exact assignment is not exactly explained. There, she falls in love at first sight, or rather at first grip, with a German diplomat who turns out to be a double-agent involved in an assassination attempt against Hitler. This part of the book is masterlful, despite many holes in the plot. But one forgives them because the pace is so fast and furious and the tension so taut. For the most part it's very well-written, although occasionally over-written with a couple too many soaring metaphors for my liking. But this author has a real poetic gift -- he often made me quite jealous. Wilson lives in Portugal and really makes the setting come to life -- the hot dusty hills surrounding Lisbon and the dingy streets of the city itself.
The second half of the book is less successful. Tragically divided, the lovers go their separate ways for decades. I won't give away the plot -- suffice to say that they meet again in Cold War East Berlin. This part of the story has the feel of warmed-over John Le Carre. You get sentences like this: "He drove a slow circuit of the blocks of flats before coming out again on the Karl Marx Allee and heading east on the Frankfurter Allee.He turned right in Freidrichsfelde, past the white expanse of the Tierpark, under the S-bahn bridge and then left into the Kopenicker Allee." And it goes on from there. Yes, the author has done his research trip and mastered the street names. But for the reader, it's boring. Names alone do not produce atmosphere.
I also have to say I really didn't like the way this book ended. A pity because so much of it was so superior to the general run of thrillers. Despite my criticism, it's still very much worth reading.
[...]

Excellent book, if you can get through the first 100 or so pages
I just finished this book and I have to say I was blown away!Before writing this review I read the 1 and 2 star reviews and I have to agree with some of what they are saying but in the end this author really pulled it off. The beginning is slow and being a big fan of authors like Clive Cussler and Vince Flynn this is not the action packed type of spy novel and Andrea is no Mitch Rapp, and neither is Karl Voss but that doesn't make the book bad.To call this a thriller is over stepping though.The book has exciting parts in it but it's a dramatic and very romantic (not smut) book.Some of the other reviews found the ending sad and I have to admit I'm the kind of guy that likes a happy ending but I think the ending is brilliant! ... Read more

Product Description
Daughter of Lord Byron, Ada Lovelace was a child prodigy. Brilliant at maths, she read numbers like most people read words. She worked with the scientist Charles Babbage on his "Thinking Machine", a collaboration which would eventually lead to the invention of the computer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The PC princess - makes a great gift
This is actually a childrens book but represents the sort of style a modern book could have.A short digest about something you never knew before.

Would you believe that an eccentric English girl could have been drilled in maths enough to enjoy it?That she could work for hours on making a flying machine when such things were unheard of?That she could understand the abstruse principles of a mechanincal calculating machine, enough to translate an Italian work about it working hard like a robot?

She had beauty, brains and breeding, and was an aristocrat.There was only one and only Ada.A true heroine. Where did they make them?

Carefully packaged in a neat small volume taking 15-20 minutes to eat up in one gripping and moving read. ... Read more

Product Description
Jane Smythe, a math professor specializing in fractal geometry, is shocked to learn that three professors with the same specialty have died amid mysterious circumstances. That's where Pepper Keane, an ex-Marine turned PI with an encyclopedic knowledge of rock 'n' roll, comes in. He finds himself attracted to Professor Smythe and is determined to discover the root of these incidents. At first, he can't find any evidence that the three dead mathematicians even knew each other. But Keane, with the help of his hacker best friend and exercise guru brother, continues to dig. Suspects begin to appear and then multiply as they race through the rocky terrain of Colorado to Mexico, Boston, and Nebraska - with the main suspect an FBI agent who is also Keane's worst enemy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (39)

mystery
I am not going into a lengthy review about this book I would just like to say that Mark Cohen is a fantastic writer with a sense of humor. I have read both of his books and wonder when or if he will write another.

Great story, unique subject
I love reading mysteries (essentially junk food for my mind) that increase my awareness of more esoteric subjects. I still know next to nothing about fractals, but at least I know they exist. And I had a great time reading the Fractal Murders while that happened.

Pepper Keane is a great character, a sort of Travis McGee of our time. Actually, a great deal about the Fractal Murders has very much a John D. MacDonald flavor to it. Keane is a protgonist who has rebelled against "the man" and lives by his own rules as an investigator. A woman brings him a case that is complex and full of intrigue. Happily, Mark Cohen is a little more light-handed with the sexism and the sex than MacDonald!.

The Fractal Murders has great background that I never found boring, Pepper Keane is a charming main character and his family and friends are also full of personality and fully envisioned. No one-dimensional characterizations. The mystery leads you most of the way and then has a twist I didn't see coming. I liked this book very much and would read more by this author. I hope there are more!

A pretty good mystery
Three fractal mathematician die and another one who was a close friend
of one of them thinks it isn't a coincidence. The FBI says that there
is no connection. So Pepper Keane gets the case...
No resemblance to any living fractal a mathematicians seems to exist,
and the premise of the conclusion of time transform doesn't seem likely,
but the novel is well researched. In some cases I think the explanations are better than some popularizations that I have read.
It turns out that there is an FBI connection to the gun that killed
one of the mathematicians in Washington state.
From there on the plot has some surprising twists!
I liked it and for a mystery it was well written.
The point seems to be that once Pepper was close,
the pile of files at his house would have been a target
more than himself. From Waco we know that the FBI can
have an agenda outside their legal one.
To think that mathematicians might be targets
because of an economic model is kind of 'romantic'
but not very realistic... a Levy Flight?

Smart
"The Fractal Murders" offers a terrific premise and the delivery lives up to it, too. The sleuthing is dogged, hard work. It's smart and well organized--the kind of diligent, relentless focus that is probably the norm out there for actual detectives. The Colorado settings are well rendered. I thought a few key things happened a bit too conveniently: the jet ride to Boston, the handy night vision goggles, access via a friend to key commercial airline passenger manifests. I also could have done without all the restaurant and eating descriptions; they just don't add up to much. For a guy who spends a lot of time running and working out, there is very little physical action. Most of the work is mental. Readers looking for a good brain exercise will enjoy how Pepper Keane approaches his work and the end packs a nifty double twist.

Great math mystery that's not too technical
University of Colorado math professor Jayne Smyers hires Pepper Keane, former Marine JAG turned PI, to investigate the deaths of three other math professors.The Feds have investigated and found no link between the deaths.Jayne is convinced there's a link.Pepper is skeptical at first but agrees to look into it.

There's plenty of bad blood between Pepper and FBI agent Polk who did some of the investigating.This history adds to Pepper's determination to investigate these deaths.

As Pepper digs deeper into the deaths, he begins to see some similar threads that continue to propel him forward.With romance in the air, Pepper worries that Jayne may be the next victim.

Can he decipher the pattern and unmask the killer before anyone else is killed?Can he protect Jayne as well?

I thoroughly enjoyed this refreshing mystery.Pepper is a fabulous character, even with his baggage.It is explained throughout the book, so we aren't left floundering.His interactions with Polk, Jayne, detectives where each mathematician was killed, his brother, his neighbors, and his best friend really help us to get to know him.

I found the math to be explained in plain English so that it was easy to understand. It also didn't detract from the investigation; it actually enhanced it.I am not a mathematician, but I really enjoyed this book.I hope he writes more in this series.I can't wait to read them.I highly recommend this book.
... Read more