Caliban Cove (Resident Evil #2)

Book Description

THEY KNEW IT WASN'T OVER....

In the aftermath of their ordeal through the Umbrella Corporation's genetic research facility, the surviving members of the Special Tactics and Rescue Squad (S.T.A.R.S.) attempt to warn the world about the conspiracy to create terrifying biological weapons. But the conspiracy is far from dead, as the S.T.A.R.S. learn when they are declared outlaws by the very people who trained them. Forced to go underground, the S.T.A.R.S. resolve to battle the conspiracy on their own, determined to seek out and stop Umbrella's experiments wherever they may be.

Combat medic and biochemist Rebecca Chambers, the sole survivor of Bravo Team,

joins a new S.T.A.R.S. strike force when rumor comes of another Umbrella

experiment: hidden beneath the rocky cliffs of Caliban Cove, Maine, someone is

building an army of the undead. Within a sinister lighthouse, through a complex

maze of sea caves, inside the shell of a sunken shipwreck, the S.T.A.R.S. must

battle more unspeakable horrors and stop a madman from unleashing the biohazard

upon the world.

But the S.T.A.R.S. may never get the chance, as the aggressive DNA-altering virus Umbrella has engineered to create its living weapons begins to infect them....

This first all-original Resident Evil bridges the events depicted in the bestselling games Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2.

Customer Reviews:

Not as exciting as the other books........2007-08-13

I am a big Resident Evil fan and I have all of Perry's books. The 2nd book to me was very bland. The characters are well developed, but there was something missing in the plot. Seriously, zombies with guns? Although in the fourth game the 'zombies' (not corpse-like) are armed, the idea of picturing a rotting corpse with a machine gun is laughable, but boring.

Another Pretty Good Book From S.D. Perry!!.......2006-02-26

I liked this book much better than Zero Hour. Rebecca Chambers the lone survivor of the Bravo team joins another S.T.A.R.S team to infiltrate another Umbrella facility. To me the best part was when one of their own gets the virus and we see how it affects her. To me it wasn't as exciting and as suspenseful as some of Perry's other books but it is still a good read. The City Of The Dead is my favorite so far and The Umbrella Conspiracy isn't far behind.These are the masterpieces!!

This is wierd........2006-02-13

A big Departure from the videogame series. Sometimes it shows and sometimes it doesn't. But, regrettably, there are some puzzles in here that are just a little bit too familiar and have been used in other movies. Believe me I know. But the ending is a sure-fire resident evil style ending. Enjoy!

Day of the Dead.......2006-01-28

And again, S.D. Perry writes another exciting book. Resident Evil: Caliban Cove is about an evil scientist by the name of Nicholas Griffith. He tries to send the deadly T-Virus across the world. But in order to do so, he must go up against the Special Tactics And Rescue Squad (S.T.A.R.S.).

The T-Virus infects anything that has an open wound or is already dead. It goes through the blood stream, attacking and destroying anything that it has contacted. It then reanimates the body turning the host into a flesh-eating zombie. The only way to get the disease is if you are scratched or bitten by one that is already infected.

This is an excellent story in my opinion. It is based on the events from the games Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2. The events in this story keep you guessing what will happen next. It is a great story for non-fiction readers, or for anyone who likes flesh-eating zombies.

Choppy Waters In "Caliban Cove".......2005-12-18

A change of location is in store in this second installment of S. D. Perry's "Resident Evil". The waters off the Maine coastline are none to tranquil and as the tale continues the waters get choppy. A prescription for Dramamine would be in order as motion sickness sets in when it is discovered that T-virus infected victims are capable of learning rudimentary instructions. George Romero was able to introduce the undead exhibiting basic reasoning skills as an evolutionary process in his latest zombie film "Land of the Dead" as it served as an allegory to how the disenfranchised survived in society; no such context was established here, though, and it didn't ring true. In spite of some of the sailing not being entirely smooth, "Caliban Cove" deserves its place on the shelf with the other of Perry's "Resident Evil" volumes.

Hubert's Arthur Being Certain Curious Documents Found Among the Literary Remains of Mr. N.C., Here Produced By Prospero and Caliban

Average customer rating:

Hubert's Arthur Being Certain Curious Documents Found Among the Literary Remains of Mr. N.C., Here Produced By Prospero and Caliban
Baron Corvo Frederick Rolfe
Manufacturer: Cassell and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JLA9W4

Caliban and the Witch: Women, The Body, and Primitive Accumulation

Average customer rating:

Magnificent study of women and original accumulation
Witch Hunts R Us

Caliban and the Witch: Women, The Body, and Primitive Accumulation
Silvia Federici
Manufacturer: Autonomedia
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

History | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

Women in History | World | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Patriarchy and Accumulation On A World Scale: Women in the International Division of Labour
Afflicted Powers: Capital and Spectacle in a New Age of War
The London Hanged: Crime and Civil Society in the Eighteenth Century
Reading Capital Politically
Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy (Penguin Classics)

ASIN: 1570270597

Book Description

Caliban and the Witch is a history of the body in the transition to capitalism. Moving from the peasant revolts of the late Middle Ages to the witch hunts and the rise of mechanical philosophy, Federici investigates the capitalist rationalization of social reproduction. She shows how the struggle against the rebel body and the conflict between body and mind are essential conditions for the development of labor power and self-ownership, two central principles of modern social organization.

Customer Reviews:

Magnificent study of women and original accumulation.......2007-04-25

Silvia Federici's book "Caliban and the Witch" demonstrates the absolute necessity of women's studies for a thorough and scientific understanding of history. Focusing on the role of women and the body in the process by Marx and Adam Smith described as "original accumulation", i.e. the violent expropriation of the feudal commons in the movement towards a capitalist society, Federici demonstrates that a true war against women was an important part of the ruling class' strategy.

The book assesses various aspects of this development, including witchcraft and the witch-hunts, the "Christianization" (or rather Catholization) of the North and South American native civilizations, the role of philosophical mechanism and the developers of the scientific method (Bacon, Descartes, Newton, Hobbes, etc.), and the early slave trade. In each case Federici masterfully shows how this development came to be, what role it played in the process of 'original accumulation', and why it was favored temporarily by the ruling class. She also gives very strong evidence that things like fear of witchcraft, patriarchy, racism etc., often seen as the inevitable and 'natural' results of ignorance and superstition in those societies, were in reality forced onto the common people as part of a top-down campaign to destroy the backbone of the feudal communities.

What is an additional interesting contribution of this book is Federici's evidence that there was not only widespread peasant resistance against the process of enclosure, capitalization and expropriation, but more particularly that women often played a very major role in these resistance movements, especially after the German Peasant War ended in a massacre. Many of the women who would later be burned and persecuted as witches were likely survivors of these resistance movements and therefore both had strong connections with local farming communities and resentment against authority, a dangerous combination for the ruling classes. To me it was also remarkable new information to learn about how common female wage-labor in the cities was in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, as well as the degree of acceptance of sexuality and magic. Of course we should not in any way try to paint too rosy a picture of the late feudal era, which everyone knows had enough terror and tyranny of its own, but Federici shows that even then there was a strong current of people resisting both (proto-)capitalism and its predecessor.

In her historical panorama, Federici adresses many other writers on women and the body and their subjugation, in particular the feminists, Marx, Foucault and such people as Le Roy Ladurie and Carlo Ginzburg. In my view Federici overstates her case against Marx a bit; she is correct that the role of the subjugation of women in particular was not much addressed by him, but it certainly was by Engels, and I also think that the insights she shows in this work would have been able to count on Marx' full assent. She also seems to miss the fact that "primitive accumulation" is a mistranslation of Marx' term, so that accusations of Marx missing the fact that such expropriatory violence takes place as part of capitalism even today miss the mark.
Stronger is her case against Foucault, where she can show that Foucault not only completely ignores the importance of the witch-hunts and the Plague as turning points for feudal and post-feudal society, but that he also locates his famous instrumentalist subjugation of the body far too late in history (Foucault places it at the late 18th century, Federici rather in the 16th). In any case the scope of her knowledge of writers on these subjects is great, and the way in which she gives a context to the ideas of Descartes and other mechanists on "L'Homme Machine" (the term is 18th C.) is striking.

Overall, this is an absolute must-read for anyone interested in history, original accumulation and women's studies.

Witch Hunts R Us.......2004-12-01

Published the same month, April 2004, that Fallujah first turned back the American onslaught and that the photographs of American tortures in Abu Ghraib prison were displayed to the world, Silvia Federici's book, Caliban and the Witch, although describing a time and place remote from the lawless atrocities in Mesopotamia, being as it is a study of the witch-hunt, of medieval heretical movements, and of European mechanical and materialist philosophy from the 'Age of Reason,' nevertheless, it is essential for understanding either. At the same time, the paradox of the hideous pun of the Structural Adjustment Program and the Special Access Program as the SAP, or the grotesque contradiction found between chapter 39 of Magna Carta and order 39 of the Iraq occupation are explicated.

Nothing can so clearly help us understand the torture and the project of neo-liberalism as this, for Federici describes a foundational process creating the structural conditions for the existence of capitalism. This is the fundamental relationship of capitalist accumulation, or (as it is called in decades of technical literature) 'primitive accumulation.' This mystery perplexed (however coyly) Adam Smith. It was the 'original sin' of the political economists, and for Karl Marx it was written in "letters of blood and fire."

The birth of the proletariat required war against women. This was the witch-hunt when tens of thousands of women in Europe were tortured and burnt at the stake, in massive state-sponsored terror against the European peasantry destroying communal relations and communal property. It was coeval with the enclosures of the land, the destruction of popular culture, the genocide in the New World, and the start of the African slave trade. The 16th century price inflation, the 17th century crisis, the centralized state, the transition to capitalism, the Age of Reason come to life, if the blood-curdling cries at the stake, the crackling of kindling as the faggots suddenly catch fire, the clanging of iron shackles of the imprisoned vagabonds, or the spine-shivering abstractions of the mechanical philosophies can indeed be called "life."

Federici explains why the age of plunder required the patriarchy of the wage. Gender became not only a biological condition or cultural reality but a determining specification of class relations. The devaluation of reproductive labor inevitably devalues its product, labor power. The burning of the witches and the vivisection of the body enforced a new sexual pact, the conjuratio of unpaid labor. It was essential to capitalist work-discipline. This is what Marx called the alienation of the body, what Max Weber called the reform of the body, what Norman O. Brown called the repression of the body, and what Foucault calls the discipline of the body. Yet, these social theorists of deep modernization overlooked the witch-hunt!

The historic demonization of women is on the face of page after page in profuse and magnificent illustration. The book contains many and beautiful illustrations, such as Vegetable Man, the Land of Cockaigne, the Fountain of Youth, and the Witch's Herbary. It contains powerful images, many are woodcuts (one of the first uses of the printing press). One shows witches conjuring a rain shower, others show a 15th century brothel, Dürer's depiction of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the common land, Jacques Callot's Horrors of War, Dürer's woman's bath-house, The Parliament of Women, and the Anabaptist's communistic sharing of goods.

If one image from Abu Ghraib gave us a crucifixion, another as surely gave us a pyramid: these fundamental forms of graphic design, known to every art student. Hans Grien's Witches Sabbath (1510) or the title page of Andreas Vasalius' De Humani Corporis Fabrica (1543). All its magic has gone: the human body has become a factory, or a mechanism of circulating blood, connecting tissues, little cells, obedient to commands of science. The mechanical body is depicted: to crown all, the hideous gathering in a Corinthian-style rotunda of the Renaissance mob of bourgeois at the anatomical theater where a pregnant woman's corpse lies naked in the middle, on a table, her womb gashed open as the assembly leers, gazes, peers, points, spies, shoves, elbows each other, scrutinizes, assesses.

Product of intense debates within the international women's movement, with a perspective on European history made possible by three years' residence in the mid-80s in Nigeria where a campaign of miscogyny accompanied the attack on communal lands under the direction of the 'structural adjustment plan' enabled her to understand the adjusting structures of European capitalism at its violent beginnings. Drawing on the non-conformity of British social history, on the lucid periodization of French scholarship, on Mediterranean openness to Asia and Africa, on the cultural endurance of indigenous people of the Americas, on the power of the women of west Africa, her scope is authentic and broad, from the Saracens in the east to the Incas in the west, with Europe in the north and the Caribbean in the south. Its zones of interest are west Africa, England, France, Germany, Mediterranean, Yucatan, Oaxaca, eastern Europe, and the Caribbean. The global perspective is one of a multiplicity of locales: not an envisioned totality but a manifold of villages, neighborhoods, common lands.

Caliban's Shore: The Wreck of the Grosvenor and the Strange Fate of Her Survivors

Average customer rating:

Window on a Vanished World
One of the Better Shipwreck/Seafaring History Books
Not your average shipwreck book
One of the best Ship Wreck Castaway books.
Intriguing read

Caliban's Shore: The Wreck of the Grosvenor and the Strange Fate of Her Survivors
Stephen Taylor
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

South Africa | Africa | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival
Batavia's Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny
Desperate Journeys, Abandoned Souls: True Stories of Castaways and Other Survivors
Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe (P.S.)
In the Wake of Madness: The Murderous Voyage of the Whaleship Sharon

ASIN: 0393050858

Book Description

What became of the castaways was stranger than fiction...and more than decent Englishmen could bear.

In the summer of 1783 the grandees of the East India Company were horrified to learn that one of their finest ships, the 741-ton Grosvenor, had been lost on the wild and unexplored coast of southeast Africa. Astonishingly, most of those on board reached the shore safely—91 members of the crew and 34 wealthy, high-born passengers, including women and children. They were hundreds of miles from the nearest European outpost—and they were not alone. "They surveyed one another with mutual incomprehension: on the one hand the dishevelled castaways; on the other, black warriors with high conical hairstyles, daubed with red mud...."

Drawing upon unpublished material and new research, Stephen Taylor pieces together the strands of this compelling saga, sifting the myths from a reality that is no less gripping. Full of unexpected twists, Caliban's Shore takes the reader to the heart of what is now South Africa, to analyze the misunderstandings that led to tragedy, to tell the story of those who returned, and to unravel the mystery of those who stayed.

Customer Reviews:

Window on a Vanished World.......2007-04-14

I really can't add much to the glowing reviews of this superb book. Suffice it to say that the author, Stephen Taylor, uses a shipwreck on the Transkei coast as a springboard to reconstruct an entire world -- the world of 18th century seafaring, Pondo tribal life, the politics of the East India Company, European racial and sexual phobias, and more. His writing is flawless, whether describing African scenery or the interior lives of long-dead people. "Caliban's Shore" is a small masterpiece of historical and imaginative recreation. Six stars.

One of the Better Shipwreck/Seafaring History Books.......2006-12-18

Stehpen Taylor has done a masterful job researching and putting together the sad, tragic tale of the Grosvenor and the fate of its survivors. In addition, I found his place-setting and contextual storytelling regarding Indian society, the British mercantile economy, and the spice trades around the late 1700s to be exemplary.

What I liked best about this book is Taylor's engrossing writing - he has written a compelling narrative, bringing to life each of the many characters encountered in this lost world, and effectively organizing a massive research project to collect it all together.

For my money, Caliban's Shore is certainly in the top pantheon for shipwreck/seafaring tales of historical misadventure, and one I would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys this type of non-fiction.

Not your average shipwreck book.......2006-10-28

If you like shipwreck stories from the sailing era, consider this a 'must.' Not because it is so well written. It's a workman like job but Philbrick's "In the Heart of the Sea" wins that prize. Not because it is so well researched. It is well researched, to the point where it could do with a bit less speculation, especially at the end. Rather, this is not your usual 'cast out to sea in a little boat for weeks on end' story. Here you have over 100 people in the late 18th century, almost the entire crew and passengers, safely deposited on Africa's southeastern shore near fresh water and a native village . . . and only a few survive. How can that be? Read the book.

One of the best Ship Wreck Castaway books........2006-06-06

If you are a fan of shipwreck and where are they now, castaways stories you'll enjoy this book. For some reason I'm fascinated by these tales of survival against all odds books. And this story has just a mirriad of adventures by the crew. Among the horror stories of bad treatment of the women and children. At least they never resort to "the custom of the sea". So it's a PG-13 adventure.

If you like books like "South" and Mutiny on the Bounty, you'll like this one.

Intriguing read.......2006-05-12

After stumbling through the first fifty pages of character introductions and events leading up to the Grosvenor departure, this soon turned into a page flipper of adventure, survival and mystery.
The 741 ton British Indianman Grosvenor departed Calcutta in 1782 with 140 passengers. Nearly two months later it rammed into the southeast coast of Africa. Shipwreck!
After salvaging what they could, the wayfarers eventually split into several smaller groups and proceeded to travel by foot down the African coast. What lies ahead for these poor souls are starvation, dehydration, disorientation and struggle against the elements. The ensuing tales of these castaways is gripping. Most died along the way from lack of food or water and some were purportedly slain by local natives.
The final chapters are devoted to the whereabouts of these wanderers after the wreckage through documented evidence, speculation and hearsay.
The mystery of possible white women from the Grosvenor and their descendants years later living with indigenous people is thought provoking.
Good read. Invites the reader to their own conclusions.

Average customer rating:

Rethinking the 3 Laws and the value of work
Better than Asimov
Caliban: A Stranger In A Strange Brave New World
Better than Asimov's Own Robot Books
Caliban

Caliban
Isaac Asimov , and Roy Allen
Manufacturer: Ace Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

Isaac Asimov's Utopia
An Isaac Asimov Robot Mystery: Mirage (Isaac Asimov's Robot Mystery)
Asimov's Aurora: The New Isaac Asimov's Robot Mystery
Foundation's Triumph (Second Foundation Trilogy)
Have Robot, Will Travel: The New Isaac Asimov's Robot Mystery (Isaac Asimovs Robot Mystery)

ASIN: 0441090796

Book Description

This is a stirring, far-future robot novel and an invitation toAsimov's millions of fans to take part in his final vision

Customer Reviews:

Rethinking the 3 Laws and the value of work.......2003-03-03

This is a murder mystery, as Many of Assimov's books were, but this takes on important new levels. An in depth look at the famous 3 laws from the perspective of what it does to the society attitudes and pyschology. It talks about change, risk and spends time focusing on what some of the robots think, especially the radical new robot Caliban. It speculates on what what slave owners might have thought about the propoerty that dearly depended on, and reminds us that what we do everyday can matter, at least to ourselves. The ending of the mystery was a little to convienient, that is why only 4 stars.

Better than Asimov.......2002-07-03

Superficially, at least, Isaac Asimov's Caliban is like many of the Asimov robot novels: a human investigator working with a robot partner to solve a crime against a political background. The way the story is contructed is somewhat similar, as is the restrained use of language and the "feel". But I found this book far superior to any of Asimov's novels.
A crime is committed at Leving Laboratories on the planet of Inferno. The planet's best roboticist has been assaulted, and unbelievably, the attacker seems to have been - a robot. The Sheriff of Hades, Alvar Kresh, is called in to investigate with his robot assistant, Donald. Meanwhile, the presence of Settlers on the planet, called in to assist with Inferno's failing terraforming, complicates matters . . . and the robot Caliban is awake and on the loose, with only a limited understanding of what is around him.
Allen just writes so well, and so much better than Asimov ever did. His characters, both human and robot, leap out at you as real. Alvar Kresh and Fredda Leving, the roboticist, have genuine depth and engage our sympathies. The setting of Inferno is really brought to life, both its geography and people, and we are thus given something that Asimov never gave us: a solid picture of Spacer society. In Caliban, we have the naive observer, who both drives the action and provides a useful commentary on what he sees around him. That commentary links in to the central issues of the novel: why are things the way they are between humans and robots? Is the status quo harmful to both? Fredda's responses to these questions, the actions they lead her into, and what results from them, are really at the heart of this story.
I always really enjoyed Asimov's classic robot novels, but reading Allen's has shown me how limited they are. With his superior characterisation and writing abilities, and the way he takes fresh ideas about robots to their logical conclusion, Allen gives us a more enjoyable and thought-provoking read than Asimov ever did.

Caliban: A Stranger In A Strange Brave New World.......2002-06-29

It must be daunting for any writer to pick up the threads of the popular works of a deceased author. Roger MacBride Allen, in CALIBAN, has had the nerve to write what clearly is but the first in a new series of novels set in Asimov's pre-Foundation robot series--and has pulled it off. Allen has used elements of Asimov's style and has improved on it, eliminating much of the static preachiness that so often stilted the Master's canon.
In CALIBAN, Allen writes of a new type of robot, one that is not bound by the iron-clad strictures of the sacred Three Laws. The robot Caliban is accused of murder, and since it is publicized that he is a non-Three Law robot, he is pursued so that he may be disassembled. The plot involves the intricate working out of the details that relate to his supposed guilt. The charm of the novel lies in Allen's ability to plug in the philosophical holes that Asimov left in his Robot series. Why exactly were robots built? What has caused some humans (Spacers) to rely on robots for their very lives and others (Settlers) to hate robots enough to write them out of Settler history books? And finally, what is the future relationship between Spacers, Settlers, and robots? Mr. Allen does a superb job of tying together the disparate threads of Asimov while still managing to weave a gripping tapestry of his own that can stand on its own.

Better than Asimov's Own Robot Books.......2000-10-29

I've read all of Isaac Asimov's robot novels and they all have their good points, but they also suffer from the same formulaic plots and the same stock characters. Not so with this first in a series novel. Allen takes Asimov's laws of robotics to a new level. The characters are more interesting and the plot is engaging. This is an excellent extension of Asimov's formula. A better story that is still respectful to its source material.

Caliban.......2000-03-15

Asimov's robot novels are my favorite novels by any author. Therefore Allen had a tough road ahead of him in my mind when writing additional material for that universe and he succeed completely. I very much enjoyed Caliban. It faithfully followed the "historical" course started in Asimov's books. Something I consider essential when writing in another author's universe. It provided a wonderful example of the Spacer/Settler struggle and how it may have played out through the centuries until the complete decline of the Spacer worlds. It was very interesting to witness a Spacer world in decline, not just culturally but also in the enviromental sense given that the idea of the Spacer worlds degenerating enviromentally was a theme touched on by Asimov in Foundation and Earth. Also, the idea that at least some of the Spacer worlds may have been adbandonned due to enviromental neglect as opposed to the neglect setting in after they had left is thought provoking. The spirit of cooperation represented by the Spacer/Settler union was also a nice theme. It could have only been better if Gladia Delmarre had made an appearance as liaison between Inferno and the Settlers but you can't have everything now that the Master himself has gone. I highly recommend this book.

Caliban and the Yankees: Trinidad and the United States Occupation

Average customer rating:

Totally Sweet!
Caliban breaks the mold

Caliban and the Yankees: Trinidad and the United States Occupation
Harvey R. Neptune
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

Strategy | Military | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

History | Fashion | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Trinidad Carnival: The Cultural Politics of a Transnational Festival
An Eye for the Tropics: Tourism, Photography, and Framing the Caribbean Picturesque (Objects/Histories)
Caribbean Pleasure Industry: Tourism, Sexuality, and AIDS in the Dominican Republic (Worlds of Desire: The Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender, and Culture)
The Practice of Diaspora: Literature, Translation, and the Rise of Black Internationalism
Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino American History (American Encounters/Global Interactions)

ASIN: 0807857882

Book Description

In a compelling story of the installation and operation of U.S. bases in the Caribbean colony of Trinidad during World War II, Harvey Neptune examines how the people of this British island contended with the colossal force of American empire-building.

Customer Reviews:

Totally Sweet!.......2007-07-12

This text was very well written. To this reader who was also reared on Lamming and Naipaul and the rest, there is nothing more gratifying than a beautiful sentence, and Neptune gives us lots of those. Lovely. The spicy tale of the Yanks in the Windies is, as Neptune insists, sometimes glossed over as a Williams-inspired legacy floats on in our various discussions. But indeed, none of what happened during or after the Americans populated Chaguaramas en masse is as cut-and-dry as your average old-time calypso would have you believe. Neptune pieces together a refreshing new narrative that thrusts agency back into women's fingers, exposes the clandestine operations of white hegemony's champions and re-weaves the threads of Trinidadian nationalism. All the while, he delights us with clever, modern usage of the contemporary language rapport during the occupational shenanigans subtly and tastefully. It is a lovely read for anyone, and West Indians in particular will probably be quite tickled throughout. The "Coda" was quite a teaser, particularly the last couple of paragraphs. Neptune opens a world of conversational possibilities for his future books, which you'll be eagerly anticipating after putting this one down.

Peace!

Caliban breaks the mold.......2007-03-21

I confess I've never been one to pick up an 'academic' history book in hopes of getting a pleasurable read, however this book breaks the scholarly mold. Though I find Neptune to be heady and thoroughly introspective, his writing lacks, and thankfully so, the jargon and esotericism that can keep me from connecting with a book. 'Caliban and the Yankees' brings up some great and interesting points about revolution and forced me to revisit my image of the revolutionist--here, the disenfranchised people finally get recognition for an often overlooked branch of intelligence that can not be studied in the universities or acquired through a privileged upbringing.
The US occupation in Trinidad, as told by Neptune, becomes a salacious tale of race and class relations, the construction of a national identity and the people who took it upon themselves to reshape and define the culture of its land for the history of its future.
Not only a solid read, but a good one.

Isaac Asimov's Inferno (Caliban Trilogy)

Average customer rating:

Weakest of the trilogy
The sequel should have been better, but was not
I feel sorry for Isaac Asimov.
Inferno
Classic 'Who-Done-It' Murder Mystery

Isaac Asimov's Inferno (Caliban Trilogy)
Roger MacBride Allen
Manufacturer: Ace Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

High Tech | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Science Fiction & Fantasy Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Isaac Asimov's Utopia
Asimov's Aurora: The New Isaac Asimov's Robot Mystery
An Isaac Asimov Robot Mystery: Mirage (Isaac Asimov's Robot Mystery)
Have Robot, Will Travel: The New Isaac Asimov's Robot Mystery (Isaac Asimovs Robot Mystery)
Chimera: Isaac Asimov's Robot Mystery

ASIN: 0441005144

Book Description

In a Universe protected by the Three Laws of Robotics, humans are safe... When a key politician is murdered, suspicion falls on Caliban...the only robot without guilt or conscience, with no need to obey or respect humanity...a robot without the Three Laws. But the stakes go deeper than one man's life. Caliban is challenging long-held ideas of a robot's place in society. Will he lead his New Law robots in a rebellion that threatens all of humanity?

* Second in a powerful trilogy that examines Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics--a challenge welcomed and sanctioned by Isaac Asimov, and written with his cooperation
* Roger MacBride Allen is the New York Times bestselling author of The Modular Man and The Ring of Charon
* Cover art by Ralph McQuarrie, the conceptual artist for the Star Wars films
* Also available: Caliban and Caliban: Utopia

Customer Reviews:

Weakest of the trilogy.......2003-06-02

'Caliban', the first in this trilogy, is a good book and well worth seeking out, so is the third one, 'Utopia'. This is easily the least of the three. Although Allen tries to expand his examination of Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics by introducing New Law robots the concept is not done with any verve, pace or excitement. As noted by another reviewer it has an Agatha Christie feel to it but without the charm or style of her mysteries. It's not even a particularly interesting puzzle. There's nothing in this middle book that can't easily be caught up with in the third. And the concept of Three Law/No Law and New Law is better examined there as well. You really don't need to spend the time on this one.

The sequel should have been better, but was not.......2003-03-03

While the murder mystery was well set up, the ending was more of Agatha Christie ending, with a parlor room scene and a head shaker of a perpetrator. The political intrigue which should have been the height of this story was not focused on well enough. This is a society in the grips of an awful set of diriving forces that should have rocked the foundations of the planet. But you didn't feel that pain from the governor. The 4 law Robot introduced isn't given the same exploration that Caliban was in the first book. You do not get behind his head. The pain of transition should have been brought to bear hear as their are real world examples all around us. This missed the boat.

I feel sorry for Isaac Asimov........2002-08-12

If he were alive to see what Allen did to his Robot Universe, he would strangle the guy. This is a perfect example of why Allen should've stuck to those Little House On The Prairie sequels. The basic idea of Inferno (Just like it's predecessor, Caliban) is the creation of two new kinds of robots: The New Law robots and the No Law robot, and their effect on the society of the planet Inferno. The New Law Robots are freer than the original Three Law robots in Asimov's books, but have their own share of problems; Caliban, the only robot created with no laws, is of course the most free, but is far from human. This is all well and good, and in a more capable writer's hands would have been interesting, but Allen takes his one or two good ideas and throws them in a turbine. I'm sorry, Mr. Allen, but I don't really care about the intimate details of Tierlaw Verick's body, or anyone else's, for that matter. Whatever happened to "don't tell, show"?

Inferno.......2000-03-15

This book reads like a middle ground book, which it is. It is the connector between Cailban and Utopia. It's a good book and expands a little more on the Spacer/Settler interaction on the planet Inferno through the vehicle of Chanto Grieg's murder. Lot's of interesting touches like the forced conscription of robotic labor that help define the society and dress the stage for Utopia. A very good book if not as good as the first.

Classic 'Who-Done-It' Murder Mystery.......1999-08-26

This middle book of the Caliban series was a classic 'Who-Done-It' murder mystery along the lines of 'Caves of Steel'. Elijah Bailey could've been in there instead of Alvar Kresh. This book served more as a segway between Caliban and Utopia. It essentially moved Kresh into the Governorship of Inferno and that's about it. Its not the strongest book I've ever read. Although I'd suggest reading all three, if you had to skip any book in the series, it would be this one.

Average customer rating:

Tempests After Shakespeare
Chantal Zabus
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

'The Tempest' and Its Travels (Reaktion Books - Critical Views)
A Tempest: Based on Shakespeare's the Tempest : Adaptation for a Black Theatre (Tcg Translations)

ASIN: 0312295480

Book Description

Tempests After Shakespeare shows how the “rewriting” of Shakespeare’s play serves as an interpretive grid through which to read three movements—postcoloniality, postpatriarchy, and postmodernism—via the Tempest characters of Caliban, Miranda/Sycorax and Prospero, as they vie for the ownership of meaning at the end of the twentieth century. Covering texts in three languages, from four continents and in the last four decades, this study imaginatively explores the collapse of empire and the emergence of independent nation-states; the advent of feminism and other sexual liberation movements that challenged patriarchy; and the varied critiques of representation that make up the “postmodern condition.”

Caliban in Exile: The Outsider in Caribbean Fiction (Contributions to the Study of World Literature)

Average customer rating:

Caliban in Exile: The Outsider in Caribbean Fiction (Contributions to the Study of World Literature)
Margaret Paul Joseph
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Caribbean | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0313281076

Book Description

The Caliban-Prospero encounter in Shakespeare's The Tempest has evolved as a metaphor for the colonial experience. The present study utilizes the Caliban symbol in examining the influence of colonialism in Caribbean literature, focusing on the works of three major writers from the Caribbean islands: Jean Rhys, of British descent from Dominica; George Lamming, of African origin from Barbados; and Sam Selvon, of mixed Indian and Scottish heritage from Trinidad. The works chosen are set in England where the writers and their characters experience a double displacement, the alienation of the exiled in the country that once colonized their own islands. They are outsiders: unwelcome in Prospero's home country. The novels dramatize the theme of physical and psychological exile. Rhys's characters need mirrors in which they search for an assurance of identity; Lamming's are torn by the conflict inherent in "the tragic sense of life"; and Selvon's ironic language expresses the deepest sense of exile: exile from one's own self. Other Caribbean writers are included in the analysis, and the volume concludes by examining contemporary writers for whom Caliban's role in literature appears to be changing. Novelists like Earl Lovelace and Jamaica Kincaid demonstrate that it is possible to be an outsider in one's own country, and that issues of class can be as corrosive as issues of race. The focus has moved beyond physical exile, but the spirit and strength of Caliban continue to pervade the new literature. In giving expression to their anguish, both the earlier and new Caribbean writers have created highly interesting and successful fiction. This well crafted thematic study of Caribbean literature will be of great value to students, teachers, scholars, and readers of Third World, post-colonial, and multicultural literature.

Average customer rating:

"A Change More Subtle Than a Threat of Danger, but Just as Urgent"
Highly Recommend--works on so many different levels
Monster Love
A true gem
Faultlessly written fantasty of love, dreaming and betrayal

Mrs. Caliban
Rachel Ingalls
Manufacturer: Laurel
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

God Jr.
Times Like These
Grand Central Winter
Binstead's Safari
Short Stories

ASIN: 0440500036
Release Date: 1988-01-01

Book Description

"I loved Mrs. Caliban. So deft and austere in its prose, so drolly casual in its fantasy..."-- John Updike

Customer Reviews:

"A Change More Subtle Than a Threat of Danger, but Just as Urgent".......2005-07-26

This short, allegorical, and seductively odd novel was first published in 1983, and was hailed as both a feminist and a literary "tour-de-force." Reading it today, more than twenty years later, it still has enormous power, less from its theme than from its deep sadness of love unfulfilled. Dorothy is a housewife in a loveless, unfaithful marriage who encounters a passionate sea monster named Larry in her kitchen. Six foot seven, frog-like, "well-built", and muscular, Larry is on the run, having escaped from an experiment. The two become tender, clandestine lovers. No one seems to notice, or catch the two of them during their trips to the beach, although Dorothy's friend Estelle notices a change in her. Early on, though, the reader is told that Dorothy hears soft voices that she knows aren't real, hallucinations she has had since the death of her son during what should have been routine surgery. Is Larry then just a fantasy, or is he real? Does Dorothy need the idea of an alien lover to be able to accept the truth about her husband and marriage? The delight in this book is that the author never answers these questions. In the end, it doesn't matter whether he was real or not, only that Dorothy had him in her heart.

Rachel Ingalls writes with extraordinary beauty and simplicity, making this book as seductive as Larry. It is a testament to the author's skill that Larry, green and brown spotted, is more attractive and intriguing than the humans who surround Dorothy. This story about passion and loss and a fantastical monster has hints of "The Beauty and the Beast" as well as more contemporary novels such as Darrieussecq's Pig Tales and Bakis's Lives of the Monster Dogs. This book, however, stands apart from those others since it is less about deformity than it is about human need.

Highly Recommend--works on so many different levels.......2001-06-23

Mrs. Caliban is a lonely housewife, who has lost a child, and whose marriage is falling apart. Then, she is rescued by a sea monster, who loves fruit and makes passionate love to Mrs. Caliban all day--or is she rescued? Or destroyed?

This deceptively simple novel forces you to decide. Ms. Ingalls does not force her answer down your throat, but gives you a story to which you bring your own thoughts and values.

Is it a fairy tale which ultimately goes bad? Is it a metaphor for the dangers of extramarital affairs, and in particular the danger of trying to escape reality through an affair replete with fantasy?

Is it a warning against the addictive, and ultimately destructive, power of drugs?

On a completely different level, it seems to me that Mrs. Calliban tells the story of creating a story. First a few bits of fiction creep into a writer's otherwise mundane existence, just as Mrs. Caliban hears things that appear very real to her, but no one else hears. As the author continues writing, fictional characters appear on stage, full blown--just as Larry appears in Mrs. Caliban's kitchen. As the novel progresses, its fictional characters begin to take over the author's life, and the fictional world becomes more real than the temporal world the rest of us live in--in an almost sensual way. Then, when the book is finally finished, the characters die--there is nothing left to create and the characters you have created are released to the wider world. Note that the only character left standing at the end of Mrs. Caliban is the narrator herself. And no matter what she does, she can never get Larry back.

Mrs. Caliban is an easy, quick read, but stays in the mind after--like every good book, the more you think about it, the more insight you get. Highly recommended for anyone with a free evening to devote to a good read.

Monster Love.......2001-02-20

This is a powerful short novel filled with playful words and images that are in dialogue with classical ideas of romance and gothic horror. It works on Shakespeare's idea of the interplay between dream and reality, but does so at a very domestically satisfying level. As the title suggests, this novel's focus is on the housewife and not the great green monster that finds his way into her kitchen. Yet, behind this simple romance is a thick plot of betrayal. This is tightly controlled by Ingalls who never gives anything away until it will make its maximum impact. It's a shame that this novel (and author!) seems to have fallen into a category of obscure fiction because it is truly inspiring in its creative inventiveness and deep psychological portrayal of corrupted innocence.

A true gem.......2000-05-19

I found out about this book the year it came out thanks to the fact that it was nominated by an obscure British group as one of the top 25 works of literature of all time. That might be somewhat of an overstatement, but it's a very profound little book that no book lover should miss. Even my high school students, although at first they think it's weird that a housewife would fall in love with a green monster, saw its poignancy and beautiful prose. Ingalls is one of my favorite writers of all time.

Faultlessly written fantasty of love, dreaming and betrayal.......1999-05-06

In 125 pages, this beautifully written short novel goes beyond imagination to dream, fantasty and an otherworldly love between a woman and a haunted and hunted creature from the sea. A unique look at love, betrayal and loss, in an unforgettable parable.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books