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Watership Down: A Novel

Richard Adams

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 951 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Watership Down has been a staple of high-school English classes for years. Despite the fact that it's often a hard sell at first (what teenager wouldn't cringe at the thought of 400-plus pages of talking rabbits?), Richard Adams's bunny-centric epic rarely fails to win the love and respect of anyone who reads it, regardless of age. Like most great novels, Watership Down is a rich story that can be read (and reread) on many different levels. The book is often praised as an allegory, with its analogs between human and rabbit culture (a fact sometimes used to goad skeptical teens, who resent the challenge that they won't "get" it, into reading it), but it's equally praiseworthy as just a corking good adventure.

The story follows a warren of Berkshire rabbits fleeing the destruction of their home by a land developer. As they search for a safe haven, skirting danger at every turn, we become acquainted with the band and its compelling culture and mythos. Adams has crafted a touching, involving world in the dirt and scrub of the English countryside, complete with its own folk history and language (the book comes with a "lapine" glossary, a guide to rabbitese). As much about freedom, ethics, and human nature as it is about a bunch of bunnies looking for a warm hidey-hole and some mates, Watership Down will continue to make the transition from classroom desk to bedside table for many generations to come. --Paul Hughes

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Douglas Adams

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 662 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

improbably great 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

By the strangest coincidence I left this classic at the office and was stuck at home reading Hemingway short stories. Hemingway writes about drink, and war, and illness. Adams, on the other hand, writes about drink, and war, and illness. One thing's for sure: Hitchhiker's Guide is not science fiction. It is also not science. Probably not fiction either. What it is is really weird, like the front page of the daily newspaper, only more enjoyable.

Editorial Review:

Join Douglas Adams's hapless hero Arthur Dent as he travels the galaxy with his intrepid pal Ford Prefect, getting into horrible messes and generally wreaking hilarious havoc. Dent is grabbed from Earth moments before a cosmic construction team obliterates the planet to build a freeway. You'll never read funnier science fiction; Adams is a master of intelligent satire, barbed wit, and comedic dialogue. The Hitchhiker's Guide is rich in comedic detail and thought-provoking situations and stands up to multiple reads. Required reading for science fiction fans, this book (and its follow-ups) is also sure to please fans of Monty Python, Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, and British sitcoms.

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide: Five Complete Novels and One Story (Deluxe Edition)

Douglas Adams

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 72 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

OUTSTANDING!!!!! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Beautiful Book! The binding and high quality of the paper and printing would have made Douglas proud... this is the way you should remember this extraordinary and hillarious set of books. I bought two copies for my daughter and myself. I'll be ordering more for Christmas presents - what a great gift for all of my slightly crazy friends.

Buy this and you will not be sorry.

It's easy to fly, just jump at the ground and miss. 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The Hitchhiker's Series is wonderful and quirky. The Main Character, Arthur Dent, is swept up in events beyond his control when the Earth is destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Accompanied on his journey across the galaxy by assorted friends, or at least traveling companions, Arthur learns to take things in stride, the importance of a good cup of tea and to NEVER go anywhere without his towel.
Douglas Adams was a true visionary. To me sci-fi books about space travel were always a bit too clean and perfect, think "Federation." Adams, however, has created a bizarre and often ridiculous universe where literally anything can happen. This series is one I have read several times and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys comedy, sci-fi, or fantasy. In a world of writers, Douglas Adams will be sorely missed by his fans.

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Douglas Adams

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 117 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

At last in paperback in one complete volume, here are the five classic novels from Douglas Adams’s beloved Hitchiker series.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Seconds before the Earth is demolished for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is saved by Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised Guide. Together they stick out their thumbs to the stars and begin a wild journey through time and space.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Facing annihilation at the hands of warmongers is a curious time to crave tea. It could only happen to the cosmically displaced Arthur Dent and his comrades as they hurtle across the galaxy in a desperate search for a place to eat.

Life, the Universe and Everything
The unhappy inhabitants of planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky– so they plan to destroy it. The universe, that is. Now only five individuals can avert Armageddon: mild-mannered Arthur Dent and his stalwart crew.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
Back on Earth, Arthur Dent is ready to believe that the past eight years were all just a figment of his stressed-out imagination. But a gift-wrapped fishbowl with a cryptic inscription conspires to thrust him back to reality. So to speak.

Mostly Harmless
Just when Arthur Dent makes the terrible mistake of starting to enjoy life, all hell breaks loose. Can he save the Earth from total obliteration? Can he save the Guide from a hostile alien takeover? Can he save his daughter from herself?

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (Dover Thrift Editions)

Edwin A. Abbott

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 160 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Unless you're a mathematician, the chances of you reading any novels about geometry are probably slender. But if you read only two in your life, these are the ones. Taken together, they form a couple of accessible and charming explanations of geometry and physics for the curious non-mathematician. Flatland, which is also available under separate cover, was published in 1880 and imagines a two-dimensional world inhabited by sentient geometric shapes who think their planar world is all there is. But one Flatlander, a Square, discovers the existence of a third dimension and the limits of his world's assumptions about reality and comes to understand the confusing problem of higher dimensions. The book is also quite a funny satire on society and class distinctions of Victorian England. The further mathematical fantasy, Sphereland, published 60 years later, revisits the world of Flatland in time to explore the mind-bending theories created by Albert Einstein, whose work so completely altered the scientific understanding of space, time, and matter. Among Einstein's many challenges to common sense were the ideas of curved space, an expanding universe and the fact that light does not travel in a straight line. Without use of the mathematical formulae that bar most non-scientists from an understanding of Einstein's theories, Sphereland gives lay readers ways to start comprehending these confusing but fundamental questions of our reality.

Foundation (Foundation Novels)

Isaac Asimov

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 347 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Foundation marks the first of a series of tales set so far in the future that Earth is all but forgotten by humans who live throughout the galaxy. Yet all is not well with the Galactic Empire. Its vast size is crippling to it. In particular, the administrative planet, honeycombed and tunneled with offices and staff, is vulnerable to attack or breakdown. The only person willing to confront this imminent catastrophe is Hari Seldon, a psychohistorian and mathematician. Seldon can scientifically predict the future, and it doesn't look pretty: a new Dark Age is scheduled to send humanity into barbarism in 500 years. He concocts a scheme to save the knowledge of the race in an Encyclopedia Galactica. But this project will take generations to complete, and who will take up the torch after him? The first Foundation trilogy (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation) won a Hugo Award in 1965 for "Best All-Time Series." It's science fiction on the grand scale; one of the classics of the field. --Brooks Peck

Betrayal (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, Book 1)

Aaron Allston

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Total reviews: 93 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

“[Betrayal] blasts off a new string of adventures starring beloved Star Wars familiars . . . this new installment should please Star Wars fans.”
–Publishers Weekly

Honor and duty collide with friendship and blood ties as the Skywalker and Solo clans find themselves on opposing sides of an explosive conflict.

When a mission to uncover an illegal missile factory on the planet Adumar ends in a violent ambush–from which Jedi Knight Jacen Solo and his protégé and cousin, Ben Skywalker, narrowly escape with their lives–it’s the most alarming evidence yet that political unrest is threatening to ignite into total rebellion. The specter of full-scale war looms between a growing cadre of defiant planets and the Galactic Alliance that some fear is becoming a new Empire.

Determined to root out those behind the mayhem, Jacen follows a trail of cryptic clues to a rendezvous with the most shocking of revelations. Meanwhile Luke grapples with something even more troubling: dream visions of a shadowy figure whose Force power and ruthlessness remind him of Darth Vader. If Luke’s visions come to pass, they will bring untold pain to the Jedi Master . . . and to the galaxy.

Fury (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, Book 7)

Aaron Allston

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Legacy of the Force: Fury 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This was a disappointing read after 'Inferno'. Aaron Allston writes a good book, but this book wasn't the greatest.

Jacen/Caedus is very pathetic in this. Kidnapping his daughter to force his secret lover to turn her fleets over to him. How unbeleivable can you get! He spends a lot of time fuming about how unfair the rest of the galaxy is and how he is only doing what is best. To end this book he strangles, using the Force, a junior officer because she was not able to predict that a shuttle actually contained Luke, Ben, Han, Leia, another Jedi and some others to destract Jacen/Caedus and rescue Allana.

The Jedi are trying, unsuccessfully, to kill Jacen/Caedus and so far have succeeded in planting a tracer on him. Hopefully he won't change his clothes.

The Allana passages read like something out of a children's book. They could have been a book of their own. "What will I do if Jacen doesn't say the special words?" Ha, Ha, Ha.

Luke is still greiving over Mara's death and Ben is a little childish in the first half of the book. At least he grows up in the end.

Han and Leia have some very interesting scenes in this book. They had to go to some rather extreme lengths to gather some imformation to help Jaina, Jag, and Zekk track down Alema Rar. Now they have a good way to locate Jacen's/Caedus's ship.

Jaina, Jag, and Zekk are getting very close to locating Alema Rar. The breastplate and crushgaunts that Boba Fett sent proved very effective in the scene on the astroid. I won't say anymore on this cause that would be a spoiler.

The Confederation has unleashed an ancient superweapon in the Corellia system.

Luke and the Jedi plan an operation to rescue Allana and to destroy Centerpoint Station.

Wedge and Tycho get some brief scenes in this book and are now semi-allied with the Jedi, at least that is the case with Tycho, Wedge is diffently on the side of the Jedi.

I recommend this book only if you have read some of the other books in this series or have read a lot of the reviews for these book. Otherwise, you could skip this book.

May the Force be with us!!

Editorial Review:

Fighting alongside the Corellian rebels, Han and Leia are locked in a war against their son Jacen, who grows more powerful and more dangerous with each passing day. Nothing can stop Jacen’s determination to bring peace with a glorious Galactic Alliance victory–whatever the price.

While Luke grieves the loss of his beloved wife and deals with his guilt over killing the wrong person in retaliation, Jaina, Jag, and Zekk hunt for the real assassin, unaware that the culprit commands Sith powers that can cloud their minds and misdirect their attacks–and even turn them back on themselves.

As Luke and Ben Skywalker struggle to find their place among the chaos, Jacen, shunned by friends and family, launches an invasion to rescue the only person still loyal to him. But with the battle raging on, and the galaxy growing more turbulent and riotous, there’s no question that it is Jacen who is most wanted: dead or alive.

Second Foundation (Foundation Novels)

Isaac Asimov

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Total reviews: 67 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Isaac Asimov's Foundation novels are one of the great masterworks of science fiction. As unsurpassed blend of nonstop action, daring ideas, and extensive world-building, they chronicle the struggle of a courageous group of men and women dedicated to preserving humanity's light in a galaxy plunged into a nightmare of ignorance and violence thirty thousand years long.

After years of struggle, the Foundation lies in ruins—destroyed by the mutant mind power of the Mule. But it is rumored that there is a Second Foundation hidden somewhere at the end of the Galaxy, established to preserve the knowledge of mankind through the long centuries of barbarism. The Mule failed to find it the first time—but now he is certain he knows where it lies.

The fate of the Foundation rests on young Arcadia Darell, only fourteen years old and burdened with a terrible secret. As its scientists gird for a final showdown with the Mule, the survivors of the First Foundation begin their desperate search. They too want the Second Foundation destroyed…before it destroys them.

Exile (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, Book 4)

Aaron Allston

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 25 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Star wars: Legacy of the Force book 4 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Gripping story, I'm a little uncomfortable with Jacen being turned to the dark side, but am hoping it turns out to be a tempory aberation.

breath of fresh air 5 out of 5 stars.
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I was begining to feel depressed about this series because of how dark the themes are, not that this book makes the story bright and happy but I was begining to find the series less fun to read. I picked this book up as a last chance for the series and read it cover to cover in a couple days. I loved it, it really brings the story back to the fun adventureous plot without losing the more sinister undertones that make it exciting.

Editorial Review:

In the Stars Wars galaxy, evil is on the move as the Galactic Alliance and Jedi order battle forces seen and unseen, from rampant internal treachery to the nightmare of all-out war.

With each victory against the Corellian rebels, Jacen Solo becomes more admired, more powerful, and more certain of achieving galactic peace. But that peace may come with a price. Despite strained relationships caused by opposing sympathies in the war, Han and Leia Solo and Luke and Mara Skywalker remain united by one frightening suspicion: Someone insidious is manipulating this war, and if he or she isn’t stopped, all efforts at reconciliation may be for naught. And as sinister visions lead Luke to believe that the source of the evil is none other than Lumiya, Dark Lady of the Sith, the greatest peril revolves around Jacen himself. . . .