For me it was not so much what this book says but the fact that it exists. When it comes to the age of the earth I am an agnostic. What cannot be denied is how science is an appendage of the state and how political conserderation do come into account. Incidentally, Gentry's work which is offically ignored has implications for radioactive waste disposal.

I rank this book as one of the most significant works I have ever read.

The book is terribly detailed and hard to read because Robert Gentry is out to prove a point - not just make it. Because he is a detail oriented scientist, he burries you in all the facts that describe polonium halos ad nausium.

But if you dig through, and it helps if you know a little nuclear physics, you will finally come up with the astounding point of this book - The Earth was made in a very short time - in a matter of hours! This blows many preconceptions out the window.

Gentry was published in such prestigeous publications as Science and Nature - until the inescapable conclusions of his facts were discovered by the establishment.

He also goes into how he was suppressed from further research and his part in the infamous Scopes trial.

If you can handle technical reading and really want to know the truth - this book is for you!

After reading his book, I met and later briefly corresponded with Dr. Gentry when he visited Southern California some years ago. I found him to be a serious researcher, methodical scientist, with projects planned years in advance. His weighty results on Polonium halos cannot be so lightly dismissed as those stuck on the old earth paradigm would like to do, nor should they be first, ignored ("they're so tiny, after all"), and then, suppressed ("we'll lose our funding"), as establishment, big science has done.

All the criticisms I have seen leveled against Dr. Gentry's findings are beside the point, straw men, or "evidence" of "old age" which has been roundly refuted in many other publications. If you care for the truth, read the book. If you can't handle the vast detail and correspondence reproduced in the book, get his video.

Although I had the honor, as a student, to briefly meet the late, great, Drs. Richard Feynman and Fred Hoyle at Caltech, standing beside Dr. Gentry was a bigger honor! I went over everything in the book with a fine-toothed comb. There was no logical flaw. No point of fact I could dispute. The implications of his work are truly profound.

I am just guiding some readers who might NOT be able to decide.

MANY people believe that INDIAN automatically means "INDIA". Can their visual/mental senses differentiate between INDIAN and RED INDIAN?

There is nothing really magical about INDIA - even the ROPE TRICK doesn't work in a populace of OVER A BILLION!

Cheer up folks! THINK FIRST - and then - GET DEEPER INTO YOUR SEARCH!!..

Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, columnist and reviewer for MyShelf and author of This is the Place and Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered

Here they are!
Five guidebooks,all part of a series, that look and feel more like art books.

Five guidebooks so closely related that they become a library or set suitable to give as a gift to anyone who lives in, travels in or just loves the Southwest.

Published by Rio Nuevo Publishers, an imprint of Treasure Chest Books, these slender paperbacks have a different polish than most guidebooks, both outside and in. The covers have a satin-finish feel. The pictures in each are full color and so well done you may feel less tempted to buy a piece of art in any one of these categories'or more tempted as the case may be. There are diagrams and maps in full color and other information like histories for the artists, the genealogy of related artists, etc. Anything that will help a reader/art lover to understand the subject better. Bibliographies, indexes, suggested readings and pronunciation guides are also included as needed.

Mostly, these are helpful well-written guides by knowledgeable authors like Kent McManis, Mark Bahti, and Robert Jeffries. You'll find them on Amazon and other sites that sell books under their separate titles and here they are:

A Guide to Zuni Fetishes and Carvings, both Volume I and Volume II
A Guide to Hopi Katsina Dolls
A Guide to Navaho Weavings
A Guide to Navaho Sandpaintings


(Carolyn Howard-Johnson's first novel, This is the Place, has won eight awards.
Her newly released Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remember has won three.)

A great overview of fetishes, charms, and amulets made by Southwest Indian tribes. I like the mix of stories from Indian's folklore and the power from the fetish would provide to user. Now my collection of fetishes have now taken more meaning and understandings from Indian point of view. Also there is notes about material used in making the fetish. Why the color plays great role in fetish. Great reading and must reading if you collect fetishes from Southwest.

This is a great book if you are interested in the history or philosophy of Pilates. It is not, however, a good book if you are interested in doing Pilates at home. The basic conclusion of the book is--find a good trainer and a good Pilates studio. The authors give great advice about these things, but I was hoping to have more clear advice on doing Pilates at home (I live in a community--San Juan, Puerto Rico--without a good Pilates studio.)

These authors know what they are talking about. This is my favorite exercise book. I love the photos and all of the quotes from Joseph Pilates.

If you have been hearing about the benefits of Pilates and wondering if this exercise program is for you, this book will convince you that YOU can do it! Thanks to Amy and Rachel for taking their time to document their approach to a lifetime of fitness.

The parts with the octospiders are interesting and also the ending part about the cosmic philosophy. But there is too much soap opera again...Bulls*** again! Read the first Rama book!

With messages of duty, responsibility and the value of family, it's likely that this book will apeal to a more mature reader. While this last installment of the RAMA tales holds all the magic of the past 3 books, it also holds some very real, if disapointing truths about mankind. We are not the creators chosen race, indeed, we are simply an eliment in one universe of many by which the creator seeks a simplicity only a god may aspire to. Some refreshing ideas on the origins, purpose and existance of the universe and our place in it.

I had forgotten what I didn't like about Lee's Rama books until I began reading this. The Rama books were all full of underdeveloped, oversexed characters.

This book was heavily laced with gratuitous sex and nothing but gratuitous sex... There was no plot, there were no characters. I read about 100 pages, put the book down and picked up the Orson Scott Card book I had waiting.

When I finally got the nerve to finish the book I found even more gratuitous sex and even less plot. I did manage to finish the book... well, I think I finished it. I'm wondering if there may have been missing pages at the end or maybe one or twelve missing chapters. There was no climax to the book (well, so to speak) and the ending just... well... ended.

Unless the author is planning a sequel to answer all the questions left at the end of this book (like "what was the plot?") don't waste your time. You'll be disappointed.

Set four hundred years in the future, when a large part of humanity has moved into space, Tranquility Wars is a sci-fi/adventure story. Not much of the story can be told with out taking away part of the fun of the book. But the basic idea can be told. The main character is Hunter Blake, a 20 year old who lives with his parents on an asteroid in our solar system. Out side the asteroid, the solar system is split between two governments. The first controls the south side of Mars, and every thing within Mars' orbit, including Earth's moon. The second controls the north half of Mars, and everything outside of Mars' orbit, including the asteroid that is home to the Blake family. The book follows Hunter on his first trip to Mars, to become one of a few selected government scholars. The book does a good job of describing some of the problems of living in space, and how they could be dealt with, along with creating a vivid and complex political system.

While the book is a fun read, in general the story is lacking that which turns a fun read into a good book. As stated before, the book follows Hunter on his trip, and while we see him make a few choices, the key decision are made for him. But the reader is still given pages of inner thought on key issues, ranging from how far science should go, to how much control the government should have. But these segments on key issues feel forced, and don't fit with the characters' other traits, almost as if Gentry Lee was trying to address key topics with a story along side. (In his other books, he wrote a good story that had important topics on the side.) There were also several cases of irrelevant side stories, that neither advanced the plot (as they suggested during the reading), nor helped develop the characters. This proved frustrating, as some of the suggested plot developments were more interesting than what really happened.

Overall this book was fun to read, but not worth a great deal of praise. And it is most definitely not at the same level as the Rama series or the Bright Messengers story.

An engaging story... This is one of those books that you just can't put down! An excellent work of Science Fiction... and a plausible outlook on things to come. Save this one for vacation... otherwise, you will not get any sleep!

I at first liked this book as it went into how Emma and Rider first met but after a few more chapters this book really fell flat where her other books flew. I really did not like how Rider treated Emma as I got further into the book. He's supposed to be falling in love with her but to me it seemed as though all he ever really wanted was sex, I mean thats the only reason why she was allowed on the wagon train to begin with because he was "allowed" by the others on the train to take his pleasure with her. I mean he tries to rape her twice in the book. He is rude, obnoxious and doesn't even take Emma's feelings in to consideration. I also think that Josh's character isn't written deeply enough he could have brought a lot more to the story but Gentry only touches on him breifly using him as a bridge to get Rider and Emma together. He is such an intresting character but is made to be so shallow and unimportant. I hope like many others that their is a book written about him when he is older which will bring more depth and emotion to his character and also show his feelings on what it is like to be a product of rape and maybe him finding out about his Cheynnne roots. All in all I give this story only two stars because it's plot was not well thought out but its characters were somewhat intresting and the love scenes once consentuial were well written. I only hope if a sequel for Josh is written that it will have more depth and its characters will be better behaved and have more morals.

I have to agree with some of the others, this book was far from Georgina Gentry's better works. Although I liked the heroine, Emma, I could not feel the same way for the hero, Rider. I found him obnoxious and down-right disgusting at times. I never felt like I was reading a real love story. Had this not been by one of my favorite authors, I would have not finished it. The secondary characters were also obnoxious and rude and I could not find anything to like about them. I have read almost all of Ms. Gentry's books and this one is at the bottom of the list. It definitely is NOT a keeper!

I have to admit that I started reading this book once before and I couldnt get into it,BUT a few months later I thought I should give it another chance. I regret putting the book down the first time I attempted to read it. I truely enjoyed reading of Rider, Emma and Josh. The way Rider was always there when she needed him. She put up a fight at first but her feelings for Rider just got stronger. I pratically did no work at my job, I just couldnt put the book down. I give this book 5 stars. I agree with one of the reviewers, I would love to read up on Josh as a grown man. Him being Cheyenne but raised as Shoshoni. I think it would be interesting.

Advocacy pure and simple!

After a good introductory bibliography in chapter 1, the author immediately launches into a set of arguments designed to convince you that his view is correct. One problem is that the author starts by begging one of the main questions of the debate: of those who attend churches, how many are really born again?

The author's answer, stated without proof, is that it is only one's life that proves one is born again.

The main problem with this book is that it treats those it disagrees with so peremptorily and unfairly, either misquoting them, ignoring their arguments, their verses they use, or their criticisms of his views. Talk about Romans 3:24! The main good point of the book is that it clearly states his view, however light the support for it is.... For a more circumspect view which shows some problems with his side of the debate, see chapter 1 in 'Christ the Lord,' edited by Michael Horton, or the essay 'The Law According to Jesus' in that same title, by Rich Ritchie. And I'm trying not to mention books that advocate the side he opposes at all, even though they are not as unfair as his book is....!

To those who want to understand more about lordship salvation, I wouldn't recommend this book. Though the author does get into great detail on Greek vocabulary and lexicons he doesn't truly convince readers why lordship salvation is biblical. Writing a book to prove lordship salvation by using Greek words is fine, but one needs good exegesis to convince readers. Gentry hardly interacts with Free Grace writers and never tries to examine passages given by Free Grace writers that support their views. This small book is quite a disappointment. If you're trying to find a book on lordship salvation, I recommend you go look elsewhere.

Dr. Gentry has done the church a great service by providing this clear and concise explanation of the Lordship salvation controversy. Sadly, many well meaning Christians have been persuaded of a view of salvation that is utterly contrary to Scripture and really has no other name than antinomianism. What is inexcusable is that many of the proponents of this system of theology speak and write as if it were the teaching of the Protestant Reformers. Usually this is accomplished by taking sentences here and there out of context and twisting their meaning. These men count on the trust of their readers, for if their readers ever bother to read the Protestant Reformers for themselves they will see immediately that what is being attributed to them is not what they taught. One will search in vain to find Luther or Calvin saying that a Christian can become an atheist and still be saved. (Yet Zane Hodges says this in his book Absolutely Free!).

These men have so misinterpreted the Protestant slogan of sola fide (by faith alone) that it is unrecognizable. For Hodges salvation entails little more (if any more) than assenting to the truthfulness of several historical propositions. Luther said salvation was by faith alone, but that faith had to be a "living faith." If the faith didn't produce fruits of righteoyusness - it wasn't true faith. In other words, although justification must be distinguished from sanctification, it cannot be separated. Hodges and Ryrie would have unsuspecting men and women believe that one can have justification without sanctification. This is a lie (Hebrews 12:14; James 2:14-26).

John MacArthur did a fine job exposing the faulty theology and exegesis of these men like Zane Hodges and Charles Ryrie in his two books "The Gospel According to Jesus" and "Faith Works." Michael Horton edited another helpful volume entitled "Christ the Lord." Now Gentry has summarized the basic arguments in "Lord of the Saved." For those interested in a good introduction to the issues, this is as good a place as any to start.

In the summer of `99, I walked into a book store with the intention of raking up as many books as I could carry, and being an aficionado of Clarke's works, among others, I picked out the third pillar of the Rama quadrology.

But after reading it, firstly, I feel as if I haven't missed out on much by reading the third chapter in the series to begin with. And secondly, I've marked the final chapter (Rama Revealed) for a rainy day, when there's nothing better around.

I wouldn't be so harsh in giving it a 2-star rating, were it not coming from the likes of none other than ACC (maybe 3-stars, were it some other, less-celebrated author).

It's acceptable upto halfway through the book. But the second half, where the whole New Eden concept is drawn up is very mundane. The entire plot (as someone has aptly remarked below) looks *exactly* like 20th century Earth. Same problems, same ecosystem, same attitudes, same sociology, same stimuli, even the technology does not at all look like what one might think would be 300 years from now! Not that I was expecting a utopia of some kind, but at least not 'Hey! This is us.' The references in the plot to humankind's past history consistently only refer to the 20th/21st century occurences. The one or two places where an attempt has been made to describe something 'futuristic' has become degenerated to that which is easily pin-pointed to something in our present time.

The character of Dr. Nicole des Jardin is too super-womanized and is only a hair short of being apocalyptic -- Olympic athlete, cosmonaut, lover to the King of England, judge, state governor, clairvoyant and the list goes on.

I had higher expectations than this, since I am forever mesmerized by the mystique and charisma of ACC's Space Odyssey series and many of his other works.

Allow me to be a little retrospective . The first book was a gem. Not often are there books which concentrate purely on the technological side and get away with little or no character development . The second was pleasing only towards the end although I found the need to explain life stories of characters profoundly irritating and often irrelevant . Who cares if Francesca is a slut ? I was hoping for a redemption of sorts in this third book but nope , didn't find it . If this book were set in an urban 20th century environment , it would be a mid-day soap opera with sex and drugs thrown in . As a science fiction novel , it somehow manages to discard most science . Maybe it was Lee's influence , maybe I just lost patience with the black and white characters . This book could have done with better characterisation , less politics , less pointless sex , less Shakespearen quotes and finally , a helluva lot more science fiction . Ultimately I was disappointed since I started reading this series with much enthusiasm and ended up flicking chapters just to see who would cark it next.

Overall, the book does not lack anything. It stays more or less true to its predecesor, Rama II. If any problem is to be mentioned, it is the seeming lack of faith that the authors have put in humanity. Though the appearance of "human evil" is no doubt neccesary for the final turn of events in the last book, Rama Revealed, after moving through a near dream-land of an "idealized" world to being faced with the stench of humanity in the end I was faced with a bit of a shock. Perhaps that was the idea. If it was, perhaps the authors should be applauded for it. It served as a good wake-up call of sorts.

The gradual revealing of the true purpose of Rama and the slow, guided tour of alien worlds offers a good guide for those looking to start writing their own works. Pleanty is left unanswered, but the desire to know what its all about will keep a person reading.

For anyone looking to buy this volume, a little advice: buy the last book together with it (Rama Revealed). If you've gotten this far through the series, you'll want to finish it off when you've finished this chapter.

It's been at least ten years since I read a book by skipping a couple of pages, reading a few lines, skipping a few more pages, reading some lines, and so on. I don't see how you can get through Rama II any other way -- the dialogue is so stilted, the characters are so lame-brained, and the plot so high-school-1980's-politically-correct.

Try Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age instead.

Rama II will most likely be disappointing to the majority of readers who enjoyed Rendezvous With Rama. This isn't the worst thing I've read, but it is certainly a letdown after Rendezvous. My time could have been spent on a better novel -- though, I am, unfortunately, doomed to finish up this series due to a bothersome sense of duty.

Clarke (or Lee -- who knows who wrote the majority of the novel?) takes a lot of the focus off the engineering marvels of Rama in order to follow poorly developed character histories. I am not opposed to good characterization in science fiction -- it's great when an author can manage a successful marriage between hard sci-fi and compelling character development. Clarke/Lee, however, in his attempt to pull off such a marriage, instead causes both aspects to suffer.

I found the religious aspects of this novel irritating -- but that's probably due to the fact that I'm an agnostic (leaning in a heavily atheistic direction) with little fondness for organized religion. My own beliefs aside, I thought the religious aspects of the novel were clumsily handled and offered little insight.

I'm curious to see how the series ends, though from the reviews I've read, I fear I must expect more of the same mediocrity I found in Rama II.

Man oh man!

Since it is now over six months since I finished the series, I can now look back in retrospect. I can honestly say that this is by far the worst series I have ever wasted time reading!

The first book, by Clarke alone, was absolutely brilliant! However, this "follow-up" series is just... not.

If you like soap opera style books, than you may enjoy this. Gentry Lee spends a LOT of time on each character, introducing them and giving them a detailed back-story. This is normally a good thing, but here it is so over done that it gets extremely annoying. Most of the characters we waste our time reading about are not even in the slightest way essential to the plot!

To give you an example of how long-winded the authors' pre-explanations are, the story doesn't actually get moving until well after page 150. They don't even arrive on Rama until nearly halfway through the book!

In comparison, Rama I was about one-third the size of this novel, and it accomplished FAR more in it's few pages. (It had to introduce the whole concept of the thing for goodness sakes!) Here, we have an already well-established concept, yet Lee wastes well over half the pages on so-called character development! The problem is that in spite of all this, we really don't care for most of the characters - especially not the main one who takes us through the whole series: Nicole des Jardins.

The writing style completely changes from book to book as well. In this one (Rama II), each chapter has a name, similar to Rama I. In the next book, they go by Journal entries for the most part, and in the last they don't even bother with names, they just use numbers for each chapter.

I could really go off on how much I loath this book and it's sequels, but I hate reading lengthy reviews myself, so I won't torture you through one either. Suffice it to say that you WILL NOT like this book UNLESS you are a big fan of "Days Of Our Lives" and other soap opera material. Really, it IS that bad!!

The only reason why I gave it 2 stars instead of 1 was because of some interesting creatures he introduced: Octospiders. Of course, he ruins them in the last book, so don't get your hopes up too high for what they really turn out to be. You WILL be disappointed.

My best advice is: Read something else.

I anxiously awaited the sequel to Bright Messengers and did enjoy the book-Double Full Moon Night. Although, compared to Bright Messengers I was dissappointed. The story wrapped up some of the lose ends, but did not shed light on many of the most interesting mysteries brought out in the first book. In the Rama series, we may have not gotten all the answers at the end, but most everything was explained. The one excellent feature was the fact that the character of Maria was tied into the Rama series. If you read Bright Messengers it is worth reading Double Full Moon Night, eventhough it could have been better.

I really enjoyed both books. I think I am the only one in the universe who has not read the Rama series, so for me, Lee's books were excellent. I started reading the first and as soon as I finished, I went right out and bought the second one. The only parts I did not enjoy was the extra time spent describing the religious aspects and switching from one generation to the next. I loved the different settings and I never knew what was coming next! I am putting Mr. Lee down as an author that I will read anytime!

I read Bright Messengers and loved it, but this one is slightly below par. I had a hard time with the descriptions of the various aliens, possibly because I was always expecting them to be octospiders. Lee has some excellent characterization at times (Johann, Sister Beatrice, a few others) but many of the other characters, especially the grandchildren and great-grandchildren, simply have nothing to set them apart from the others. Furthermore, to get nit-picky, it was confusing for Lee to name one of the children Beatrice, while still referring to Maria's mother by the same name.

Still, it kept me on my toes. I had assumed that the Maria born in BM and the Maria Nicole found in Rama were the same person. I had assumed the arch-intelligences were the same between the two series. I was fully surprised by the tie-in to Rama at the end, although I would've liked Lee to have expanded that at the cost of some of the earlier parts. (I was also intrigued by the parallels between DFMN and Garden of Rama and Rama Revealed - mostly that the main character(s) in both spend lengthy episodes moving from place to place; i.e., the lair, the Node, New Eden, prison,the octospiders vs. the first island, the second island, the nozzlers, the DFMN planet, etc. Also, there was the parallel between Richard Wakefield's sojourn in the sessile and Johann's imprisonment by the nozzlers.) Overall, an excellent book that could have been made better. I agree with an earlier reviewer who said that there's a lot of loose ends between the six books and someone should write short stories to fill in the gaps.