Customer Reviews (9)

One of the Best Ever
I can't place enough praise on this book. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in philosophy, matial arts and great story telling.

Hard to Put Down
"The Kundalini Equation" is one of Steve Barnes' early solo ventures and for those who are even half as passionate about human development as the author is, this is one of the best.

The story centers on a typical computer nerd that through chance and/or brilliance recreates through a powerful combination of yogic breath work, visualization, martial arts and diet a mind/body technology that evolves him from human to super-human. After a series of gruesome murders, the question soon becomes: Is he more than human or something less? This self-directed evolution idea seems to be one of Steve Barnes passions and the idea is evident in almost every piece of work that he writes. Frankly, I never tire of this and anxiously wait for everything that Barnes writes. His interests are so similar to my own, but much more than this, Steve Barnes is one of the best writers in the business. He has a great style of writing and an obvious passion for the written word, but more importantly Barnes knows people, their motivations, their lightness and darkness (and oddly seems to like them anyway).

If you can find a copy of Kundalini Equation read it and enjoy it.

Bravo Mr. Barnes.

GREAT book!
I first read this quite a few years ago but reread it nearly every year - starting to wear it out actually.Barnes clearly did the necessary research to make the tale feel real.The story line and character development make this one of the best in the fiction world (I would love to see this turned into a screenplay).

A challenging and excellent read!
This book is not for the faint-hearted.It will make you take a look into yourself and others, and see what is deeply hidden there.Although the journey through the book is challenging, it's well-worth the effort!One of my favorites from Steven...

Fantastic story - interesting concepts
This author has done his research. I am amazed at the level of detail borrowing from martial arts, NLP and other disciplines - keeping everything real.

This story is hard to put down as well.

It's hard to believe thequality that is in this little paperback - but make amazon find you a copyand buy it.

If you are at all interested in martial arts, transhumanism,eastern philosphy, or good stories - this is for you. ... Read more

Product Description
In Great Sky Woman, “daringly epic in scope,” (Publishers Weekly), Steven Barnes's Great Sky Woman unveiled the world of a prehistoric people in the shadow of modern-day Mount Kilimanjaro. Now, in Shadow Valley, the astounding sequel, we follow the Ibandi people's odyssey through a land where everything has changed-a land from whose ashes will grow the roots of civilization and the enduring truths of love, family, forgiveness, and faith.

After the catastrophic eruption of Father Mountain, the Ibandi are divided, desperate, and afraid. Most have followed the only person in whom they still believe: young Sky Woman, who was on the great mountain when it exploded and who, along with Frog Hopping, returned to tell the tale. Nurtured by an elder whose searing visions have left her blind, Sky Woman nonetheless doubts her own visionary powers as she follows a path she can hardly discern-across savannah and parched plains-to find a valley of plenty for a people on the brink of collapse.

But in fact, Sky Woman and Frog were not the only survivors of the mountain's explosion. Another man has emerged from the destruction, vengeance pulsing in his veins, to lead a separate group of Ibandi into a vicious and reckless act of war. Soon these two strands of survivors will meet, through chance, desperation, and sheer willpower. In a world in which every moment is lived on the edge between life and death, where animal and human predators can strike in an instant, where the gods themselves seem lost, and dreams entwine with reality, a people's destiny rushes toward them. The Ibandi must make a last, violent stand against complete destruction.

In this hypnotic, thrilling, and beautiful novel, Steven Barnes explores relationships between friends and lovers, leaders and followers, strangers and allies. At once visceral and soaringly insightful, Shadow Valley is about who we are as human beings today as seen through the wondrous prism of our distant past.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Shadow Valley Rocks
In the long tradition of "prehistoric" novelizations, I really appreciated Barnes' extreme attention to gritty details, gifted dialogue and graphic realism to create an African tale of discovery, adventure, and heroism by people who lived thousands of years ago. Furthermore, the conversations, the settings, the intellect of ancient Africans related so well to the triumphs and tragedies of modern society. Barnes painted a picture revealing that we are not so far from our ancestors living a day-to-day existence as predator and prey.Shadow Valley allowed me to feel pain and relish conquests as horizons were expanded. I devoured this book in hours.

What a sequel should be!
"Great Sky Woman" was the first novel of Steven Barnes' that I've read.Impressive, I eagerly anticipated this sequel.I was not disappointed.It is, quite simply, one hell of a good read.Set in Paleolithic east Africa, in what is now the Great Rift Valley of Tanzania, it's what the sequel to "Clan of the Clan Bear" should have been and, sadly, wasn't.The characters are believeable, intriguing, both pro and antagonist, and the reader is drawn into their world at a very visceral level.Although painfully violent at times, it is beautifully written, intensely so and the sex, well, let's just say it's evocative and leave it at that.I especially enjoyed the possibility that Neanderthals, assuming a shared ancestral origin, may have made their way back to the cradle of humankind.I hope I'm not giving too much away but even if I have, I don't think it could possibly ruin this for anyone.It's just that good!

Starts off slow, but has a satisfying ending
This is the sequel to Great Sky Woman, and Steven Barnes continues the story as the Ibandi struggle to find a new home and survive the attacks from the viscous Mk*tk. The story mainly focuses on the two young people who are leading there people to a new home, Frog Hopping and Sky Woman and the individual struggles that each one faces. They eventually find a new home, where the food is plentiful, and it feels safe. They meet native inhabitants, and become friends with them, even though they are vastly different from each other and speak different languages.

The book does start off slow, there is a lot of names that are confusing and at times all blur together, and that makes it difficult to follow who is talking some of the times and also what is happening. The book gets better the more you get into it, you start to feel for the characters as they become more and more familiar. The ending brings the story to a satisfactory conclusion, as enemies face off against each other for the final time, and as a new future is forged in Shadow Valley.

Reviewed by Kevin Winter

Entertaining, Yet Interesting and Thoughtful!
I love the book.It was a very interesting read.I have begun re-reading Great Sky Woman.Certainly Mr. Barnes isn't your typical, off the cuff writer.The level of research and imagination that goes into writing a book like this is enormous.

I highly recommend. ... Read more

Product Description
The future is a strange and dangerous place.Chaz Kato can testify to that.He is a citizen of Xanudu, a city-sized artificial island populated by some of the wealthiest men and women on future Earth.A place filled with hidden wonders and dark secrets of technology gone awry.Lenore Myles is a student when she travels to Xanadu and becomes involved with Chaz Kato.She is shocked when she uses Kato's access codes to uncover the grizzly truth behind Xandu's glittering facade.

Not knowing who to trust, Lenore finds herself on the run.Saturn, a mysterious entity, moves aggressively to break the security breach.With interests of the world's wealthiest people at stake, and powerful technology at it's fingertips, Saturn, puts Lenore racing for her life, against a truly formidable foe.
Amazon.com Review
Girl meets boy. Girl falls in love with boy. Boy turns out to be an old man impersonating his own grandson. Girl discovers diabolical plot to sterilize the Third World. Boy erases girl's memory. Intrigue upon intrigue unfolds, involving an army of ninjas, talking sharks with arms, the peculiarities of telegraphy, and a virtual Rex Stout detective who lives in an old Macintosh.

And that's just the setup for this well-developed, whip-smart mystery-thriller-love story from duo Larry Niven and Steven Barnes. But it's hard to imagine going wrong when you team up Niven's technology-loving optimism and legendary chops with Barnes's eclectic résumé (the guy's been everything from a karate columnist for Black Belt magazine to a scriptwriter for The Twilight Zone). Probably their best collaboration yet, Saturn's Race matches the pacing and unpredictability of Ken MacLeod's The Stone Canal while evoking the anything's-possible, shiny sleaziness of a Snow Crash near future.

Our protagonist--the boy-cum-grandfather--works on Xanadu, an OTEC-powered island-city floating just off Sri Lanka, part of a supranational corporate superelite. He's teamed up in a love triangle balanced by the girl who's mind he wiped and his ex-wife, a feisty security officer straight out of Stone Age Java. The population-control plot succeeds ("We can fight their grandchildren for air and water in thirty years, or we can reduce their numbers now"), but who knows what the puppet master behind Xanadu's all-powerful Council is really up to? --Paul Hughes ... Read more

Customer Reviews (26)

Very disappointing
Don't waste any time reading this one.It started out OK and then fell apart in the middle.It is not worth my time to write more than this.

Not Niven as I know him
Okay, I'll admit up front that perhaps I should not write a review of this book, because I never finished it. I got as far as Page 73 and simply could not stand it any more. Stopping in the middle of any book is rare for me, but the boredome was unbearable. In fact, I only got that far because I am a great fan of Niven, which gave me hope. His "Mote in God's Eye" with Pournelle may be my all-time favorite novel. Maybe it's just because he has a different writing partner in this book, or maybe it was just an off time for him. But the spark is not there. The plot and character development were slow, tedious, and completely unrewarding.A painful read, at least the first 73 pages.

Boring
This seems to have been written for money only, i.e. without inspiration. The characters stay flat. The story is boring. The technology described sounds like it could have turned into something interesting, but even that stays flat. The big conspiracy introduced is only marginally interesting. The computer-science is bogus, like in bad cyberpunk.

My advice: Spend your money and more important time on something else.

Gripping
This is some of the best fiction I have read from Niven and Barnes.It is a long novel, but went by so quickly.

Not Niven's Best Work
Lenore Myles is in the Xanadu floating habitat to celebrate her recent graduation from UCLA. She hopes to go on to a brilliant career. Instead, she stumbles upon a bit of information that changes her life.

Sounds like a promising beginning for a story. Unfortunately, SATURN'S RACE fizzles somewhere along the line. Lenore gets part of her memory erased (including the crucial bit of info), which has a seriously negative effect on her life. She embarks on a quest to find out what happened to her and to get her mind back, but in the process she increasingly becomes a sideline in this story while the focus shifts to Chaz Kato, a man Lenore became involved with while on Xanadu.

SATURN'S RACE is often fast-paced and it raises some very relevant issues about man's future on Earth. Unfortunately, like Lenore, the story seems to get lost in its own shifting focus. It raises issues, but never provides any satisfactory resolution. Characters that seem important at one point become unimportant, and vice versa. In the end, it all bogs down in its own confusion and cliches.

I've read a lot of books either authored or co-authored by Larry Niven. Some were very good and among my favorites in the scifi genre. SATURN'S RACE, however, is not one of them. It is, in my opinion, mediocre. Does that mean it went over my head, as someone has suggested? No. Under my head, perhaps, but I think it's possible to "get" this book and still be underwhelmed by it. For me, it went briskly but I had had more than enough by the time I finished it. Ultimately, I don't read scifi to get other people's thoughts on the human condition. I read scifi for entertainment. SATURN'S RACE wasn't overly entertaining. ... Read more

Product Description
A powerful thriller of redemption, hope, and courage that overcomes all obstacles.

It began well - an experiment in techniques to teach high-risk children - poor, minority, children - the life-strategies that will allow them to succeed in life.And not just succeed, but overcome the odds and become wildly successful.They chose as their model a man who had done it all - Alexander Marcus;a black man who raised himself up from poverty to become one of the wealthiest, most powerful men in America.

The imprinting is effective.The children are focused, driven. They are inventive, intelligent, and love learning. But there is a mysterious darkness to them - a ruthlessness that is surprising.
Renny Sand first met the children as a journalist covering the sensational trial of a preschool operator.There were terrible charges of sex abuse, but the thing that stayed with Renny was the strange poise and power of a group of eight year old children.That, and the face of the mother of one of them, Vivian Emory.

Now the children are thirteen years old, and one of them has been killed in a mysterious hit-and-run accident.Renny Sands sees the possibility of big story, a human interest story, a story that might jump-start his flagging career.He'll do a follow-up on the preschool scandal; and he might get a chance to restart his love life as well - Vivian Emory has divorced her husband in the five years since he met her.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

A Different Steven Barnes

Sometimes a book is truly scary due to it's plausibility rather than it's intent to be frightening. Barnes did an excellent job in portraying a situation that could arise. He set up characters that were believable and portrayed them with wide emotional brushes. You really dislike the bad guys but are somewhat confused by your emotions for the "good" guys.Kids are involved and if even fictional harm to kids is hard for you, this may not be your cup of tea.I have a tendency to get emotionally overwrought if kids are threatened so you may want to have a calming glass of wine at your side as you read.I found the book an excellent read and frankly quite different from the rest of Barnes' stuff I have read.

Intelligently Scary
This tale made me shiver.I'm not paranoid but Barnes spun a yarn that makes you think, "Do we really know what the powers that be are up to?Do we even want to know?"Charisma is intelligently scary!

Like Reading a Movie...
albeit a good movie. The kind I'd want to see.

First off, I did enjoy this book. The story was interesting and engaging. The main characters are pretty well developed and you do find yourself rooting for them. It was a relatively fast-paced read and I found myself sprinting to get to the end and see how it all came together. This is a story worth reading.

On the negative side, at times the book seemed to read like a screenplay, with a bit too much visual description, with sometimes very clichéd results. Such as villains pretending to be good or harmless and then eyes going "dead" when no longer being watched. You can see this same "effect" performed by almost any TV show or movie villain at some point while they are on-screen.It works perfectly in that medium, but seemed out of place in a novel.

When I was finished and read the short bio of Steven Barnes on the back flap it made sense, as Barnes actually has a screen-writing past.

The story itself, as I said earlier, was very interesting.It was fascinating to think of the possibilities of what could be accomplished with the proper training when it comes to our children. Is it really possible to produce strong vision and focus in children who come from broken down families and lives?

I like to think it is,but hopefully without using the methods tried by the characters within this book.

Happy reading.

Sort of slow
I feel that Mr. Barnes is an excellent writer and a good story teller.However, I had a few problems with the story.One, I am not sure who pen this story as a sci-fi.It is not, though I am not a fan of the genre.Secondly, for me it took too long for me as reader to have any understanding of what was going on.I think it was around the two hundreth page that I began to have an inkling of what had happened to the children.Thirdly, the implied event under the bridge with the motor cycle crew and the guys from the gay bar did not give me any idea of what happened, though I suspected.Mr. Barnes characters kept alluding to the incident.However, it was about the 240th page before he specifically spelled out what happened.

The story took too long to unfold.He did not give enough imformation for me to follow the story until I have read over half of the book.

The story unfolded towards the end.But before than, I was annoyed as a reader at the pace and the amount of vital information to understanding the story took ages.

Masterly. Horrible.
Since the fifties psychology books have said extroversion is related to sadism. Without Freudian necromancy--the more outgoing you are, the more your kindness and cruelty affects people. Self-help books claim to make you more outgoing.
Suppose there was a self-help technique that worked?
In 'Charisma', Steven Barnes -lifelong follower of Carnegie, Napoleon Hill, Tim Piering; creator of 'The Five Minute Miracle'- Steven Barnes wraps mass-murder mystery muscles and skinless bloody horror around a self-help saga skeleton. It's an acheivement not seen in SF since Heinlein's juveniles fused True Confessions with Boys Life and space adventure. Larry Niven hasn't extrapolated this tightly this close to the present since a couple of his early short stories. It's a Hell of a ride.
It's also a betrayal of Barnes' life's work. I've bought his
'Five Minute Miracle'. I've even DONE some of the exercises. What if I turn into Charles Manson?
In that case, blame it all on Steven Barnes ... Read more

Product Description
Barnes delivers the explosive follow-up to his groundbreaking alternate history novel "Lion's Blood"--in which African nationals colonized the New World--in this tale of a reimagined America circa 1860.Amazon.com Review
Zulu Heart returns to the 19th Century of Steven Barnes's justly acclaimed novel Lion's Blood, a brilliant alternate history in which black Africans have colonized the New World with white Europeans as their slaves.

As Zulu Heart opens, New World nobleman Kai ibn Jallaleddin is a senator of New Djibouti, an envied plantation owner, and a loving family man. His ex-slave and friend, the Irishman Aidan O'Dere, is on the Ouachita frontier, helping other ex-slaves build a settlement for themselves. But ex-slaves are always at risk, and an angry mob threatens Aidan, his family, and his entire village with slaughter or re-enslavement. Meanwhile, Kai is entangled in intrigues among not only his fellow senators, but the lords of Egypt and Abyssinia, who have sinister plans for the New World colonies. Pharaoh takes Kai's sister hostage to manipulate Kai, even as Aidan discovers his twin sister, lost since childhood, is the property of a powerful foe of New Djibouti. Aidan has a slight possibility of rescuing his beloved sister, and of helping Kai thwart his enemies, but the only chance of achieving these near-impossible goals requires that Aidan go undercover--a slave once more. --Cynthia Ward ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Good Read
I have been aware of this book for years.For some reason, I would never pick it up to read, though I've read Lion's Blood, Great Sky Woman, Shadow Valley, Star Wars. etc.So I am very familiar with Mr. Barnes writing style.

Once I picked the book up, I could not put it down.It is an excellent read.The amount of research that went into putting this book together is astounding.This isn't some off the cuff writing.The story telling, character development and writing is simply superior.

I highly recommend.Mr. Barnes works deserve to be read.He is a worthy author.

Zulu Heart a winner
Zulu Heart is the sequel to Lion's Blood.I would highly recommend that you begin with that novel first.

A note -- Barnes deals with slavery in a realistic manner, so this is not for the faint of heart, and indeed, he has toned it down somewhat.What he describes is well documented by dozens of historians.Slavery means death, torture, and rape of the enslaved, and families shattered.

Barnes, as black writer, has done an incalculable service, for the two critical social factors that have shaped our United States; the first is the institution of slavery (acknowledged and only slowly coming to terms with by our government and people), and two, the genocide of the native tribes and nations, which for the most part is unacknowledged, and witnessed by the two very opposing federal policies - the Dawes Severalty Act of 1877, which tried to destroy the tribes and nations and enforce assimilation, and the Wheeler-Howard Act of 1934, which sought to restore tribal/national rights.

This is alternate history series, though at this point, there is only two books available.The basis of the change is two events -- Socrates, instead of taking poison, flees to Egypt.A second, perhaps more important event was the survival of Alexander, who lives past 33 and becomes Pharoah of Egypt.

Much of the book's events take place in the 1860s and 1870s.The Greek-African powers worked with Carthage to destroy Rome, and several African empires adopt Islam and become world powers.Without Rome to spread technology and literacy, Europe becomes a backwater, pillaged by Norsemen and Africans for slaves.One presumes, since the word is used, that the Slavs are also fodder for the trade, though the novel focuses on western Europe -- Germans, Franks, and Irish.

Barnes does a really good job of character development, and is able to sustain the premise of alternate history rather well.

America is a collection of balkanized states -- New Djibouti, New Alexandria, Azania, and Whichita, all of which comprise the Mid-Atlantic region and the lands south of the Mason-Dixon line as far west as Texas.To the north, along the great lakes, is Vinland, a Norse settled region; to the southwest is the fierce Aztec nation; while to the west are the various surviving tribes of Native Americans.Curiously, there are lands that would have been part of the Iroquois Confederacy, but they are never mentioned or even alluded to.Historically, attempts to colonize Canada by the Norse (such as at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland) were abandoned due to the mini-Ice Age, which forced them to give up most of their colonies on the intermediate stop in Greenland for several hundred years. However, it is possible their American colony could have been re-settled, especially considering their access to the steam technology in use.

As you can tell, I found the stories entertaining, and interesting to me to see where the divergences were.

And because of the alternate history premise, Barnes is able to convey some of the hatred and deplorable conditions that slavery can impose with greater liberty because of the switch in roles, with whites as the enslaved and blacks in power.

Highly recommended.

Impressive
Zulu Heart is a stunning achievement demonstrating scholarship not often found in fiction. However, despite the thickness of the volume, the story itself is rather thin. I have the feeling that Barnes needed to say all of this, not just to show off, but to set us up for future tales. Its well worth the read regardless and along with Lions Blood constitute an alternative history that puts to shame anything Turtledove has written. Also noteworthy is that Barnes is married to Tananarive Due. This has got to be SFs first family.

Still original and ambitious, but drier than "Lion's Blood"
In this sequel to the breathtakingly original "Lion's Blood," Steven Barnes returns to his alternate America, now an African colony named Bilalistan. He also brings us back to his two main characters: Kai, a mystic Sufi and younger son who has now inherited the noble title of Wakil, and Aidan, his former Irish slave who now ekes out a frontier existence as a freedman.

Supposedly, the heart of this book is Aidan's attempt to find and reunite with his long-lost sister Nessa, who was sold away from him when they were first captured as slaves. In reality, however, Aidan's search is merely a subplot, a result of Kai's political schemes rather than a driving force. This bummed me out a little, because instead of character-driven plot, angst and heroism and pointless self-sacrifice and all, we get... Politics. Oh, they're interesting politics, but I just wasn't as interested in a possible war between Egypt and Abyssinia and the secession of southern New Djibouti from the rest of Bilalistan as I would have been in the personal lives of Aidan and Kai. (Barnes seems to be invoking both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars here; New Djibouti wants its independence both from its mother country and from the industrialized north.)

Anyway, as part of all this double-dealing and war mongering (and it's pretty confusing; it might take a second reading for me to really understand where all the lines are drawn) Kai decides he absolutely must get his hand on some sort of code-breaking device. To do that, he asks Aidan to re-enter slavery as a sort of gladiator, with the hope that he can then infiltrate the home of the governor and steal the device. To entice him, Kai suggests to Aidan that he could free his sister, who is the paramour of an influential general, at the same time.

A huge part of the book, as I said, is taken up with politics. Another large chunk deals with Aidan's gladiatorial training, which incorporates some of the Sufi techniques that Kai learned back in "Lion's Blood." What we don't see in this book are characters. There's a few interesting ones, particularly some of the female characters Barnes introduces this time around. Yet the familiar triad from the last book - Kai, Aidan, and Aidan's wife Sophia - is conspicuously watered down. I just didn't care about these characters anymore, and that was disappointing.

All in all, I didn't enjoy "Zulu Heart" as much as I did "Lion's Blood". It is, however, still one of the more ambitious and original alternate histories I've ever read, and I am anxious to continue with the series. Again, I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in American and/or African history.

Outstanding Sequel
I couldn't put this book down.It was well researched and written.A compelling and excellent sequel story.I hope there's a 3rd to wrap some things up.This could definitely be a movie - better than Terminator. ... Read more

Product Description
It's the American Revolution all over again. But this time it's a ragtag band of space colonists vs. the United States. And the fate of the world hangs by a thread--200 miles above the earth.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

The Descent of Anansi
In the not-so-distant future, Falling Angel Industries is headquartered ona Lunar-orbiting space station, constructed from used STS External Tanks.FA has just produced 1,400 kilometers of the strongest cable everproduced-single-crystal iron suspended in an epoxy matrix, .8 millimetersthick. Two companies- Brazil Techimotores-Electronics and OyamaConstruction have bidded for the cable, and Oyama has won. Transporting thecable from Falling Angel to LEO via the Space Shuttle Anansi/Ion Drive TugGabriel, the six-day voyage gives BTE enough time to join forces with agroup of Iranian terrorists. Stealing and launching a Soviet Prometheusground-to-orbit missile, they destroy the Gabriel and cripple the Anansiand cable re-entry pod, also killing an Anansi crewmember. With the Anansistranded in orbit, with no way to re-enter and no way to get back toFalling Angel, BTE launches two Space Shuttles. Their mission: retrieve thecable, and finish the job that the missile didn't complete . . . . Destroythe Anansi and her crew.

Readable
I had a bit of trouble following some of what was going on.The romance seemed a bit forced to make the story more interesting.

Great read!
Wonderful book ! Pay no attention to other carping comments.The book thatmade me understand about tides. It has believable characters, great plot,tension--this should be made into a movie. I'm already casting theprincipal characters in my mind...

decent read
This book is a fluffy but fun read about some Brazilians going to the moon.It has a large cast of characters with difficult names.It reminds one of "Outland" more than any known space books.What the heck...it's a hoot.Not much substance but an entertaining airplane book. ... Read more

Product Description
Welcome to Dream Park-an amusement park where nothing is what it seems-except murder. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Return to Dream Park for those who want a little less
This return to Dream Park (the role-playing theme park of the future) is workman-like enough and avoids the pitfalls of the earlier novel, but ultimately there isn't much real meat here.This time through, the game is a "Fat-Ripper Special", which means that the players are paying their hard-earned dollars to lose weight, get plenty of exercise, and change the way they think about food.This certainly makes sense from a Dream Park perspective - people always seem to have money for weight loss - and this at least makes it distinct from the original Dream Park novel, but it doesn't make for an especially interesting story.Once again, the best part of the book is the Game itself, which this time is based on Inuit mythology.And once again, the back-story (a ruthless industrialist attempts to sabotage the visionary Barsoom Project) is where most of the science fiction is, even though it gets very few pages, and isn't really all that interesting.So like the original Dream Park novel, this book is recommended for gamers more than for sci-fi readers.Those uncertain if they really want to return to Dream Park would be better off skipping to the third installment, The California Voodoo Game, which is a substantially better book than this one.

Not Free SF Reader
An odd choice for a name, as the Barsoom Project is nothing to do with the actual game that will be played, but a project that the Dream Park company inside the book wants to get involved with, actual exploration of Mars.

The game itself involves lots of cold, eskimo types and other such things, no John Carters or Dejah Thorises or any analogues of any of that to be seen.

Not as good as the original, but an entertaining read
If you're already a fan, it's a decent buy.But don't expect it to be *as good* as Dream Park!

fat ripper special
I found this book very exciting. Although I resd it before the other books in the series. I find that this book centered on the game which was a fat ripper special. That means that the game was to lose weight. To make it stick way past when the game was over they used Induit ways of regarding food. This stuck with me so much that I still remember this book and it's been a good five years since I read the book.

If you're looking for good Sci Fi, keep looking
I read and enjoyed the other two books in this series, Dream Park and California Voodoo Game before I even knew this book existed.I was surprised and pleased to discover a third book that fell between the two.Unfortunately, The Barsoom Project was a huge let-down.

It reads as if Niven and Barnes wrote an OK outline for a novel but never bothered to put any effort into the actual writing.For example, some information that is very important to the plot is revealed in a monolog by a character that is supposedly so drunk, he can't control what he's saying. Yet he manages to express it all in complete, neatly constructed, coherent paragraphs.

The characters are poorly constructed, uninteresting and unbelievable.The dialog is unnatural.The plot is implausible.Plus, there's a romance that is so forced, it's painful.

It's no wonder this book was released by a different publisher than Dream Park and California Voodoo Game.It's an embarrassment. ... Read more

Product Description
The epic story of how primitive humans, without words or machines, set in motion civilization’s long, winding journey to the present.

Thirty thousand years ago, in the heart of the African continent and in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro, lived the Ibandi, who for generations nurtured their ancient traditions, and met survival’s daily struggle with quiet faith in their gods. T’Cori, an abandoned girl, and Frog Hopping, a boy possessing a gift that is also a curse, are two of the Ibandi’s chosen ones. Though they live in different encampments, Frog and T’Cori are linked through the mysterious medicine woman known as Stillshadow, who has sensed in them a destiny apart from others’. Through the years, and on their separate paths, T’Cori’s and Frog’s fates entwine as an inevitable disaster approaches from the south–from the very god they worship. For as long as there have been mountain, sky, and savannah, there has been a home for the Ibandi. Now, in the face of an enemy beyond anything spoken of even in legend, they must ask their god face-to-face: Do we remain or do we depart? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Great Sky Woman
Steven Barnes is one of my favorite science fiction authors. His mastery of story telling is phenomenal. Mr. Barnes has the noteworthy skill and the poise to write about a myriad of subject matters and plots, creating in them specific and believable worlds in which readers can throw themselves into. He has done this with his Aubrey Knight series, his Bilalistan Series, as well as with Blood Brothers, Iron Shadow and Charisma, just to name a few. And though I'm late to read, what he has done with Great Sky Woman {first published in 2006}, raises the bar once again.

Great Sky Woman is set in the heart of the African continent, at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, before recorded history. There, the Ibandi live as hunters and gatherers unaware of the manmade and natural disasters approaching their way.

Great Sky Woman follows the story of two Ibandi members, T'Cori {the nameless one}, an abandoned girl who was raised by the chief dream dancer; and Frog Hopping, a boy raised by his uncle to be a hunter and warrior. T'Cori, gifted with superior abilities than the other dream dancers, searches desperately for acceptance from the one who raises her as well as her sister dream dancers. Conversely, Frog, who isn't the strongest or fastest amongst his age, competes with his brothers to be a man amongst the Ibandi. Their search for their own identity and place amongst the Ibandi ultimately brings them together in life and death struggles that eventually decide the fate of all the Ibandi.

Mr. Barnes builds a world full of African folklore, legend and mysticism in such vivid realistic detail that the reader is sucked in wanting more. The characters are so strong and brilliant that they resonate in the readers mind long after completing the book. The power of this story opens the door for a growing new type of fiction that beckons for more.

I recommend Great Sky Woman as a must read. I can not wait to read the follow on story Shadow Valley.

Well Done
I purchased this book when it first came out.I found it extremely difficult to get into.However, because of an extremely long flight I picked it back up and dove in.After the first few chapters, it gets extremely interesting and you're then really drawn into the characters and their way of life (which took considerable interpretation).

The struggles of Frog Hopping are based largely on his evolving level of awareness and thought.The perils of T'Cori are on so many different levels, that for a short moment, I thought I was reading an Octavia Butler novel (this is a HUGE compliment).

I am interested to see how the Ibandi overcome, if at all, the two groups of "man" that wish them harm.

An African Ayla
I found this book to be an excellent Historical Fiction work, similar in context and experience to the general work of Jean Auel and her Earth's Children series.

The 'buy-in' of the first few chapters, creates a familiarity with the central characters and their value systems that carries the story to its logical conclusion, without artifice or undo diversion.

I hope that this story is the beginning of a wonderful series.

Dee White

Myths or Beliefs or Facts?
Excerpt:

"Was it possible the only reward for a lifetime of work and risk was deterioration and disease?The naked eye of death seemed to fix him, the terror that none of his fellows seemed to fear, because unlike him, they believed.And if that was true, then who was really more alive in the mind?He who saw through the tricks and lived in constant fear?Or one who succumbed to the mirage and lived his life in joy? And if there was nothing but the struggle of life, then what good was it all?"

These words slapped me across the face harshly.I can relate to the turmoil of Frog Hopping.When you see things as they really are, rather than living in a world of belief and fantasy, life can be quite interesting.You don't have too many illusions, and facts, not belief, generally rule your existence.However, at the same time, you may feel envious of people who live in a world of illusions and fantasies and myths, because they seem to have joy from believing, than knowing.As they say, "ignorance is bliss", and when you are no longer ignorant, the world can be quite painful.Is having knowledge freeing or imprisoning?I think it is both - painful and freeing.

I feel that the story ofT'Cori and Frog Hopping nem was a very interesting read, exciting, and fascinating.The author has done some serious research to write such a book.The book is well written and takes one's mind to another place and time, which is the mark of an excellent writer.

The Ibandi are fictionalized and are the first humans to stand erect(conjecture).They are most likely the ancestors of us all.The Msk may be the Neanderthals, being partial ape and human, not having evolved to full human status. These half humans posed an enormous threat to the Ibandi.They were bigger and stronger and vicious.We all known what actually happened to them.They died out..

Places that I never gave a second thought, now they are firmly etched in my memory.Mt. Kilimanjaro now has a permanent place in my head.Mt. Kilimanjaro is situated in Tanzania. It is the highest mountain in Africa and the tallest freestanding mountain on earth.Mr. Barnes story has encouraged me to know more about the mountain and the people and/or original inhabitants that live in its shadows.

If you want a great story that challenges you,I would highly recommend Great Sky Woman by Steven Barnes.

The great mountain
Steven Barnes in GREAT SKY WOMAN tells the story of two youngsters of the Ibandi people living below Mt. Kilimanjaro, which is known to the Ibandi as Great Sky. T'Cori, abandoned to wild animals by a father who thinks she is blind, is rescued by a mystic, Stillshadow, who teaches her to be a dream dancer. Frog Hopping, an undersized teenager who is being raised by his Uncle Snake, is attempting to prove his worth as a great hunter. Frog Hopping realizes he also has premonitions that let him know what is about to happen. After a brutal and hairy group attack the Ibandi people, the hunt chiefs who are left and the dream dancers must climb Mt. Kilimanjaro to set things right.

Steven Barnes has spun a wonderful tale of life during prehistoric times in Africa. He delves deeply into the religious beliefs, the customs and cultures of the Ibandi people and what they must do to survive in the harsh region on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The suspense keeps you tense and wondering what is going to happen next. How can even extraordinary teenagers survive the many tribulations that beset them and their people? The story has many twists and turns that confound you before a possible solution is discovered. Barnes is a wonderful writer well worth reading again and again.

Reviewed by Alice Holman
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers ... Read more

Product Description
Gifted storyteller Walter Wangerin Jr. brings the characters, places, and events of scripture to life in this best-selling, narrative rendering of the entire Bible. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

"Can't we all just get along?" - Well, I guess only if totally evil magicians are after us...
Steven Barnes's BLOOD BROTHERS is part volatile race relations and part supernatural thriller, and it's a recipe for a good read. This book features a behind-the-scenes look at computer game programming, an angry super warrior, a terrific family unaware of its magical heritage, and evil, O so evil voodoo magic.

Derek Waites hasn't had an easy life, part of it being his fault. Back in the day a notorious computer hacker nicknamed Captain Africa, Derek paid for his crimes with a stint in prison. Nowadays he's a legit computer game designer and plays doting dad to two beautiful children. He still tends to stick to childish things, living life like a frathouse party, and this bump of irresponsibility has cost him his marriage. And, for Derek Waites, life is about to get horrifyingly worse, paranormally worse.

The Waites family - even Derek's soon-to-be-divorced wife Rachel - are at the L.A. Zoo celebrating young Dee's seventh birthday (although Barnes soon after refers to her as an eight-year-old) when Dee begins burning up and a grown woman's voice emerges from her lips, promptly followed by a foiled attempt to abduct 13-year-old Troy Waites in broad daylight. For the ex-con Derek, it's even more alarming to learn that the police may be in on it.

Steven Barnes, who really gets into his characters and makes you feel for them, knows how to treat you to a white knuckle ride. Things quickly escalate for the Waites family, until soon they're fleeing for their lives and panicking about Dee's condition. We soon learn that she's being possessed by her however-many-times great grandmother, Dahlia Childe, a black woman and a slave hundreds of years ago. Dahlia has a warning. Dark magic, rooted from her past, still haunts the world and it's targeting her descendants. Dahlia urges Derek to seek the Warrior... who turns out to be a white supremacist.

Derek's search unearths Austin Tucker, a hulkish, white ex-Green Beret serving serious time for multiple murders. Tucker's life was shattered more than a decade ago, a few evenings before Thanksgiving when a brutal home invasion cost him his family's lives. Framed for their deaths, Tucker's only thought is on revenge. He gets a chance at this when Derek breaks him out of stir. But even the Warrior won't be enough when faced against corrupt sorcerers hundreds of years old and bent on living for much longer, their core sustenance dependent on the perpetual murdering of Dahlia Childe's descendants.

I've liked Steven Barnes's stuff for a while now. In the '80s and early '90s, guy wrote the bonecrunching sci-fi/action series featuring Aubrey Knight (Streetlethal, Gorgon Child, Firedance) and, in collaboration with Larry Niven, churned out the fantastic Dream Park series (Dream Park, The Barsoom Project (Dream Park series, Book 2), The California Voodoo Game, A Dream Park Novel). I first read BLOOD BROTHERS when it came out in the mid-'90s and I still recall its impact of occult kickassery and forceful theme of black vs. white. Although, re-reading this recently, I've forgotten that the story early on takes place during the Rodney King scandal. Austin Tucker makes for a powerful action hero, embittered and a racist and still mourning the loss of his fam. Tucker stands in for a particular protagonist Barnes seems to favor - that of a tough, nail-chewing, unstoppable man of action. And, this time, his protagonist is gifted with uncanny reflexes, brought about by a supernatural heritage. In the realm of martial arts-flavored sci-fi literature, Barnes is almost up there with Steve Perry. However, note that Tucker isn't really a martial artist as much as a freakily fast brawler. Everything slows down for Tucker to the extent that he can predict his opponent's next move, kind of like the Batgirl, Cassandra Cain.

It's saying something then that Derek Waites turns out to be the more absorbing character. Derek, a nerdy black computer programmer, makes for a more thoughtful lead and it's gratifying that the poor guy takes his licks but keeps on ticking, even as he fusses and gets his fright on plenty of times. BLOOD BROTHERS is one of those reads which keeps you flipping pages, racing to see how the bad guys, portrayed here as insanely powerful, get what's coming to them and, even more importantly, how it works out between Tucker and Derek, who as you can guess, don't start out as high-fiving chums. Their evolution from hostile strangers to uneasy allies to fast friends is one of the book's strengths. Barnes doesn't make it an easy transition.

Steven Barnes introduces us to a captivating family. The Waites are folks whom you immediately relate to and pull for. I like that Rachel, Derek's soon-to-be ex-wife genuinely loves her fiance and doesn't easily crawl back to Derek, even when dire straits fling them together. It's also more realistic that Rachel's fiance is actually an okay dude who genuinely care for her kids, although it's a bit much that he's a famous actor. Although, okay, the story does take place muchly in L.A.

Dee, the seven or eight-year-old girl, is absolutely adorable, although I found it disturbing whenever she would get possessed. 13-year-old Troy Waites is also interesting. Tucker takes the Waites to a "safe" place and this turns out to be - and this is funny in a sick way - a survivalist camp inhabited by well-armed white racists. One of the best moments in the book happens when, scared to be in the camp but trying to make a statement, feisty teenager Troy plays Tucker in a one-on-one basketball game. Tucker, remember, is blindingly fast. But, as we find out, so is Troy. I ate up the play by play.

It would've been hard coming up with a finale slam-bang enough and gratifying enough to live up to the way the plot unfolded, of the extreme odds stacked up against the protagonists and given Austin's talents and the soul-sucking stakes. Barnes does pretty good, and there's explosiveness and extreme peril and plenty kickassery. But, yes, ruefully I was expecting something even bigger.

Developing a jones for the blood and crunch and character development of this story, I've been waiting for some sort of sequel. But it's been over a decade now, so prospects look increasingly grim. I've read one of Steven Barnes's latest books, Great Sky Woman, and it's fine pseudo-historical fiction. But that book doesn't boast angelic kids running around, impishly doling out check marks for bad behavior. Or tough hombres who could stop your heartbeat with a strategic palm slammed to the chest. Ah, good times.

Blood is Thicker
Steven Barnes is better known for science fiction, but this novel from 1996 was an early example of his forays into other genres, in this case a Koontz-ish supernatural thriller. The plotline here is very busy and ambitious, maybe too much so, with ancient African black magic unleashing an evil menace that was fueled by the horrors of slavery in America and continues to this day in a far-flung conspiracy of kidnapping and murder. Barnes layers on an incredibly intricate series of plat elements and manages to tie up all (or most) of the loose ends, really making the reader appreciate the complexity of the story, even though some of that complexity can be exasperating.

But this novel's real strengths are on the thematic side. Having two protagonists who should and initially do hate each other (a young black computer hacker and a violent white supremacist), who then have to resolve their differences and work together, is a pretty well-worn conceit but Barnes uses it brilliantly. The main characters are robust and defy stereotypes, and Barnes constructs incredibly disturbing and thought-provoking insights on race relations and the evils that can arise from a long history of discrimination and oppression. While this book's backdrop story of an evil conspiracy and the resulting chase can be unnecessarily dense, Barnes lays out his plotlines and sub-plotlines very well and his thematic insights are ultimately stirring and fascinating for the reader. In a genre that's been done to death with formulaic plots and stereotypical characters, this one rises above the pack. [~doomsdayer520~]

Lacks some things...
Although this book has been released for quite some time I am just now reading it and I was initially excited to read this novel.It is the first novel that I have read by this writer.

The basic premise sounded interesting...black and white related through blood who have to unite and put aside their differences in order to defeat a great evil.

Well I felt that alot of the plotted storyline was forced in order to advance the story.I hate to say it but it was like Barnes was too lazy to exercise his creativity and create a way that made more sense to connect some points in the story.Some parts were just too tidily handled.He wasn't creative in the way that suspense in the story was resolved either.You're on the edge of your seat trying to figure out how they are going to get out of the conflict this time and then something happens that is just too tidy and too convenient to really suspend disbelief.

Also, this is not necessarily Barnes's fault, probably more the editor(s), but the book was full of typos.And some words were overused in the story.It was hard to follow sometimes who was speaking during the dialog scenes as well.Again, more the editor(s) fault?

The character development was "okay."Barnes was overconcerned I felt with physical descriptions of the characters but he did a fairly decent job from time to time of getting the reader into the character's head.

All in all, I know I will probably not read another Steven Barnes novel.My time is limited to read though this is one of my favorite pasttimes.I hate finishing a novel that I am not really all that impressed with feeling like it was a colossal waste of time and that I could have been spending my time reading something more worthwhile.

Twists-Turns-Plots & Sub-Plots
This was one of the best books I've read since discovering this author.The flow and style will grab you and you'll never see or guess what's coming on the next page.Two words sum up this book: "Read it!"

Great mixture of action and mysticism
This was a great read! As so many of Barnes' novels, Blood Brothers tackles a series of human issues. The story essentially centers around two men who could not be more different: A black former computer hacker; divorced and still dealing the the pain of his split family. And a white, former special forces/martial artist serving a life sentence for the murder of his family...oh, and he is involved with the Aryan Nation in prison.

What makes this story so interesting is not how different these men are, but how truly similar they are. The two are forced to work together to unravel a mystery that is over a hundred years old. As always Barnes does a masterful job of getting his reader to 'become' each of the characters. In my opinion, great writing is about people, not about deep storylines, and Barnes pulls the reader in from the first page, making them truly empathize and care about all the characters.

A great read with lots of twists and turns. ... Read more

Product Description
The sequel to "The Legacy of Heorot". Twenty years ago, the colonists of Avalon waged a war against the grendels, reptilian creatures larger than alligators. Now the younger members of the colony want to explore the mainland where the grendels still roam - and claim the entire planet for humankind. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

The Dragons of Heorot
I found this a fun read that kept my attention page after page. Not the most technically accurate premis, but not so far off that I couldn't overlook the stretches of imagination. The characterizations were well done, the individual characters fully fleshed and the plot(s) devious and interesting. With so many science fiction stories out there, it's hard to come up with something novel, but this story does it very nicely. This is a familiar Earth-colonizes-a-living-world story, but the world is very cleverly constructed like non-other I've read before. A whole eco-system is described that fits together to present the characters with mortal challenges on a stage of the author's imagination. Well done and very entertaining!

Not Free SF Reader
This is also called Beowulf's Children, and deals with what happens to a future generation on the planet Heorot.They have some knowledge of what goes on around the planet now, of course, but they still have to deal with it, and keep trying to forge ahead and create a civilisation.Not as interesting as the first book.

Released under different title in US
This book was released under a different title in the United States.If you are looking for the title in print, look under "Beowulf's Children."

Good sequel to The Legacy of Heorot
For those of you who like me enjoyed The Legacy Of Heorot, Dragons is a worthwhile sequel.
Set twenty years after the events of Legacy, we see the inhabitants of the planet Avalon, living their lives on the island they secured for themselves, following the events of the previous book.
However, the children of the survivors of the fight against the grendels wish to branch out onto the mainland. Despite the reluctance of their elders, they set about how to do this. Led by the headstrong and ruthless Aaron Tragon, they then go ahead and set up an outpost which they call Shangri La. However, this outpost turns out to be anything but the perfection that the name implies, and they discover to their cost that human nature remains as traitorous as ever. Additionally, they also find out that there is a life form on the mainland that is even more lethal than the grendels themselves.....

The book explores the interaction of its human characters well, and is particularly strong with the scenes involving Old Grendel, an intelligent grendel no less. It also explores the impact of mankind on a new planet and its indigenous life forms. Indeed, Niven makes a strong case as to whether that most ugly creature - human nature, is the most dangerous thing of all on this new planet...
The story line is good and has its shares of shocks and surprises, and leads up to a powerful ending.
Overall this book is a very good read and I can recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the first. ... Read more

Product Description
Streetfighter, fugitive, hero...Aubry Knight is now a powerful man with powerful friends. And someone wants to kill him.

Their opening shot is the death of one of Aubry's dearest friends. Their next attack is on Aubry's child. Knight is drawn inexorably toward New Africa, toward the mysteries of his own past, and toward a future that may take him far from Los Angeles and the only life he's ever known.

To win this battle, and save his family, Aubry Knight must defeat himself.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Some of the best martial arts sci-fi out there.
Some of the best martial arts sci-fi out there. worth the money. A great story with complex characters not the one or two dimensional characters so often seen in science fiction or action books..

One of the best books i've ever read
Firedance is the last book in a trilogy (the others being Streetlethal and then Gorgon Child), and boy does it go out with a bang! The whole series is jam-packed with action and intrigue, which in itself is perceptive commentary on human nature.

This book completes the story of Aubry Knight, a born and bred warrior, who throughout the series reluctantly finds himself at the forefront of persecuted humanitarian organizations. This particular book tells the story of Aubry Knight seeking revenge for someone assassinating his friend. The story takes him across continents where he finds himself as an assassin of a head-of-state, in a zero-gravity fighting championship and finally finding out the identity and whereabouts of his birth family (he was orphaned at a young age).

Don't Be Fooled By The Cover
Just like the old axiom...this book gathered dust on my shelf until I was in the mood to read it...the lurid cover was a turn off. Particularly, the martial-arts-fighter-hero main character really seemed typical. I was wrong. This book is a deeply textured morality tale about power, politics and technology. The action, superb, is just part of the story. This has all the trademarks of cyberpunk with a solid story. The fact that I read the third book in the trilogy was not a problem, in fact, it just made me determined to track down the other two. Greg Davies/Toronto

delight for your mind and inspiration for the rest of you
This book combines excellent action writing with fascinating, deeply researched information on the body and mind typical of all of Barnes' work.This is one of his best.

By far the best martial art's fiction I have read
This is the third in the Aubry Knight trilogy and all three are excellent.The fight scenes are so well described and choregraphed that you can practically see them ... Read more

Product Description
A virtual superman, a streetfighter trained by the Mob, Knight turns his awesome powers on those who created him. Fighting alongside his beautiful mate, he takes on a corrupt television evangelist who schemes to enslave America. The action-packed, near-future adventure sequel to Streetlethal. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!
This book was completely awesome!!!!!!!The author developed the characters and plot wonderderfully!!!!!Aubrey Knight has come a long way.The first of the series is STREET LETHAL and it is a great introduction to the characters.And when you thought it couldn't get any better, FIREDANCE proves you wrong!!!!!!!

excellent book by steven barnes

I found this book better than the first of the series in dealing with race, class, and gender.It also manages to kick serious butt like Streetlethal.

Anti Hero
Aubry Knight is without a doubt the best anti hero I've ever read. This was my introduction to Steven Barnes and so I didn't realize that the rest of the series wasn't as well crafted. (since reading this I've found other great books by Barnes but none of the of the others stand up to Gorgon's Child.) In the days pre XXX and Fight Club. Gorgon's Child showed how to be a man, and how being a man could make a hero out of the most unlikely subject.

I enjoyed it from beginning to end.
It was a book that I could not put down after hours of reading the description kept me in the story with the characters, Icould almost invision being there.I read the book when it first came out and to this day it stays in my mind as one of the more compelling books I ever read.Although I can not say much for "Streetleathel" since I have never read it.It was not until just now that I knew that "Gorgon Child" was a sequal.

Very good book, a few flaws.
See my review for Streetlethal.The same review could apply here, except the ending of this book really did not seem believable.I think the main characters got a little overly lucky considering the situation they were in when the book ended ... Read more

Product Description
Disgusted with his life as enforcer for the Ortegas and their bloody empire of drugs, prostitution, and black market body parts, null-boxer Aubrey Knight realizes that he will have to become a hero if he is to walk away and still survive. Reprint. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Awful, dull & pretentious
Streetlethal (1983) by Steven Barnes, takes place in a post-quake California, controlled by corrupt corporations and a powerful crime ring, the Ortegas. Aubry Knight, space-boxing expert, just wanted to do his thing (his thing being "Maxine"), but the Ortegas wouldn't let him. Set up for murder, Knight is sent off to jail for life. He vows revenge, etc. etc.

The entire book reads like a particularly florid transcription of a forgettable 1980's action movie. Knight punches his way out of jail, punches his way through LA, punches his way through the rebel underground and then punches his way up the corporate ladder.

The book was half decent (as a fist-fest) until Knight gets mixed up with some sort of super-mushroom and achieves philosophical transcendence. Armed with the aforementioned fists and a particularly repellent need to spout off about the nature of love, he's an unstoppable force. That which he can't punch, he can wrap his love-mind around. That which he can't love-mind, he punches.

By the end, I wasn't just cheering for the bad guys, I was praying for another earthquake.

Knight is also, for the record, a complete pain. He spends half the book whinging about revenge, half the time whinging that his (equally assinine) female co-star doesn't lurve him enough, another half whinging that everyone is picking on him and a final half being randomly insensitive to those around him. That's 4 halves, but this book is bad enough for two.

The equally assinine female co-star, Promise, is also noteworthy. She's a half-plastic prostitute with the ability to alter her artificial skin to show tie-dye rainbow patterns. This makes her super hot, and when she dances, everyone does sticky things in their pants. (Streetlethal: straight to Cinemax in 1987!) Knight loves her (reasons unknown, as she's never anything but cruel to him), and sees through the super-splooging to the (intolerable moo) woman underneath. They take super-mushrooms together and can then communicate telepathically, which, according to Streetlethal, is the height of love.

Even as a feat of post-apocalyptic world building, this book is a disappointment. There's a tantalizing (for Streetlethal) reference to a group of rabid punks with SuperAIDS, but they only appear for a couple of pages. There's an underground (literally) counter-culture, an inexplicably immense global crime syndicate and (somehow) zero-gravity boxing with minimal references to space. Knight punches his way from one setting to another, each goofier and more irritating than the one before. None are explained, none are rational and none are, in any way, interesting.

Aubry Knight doesn't just have fists and a telepathic love-mind - he also has sequels. Try them if you like, but may god have mercy on your soul, for Aubry Knight will not.

Aubry Knight and his post-apocalyptic beatdown
If you have a hankering for a cyberpunk martial arts adventure, Steven Barnes's STREETLETHAL is a good one to get with. The lead character, Aubry Knight, is one indomitable, hard core muthereffer and Barnes writes him like a force of nature. Back in 1983, Aubry Knight also counted as one of the very few black protagonists in fiction literature, never mind that the book cover here has some supremely tanned white dude in a combat pose. That ain't Aubry.

The story takes place in the nasty near future setting of 2022 (keep in mind that this book was published in 1983), in a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles. When Aubry Knight, a null gravity fighter, is framed by his woman and by crime lord Luis Ortega, he vows to exact revenge. But, first, there's that hard prison sentence to serve.

Steven Barnes can construct a gripping story, but what I like best about him is that he really sells the action sequences. And in the sub-genre of bonecrunching sci-fi martial arts novels, Barnes - himself a prolific martial artist - ranks only second behind Steve Perry. In STREETLETHAL he establishes a dark dystopian world still struggling to rebuild after the Great L.A. Quake. Los Angeles is a crummy, sleazy, chaotic purgatory where disease-spreading punks called Spiders prowl the streets and attempt to infect as many victims as they can and where experimental mushrooms may or may not prove to be mankind's salvation. The future technology Barnes lays in is apropos of what we're capable of decades from now. Some of it may even be borderline possible today - plastiskin, organ harvesting, and null gravity and such.

Aubry Knight is one of those stoic, tormented, uber-capable heroes, and his story progresses along the traditional heroic arc. I do find him an interesting character, as he goes from inmate to Scavenger to whatever it is that he becomes as he takes on the Ortegas. But the writer also surrounds Aubry with an interesting cast. Most of them are damaged characters and very sharply written. Barnes really probes the psychological underpinnings of these folks. Promise is an exotic dancer and a courtesan and would also become Aubry's love interest (and, no, she wasn't the one who sent him up the river). I think she's a great character, and her relationship with Aubry is more often rocky than not, which is why it pays off in the end. As well, Tomaso Ortega, who becomes the underworld boss of Los Angeles. In fact, Barnes spends quality time fleshing Tomaso out into a three-dimensional character. The aged but steel-willed matriarch of the Ortega crime family, Margarete, and also Diego Mirabal, the frightening and enigmatic head security for the Ortegas, don't get a lot of screen time but they right away make an impression. And one of the things I really looked forward to was Mirabal and Aubry's inevitable clash. Mirabal threatens to be even more formidable than Aubry. Turns out he is.

I wish Steven Barnes wrote more novels. I already tore thru GORGON'S CHILD and FIREDANCE, the terrific sequels to STREETLETHAL. I also recommend the dark fantasy thriller BLOOD BROTHERS, his Dream Park collaborations, and his absolutely riveting alternate history books LION'S BLOOD and ZULU HEART. If you're an action junkie - or, to heck with that - if you enjoy well-written tales, my man Steven Barnes won't let you down.

Super Reader
In a future California that has been busted up, Santa Monica someone sort of survives cataclysms, water, and all that stuff.

Aubry Knight is a cyberpunk style bodyguard type, and has a falling out with his boss. Knight ends up crusading against the crime lord types to stop them and their drug plot.

Much bashings.

Great example of "Don't judge a book by its cover."
...because the COVER of the Ace Original 1983 paperback edition really doesn't do the book justice (it's crappy!).I thought I was going to be reading a P.O.S. pulp sci-fi for laughs, and ended up crying at the end, having read the whole book cover to cover in one sitting.If you're a sci-fi fan at all, you'll dig this one.It's great.

Funny how it's getting an average of five out of five stars from people who have read it, and yet it's out of print, and used copies are going for pennies.

best ive ever read
i am not what you would call an avid book reader but on a greyhound bus trip that was to take over 24 hours i found this book in the luggage rack. from the 2nd page i was totally engrossed and finished it before i arrived at my destination.
the character aubry knight is an absolute winner. i lost this book and searched for two months until i found a copy. that is when i found the other two aubry knight stories. i have read all 3 books 3 times apiece and have just started them again after 2 years of sitting on the bookshelf. i cannot reccomend them more
if i was sitting there speaking to you all directly. pick them up, you will not put them down. 20 ******************** ... Read more

Product Description
Iron Shadows...an exciting, fast-paced thriller about a charismatic cult with a dark underside, a riveting adventure filled with passion and danger.

Cat Juvell has a black belt and a knack for solving difficult cases. She and her partner have been hired by a wealthy industrialist to retrieve his sister--and the family's millions--from the control of a mysterious cult known as the Golden Sun.

The cult's young leaders, twins Joy and Tomo, are said to have miraculous powers to heal and transform--and the cult's inner circle are rumored to perform erotic rituals in a quest to reach a higher consciousness.

But there are suggestions of darker practices, and a whispered phrase--Iron Shadows--that hints at a long-slumbering conspiracy of terror.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

OUT STANDING
This was an outstanding story.It was good to see a related story about the children of "The African" in Blood Brothers.Not to mention it appears that a government is also keeping tabs of some sort on the occult.

An interesting Topic written with Barnes usual flair
Steven Barnes has a beenpersonal favorite of mine ever since I read "Streetlethal". Barnes is an avid Martial Artist and student of eastern philosophy whose considerable knowledge in both of these subjects shows in his stories. If you are interested at all in either of these subjects you will definitely enjoy this book. On a story level, Barnes' plots are usually not too complex; however he is a master at characterization and he really makes you care what happens to his characters. I loved this book and have already pre-ordered a copy of "Lion's Blood".

An intiguing & darkly mystical action/adventure tale
Steven Barnes has written alot of good, solid science fiction over the years -- and he uses that experience here to build a contemporary mystical fantasy adventure that entertains, intrigues and engages you completely. Iron Shadows makes forays into the darkly mystical world of cults & sexual magic, while maintaining a James Bondian plotline and reaching deep into the frailties of human interactions. The erotic tension and gripping issues make this a hard book to put down. My only amazement is that in all the explorations of human sexuality -- the only character that crosses over the standard straight stereotypes is the "evil" villain. Trite, but it doesn't destroy the quality of the remainder of the novel. Highly Recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
In an alternate Africa-ruled American South, slave labor is used from Europe to colonize the Americas. The Islamic African aristocratic family of Wakil Abu Ali indulge in luxury at their glorious estate called Dar Kush while white slaves--slaves like the young Aidan O'Dere and his Druid Irish family--work the land.Amazon.com Review
In the year 1863, a primitive village is raided, the men killed, and the women and children captured. The survivors find themselves chained in the dark, filthy hold of a ship crossing the ocean to the New World, where they are sold into slavery. The powerful master of a vast Southern plantation purchases the 11-year-old Irish lad Aidan O'Dere. Yes, you read that right--in this alternate America, the South was colonized by black Africans, and the North by Vikings, who sell abducted Celts and Franks to the Southerners. Through his brilliant inversion of our history, author Steven Barnes examines the complex evils of slavery in a new light with Lion's Blood, an intelligent and exciting novel of freedom and bondage, battle and intrigue, sex and love, set in an America threatened by total war as Aztecs, Zulus, Moors, and whites clash.

A Hugo Award and Cable Ace Award nominee, Steven Barnes has written 15 novels and 15 teleplays. --Cynthia Ward ... Read more

Customer Reviews (61)

Lion's Blood
This book was difficult to keep interested in during the first chapter but I hung in there and got wrapped up in the story line towards the end.

An Excellent Work!
The novel Lion's Blood, by Steven Barnes, tells the story of a slave, kidnapped and brought to the New World, and the second son of his eventual owner.However, this is no mere retelling of the Roots saga.The slave is Aidan, son of an Irish fisherman.The owner is the Wakil, who is a high official in Bilalistan, a territory that is roughly geographically analogous to the Confederacy of our own history.The Wakil's younger son is Kai, a boy of about the same age as Aidan.

Every alternate history story that I've read implicitly assumes the centrality of Western history in world affairs, no matter how that history might be altered.Thus, they all have one thing in common: the event that causes a different history to develop is always a wrinkle in Western history.I realize, of course, that this is at least partly due to the fact that I've only read the works of authors who are writing in English (or have been translated into English), and that these writers are writing for an audience whose historical world view has been shaped by Western history.As a counter example, an alternate history writer in Xhosa might posit a world in which Shaka Zulu had not lived or had lost a crucial battle between the Xhosa and Zulu peoples.

Barnes' novel takes a radical approach in changing history.Instead of "nibbling around the edges" of Western history, Lion's Blood eliminates most of it entirely by having an alliance between Carthage and Egypt defeat the rising Roman state in about 200 BC.While Barnes stills uses an event in Western history as his "breakpoint" (to use Harry Turtledove's term), the story is a radical departure from there.

The main result of this breakpoint is that by 1279 AH (dating from Muhammad's flight from Mecca; 1863 AD in the Christian chronology), the Empress of Abyssinia and the Pharaoh of Egypt are leaders of the world's two superpowers.Islam is the main worldwide religion.Judaism is a small regional sect, located in the nation of Judea, with its capital at Jerusalem.Because the Roman Empire never developed, Christianity does not become a dominant world religion; it has scattered adherents in Africa, Europe, and the New World.

The Gupta Empire is in control of India while China is ruled by Emperors and has a colony on the New World's western coast. The geographical analog of Mexico is ruled by the Aztecs while Native American nations compete with the African immigrants.

To the south of Bilalistan lies the Aztec nation of Azteca which often fights with Bilalistan. Vikings maintain a colony in the New World known as Vinland to the north of Bilalistan and there is a Chinese colony in California.

The economic system is laissez-faire capitalism, but with a feudalistic social structure.Chattel slavery is, of course, endemic.

Technological progress is comparable to what has occurred at that point in the current time line.Breech loading rifles, photography (called "light painting"), ocean-going steamships, and dirigible airships (called "flying boats") have been developed.

And, speaking of technological progress, it seems to be de rigueur in alternate history stories to have alternate time lines be in a state of relative technical backwardness, or even primitive, when compared to the "home" time line.Perhaps I'm reading more into this than actually exists, but the authors seem to be unanimous in implying by this outlook that, of course, we live in the "best of all possible worlds."

An interesting cultural and historical sidelight is the Africans' treatment, in their written and cultural histories, of the Macedonian conqueror Alexander, who conquered Egypt more than a century before the novel's breakpoint; and of Greek civilization in general, which predates the Carthage-Egypt alliance.It turns out that the Africans have Africanized Alexander, Socrates, and Greek history in general.This is exactly analogous to the Europeanization of Carthage and Egypt by historians and other commentators that has occurred in the current time line.

The novel has been extensively researched and it shows.Various cultures are deftly depicted.Characters, even minor ones, are realistically portrayed.

As a long-time aficionado of the alternate history genre, I have to say that Lion's Blood is the most ambitious rendering that I've ever read.I gladly give it five stars!

Crazy4Books
Book was received before its scheduled time and in great condition!I am very happy with this purchase.

Even after all these years - Lion's Blood Rules!
I read this book nearly a decade ago, and just recently reread it, and it still captures the imagination and makes one think deeply upon our past and present.

Being a proud African American, I was enthralled to find a worthy African American writer that could portray an alternate history that had blacks ruling and whites as slaves. Mind bender concept!
This book still stands after almost a decade, with characters that live and breathe thru the pages, man. Loads of bloody battles to.

Steven Barnes created a epic historical novel that Conn Iggulden's last couple of ghengis khan novels didnt quite reach in his second and third books.

Man Lions Blood is a classic in every ssense of the word.

Ah, the poor Irish
It seems the poor Irish can't catch a break, even in an alternate universe. ... Read more

Product Description
Bestselling science-fiction superstars Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle combine their talents with those of rising young author Steven Barnes in an extraordinary adventure of humankind's first outpost in the farthest reaches of space. 5 maps. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (52)

Gripping!
Terrific sci-fi, faced paced, excellent character development, plausible scenario.Couldn't put this one down!

No Masterpiece, But A Whacking Great Read
This is an extremely fun read - someone with no expectations other than to be amused and thrilled for several hours could do a lot worse than to read this book. The pacing is fast, the suspense knife-edge, and the xenobiology fascinating. I surprised myself with a second reading of the book, many years after my first reading which left me with an ambivalent reaction.

A reviewer has posted that they are not sure what Steven Barnes had to do with the writing - I would venture that the book's more disciplined structure and social interations probably are mostly his work. This can be deduced by a read of other Niven/Barnes collaborations, such as "The Descent ofAnansi" or "The Locusts." In the latter, a group of interplanetary colonists face the tragic realization that mankind's entire intellectual evolution is solely a mechanism for seeding other worlds, as their babies are all born as throwbacks to Homo Erectus - a Niven story idea if there ever was one. Given to Barnes to complete, this novella has a clean, clear structure quite different from Niven's natural momentum/shaggy dog story-type of narrative. The relationships within the colony are also more utilitarian and down-to-earth than in some Niven's more recent works which display aggressively libertarian societal presumptions (as in "The Smoke Ring" or "The Ringworld Engineers").

Of course, the concept of heroism and military tactics point straight at Pournelle in the character of Cadman. It's very believable that in a seemingly harmless world, a career officer might find themselves sidelined, and struggle to win the colony's respect. That is pure Pournelle, master of that sort of self-defining warrior character. And just as likely, the eerie uncertainties and jolting peril are trademark Niven, who could just as easily been one of the great crime or horror writers of today.

So while it's a fun read, it is certainly not a masterpiece. There are definitely moments when the pet quirks of the authors conspire to overwhelm the suspension of disbelief in the reader - such as the reactions of the characters in the conclusion of the story. Niven's strange notion that sexual freedom somehow results in the lifting of personal standards and emotional bonding kicks in as the tattered community bypasses the process of grieving and gets down to negotiating coupling rights. And the resolution of the conflict with the monsters is simply unbelievable - after carefully constructing and amplifying the logic of an insurmountable biological threat, the solution is tossed off in a couple of careless sentences followed up by no explanation of any depth. Without giving any of the story away, an isolated group of human defenders somehow get their mindless monster attackers to acknowledge their supremacy as predators. How this translates to all the other mindless monsters all over the rest of the world I'll never guess, because three authors never get around to telling me. I'd assume that the minute the defenders ran into a new group, we'd be back at page 225.

All this aside, it's a very enjoyable way to spend an afternoon. Its sins of inconsistency or faulty characterization are certainly no greater than, say, Dracula or Around the World in 80 Days. Except for the lurking presumption that between the three of them, the authors might have come up with a classic like those two books rather than just a page-turner.

Stultifyingly Boring ... and Unlikely To Boot In At Least One Area
As numerous other viewers have already stated, this is one of the worst efforts to ever spring from the minds of Niven and Pournelle. A guaranteed insomnia cure.

Even the name of the hero is hokey - Cadmann??? Why not Dirk or Apollo? what's wrong with a hero, for once, named Orville? But where I find it unlikely - given that we, as science fiction fans, readily accept the premise of a human colony on the fourth planet in the Tau Ceti system - is when one of the characters is careful to "blow his smoke away from her face...."

Now, come on! This is who knows how far into the future, they've just traveled for 100 years in an induced coma, and where every ounce of weight is presumably measured in terms of fuel, and they've brought along cigarettes?? Or the seeds to grow tobacco plants maybe?

Even the fact that some idiot would still be smoking at that distant future date is hard to fathom. Then again, maybe THAT is the ultimate science fiction.

Read it only if you've run out of Sominex.

Not Free SF Reader
A group of settlers on a planet include a lot of your smart scientific types.There is, however, one of your hard nosed, pragmatic security and military experts.He is not happy with how everything is set up.

Cue horror movie plot.Animals are eaten/disappear and Beowulfesque monsters roam, although they are just the local lifeforms, with their rather odd breeding cycles.Reminiscent of Heinlein's Stobor of course.

This is really pretty ordinary.

Yamabushi's mini reviews XVI
one the best books I've ever read, absolutely perfect in every regard
... Read more

Product Description
Tissue engineering is the use of a combination of cells, engineering and materials methods, and suitable biochemical and physio-chemical factors to improve or replace biological functions. While most definitions of tissue engineering cover a broad range of applications, in practice the term is closely associated with applications that repair or replace portions of or whole tissues (i.e., bone, cartilage, blood vessels, bladder, etc.). Often, the tissues involved require certain mechanical and structural properties for proper function. The term has also been applied to efforts to perform specific biochemical functions using cells within an artificially-created support system (e.g. an artificial pancreas, or a bioartificial liver). The term regenerative medicine is often used synonymously with tissue engineering, although those involved in regenerative medicine place more emphasis on the use of stem cells to produce tissues. This book presents recent and important research in the field. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Boris Vallejo made this book readable
Honestly, the cover is so fantastically campy that I had to read it.I found it while shelving books at the library where I work.

The story was not too painful, especially if you skim through it, and the Boris Vallejo illustrations sprinkled throughout the book were my reward for sludging through the text.They're kind of like the marshmallows in my Lucky Charms.Awesome.

Meh.Nice pitchers.
I've read most of the collaborations that involve Larry Niven; I think Mr. Niven is the perfect example of why author collaborations can be a good idea.The man has absolutely brilliant ideas, but he is really not much of a writer, so if the idea itself is not enough to carry you, the prose won't do it either -- this is why Ringworld is a watershed work in the science fiction world, but I couldn't finish reading it.

Niven and Barnes are one of the better collaborative teams, though not as good as Niven and Jerry Pournelle; Niven and Pournelle complement each other perfectly (Niven is a fair-to-middling writer with great ideas, Pournelle is an excellent writer with mediocre ideas), whereas Steven Barnes is actually a good writer all by himself, and thus doesn't mesh as well with Niven.And -- oh, it's illustrated by Boris Vallejo!Well, alright then: let's read about muscly women in skimpy outifts.

And that's much of the book.The premise is fairly interesting: the Olympics of the future has become a testing ground for the best and the brightest; athletes now have to participate in academic and artistic events along with their athletic events.As the world has moved toward a one-world, corporate-run society, the Olympics is less about national pride.But now there's a twist: athletes can opt to undergo a surgical procedure, called the Boost, that increases their nerve output and makes them quicker, stronger, more coordinated, and also able to think faster and heal better.But it kills them within eight or nine years, and so they only get two Olympics to try for the ultimate prize before they become too damaged to compete -- though if they win, they become Linked, one of the elite members of the ruling class, and they are given a means of managing their screwed-up bodies that gives them back their lifespan.So it's all or nothing: win enough gold medals and get chosen to survive, or fail and die.Since most of the athletes choose to Boost, there is no other option -- an unBoosted person simply can't compete with the Boosted ones.

So it fits in well with our modern version of sports, what with steroids and manic over-training to maintain a competitive edge, and I like that.I love the idea that the athletes have to be complete, rather than one-trick monkeys like our modern overpaid mindless amoral hulks.I like the heroine, to some extent, though there are some annoying things about her, too.But the message of the book is too focused on competition as a means of fixing everything.Too capitalistic for my tastes.I mean, the world has become a single peaceful society, and war is a thing of the past; however, the oligarchy in charge of the world has intentionally kept society from becoming a utopia, because they, like so many other futuristic societies I have read or seen in movies, have realized that a perfect world is self-defeating, that elementary chaos theory as well as a simple reading of human nature shows that people, given paradise, will find a way to mess it up.Okay, I got that; I may even agree, though I think we could find a new concept of what "mess it up" means that would lead to a utopia that we would see as perfection -- like, they live in peace and harmony but they all dress really badly, or something.But the underlying idea is that the heroine is the savior of this society, that she will be the one who fixes all of the problems and makes it better -- and they had to find her through the Olympics.She had to win an athletic contest, after Boosting, to prove herself worthy.The authors tried to construe it as evidence that she'd never give up, that she was willing to do anything to be the best, but come on.The character from Pursuit of Happyness is a far better example of determination than someone who is willing to kill themselves in order to win a goddamn sports event.

Anyway, it was a one-day read, and the Vallejo pictures were actually quite nice; since this was about hyper-athletic people, his usual depiction of perfect human musculature was appropriate here.It was good enough to read.

Not Free SF Reader
A short, entertaining, illustrated novel.Nothing too flash about it other than that.A woman decides to compete in an all-encompassing super-olympic style competition to enter society's elite.

The only way to win is to take a drug to boost your performance.This drug will kill you in a few years, unless you do manage to win and get into the elite and get treatment.

Behind all this is a conspiracy, and the woman involved discovers there is something not nice going on.Well, not nice compared to the get rid of competitors and other repression that is already going on, anyway.

Stepping into a Painting
This was enjoyable and engaging.Niven shows us a key part of Known Space, pulling us into a story that becomes reality as we read.I found myself seeing the world, however briefly, as a land where a drug can increase awareness and intelligence, but at great cost.This is the goal of every artist- not to paint reality, but to make reality for the viewer and reader.Although this was a short story, and lacked a great deal of depth, it is encouraging to read that rare case of a Christian existing in the future, and a protagonist at that.This book is finely crafted science fiction, both believable and pulling the reader in.

A swing and a miss
Here's the deal, kids -- if you have never read any Larry Niven, go read almost anything else he has ever written or collaborated in writing or even done an introduction for.Do that, and the odds are really good that you'll wind up reading everything he's ever written, and find yourself haunting the bookstores and logging on to Amazon daily hoping he'll write something more for you.

Read this book last out of all the things he's written.

If you've already read everything else he's written, then you might as well read this and have that feeling of completion.

OK, it really isn't all that bad -- but Niven is a great writer, and other things he's done with Barnes have been very good (I have not read any solo efforts by Barnes)and so this one is just so TANJed disappointing. ... Read more