Customer Reviews (1)

When Deadly Plants go Marching in.
"The Day of the Triffids" was for many years my favorite sci-fi novel; afterwards it was replaced in that honor place by Herbert's "Dune" and Simmon's "Hyperion".

I've read this novel when I was a teenager in the mythical Argentinean sci-fi magazine "M?s All?", it was published there as the main story of the inaugural number. I've treasured my collection for more than 40 years.
This translation allows Spanish reading public to get in touch with this sci-fi classic.
"The Day of the Triffids" still stands in my all-time best novels list and I've reread it once every couple of years.

It is a typical product of the '50, but with a forceful story line, exploring a post catastrophe world.
Our hero awakes one day at a London Hospital to discover 99,99% of Earth population has gone blind. The drama evolves smoothly, griping you up to the last page; it has a somewhat melancholic background, our known world fading into dust and a new one emerging from the ashes in a pitiless confrontation with the Triffids of the title.
It is a novel that fifty years after it was written still catch your interest and keep you going on.
In sci-fi not being dated is a commendation.

If the reader wants to have a vivid picture of London in a state similar to this book descriptions I encourage he/she to see the movie "28 Days Later".

I recommend this book to all sci-fi fans and general public too.
Do not miss this incredible story!
Reviewed by Max Yofre ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Birth, Death, and the Bits in Between
Another compilation of John Wyndham's earlier work. Five stories dealing with space travel, time travel, aliens and superweapons. These were written beforewe knew what we know now about our solar system. Published in a time that seemed more innocent, when Britain was the strongest nation in the world, when it was taken for granted that humans would walk on other planets before the end of the twentieth century.

The first story, "Sleepers of Mars", is a sequel of sorts to "Stowaway to Mars", dealing with different characters. Those who have read "Stowaway to Mars" will know that the action takes place in 1981. "Sleepers of Mars" is set just after the British rocket heads back to Earth, while the Russian team, who were in competition with the British, are stranded. Like many other stories about Mars, it mentions the canals that were thought to exist there.

"Invisible Monster", is like a vague prototype of the film "Predator", with an invisible alien creature that feeds on anything that strays into its path. The growing creature was brought back to Earth after a returning explorer ship crashed in a forest.

"Worlds to Barter" is a story in which the future makes contact with the past/present. A matter of us swapping places (and times) with the highly evolved descendents who live in an Earth in decline.

"The Man From Earth" is a fairly standard story of a man kept in a zoo on Venus. He warns the Venusians not to accept the overtures of the destructive, self-serving species he represents,unaware that he is the last human in the universe.

"The Third Vibrator", my personal favourite, offers an explanation of how two lost civilizations, Lemuria and Atlantis, were destroyed by a weapon of unimaginable power. This weapon (with the rather unfortunate name "vibrator") can turn miles of land into desert. Atlantis was once a mighty, technologically advanced civilization that passed into legend after its total destruction. The same danger faces 20th century civilization when the weapon is built again by the scientist who had destroyedthe two other civilizations in his previous lives. This story was written nineteen years before the hydrogen bomb came into being (for the first time?)

These stories, written by a man best remembered for destroying civilization with blinding comets and triffid seed, are quite clever in a charming sort of way. Light, easy reading. ... Read more

Product Description
I became aware that there was a force: that I was being moved, and that spacelessness had, therefore, ceased, too.
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Product Description
World War II was a war of production as well as of battles, campaigns, and strategies. As the United States Army faced its greatest challenge abroad in the form of the Axis military threat, soldiers and civilians on the American home front met an equally serious challenge: keeping the fighting men and the Allies supplied with the weapons, munitions, and other materiel needed to achieve victory. When vital war production was threatened by some of the most serious labor-management disputes in American history, the War Department intervened quickly and decisively, taking physical control of the affected industrial facilities and operating them under federal authority.

Although the length and depth of that control varied with the severity of the dispute, the nature of the enterprise, and the importance of the industry to the war effort, the federal government was at least able to continue production without resorting, as in the past, to the use of armed force. This, then, is the story of a small group of individuals in the War Department who were charged with the mission of guaranteeing that private companies provided the military goods that had been promised. Initially prepared by the individual most closely involved with this effort, John H. Ohly, this history shows how combined military and civilian teams, well-schooled in law and in modern business management, financial, and arbitration practices, settled repeated disputes without significant delays in production or, when necessary, operated war plants in the name of the federal government, peacefully and efficiently.

The development and implementation of procedures for the temporary but direct military supervision of private industries during World War II represented an innovation in the ever-growing role of the U.S. Army and the federal government in the production of war materiel. Although the work of Ohly and his compatriots was part of an expanding partnership of government and private industry, their experiences were in many ways unique. Grappling with difficult civil-military problems during a period of great national stress, they devised highly creative solutions B ones that still speak to us today and ones that will provide guidance in the future. For soldiers and civilians currently in the field of procurement, the following story thus has many lessons, not the least being the resolution of conflicting interests between the needs of the state and those of the private sector within the framework of our constitutional democracy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Help the Aged
We currently live in a society where people feel like they have to do everything before they're thirty. This is largely due to such depressingly self-evident phrases as "life's too short" or "you're only young once". But what if we had more time?

Francis Saxover, a respected biochemist, discovers a way to slow the ageing process, making it possible to live a couple of extra centuries. With a discovery of this magnitude, there are bound to be far-reaching implications, and Saxover tries to keep the miraculous cure (which he calls Antigerone) under wraps. Because the supply of Antigerone is limited, it's a question of deciding who gets the treatment. Who would use the time most wisely?

The benefits of most scientific advances are usually limited to the rich at first. But this changes over time. "Trouble With Lichen" is a satirical novel which poses some questions on the pros and cons of an increased lifespan. One obvious con is overpopulation. As we know, Earth is a planet of finite resources, a planet overburdened by an immature species contending with famine, disease and habitual war. At first, Antigerone is unlikely to alleviate this problem. On the other hand, if Antigerone did become widely available and people could live longer, they wouldn't feel the pressure to marry and have children as quickly as they do now, in order to pass on the family name. In fact, one could put off starting a family until they're in their early nineties. What about the rise in umemployment as people take longer to retire? One possible way around this would be to make people stay in school longer. At the moment twelve years is scarcely adequate for a full, comprehensive education. The learning process would be far less stressful if it wasn't so rushed. Can you imagine starting high school at fifty?

It would be nice to think that the longer we live the more wisdom we would gain. The pace through life would be much more leisurely and happy, not fraught with a feeling of dashed hopes and time slipping by.

It might have been interestingto actually see how the characters' lives unfold over the next two hundred years or so. But Wyndham leaves this to conjecture, which is a bit of a pity. Nevertheless "Trouble With Lichen" is certainly thought-provoking.

a novel with a great premise but poor execution..
Trouble With Lichen starts out so well.A couple of biochemists in the UK circa 1960 discover a lichen with extraordinary properties: it is able to extend human life by at least a factor of three.I was then anticipating a story which delves into the aftermath of having our lives elongated to two hundred years, along with all the social consequences (some good, mostly bad).But Wyndham disappoints.Once this lichen is discovered he spends too much time on the inter-personal squabbling between the scientists and discussions of the merits of publicly disclosing such a find ... I was always thinking "come on! get on with it!".Finally something does indeed happen but it is only towards the very end of the book.

Trouble With Lichen would have been a wonderful book in the hands of a more competent writer.John Wyndham has indeed written better; it is a mystery as to why he didn't capitalize on the fine premise he laid out in this book.

Bottom line: certainly okay for John Wyndham fans.But I find it difficult to recommend it to anyone else.

Thinking person's science fiction
I remember always thinking of the book with the definite article as the first word in the title; of course, it isn't, and is stronger Wyndham's way.Just one of those tricks our minds play on us, i suppose.Now, what can i write about this "Trouble" without sounding gushing and over-wrought?Because that is the way i feel, have always felt, about Wyndham; more so, now that i've found and reread some of his books (with more to come soon!).He was certainly a thinking person's science fiction writer; you can read him if you aren't prepared to think, but you'll miss so much that he has to offer.He does much of the thinking for you, lays it out in his characters' musings and conversations ~ which may make him a little off-putting to some people, who just want action ~ but requires that you follow along and understand where the characters are going, and why.Some of it, though, you have to do yourself; you come away from the book with questions, and a feeling that he has answered them for you already.This is how it would be if an antigerone were discovered in limited supply.There would be warfare unleashed in society; the clever discoverer would realise that beforehand and plan accordingly.But not only are you given these answers (and questions, and ideas) you are given a fine story, too.Wyndham is a story-teller who grabs your attention soon after you open his book, and he doesn't give it back until he's done with it.Love to read him...

A Good Read
One of John Wyndham's best.Diana Brackly, along with Francis Saxover, discover the cure for ageing and the problems it faces.Read it- you'll like it.

Something worth considering
In this innovative novel Wyndham faces todays most intrusive problem, old age, and its cure. A good example of one of the first science fiction novels that isn't merely a diversion but also a peek at the moralities that might follow those discoveries that at the moment only exist in our imagination. Even though the end is a disappointment, it is appropriate for those who love science fiction as well as those who have under-rated this expanding corner of fiction ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Weird Stories
These collected stories are a little on the quirky side. Best described as short and sharp, they make an obvious attempt to be humorous. True to the Wyndham style, the humour is often dry. In a way the tales are almost like "Twilight Zone" episodes (the ones shown in the late 1950s). Not all of them fit comfortably into a particular genre. You have to bear in mind they were written in a different culture to the one that exists now.

The first story ("Jizzle") is about a circus monkey who can accurately draw what she sees. "A Present From Brunswick" is like a warped version of the Pied Piper. Other stories involve heaven, hell, living one's life over again, meeting one's future self, and nurturing pet dragons.

One story that stands out for me is called "The Wheel". It's about a post-apocalyptic, god-fearing community who believe that the wheel is evil. According to their history, the devil tempted man with the wheel until eventually the human race was almost wiped out because of it. Does that sound a little bit like "The Chrysalids"? There's even a young boy in the story called David, who unwittingly upsets everyone when he brings home a crate with wooden wheels on it.

All these stories were compiled in 1954, its interesting to see how the writer started out. According to the book "Trillion Year Spree" J.G. Ballard had some pretty harsh words to say about John Wyndham. It's hard to say what Ballard would have made of these stories. Then again, people have said some harsh words about Ballard.

"Jizzle" was later revised for American readers as "Tales of Gooseflesh and Laughter". ... Read more

Product Description
A lavishly illustrated edition of one of the greatest epic poems in history. Sir Kenneth Clark calls it "unquestionably the most beautiful illustrated Dante in existence." ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Masterpiece
Written by the German poet and dramatist Friedrich Schiller [1st. ed. Leipzig 1787], Don Carlos is the tragedy of a royal family: King Philip II of Spain, his wife, and his only son and heir, Don Carlos. While struggling to maintain his sovereignty over the Spanish Netherlands, Philip contends with a threat much closer to the throne: the Crown Prince. Eager to liberate the Netherlanders from his father's control, Don Carlos is also in love with his stepmother Elizabeth. Clouded by their private passions, manipulated by the sinister Duke of Alba, Philip and Carlos are forced into an endgame with mortal consequences. The struggle for freedom - personal, religious, and amorous - is at the heart of this masterpiece of suspense and passion. ... Read more