A relative "turned me on" to this book. Yes, it is out of print. But if you haven't read it - go find it. I found a copy through Amazon, and what a value ...! Brown takes his readers into the bowels of espionage, counter-espionage, and a host of "immaculate deceptions" concocted by those who became responsible for the success of Allied efforts during WWII. Beyond the riveting stories of mystery and mayhem created by MI-5, MI-6, the OSS, and even Churchill himself who loved this sort of thing, Brown explains WWII politics, including the cement-head of Charles DeGaulle, and the political implications of the post WWII era that were being considered in all quarters well before the end of the war. Not to mention an in-depth study of the "Shawarz Kapelle," the conspiracy within Germany to do away with Hitler.

The success of D-Day, the effects of D-Day not only on the soldiers who fought but also and especially upon those who planned the operation, the successes and failures of many deceptions designed to keep the Axis guessing, are all described in detail. D-Day was the culmination of the games, ruses and set-ups that had been going on for almost four years.

If you haven't read this book, don't let the 1976 pub. date deter you. This is a must-read for anyone interested in WWII, WWII politics and post WWII politics, and anyone interested in learning about the lengths nations would go to in order to achieve deception.

A relative "turned me on" to this book. Yes, it is out of print. But if you haven't read it - go find it. I found a copy through Amazon, and what a value ...! Brown takes his readers into the bowels of espionage, counter-espionage, and a host of "immaculate deceptions" concocted by those who became responsible for the success of Allied efforts during WWII. Beyond the riveting stories of mystery and mayhem created by MI-5, MI-6, the OSS, and even Churchill himself who loved this sort of thing, Brown explains WWII politics, including the cement-head of Charles DeGaulle, and the political implications of the post WWII era that were being considered in all quarters well before the end of the war. Not to mention an in-depth study of the "Shawarz Kapelle," the conspiracy within Germany to do away with Hitler.

The success of D-Day, the effects of D-Day not only on the soldiers who fought but also and especially upon those who planned the operation, the successes and failures of many deceptions designed to keep the Axis guessing, are all described in detail. D-Day was the culmination of the games, ruses and set-ups that had been going on for almost four years.

If you haven't read this book, don't let the 1976 pub. date deter you. This is a must-read for anyone interested in WWII, WWII politics and post WWII politics, and anyone interested in learning about the lengths nations would go to in order to achieve deception.

I had to stop by and read the reviews on "Bodyguard of Lies". Wow,of 8 reviews, 7 gave it 5 stars and 1 gave it 4. The 4 star review, submitted in 1996, griped that the book was "historically inaccurate" because it did not consult "recently released" material.

If that is the worst thing you can say about this book, then I'll take it. "Bodyguard..." was written in 1976 only a few years after the disclosure of ULTRA and other previously, highly classified secrets that did not come to light until decades after the war. In its humble defense, "Bodyguard of Lies" is not only the best book I have ever read on WWII or spies, but one of the best books I have ever read, period. I highly recommend this book to anyone with the slightest interest in not only WWII or espionage, but history and great writing; Brown is a writer and storyteller of the finest kind. Extremely well-documented and suspensefull, this book is far more gripping and compelling than anything Hollywood could ever come up with, and the best part is that the book is true, and "historically accurate". Read this book, then you too can write a rave review.

The time is the barbaric future and you have to take up a militant profession to survive and live well.
Warriors, pick up a sword, a club or a rope and enter the Battle Circle to show your skills!
This is one of Anthony's seldom-talked-about-book and difficult to find in bookshops (at least in Singapore and Malaysia)compared to some of his other titles. Hey, even amazon.com has only a used copy for sale!
The trilogy trails the stories of Sos The Rope, Var The Stick and Neq The Sword (no prizes for guessing what weapons they use), with the tale turning from just another military fantasy type yarn, to post-Apocalypse sci-fi in an interesting manner.

I found this an amazing treatise on the value of a society based on honor. Two men, one circle. All decisions were final. Any dispute settled, any argument quelled. And then the novellas grow from there. Very often, one reads a book, but never actually feels anything for the characters involved. Sos changes all of that. Quite simply, the most amazing piece of literature I've read by Piers Anthony or any other author.

I've read this book several times over the years, and it remains my favorite story of post-apocalyptic survival! It is very much worth the time and money required to find a copy!

I found this book to be a beautiful love story, my favorite of the Xanth series. It is a humorous book filled with bad puns, as there are no good puns. Perfect for the fantasy lover and anyone else looking for good reading. Enjoy!

I think Harpy Thyme was a good book because Gloha Goblin-Harpy crossbreed, goes on a quest to find her ideal man. In the book there was a part that made me cry. I think it was one of his best Piers Anthony books he has ever written.

This is the first Piers Anthony book I have read and it got me hooked!

Gloha is a half goblin and half harpy. She wonders if she'll find a half goblin half harpy man to love. So she goes to ask the Great Magician. Instead of giving her an answer the Magician sends her on a wild quest. She meets new friends and adventure is magically weaved throughout the pages! In the end she found friendship ... but could it be love? No, how could it possibly be love if he's her kind of creature???

A fun read, full of puns and adventure!!! Recommended to anyone who likes or loves a nice book to smile about in the end! Have fun! :-)

The Black Dog Opera Library Series had outdone themselves once again. In this 1972 recording of Mozart's last opera, we are treated to a fine performance by fine singers, a fully illustrated book with liner notes and commentary, as well as information useful in biographies on the composer and his time. Mozart was close to his death bed at the time he composed The Magid Flute. He made an opera that could be enjoyed at many levels. At one level, it is a comic, brilliant fairy tale for children, at another level, it is deeply symbolic and layed with Masonic ideals of universal brotherhood and love. Mozart and his librettist were both Freemasons, a religous "sect" that was under hot water in 18th century Vienna for its pagan origins and its advocation of ideas of the Enlightenment. The story is about Tamino, a prince who is lost in a strange land (originally, a mystic Egypt), who is rescued from a serpent by three mysterious women and promised the hand of the daughter of the Queen of the Night if he saves her from the wizard Sarastro. Together with the help of the comic bird-catcher, Papageno, he sets out on his adventure. But halfway through the opera, he discovers that he has been deceived. The Queen of the Night is the true villain and Sarastro is really a holy man. After many trials, the forces of evil are defeated and the opera ends blissfully with a victory.

Musically and dramatically, it is Mozart's greatest opera. From the striking Overture to the use of dark strings, trumpet and soaring flute passages, the individual arias which express intense emotions to the neverending theme that good triumphs over evil, the Magic Flute stands out as a great opera to begin with for newcomers and a favorite for old time opera fans.

In this recording, conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch leads the Bavarian State Orchestra in a highly effective, thoroughly dramatic and sentimental, full interpretation of Mozart's score. Tenor Peter Schreir as Tamino is exceptional, passionate in his aria "Dies Bildnis" (This portrait), and again as he plays his flute in "Wie Stark ist Nicht dein Zauberton" (How powerful is your music, magic flute), his individual lines in the ensembles and his duet with Pamina as they undergo the final trial of fire. Annelise Rothenberger, a sublime German lyric soprano, is moving in her portrayal of Pamina. She has her moments in this recording. Note how her high, melodic voice seems to come from nowhere as she confronts Sarastro and Tamino for the first time "Herr! Ich bin zwar Verbrecherin ! (Sir! I am the transgressor). Her aria "Ach Ich Fuhls" (O, I feel that happy days have passed) is the finest interpretation, full of pathos and a kind of melancholic madness, as well as her lines in her suicide attempt, finally, she is sublime as a strong woman ready to face trials with Tamino, especially striking when she sings the line "Tamino!".

Kurt Moll's Sarastro is without question the best. His voice is suited for God. So divine and sonorous and full of grace, his voice is especially noticeable in the aria "O Isis and Osiris " and "In deisen Heilen Hallen"( In these holy halls). Finally, and not to be missed, is Edda Moser's incredible interpretation of the Queen of the Night. You have not heard the true Queen of the Night, until you've heard Edda Moser. She has a Wagnerian intensity and neurosis in her lines, apt and effective for the role of a Queen bent on deception and the murder of her rival, Sarastro. Her aria "O Zittre Nicht, Mein Lieber Son" (O tremble not, beloved son" is full of lyric dramatic passages and coloratura at the end. The vengeance aria "Der Holle Rache Kocht Meine Herzen "(Hell's Anger Burns Within My Heart) is full of fire. The way she attacks the dramatic, powerful lines is out of this world and the high F's she escalates are unsurpassed.

The re-release of the legendary 1972 recording of Die Zauberflöte, conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch, is a great blessing to all who know and love this great work. Edda Moser's interpretation of the Queen of the Night is justly celebrated, achieving not only transcendently perfect delivery, but also a chilling portrait of pure evil. All of the other cast members are excellent. The spoken role of Papageno is particularly striking, sounding sufficiently pungent to remind us that the role was originally played by Emanuel Schickaneder himself. The tempi are, for the most part remarkably well-chosen. In addition, the Masonic gravity of the subject matter is constantly respected. The chorus of the armed men is properly alarming, the cantus firmus stridently insistent above the counterpoint of the strings. Even more uncommon is the treatment of the secondary scenes of Act II, especially the chorus Welche Wonne, in which the evocation of the candidate's future "new life" is infused with the trepidation inevitably attendant upon any trial of life and death. All too often, this work, which is gravely serious in its intent, is presented as a fairy tale. This recording successfully conveys the philosophical context, and does justice to Mozart's attachment to Masonry. [The only flaw which I could detect is the inclusion of a very questionable musical fragment, inserted into Act II, Scene 11 ("Pamina, wo bist du?"). I could locate no reference to this anywhere in my extensive library on the subject, and can only speculate that it might be some unacknowledged retention from one of the infamous "reworkings" of the opera which occurred after Mozart's death....At any rate, it requires an explanation....]

In view of this, it is sad to see this beautiful recording issued in association with a perfectly vile and disrespectful book about the opera. The author has the temerity to liken this work to "a Broadway musical", "a rollicking entertainment for the common man" simply because it was composed as a Singspiel, or German opera with spoken dialogue. This is equivalent to likening one of Shakespeare's comedies to a street farce. The book also suggests that Zauberflöte was composed for purposes of pure entertainment, unless it is, perchance, a "work of profound insight" dressed up in the trappings of a "cartoon". Obviously, the writer is ignorant of the significance of the Egyptian setting in the time of Mozart, when it was a clear symbol for rational ideas and liberal politics. The details of the setting delineate the struggle which was then taking place in Europe, over the true nature of Masonry, philosophy and music, and which soon came to a terrible end, for that time at least, with the banning of Freemasonry in Austria, and the loss of much of the learning about ancient philosophy which had been so laboriously gathered in circles such as that frequented by Mozart. It is largely on account of Zauberflöte, which alludes with precision to much of that learning, that it was not entirely annihilated in the chaos of the revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. Rather than misrepresenting this vitally important work, those who have the privilege of coming into contact with it should do all in their power to contribute to the very difficult, vital, and continuing attempt to understand it. While the availability of this recording is of great value, it is scandalous to see it associated with a contribution to the generally prevailing ignorance about this extremely important, and very difficult, work.

An irate Mozartian

The re-release of the legendary 1972 recording of Die Zauberflote, conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch, is a great blessing to all who know and love this great work. Edda Moser's interpretation of the Queen of the Night is justly celebrated, achieving not only transcendently perfect delivery, but also a chilling portrait of pure evil. All of the other cast members are excellent. The spoken role of Papageno is particularly striking, sounding sufficiently pungent to remind us that the role was originally played by Emanuel Schickaneder himself. The tempi are, for the most part remarkably well-chosen. In addition, the Masonic gravity of the subject matter is constantly respected. The chorus of the armed men is properly alarming, the cantus firmus stridently insistent above the counterpoint of the strings. Even more uncommon is the treatment of the secondary scenes of Act II, especially the chorus Welche Wonne, in which the evocation of the candidate's future "new life" is infused with the trepidation inevitably attendant upon any trial of life and death. All too often, this work, which is gravely serious in its intent, is presented as a fairy tale. This recording successfully conveys the philosophical context, and does justice to Mozart's attachment to Masonry. [The only flaw which I could detect is the inclusion of a very questionable musical fragment, inserted into Act II, Scene 11 {"Pamina, wo bist du?"). I could locate no reference to this anywhere in my extensive library on the subject, and can only speculate that it might be some unacknowledged retention from one of the infamous "reworkings" of the opera which occurred after Mozart's death....At any rate, it requires an explanation....]

In view of this, it is sad to see this beautiful recording issued in association with a perfectly vile and disrespectful book about the opera. The author has the temerity to liken this work to "a Broadway musical", "a rollicking entertainment for the common man" simply because it was composed as a Singspiel, or German opera with spoken dialogue. This is equivalent to likening one of Shakespeare's comedies to a street farce. The book also suggests that Zauberflöte was composed for purposes of pure entertainment, unless it is, perchance, a "work of profound insight" dressed up in the trappings of a "cartoon". Obviously, the writer is ignorant of the significance of the Egyptian setting in the time of Mozart, when it was a clear symbol for rational ideas and liberal politics. The details of the setting delineate the struggle which was then taking place in Europe, over the true nature of Masonry, philosophy and music, and which soon came to a terrible end, for that time at least, with the banning of Freemasonry in Austria, and the loss of much of the learning about ancient philosophy which had been so laboriously gathered in circles such as that frequented by Mozart. It is largely on account of Zauberflöte, which alludes with precision to much of that learning, that it was not entirely annihilated in the chaos of the revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. Rather than misrepresenting this vitally important work, those who have the privilege of coming into contact with it should do all in their power to contribute to the very difficult, vital, and continuing attempt to understand it. While the availability of this recording is of great value, it is scandalous to see it associated with a contribution to the generally prevailing ignorance about this extremely important, and very difficult, work.

An irate Mozartian

The conceit of this book is that the governors of a futuristic, terribly overcrowded world will do anything to discourage procreation. The book was written in 1962, when birth control pills were just around the corner and vasectomies were certainly heard of...so why, one might ask, postulate a society that encourages homosexuality as a means of controlling the population (as far as I know, AB had no axe to grind in this department)? There are several instances of Burgess' science being a bit off the mark, but one quickly realizes that's beside the point. Burgess was clearly less concerned with science than with his own form of speculative social anthropology. His characters are well-defined but essentially artificial, meant to propel his thoughtful social theories and populate some wryly chilling suppositions about the direction modern life might be taking. Still, to those who admire him, Burgess is a unique and brilliant wordsmith, a man who loves and knows language so well that he can twist and reinvent it for his own purposes (no one who's read "A Clockwork Orange" needs to be told that). There are funnier and more down-to-earth Burgess books, to be sure. However, if you are amused by pure wordplay and don't mind keeping a dictionary handy when you read...you'll enjoy Burgess as a whole and this book in particular. p.s.: A Burgess must-read is "Nothing Like the Sun", Mr. B's mini-biography of Shakespeare

Your bookstore is stocked full of novels predicting mankind's future, but none quite like this. With the Wanting Seed, Anthony Burgess turns the typical dystopian novel on its ear. Instead of a methodical, technorganic world, Mr. Burgess presents a smelly, macrobiotic mess of overpopulation and disharmony. Instead of a more stringent emphasis on rightwing ideals, the aforementioned overpopulation has caused an enthusiastic governmental endorsement of homosexuality and opposition to typical family ideals. Instead of a grim, foreboding atmosphere, Mr. Burgess employs a lighthearted, quirky tone, allowing readers to smirk at the ridiculousness and incongruity to which the world of the Wanting Seed has been driven. It is obvious that Mr. Burgess, the same literary practical joker who filled his best-know book, A Clockwork Orange, with make-up slang, meant to poke some well-needed fun at the dismal 1984/Brave New World genre.

But just because the Wanting Seed is a work of playful parody and dark comedy does not mean there is nothing profound about it. In fact if I had to pick the one dystopian novel towards which our society is most surely leaning, it would be this one (which is pretty amazing considering it was written in 1962). As counties like China and India are regulating procreation and instituting their own versions of Mr. Burgess' "population police" and the value of human life wilts ever downward, I wonder how close we are to vision of the Wanting Seed. The novel stands as a warning that repressing man's natural urges and diminishing his worth is not the answer to the problem. Your bookstore is stocked full of novels predicting mankind's future, but few as startling and important as this.

I first read this book when I was 14. I was doomed to dread the future from the start. In the back of my mind these words hold true more often than not. In my eyes this is one of his finest works.

A few weeks ago during some sick time I read one of the more recent Xanth novels. It made me question why I used to read everything Anthony came out with. He is just bad, bland, and childish. Trying to understand why I used to love his work, I did a bit of internet research and found him constently listed as worst hack alive. Well, as bad as those Xanth books have gotten they would be just run of the mill to an author who didn't have Macroscope in him. It isn't that he is so bad, it is just that he is giving us THAT, when he is capable of THIS. I don't blame him for wanting to write things that will sell tons of copies to 13 year old girls, money is money, but how I wish, now that his bank-roll is secure, he would give some of us the benifit of the brilliance he has so long surpressed.
I wont go in to details about the plot, as I have seen many others here already have. I will say, however, that his characters in this book posses of level of development unseen in his current works. The dialog is much better, crediting the reader with the intelligence to infer meaning rather than having is spelled as if we were ALL 13 yaar old girls. He does not rely on excessive sexual innuendo to hold the readers attention ( neither childish as in Xanth where everyone wants to peek up skirts, sadistic as in Cathon, imaginitive as in the CLuster series, or disturbing as in Firefly ( where he tries to convince us that having sex with a pre-schooler is okay if she asks for it)). IN summation, this book has all the elements of great sciecne fiction without the literary (?) tricks he relies on today.
It is one of my favorites, but stay away from it if you like the stuff he writes today or you will never be satisfied again.

In this reviewer's mind, Macroscope represents the best of what Piers Anthony has offered the Sci-Fi genre. His skill at combining science, adventure, and his trademark humor show through in this exceptional epic. By weaving in and out of a perceived history from the perspective of the hero (Ivo Archer), the author creates a vivid universe peopled with literally dozens of different environments and characters. There is a hard edge lurking behind every plot twist that may surprise and shock even veteran SF readers. This is a book I've gone back to several times and look forward to reading again sometime

Macroscope was definetily the best science fiction book I ever read! This book had me thinking all the way through as to who Schon was and why the macroscope in the story was destroying the minds of earths greatest scientists. This book is filled with adventure and the way Mr.Anthony lets you know what is going on in side the minds of the characters shows how talented he is at writing. I seriously recomend science fiction readers everywhere to read this one you will not be disappointed!

This is an awesome book! The authors obviously know their audience and offer great suggestions on ways to reduce debt. The section on dealing with credit card companies is invaluable. I took their advice and have already had the APR's on all my accounts dropped to below 8%. Both writers make it clear that becoming debt-free is not going to happen overnight, but their practical tips are things that you can do immediately to see a difference. Never are they preachy or condescending, but rather amusing, as they definitely make it clear that they've "been there, done that."
I highly recommend this book for any person who is aware of their impending financial doom and who wants to do something about it, but doesn't know quite where to begin.
I hope you find this book as inspiring as my husband and I have!

Mr. Anthony's engaging writing style offers straightforward "I've been there" financial advice along with an inviting dose of humor to help the medicine go down. As a thirty-something who experienced many financial pitfalls and learned how to handle them the hard way, I only wish a book like this was around ten years ago. Excellent advice on handling bank fees, insurance issues, credit card debt, cutting down on entertainment expenses, etc. apply to all ages. A great inspiration to get your finances and your life back in order.

My chances of becoming debt-free by 30 have passed. However, as I perused the aisles of my local bookstore in search of a common sense book about getting out of debt, this one was clearly the winner. The book is filled with common sense advice on how to cut expenses and prepare for the future. It's all outlined in an easy-to-read fashion and delivered with a witty sense of humor. The authors offer a variety of on-line resources which I promptly accessed as I read through the chapters.

Prior to reading the book I was sure I had analyzed my budget completely and was paying off as much of my debt as possible. However, after reading some of the stories and examples in the book, I reworked my figures and discovered an extra $200 a month I can contribute to debt-reduction.

Anthony and Cluck have a "come on, you can do it" attitude that makes debt reduction seem a little less painful. I sure wish I had this book when I was twenty-something. However, with a little motivation I was able to establish my own debt-free day which will be well before I'm 40. Some of us take longer to learn. Wherever you are on your debt reduction efforts, this book can help.

Staggeringly detailed, Anthony's first-rate biography of First Lady Florence Harding shines a brilliant, sympathetic spotlight on a modern, progressive, intelligent woman whose persona and achievements have been overlooked and underappreciated for far too long. President Harding himself has been an obscure figure for too much of this century, and Anthony's book helps to make the achievements and monumental failures of his administration more accessible and understandable to the average reader. The paralells to more recent Presidents and their spouses only serve to underline just how "modern" and ground-breaking were the roles played by Harding and his wife. A host of colorful historic characters are clearly brought to life by Anthony, including some notable females such as Alice Roosevelt Longworth and Evalyn Walsh McClean, the warm-hearted dissapated owner of the fabled Hope Diamond. In all, Anthony weaves a colorful portrait of a small town girl who rose, despite incredible odds and near insurmountable trajedies, to a position of incredible power and influence. Clearly a life worth re-examining, and a beautifully written biography of interest to any reader who enjoys American History.

Florence Harding's biography is not something that I would normally want to read, let alone spend money to obtain. However, after leafing through it in our local bookstore, I added it to my cart on a whim the last time I bought from Amazon. If you are interested in American History in general and the presidency in particular (as I am), you will devour this book (as I did). The parallels to the Clintons, while unmentioned by the author, are undeniable; in fact, it would be appropriate for Hillary to attempt channeling with Florence rather than Eleanor Roosevelt! This makes the reading all the more lively and contemporary. This biography does a great service to the memory of Florence Harding, who comes off very poorly in nearly all the historical summaries I have read. She is usually portrayed as imperious, aggressive, and authoritarian -- which she was, but not without reason; and Harding is portrayed as being the victim of a loveless marriage -- which he was not, she adored him. Why is the wife always blamed for her "coldness" when a husband sleeps around? I was left with great admiration for Mrs. Harding, and a desire to learn even more about her. Congratulations, Mr. Anthony, on a monumental biography.

Never would I have thought that a book about the wife of Warren Harding, a president largely dismissed as the worst in U.S. history, would be so entertaining, absorbing, and historically valuable. Not only does it provide in-depth analyses of the scandals, the controversy surrounding Warren's death, and the political climate of the times, but the book presents a strong woman clearly ahead of her time. In addition, the author provides a wealth of detail, especially relating to Harding's progressive views, that I had never seen anywhere else. I thank the author for bringing this period in our history to light and giving all history buffs new ideas to ponder. After all, we've seen countless books on Lincoln, Jefferson, and FDR, and while Harding is light years away from them, it is still refreshing to learn about the neglected figures of the past.

This book is just excellent, i've been programming JAVA, and i was always trying to find such a book. When i got it I just began reading it and the more i read the more successful code i could produce, This book is *PERFECT* just look at the reviews to figure it out. Buy it if you have heard about "Java language" !

When I changed jobs to program from C++/Smalltalk to Java, this is the book I used the most for the first couple of months. Lots of useful information that is easy to find (each tidbit is pretty much stand alone). I still use it a lot.

A very good book explaining Java 1.0 in detail. The learn by tips approach is excellent. Unfortunately this book covers version 1.0 and many of the features have been deprecated as of version 1.2. Still , this remains an excellent book.

Earthly Powers is the sort of novel that could have been released as a series of shorter novels quite easily, with a sense of great allies and villains recurring and departing. The novel is told from the viewpoint of Kenneth Toomey, gay writer of songs and books, as he lurches through the 20th Century on uncertain legs. On his way he recounts in vivid detail his spectatorship of the First and Second World Wars, his run-ins with people both fictional and real (Pope Carlo Campanati, Il Duce, the Fuhrer, and Jakob Strehler, to name but a few), and the remarkable recurring effects of religion upon his life and those of others. Funny and thought-provoking throughout, Earthly Powers spans a tale some seventy years in length, and by the end of the novel the reader has acquired a sense of fate's heavy hand and cosmic justice (or abuse thereof).

If I were to venture any criticism of the book whatsoever, it would be that the author is almost too brilliant for his audience. With his fictional masterpiece "A Clockwork Orange", Burgess has a definite message to proclaim, but here the enjoyment of the book would appear to rest more in the sublime comic references to other literary sources - something which can alienate and try the patience of lesser mortals.

I felt an overwhelming sense of sorrow and desperation at the storyteller's old age and ill treatment by the world, I joined in his wonder at the curative powers of the Pope, I was awed in the presence of Heinrich Himmler and Benito Mussolini, but I felt that there was much more going on in Toomey's narration than mere facts: I felt that there was some underlying message which was vaguely hinted at, referred to, tantalizingly glimpsed but never fully revealed. And perhaps because of the relative inaccessibility of the novel, and because of its potentially unplumbable depths, I reached the end of the book (whereupon Ken Toomey, 80+ years of age, finally lies down to rest with his beautiful sister) with a sense of matters unconcluded.

The ! novel is certainly very well written and enjoyable if the reader is a deep thinker, polyglot, or well-read, but being none of the above I must confess that Earthly Powers was a step down from good old Alex and his 'droogs' in Clockwork Orange.

As the venerable English reviewer Peter Marcus noted, this is Burgess' masterpiece. While "A Clockwork Orange" is the better known book (chiefly because of the film - which most people know of but few have seen),"Earthly Powers" is without doubt the finer work. Huge in scope, covering a multitude of decades, this extraordinary acheivement is one of the few truly epic novels that actually manages to sustain the interest constantly. There is no point in explaining about Ken Toomey, Geoffrey, Hortense, Carlo and Domenico Campanati (not pronounced Campa-neighty) and the host of other characters which litter this superlative piece of literature. Their various appeals become plain as day to even the casual reader - which it is very difficult to be when faced with a book as challenging, humourous, and rewarding as this. I, too, spit on the so-called "literary" establishment who overlooked this book in favour of the frothy tripe they awarded honours to. However, so debased are the awards by overlooking this novel that, paradoxically, I am now glad Burgess' genius is not sullied and soiled by association with such scandalous ruffians as the awardsmen truly are. I'll stop now, and you'll click on the bit that says... buy, buy, buy! Or, do what I did, and get it from your local library, saving time and money.

It seems presumptuous to be definitive in the area of literature. But every now and then there is a book, such as Earthly Powers, that compells one to reach for superlatives. This is a masterful example of the literary novel, one that frequently makes its appearance on the 'top-ten' lists of 'all time greats' as compiled by those who have made it their business to read as much as possible.Burgess lavished effort on this, setting out to create a masterpiece, and he succeeded without ever forgetting the novelist's duty to perform, above all, as a storyteller for his audience.And what a story he tells!This is in essence a trip through the Twentieth Century that encompasses as many aspects as possible of what defined the era. All is seen through the eyes of an intelligent, sensitive, and sometimes bitterly confused man, Kenneth Twomey. As such, the story is his, and spans some eighty odd years.Burgess is careful to weave his tale as engagingly as he can. Despite verdant vocabulary - always contextually perfect - the pages flick past at great speed. We are not subjected to many of the more conventional literary devices utilised to pull readers in. Instead we are involved through the sheer pathos and variety of the world and age that Kenneth, Oddysean-like, must navigate.We are introduced to dozens of countries and a veritable mob of characters, none of whom ever blur or become confused in our mind, because they are drawn with such easy clarity - I have encountered very few personalities in contemporary fiction as well-realised as these.The themes that run through the book are many; love, God, war, identity, suffering, the creative impulse, guilt, peversion, philosophy, nobility and evil. Only a few of these are made obvious - the book, after all, is meant to reflect life. The rest are perched delicately for us to discern between the lines. We do not find ourselves subjected to the author shoving his own particular brand of morality down our throats; a trait rarely avoided even by luminaries within the fiction field. Burgess is far too modest to think that he should discern for our benefit the differences between right and wrong on the grand scale - that is left entirely to us. With this in mind, he is at pains to create a mood of ubiquitous evil hanging over large portions of the novel, an evil which is hard to define specifically, and it is the reader who must try to make sense of it, as themes and plots grow and elaborate over decades and continents. He does this with consummate skill.If I have been vague it is because it is impossibly difficult to get into the fabric of Earthly Powers in such a short space. It takes on far too much to lend itself to summarisation. One can only keep repeating, 'This is a masterpiece; truly a masterpiece.' Why it never received the critical acclaim it so assuredly deserved will forever remain a dreadful inditement of a literary establishment jealous of possibly its most talented virtuoso. So many critics have such petty and venal motivations. By the way, the opening line is considered by many to be one of the greatest ever written. "It was the morning of my eighty first birthday and I was in bed with my . . ." Buy it and read for yourself. This one will stay with you for years. Unless of a most violently parochial and small-minded disposition, I cannot envisage anyone failing to be thrilled and awed by a book so gigantic in theme and substance.