This is a book you can hear...the interviews with people who live in western North Carolina are so well done that as you read you can hear the people speaking. This book covers many topics from farming to history. A good cross section of people gives the reader the opportunity to read different opinions on the varied topics. The book is filled with excellent photograhs. Especially interesting are photographs of most of the people interviewed in the book. Putting faces with the 'voices' is a real treat! The reader gets a good overview of the history of the area and insights into often ignored aspects of the culture of this georgous part of the US. This book is a good research tool for anyone learning about the area and it is entertaining reading as well. I love it!

Although out of print this volume and its companion volune PHOENIX are among my favorite collections. They are very insightful in areas D.H.L. is not usually recognized for.

In this volume one of my favorites is HYMNS IN A MAN'S LIFE. It starts "Nothing is more difficult than to determine what a child takes in, and does not take in, of its environment and its teaching..." Later, "...Love is a great emotion, and power is power. But both love and power are based on wonder. Love without wonder is a sensational affair, and power without wonder is mere force and compulsion. The one uiniversal element in consciousness which is fundamental to life is the element of wonder."

And consider D.H.L.'s insight into scientific research when he says: "Even the real scientist works in the sense of wonder. The pity is, when he comes out of his laboratory he puts aside his wonder along with his apparatus, and tries to make it all perfactly didactic. Science in its true condition of wonder is as religious as any religion..." In my work as a scientist I find this to be very true. The little hints, the inspiration, the hunches, the dead ends...none of these is acknowledged as one tries to make the result of the investigation perfectly logical.

He goes on to talk about his religious childhood and how it carried over into his adult life. Hear his recollections: "...I liked our chapel, which was tall and full of light, and yet still; and colour-washed pale green and blue, with a bit of lotus pattern. And over the organ-loft, 'O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness,' in big letters."

D,H.L. had a rich background in the Bible, and it entered many of his works. The book APOCALYPSE is devoted in its entirely to the analysis of the Book of Revelation. An essay in the initial PHOENIX is titled "On Being Religious". His religion developed beyond the usual Christian dogma, and he gives top billing to The Holy Spirit.

The last two essays in PHOENIX II are titled: "On Being a Man", and "On Human Destiny." very provocative titles.

I have touched on the element of religion because D.H.L. usually is not associated with "religious" thoughts. A vast variety of other subjects are treated in other essays, as well as the full text of his novel MR NOON.

This book is one of my treasures!

This collection reprints the first 3 issues of Transmet, and deals with Spider Jerusalem, a reluctantly famous writer/journalist who must come back to the city he hates to reclaim his fiery muse and crank out two more books to finish off his contract with his publisher. In his first adventure, Spider gets embroiled in a minor culture war and ends up giving the establishment the finger and getting a hell of a column out of it.This is the sort fo thing you won't get from mainstream comic companies and can't cull from stories about grown men prancing about in tights -- it's a comic that says something and says it well. Warren Ellis and Garth Ennis (PREACHER) are two of the genre's finest writers out there today -- Ennis shares his admiration for Ellis' series in the forward ot this collection. Transmetropolitan is a bit like Hunter S. Thompson 2099. It's a bit like the best of the old 2000 AD comics from the UK -- dark comedy and socio-political satire that is also very entertaining. The artwork is magnificent, the writing is some of the best I've read in comics -- the concept is startling. My highest reccommendation for this book!

Transmet follows the adventures of hard hitting, chain smoking, drug abusing, foul mouthed reporter Spider Jerusalem as he travels through the City of the future. That's the basic premise. However, the series is so much more. It is a discourse on politics, journalism, and above all, The Truth. Especially in today's era of Homeland security and paranoia, the series is vital. Described by Warren Ellis as a 1300 page graphic novel, Transmet is a work of art.

The foundations of the series are layed out in Back on the Street, which collects the first three issues of Spider's journey. Yeah, it's a little short, but you can't skip it- the events in this TPB provide the basis for everything else that happens in the 60 issues run.

Most people know Ellis as the creator of the groundbreaking super-hero comic "The Authority." Understand- there are no super heroes here. There are no hereos, in fact. Ellis conveys the insanity of the city, and the fact that Spider is just doing his best to hep the millions of people who dont want to listen to him. This is the series which Ellis poured most of his persona, and it shows- by the end, you want to find Spider at a bar and listen to him talk all night long. Darrick Robertson's art is amazing- it has the level of detail that Bryan Hitch brings, but still has a comic flair and style which brings the city to life. You can get lost just staring at his buildings.

Buy this book, and then buy the rest. I promise you will find it entertaining. At the very least, it will open your eyes to the word around you.

"That's what I hate most about this city- lies are news and Truth is obsolete." -Spider Jerusalem.

What an amazing glance into the future society is creating for itself. Transmetropolitan delivers a brutal, scary and amazingly well crafted story accompanied by fabulous art. Warren Ellis' gritty style of writing shines in this book about a journalist (Spider Jerusalem) who is forced out of hiding in the mountains to come down to his former home - a wretched city full of drug addicted household appliances, mutated house pets and people who turn themselves into aliens.