In my humble opinion, Dominion is about all that you thought about. If you think the story is a failure then say so. Personally I thought the story was poking fun at evangelists whether they be islamic, christian, jewish, or whatnot.

Is the purpose of "Dominion" in Targan's Falling Free collection--to poke fun at the misguided attempts at dominion of Poverman? Or is it to glorify conversion to Christianity? Or is there no point? Someone please attempt to answer these major questions. The story is otherwise immensely engaging and beautifully written.

I have read this story out loud to friends for years. It captures exactly the grace of having one dream, working quietly toward it for years, and well, I shouldn't say how things turn out. The voices are real; the characters suggested with expert economy. The story clicks with perfect inevitability and good will.

Like William Trevor, another great short story writer, Targon matches each aspect of his storytelling to his tale.

This is a classic.

This is an amazingly well-written book. The prose flows easily and the main character is very likeable....while he starts out as a very naive wide eyed young genius of 16yrs after being thrown into college and encountering every type of snake one can along the way he matures in many ways and comes out a different man versus the boy he once was. There are many coming of age thoughts and ideals that are expressed well and leave a impression on your mind long after you have read the book. Though some of the characters are presented as archtypes, Targan takes it one step further and has the main character follow up on their lives as well and how their actions at one point have shaped the lives they have gone to live. A great coming of age or into oneself book. I first read it when it came out and parts of it come back to me at times as any good book does.

Inchon Landing September 15, 1950 - not 1953 Koto - Ri is in Korea, not Niet Nam

Where was his proof reader. On page 83 he gives a position of 33-30.25 West, 75-40.1 North. This is well above the Arctic Circle. By the way, you allways state Latitude first, then longitude. He has reversed it, a common error among those who are not navigators. Somewhere else he refors to "high longitudes". There are none! There are "high latitudes" such as 50 North or 50 South.

A sextant is used to measure the ALTITUDE of a body above the horizon, not its DECLINATION. A body's declination is its hight above the celestial equator, and declination is one of the coordinates to place the body on the celestial sphere. The other coordinate is its Greenwich Hour Angle (GHA).

He makes much of getting a fix from the sun. The sun can only give you one LOP. A running fix is only as good as the navigators estimate of distance and direction made good between two sights. How Catherine could possible get a reliable sun line "in the last of the light" is beyond me. Aries is not a star. I am an experienced Celestial navigator, with five passages to Bermuda, under sail, by celestial only. His book makes me cringe with the many , many errors he made writing this. He really should have gotten some expert input. A sailor like Catherine would never "adjust" her chronometer. She would keep a "Rate Book" thereby knowing the CE, and applying same to her time of sight.

He also confuses abaft and aft and uses them incorrectly. Also, he does not have the foggiest about the terms coming off or coming up.

There are many more errors, and I am forced to say that this book has been very poorly researched, and any sailor worth his salt would give it the deep six. Mr Targan should look in to books by Sterling Hayden and Allan Villiers if he wishes to spin a sea going yarn.

The other reviewer criticizes errors in the nautical and navigational passages in this book, but I was so dazzled by the story that I easily overlooked them. I've read this book twice, 2 years apart, and loved it both times. The range of human experiences is wonderful, the writing is tight, the plot left my heart thumping. I've loaned the book to friends who felt the same. Read and enjoy.