The Falcon at the Portal: An Amelia Peabody Mystery

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"'Really,' I thought in mounting exasperation, 'there never was a household in which so many people felt free to offer their unsolicited opinions!'" This, of course, is the eminent Egyptologist and dedicated crime solver Amelia Peabody, setting the stage and the tone (an updated Oscar Wildean irony) for Elizabeth Peters's 11th book. And it's true that there are no shrinking violets in this particular household, from the redoubtable Amelia and her hot-tempered archaeologist husband Emerson (his native diggers call him the Father of Curses), to their dashing, unpredictable son Ramses (born Walter). Also, let's not forget their lovely ward, Nefret (rescued from a desert tribe several books back), and their butler, Gargery, "who wields a cudgel as handily as he carves a roast."

As she has so many times before, Peters presents us with this quaint--even campy--little group of people, plops them down in an exotic Egyptian setting, and then surprises us by involving them in a story of great strength and emotion.

It's 1911, and David Todros, a young Egyptian who has just married into the Peabody family, is suspected of dealing in forged antiquities, possibly to help support a rising nationalist movement. Amelia, Emerson, Ramses, and Nefret all take various actions to help David, and there are serious, dangerous consequences for everyone involved. Despite the melodramatic setting and the theatrical language, Peters's story is--as always--modern, believable, and exciting.

Other books in the Peabody series available in paperback are The Ape Who Guards the Balance, The Crocodile on the Sandbank, The Curse of the Pharaohs, and The Hippopotamus Pool. --Dick Adler

Book Description

Amelia and family have arrived in Egypt for the 1911 archeological season—after the marriage of young Ramses' best friend David to Amelia's niece Lia. But trouble finds them immediately when David is accused of selling ancient artifacts. While Amelia and company try to clear his name and expose the real culprit, the body of an American is found at the bottom of their excavation shaft. As accusations of drug dealing and moral misconduct fly, a child of mysterious antecedents sparks a crisis that threatens to tear the family apart. Amelia brings her brilliant powers of deduction to bear, but someone is shooting bullets at her—and coming awfully close!Amelia and family have arrived in Egypt for the 1911 archeological season—after the marriage of young Ramses' best friend David to Amelia's niece Lia. But trouble finds them immediately when David is accused of selling ancient artifacts. While Amelia and company try to clear his name and expose the real culprit, the body of an American is found at the bottom of their excavation shaft. As accusations of drug dealing and moral misconduct fly, a child of mysterious antecedents sparks a crisis that threatens to tear the family apart. Amelia brings her brilliant powers of deduction to bear, but someone is shooting bullets at her—and coming awfully close!Amelia and family have arrived in Egypt for the 1911 archeological season—after the marriage of young Ramses' best friend David to Amelia's niece Lia. But trouble finds them immediately when David is accused of selling ancient artifacts. While Amelia and company try to clear his name and expose the real culprit, the body of an American is found at the bottom of their excavation shaft. As accusations of drug dealing and moral misconduct fly, a child of mysterious antecedents sparks a crisis that threatens to tear the family apart. Amelia brings her brilliant powers of deduction to bear, but someone is shooting bullets at her—and coming awfully close!

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Amelia and family have arrived in Egypt for the 1911 archeological season--after the marriage of young Ramses' best friend David to Amelia's niece Lia. But trouble finds them immediately when David is accused of selling ancient artifacts. While Amelia and company try to clear his name and expose the real culprit, the body of an American is found at the bottom of their excavation shaft. As accusations of drug dealing and moral misconduct fly, a child of mysterious antecedents sparks a crisis that threatens to tear the family apart. Amelia brings her brilliant powers of deduction to bear, but someone is shooting bullets at her--and coming awfully close!Amelia and family have arrived in Egypt for the 1911 archeological season---after the marriage of young Ramses' best friend David to Amelia's niece Lia. But trouble finds them immediately when David is accused of selling ancient artifacts. While Amelia and company try to clear his name and expose the real culprit, the body of an American is found at the bottom of their excavation shaft. As accusations of drug dealing and moral misconduct fly, a child of mysterious antecedents sparks a crisis that threatens to tear the family apart. Amelia brings her brilliant powers of deduction to bear, but someone is shooting bullets at her---and coming awfully close!Amelia and family have arrived in Egypt for the 1911 archeological season---after the marriage of young Ramses' best friend David to Amelia's niece Lia. But trouble finds them immediately when David is accused of selling ancient artifacts. While Amelia and company try to clear his name and expose the real culprit, the body of an American is found at the bottom of their excavation shaft. As accusations of drug dealing and moral misconduct fly, a child of mysterious antecedents sparks a crisis that threatens to tear the family apart. Amelia brings her brilliant powers of deduction to bear, but someone is shooting bullets at her---and coming awfully close!

Customer Reviews:

Tomb Robbers. Egypt. Mysteries........2007-07-29

Falcon At The Portal
Villains. Forgeries of Egyptian Antiquities. Tomb Robbers. Feisty Amelia Peabody, in Egypt in 1911, armed with her sharp pointed umbrella, and tiny pistol, carried in her tool belt. Amelia and Emerson, her dashing husband and archaeologist, their growing family and their trusted Egyptian workers, are always in danger; with Amelia providing a running humorous commentary on events and people. She describes Emerson as "the greatest Egyptian archaeologist of this, or any other time", and you wouldn't dare contradict her. This is book 11 in the series, and my favorite thus far, because of the romantic sparks flying between two main characters.
I suggest you begin reading this series with the first book, Crocodile on the Sandbank, since they are best read in chronological order. Falcon at the Portal is the 11th book, and I look forward to the next, He Shall Thunder in the Sky, where more romantic sparks may fly in Egypt, and plenty of danger, as the first world war approaches.

The Eleventh Book in a Wonderful Series.......2007-06-27

Elizabeth Peters was born and brought up in Illinois and earned her Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of Chicago's famed Oriental Institute. Peters was named Grand Master at the inaugural Anthony Awards in 1986 and Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America at the Edgar Awards in 1998. She lives in a historic farmhouse in western Maryland.

The Amelia Peabody books may or may not be an acquired taste, personally I love them. They are set in Victorian times when there were still very strict rules of etiquette and polite behaviour was the norm. Although most of the books are set in Egypt, in the desert under very trying conditions and extremely hot weather the `English' way of life was still expected to be adhered to, sometimes with quite hilarious consequences.

Amelia Peabody is Elizabeth Peters' best loved and brilliant creation, a thoroughly Victorian feminist who takes the stuffy world of archaeology by storm with her no nonsense dress sense and forthright opinions.

In this book Amelia has more trouble than she knows what to do with, but in this case it is family trouble. Her niece's new Egyptian husband David, stands accused of forging priceless antiquities and though he is definitely skillful enough to do this Emerson have known him long enough to know that he simply cannot be guilty of such a crime. Meanwhile Amelia's nephew, a detestable young man if ever there was one, begins an amorous pursuit of Nefret, Amelia's son Ramses wife.

Yay!.......2006-01-02

Warning: This review contains spoilers.

Ok, this was the first Peabody novel I ever read, and it was great! I grew to know the characters, and I was left hanging at the end. However, even I could tell something was wrong when Nefret married Geoffery. However, THAT turned out all right at the end, but I won't say how.

Excellent book.......2005-12-28

In my opinion, this was a great book. I know others don't agree, but I liked it. The only problem was, I checked it out of my school library, and we only have two there, this one and "The Hippopotomous Pool." This was the first Peabody novel I ever read, and I was lost at the beginning. However, I kept going, and grew to know the characters. It was very good, but I don't reccomend this as a first Peabody novel. Not because you'll get lost, but because in this one, all the characters are adults and don't seem like themselves in other books. That makes it hard to read the others before this, believe you me.

Unbelievable.......2005-09-25

Unbelievable people, unbelievable situation, and unbelievable dialogue.

This is the only Elizabeth Peters that I read. I believe it will be my last. As I said it is unbelievable.

The basic story is of unrequited love and revenge in a more modern day Egypt. The people and situations are fare from any reality and can not be related to.

Customer Reviews:

O sole mio, share this with your children.......2006-03-20

I read this book this morning for breakfast and will read it again later tonight for dessert.

This gorgeous little fable turns words so well it deserves to be read aloud, to your children, to your lover, whomever. I found it even more charming than "The Princess Bride."

Luigi is an affable every-man who simply has a dream. I fell in love with him, thinking about him in his gonodolier's costume poling down The Grand Canal with his godawful singing voice, the latter of which resonates personally for me. Also, like Luigi, I have a goony smile.

Hopefully I'll visit Venice someday, and until then, this book will take me there whenever I wish.

I found my copy yesterday in my favorite used book store, (shout-out to Book Castle in downtown Burbank) and it's in perfect condition. Even the dust jacket is as crisp as it was back in 1983. The illustrations are flawless and exactly what would excite a child's imagination.

I notice this version is only available used. Buy it and promise to read it aloud. It will not disappoint.

A wonderful book by the author of the Princess Bride.......2003-01-10

I've had this book forever and had no idea it was rare. I love it because it is clear at a younger age but doesn't get boring or repetitive, as one of those classic books that just get better. I think it is superior to the Princess Bride as the characters are beleivable. I highly recommend it!

This book is almost as sweet as The Princess Bride........1999-04-18

I found this book in a used bookstore and couldn't believe my luck. For a second I thought it proved the existence of Morgenstern...but the Goldman style is easy to recognize. This is a great book, but like ALL Goldman titles it is really hard to find. It's worth the effort!!

Why is this out of print?!.......1999-01-22

This is a great book, and it deserves to be in print! I stumbled across it in a university library (if you've ever searched for light reading in a library geared for research, you'll realize how lucky I was) and it was very good. I think in some ways I liked it better than THE PRINCESS BRIDE. I think that maybe have been because Luigi, the main character, wasn't perfect at all the way Buttercup and Wesley were. (Well, Buttercup was too stupid to be perfect, but otherwise . . .) If you can find a copy of it, read it!

This book is the funniest I've read in awhile!.......1998-12-13

I rarely laugh outloud at a book, but The Silent Gondeliers had me literally falling out of my chair. A fellow singing friend of mine happened to see me reading The Princess Bride at one of our rehearsals. I mentioned how much I loved that book, and he pulled from his bag, this great book! "Well, if you like William Goldman, you'll love this one!" As an opera singer, I could appreciate much of the humor. It's about a gondelier who cannot sing, and how his mishaps are the reason why today's gondeliers are silent. Wonderful book!

The Silent Gondoliers: A Fable (ISBN: 0345312791)

Average customer rating:

The Silent Gondoliers: A Fable (ISBN: 0345312791)
S. (aka William Goldman ); illustr by Paul Giovanopoulos Morgenstern
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NQISE6

Customer Reviews:

Stick to It - Great Read.......2005-09-09

There is no doubt that Mr. Koestler explains his thoughts in immense detail and labor... This will affect you in a couple of possible ways:
- You'll love following the train of thought and appreciate even the train wrecks; or
- You'll start drifting off into visions of dancing monkeys and magical fireworks...

In all seriousness Mr. Koestler explains the reasoning and imagination behind all of his assertions and assumptions with exacting detail...

His theory is excellent and combines some mainstream stuff (from his time and relevant now) with some of the fringe ideas of various fields. The whole package is woven together with expert touch and Mr. Koestler has a rare gift of explaining things not in an "idiot-proof" fashion but down-to-earth enough to let you think about it.

The basic premise is the exploration of mankind's "darker" side -mentally speaking. The pathological human mind that 'builds splendid cathedrals and decorates them with gargoyles'; Mr. Koestler explains them as "two sides of the same medal coined in the evolutionary mint" - and indeed he makes that case with astounding persuasiveness... His concepts sound extremely plausible and seem to be well-founded on facts and ideas alike...

Stick to the heavier or rambling parts as he ties them into the overall idea eventually! You will walk away from this book having learned something...

Pride covetousness lust anger gluttony envy & selfishness?.......2004-02-25

ýA man coins not a new word without some peril; for if it happens to be received, the praise is but moderate; if refused, the scorn is assured.ý

So wrote Ben Jonson, and so quoted Arthur Koestler on page 48 of his The Ghost in the Machine (1967). Koestler inserted the quotation to express the uneasiness he felt at suggesting a neologism. The very useful word he coinedýýholonýýseems to have gone tragically underappreciated, while Koestler has, I suspect, not received much in the way of scorn for his impudence (at least in this respect). Jonson was wrong. A man coins not a new word without some peril, itýs true. But the nature of the peril is this: if it happens to be received, the praise is but moderate; if refused, the coiner gets not even scorn.

What is a holon? Coined from the Greek holos (whole) and the diminutive suffix -on (after the pattern of proton, electron, etc.), the term holon ýmay be applied to any stable biological or social sub-whole which displays rule-governed behavior.ý Koestler writes:

Parts and wholes in an absolute sense do not exist in the domain of life.... The organism is to be regarded as a multi-leveled hierarchy of semi-autonomous sub-wholes, branching into sub-wholes of a lower order, and so on. Sub-wholes on any level of the hierarchy are referred to as holons. Biological holons are self-regulating open systems which display both the autonomous properties of wholes and the dependent properties of parts. This dichotomy is present on every level of every type of hierarchic organization, and is referred to as the Janus Effect.... The concept of holon is intended to reconcile the atomistic and holistic approaches. (Appendix I.1; scrambled somewhat for conciseness.)

The first third of Koestlerýs book, the section titled ýOrder,ý is dedicated to the concept of the holon, and his introduction to open hierarchic system theory. The versatility and universality of the holon concept should have guaranteed its entry into the language. Its prevalence in all ordered, i.e. hierarchic, systems, and particularly biological organisms, Koestler illustrates through the parable of the two watchmakers, Mekhos and Bios. Their watches are of equal quality and of equal complexity (a thousand pieces each) but their methods of production differ. Bios builds durable sub-units of ten pieces each, ten of which can be joined together to create a secure sub-assembly of one-hundred piecesýand ten sub-assemblies, of course, make one complete watch. Mekhos, on the other hand, adds one piece at a time, seriatim; as such, any interruption requires him to start afresh. Biosýs method is clearly superior not just because an interruption will only set him back, at most, nine steps (versus Mekhosýs possible 999), but because Biosýs watches will tend to be much sturdier than Mekhosýs. ýIt is easy to show mathematically that if a watch consists of a thousand bits, and if some disturbance occurs at an average of once in every hundred assembling operationsýthen Mekhos will take four thousand times longer to assemble a watch than Bios. Instead of a single day, it will take him eleven years.ý Consequently, Biosýs business thrives, while Mekhos barely manages to scrape by.

Biological systems (Bios), in other words, are not just vortices of chance patterns constrained by deterministic mechanical laws (Mekhos); they are hierarchic systems made up of Janus-faced, quasi-independent holons. In ýBecoming,ý the second part of the book, Koestler discusses evolution in holarchic terms, citing organelles (e.g. mitochondria) and homologous organs (e.g. the human arm and the birdýs wing) as examples of evolutionary holonsýsub-units which appear, with striking similarity, across countless discrete species. Just as nearly every company has an IT department, every cell has chemical power plants which extract energy from food. And just as automobile designers do not overhaul but rather perform variations on basic components such as the engine, chassis, or suspension system, evolution progresses by making small changes to existing tried and true mechanismsýthe arm of the human, the wing of the bird, the leg of the dog, and the flipper of the seal, however different in appearance or function, are all made of bones, muscles, and blood vessels.

This tendency to recycle old parts has its risks as well as its obvious benefits, however. The legacy systems donýt always interact smoothly with the enhancements. This is essentially the thesis of the third part of the book, ýDisorderý: that it is not unreasonable to assume that, considering the ýexplosive rate of the brainýs development, which so widely overshot its mark, something may have gone wrong ... More precisely, that the lines of communication between the very old and the brand-new structures were not developed sufficiently to guarantee their harmonious interplay, the hierarchic co-ordination of instinct and intelligence.ý

In short, Koestler blames the dominance of instinct over intellectýthe latterýs subservience to the former as physiologically manifest in the neocortexýs subjection to the brainýs more reptilian limbic systemsýfor not only humanityýs spectacular social and moral cataclysms, but the halting, erratic progress of science as well. The ýpassionate neighing of affect-based beliefsý prevent us from listening to the voice of reason. This is why all moral exhortation, all efforts of persuasion by reasoned argument, are doomed to failure; they

rely on the implicit assumption that homo sapiens, though occasionally blinded by emotion, is a basically rational animal, aware of the motives of his own actions and beliefsýan assumption which is untenable in the light of both historical and neurological evidence. All such appeals fall on barren ground; they could take root only if the ground were prepared by a spontaneous change in human mentality all over the worldýthe equivalent of a major biological mutation.

The solution to our predicament is sketched out and advocated by Koestler in the final few pages of The Ghost in the Machine; it is, to put it succinctly, a pharmacological one. Readers will bristle at the contentious, and some might say contemptible, declaration that mankindýs only hope for long-term survival is through medication, but to me the answer seems logical enough. If we agree that something has gone awry in our phylogenetic development, and it seems an anodyne enough hypothesis, then nothing short of ýtampering with human natureý can rectify the pathology of our species, which has been so garishly demonstrated in holocaust after holocaust. And as Koestler is himself quick to point out, we tamper with our nature every day, and have done so ýever since the first hunter wrapped his shivering frame into the hide of a dead animal.ý It could be argued that part of our problem has been tampering: Pasteur et al. tampered on a microscopic level, and with colossal repercussions. No one would seriously propose a voluntary abjuration of antibiotics, however, in order to cull the herd a bit. We can only move forward.

Letýs be explicit: we are considering an overpopulated, irrational, imbalanced species equipped with the ability to manufacture weapons of genosuicidal magnitudeýan ability which will not evaporate:

As the devices of atomic and biological warfare become more potent and simpler to produce, their spreading to young and immature, as well as old and over-ripe, nations is inevitable. An invention, once made, cannot be dis-invented; the bomb has come to stay. Mankind has to live with it forever: not merely through the next crisis and the next one, but forever; not through the next twenty or two hundred or two thousand years, but forever. It has become part of the human condition.

ýThe Promethean myth,ý Koestler goes on, ýhas acquired an ugly twist: the giant reaching out to steal the lightning from the gods is insane.ý With this in mind, the advent of a suggestibility-curbing pillýýan artificially simulated, adaptive mutation to bridge the rift between the phylogenetically old and new brain, between instinct and intellect, emotion and reason,ý to ýcounteract misplaced devotion and that militant enthusiasm, both murderous and suicidal, which we see reflected in the pages of the daily newspaperýýseems relatively benign. We cannot ask people to be more rational, more thoughtful, less susceptible to blind passion, bigotry, murderous devotion.

I sympathize with Koestlerýs proposal, but I am pessimistic as to its practicality. And I think he might have overlooked the possibility that suggestibility and subservience to the affect-based beliefs might be the very epoxies holding society togetherýfor better or for worse.

Consider Heinrich Eichmann who, as Koestler observes, ýwas not a monster or a sadist, but a conscientious bureaucrat, who considered it his duty to carry out his orders and believed in obedience as the supreme virtue; far from being a sadist, he felt physically sick on the only occasion when he watched the Zircon gas at work.ý He was, in other words, the perfect cog, a smoothly functioning holon in something larger than himself. He was a good citizen in a bad society. Where exactly does his sin lie? Where his pathology?

ýWar is a ritual, a deadly ritual, not the result of aggressive self-assertion, but of self-transcending identification. Without loyalty to tribe, church, flag or ideal, there would be no wars; and loyalty is a noble thing.ý And Solzhenitsyn wrote:

Ideologyýthat is what gives evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination. That is the social theory which helps to make his acts seem good instead of bad in his own and othersý eyes, so that he wonýt hear reproaches and curses but will receive praise and honors.... Thanks to ideology, the twentieth century was fated to experience evildoing on a scale calculated in the millions. How, then, do we dare insist that evildoers do not exist? And who was it that destroyed these millions?

Perhaps hereýs a way of daring to insist that evildoers do not exist: by declaring, instead, that only bureaucrats exist. We could move up the hierarchy and blame everything on its head (Hitler in this case) but frequently the hierarchy has no headýperhaps there is only an amorphous board of directors; perhaps the hierarchy is open-endedýand of course no hierarchy operates in a vacuum, and no hierarchy can function without its sub-holons.

Eichmann, we feel compelled to say, was as culpable as anyoneýi.e., fully, or not at all. In him, perhaps, we are given a glimpse of the true nature of contemporary ýevilý: conscientious bureaucracy; obedience as the supreme virtue. The integrative tendency, the desire to transcend the self, the desire to belong, to fit in, to function as a part of some larger organization, to serve something larger than the petty egoýthis is what stymies intellectual progress and permits wars and pogroms. Death camps cannot be implemented without a stable hierarchic society to carry out the plan; humans cannot exterminate one another on such a cosmic scale without first getting along.

ýThe self-assertive behaviour of the group is based on the self-transcending behaviour of its members, which often entails sacrifice of personal interests and even of life in the interest of the group. To put it simply: the egotism of the group feeds on the altruism of its members.ý This is the most important revelation in Koestlerýs book: that the virtuous, self-denying, self-transcending, integrative urges are far more dangerous than the self-assertive ones.

And this urge to integrate, to belong, to blindly submit to the rules of the social holon you belong to, is the warp and the woof of the fabric of society. It may well be instinctualýit may well be written in our genesýbecause it is implicit, inescapable, a necessity in any hierarchic system. The human individual is truly Janus-faced because his or her self-assertive and integrative inclinations are at odds, true, but also mutually dependent. To do whatýs best for your group is in fact whatýs best for you; self-surrender is self-preservation. If the body dies, so do all of its cells.

What would we have had Eichmann do? We fancy that we can imagine a scenario in which his refusal to administrate the death camps (a pang of conscience prompted, in our thought experiment, by Koestlerýs Pill, perhaps) might have made some difference. ýHe could have conscientiously objected,ý we say from the smug safety of our armchair. And then what? He probably would have been exterminated, and someone with less compunctions, someone with a stronger desire to fit in, put in his place.

Hegel has said that ýWhat experience and history teach us is thisýthat people and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.ý If this is true, it is probably unnecessary to pose this question: Have any of us learned anything from, for example, the Holocaust? How would we, as people or governments, prevent a repeat? We glibly take it for granted that nothing so horrific, and in so recent memory, can have failed to make us a little more jaded, a little less naïve, a little less susceptible to mass hysteria or national insanityýand we leave it at that. Hereýs all weýve really learned: Nazisýbad. Hitlerýreal bad. Case closed. But of course the next Nazis will not call themselves Nazis; the next Hitler wonýt have the mustache.

What we should have learned, perhaps, is that our suggestibility needs to be curbed; that each of us has an obligation to be extremely careful about which holons we allow ourselves to be subsumed by; that our integrative tendencies need to be reined and restrained. Before we resort to pharmacology, we should presumably attempt education. So maybe we should be indoctrinating our children with the belief that blindly accepting indoctrination can be disastrous. ýOh. You see the problem.

Koestlerýs Pill, or any equivalent thereof, might well dissolve society. If we were properly critical, properly rational, all the time, if we took nothing on faith, we would never learn. The paradox is that the march of science is founded on credulity. Specialization, which has become more or less prerequisite to progress in any field, is a hierarchic branching out and narrowing down of knowledge. If every generation of physicists had to rediscover the electron, no one would have ever got to the quark; if I paused to evaluate, to impugn, to prove every one of the ýstatements of factý Iýve received from parents and professors, television and textbooks, over the course of my lifetime I would probably never have graduated from high school. In fact I am critical of very little. How could I afford to be? We stand like Newton on the shoulders of giants but only because we trust the giants enough to get up on their shouldersýwhen of course they could dash us to the earth if they so desired. Jacob Empson has written (in Sleep and Dreaming):

Rather than modern Western beliefs being less mystic than those in antiquity, or in underdeveloped communities, they seem equally if not more so than some. It could be argued that the very incomprehensibility of the modern world has made us even more credulous. Many of the quite commonplace products of modern technology might as well be magic, for all that any normal person could be expected to understand how they work.

The human race is an unfathomably complex network of overlapping open-ended hierarchies; it is a juggernaut trundling forth, with no one at the helm.

And so too is each one of us. How can it be otherwise?

This is one of the best books I've read in a while. Koestler's erudition, humanity, and prose are nonpareil. Read it and make up your own mind -- it's your moral imperative.

Not true to his own theories.......2003-07-26

This book is one of the most thought-provoking books I've read in a long time. Koestler presents a fascinating theory that we are a flawed species and then -- out of thin air -- produces the "better living through chemistry" cure (we all need to be medicated because our reptilian brains are ill at ease with our advanced mammalian brains). However, earlier in a coherent part of the book, he presents a theory that genetic failures and designs which have become over-specialized (like his example of the marsupial) eventually are resolved by paedomorphosis (a kind of "backtracking" in which evolution goes back a level and tries another branch to a better solution - rather like the depth-first search) and "self-repair". Thus the true solution to man's problems, in Koestler's own framework (had he not just tossed off the chapter he did), would have to have been human genetic re-engineering, not pharmacology. But what a ride this book is!

A mind working overtime.......2002-04-15

What an enigma Arthur Koestler was! His books range from Zionism to telepathic powers, as well as novels about the Stalinist trials. The Ghost in the machine was my introduction to his writings and it is an astonishing approach to evolution -explained simply leading to frightening and telling conclusions about man and his capacity for war. It is the work of a mind that cannot keep still and keep taking one step further on. Read it and I hope that it opens this exciting and daunting author to you as well. I was never the same after reading it and it has coloured all my thinking ever since. Read it and understand the Taliban, World War One and the Ku Klux Klan. It is nothing less than an evolutionary argument for our collective insanity.

The Evil that Men do.......2001-02-10

When I first read this book I was stunned... and as one of the other reviewers said, baffled by why he produced that ending! (it's the ending which has "taken" one star off my rating). Always the polymath, Koestler starts by covering psychology, including Skinner's experiments with rats and subsequent theories on human nature which he pulls apart thoroughly. Koestler then comes out with the unfashionable theory that the human brain may have evolutionary flaws in it, since it was merely built on the older more primitive brains of its ancestors and the new and old parts do not always communicate well with one another. Partially because of this we have a lot of the problems of human life such as the urge to self-destruction and violence, which emanate from the older parts of the brain. He ties this in with history and if I remember, results of some shocking experiments. It has lost some of its immediacy since the end of the Cold War (nuclear bombs are still with us more than ever in Israel, Pakistan, India, China etc).

While I have simplified some of the book's ideas above, it is not always light reading, but it can be read by a layman. I think some of the subjects Koestler tackles are taboo (such as the idea humans overall are instrinsically "evil") rather than innately good, and he dismisses wishful thinking. Some people do take issue with his ideas... unfortunately some of the attacks are ad hominem... but where they aren't I suggest you examine very carefully both sides of the story. The message in this book is still pertinent enough, even if the proposed solution isn't.

Customer Reviews:

An absolute MUST read.......2000-11-02

12 stories covering the gamut from time travel and machine life to religious wisdom and political conspiracy, 5 nonfiction pieces ranging from evolution to nuclear power, 7 biographical anecdotes, and a one-act play!

Required Reading.......1999-12-12

Another collection of masterpieces. Known Nukes should be translated into all languages, understood and globally debated.

Average customer rating:

a great mix of fiction and non-fiction

Minds, Machines & Evolution
James P. Hogan
Manufacturer: Spectra
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

Short Stories | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0553272888
Release Date: 1988-05-01

Customer Reviews:

a great mix of fiction and non-fiction.......1999-09-06

This book is a wonderful mix of fiction and non-fiction stories. The stories are so well written, the reader is unsure which is which. There is also a blend in some of the stories of both types of story. If anyone can find this book, read it and see for yourself. You will never get rid of it.

Average customer rating:

Minds, Machines and Evolution

Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Consciousness & Thought | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Developmental Psychology | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Cognitive | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Behavioral Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0521265479

Book Description

This is a volume of original essays written by philosophers and scientists and dealing with philosophical questions arising from work in evolutionary biology and artificial intelligence. In recent years both of these areas have been the focus for attempts to provide a scientific, model of a wide range of human capacities - most prominently perhaps in sociobiology and cognitive psychology. The book therefore examines a number of issues related to the search for a ‘naturalistic’ or scientific account of human experience and behaviour. Some of the essays deal with the application of such models to particular behaviour, stressing the problems raised by consciousness, and the information to be derived from the differing capacities of animals and people; others consider more general questions about the logic of the explanations provided by these kinds of approach. The volume continues the informal series stemming from meetings sponsored by the Thyssen Foundation.

Thrice Upon a Time & The Mirror Maze & Code of the Lifemaker Voyage from Yesteryear & The Gentle Giants of Ganymede & Minds, machines and Evolution & Proteus Operation ( Set of 7 Books )

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Thrice Upon a Time & The Mirror Maze & Code of the Lifemaker Voyage from Yesteryear & The Gentle Giants of Ganymede & Minds, machines and Evolution & Proteus Operation ( Set of 7 Books )

Manufacturer: Various
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000GS7SIS

Conscious technology: the co-evolution of mind and machine.: An article from: The Futurist

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Conscious technology: the co-evolution of mind and machine.: An article from: The Futurist
Jerome C. Glenn
Manufacturer: World Future Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Futurist, published by World Future Society on September 1, 1989. The length of the article is 2699 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Conscious technology: the co-evolution of mind and machine.
Author: Jerome C. Glenn
Publication: The Futurist (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 1, 1989
Publisher: World Future Society
Volume: v23 Issue: n5 Page: p15(6)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Human mind and its physical machine, human body: Mind's structural play; primary and high faculties; primitive beginning and evolutional route of mind ... and eternal evolution; with life is

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Human mind and its physical machine, human body: Mind's structural play; primary and high faculties; primitive beginning and evolutional route of mind ... and eternal evolution; with life is
V. P English
Manufacturer: V.P. English & daughter
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Physiology | Basic Science | Medicine | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006ANT5W

The vital resources contributing to capacity, health, and longevity: Including also the great law of the evolution ... from duality of parentage

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The vital resources contributing to capacity, health, and longevity: Including also the great law of the evolution ... from duality of parentage
Jerome Kidder
Manufacturer: published by the author
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Personality Disorders | Mental Health | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Jeff MacNelly's "Shoe" is syndicated to more than a thousand newspapers and enjoyed by millions of fans every day. This new collection brings back all the favorite "Shoe" characters. New Shoes takes aim at the '90s, and MacNelly's sharp eye is right on target.

Customer Reviews:

Yumm... trans-fats!!.......2007-06-26

Wonder when trans-fats became healthy - there's so much margerine called for in this book you'd have to buy half a case! Sure, you can substitute butter, but fat is fat is fat. On a possitive note, the recipes come out well using reduced fat peanut butter - also used butter in half the amount with some success. Not thrilled with this book.

Healthy?????.......2007-02-09

When was margarin healthy??? I just looked inside here at Amazon and all the recipes started with MARGARINE!!! Margarine = Trans Fats!

Picky Eaters Beware!!!.......2005-07-17

I am the Mom of a very picky eater & I am purchasing this book from Amazon after trying it out from the library.
I think it has a lot of great ideas & also catchy names for the foods, which really baits the kids into trying something new!
I'm just taking a batch of the "Bunny Hopper" cookies out of the oven right now...

Too much fat!.......2003-09-18

This book contains way too many recipes with high fat items. It also doesn't contain the nutritional info for the finished items, which makes it useless to me. If you're thinking "healthy" means moderate to low fat/calorie, then this isn't the book for you!

Should be called peanut butter snack book!.......2002-01-10

I was hoping to find some help in the snack dept, as I have a limited variety of ideas for my partially food-allergic kid. He is allergic to a few items -- one happens to be peanuts, the other egg whites, but that's it. And unfortunately, 80% of the recipes in this book include peanut butter, nuts, or eggs! Nothing more original. I expected some of this knowing kids love PB, but most of the recipes are inclusive of one of the 2 allergens my son has, so this book was a huge disappointment.

If you're child is allergy-free, this book is for you. Nevertheless, it's still peanut-butter heavy. Given the incidence of kids with allergies in today's world, it would be great if more cookbook authors gave a section/chapter of their work to allergy-free recipes for kids.

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