Shangri-LA: The Return to the World of Lost Horizon

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Barely a Sequel

Underwhelming

This is Good

It's great, thoroughly engrossing.

Most Fabulous Book Ever Written in the History of the World.

Shangri-LA: The Return to the World of Lost Horizon
Eleanor Cooney , and Daniel Altieri
Manufacturer: William Morrow & Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Messenger: A Sequel to Lost Horizon: A Story of Shangri-La

Lost Horizon: A Novel

Lost Horizon

ASIN: 0688128726

Customer Reviews:

Barely a Sequel.......2006-06-11

I wouldn't consider this to be entirely a sequel to the original novel. It's more of a separate story that involves, briefly, characters and settings from the original novel. Maybe I just enjoyed Lost Horizon too much but I found Shangri-La to be a bit of a disappointment. The two different styles of writing get confusing at times, especially in the parts where no quotation marks are used to distinguish between different speakers. The flow of the story was very rigid also. Sure, there were words arranged into sentences and sentences into paragraphs, continuing on for pages, but there was nothing to draw me into the story. It was more like reading a newspaper than a novel in this respect. To top it all off, the ending seemed clichéd. Just because the original ends in a cliff hanger doesn't mean the sequel should also. It just didn't seem very original.

Overall it was good to see that James Hilton's brilliant work of literature carried on into the future, but the original far overshadowed the sequel. Instead of providing closure, Shangri-La left me waiting for something the book didn't deliver.

Underwhelming.......2005-08-31

Shangri La, that heaven on earth, is under attack. It's the 1960s, and the Chinese army is at the height of its ideological zeal for the Cultural Revolution. Originally, that army was marching against native Tibetan culture, in an attempt at forced assimilation of the disputed territory. Legend, then clues to that edenic valley begin to emerge, and then ...

I won't spoil the story. One family leads the hunt for Shangri La: a corrupt General Zhang, a son burning with missionary zeal for the revolution, and a daughter with quiet doubts about the party. A character from Hilton's original story learns of the threat, and leaves Shangri La to avert the threat. Leaving, of course, is a death sentence unless he returns soon enough, but the hero puts the safety of Shangri La ahead of his own.

This post-hoc collaboration never really captured my imagination. The writing is good enough, except for an especially magical resolution to the threat. I don't see it as a sequel, so much as an unrelated story in the same setting. That could have been good, but the characters never enticed me. The plot was very plain, an intellectual dead end: things happen, they're resolved, and that's it. Nothing more to think about.

Some people seem to this one - just not me.

//wiredweird

This is Good.......2001-07-03

Write a sequel to Lost Horizon? What hubris, what presumption! Just who do you guys think you are? Then I read it. It's wonderful. When James Hilton ordains that you leave Shangri-LA, you understand that you will never find it again. But Cooney and Altieri work their hermetic arts, and as you inch your way around the narrow ledge, hugging the rock like a lover, you pause to catch your breath, the mists below slowly clear, and there it is! I think Hilton would have been honored, and enchanted. How can this book be out of print? To Ms. Cooney and Mr. Altieri, Thank you.

It's great, thoroughly engrossing........1998-05-10

Read it. It's a great novel and highly worthy as a sequel. This book left me in the same dreamy state as the original. Thought provoking about Tibet and the state of the world for any socially conscious person.

Most Fabulous Book Ever Written in the History of the World........1996-11-16

Sequel. Ugh. What a horrible word. Most of them should never be born, or if they are, they should be left on a hillside to die of exposure. There ought to be a different word to describe SHANGRI-LA--THE RETURN TO THE WORLD OF LOST HORIZON by Eleanor Cooney and Daniel Altieri (Wm. Morrow, 1996). It is in fact the sequel to James Hilton's classic, but without the irrelevance and loss of tumescence you've learned to expect. It actually needed to be written.

LOST HORIZON leaves you dangling deliciously. Forget about the movie version--it was good, but they took huge liberties with the plot of Hilton's tightly constructed work. Most notably, the movie shows the hero, Hugh Conway, arriving back in Shangri-La to the accompaniment of a swelling chorus and heavenly beams of light. It was the era of happy endings in movies, so they stuck one on. But the book--ah, the book is very different indeed.

It starts with a group of British gents in a men's club talking about Conway, a likable but peculiar chap, and how one of them discovered him quite by chance in a hospital in Canton suffering from amnesia. Then we learn that his memory abruptly returned on board a liner bound for San Francisco, that he jumped ship in Honolulu and was never seen again. The middle part of the book is a flashback: Conway's story of being benignly abducted along with three other people into Shangri-La, meeting the two-hundred-year-old lama, finding himself annointed as his successor, and then having to make a decision of Hamlet-like proportions: stay or go. He goes. Dreadful things happened to him after he left, evidently, so that he wound up ill and amnesic in a hospital. Then he got his memory back and jumped ship--to try, we presume, to find his way back to his lost paradise. And that's the last we hear of him. The final words of the book echo down hauntingly over sixty years: "Do you think he will ever find it?"

The authors of SHANGRI-LA dip into that poignant mystery with respect, precision and imagination. Their account of what happened to Conway during his disastrous journey out of the hidden valley in the high Himalayas, how he lost his memory, and what happened to him after he got it back is uncannily Hilton-esque and fits with the unanswered questions in the original like the parts of a fine watch. This account, in turn, is part of a highly relevant story about the brutal Chinese occupation of Tibet in the 1960s, the real-life fulfillment of disaster prophesized by Hilton through his fictional character Father Perrault.

Tibet is still under the heel of China, and SHANGRI-LA teaches the reader some of the harsh facts while delivering a taut tale of suspense, intrigue, romance and mystery. Suffice it to say that there's a rapacious Chinese General who's got hold of a series of ancient riddles that put him on the trail of the hidden valley. A really good villain is the heart and soul of a thriller, and this guy is full of the complexities and contradictions that satisfy our appetites. And instead of crudely killing him off, the authors reward him for his villainy with a highly eerie anti-Shangri-La that makes you think of some sort of hell out of Oriental mythology with Rod Serling as a consultant.

Book Description

The New York Times bestseller Seven Years in Tibet told the incredible story of an idyllic life on the roof of the world, before it was destroyed by the invading Chinese army. Now, in the extraordinary Return to Tibet, Austrian adventurer Henrich Harrer revisits the people and places he left behind. A compelling mix of history, religion, and travel writing, his book bears witness to the suffering and perseverance of this ancient civilization under Chinese rule. Against a backdrop of ruined monasteries and the beautiful, mysterious Himalayas, Harrer vividly evokes both a free Tibet in which religion and faith were central features of daily life, and the present-day occupied nation from which a profoundly spiritual culture threatens to disappear. He reflects on the country's problems and in a reunion with his former pupil, the Dalai Lama, discusses ways of preserving the Tibetans' national character and their homeland. Like Seven Years in Tibet, this is a timeless story of Eastern culture that beckons readers to a land of majestic mountains and a religion that has endured for a thousand years.

Customer Reviews:

An account of Tibet's destruction and exploitation.......2006-09-05

After three decades, Heinrich Harrer, the famed Austrian mountain-climber, was finally able to visit Tibet again. In this book, he documents how thoroughly a communist regime can ruin a nation and a people. This book is shorter and less-detailed than his outstanding "Seven Years in Tibet", but the main point of this account is the grievous destruction of Tibetan culture. Mr. Harrer travelled to Lhasa, where he located a number of his Tbetan friends and acquaintances from better times. Many had stories to tell of their survival under the occupation by China's communist government. Unfortunately, at least one of these acquaintances from the past, was a full-blown collaborator.
Mr. Harrer describes how Tibet's religion, culture, and language still survive, despite efforts by the Chinese to suppress and completely eliminate them. In fact, traditional Tibetan culture is alive and well, surviving on the periphery of their homeland. Many Tibetans live in exile in India, Nepal, and Bhutan, for example. Harrer describes how the Chinese government has revived monasteries in Lhasa for the purpose of drawing in tourists, a source of foriegn currency for the regime. The authenticity of the monks was questionable, according to Mr. Harrer.
Having been brutally invaded by the communists in 1950, Tibet is probably the first example of the dubious value of the so-called "United Nations". Despite attempts by the Tibetan government to plead for assistance, the U.N. did nothing...as usual. The end result was the ongoing barbaric oppression and gradual genocide of the Tibetan people at the hands of the world's last communist super-power. It is believed that the population of native Tibetans has declined by half since 1950, many having been worked to death in concentration camps, or outright slaughtered. Meanwhile, the Chinese have been colonizing Tibet in large numbers.

Thirty years after.......2006-08-12

Did you love SY in T? Reading "Return to Tibet" would seem a natural consequence. Half-way in between a book of memories and a collection of short essays this evidently much sponsored sequel has some merits even if it is definitely lacking the poetry and fascination of the first work.
In 1982, more than thirty years aver leaving Lhasa and a life devoted to many other initiatives (read "The White Spider"), Harrer returned to Tibet with one of the first Chinese regulated tourist tours. Having been well introduced in the Tibetan society he immediately and instinctively picks up the differences with the past and only these he describes in great detail. He tells us of the fate of his old friends and acquaintances, those who have succumbed to Chinese cultural revolution and those that have become collaborators, the destruction of religious sites and old habits but also their endurance under cover through delicate details and episodes. There is no timeline narration and the book is skippy going back and forth more than once. This book was written at the time of a fugacious "thaw" in Chinese oppression so it conveys some optimism that has successively been cancelled. I suggest if anyone is interested to watch "Windhorse" or "Tibet, the Cry of the Snow Lion" to have an update on the situation of Tibetan cultural genocide. The language as in SY in T is very simple with evident problems of translation, but the book flows along well. I think it is a good companion book to SY in T but it isn't worth an indipendent read.

Harrer Sees Tibet Again.......2006-03-22

Anyone who has read Harrer's sensational account published in
"Seven Years in Tibet" of his escape from a prison camp in 1943 and 21 month walk across the High Himalaya, must certainly read
"Return to Tibet".
This book was written 30 years after his first stay in Tibet and deals with the tremendous changes, much of them sheer vandalism and wanton destruction,resulting from the Chinese occupation of the country in 1951.
Harrer is an excellent guide because of his intimate knowledge of the country and its people.
The book is easy to read and gives a vivid impression of Tibetans
both of those who remained in their country and those now in exile in India.
The author died earlier this year at the age of 93 years.

Can't get there from here.......2005-09-08

The parallels between this book and China's takeover of Tibet are remarkable. Both China and Harrer seem to be exploiting Tibet for financial means. Harrer's first book on the subject, "Seven Years in Tibet", is a remarkable book that was made into a movie. Unlike the first book, this book seems to have little purpose.

It is truly a tragedy what happened to Tibet. The people of this peaceful country were taken over by a hostile aggressor without aid from the rest of the world. Admittedly, Harrer rehashes many of his tales from "Seven Years in Tibet" in this book. After thirty years, Harrer is finally allowed to return to Tibet, now under China's rule. Harrer finds much of the land he once knew in ruins. However, Harrer gives little description of the change. I realize he was not allowed to photograph or view certain areas. But with so little to write about, why write a book?

Most readers of this book are keenly aware of China's mistreatment of the people of Tibet. Harrer gives first hand accounts through interviews of the Tibetans that stayed in Tibet when China began its rule. Many of these Tibetans have been tortured into abiding by China's rule. What I found most shocking is the lack of awareness of the people of China that their country has possession of Tibet.

With such a beautiful cover, one expects many beautiful pictures on the inside. Unfortunately, most the pictures come from the 1950's. Did rules against pictures in certain areas really affect his production that much.

Another major omission I found in the book is motivation. Why did China engulf Tibet? Harrer briefly suggests that they felt the differing way of life lived by Tibetans was a threat to China. But why attack a peaceful people? Are the Chinese afraid of the Dalai Lama? Is the Tibetan brand of Buddhism that different from China's?

The downfall of this book comes in Harrer's living in the past. He can't seem to bring himself to describe what is left of the Tibet he once knew. Aside from speaking to a few Tibetans and describing some of the architecture, this book fails. It seems that Harrer is rehashing his last book mixed with images from his 1982 visit.

Read It As History, Not Travelogue.......2001-08-15

It is amazing that Henrich Harrer has written separate accounts on Tibet, the roof of thw world, with incredible disparity in emotions. The successor of "Seven Years in Tibets", "Return to Tibet" records the author's revisit 30 years after his departure in 1950. "Return to Tibet" is often regarded as the continuation of "Seven Years in Tibet", except that readers shouldn't read it as a travelogue. Interwoven with the once-vivid and jocund recollection of the country, Harrer contrasted the dismal Tibet under the Chinese neocolonialism. One might find the later volume dry and even disappointing because "Return To Tibet" is not really a showcase of colorful Tibetan costumes, or the rancid butter tea, or the architecture of monasteries. Instead, it is more a political review of how China had annihilated the Tibetan cultures by forcing adoption of new beliefs and ideologies. The climax of the book falls into the author's report to the Dalai Lama, with whom Harrer had built a close friendship. It is through Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibet, that the author realized that Tibetans' beliefs are unshakable. "Tibetans are people of love and patience. They never value war. Yet they value religion and belief more than anything. They would value religion more than not going to war."

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Return to Tibet
Heinrich Harrar
Manufacturer: Schocken
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

In SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET, Heinrich Harrer related his escape from British internment in India, his epic hike to Tibet, and his seven idyllic years there. Thirty years later, in 1982, he went back. Three decades are small in the flow of time, but the changes were profound.

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Extraordinary accomplishment

There is no book like this one!!

The Measure of God: Our Century-Long Struggle to Reconcile Science & Religion
Larry Witham
Manufacturer: HarperSanFrancisco
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
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When Science Meets Religion: Enemies, Strangers, or Partners?

Before Darwin: Reconciling God and Nature

By Design: Science and the Search for God

Not Just Science: Questions Where Christian Faith and Natural Science Intersect

Is There a God?

ASIN: 0060591919
Release Date: 2005-08-23

Customer Reviews:

Extraordinary accomplishment.......2005-10-27

The Gifford lectures have been given by many of the most influential thinkers in disciplines such as philosophy, theology, sociology, psychology and the natural sciences over the past 120 years. This book describes the origin and history of the lectures, but it does much more than that. The lectures are grouped by period (into four chronological "acts" as the author calls them), and within each period the lectures are discussed in the context of the major intellectual currents of the time. The content of a lecture series is not simply summarized, but the reasoning of the lecturer is explained by reference to what he or she was seeking to add to an ongoing argument and to advance the understanding of a discipline by the audience and by the wider public. The impact of the lectures on the discipline is also explained.

Larry Witham has studied the lectures and is able to identify and explain the reasoning of the author in a clear and understandable fashion. This is not to say that the book can be skimmed through and the content absorbed. The book is substantial and should be read carefully as there is much in it worth pausing and pondering.

The book contains just over 300 pages of well-written text. An appendix includes a listing of every Gifford lecture, where and when it was given, the title of the book in which the lectures were published (or the title of the lectures if they were not published, which is uncommon) and the lecturer's affiliation.

This is a stimulating volume that would be a welcome gift to anyone interested in the development of modern thought.

There is no book like this one!!.......2005-10-08

In the field of "religion and science", the Gifford Lectures are well-known and have become, in a sense, an institution. I guess that everyone working in "religion and science" dreams about giving these lectures one day. In this extraordinary book, Larry Witham describes the history of the Gifford Lectures. There is absolutely no book like this! Years ago, Stanley Jaki wrote a slim book on the Gifford Lectures, but Witham's book surpasses it by far.

In a sense, since the Gifford Lectures are so bound up with the whole field of science and religion, the story of the Gifford Lectures mirrors the history of the dealings of intellectuals to come to terms with both religion and science. Writing the history of the Gifford Lectures is writing the history of the science and religion debate.

Witham's book is written in an engaging style, mixing journalistic description with interviews and personal descriptions. The book is well-researched. However, one of the things that make it absolute necessary reading to anyone interested in religion and science is the appendix, in which Witham lists all those who have given the Gifford Lectures from 1888 until 2005. Not only are the dates and titles of the lecturers listed, but also the publications which resulted from the lectures. Many of them have become classics in theology or philosophy.

A truly admirable book, and an excellent starting point to engage in the interesting and lively interaction of religion and science. Buy it and convince yourself! You will not be disappointed.

And if you finished this book, you will definitely want to read Witham's other books, "When Darwin Meets the Bible" and "By Design" - all available from Amazon.com. Why not order all of these books at once...?

Measuring the Deity.(The Measure of God: Our Century-Long Struggle to Reconcile Science and Religion)(Before Darwin: Reconciling God and Nature)(Book review): An article from: Skeptic (Altadena, CA)

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Measuring the Deity.(The Measure of God: Our Century-Long Struggle to Reconcile Science and Religion)(Before Darwin: Reconciling God and Nature)(Book review): An article from: Skeptic (Altadena, CA)
Warren Allmon
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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This digital document is an article from Skeptic (Altadena, CA), published by Thomson Gale on June 22, 2007. The length of the article is 1794 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: Measuring the Deity.(The Measure of God: Our Century-Long Struggle to Reconcile Science and Religion)(Before Darwin: Reconciling God and Nature)(Book review)
Author: Warren Allmon
Publication: Skeptic (Altadena, CA) (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 22, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 13 Issue: 2 Page: 72(2)

Article Type: Book review

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The Measure Of God: Our Century-long Struggle To Reconcile Science & Religion

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The Measure Of God: Our Century-long Struggle To Reconcile Science & Religion
Larry A. Witham
Manufacturer: HarperSanFrancisco
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OEVXI0

Book Description

Tomorrow's Professor is designed to help you prepare for, find, and succeed at academic careers in science and engineering. It looks at the full range of North American four-year academic institutions while featuring 30 vignettes and more than 50 individual stories that bring to life the principles and strategies outlined in the book.

Tailored for today's graduate students, postdocs, and beginning professors, Tomorrow's Professor:

Presents a no-holds-barred look at the academic enterprise
Describes a powerful preparation strategy to make you competitive for academic positions while maintaining your options for worthwhile careers in government and industry
Explains how to get the offer you want and start-up package you need to help ensure success in your first critical years on the job
Provides essential insights from experienced faculty on how to develop a rewarding academic career and a quality of life that is both balanced and fulfilling

At a time when anxiety about academic career opportunities for Ph.D.s in these field is at an all-time high, Tomorrow's Professor provides a much-needed practical approach to career development.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent overview.......2007-08-13

I was very pleased with this purchase. Reis gives a great overview of academia and the US university system. He make lots of points I hadn't thought of as well as some very sage comments on how education should be approached. The main drawback of the book is that it is a little outdated - for example he suggests the new idea of looking for job postings on a thing called the World Wide Web!

Obfuscated text, with an orotund tone.......2007-05-13

I was extremely disappointed with this book. The auther attempts to appear clever and sly, but ends up sounding verbose and grandiloquent. Blast!

A very helpful book !.......2007-01-22

This is an excellent book. I used it extensively as I prepared to apply for a faculty position in a science department. I strongly recommend it to anyone who would want to become a university professor in the future.

Excellent for any Ph.D. candidate in engineering.......2007-01-09

This is an excellent overview of Ph.D. program goals, career options for Ph.D.s, and job search strategies. There's even a section on what to do in your early career on the tenure track. I'm in a position that gives me particular knowledge of the process, and still, this book is extremely useful. It provides multiple perspectives on the profession and addresses not only high-end research universities, but also liberal arts colleges with science programs and everything in-between.

Does not say anything new.......2004-07-03

The book is designed as a guide for graduate students, post-docs, and non-tenured faculty looking for careers in academic science and engineering.

The book has four parts: the first gives an exposition of the world of academia, the second discusses preparation for academic careers for graduate students and post-docs, the third discusses strategies for looking for and applying to academic positions, and the fourth discusses life as junior faculty and the tenure application process.

While the book is well-written and well-organized, it does not provide any helpful information or insight. All information in the book should be well-known to any graduate student or post-doc who is even slightly serious about a career in academic science and engineering.

For example, every graduate student and post-doc should know full well that teaching experience and grant-writing skills are indispensable when applying for an academic position. Every non-tenured faculty should know what tenure is all about and what is necessary in order to achieve it. The book discusses these issues as if these are helpful pointers for success in academia.

The book provides advice on how to write teaching portfolios, how to handle campus tours, how to negotiate salaries, etc. However, there are many excellent books and websites discussing these issues in greater detail. This book is thus superfluous and unnecessary.

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Tomorrow's Professor : Preparing for Academic Careers in Science and Engineering
Rick Reis
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000JOQNLM

Book Description

* From hunting to national parks, it asks and answers the big questions about why we have struggled, and continue to struggle, to conserve nature
* Looks to the future and suggests a new course for conservation in the 21st century
* Essential reading for conservationists, ecologists, park and natural resource managers, tourism practitioners, and students and scholars

The story of conservation from its origins in 1903, when the Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire was founded in London, to the present day in which it has become a huge international enterprise.
Yet this book is not simply an account of what happened, but rather it is about why it happened. "Against Extinction" is, above all, about the big questions and ideas that have driven conservation for a century. How can the diversity of life be maintained as human demands on the earth expand seemingly without end? How can you reconcile preservation with human rights and the development needs of the poor? Is conservation something that needs to be imposed on people, or is it only something that emerges from people's free choice? These have never been easy questions and the answers, as Adams reveals, have been even more difficult.

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