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americans_choice (2625)- Feedback left by buyer.
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Good buyer, prompt payment, valued customer, highly recommended.
Reviews (5)
22 June 2016
My grandson (18 months) loves it! Great for burning energy and very safe, too.
31 January 2018
Good Stuff
This stuff is great. Knocked out a very tough clog that nothing else would!
07 June 2007
Non-Stop: We're not in Kansas anymore!
I first read this remarkable Aldiss novel as a child, although it had been released under the revised (and none-too-subtle) title of "Starship." "Non-Stop" is far more descriptive of the plot and theme, albeit slightly confusing on the face of it. Still, it's a fantastic tale of well-intentioned science run amok. You know, nice scientists and engineers looking at their experiment and saying, "Hey-that wasn't supposed to happen!" It's also the first artificial setting to the 'world-within-a-world' motif that I can remember (Journey to the Center of the Earth has a 'natural' setting.) I greatly enjoyed the slow peeling of the onion as the hero explores the environment he assumes is 'the real world,' eventually discovering that his world is not only far from what he believes it to be, but beyond what he could ever imagine! The revelation of where he and his tribe actually live and die comes as a forehead slapping moment--"I should have seen that coming!" I won't divulge where he actually finds himself living, and why, but the denouement is delightful and Way Cool!
A secondary theme is evocative of Golding's "Lord of the Flies." What happens to humankind when cut off from the 'civilizing' forces of everyday society? What effect does an artificially unchangeable and eternal status quo have upon Homo Sapien's need for understanding, growth and change? Aldiss sketches an interesting notion of a perverse noblesse oblige dispensed by kindly scientists who know better than their clueless experimental subjects.
If you insist upon identifying a negative here, it's the fact that Aldiss is a story teller and not a scientist. The 'hard science' of the novel is, well, a little mushy. Still, it's the overall vision and concept of the novel that appeals. I wasn't too upset when I discovered that Peter Pan couldn't really fly, or that Harry Potter's wand was just a stick, so let's get over the scientific obstacles and just enjoy a good read!