Pyramid Scheme
(The Pyramid series, Book 1)
Eric Flint and David Freer
Baen
Fiction, Sci-Fi
***
DESCRIPTION: When it hurtled through the atmosphere, crashing into the library on the University of Chicago campus, it seemed harmless enough. A five-sided black
pyramid, little larger than Sputnik, only its extraterrestrial origins made it in any way worthy of attention. Then it started growing... and people started
disappearing.
As scientists race to study it and the military tries to destroy it, nobody suspects the alien probe's true power or purpose. Only those who have been "snatched" by its
violet beam, transported to a world seemingly cobbled together from ancient myths and legends, can hope to figure it out... but do they have a chance of stopping it, when
the very gods Themselves are arrayed against them?
REVIEW: A serviceable tale, Pyramid Scheme introduces several vaguely distinctive characters, throws them into all sorts of trouble (within the pyramid's "Ur-universe" and without), saturates itself in pun-heavy efforts at humor, scrambles the mixture, then finally ends. The sense of wonder, of walking in a world that never existed on Earth amid marvels that defy modern science, never comes through, hazed by bad jokes and shallow characters. The logic of the plot never gels, either, but it's not really about the logic, or even the sense of wonder. It's about a mismatched collection of modern people blundering through classical myths, spreading the gospel of their superior age and culture while trumping even the gods with American know-how and mining the depths of inane punnery. Oh, yeah... there also happen to be just enough single modern men to hook up with lonely classical-world women, more because this kind of plot needs that sort of thing than out of any genuine chemistry. Overall, despite a vaguely intriguing idea, Pyramid Scheme is largely forgettable.
You might also enjoy:
Demons Don't Dream (Piers Anthony, Fiction - A computer game pulls two Earth kids into magical Xanth, to settle a demons' bet)
The Everworld series (K. A. Applegate, YA Fiction - Four Chicago teens become trapped in a world of magic and elder gods)
Magic Kingdom For Sale - Sold! (Terry Brooks, Fiction - A burnt-out lawyer buys a magical kingdom from a high-end catalog)
A Princess of Mars (Edgar Rice Burroughs, Fiction - A Civil War veteran finds himself on the dying, hostile planet Mars)
The Tripods: When the Tripods Came (John Christopher, YA Fiction - A seemingly-laughable alien visitation turns into something much more sinister)
The Wiz Biz books (Rich Cook, Fiction - A Silicon Valley programmer, pulled into a magical world, discovers that spells and computer code aren't that different)
The Dragon and the George (George R. Dickson, Fiction - Seeking his missing wife, a man finds himself in a medieval world, trapped in a dragon's body)
Mythology: A Visual Encyclopedia (Jo Forty, Nonfiction - A guide to global myths and gods)
Cat-A-Lyst (Alan Dean Foster, Fiction - A B-grade actor on vacation in South America discovers a portal to modern-day Incas seeking revenge for their lost empire)
Blessed Lands Egypt (J. Carrell Jones, Fiction - In a modern-day Egyptian empire, a humble priest finds love and his own divinely-blessed fate)
The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica (James A. Owen, YA Fiction - Three soon-to-be-famous authors from London are entrusted with a strange atlas, which leads them to a world that has been the inspiration of legend and story since time began)
The Percy Jackson & the Olympians series (Rick Riordan, YA Fiction - A troubled modern boy learns that the Greek pantheon still lives, and that his father was a powerful god)
Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow (James Rollins, YA Fiction - A mysterious artifact transports two modern teens to a world of lost civilizations and ancient powers)
The Dragon Box (Katie W. Stewart, YA Fiction - A game pulls a boy into an imperiled magical land)
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Anatomy for the Artist
Tom Flint and Peter Stanyer
Barnes & Noble Books
Nonfiction, Art
***
DESCRIPTION: The authors present a collection of anatomy drawings, from bones to flesh, for artists.
REVIEW: This is the first anatomy book I have ever bought where I felt the anatomy pictures were flawed. Many of the images are good, but some of the proportions seem skewed, as Flint uses a somewhat irregular body type as his anatomical standard. In particular, his necks seem too thick and his heads sometimes out of proportion with the body, among other, less obvious yet somehow disturbing quirks. But maybe that's just my untrained eye seeing something that isn't really there. An artist can never have too many reference books, especially on tricky subjects like human anatomy, but I'd give this one a pass if I were you. If you are considering Flint's book, I suggest paging through it first, to see if it feels "off" to you. If a book irritates you or fails to inspire you, it's not worth your money to buy or your shelf space to store. (This one wound up in the Half Price Books sack some time ago, and I can't say I miss it.)
You might also enjoy:
Constructive Anatomy and The Human Machine (George B. Bridgman, Art - Creating the forms of human anatomy)
The Anatomy of Movement (Blandine Calais-Germaine, Nonfiction - How joints and muscles in the human body work)
Anatomy for Fantasy Artists (Glenn Fabry, Art - The rules of anatomy, as adapted for fantasy art)
Cyclopedia Anatomicae (György Fehér, Art - An exceptionally in-depth anatomy book, covering humans and some animals)
Drawing the Head and Figure (Jack Hamm, Art - How to draw humans)
Human Anatomy Made Amazingly Easy (Christopher Hart, YA Art - A simplified course in human anatomy)
How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way (Stan Lee and John Buscema, YA? Art - Not just anatomy, but a good book on getting more energy into drawings)
Atlas of Anatomy (Giovanni Iazzetti, Enrico Rigutti, and Giunti Editorial Group, Anatomy - A basic look at human anatomy, from bone to skin and cell to body)
Anatomy and Drawing (Victor Perard, Art - Anatomy for artists)
Figure Drawing Without a Model (Ron Tiner, Art - How to draw convincing humans from the imagination)
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