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Excellent book about language and its development, written in a very accessible, not typically "scientific" style. But that doesn't mean you can't use it for your studies - on the contrary. I can highly recommend it to everyone who ever wondered why English spelling is so confusing, why the French don't pronounce half of what they write, or why the words "Islam" and "Muslim" belong together, though they don't look like it at first sight.
I quick and captivating read, as it's actually a young adult book. The story is very Gaimanesque, the writing style not so much - it's obvious that Gaiman's partner in crime did most of the writing. I found the writing style a bit naive, it reads like someone's first book ever. Having read the bit about the authors in the back cover, it's obvious why; Michael Reaves is actually a television writer who wrote Emmy winning Star Trek episodes. Interworld was originally supposed to be a TV show, and it does seem a bit like a pilot - the big plot is solved in the end, but there are some lose ends left.
I like the concept of the book, it made me think that Buffy the Vampire Slayer would be a HEX show and Doctor Who would be a binary show, sort of...
I like the concept of the book, it made me think that Buffy the Vampire Slayer would be a HEX show and Doctor Who would be a binary show, sort of...
Ein Buch über einen Austauschstudent der in den 80ern an einer amerikanischen Uni studiert klingt auf den ersten Blick wenig spannend - aber genau das Gegenteil ist hier der Fall. In einer gekonnten Mischung aus Kampus, Krimi, Kultur, Intrige und Romantik, erzählt Fleischhauer diese semi-autobiografische Geschichte, die, wie sich später herausstellt, sich um einen skandalösen Fall dreht der in den 80er die Welt der Literaturwissenschaft in Aufruhr gebracht hat (die entsprechende Person hat einen fiktiven Namen - wie fast alle mehr oder weniger "Gegenwärtigen" Personen im Buch, basiert aber auf einem wahren Fall). Alles in allem ein sehr empfehlenswertes Buch was zudem spannend und edukativ ist.
I'm a relative of one of the people who was involved with the Saboteurs. When I was 12 years old, I read my relative's own, unpublished account of these events. But now that I've read Michael Dobbs' excellent novelized retelling of these historical events, I know for certain why my relative's "memoirs" (which I'm currently re-reading) have never been accepted by any publisher; they sympathize with the one and only real Nazi among the Saboteurs.
Naturally I knew the ending of the book from the memoirs, but despite that the book never gets boring. On the contrary - reading about how the FBI screwed this case up makes you doubt their entire credibility.
Six of the saboteurs were executed, two were imprisoned. Only one of them still believed in Nazi ideology, none of them had the slightest intend to fulfill their sabotage plans - they all viewed "Operation Pastorius" as a means to escape the corrupted fatherland and continue their former lives in the USA. But for publicity's sake they were executed nevertheless, and even those who ratted them out, those who were the only reason why the FBI even caught the saboteurs, were imprisoned instead of being treated as the heroes they should have been.
Naturally I knew the ending of the book from the memoirs, but despite that the book never gets boring. On the contrary - reading about how the FBI screwed this case up makes you doubt their entire credibility.
Six of the saboteurs were executed, two were imprisoned. Only one of them still believed in Nazi ideology, none of them had the slightest intend to fulfill their sabotage plans - they all viewed "Operation Pastorius" as a means to escape the corrupted fatherland and continue their former lives in the USA. But for publicity's sake they were executed nevertheless, and even those who ratted them out, those who were the only reason why the FBI even caught the saboteurs, were imprisoned instead of being treated as the heroes they should have been.
