Customer Reviews

Shame of Man

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The second Geodyssey volume from Piers Anthony, 'Shame of Man' follows the lives of Hugh and Ann, illuminating as they do eight million years of history. The self-contained formula of 'Isle of Woman' is maintained; however, characters from that novel usefully return as occasional backdrop. The scenery remains wonderfully varied, with the narrative opening in the Great Rift Valley and continuing as far afield as Vietnam, Newfoundland and Scotland's Orkney Islands.The strongest of the twenty scenarios occurs 3,000 years ago, around the time of King David. Anthony's choice of Philistine characters here illustrates his approach: he doesn't always avoid the history textbooks' ground, but is nonetheless loath to retread conventional paths. Thus we see Japan visited in the third century AD, and on Genghis Khan's rise to fame we see an enemy's colossal misjudgment where other authors might substitute triumphant slaughter. The requisite Mediterranean setting is not Rome but New Carthage; similarly, when the story touches down in 1862 the siege is not of Richmond but of Shanghai, where millions died in the Taiping rebellion.Anthony expresses concern that global catastrophe lurks around the corner, and this is brought home to the reader most clearly in the microcosm of Easter Island (neatly sandwiched between Genghis and Scheherazade). Indeed, even the characters gradually become aware of it. The future of the sensible ones is glimpsed in Tasmania half a century hence. The use to which they put their technology, and their need to do so, is rich food for thought.

Across eight million years, mankind repeats a single story. Hu/Hugh finds his true love, battles a brother-sister team, raises one genetic son, one adopted daughter, and one adopted son, and discovers and practices music while his wife develops dance. In more than a dozen lands--from early Africa to China, Mongolia, Easter Island, Palestine, and even Tasmania, Hu and Anne explore their relationship, Hu's weird obsession with Ss, and the art of becoming good parents.

As this family pursues survival, they discover the dangers of falling outside the pack. When Hu refuses to join in a hunt for giant orangetangs, believing them too manlike to serve as food, he is cast out of his pack and nearly dies. But the result of the hunt is, over time, the elimination of a kindred species and their replacement with the dominant man. Likewise, in the recent past, Hugh's decision to support tree-spiking nearly results in his arrest. Short term profit maximization becomes more important than the long term survival of the planet.

Author Piers Anthony continues his fascinating exploration of mankind's history--and mankind's relationship to the planet. Throughout history, living creatures have shaped the earth without being aware of the consequences of their actions. Man, by virtue of his intelligence, is able to do far more to Earth than most species--and in a far shorter time. But Anthony manages (mostly) to avoid a preachy political manifesto in the form of a story. Instead, the oddesy of Hu and Anne through the millions of years, with a variety of faces, becomes a compelling and fascinating story. With Anthony's strong writing, this book is hard to put down.

Is Anthony right--will mankind be doomed to exercise extreme social control in order to prevent our own extinction? It certainly seems possible. Indeed, the Bush administration's decision to name environmental activists leaders in 'domestic terrorism' indicates how far mankind must come in a very short time if we are to begin to even take into account the very real costs that our actions impose on Earth.

SHAME OF MAN is the kind of story that makes you think--and stretches your brain. There's plenty of tragedy here, but also a solid adventure, a love story, retelling of mythology, and a number of windows to societies outside those that Americans are generally exposed to in their history classes.

This book really makes you think about how our insticts guide us and human existence in general. It caused me to realize a lot of things I had taken for granted. Excellent!

I've come to realize that Piers Anthony is a dirty old man. There wasn't as much sex and rape as was in the first book, but still more than was necessary (none would have probably been just fine.)
The storyline in this book is much more congruous throughout the ages unlike the first one. This made it easier to relate to the new surroundings.
The history presented is very interesting.
One thing I can't stand in books are flashbacks to things that happened earlier in the book. This happens nearly every chapter as the previous events are recounted in the new setting.
The last thing that really annoyed me are the names of some of the people. Bb, Ss, Vk, Beebub, Scevo... Seriously, that creative huh? Why no vowels in the neandertal names. They didn't have written language so having unpronounceable names is just stupid.

I greatly enjoyed Isle of Woman, and Shame of Man did not let me down. I love the approach the author takes of following basically the same family and supporting characters through thousands of years. You see the differences over time in how the family is forced to respond to different situations because of human development and society. Good read!

I read Isle of Woman years ago and had not read any further in the series. It is an interesting way to look at human evolution and will give you a better understanding of the how and why we have evolved to the point we are at now.

This was a rather good book and a decent follow-up to Isle of Woman. I actually enjoyed the more primitive parts of this book (the ones that happened more than 10,000 years ago), because after that, the stories have a lot of smut in them. Not that adult stuff is bad, since most of us are adults, but I do wish that Mr. Anthony would rely on it less as a plot device, he uses it SO much in most if not all of his books, and it gets really old.

I mean, after a while, I was getting REALLY tired of reading about Hu and Sis because it was just the same thing over and over and OVER, and I'm thinking to myself, COME ON. It's crazy, especially when the family has basically the same story through their reincarnations (losing Chip, finding an abandoned Mina, etc) so it got rather monotonous with about 1/2-1/3 of the stories (the last third of this book) and I wish Mr, Anthony had focused more on the real plot instead of all the drama with Sis. This is why I only gave the book 3 stars, because while it was creative (the non-smut part) it got very repetitive, and I was getting bored about 2/3 through the book.

This book is sequel to Isle of Woman, which I did like a lot This one was good but not as good as the first. Shame of Man mostly revolved around the character Hue, or Hugh or other variations of his was used also. Revolving around one character made it different from the first book because the first had two main characters and it was more of a love story. This one was more about struggles of man versus evil or man vs. survival. There was more history and mythology involved in this also, which I found in parts were kinda of dry and hard for my thought process. I had a problem with trying to figure out in each chapter reincarnation, who was who because their names changed slightly each time to fit the area a time period. It also had characters from the first book in the series so I was trying to remember them as well and sometimes coming up blank. Then there was new character to which I would try to figure out if I had met them yet. So that made it a little frustrating. I still like the book and the thought of the way it is written but whether I will read the third one in the series, Hope of Earth, is up in the air. On one side I really liked Isle of Woman but on the other Shame of Man was only so so. Maybe it was just the fact that the story was man vs. evil and that there is always a balancing act between the two and not yay good won! I don't know resembles life to much for me. Yet if it had been yay good wins I probably would have said predicable.

The concept behing the Geodessy is compeling and the first book was great. This one didn't add that much to it.

I do admire the way Anthony changed his focus. This novel focuses on the role of the family and family members in struggle. This is not as dynamic or suspenseful a focus as that of Isle of Woman and therefore the book lacks a little in the suspense department. You will probably always know what the characters will do - they stick together 'cause their a family.

That being said, the stories are fun and the concept behind the book still carries it further than you'd expect (the concept of the same characters being reborn in various places and times).

If you like Isle of Woman, you'll probably like this one. If you thought it was so-so, you may be in for a long, dull night.

After reading Isle of Woman, getting and reading Shame of Man became my next obsession. I'm happy that I did read it. This sequal to Isle of Woman is about Hugh and his beautiful wife Anne and their family. While the plot seems simple enough, Piers Anthony puts in the most wonderful unexpected twists and turns that make this story so exciting. He also includes characters from other sagas in the Geodyssey series as they continue on with their lives. I very highly reccomend this book to people who love history and enjoy feeling as connected to the characters as I do. All in all, the characters are wonderful, and the places in the past Piers Anthony sends you makes you feel like your there. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in this series.