Ultimate Prizes [Import] [Hardcover]

Susan Howatch (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: William Collins & Sons (1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0002235579
• ISBN-13: 978-0002235570
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,568,524 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ultimate Prizes drops off pace of Glittering Images, June 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Ultimate Prizes (Mass Market Paperback)

Now don't get me wrong: this is a fine book. But having read the entire series twice, I find Ultimate Prizes and Scandalous Risks, the third and fourth books in the six book series on the Church of England, not up to the same standards as the others. I consider Glittering Images, the first in the series, still the best. I've heard priests allude to this book from the pulpit. Glamorous Powers and Absolute Truths (the second and sixth books in the series) were my next favorites. Mystical Paths, the fifth book is also pretty strong.

I have read this series, and shared them with others, based initially on a recommendation from my priest. Susan Howatch introduces us to a lot of theological thinking under the guise of a novel, and there are a lot of Christian truths presented in this series. The first two and last two books in this series fulfill these purposes best. The middle two books in the series read more like, well, TYPICAL novels (and this is not why I've read the series).

I encourage everyone to read the entire series, but if you only have time for two to four books in the series, these are my personal ratings:

Glittering Images: 10

Glamorous Powers: 9

Absolute Truths: 9

Mystical Paths: 7

Ultimate Prizes: 6

Scandalous Risks: 4

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Read it third!, December 5, 2001

By 

Sharon Maas ([e-mail]) (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ultimate Prizes (Mass Market Paperback)

In the third of the Starbridge series we get a closer look at Neville Ayesgarth, who was at loggerheads with Jon Darrow in the second book. Here it is Ayesgarth’s turn to be stripped apart and laid bare by Howatch’s expert scalpel! I have to admit that though I didn’t dislike this book, I didn’t like it as much as others in the series. It began promisingly enough, with Neville falling under the spell of the young flibbertigibbet Dido. Dido – who later becomes famous in the series as a loose cannon - resists his advances until… well, that would be giving things away. I felt though that the second part of the book gets bogged down in the dissection of Neville’s past. I found it not so interesting to read about his background as he tells it to his spiritual director; as such the characters who are so important to Neville - his mother, his father, Uncle Willoughby – never came alive for me and his recounting of them felt rather slow. However, it is still a great book and indispensable to the series - but it should be read in the right order, after its two predecessors. I have started an online discussion and reading group around Susan Howatch’s novels (...).

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where potential meets conflict - excellent characterisation, March 24, 2001

By 

Elizabeth G. Melillo "gloriana" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ultimate Prizes (Mass Market Paperback)

For all that the plots of her novels tend to cross the border to melodrama, Susan Howatch's gift for characterisation, and for the integration of superb spiritual insight (into the dialogue, if not the lives of the individuals depicted!) is impeccable. Neville Aysgarth, whose commitment and faith are unquestionable, is an odd but interesting blend of hard sense and the ability to create a personal world of his own, where his natural dedication is lost in the inability to have any real compassion or understanding. Others in his life, though he remains clearly unaware of this and, indeed, capable of believing he has a remarkable and favourable role, are "prizes" which he creates for his own benefit.

The bizarre love match of Neville and Dido will keep anyone with interests in psychology or odd relationships pondering its aspects. However, Susan does not disappoint those used to her excellent spiritual and theological insights. Some of her other "clergy," for all of their failings, remain great men. Neville, by contrast, is one who has genuinely good qualities that show his ever unrecognised potential to be in that category as well, but this can never be achieved. He can see the truth and wisdom in concepts such as Aidan and Jonathan present, or the ideals of his modernist heroes, yet can never get past his inability to accept his own weakness, any need for others beyond their being his prizes, nor his tendency towards deceit in the garb of theological integrity.

With vivid characters and an intriguing, if rather bizarre, plot, even those readers who do not wish to be inspired can be assured they'll never be bored.