Jerusalem Poker

Product Information

By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. And that would be okay--it's a former spook's fantasy--this group of dudes are really controlling things, and no one knows it--but then the book wants you to take itself seriously, as literary fiction. Pranks and tricks and thinking they could leave him out of the game with their albino monkeys and their samurai bows and arrows? And soon there would be another clandestine trip, another load of dismantled Czech rifles, more English pounds for services rendered. He definitely isn't for everyone, and I'm actually surprised I like him as much as I have so far, since this fanciful, almost fairy tale type style isn't something I'm normally into.

While Jamila stays to become a midwife, Pembe follows her Turkish husband, Adem, to London, where they hope to make new lives for themselves and their children. Jerusalem Poker and Sinai Tapestry are the two best books of the four books which make up the fantastic Jerusalem Quartet. Edward Whittemore (1933­­­–1995) graduated from Yale University in 1955 and went on to serve as a Marine officer in Japan and spend ten years as a CIA operative in the Far East, Europe, and the Middle East.

Hot on the heels of Gardner Dozois's acclaimed anthology The Book of Swords comes this companion volume devoted to magic. Whittemore does not try to unravel the mystery, instead he weaves a story of improbabilitie and intersections, layering one upon another from the Babylonians to the Crusaders, the Greeks to the Ottomans, to the early moments of the Zionist movement. The author presents long digressions into the mundane minutia regarding the lives of minor characters only to tell us (after 30 minutes) that some tangential relation to the minor character is, in fact, a major player in the plot. If you’ve already done that, your item hasn’t arrived, or it’s not as described, you can report that to Etsy by opening a case. Admittedly after the first book I had extraordinarily high hopes, but this book certainly never came close to the imagination contained in the first book.

Edward Whittemore continues his exploration of the historical mysteries and transforms the history into a capricious myth creating his own Book of Kings. Where the plot lost me was the digressions into the extended metaphorical references to various historical villains whom have vied for control over the Middle East, but failed miserably. Imagining they could do in a poor Christian just because the weather was cold and gray and bloody awful, not at all what it was cracked up to be in the land of milk and honey? Maybe it's the way he manages to ground the more fantastical elements, like the beautifully tragic doomed quest of Haj Harun, eternal defender of the Holy City and thus destined to always fail and be on the losing side, because "when you fight for Jersulem you always lose". A prequel to his epic Roma Sub Rosa series, The Seven Wonders follows series star Gordianus the Finder as an 18-year-old traveling the Mediterranean to witness the wonders of that fabled age.But in far-off Hub, the old Imperor's health - and, some said, his sanity - deteriorated inexorably. Winner of the prestigious Booker of Bookers, Midnight's Children tells the story of Saleem Sinai, born on the stroke of India's independence. Pushing and pressing the boundaries to the extreme and although enjoyable in parts, it became so ludicrous and misdirected (IMHO) at so many junctures, that it at times became tedious. But in any case here we are on the last day of December, a cold afternoon with snow definitely in the air, a new year upon us tomorrow.