Reviews for Teachers' guide, Biological science

The average rating for Teachers' guide, Biological science based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-05-28 00:00:00 Kenneth Mims Jr Charmed Malacia! In the wilderness beyond its fortress walls, in dreary chasm, tangled forest, or endless mountainside, the forces of many kinds of evil struggled for supremacy. Within our winding streets serenity seemed to prevail. "seemed" is the key word in this brief introduction to the marvellous Renascentist city of Malacia. Indeed, at first glance, following the lovable young rascal Perian de Chirolo down its winding alleys, the city is full of vibrant colours and exotic characters, bursting at the seams with life and the promise of adventure. "My horoscope isn't profitable today. There's women in it, but not just yet apparently. Saturn is proving difficult, while all the entrails are against me." "I'm too hard-up even to get my amulet blessed by Throat Dark." "It's marvellous not to be troubled by money." In the company of his best friend Guy de Lambant, another out-of-work young actor, Perian is in search of gainful employment, of romance and of a good meal, or any meal at all. At a street corner, a ragged alchemist ( The crannies of Malacia held as many magicians and astrologers as spiders. ) promises that Guy's luck will change, and pretty soon de Lambant finds a leading role in a new play and falls in love with the prettiest girl in town, a rich heiress from a powerful political family named Armida. Underneath the glitter and the witty repartee Malacia is rife with corruption. The city's wealth and decadent lifestyle are guaranteed by its magical defensive walls and by its secretive leaders that deal swiftly and harshly with any potential dissenters. The immemorial duty of the Supreme Council was to protect Malacia from change. also, The original magician's curse on Malacia was that it would never change. An image that remains unchanged over the centuries? Sounds like a tapestry to me, or like a primordial insect caught in amber. Two young men (Perian and Guy) bring two young lovely girls (Armida and Bedalar)in the hills over the city, to gaze at the sunset and, why not, for a bit of illicit love making. Their eyes see more than they planned though: "Somebody told me that Satan has decided to close the world down, and the magicians have agreed. What would happen wouldn't be unpleasant at all, but just ordinary life going on more and more slowly until it stopped absolutely." "Like a clock stopping." "More like a tapestry. I mean, one day like today, things might run down and never move again, so that we and everything would hang there like a tapestry in the air for ever more." '«»'«»'«»' Brian Aldiss was a prolific author, and among so many excellent short stories and novels, Malacia receives less attention than I think it deserves. Like one of the tapestries mentioned above, the story is rich in detail and intricate in plot, with ambitious metaphors about art, metaphysics, love and politics slowing the pace considerably and dissapointing potential readers who saw initially only the cover with a brave knight, a damsel in distress and a fiery dinosaur. The fantasy stuff is actually part of the story, but not really the most important one. Ordinary life, and the tribulations of an ordinary young man trying to make sense of the world around him and of his personal feelings, are what Malacia is truly about, with actual plot more of an afterthought in the plans of the author. You must hope and despair, reform and sin, triumph and fail. How else do we live our duality of spirit? Now you will learn the additional curse of knowledge - it will gain you no wisdom - it will only make more painful what you hitherto enjoyed through ignorance. I would have probably have rated this story a poor two stars, had I read it back in my own youth, right after I discovered Aldiss through Helliconia. I am tempted to give it all five stars, now that I am myself cursed with knowledge of life's twists and turns and of its inherent duality of beauty and pain. With the ton of additional books I've read between Helliconia and today, I see Malacia as a sort of Jack Vance meets James Branch Cabell, by way of Commedia dell'Arte. There is unity in all things, and duality. We live physically in a fine city; we also live in a forest of dark beliefs. This day, you are granted an occasion to rise above them both. Perian de Chirolo actually takes a ride above the city in a hot air balloon, an occassion for the poet in Aldiss to take his metaphors one step further and shed new light on his already complex tapestry. Besieging armies, ancestral beasts, tyrants and satyrs, actors and priests, fair maids and hookers disport themselves for our amusement. History repeats itself in the timeless battle between change and tradition, with Perian forced to make a choice between his innocence and his intelligence. His role in the ancient / new play put on stage by the revolutionary Bengtsohn oddly reflects his own tribulations in the pursuit of the beautiful Armida. Surely one's interest in the play is precisely that it might have been written a million years ago. Some things are eternal and must be eternally re-expressed. Those desperate straits of love, which Bengtsohn effectively conveys, appeal to us because they apply as much today as yesterday. How will the play end? Will love triumph over all obstacles? Will the impregnable walls of Malacia fall down to usher in a new Age of Reason? Will friendship survive the test of jealousy? Who cares? I am grateful for the journey and for the magic pen of Brian Aldiss who was able to conjure once again for me angels and demons on the silver screen of my imagination. Our Shadow Figures, with their mimic strife, They are but to Amuse, or chase your Care, And beg Indulgence from your Phantoms there, Within the greater Raree-show of Life. From Orient and Far Cathay come they. Even like you, Someone behind the Screen Controls their Acts - so think, when you have seen, Your Life like theirs is but a Shadow Play! '«»'«»'«»' Extras: Art and life, fact and fiction, are linked transcriptions of each other - - - - - You don't want a lecture on the differences between the Natural and the Higher Religions. They are opposed but allied, as evening mingles with dawn in our blood. They agree that God, or the Power of Light, is an intruder in this universe; the fundamental difference is that adherents of the Natural Religion believe that humanity should side with Satan, since God can never win; whereas we of the Higher Religion believe that God can triumph in the great battle, provided that human beings fight on his side rather than Satan's. - - - - - About an artisan, a sort of glass-miniaturist in the Murano tradition: Bledlore works obsessively for a pittance, barely supporting himself and his old wife. Why does he do it? My theory is that he feels Time - and Dust, the advance patrol of Time - as well as its rearguard - to be against him. So he builds tiny monuments to himself in the only way he knows, much like the coral insect whose anonymous life create islands. Time makes Master Bledsore secrete Art. What algebraist ever found a harsher formula than that? [...] Time is one of those big questions, hanging at our door like an unsettled bill. - - - - - You think me unscrupulous and vain, but at least I always trust my friends. It's a duty to do so, at least until they prove false. Better to be duped occasionally than to be suspicious always. - - - - - Every day of my life, I am in love. Women are so beautiful, so agreeable, how could it be otherwise?

Review # 2 was written on 2016-08-28 00:00:00 Scott Farmer [humans have evolved from dinosaurs, which they still keep as pets (hide spoiler)]