This eminently sane utopian novel, Huxley's last, begs for comparison with our present-day dystopian anti-society. Its vision of child-rearing, particularly the refusal of the Island's life-guides to treat children as unthinking sheep and its uncensored sex education methods, stands out among the society's admirable policies. So admirable, of course, that they can't withstand the darker impulses of a greedy, unenlightened, world that never ceases to tempt the Island's rulers. Enjoyable AND an invitation to students to exercise their analytical skills before arriving on campus.

Will Seng
Lecturer, Technical Communication Program, College of Engineering

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We're slowly becoming aware of how significantly we effect the world around us, and how that in turn effects our future. Clearly these are important issues. But not every prediction comes true, and it's important that we temper our fears with a little humility about how much we can see that future. The Population Bomb of 1970 was the An Inconvenient Truth of today: An attempt to project out to a not-so-distant future, and explain how immense change was needed to moderate the disaster that was coming by the end of the century. It's very interesting to read the predictions, and then look at the world of today.

Bob Jacobsen
Professor, Physics

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Gilgamesh is the ultimate survivor—horrified by the death of his buddy Enkidu he sets out on a journey to find eternal life. In his quest he crosses the waters of death, meets Utnapishtim, the sole survivor of the deluge, and receives the secret of the Plant of Rejuvenation. But the plant is stolen by a snake and Gilgamesh returns home empty handed. Although in the story Gilgamesh fails to win eternal life, in some way he succeeds because his story is still an exciting read—more than 4000 years later. Andrew George's translation from the original cuneiform texts is smooth and his introduction contains an up to date introduction to the modern Gilgamesh research.

Niek Veldhuis
Associate Professor, Assyriology

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A profoundly unsettling imagining of what it might take to keep civilization alive in a post-apocalyptic world—and the price that survivors might have to pay.

Steven Botterill
Professor, Italian
Editor-in-Chief, "Dante Studies"

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Depicts with agonizing plausibility the self-destruction that young survivors of a nuclear war wreak upon themselves as their learned ideals of co-operation and community are gradually dismantled by older, deadlier motivations.

Steven Botterill
Professor, Italian
Editor-in-Chief, "Dante Studies"

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