A Venusian honeymoon could quickly end in disaster, when the newlyweds are attacked by savage night dwellers and catatonia-inducing spores. English biologist Patricia Hammond with her new American husband Hamilton Ham Hammond, decide to explore the dark side of Venus to collect plant specimens. But what they find is a specimen far beyond their expectations, and it forces them to re-evaluate what it means to be intelligent.
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"Helen Adams is a young college dropout from Los Angeles who makes her way to Vietnam in the mid-1960's to try to flesh out the details behind the Marines' opaque explanation of her brother's death in combat. To gain access to the action, she joins the press corp as a photographer, and thus becomes both witness and participant in the absurdity and horror that characterized the American adventure in that country's civil war. "Sudden and sublime. Sudden and awful. Everything distilled to its most intense," is how her lover, a veteran Life Magazine war photographer named Sam Darrow, describes daily life in Vietnam and its addictive draw to the group of journalists and military adventurers who make up her circle of acquaintances. Helen's transformation from scared California girl, to cynical photographer chasing human misery across the scarred countryside is described in clear and unsentimental prose, as Helen grows inured to the horror and becomes a star as a Life Magazine staff photographer. Tatjana Soli deftly describes the enigma of Vietnam, where nothing is as it seems, and the dilemma of the press as they become part of the war by packaging and selling it back home. At its core, The Lotus Eaters is essentially a love story, as Helen becomes involved first with Sam and later with his Vietnamese assistant, Linh. Helen emerges from the war damaged and broken, forever altered, yet somehow with her humanity intact. But it is Linh's story as much as it is Helen's, and it is through him the reader begins to understand the toll that decades of French and American occupation took on the people of Vietnam. This book was hypnotic; dreamlike and horrific at once. I'll be thinking about it for a long time." — Jean (4 out of 5 stars)
"Helen Adams is a young college dropout from Los Angeles who makes her way to Vietnam in the mid-1960's to try to flesh out the details behind the Marines' opaque explanation of her brother's death in combat. To gain access to the action, she joins the press corp as a photographer, and thus becomes both witness and participant in the absurdity and horror that characterized the American adventure in that country's civil war. "Sudden and sublime. Sudden and awful. Everything distilled to its most intense," is how her lover, a veteran Life Magazine war photographer named Sam Darrow, describes daily life in Vietnam and its addictive draw to the group of journalists and military adventurers who make up her circle of acquaintances. Helen's transformation from scared California girl, to cynical photographer chasing human misery across the scarred countryside is described in clear and unsentimental prose, as Helen grows inured to the horror and becomes a star as a Life Magazine staff photographer. Tatjana Soli deftly describes the enigma of Vietnam, where nothing is as it seems, and the dilemma of the press as they become part of the war by packaging and selling it back home. At its core, The Lotus Eaters is essentially a love story, as Helen becomes involved first with Sam and later with his Vietnamese assistant, Linh. Helen emerges from the war damaged and broken, forever altered, yet somehow with her humanity intact. But it is Linh's story as much as it is Helen's, and it is through him the reader begins to understand the toll that decades of French and American occupation took on the people of Vietnam. This book was hypnotic; dreamlike and horrific at once. I'll be thinking about it for a long time."
" a bit too drawn out, and depressing, not in a good way "
" Very interesting read with a great love story (or two) among the eye opening insight of a female photographer during the Vietnam war. I think you'll really like it. "
" I would have given 4 and a half stars if I could. Not worthy of 5 stars because I felt like I really struggled with getting through parts of it. It is beautifully written. A story about an American photojournalist, Helen Adams, who decides to go to Vietnam during the war, and a make a name of herself there covering the war. She finds love there and closure about her brother, who was killed in action. The book creates a memorable vision of Vietnam and its culture, along with the horrors of war. "
" The book takes place over a ten year period of the VietNam War and is told from the perspective of a woman photo-journalist. I found it interesting, but not, for some reason, gripping. It seems I just didn't connect to Helen Adams. I found her distant, cool and not that sympathetic. The book does paint a vivid portrait of war through a woman's eyes. "
" I loved this book. Takes place in Vietnam during the war. One woman's experiences over a 10 year period. This is novel, but so engrossing and illuminating re life in war and how addicting it can be. "
" Vietnam; depressing, complex, alien, corrupt, beautiful, deadly Vietnam. A good book, but too real for an escapist like me. Maybe people under 40 may find this book illuminating instead of just opening old wounds. "
" The story of the Vietnam war, told from the perspective of a female photographer who goes there to find out what happened to her brother who was killed in action. The story starts with the fall of Saigon and then goes back 10 years to when she arrives, scared but determined to find out the truth and make her name as a photographer. Along the way she meets Darrow, a Pulitzer prize winning photographer who has been changed by his coverage of the war and his assistant Linh, a Vietnamese man. Their journey over the years shapes her and each other as they discover what the adrenalin rush of war does to themselves and what living in the country, friends with a Vietnamese man already changed by years of war really means. "
" I'd never read a book set in Vietnam so I really liked that part of it. I enjoyed the story as it unfolded but in the end I felt like there wasn't much to it and I never really felt anything for the main characters. Boring maybe? "
" Finally now have a better understanding of the war in Vietnam. I liked the story and the characters, otherwise could not have kept going through some graphic gory details. "
" OMG if I could give it 10 Stars I would. The BEST book of the year so far. "
" very well written and i think it could have ended sooner. overall i think this is a special book. "
" Very Heart of Darkness like so far. Starting with the fall of Saigon and working backwards, story about Helen Adams, a photographer who lost a brotehr to the war, her Vietnamese boyfriened Linh who is AWOL and another known war photographer, Darrow, and their journeys through Vietnam. "
" I've read several historical fiction books about the Vietnam war; this is the first one I've read from a woman's perspective. Some of the minor characters were one dimensional but an overall quick read and interesting story. "
" This is the Vietnam war told through the lens of a female photojournalist. Soli captivated me by subtly reinforcing the seduction of being fully present in one's environment, and in this case, the poisonous nectar of interpreting war in a strange country. "
" This book took me a long time to read but was ultimately satisfying.I learned a lot about the Vietnam war. "
" Whoa! An excellent, excellent read. One that at present I'm rereading over. Do not miss this debut novel on the story of a woman reporter coming of age in the Vietnam War. "
" Lost interest towards the end. "
" This book was amazing. It stayed with me long after I finished. Beautifully written "
" I became completely immersed in Vietnam and the lives of the characters in this book. This was a very well-written book and I enjoyed reading. "
" The descriptions of the Vietnam war from the eyes of Helen Adams, one of the few women photographers to cover it, were riveting. The shifts in POV, though informative, were distracting. "
" Vietnam through the eyes of a journalist. A lot of the places are so familiar. This is a work of fiction told from a woman's point of view. "
" The war in Viet Nam from the perspective of the photojournalists who covered it. An interesting premise, but it missed the boat for me. Characters were self-absorbed and I didn't believe them. Better books about the VN war out there. "
" This book was a Christmas gift. It was OK. Interesting plot, but the writing so-so. Not much diversity in how characters talked. They all spoke the same way, which was frustrating to read. "
" Almost as good as "1Q84" "
" Best book I've read in a long time. "
Scott Brick, an acclaimed voice artist, screenwriter, and actor, has performed on film, television, and radio. He attended UCLA and spent ten years in a traveling Shakespeare company. Passionate about the spoken word, he has narrated a wide variety of audiobooks and won over fifty AudioFile Earphones Awards and several of the prestigious Audie Awards. He was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine and the Voice of Choice for 2016 by Booklist magazine.
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