Book Description
After the critical success of his first novel,  Morvern Callar, Alan Warner has written an extraordinary, stirring sequel to Morvern's odyssey, confirming him as one of the most original, uniquely gifted writers to have appeared this decade.

An air-crash investigator haunts the hinterlands of an island--around the isolated honeymoon hot spot, the Drome Hotel--gathering the debris from fallen planes that the islanders have fashioned into makeshift sheds and fences; but what kind of jigsaw is he really assembling as he paces the runway?

A young woman makes landfall on the island, crossing the interior to arrive at the Drome Hotel: desperate, strange--and strangely familiar.

Meanwhile, DJ Cormorant is trying to organize The Big One, a rave on the adjacent airstrip, and from all over These Demented Lands come twisted characters, converging for one final Saturday night at the Drome Hotel. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Don't give up!
This is a great book, continuing the story from Morvern Callar. However at times it is very confusing and the beginning does not make much sense to most people, but don't give up it all becomes clear as the book progresses.

Not as straightforward as Morvern Callar but when you get into the characters it is really amazing.

Not Quite as Good as I Expected...but Almost
This highly praised book was extremely well-written but not as well plotted as I expected it to be.I realize the story was more surrealistic than realistic, but I feel both the Drome Hotel and the character of DJ Cormorant should have played a larger role in the story.

The characters were as twisted and demented as the story of which they are a part.I felt distanced from them but I think this is to be expected when reading a story such as this one.

I enjoyed this highly-imaginative book as a change of pace and it's obvious that Alan Warner is an innovative, original and brilliant writer.I think These Demented Lands will appeal to those who enjoy surrealistic, hallucinatory, postmodern literature.Those who require more conventionally plotted stories will probably be disappointed.Nevertheless, if you're looking for something different, give this well-written book a try.

Dark and Surreal
These Demented Lands, Alan Warner's second novel is a sequel of sorts to his highly praised first novel, Morvern Callar.These Demented Lands is a dark, eerie, surreal and sometimes hilarious journey into the landscape of postmodern literature.Warner's characters are carefully crafted and highly memorable and posses many of the qualities of archetypes.The novel, itself, is somewhat of a dark and stormy post-apocalyptic fantasy.

The book's protagonist is Morvern Callar, herself.As the novel opens, Morvern is swimming away from a sinking ship, a small girl in tow.After returning the child safely home, Morvern begins her own strange journey across the island.Rumors concerning the fate of the other passengers on board the ship abound and, as they do, a host of newcomers descends on the island.Morvern meets, and is immediately attracted to, a mysterious man known only as the Aircrash Investigator.Although he seems to be pillaging the island's makeshift fences and sheds for crash debris, his real purpose is something of a mystery.

Warner has peopled his novel with an odd assortment of characters, yet each one is perfect and perfectly-drawn.Besides Morvern, herself, and the Aircrash Investigator, there is Devil's Advocate, a cigar-smoking fat man who assesses candidates for sainthood; there is Brotherhood, the owner of the Drome Hotel, a popular honeymoon resort; and a DJ who is determined to put together the biggest party the island has ever known.The myriad of minor characters that live in the pages of this novel are just as perfect.

The prose in These Demented Lands can be difficult at times, especially for those who prefer a more flowing style.Warner, however, is one of the most talented writers now at work and this book is superbly told with Morvern's own independent and unflinching frankness.The dialogue is sometimes as absurd as is the character speaking, but this only enhances the book's believability and its appeal as well as its strangeness.Warner's story does parallel certain Christian myths, in a surreal sort of way, as should soon become apparent, from the characters' strange names, if nothing else.And, although this is a dark book, some of the dialogue is hilariously funny.

These Demented Lands is a complex story about complex characters.It is too bad it has been somewhat overlooked in favor of more commercial but far less polished books.Alan Warner is an extraordinarily good writer and These Demented Lands is an extraordinarily good novel.

What A Mess...
What a mess this is... This "darkly intoxicating brew" (The Guardian) picks up the story of young a young Scottish lass (see his debut,"Morvern Callar") as she returns from the continent. She comesto a wee little island where honeymooners stay at a weird hotel, andthere's a cast of supporting bizarros. Really tough to get through and nonetoo rewarding despite occasionally clever language at times. Warner's gottalent, but try his much more accesible "The Sopranos" beforetrying this.

Too little time
This book is a wonderful set of characterisations, and it follows on well from Morvern Callar, but isa classic example of a book written in a hurry, i.e after the success of morvern callar (fantastic book) Thestoryline ducks and weavs as morvern (not called by name anywhere throughthe book except at the very end) travels over the island (any guesseswhere? Four letters - begins with M) to botherhoods hotle where sheencounters the aircrash investigator, and from there the storylineprogresses.

Great book - a little more time would have made a differenceperhaps ... Read more

Amazon.com
Alan Warner's Morvern Callar may be the first novel that deservesits own soundtrack. The music Warner's title character listens to as she drifts aimlesslythrough her sterile life may be the most worthwhile part of this depressing novel. Following in the footsteps of Trainspotting, anotherScottish tale of anomie in the Highlands, Morvern Callar chronicles Morvern'sdead-end existence--a joyless round of sex and raves punctuated by the music playingthrough her portable stereo.

Warner tells this dreary story from Morvern's point of view in a voice that is flat andaffectless, as if the girl's soul had died years before though her body continues tofunction. Morvern Callar is a strange mix of shocking and banal, amélange with appeal for a very specialized audience.Book Description
Morvern Callar, a low-paid employee in the local supermarket in a desolate and beautiful port town in the west of Scotland, wakes one morning in late December to find her strange boyfriend has committed suicide and is dead on the kitchen floor. Morvern's reaction is both intriguing and immoral. What she does next is even more appalling. Moving across a blurred European landscape-from rural poverty and drunken mayhem of the port to the Mediterranean rave scene-we experience everything from Morvern's stark, unflinching perspective.

Morvern is utterly hypnotizing from her very first sentence to her last. She rarely goes anywhere without the Walkman left behind as a Christmas present by her dead boyfriend, and as she narrates this strange story, she takes care to tell the reader exactly what music she is listening to, giving the stunning effect of a sound track running behind her voice.

In much the same way that Patrick McCabe managed to tell an incredibly rich and haunting story through the eyes of an emotionally disturbed boy in The Butcher Boy, Alan Warner probes the vast internal emptiness of a generation by using the cool, haunting voice of a female narrator lost in the profound anomie of the ecstasy generation. Morvern is a brilliant creation, not so much memorable as utterly unforgettable." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (26)

Engaging in its strangeness
Late one night I came upon the movie _Morvern Callar_ and wondered why it might be called Morvern the Silent. I watched the movie, stunned, but unable and unwilling to change the station even when I could barely understand the dialogue. The characters, aside from Morvern, were so like the ghetto people I've lived with much of my life. At the end of the film, I learned the movie was based on a book, and hurriedly ordered it thinking I would be able to understand the language better if I could read it.

I love the dialect...and Morvern. Many reviewers complain that we aren't privy to what is going on in her head. Truth is, there isn't much going on in there. She is not sophisticated enough to mull over her actions. She isn't educated, isn't well read or travelled. She simply acts accompanied by a soundtrack. She isn't overencumbered with religious guilt. In fact, she doesn't seem to be hampered by guilt of any kind. It is such a wasteful emotion and Morvern has better things to do with the squeezed emotions she does possess.

Morvy's got an eye for detail and an appreciation of nature that, for me, more than makes up for her "raving" behavior. The flatness of the dialogue, her affect, and the repetitive nature of her entire life, right up to the end of the novel when Morvern's life takes a turn, accurately depicts what life is like for anyone living in a small town, or a ghetto, with little hope of having a better life because of the lack of opportunities and the lack of self-preparation for anything better. Him seemed to have possessed abilities, education, financial resources, but he took his life by slitting his own throat and attempting to cut off one of his hands. What did his death tell Morvern about life when one is supposedly ready?

I thought what she did with is body was a tribute to him and her love of nature, but I may change my mind after thinking about this story a while longer. That is one of the great things about this book; it makes you reflect on the mechanical ways we usually respond to life and opens the door to living more innovatively.

I've always wanted to visit Scotland and because of Morvern's description of the countryside, I'll likely go, but I'll stay away from the pubs!

Too strange to put down
I bought Morvern Caller in order to read a book with the flavor of the countryside I was to visit. I was hoping to get a feel for the people of the west coast of Scotland while I was enjoying its scenery.Instead, I found myself reading a book about troubled people, characters I could not imagine meeting in the real world.Morvern Caller is well written and very disturbing.It's difficult to "enjoy" the lives of its characters since they suffer from more than ordinary problems.It's also difficult to put the book down without finishing it.For enjoyment level, I wanted to give this book a one or two; for interest level, I had to rate it higher.And, then, I was compelled to read its sequel! You want to know what happens, all the while wishing you were reading something else!!

Maybe you should just see the movie
The following is a synopsis of one of the scenes in _Morvern Callar_. It doesn't involve major characters and it doesn't reveal a plot point, but it does give something of the book's tone.

It's Hogmanay. The narrator and her social circle have gathered in a local hotel. Midnight passes, then closing time, so the police come to make them leave. One man buys several whiskies and wants to take them with him but the police won't let him, so he pours the whiskies down the throat of his fish, takes the fish outside, and drinks the whiskies out of the fish's mouth.

If that baffled you, you should probably skip the book entirely. In short, it's so Scottish it probably won't travel well.

A lame attempt
It's a weak attempt at writing something that would be a mix between Albert Camus' "Outsider" and Irvine welsh's "Trainspotting". I kept on reading hoping that it might get better but it didn't. There is no storyline, there are just clipped futile descriptions of nature and party scenes... The lack of proper dialogue makes this even more distant. I was left with no feelings of sympathy towards the protagonist whatsoever. I completely agree with the other reviewer who said: 'A bloke can't do a woman', it's just lame. And amazon.com should be careful about tossing recommendations based on earlier readings and ratings. This is nothing compared to Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting.

Hero ? What Hero?
Novels compose a literary category which is supposed to tell stories not untold them. If the main topic of the novel is focused in the character it fails badly get into her mind and explain its workings. We never know which are the causes or reasons for her behaviour. Such detached reaction to the suicide of a steady boyfriend at least needs some background. Now, if the main topics is how the plot evolves, the author also gets a big "F minus". The rave scene is barely depicted, nor what was the purpose of having the suicide boyfriend writing a novel to be posthumously plagiarized by her, or what about her bizarre friendships, just to name a few of the carelessly untied knots.

Why the two stars then? Well at least to read a novel in which most of the written words are the names of music bands and their songs is original, but to my knowledge a multimedia novel is category that is not available here in Amazon.com nor anywhere. So unless you download the songs in your MP3 you also fails to see comprehend the forces that move Morvy. ... Read more

Amazon.com
If there's any justice, Alan Warner's third novel, TheSopranos, will lead to a sudden fad for artificially shortened kilt skirts, bright shoelaces, and flaming sambuca shots. As it is, we might have to settlefor the sopranos themselves, six memorably vile-mouthed Catholic schoolgirls sent from their drab port town to "the big, big city" for the Scottish national choir finals. There Warner follows them as they shop, smoke, eat Big Macs, consume staggering amounts of alcohol, and pay no attention whatsoever to the competition. Winning, after all, would defeat their central goal: returning in time for the slow dances at the Mantrap and the promise of submariners on leave. In the end, it turns out that the nuclear submarine has stopped in their harbor only to unload a dead sailor, and the girls must console themselves with alcohol, sex, a veritable inferno of fireworks, and even one heartbreakingly courageous kiss.

By turns bawdy and tender, funny and sad, The Sopranos faces adolescence head-on, without sentiment or false hope. Youth, for these girls, is precious precisely because they have so little to look forward to. When their friend becomes pregnant, she's already "devoured the few opportunities for the wee bit sparkle that was ever going to come her way." When the nuns' parrot--who likes to spout Spanish obscenities during Mass--escapes from the school, his bright colors are "like a happiness that wasn't allowed below such skies, against these curt roof angles of slate and granite." Theirs is a grim, circumscribed world, but the sopranos shine like tropical birds against the background of gray. --Mary ParkBook Description

Customer Reviews (24)

A Great And Difficult Book
I admit the accent kind of annoyed me at first. Then I got comfortable with it and settled into a story I could not put down. It's all the things the other reviewers say it is. Disgusting, funny, shocking, heartbreaking and above all gorgeously observed. My Scottish boyfriend turned me onto Warner in a debate about the existence of a "Scottish sexuality". This book and Warner's 'The Man Who Walks" won his argument for him.

You'll either love it or you'll fling it across the room in disgust. Maybe a bit of both. Warner is magic.

A Great And Difficult Book
I admit the accent kind of annoyed me at first. Then I got comfortable with it and settled into a story I could not put down. It's all the things the other reviewers say it is. Disgusting, funny, shocking, heartbreaking and and above all gorgeously observed. My scottish boyfriend turned me onto Warner in a debate about the existence of a "scottish sexuality". This book and Warner's 'The Man Who Walks" won his argument for him.

You'll either love it or you'll fling it across the room in disgust. Maybe a bit of both. Warner is magic.

outstanding welsh-esque coming of age novel
After "slogging" (not in sopranos speak) through the first few pages of this exceptional story and getting used to the near-undecipherable vernacular of the sopranos, I was dead-on hooked. I can only describe this novel as a scottish female version of the movie "Go" or perhaps a tarantino-esque irvine welsh story, but that wouldn't do justice to the interludes of truth, meaning, and compassion that exist between outrageous scenes of cheerily lewd behavior. At the end, I knew each girl very closely and cared about the plights of each one - and, as in all good books, immediately wanted a sequel. So, you know what this story's about, just go grab it ASAP and thank me later, you won't be dissappointed.

Harpy Diem
Five Catholic schoolgirls from a sleepy backwater descend on Edinburgh and try to cram a year's worth of debauchery into a single day.No matter that they've come to the big city to sing in a choir competition.Achieving pitch perfection isn't high on their agenda.Getting legless is.Warner's Scots prose, a veritable flayed and steaming haggis of savory bits, sputters out without "embarrassedness" the joys and horrors of drink and bodily functions.Kyla, Chell, Manda, Orla, and Finnoula (the Cooler) play a game of gross out one-upmanship, coaxing the refrain "Dinnae scum us out!"Only slowly do the sopranos emerge as distinct characters with vulnerable underbellies.The welcome introduction of English Kay, a bourgeois and well-spoken girl with a place at university, further emphasizes their collective, class bound nature.But the novel is far more Marx Brothers than Marx.Gags and jokes abound as the girls seize the day by the juggler.With more appetite than skirt, they follow Sambuca swilling Finnoula's creed that "If yur goan be a bear; be a grizzly bear."

Delightful and poignant
This is a gem of a book, and as others have noted, will make a great film.Warner's use of dialect in the novel is much more accessible than that of his countrymen James Kelman and Irvine Welsh.It's necessary, and not overdone.The Sopranos are a vivid, believeable collection of Catholic schoolgirls from the west coast of Scotland.They are lusty, naughty, loving, hating, ambivalent, caring, violent, sad--yet with a will to keep going.They're like high school kids the world over in the turn of the millenium... you'll love them, they'll shock you.You'll see girls just like them in New York and Tokyo and Paris and know they're similar in so many ways.Definitely a worthwhile read... ... Read more

Book Description
For a playboy like Manolo — handsome, fastidious and more than a little vain — to be told by his doctor that he is HIV-Positive is, it would seem, the end of everything. Alan Warner’s fifth novel delights and provokes with vivid, erotic flashbacks to play back Manolo’s life in passionate Technicolor.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Book Description
A fast-paced method that covers all aspects of modern and traditional electric blues guitar. CD includes demonstrations, exercises and backing tracks. ... Read more

Book Description
A selection of 100 classic country guitar licks and 4 solos. Includes playing tips and full length CD. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Not for beginners!
I am just beginning to play guitar. This book does not explain on entry level how to play these licks. Also does not explain it on the CD. I feel like I wasted my money!

Excellent Licks Book!
This is a very good book geared towards intermediate and advanced players. Lots of applicable licks and variety. The author emphasizes using the pick/finger method, though you can do a lot of the licks just using a pick. The cd covers all the licks and solos (though the cd has an extra solo not tabbed in the book). I especially liked the rockabilly section towards the end - some great sounding, practical licks I incoporated immediately into my playing. Highly recommended. ... Read more

Book Description
This is part of a new series of guides to contemporary novels. The aim of the series is to give readers accessible and informative introductions to some of the most popular, most acclaimed and most influential novels of recent years - from `The Remains of the Day' to `White Teeth'. A team of contemporary fiction scholars from both sides of the Atlantic has been assembled to provide a thorough and readable analysis of each of the novels in question. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Totally worth reading
This is worth reading just for the extended interview with Alan Warner alone - one of the most interesting and revealing discussions with a novelist I've read in ages. He's incredibly forthright about his own thoughts on the novel, like this: 'I see her boyfriend as a sort of existential figure, who was well travelled. Although he came from the middle classes, I don't think he was bourgeois. He was leading something of a double life - she didn't know how much money he had and so on, I suppose it was a dishonest relationship in that sense, but I think it was happy nevertheless.' If you're into this novel at all, or the movie (which is AWESOME), then try to track down a copy of this book. Don't be put off by the ... phrase 'reader's guide' on the front cover, it's much much better than that. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of Alan Warner, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 1516 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Book Description

The Practical Guide to Lightcurve Photometry and Analysis provides those with access to even a modest telescope and a CCD camera the background and detailed steps to take part in important astronomical research. Readers learn about the joint projects in which they can take part, as well as the techniques of gathering, analyzing, and then publishing their data. The primary market for this book is amateur astronomers, but undergraduate students will also find its easy going friendly style ideal for help with their studies in this subject. There is of course more to lightcurve photometry than simply taking pictures. For the results to be of value, the data must be gathered and processed in certain ways so that it is both meaningful and can be used by others for analysis. The book contains enough background material (theory) for the reader to understandand avoidthe pitfalls in the process. More important, there are detailed examples provided for hpw to obtain data and, for many, the more exciting and rewarding effort of analyzing the data to determine various properties of the object being studied. Under "choosing the right software," the author looks critically at the commercially-available packages, providing screen shots and useful advice. Amateur astronomers who wants to go beyond mere imaging with a CCD camera will find everything ithat they need in the book to take a step into real science.

Customer Reviews (3)

Excellent publication
Can highly recommend this book. Has all the needed elements for getting started with photometry. In combination with the MPO software for photometry and telescope/camera control this book is a must.

Great Introduction to Photometry
This is a great book for the amateur astronomer who wishes to learn about photometry. It is well within the grasp of undergraduates and motivated high school astronomers. Warner's writing style is engaging and clear. The chapters are a step-by-step trip from an overview of how photometry is used in astronomy to the basics of photometry to publishing your results. Beginning variable star observers will find a wealth of excellent information. Those interested in asteroid lightcurves will find all the essentials. Warner shows how to analyze the data using standard tools such as spreadsheets. But, once you get serious, you should really consider obtaining Warner's Canopus program which is mentioned in the text.

quick intro to photometry
The book is all about combining a little optical telescope and a CCD camera to good effect. Plus a personal computer. Warner teaches the basics of photometry, without you needing a university lab. These days, the materials required for the book should be readily affordable to many readers, especially if they are already amateur astronomers.

Key concepts like air mass, and the signal to noise ratio and colour indices are used in a straightforward manner. Which greatly helps you learning these ideas.

The book is a little short, however. The lessons are in the first two thirds. While the last third of the book is various appendices. ... Read more

Book Description
The imaginative new novel from the author of Morvern Callar, soon to be released in film.

After the scandalous theft of a pub’s World Cup cash kitty, a homeless drifter pursues his eccentric uncle, “The Man Who Walks”, into the Highlands to recover the money. The nephew’s frantic progress and other bizarre diversions form Alan Warner’s fourth, wickedly hilarious novel.But who is The Man Who Walks? Is he simply a water-carrying madman with one glass eye and a fondness for whisky, who collects old Christmas trees for money and old newspapers
to make his home? Or is he a savant, touched by the hand of God, wandering the back roads along ancient, ancestral tracks?


From the Trade Paperback edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

More Highlands Hi-jinks
Warner's fourth book bears many marks of similarity to his first three, both in subject matter, imagination, setting, and unevenness. Set in the same part of Scotland's Western Highlands, the story revolves around the port town of Oban. As in Morvern Callar and to a lesser extent These Demented Lands, there's a central figure wandering the landscape in semi-picaresque fashion in pursuit of a large sum of cash. The protagonist is "The Nephew" a semi-homeless tinker whose legendary wild uncle (the title character) has stolen a pub's World Cup pool money. As he wanders the highlands a step behind his uncle, the Nephew (who is a bit of an oddball himself) manages to get in situations where he has weird sex, takes odd drugs, pukes, drinks, urinates in a doll's head, feasts with nobility, and gets mixed up with an inordinate number of total weirdoes. Warner's fictional Highlands are a sort of rural New York where every time you turn around there's some madman who's all to happy to include you in his world.

Warner's first two books, especially These Demented Lands, exhibited a kind of wild borderline surrealism that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. These Demented Lands didn't really have enough of a narrative line and ultimately fell apart, however here he's got just enough of a plot to keep everything together. The Nephew's quest is often hilarious, often horrifying, and wholly imaginative, while at times veering off course and just barely holding together. Warner's clearly a talented writer and this is one of his better efforts, but I'd still suggest trying his much more accessible The Sopranos before you delve into this. ... Read more