Appearance
Blade Runner (BFI Modern Classics)
Replicant Alert! Avoid this book if you have any affection for the movie. Except for the last couple of pages, the author has little to offer other than the usual drivel about "Post-Modernism". You will be much better off buying the Director's Cut on DVD, and watching it several times! This series of books has its exceptions, this is not one of them. Unintentionally hilarious in parts, as only the academician can be. Pretentious, ponderous cinema-scholar jargon that offers little of value or insight. Read Sammon's The Making of Blade Runner instead! (Nice cover, though...)
Blade Runner (BFI Modern Classics)
Avid fans of the film will find many pleasures in this book. It looks, in depth, at the comic book roots (mobias, Heavy Metal) that Blade runner aspired from. It can, however, go on a bit too much about it. It does cover other aspects of the film, but the books highest point is the opening - which discusses vision within the film.
The lost cities of Africa
Davidson's contribution is masterfully presented and I came away with the impression that he is a leading authority. However, this book is lacking in two area. First, there is a stunning dearth of illustration, in a book that should be replete with maps of trade routes, city outlines, and illustrations of artifacts. The reader is left wondering where just where did all of these event happen? Second, the text is too obviously derived from lectures, in that it often repeats and reasserts points that the reader has likely accepted several chapters ago. This makes for dull reading. I have long awaited such a book, knowing that such a history had only to be revealed. Although I learned a great deal from this text, I was on the whole disappointed by the presentation because it detracts from what the book has to offer. A new edition could easily remedy these shortcomings.
The lost cities of Africa
An excellent source of information on ancient civilizations in Africa. Since so energy has been focused on Ancient Egypt, the civilizations across the rest of the continent have often gone unseen. Basil Davidson touches on many areas with the expertise of a scholar who is highly familiar with African culture and history.
The lost cities of Africa
This is a good review of African history by the scholar that to my mind brought notice to the European world that Africa actually had a history. When I was a graduate student of history in the '60s, Africa apparently did not. The standard texts of the time (Langer's "Encyclopedia of World History" and "The Times Atlas of World History") have no sections on the era of the great African empires. Davidson's later work (e.g., "West Africa before the Colonial Era") give a better idea of the greatness of Mali, Songhai and Kongo, the states of the west African Sahel.
The lost cities of Africa
(1959, Revised ed. 1970)A pleasure to read and very informative.Major themes:Neolithic & cultivation, stone tools & Iron-Age. First centuries B.C. & Medieval. Drystone masonry. Hilltop forts. Earthworks. Stepped hillsides for crops. Trade across Sahara & along east Africa. Influence from the north & east. Export of ivory, gold, iron, slaves.