Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 24, 1994 TAG: 9404170164
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
By James Redfield. Warner Books. $17.95.
James Redfield is a man with a message. To get his message across, he uses as his vehicle an adventure story, and takes the reader on a wild and mystical journey. "The Celestine Prophecy" is his first novel, originally self-published in March, 1993. It has since become a best-seller.
The protagonist in this adventure has retreated to a family hideaway. He is restless, disenchanted with life. Out of the blue, an old friend appears, and she tells him a fantastic yarn about an ancient manuscript that has been discovered in the Peruvian rain forest. Few Westerners know of its existence. It contains nine insights into life, and predicts that as human beings grasp each of them sequentially, society will enter an era of true spiritual awareness that will transform life on this planet. But the Manuscript has been stolen.
Both the government of Peru and the church have reasons to expedite its disappearance from public knowledge. Our hero, having discovered for himself the first insight and intrigued at the prospect of learning more, decides to go to Peru to recover the Manuscript. Not unexpectedly, he finds himself dodging bullets almost from the moment he steps off the plane.
Feeling foolish at times, but undaunted, he presses on. His search takes him to the exotic heights of the Andes Mountains, through old-growth forests, to a lush experimental farm, to the sanctuary of a secluded mission, to ancient ruins. Along the way he encounters a professor, scientists, a psychologist, sympathetic priests and native Peruvians. Characters, however, are dimly drawn, for they are secondary to the message. Sometimes the story bogs down in talk, but it doesn't stay bogged down for long as Redfield stays true to his form, injecting soldiers, police and flying bullets at just the right places. As we follow his dangerous journey toward enlightenment, we are exposed to pop psychology, theories of evolution, quantum physics, and medieval and modern history. And "The Celestine Prophecy" comes to a surprising conclusion. Redfield is certainly not the first seer to offer a vision of an earth transformed. Apocalyptic literature abounds for every secular and religious taste. He is a good story teller. How he rates as a prophet, time will tell.
- MARIE S. BEAN
Across America on an Emigrant Train.
By Jim Murphy. Clarion Books. $16.95.
Robert Louis Stevenson left Scotland in August of 1879 for a grueling 24-day trip to California, half of it by train. His journals and notes provide the background for Jim Murphy's book, which tells a lot more about the conditions of travel by rail than about Mr. Stevenson. Close to a third of its 130 pages consists of drawings and photographs detailing the history of the railroad and that of some of the emigrants hoping to settle in the West.
Stevenson, who incidentally died 100 years ago, was traveling to see the woman he loved and later married because he had received a telegram saying that she had brain fever. When he arrived in Monterey, Fanny had completely recovered, but his health, always delicate, had been broken.
Despite the perils of constructing the transcontinental line and the hardships endured by its passengers, both of which are described, "Across America on an Emigrant Train" lacks drama. Perhaps railroad fans will find it more appealing and valuable than this reader did.
- LYNN ECKMAN
The New Alchemists.
By Robert M. Hazen. Times Books. $23.
Subtitled `Breaking through the barriers of high pressure` this book chronicles the race to synthesize diamonds in the laboratory.
Contrary to popular belief, artificial diamond synthesis is not important for gem quality stones, but for the small, dust- sized particles used for cutting and honing throughout the industrialized world. Author Robert Hazen describes the frustrations and dangers of the quest, from the first description of "diamond growing" in 1826 to the first unpublished success by a Swedish laboratory in 1953, to the triumphant public declarations by GE in 1954.
To achieve success, engineering technology had to catch up with high pressure theory to build the presses and containment vessels strong enough the withstand pressures of 100,000 atmospheres and temperatures of 1,600 degrees Celsius. More difficult than the engineering problems were the lawsuits which formed under the pressures of monopoly and the temperatures of greed. The most interesting section of the book is the description of the assembly line methods used today to produce diamonds by the pound.
Contrast this result with the danger and disappointments of the many scientists whose collective genius finally synthesized the first diamond grains, and a fascinating, sweeping - and up to now almost unknown - story is discovered.
- LARRY SHIELD
\ Marie S. Bean is a retired college chaplain.\ Lynn Eckman teaches at Roanoke College.\ Larry Shield trains dogs and horses in Franklin County.\
by CNB