- Mass Market Paperback: 560 pages
- Publisher: Tor Books; New edition edition (28 Oct 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0765346451
- ISBN-13: 978-0765346452
- Product Dimensions: 16.8 x 10.7 x 3.8 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,153,663 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"Mixes fantasy and contemporary adventure very well, creating something both entertaining and interesting. A very enjoyable read."
--Fantastica Daily on "The Green and the Gray""Zahn keeps the story moving at a breakneck pace, maintaining excitement."
--"Publishers Weekly" on "Dragon and Thief"
"The direction Manta's Gift ultimately takes is inventive and unexpected . . . Zahn plays out his suspense as deftly as always, building a tense situation and ultimately defusing it in believable and pleasing ways."
"--Locus" on "Manta's Gift"
"YA readers looking for more than the usual SF action-adventure should be well pleased."
--"Publishers Weekly" on "Manta's Gift"
"The author of "Angelmass" brings a new twist to a classic tale of human-alien encounter, combining fast-paced action and hard science with personal drama. A good choice for most sf collections."
--"Library Journal" on "Manta's Gift"
"Another thoroughly literate sf yarn from Zahn."
--Fantastica Daily on "The Green and the Gray""Zahn keeps the story moving at a breakneck pace, maintaining excitement."
--"Publishers Weekly" on "Dragon and Thief"
"The direction Manta's Gift ultimately takes is inventive and unexpected . . . Zahn plays out his suspense as deftly as always, building a tense situation and ultimately defusing it in believable and pleasing ways."
"--Locus" on "Manta's Gift"
"YA readers looking for more than the usual SF action-adventure should be well pleased."
--"Publishers Weekly" on "Manta's Gift"
"The author of "Angelmass" brings a new twist to a classic tale of human-alien encounter, combining fast-paced action and hard science with personal drama. A good choice for most sf collections."
--"Library Journal" on "Manta's Gift"
"Another thoroughly literate sf yarn from Zahn."
Product Description
Timothy Zahn has crafted a fresh, suspenseful tale of an alien feud in New York City that is about to spiral out of control. The Greens and Grays have been living in the shadows of New York for seventy-five years. Each group believes that it is the sole survivor of a devastating war between these two ancient enemies. When the two groups discover the presence of their enemy, they come to an uneasy truce, which depends on the sacrifice of twelve-year-old Melantha Green. But at the last moment, Melantha is rescued and thrust upon an unsuspecting young married couple, Roger and Caroline Whittier. Armed with uncanny powers and advanced technology, the truce coalition is desperate to get Melantha back. But the Whittiers have vowed to protect her, and they enlist the aid of a sawy NYPD detective and a former Ellis Island clerk who's known about the aliens since they first came to New York. The stakes are larger than they can know, as a war threatens to explode that could annihilate both groups and destroy much of New York City as well. Unlikely allies, unlikely heroes, they have just one week to prevent a war unlike any the world has ever seen.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
The play at the Miller Theater had been one of those modern psychological dramas, exactly the sort of thing Roger Whittier would expect from a Columbia University student production: dark and pretentious, relying heavily on deep sociological quirks, without any pretense of rationality in its plot. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
The play at the Miller Theater had been one of those modern psychological dramas, exactly the sort of thing Roger Whittier would expect from a Columbia University student production: dark and pretentious, relying heavily on deep sociological quirks, without any pretense of rationality in its plot. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.co.uk.
5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
14 reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Zahn never fails to please
21 Sep 2004
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Granted, Zahn's books are a bit formulaic - the oncoming conflict that will destroy wherever the book is set or kill many innocents, the inability to stop it until the very end when a surprise twist occurs that fixes it all - but that doesn't mean it's bad. Most mystery stories follow much the same plot, but without the feeling of impending doom. The point is not that you already know how its going to end, the point is how he gets there.
And, in this case just as in all the others, it's one amazing ride. The two cultures and upwards of 30 main characters are all fascinating and vibrant, keeping the reading flowing through all 450-odd pages. The plot twists come with the usual Zahn rapidity, each being totally plausible and usually just as totally unexpected (though, in hindsight, you should have seen it coming). I buy every Zahn book as soon as I realize it's out, and I haven't once been dissappointed. It's not the deepest reading ever, but it's always fun, and it might make you think more than you expect.
Highly reccomended.
And, in this case just as in all the others, it's one amazing ride. The two cultures and upwards of 30 main characters are all fascinating and vibrant, keeping the reading flowing through all 450-odd pages. The plot twists come with the usual Zahn rapidity, each being totally plausible and usually just as totally unexpected (though, in hindsight, you should have seen it coming). I buy every Zahn book as soon as I realize it's out, and I haven't once been dissappointed. It's not the deepest reading ever, but it's always fun, and it might make you think more than you expect.
Highly reccomended.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Pretty good fun
19 Mar 2005
Format:Hardcover
The first fifty pages of The Green and the Gray knocked me flat. Zahn created a near-perfect picture of some ordinary folks (specifically an endlessly bickering married couple) tossed into an extraordinary situation (specifically a gang war between rival bands of extraterrestrials).
And then things fell apart a little. Over the next four hundred pages, the characters I felt like I knew so well became cliched, competent-man types. They were doing interesting things, but they weren't very interesting people any more. Add to this the fact that there are so many different members of these "gangs" with so many slightly varying viewpoints, and this carefully constructed character drama devolved into a novel where it was hard to even remember all the parties involved.
Which isn't to disparage The Green and the Gray too much. It's still a fun read, packed with Zahn's typically inventive action sequences... but I can't help feeling that it could have been more. If you're new to Zahn's work, you might want to check out Manta's Gift instead.
And then things fell apart a little. Over the next four hundred pages, the characters I felt like I knew so well became cliched, competent-man types. They were doing interesting things, but they weren't very interesting people any more. Add to this the fact that there are so many different members of these "gangs" with so many slightly varying viewpoints, and this carefully constructed character drama devolved into a novel where it was hard to even remember all the parties involved.
Which isn't to disparage The Green and the Gray too much. It's still a fun read, packed with Zahn's typically inventive action sequences... but I can't help feeling that it could have been more. If you're new to Zahn's work, you might want to check out Manta's Gift instead.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
very exciting speculative fiction
1 Sep 2004
Format:Hardcover
In 1928, extraterrestrials that looked human went through Riker's Island to become citizens of their new home. The Greens were chased off their home world by the Grays in a war that started over a simple misunderstanding. The Greens did not know that the Grays, in order to escape the Others, followed the Greens to earth. For decades neither group knew of the other's existence until a boy from one group and a girl from the other became friends.
Their elders found out since both live in New York City; the Grays try to shove the Greens off the island until they agree to a truce if the Greens kill Melantha Green who can destroy the city with her mental powers. Innocent bystanders Roger and Caroline Whittier take Melantha try to hide her when someone from the group hands her to them but she disappears and they don't know which group got her. The Whittiers are determined to save Melantha and their city yet also somehow forge a truce between the opposing camps.
There are many aliens who live among us in science fiction stories such as the Men in Black, but Timothy Zahn has a unique and original way of taking a tribe plot and turning it into a fantastic storyline. This is an action oriented story where it is almost impossible to figure out the characters motives and nobody knows who is a friend or an enemy. This makes for a lot of suspense and the onus is on the reader to figure out who is friend or foe. There's a surprise twist at the end of the story that makes THE GREEN AND THE GRAY a very exciting work of speculative fiction.
Harriet Klausner
Their elders found out since both live in New York City; the Grays try to shove the Greens off the island until they agree to a truce if the Greens kill Melantha Green who can destroy the city with her mental powers. Innocent bystanders Roger and Caroline Whittier take Melantha try to hide her when someone from the group hands her to them but she disappears and they don't know which group got her. The Whittiers are determined to save Melantha and their city yet also somehow forge a truce between the opposing camps.
There are many aliens who live among us in science fiction stories such as the Men in Black, but Timothy Zahn has a unique and original way of taking a tribe plot and turning it into a fantastic storyline. This is an action oriented story where it is almost impossible to figure out the characters motives and nobody knows who is a friend or an enemy. This makes for a lot of suspense and the onus is on the reader to figure out who is friend or foe. There's a surprise twist at the end of the story that makes THE GREEN AND THE GRAY a very exciting work of speculative fiction.
Harriet Klausner
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
