Wasteland

By Ann Bakshis

Meg has spent the last twelve years of her life living in the Wasteland with a protector who has kept her in the dark about her origins, and trained her to be a fighter and weapons expert.

What Meg doesn’t know is that she is an Antaean: s super soldier engineered to protect the country of Sirain from its enemies, then hidden away from the very cities that sacrificed many of their own people to design her. It isn’t until an attack by a group of unidentified soldiers leaves her permanently scarred, and her protector dead that she begins to learn the truth about herself.

Trying to survive in a world of strangers, Meg discovers there are more like her: other Antaeans who’ve been hidden from their enemies. Forced from the Wasteland by the loss of her protector, Meg realized she must try to locate the other Antaeans before Sirain’s enemies do - or worse, the cities’ leaders – can discover and destroy them all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ann Bakshis
• Release date: Jan 1, 1976
• ISBN: 9781502769381

Reviews for Wasteland

[sylvester_olson · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Yeah, I'm going to be that guy who gives T.S. Elliot 2 stars. Sorry, Mr. Elliot. I'm not a fan of non-narrative poetry. I gave it my best shot, but quite honestly it read like complete gibberish to me.

[deckla_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I can't help it, I have always loved T.S. Eliot's diction and modes of expression. Now I have it in e-book form. I know Thomas Stearns isn't the best model for human behavior, but he surely could express himself. This poem, an elegy, a summoning of Buddhist and Christian traditions, a description of the ruptures of civilization, couldn't be more timely.

[bookomaniac-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Blijft een weerbarstig werk. Met de begeleidende commentaar komt de rijkdom wat beter tot zijn recht, maar het hermetisme bemoeilijkt de lectuur toch iets teveel. De persoonlijke interpretatie van Paul Claes (de impotentie van Eliot) op het einde overtuigt niet helemaal.

[dasam-5 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

As is true for most readers, when I first encountered The Waste Land in the 1960s, I found myself in a very foreign poetic land. I read the annotations and explications. I listened to my professors. I reread and mad innumerable margin notes. I felt the poem's power and despair. But its meaning seemed hard to parse.

Now, decades later, rereading yet again, I know the poem and the poem knows me. We still live in The Waste Land. The loss of all mooring after WWI still remains a debris we drift with. But the poem itself seems very approachable now, its discordant ballet of voices powerful as ever, but its sense much more apparent to me.

You must read and reread this poem. My critical opinion of it had moved over time to it being overrated---but now, no. It is a seminal poem of the last century. And its relevance today is profound.

[maxernst11 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Blijft een weerbarstig werk. Met de begeleidende commentaar komt de rijkdom wat beter tot zijn recht, maar het hermetisme bemoeilijkt de lectuur toch iets teveel. De persoonlijke interpretatie van Paul Claes (de impotentie van Eliot) op het einde overtuigt niet helemaal.

[michael5rimmer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood. - T.S EliotLess understanding on my part, though some communication on Mr. Eliot's, so by his owndefinition, The Waste Land must be genuine poetry. If that sounds less than enthusiastic, it's probably a reflection of my disappointment at not being totally blown away by what is generally reckoned to be one of the greatest poems of the twentieth century. I'm sure the deficit is on my side, and I'll certainly return to this poem as there are undoubtedly depths I've not plumbed.Four stars, nonetheless, because there's some nice stuff about the cruelty of April, drowned Phoenicians, and overheard gossip about abortions.

[leslie398 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

While I liked all the classical references (and Tiresias was familiar to me, having just recently reread Oedipus Rex!), I didn't really understand this poem. However, the rhyme and meter are enjoyable so I will be trying this again!

[fuzzi_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was my second attempt to read a book by this author, and I did not appreciate it. To be fair, I'm not much of a poetry fan, so if you like poetry, you might like this.

[norabelle414 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

What the fuck was that. Genuinely do not know what was happening here. It’s a poem I guess. Can’t say I recommend the audiobook.Needed more cats. I'm only giving it three stars because I assume I would like it more if I cared to look up the references. I didn’t, though.

[kristelh_15 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I was impressed with this long poem about the crumbling of civilization, specifically Western Culture. I did need to do some study as there is a lot of references to poems, plays, Shakespeare, Dante, etc. "April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. Winter kept us warm, covering Earth in forgotten snow, feeding a little life with dried tubers." "The river's tent is broken: the last fingers of leaf clutch and sink into the wet bank." Here's a quote to fit Halloween, since I read this in October, "A woman drew her long black hair out tight and fiddled whisper music on those strings And bats with baby faces in the violet light Whistled, and beat their wings And crawled head downward down a blackened wall"And finally, Eliot implores us to Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata. Give, show compassion, self control.

[amilofinn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My copy of the Waste Land also includes Preludes and Ash Wednesday. Reading TS Eliot's more mature poems I can see that there is much of memory at work. I find the poetry is down to earth in a foggy, dusty way. There are streets with gutters, beer and fag ends, 'The burnt out ends of smokey days', city scapes, London fog, the dead end of religion 'And God said shall these bones live.' Overall I feel there is a mundaneity that is almost kitchen sink. I can see that the writers of 'Cats' turned to TS Eliot's mature poems, Preludes, The Waste Land and Ash Wednesday, to give their musical its stand out song.