After reading through about 20 pages of this book I am confused. The old-fashioned language suggests that this is a reprint from somewhere, but this is not acknowledged, which is uncomforting, as with this sort of text you like to know your source. I don't know how good St Isaac's original Syriac was, but the translation is not up to modern-day standards (I speak as a professional translator) and at times you have to be a pretty professional linguist and theologian to make head or tail of it. Once you hack through the undergrowth, there are some nuggets, as St Isaac is recognised as a great spiritual writer. It is certainly and thankfully outside of the "spiritual consumerism" category, and by the same token, perhaps not a book to be read without some feeling for the spiritual context in which St Isaac wrote.

In this third book of the Norby series, Space Cadet Jeff and his robot Norby locate a planet populated by humans who had been transplanted from Earth millennia ago. They rescue a young princess trapped on another planet who has been changed into a plant. The next book in the series is "Norby and the Invaders." The two books were later reissued together as "Norby: Robot for Hire."

This is the first volume in a series of short science fiction novels for young teenagers about a 14-year-old Space Academy cadet, Jeff Wells, and his unusual robot, Norby. Norby has skills that other robots lack, apparently due to the incorporation of alien parts in his construction. In this first book of the series, Jeff and Norby foil a plot of a villian to take over the Solar System. Norby discovers he has "anti-gravity" capabilities as well as the ability to travel through "hyperspace" and great distances. [Isaac Asimov, in another book, apologizes for using antigravity in this series: he felt that it represented poor science.] The second book in the series is "Norby's Other Secret," published in 1984. These two books were latered reissued as "The Norby Chronicles."

This is the second volume in the Norby series of science fiction stories for children. In this tale, the robot Norby discovers his origin, a dragon-inhabited planet, and some new abilities: traveling through time and telepathy. The first two books in this series were also published together as "The Norby Chronicles."

This volume is a combination of the third and fourth books in the humorous Norby series of science fiction books for children about a space cadet and his unusual robot Norby. In the first story, "Norby and the Lost Princess," Jeff and Norby locate a planet populated by humans who had been transplanted from Earth millennia ago. They rescue a young princess trapped on another planet who has been changed into a plant. In the second story, "Norby and the Invaders," beings from another planet have invaded the planet of friendly dragons and deactivated all of that planet's robots. Jeff and Norby attempt to thwart the invaders who, they discover, believe that technology is bad. They all learn that only misuse of technology is bad.

Isaac Coates was Asst. Surgeon attached to the 7th Cavalry during the beginning of hostilities with the Plains Indians. Coates' recently discovered diary notes form the basis of this book. Two major problems with the volume are obvious. First, the diary covers only a short period of time (and that only partially) and thus Kennedy, the modern writing collaborator, must fill in large gaps. This is not wholly successful, as the narrative changes tone drastically and even jumps back and forth in time. Second, Coates is not an impartial observer, being a pal of Custer at times and an ashamed accomplice in genocide of the Indians at others. The horror of the conflict is manifest nonetheless, and is the strongest reason to read this book. Did the Civil War so morally anesthetize these Generals (Custer, Hancock, and Sheridan in particular) that they felt nothing wrong as they butchered Indian women and children and callously treated their troops? This sure isn't the 7th Cav that I saw on movie screens as a kid.

I purchased this book because my greatgrandfather was a colleague of Coates, serving in the Medical Department at various frontier posts at the same time. I hoped to see some insight into the duties of an Army surgeon on the Plains, but I was very disappointed that there were almost no references to his medical work.

This is yet another collection of Asimov's science essays for Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine. He starts out with the title essay (about the theoretical planet Vulcan that caused perturbations in Mercury's orbit) and ends up talking about the existence of God. As he puts it, he goes from the least controversial essay to the most. All the essays date from the mid-seventies and aren't as dated as the last collection I read, though there is obsolete data about Pluto. As always, it's an easy read and informative.

The book is easy to read. Common diseases in the fields of pediatrics are included. Through review of all infectious entities in the pediatrics is beyound the scope of this book. Detailed therapeutic methods do not included in this book and this is the major drawback. Despite this limitation, this book is still worthy reading for medical students and general practitioners.

A historicist's look at the prophecies of the Bible. Considered by most, one of the most intelligent people that ever walked the earth, some of his views are hard to find fault with. Newton's mastery of history is much to be admired. This book will definitely give you some food for thought.

This book is another collection of 17 of Asimov's essays from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (F&SF). It isn't the best one, but it's still good.

Contents:

A. Numbers

1. The Lost Art. About logarithms.

2. Anyone For Tens? More on logarithms.

B. Elements

3. Countdown. About low temperatures and liquifying gases.

4. Toward Zero. About absolute zero (-459.67°F) (-273.15°C) (0°K).

C. Earth

5. The Floating Crystal Palace. About icebergs.

6. By Land and By Sea. About Antarctic exploration.

7. We Were the First That Ever Burst--. About oceanic exploration.

8. Second to the Skua. About Antarctica.

D. Planets

9. The Sons of Mars Revisited. About Mars's two moons.

10. Dark and Bright. More on Mars's two moons.

11. The Real Finds Waiting. More on Mars's two moons.

12. Rings and Things. About Uranus's rings and Chiron

E. Stars

13. Proxima. About how an unknown companion star to the Sun could go undetected.

F. Universe

14. Fifty Million Big Brothers. About extraterrestrial intelligence.

15. Where Is Everybody? More on extraterrestrial intelligence.

16. The Road to Infinity. About black holes.

G. Life and Death

17. The Subtlest Difference. About the difference between life and death.

Also, the introduction of this book contains a list of every essay in every collection, along with a list of the collections.

All of the collections of essays from F&SF, with a * next to the ones I've read as of Thurs, Jan 14, 1999:

Fact and Fancy

*View from a Height

*Adding a Dimension

*Of Time and Space and Other Things

From Earth to Heaven

*Science, Numbers, and I

The Solar System and Back

The Stars in Their Courses

The Left Hand of the Electron

*The Tragedy of the Moon

Of Matters Great and Small

The Planet That Wasn't

*Quasar, Quasar, Burning Bright

*The Road to Infinity

(there may be more-- if there are, I haven't found them yet.)