Now this book is impressive. Stormbreaker is an adventure about a kid in London that winds up being hired as a spy to complete his uncle's last mission-The uncle died in a car accident before finishing it. But after a visit to the "heaven for cars," Alex knows it was no accident. But I can't reveal too much because after reading this, you're probably going to head to amazon.com's book section and buy a copy! But really, Stormbreaker has many limitations. Consider reading it only if you like extreme, non-stop action books. If you do, then you really should read at least the first page. Oh, and if you do read it, then read the sneak preview at the back, so you can get hypnotized by the sequel, Point Blank.
Stormbreaker has what I call an air of mystery, which means it doesn't tell you a reason for everything, especially in the early chapters. Think of this book as a kid breaking into the new James Bond museum, but getting lost in the daycare section.(does that place even have a daycare section?)

"When the doorbell rings at three in the morning its never good news."Alex Rider the main character of this book woke up in the morning only to hear that his Uncle Ian Rider had died in a car accident.But fourteen year old knows its a lie.The bullet holes in his Uncle's car proves it.Soon Alex finds out his uncle was a spy!!He worked for M16-Brittain's top-secret intelligence agency.After finding out his Uncle was a spy,Alex gets recruited to finish his Uncle's last mission,to find out about Herod Sayle's latest project the Stormbreaker.The agency was a bit suspicious about him. I enjoyed this book.I liked it because it has a cool plot.I recomend this book to anyone who likes lots of action.

This book kept me on my toes the entire time. It was action packed and suspense filled. I loved every minute of it. The basic story line is that Alex's Uncle Ian died in a car accident. Or so Alex is told. Alex knows better, and finds that his uncle was a spy! Alex goes to finish his uncle's final mission, and finds himself in great danger. Read the book to find out the rest. This was one of the best books I've ever read, and I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I did.

I am in the midst of preparing for a career change into the IT field with a focus on the Cisco internetworking path. Obviously I am anything BUT an experienced networking professional and therefore I am always on the lookout for resources that teach me the basics of what I need to know in as simple and uncomplicated a manner as possible! Believe me when I say that Tom Shaughnessy's book , Cisco: A Beginner's Guide, met these goals admirably!

Although the material is a bit daunting to understand all at once, I found that by slow careful reading of each chapter in this book I could gradually make sense out of a very complicated and somewhat daunting subject...the Cisco internetworking system!! I have read quite a few books which try to explain, in layman's terms, the complexities of networking and inter-networking, in particular. Most of the others were either too boring or written in such a manner as I would have needed an engineering degree to make any sense of them! Tom Shaughnessy's book breaks through this barrier by being written in a style that I found to be both simple to understand as well as (believe it or not!) captivating!

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in exploring a career within the Cisco internetworking field!!

I passed the CCNA today, partially due to this book (although the test study guides were more useful for that purpose). I'm new to IT, coming from a completely unrelated field. This book isn't the best introduction to networking and Cisco I found (I'd recommend Myhre's CCNA Certification book for that), but I know this will be my most useful reference book as I begin my IT career. It's full of information and laid out in an accessible format. I was truly a beginner when I picked up this book, and when I finished it I had a good grasp of routers, switches, IOS, and the OSI model. I'm sure this is a great book to get if you're familiar with networking but new to Cisco. If you're really green (as I was) and in pursuit of your CCNA, you'd do well to try Myhre's book first.

This book was really a joy to read. It is one of the best MIS/IT books I've ever seen, and maybe the best. The book is very well written and the coverage of the material is extremely thorough and broad considering how much there is to know about all this and how big the field has become.

I would recommend you read this book to get all the great information and background it offers before tackling any of the actual Cisco certification books. There is just too much important information, and useful information, in this book that is missing in the more specific certification books, which of course are necessarily focused only on what you need to know to pass the exam.

If you're already cramming for one of the exams, I would still buy this book and use it as a study companion. It offers a much broader perspective on the entire networking field, which is useful because the certification books tend to lose the forest for the trees.

As I said, the overall coverage is really phenomenal. For example, in addition to the usual chapters covering hubs, switches and routers, the author also discusses such topics as SANS (storage area networks) and CDNs (content-delivery networks), both of which are becoming increasingly important. Also, there is a large section discussing firewalls and how they operate in general, and then the author goes on to discuss Cisco's own PIX firewall solutions.

Not satisfied with that, Velte also provides an excellent chapter on WANs, an area where the technology and the strategies are very different from the typical intranetwork designed with switches and routers. The subject of WANs leads naturally into a discussion of VPNs (virtual private networks), another area that is becomming increasingly important because of the substantial savings over that of the traditional WAN. It's becoming so important, in fact, that Velte mentions one expert who says that VPNs will completely replace the more expensive WAN technology and that WANs will completely vanish in the next few years.

In addition to all the above things, Velte also has a nice review of networking essentials, and there is a long chapter detailing the entire Cisco certification track, which discusses the different tests, certifications, tracks, and so on. There are so many of these now that keeping track of them now requires a chapter like this.

Finally, the author has a lot of great information about the entire line of Cisco routers and switches. You'll notice that in the certification books they tend to concentrate on a much more limited number of models. In the Sybex Switches book I have, the book focuses almost exclusively on the 5000 and 1900 models, with occasional references to some of the others. For example, Velte mentions that the enormous routers that handle the internet traffic are the Cisco 12000 series, the most powerful of which is capable of processing 60 billion bits of information per second, something that the typical Cisco and network support person running a company's intranetwork is probably never going to see.

All in all a really great book and well worth the price.

-This book covers all the basics you need for writing online; the how to's of query letters, electronic rights, pay rates, contracts, and more. It's informative, well presented, and enjoyable to read. In addition, the authors even have a sense of humor. I've ordered other books on the subject and "Online Markets for Writers" is clearly the best.

-MUCHO THANKS TO THE AUTHORS FOR MAKING THIS INFO AVAILABLE TO EVERYONE!

Best Regards--Dan Murphy

I've been a full-time freelance writer for five years, and this is the best market guide for writers I've ever seen. It's full of very specific, inside info on pay rates and how to deal with specific publications.

The section on contracts, electronic rights, and negotiating with editors is illuminating and applies to both online publications and print. It teaches writers how to conduct themselves professionally and to ask for better pay and better treatment.

The book is also funny. From the introduction: "I know, I know. The Internet is basically a big hype sandwich."

The short profiles of 25 writers and editors will also give you lots of ideas about how to make a living as a freelance writer.

I hope they write a follow-on book about writing for print.

This book is an excellent resource for writers. It's worth buying just for the chapter on online markets. Two hundred paying markets are profiled in detail, often with helpful comments from other freelancers. The rest of the book, written in a humorous style, provides useful information on copyright and other online writing issues.

Having completed the quest for his magic talent (told in "A Spell for Chameleon"), Bink embarks on another adventure. His mission: to find the source of all magic in the land of Xanth. Accompanied by his friend Chester Centaur, Grundy the universal translator and the wise Good Magician Humfrey, he sets off on this ambitious quest. But what he discovers in the course of his travels could extinguish magic and change the land of Xanth forever...

"The Source of Magic" is only the second volume in the Xanth series, and many of the more extensive magical ideas in the later books are still non-existent or undeveloped. Even so, Piers Anthony succeeds in creating a convincing story. The characters are amusing, if lacking somewhat in depth- this is most definitely light fantasy- and still face some halfway serious moral dilemmas as the story proceeds.

If you have read later Xanth novels, this book is a must-read: take a look at the origins of Xanth, and marvel at its evolution since then. For new readers, this is a good place to start: the world of Xanth is a more rounded and interesting place than it was in "A Spell for Chameleon", and it continues to develop over the course of the next several books.

There's about a 100 Xanth books out there, and they don't strictly require you to start at book one and move forward (although there are advantages to that), so where to start? In my opinion, the second book is the best entry into Anthony's odd world.

The first book, A Spell For Chameleon, is a bit dry and slow. It wasn't until the second that Anthony caught his stride. Here we've got a happy medium for Xanth, fun and whimsical but not unbearably punny and ridiculous like the later novels. Adding to that is a pretty decent story, where Bink, Humphrey and others must discover the source of power that enables magic in Xanth. The source is pretty interesting, as is what Bink does when they find it. The story actually has enough meat on it to stand up next to the more standard entries in the fantasy genre.

If you're familiar with Xanth but haven't read this one, what are you waiting for? It features the rarity of Humphrey going on a long quest, and features discovering what makes Xanth what it is. A must read for Xanth fans.

If you're a fantasy fan in general, be warned: Xanth is pretty ridiculous. It doesn't take itself seriously at all. But like I said, it's quite a bit tamer in these early books than in the later ones.

This book is a very good book. The main character is again, Bink, but this time he has a few side kicks. Chester Centaur, the Magician Humfrey and his sidekick Grundy Golem, and the transformed Crombie the Soldier, who is now a griffin. They search Xanth for the Source of Magic, and you'll have to read it to find out what it is.

I am a big Xanth fan, but I hadn't gotten any new episodes for over 10 years, because of becoming a very busy working mother. My brother-in-law got me this one after I had recently re-read all my old ones. The kids having finally gotten interested in Xanth got me going on my re-reading project.

I don't think this one measures up. It doesn't flow like the others and you don't get into the story. Maybe it's because there are too many main characters, so that none of them can be developed very well. They all run off in different directions and it's hard to keep track of what is going on or what the characters are like.

Maybe it's because, while the earlier stories were essentially cheery, this one has an underlying gloominess throughout.

When certain ones of the characters are announced to be in love, it seems like sort of an afterthought. You just don't get inside anyone's head enough to really empathize with them, so there's not enough buildup that would justify the characters' feelings.

The puns don't seem to be as good as they used to be either.

I don't think I'm just becoming jaded, because I was reading the earlier ones again to my kids at the same time I was reading this one and the earlier ones just seem better.

This book was an absolute masterpeice. It had a great plot, good characters, and just an all around good storyline. I have read every Xanth novel twice, and I think this is one of his better ones. The only drawback I think that this novel had was its seemingly unconcluded ending. I read the last sentence of the novel and I feel that the book was uncompleted. I have never known Peirs Anthony to end any of his novels that way. If it would have ended better I would have given it a 5.

Yon Ill Wind is a very good book.Although I expected Fracto to play a larger part overall. The gist is that the Demon X(A/N)th must assume a mortal form and travel with the first person he meets. He must also wring a singal tear of love or greif from that person before they part company.So it would be just his luck to meet up with an ill tempered young lady who cares for no one. Another part of the gist is a mundane family gets blown into Xanth when the interface gets broken.So to win his wager and get a tear from his companion X(A/N)th must help the mundanes restore the interface.

This is a great book if you love adventure. In Point Blank 14-year-old Alex Rider is a top secret agent who works for the M16. He has been chosen to go investigate Point Blank. He is given top-secret weapons like earrings that if you put them together they make a bomb. He is going to stay at Sir David's house so he can go to Point Blank because the tuition for Point Blank is $15,000. Point Blank is where teenagers with behavior problems go. While at Point Blank Alex discovers that they take the richest boys from the richest families and make clones of them. Alex escapes on a snowboard that is really ironing board with two people that are on snowmobiles that have machine guns. Lucky Alex escapes. Point Blank is a great action adventure book. It can take a fast reader about an hour and a half to finish If you read this book I think you will like it.

...Point Blank was a good book. It's one of the best books I have ever read. Anthony Horowitz made a good sequel to this book called Stormbreakers. When I saw the cover of this book I thought that there would be alot of action. I was right! This book is my favorite book. He always has a different personality for every character. Alex, the main character, has all different sort of attitudes...

Point Blank is about a fourteen year old boy named Alex Rider trying to stop a mad man (Dr.Grief)who clones himself in the form of fourteen-year-old rich boys. My favorite part is when Alex used an ieoning board as a snow board to slide down the mountain, to escape from almost being dissected. I like Point Blank because once youstart you can't stop. It's so action packed; it will keep you guessing. The theme os about a boy named Alex who is a secrete agent that workes for MI6. And is sent on dangerous missions. I bet you'll love it.

Demon's Don't Dream -by Piers Anthony--- A great book in a series of Xanth novels! Xanth is a fantasy realm apart from our own where puns come alive, animals talk, kings and queens reign and everyone has a magic talent, well almost everyone. In this novel Anthony tells of two Mundane players who go to Xanth through a computer game with companions to guide them. As the players overcome obstacles, love, excitement, betrayal, defeat and overall recieve an unknown prize at the end you won't want to put it down. A real page turner and highly recommended! Add this novel to your Xanth collection today!

Like all Xanth novels, Demons Don't Dream is full of puns. With witty things from streams of consciousness to outstupiding ogres, the book had me rolling on the ground with laughter with every page. I recommend this book for not only fantasy readers but any reader who likes a good laugh. You follow two Mundanians as they go through a game called the Companions of Xanth, which is actually much, much more than a game...

What a fantastic book. I was in the screen long before Dug. This is my first Piers book, though not first fantacy (I also love a good science fiction) and I am so very glad that Amazon recommended it.

I'm not even finished with the book. I don't want to finish it, I do want to finish it, I want to get right into another Piers', what a story line.

I can't wait to finish it so I can get another. I'm going to read the whole series. Does anyone suggest the next book to read?

And, I see where someone from Interlaken, NY is wishing there was a computer game to the book, well, jesper_81@mailcity.com says that there is--Companions of Xanth. I'm going to get it also.

Well, back to the book every chance I get. I wonder how Dug will discover that his lovely princess is now a False Companion. I'm glad she didn't touch the water of the stream of consciuosness so the plot can "thicken".

I love it.

So, everyone knows the story of the Iliad. We're all familiar with the Greeks and the Trojans and the horse and lines written about it with regard to "Who is he to Hecuba?" I've been reading different translations of it since grade school. What sets this one apart?

Richmond Lattimore, a Dartmouth College Alum, goes to great lengths to preserve the original language and tries to keep the story in poetic form while translating the Greek as literally as possible. This is seen on simpler levels, i.e. the use of non-anglicized name (Aias instead of Ajax) but pervades the entire book on a larger level. This keeps the awe which the tale conveys entact, and even makes it quite powerful, without going over the top and being silly, like the translations of certain professors at Princeton.

The two classic verse (English) translations of Homer's Iliad & Odyssey are by George Chapman (1611) and Alexander Pope (1725). A classic prose translation of both works is the one by Lang, Leaf, and Myers (Iliad), and Butcher, Lang (Odyssey). A good, literal prose translation from the 1890's of the Odyssey is the George Herbert Palmer. Good literal, modern prose translations of both works are the ones by A. T. Murray. The better prose and verse translations of the latter half of the 20th century (E. V. Rieu, Fagles, Lattimore, Fitzgerald, Lombardo, Mandelbaum, etc.) are all, though they obviously have different approaches, pretty much at the same level of inspiration. To get most of Homer in English you have to first learn the poems from ANY translation that speaks to you (even starting with a paraphrased prose version for 'children' is a good idea), then you have to read the Chapman and Pope along with a good, literal prose version. This Penquin Classics edition of Pope's translation of the Iliad includes all of Pope's notes for each book as-well-as his Preface, Essays on the nature of Homer's battle scenes and on the Shield of Achilles, and the three remarkable indexes (Index of Persons and Things, Poetical Index, and Index of Arts and Sciences). The notes contain, along with Pope's original notes, numerous extracts from ancient and modern commentators of the poem including the allegorizing of the various scenes and events and so on. Pope's verse itself makes Homer a startling new experience for anyone only familiar with 20th century translations. Because the verse is in heroic, rhymed couplets each detail of the poem stands more clearly on its own. Details that get blended in and painted over in modern translations stand out in Pope's verse. The verticalness of the poem (hierarchy of levels of being from beneath human to human to semi-divine to divine...) is made more visible. Architecture and natural description is more vivid. Pope also brings out the higher psychological play between the characters and gods and goddesses. This edition is definitely worth its price.

This is the beginning of everything. I'm not one of those who consider the Bible as the beginning of Western literature because those Jewish tales are interesting but not European. I have nothing to add about the Iliad that hasn't been said or written before and I wouldn't even try. But when I hear those first words 'Sing, o goddess, Achilles' wrath -ill-fated wrath...' something trembles inside me because I know my forbears are talking to me and telling me a terrible story of bravery and death, of war, bravery, swords, love, terrible human sacrifices that took place in the Mediterranean world just a few thousand years ago. It's so human -even the bravest warrior is afraid when he sees death coming. And I highly recommend to read aloud or recite those words because this is not a novel, but poetry and you have to feel it in your mouth, even if you don't speak or read Greek. I can tell you, Homer sounds marvellous in Spanish and I guess that if you have a good translation, it must sound wonderful in English or French or German as well. So this is not a review but a testimony of my love towards the first one we know that created beauty with words and with such a bloody story.

Selling to VITO is a concise, well written book with clear examples and a clear goal. If you follow what it says, you will be able to sell to top officers. You can also use the ideas as you work around the rest of the organization. The VITO letter chapter is worth the price of the book.

I read lots of books on selling. I've read some great books by people who've never sold anything and lousy books by great salesmen, but this is the first great book I've read by a great salesman. Selling to VITO is the first sales book that I need to carry with me to use for reference. Most sales books provide lots of theoretical knowledge that the reader can HOPEFULLY apply to real selling situations. Parinello delivers a book with REAL things to say and things to write. He tells you what to do and what order to do it in. In order to apply the material in this book, you will need to understand how to translate his examples into your selling situation. Tony helps you with this by giving you a mental process to work through the translation. There's no fluff here. If you are serious about corporate sales, don't miss this book. It won't be easy to follow the instructions within, but if you do, the results will be profitable.

I read Selling to VITO when it first came out. And then I read it again. There is no single sales book perfect for everyone, but the simple truths Tony relates to his readers apply whenever you have to plan a call on a high-level executive.

I can't wait to read Tony's new book.

Dave Stein, author of How Winners Sell.

I certainly won't say that "You don't REALLY like fantasy if you don't like this book." However, giving this book a try will help you self-identify, as to whether you want "The same again, please" as a fantasy reader, or, instead, might be ready to explore a new world of the imagination that exploits the freedom inherent in the genre.

There's hardly a more slowly-paced book in the language; perhaps the best way to approach it is in the expectation of a long series of vivid, strange scenes. I hesitate to use the word "surrealistic," because that often has the connotation of sexual neurosis (real or pretended). The comparisons with Dickens are apt, but the closest analogue known to me might be Gogol's masterpiece (read it in the delightful Pevear-Volokohonsky translation), DEAD SOULS. In both books you have the idea of people who live in isolation (the Gormenghasters in various nooks of the Castle and its environs; Gogol's oddities being residents of isolated Russian estates before the abolition of serfdom). Both authors enjoyed concocting weirdly funny names for characters. Both authors "withhold" -- Peake keeping the narrative pace so slow that Titus is only 1 1/2 at the end of the book; Gogol keeping us in the dark about Chichikov's scheme. Both authors have deceptive rogues as main characters (Steerpike, Chichikov). Both did relish a kind of bizarre vividness. Finally, Nabokov's little book on Gogol says that the Russian concept of "posholost" is central for Gogol: meaning that something is outwardly impressive or charming, but really is second-rate or worse, is empty, is life-diminishing. That fits the Gormenghast rituals.

Frankly, if you've never read Gogol's comic masterpiece, you should consider giving that one a try; but if you love fantasy, you ought to look into Peake, too.

There are a few places where Peake's imagination doesn't seem engaged: the Keda-Rantel-Braigon thing is not successful. But that takes up maybe 25 pages at most.

This is one of the, if not the best, work of fantasy I have the privilege of reading. The imagery is haunting, beautiful and at times horrific, yet splendid all the same.The work is one of a man drunk upon the beauty of words, in love with the way they can be made to fit. Imagine, if you will, a different world, choked in age, stifled by ritual, hung over with shadow but suffused with beauty.Picture a huge, gigantic,ramshackle of masonry called Gormenghast castle, populated by grotesques whose acts and fears and feeling and thoughts are no less seemingly real for their bizarreness. Meet the faithful servant Flay, along with his ponderously fat and murderous rival, the cook Swelter. Pity the lonely and insane Lord Sepulchrave, and his poor daughter Fuschia. Be introduced to the loquacious Dr. Prunesquallor, and his pretentious sister, Irma of black glasses and flat bodice. See the evil youth Steerpike begin a ruthless quest for power fired by his hate, and the infant hero, Titus Groan ascend his throne. These are but a few of the oddities clambering about within the Walls of Gormenghast. Why don't you enter for yourself? You won't regret it.

Well do I remember the momentous day in 1975 when a good friend loaned me a copy of Titus Groan and suggested I might enjoy it. Enjoy it? I was hooked from that first glimpse of the Hall of Bright Carvings; utterly transfixed by strange but compelling stories of the denizens of Gormenghast: a weird place and weird people, to be sure, but not so weird as to be beyond recognition. Peake's prose is masterful throughout; his characters are so profoundly realised that you really do feel you know them: Fuschia, Prunesquallor, Steerpike, Titus himself, my personal hero Mr Flay...wonderful. The narrative has been critized for being ponderous, but bear in mind this is a "big read" and it is best absorbed at a steady pace. The action, when it comes, is all the more startling: consider the cobweb-strewn battle to the death between Flay and the loathsome Swelter, and in Gormenghast, Titus's deadly encounter with Steerpike (now evil personified) amid the stifling ivy. "Titus Groan" and "Gormenghast" are famously more satisfying than "Titus Alone", written when Peake was seriously ill and fading fast, but even "Titus Alone" has some strangely affecting characters and situations. Its strangeness is more disturbing than the first two books however, which are totally enthralling. Since that first encounter over 25 years ago I have re-read this trilogy many, many times, always with more enjoyment than the time before. I made a chess-set with characters from the book (grey scrubbers make great pawns) and have enlivened many a dull day at work by likening some of my colleagues (in my minds eye, of course) to some of Peake's so-called grotesques...the Civil Service is not without its Barquentines and Sourdusts, not to mention the Deadyawns and Cutflowers! This is one book (along with the Bible) I would just not want to be without.