In the past few years there seems to have been an explosion of commentary on horror fiction, but the quality of that commentary has been uneven. Some works seem more interested in "justifying" horror as a legitmate genre--they do more cheerleading and gushing than really insightful writing. I find much commentary on King to fall into this category (particularly, Winter's THE ART OF DARKNESS and some commentary on the genre done by Clive Barker). Others are so full of inflated scholarly jargon that it's hard to fight your way through the prose to figure out what the ideas are. Nina Auerbach's OUR VAMPIRES, OURSELVES comes to mind here.

A DARK NIGHT'S DREAMING falls somewhere in the middle. For the most part, this collection is quite readable, but the quality of the essays is uneven. I found little new or insightful in the background essays on the genre or on the influence of film, and that was disappointing. I was also disappointed in the chapter on King. On the other hand, I thought two of the chapters were very good--the one on William Peter Bladdy--which mixed some biographical background with commentary on the novel and the movie adaption of THE EXORCIST quite skillfully. And the chapter on Thomas Harris which really led me to think about THE RED DRAGON and THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS in a different light--and especially to think about the popularity of "serial killer" fiction and how it fits into the horror genre.

One could hope for a better collection overall, but this one certainly had its moments.

It was a good book, though boring at times.

The quality of the speakers in this collection varied. Some, like those by Fred Friendly and Tom Brokaw, were interesting and thought-provoking but the decline in talent from lecture to lecture was obvious - the last one was by conservative ideologue and media mogul Rupert Murdoch, defending sleeze (sp?) on TV. The editors also did a poor job - all they had to do was transcribe some speeches. The fact that they wound up with spelling and grammatical errors just goes to show how quickly this work was thrown together. My advice - read the offerings by Wicker, Chancellor, Friendly and Brokaw and skip the rest.

In my opinion this is sadly a missed oppurtunity to educate the public, but not a missed oppurtunity to cash in!

Since I am a very big Tony Robbins fan, I decided to buy this book. As many other reviewers have said, this book was poorly written with a lot of misspelled words. Furthermore, it was poorly laid out and very cheap looking. I can't believe that this book could ever sell for its list price if it was in the bookstore and someone could actually look at it first. However, I did give it two stars because it did contain information (if true) that I did not know about Tony's history and background. Seeing this book also gave me a lot of hope for the book I am currently writing. I am sure that I can do a much better job!

This is quite a short book. It has got short chapters, each about a stage of Tony Robbin's life. Some of the stuff are quite irrelevant (to me) and I dont need to know them. This is a work written by someone who is obviously a total Tony Robbs fan.. I think in some cases, Tony is treated like a God or something as great. Don't get me wrong, I myself am a fan of Tony, but I just have to say the author abviously idolises Tony from his writing. Well, it's quite good cos you get to know more about Tony's life. But I didnt really learn any great distinction from this book. The text are really big, chapters are kinda short and simple..

The best of the Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy, Tyrant's Test takes us back to the convoluted lives of our heroes. The characterizations of Luke and Leia remain poor, Lando's mission is still annoying but there is a bright spot. Chewie's rescue of Han Solo is one of the few bright points in this trilogy. The daring and insane rescue of a battered and tortured Han Solo by his best friend is truly a memorable scene in an otherwise forgettable book. Chewie becomes much more than just a hairy sidekick, but rather he is more of a brother to Han than Luke is. Luke and the strange woman continue to search for her people and his mother. They finally track down this secretive people, but unknown to Luke (but known to everyone else), his traveling companion lied to him and she was really not a part of the secret society. A slave revolt against the evil Yevetha helps to end the threat to the New Republic and Leia sits triumphant atop the backstabbing political world. The end has Luke and Leia reconciling (froma separation that was totally unnecessary) and Luke returns to his real living family. As for Lando, Luke also took time out of his busy schedule to hop halfway across the galaxy to save his old friend trapped aboard a living ship/seedpod. Sounds kind of Vongish to me. Anyway the Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy is one of the worst in the Star Wars universe. All three books filled with annoying convoluted plot and terrible depictions of the main characters. It simply the worst trilogy of the Star Wars universe, which is saying something considering how bad the Jedi Academy Trilogy is. Kube-McDowell should have spent more time writing and editing his book to be much more streamlines than the clunky and poorly written result that Star Wars fans received.

(first of all, this review is for the trilogy, and not just _tyrant's test_) in general this was an average trilogy, nothing spectacular, but not bad. there was one excellent point in this trilogy, Chewbacca's part of the story. After reading this, Chewbacca seems more human, not so much a big...wookie...and just Han's sidekick. It was nice to see someone explore the character of Chewbacca. But there were two parts of the story I had problems with. One was Luke's part of the story, I mean, how much power does this guy need?! The other major problem i had with the trilogy is all the time spent with characters we don't know, don't want to know, and aren't that important. I think the author could have spent more time developing the plot lines of the characters we know (such as Han's capture or how Leia dealt with it, which really wasn't touched on a whole lot). But they (other than Lando) didn't seem to have a huge role in the trilogy. All in all, if you keep up with the star wars universe, this trilogy is worth the time.

I found it a bit difficult to get into the story at the begining, as it was a bit boring, but once I got about a quarter of the way through the first book, I couldnt stop reading. I honestly dont know why people are talking trash about these books ... I liked them. This trilogy is definitely worth reading, especially if you're a fan. They may not be as good as the original Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn, but what really is?

Anyway, the Black Fleet Crisis, and more specifically this final, climatic chapter of the trilogy, are one of the better Star Wars books I've read so far.

Like its predecessor, Shield of Lies continues bad characterizations, poor plot and long drawn out writing. The Luke out with a strange woman to learn about his mother story line to just annoying. This female character is simply annoying and Luke does not act all that much like a Jedi Master. Jedi Masters can tell when someone is lying to them! As for Leia the drudgery of political life is draining on her. Eventually stories about the running of a government can get boring and after the first book the Leia and political back-stabbing storyline is old and slow and boring. Han finally gets something to do, but due to the ineptness of the New Republic military (can't imagine how they beat the Empire at all) by the evil, is captured by bigoted Yevetha nazi beings introduced in the first book. Chewie has a subplot involving his son's journey into manhood, while Lando's adventure on the ghost ship is really painful to read. This series could have been so much better but a convoluted plot, poor editing and really awful writing make it among te worst set of books in the Star Wars universe.

This is an interesting story. I hope someday Luke learns who his mother really is.

I don't know what the other reviewers are thinking, this is one of the best trilogies in the entire series. A major complaint seems to be that these books are "all talk and no action," well my little friends, I am sorry that your limited intellect cannot stand plot development and intricate story lines. Unlike a LOT of sci-fi books out there, the Star Wars books actually try to have a story, and a MEANINGFUL, LASTING story at that. Not just blazing light saber/death star/dog fight battles. If you don't have the intellectual capacity to enjoy a good story with good plot lines, that is well written and that explores more than just shooting at people, then I recommend something along the lines of "Pokémon" that would seem to fit with your age group. CHEERS!

'Utterly engaging' screams the quote on the cover, then you notice it refers to a different book. Take that as a warning. Even the publishers couldn't find anything good to say about this effort.

Midnight Come is supposed to be a clerical whodunit, a murder mystery set within the religious community surrounding Canterbury Cathedral in England. For the first 20 pages or so, I thought the author might bravely be attempting to create the olde-worlde "gas and gaiters" style of this sort of fiction from the 50's. After 50 pages, I realised this book is purely a self-absorbed exercise in convoluted and precocious sentence construction and grammar, something that only my high school English master could have enjoyed. There are hardly any nouns without adjectives or verbs without adverbs, and more clauses and subclauses to most sentences than I thought possible. The result is pages covered with the most excruciatingly pompous language I've ever read. Needless to say, I couldn't read much of it.

The characters! The ex-military intelligence man, now a senior church official, with the "jolly hockey sticks" wife, curiously confined to a wheelchair after polio contracted soon after their marriage. The cardboard cutout Deans, vicars, etc., could have leaped out of a Trollope novel. The token Australian, a young, arachnophobic, woman archictect, was so stereotyped, she only just stopped short of "throwing a shrimp on the barbie" (maybe she did, I gave up after 80 pages).

The dialogue! There is not one single person in this world who would ever utter the words put in these character's mouths. "'I'm afraid', she said, dropping her gaze, 'that I suffer a little from arachnophobia.'" As an Australian, I *know* she would have said 'I bloody HATE spiders!', and her gaze wouldn't have dropped an inch.

Do yourself a favour and read something (anything) else. This has only got one star because I couldn't save it with none.