I read this perhaps 17 years ago. I remember that my copy became quite ragged through rereading before I gave it to a friend who equally enjoyed it. I'd like to think it's still being circulated amongst friends.

Others have summarized the plot. I'll just reiterate that this book is a great way to spend a few hours if you're a sci-fi or fantasy fan.

Paul Edwin Zimmer, Bradley's brother, was initially an uncredited co-author. The lack of recognition wasn't Bradley's idea, and Zimmer was credited from the first on their sequel, _The Survivors_. The protagonist, Dane Marsh, is a lone wolf heroic type Zimmer wrote very well, along the lines of his character Roger Hogg in "The Hand of Tyr" (see _Greyhaven_). Marsh is a romantic born between romantic ages; he wants adventures, but in the late twentieth century, the world's fresh out. Every place has been explored, and somebody else has already been first to do anything worth doing. He saves his envy for whoever'll be first to hike around the Moon on foot, though, and gets on with his life - sailing around the world alone, even though it's been done.

At that point, a flying saucer kidnaps him right off his boat, and he learns that there may be a few more adventures left, after all. :)

The proto-feline Mekhar are notorious for their slave-raids, having refused Unity membership several times rather than repudiate the practice. Slaves being luxury goods, it pays to avoid damaging the merchandise, and even to install translator disks in their captives - although the Mekhar leave Dane's fellow prisoners to explain the situation. (Interestingly enough, proto-simians - humanlike beings - far from being lords of creation, are looked down upon, being perpetually "in season" and thus slaves of their sexual appetites. Superiority lies elsewhere: the proto-felines invented interstellar travel, and the proto-saurians generally look down on *everybody*. Aratak, the follower of the Divine Egg who befriends Dane, is an exception to this last.)

Dane's the only prisoner from Earth; the others figure somebody's being chewed out for grabbing a boat carrying less than a dozen people. Rianna's archeological team, for example, lost their gamble that the Mekhar wouldn't hit the otherwise deserted satellite they were working on.

Until Dane's arrival, nobody tried to escape more than once; not only are all the odds on the guards' side, but severe injuries may be a death sentence. Most of the prisoners have a fatalistic attitude that Dane violently disagrees with; he alone, for instance, interferes with the decision of the only captive from Spica IV, the empath Dallith, to refuse food and let herself die. (Oddly enough, while Aratak, the giant proto-saurian philosopher, remains silent, the vibrant Rianna protests Dane's interference, for reasons he comes to understand only much later.) Dane is the one who, spotting a security hole, masterminds an escape attempt - only to learn that it was just what the Mekhar were waiting for.

The final part of the Mekhar's standard operating procedure is to skim off the ringleaders in their escape-attempt test on each raid, and to sell them to the species known as the Hunters of the Red Moon for the role of Sacred Prey. The Hunters' only interest in life is to hunt the Most Dangerous Game: intelligent quarry, who can give them a challenge. Every batch of Sacred Prey is given some weeks to prepare on the Hunters' World before being taken to the Red Moon, and must survive there only until the next eclipse. They're even given a choice of weapons, short of firearms, but even that's disquieting; the Armory doubles as a huge trophy collection of the weapons of particularly excellent Prey. (In a really *cool* scene, Dane recognizes one weapon as the most perfect Mataguchi he's ever seen - something a samurai would *never* have left behind.)

The story revolves around Dane, as protagonist, and his fellow survivors Rianna, Dallith, and Aratak, with one startling addition: Cliff-Climber, a Mekhar guard who screwed up badly during the escape attempt, and took this option as an honorable alternative to suicide. While he knows more about the Hunters than any of the others, his proto-feline people take the proverb "curiosity killed the cat" very much to heart, and even though - he *says* - one of his own kinsmen survived a Hunt, he knows little about their destination. Dane and his companions have little more than the Hunters' word that successful quarry will be rewarded and allowed to leave. They don't even know what the Hunters look like; until the Hunt itself, the Sacred Prey only interact with robot caretakers, leading to a *lot* of theories among the Prey.

This is a mystery as well as an adventure story; only the last third covers the Hunt proper, the rest being split evenly between the slaveship and the Prey's prep time. Dane and the others must try to figure out the Hunters, knowing that the odds are against them. At the feast celebrating the end of the previous Hunt and the beginning of theirs, they learn that 47 Hunters faced 74 Prey. Nineteen Hunters perished.

*One* Sacred Prey survived.

I read this book about 10 years ago and went searching for it so I could read it again. Too bad it's out of print. This book is very entertaining. It's a worthwhile read. I couldn't put it down.

About the book:

He's a curmudgeon and declares himself one in the introduction, even if he doesn't use that term. The writing style is crusty, earthy and very easy to read, even though he has more then a few axes to grind.

With the caution of telling them it is a overview and one man's opinion, I would give this book to someone new to the nudist lifestyle. He does not go into details with many of his comentaries, so I don't really consider it a guidebook or manual. In many ways it really the story of his moving from a city highrise apartment to a trailer in a quiet resort.

4 out 5 stars for the lack of detail.

About the writing:

It would be possible to critically rake this book over the coals for much of its style and flow, but as it was written in the brief time Mr. Penhallow had left in his life, many of its sins can be forgiven. However, I do wish that Ms. Lovell had exercised her editorial/rewrite control as there are several dangling references and repeated comentaries that needed to be completed or removed.

Also don't let the title fool you, anyone who has trailers at 2 different resorts, a 5-ton truck to move the "essentials" between the 2 and 4 microwaves, cannot be called parsimonious and barely be called frugal. ;)

This book in my opinion is the best book on introducing people to nudism. The author used a straight forward approach to all aspects of clothing optional recreation. The author, who is on the cover, passed away as the book went to press but contributor Marilyn Lovell works and plays a big role at the clothing optional resort Avalon in Paw Paw, West Virginia.

This book is great. Since I have gotten it I threw away all of my drawers and trousers. I am nude all of the time. I really like to sit on my head like the guy on the cover. I do it alot. And then it hurts. I have to ice my head down after. When I do it, somethimes people walk by and go "wooooah". It is pretty awesome. Then they sometimes say things like "we should do that". When I am standing on my head I also like to pretend that I am a space-man with upside-down eyes.

A "making of" book for a film like Starship Troopers is a natural. There's so much material in this picture worthy of coverage - the awesome visual effects, the exotic equipment and vehicles, the far flung locales, the intense space combat. Throw in all the issues involved with the adaptation of Heinlein's classic sci-fi novel, the film's fascist political overtones, and the involvement of director Paul Verhoeven. Not to mention those astonishing bugs.

Fans of the movie will enjoy a comprehensive look at just about everything that went into the making of this future war classic. This large-format book is packed with color photos, illustrations, storyboards, sketches, model shots, and interviews.

If you were as fascinated with what you saw on screen as I was, and wondered how it was all done, then this is the book for you. Out of print, but available on the used-book market, this is a definite must have. Careful shopping will snag you a copy in nice condition for a reasonable price. Some "new" copies are still floating around if you're willing to pay a premium. Enjoy!

"The Making of Starship Troopers," by Paul M. Sammon, is an interesting look at the making of one of my favorite science fiction films of recent years. The book is packed full of visual elements: reproductions of conceptual art, behind-the-scenes photographs, and more. Some of the most interesting illustrations are sketches done by Paul Verhoeven, the film's director.

Together, the text and visuals describe the process by which Robert Heinlein's novel of the same name became a film. Integrated into the text are a wealth of quotes from both cast and crew members. Particularly intriguing are the explanations behind some of the differences between the novel and the film. There are some fascinating anecdotes, such as the funny story behind the filming of the notorious co-ed shower scene.

The book includes a lengthy interview with director Verhoeven in which he discusses such topics as the echoes of Leni Riefenstahl in the style of the film. If you're a fan of this film, you should get a lot out of this book.

If you enjoyed the movie, you will enjoy this book. Mr. Sammon has done a wonderful job taking us through the creative process faced by each of the technical departments. From concept to creation he includes a wealth of behind-the-scenes information and photos that feed our desire for more. Easy to read, hard to put down. Buy this book or face Administrative Punishment... Live forever Apes!

"Huis Clos" is one of the few books that actually illustrates a version of hell. Most people wouldn't think to write about such a touchy subject. Likewise, most people accept the typical hell full of fire and torture chambers as what it will be like. Few contemplate the possibility that it might be different, as well as refuse to think about what else it could be. This book made me think about it a little more than I imagined. What if having to be around the same two people for eternity really is hell? What if hell was based on the individual? My personal hell would be eternity on a stair-master. And the only music would be Michael Bolton...karaoke-style.

In Huit-Clos, Jean-Paul Sartre makes an analysis of human-behaviour. The scene takes place in a cell where three people are faced with each other. The reader is immediatly impregnated of different personalities and understands the fears of each one to stay eternaly together because, like Jean-Paul Sartre concludes: "The hell is others."

I am french, and Huis Clos is one of the most importants books i read when i was a teenager, looking for truth about adult behavior... It's really intellectual, but not artificial, and makes you think a lot about what is going on between people, and what you learned growing up.

The second collection from Mark Waid's run on JLA continues to improve upon the mess Grant Morrison made of the series. As in "JLA: Tower of Babel", these stories focus on both the individual and the team. Waid brings a human interest to the JLA, whereas Grant Morrison just brought action and chaos. Through Waid, we get to know the characters (Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Plastic Man and Martian Manhunter) both inside and out. No more are the massive team-ups from Morrison's run. These stories are tight and stream-lined. They're more about friendship than saving the world.

Half of this book follows the aftermath of Tower of Babel
(wherein Batman 'betrays' the rest of the League) and the other half deals with one component of that 'betrayal'; the necessity of harboring a 'secret identity'.
After expelling Batman via a 4-3 vote, the JLA finds itself split like Repubs and Democrats; mistrust and petty sniping abound. Finally Supes and Bats have a heart-to-heart that is one of the best stories featuring these two together that has ever been done. If Frank Miller's "Return of the Dark Knight" was about the abject difference between these two, JLA #50 points out the similarities. From there we go to another storyline, where the membership is split up again, although in a totally different way. I won't give away details, suffice it to say it's an Alan Moore-esque study into the inner stress having a "secret identity" can create. It's gets a little complicated and overwrought, but hell, the entire JLA series from ish #1 to The Obsidian Age has been complicated and overwrought, so what the hey. A necessary companion piece to Tower of Babel.

I liked the story line of this book. We all wonder what if you met your alter ego? It catches the flavor of what happens when there is a break up or split. It is worth the price

This is a wonderfully written book, as many reviewers have said. The author has a gift for clear explanation and writes in a lucid style which is far too rare in IT books.

But beware! The coverage of topics is quite uneven: be sure that it covers the material that you need.

For example, the coverage of mail is a little on how SMTP, POP and IMAP work, and 17 pages covering configuration of exim and a little on sendmail, and combatting spam, It doesn't give enough detail to begin to set up or maintain a mail server. Contrast this with 40 pages on the Linux File System standard.

Theis title was chosen as the textbook for an introductory class on Linux. After several weeks the class concluded it was not a good choice for an introductory text. Although the book contains a wealth of information the book lacks any ordered teaching structure which a student can build on.

I've read (not just scanned) about 15 Linux reference books of varying depth and direction. Rute is the best. If you can have only one or simply can't live knowing you don't have the definitive guide then you must grab a copy of RUTE. Check out the TOC and Preface for an idea of why I'm so enthused. Briefly, let me just say that topics covered (many and well) are each treated with respect (at least a paragraph of text, not just usage summaries that parrot the man pages) and obviously were learned in the field, not from other books. There are other reasons, but I leave them for you to discover. ENJOY.

Written in the '60s, this book played a major role in elevating the consciousness of mankind to realize that the herbs under our feet do and have offered incredible healing capabilities. It's as if God put everything we need within our grasp. Herbs - The Magic Healers is a Key to this great knowledge. For example -- I've been using Leptotaenia Dissecta -- "Sacred Root" (pg 81) for the last 6 years to cure (and I mean CURE) colds and flu. It has never failed to stop the flu dead for myself, frieds, family.

This book offers solutions to health, longevity and spriritual well being for those with open hearts and open minds. I am truly thankful for this great gift of spiritual yet practical wisdom.

This new edition has been updated by A. Stuart Wheelwright, a master herbalist, nutritionist and biochemist. I received most of my help from the earlier edition when I first began to explore herbs as healing tools. I will give three examples of ways in which I was helped. I have been working in a high stress electonic data base area of my company and sometimes suffered from what I called 'brain fog'. I tried many different solutions and finally settled on a herb called Fo-ti-teng. My mental 'sharpness' is clear and I do not suffer from 'brain fog' when I am taking this herb. I found a local store that sells it in bulk so it is not even expensive. I only found reference to this herb in Herbs The Magic Healers. The other help that I received was with my annual winter skin cracking. There is a lot of information on 'tissue cell salts'in the book. Calcarea Fluorica helped with my skin when many visits to the doctors did not. I had a high PSA test result. My doctor told me that I had prostate cancer. I read through Herbs... and took several different things that I thought would work for me. My urologist got very angry when I told him what I was taking. 6 months later PSA = 0. That was 5 years ago. I cannot recommend this book more highly.

HERBS: The Magic Healers by Paul Twitchell is an excellent book about herbs!

I found it amazing that so much information can be packed into a book! Hundreds & hundreds of different herbs are mentioned and how they can help you. This book also explains how herbs can help to heal you. What is really remarkable is that this book also talks about how herbs and foods can impact on you spiritually. There is a spiritual quality to the book that is amazing!

I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in their health!

Regards..Billatma@aol.com

I've read all the Josefina books! They are great! If you have a daugter who is 6 and up and interested in different cultures Buy her Josefina books. They are a little over priced.

Josefina (pronounced "ho-sa-FEE-nah") is a nine year old Hispanic girl growing up on a large rancho in New Mexico in 1824. The first story opens up with Josefina and her three older sisters finding comfort in daily chores while thinking about Mama, who had died a year before. Then, Abuelo (Grandfather) returns from a trip to Mexico City, bringing with him Tia (Aunt) Dolores. From then on, Tia Dolores is the catalyst for change. The educated, independent young aunt brings new beliefs about a woman's role and challenges the more tradional role that Mama had played in the family. Fortunately, Tia Dolores is a wise and gentle teacher who teaches Josefina that learning new things or doing things differently does not mean forgetting the old. Memories of Mama can be found in learning to read and write, repairing her embroidered altar cloth, celebrating Christmas, and in learning to care for the family and household. Josefina learns that her heart can embrace her cultural traditions while her spirit flies free on the wind of personal, family, and cultural changes.

New Mexico Hispanic traditions and the historical lifestyle are accurately portrayed through Josefina's daily routines. The focus on Josefina and her world makes the stories relevant and interesting to the readers. Readers learn about laundry, cooking and baking, food choices, gardens, trips to the river for water, friendships, family roles, manners and codes of conduct, and celebrations. Josefina's family faces tragedy in a flood, hard work to recover losses and maintain daily existance, the emotional conflict of change, and other choices appropriate to the world they live in. Additional historical information for each story is at the back of each book, making this a history lesson that goes down with a spoonful of sugar and much enjoyment.

Each book is only 4 chapters long, and if all you want out of it is a nice story, then this series will deliver it in a historical setting that is new to many readers. Because of the excellent research that was done, this series can be used for new students (children and adults) of Southwest history. However, those who want to look deeper will find that the themes of the stories work well with New Mexico history of the time. In 1821, the Santa Fe Trail opened up, bringing Americans to Santa Fe. They brought new goods, created a merchant class, and brought values that were more materialistic than either the Hispanic or Pueblo people had lived by. Josefina, like other members of the younger generation, would spend a lifetime learning about choices, change, and deciding what traditions to hang onto. The Hispanic culture did change, and the wealthy merchants adapted to an Americanized world while rural communities sought to continue to live by their cultural traditions. Either way, the world that Josefina and her sisters inherited would not hold for them the same roles, expectations, and choices that their grandmother had. It is a credit to the Hispanic people that they held onto so much because they did it against discrimination, and in the face of change. To this extent, Tia Dolores is the symbol of this coming change, and Mama is the traditions that they must choose to remember and honor. I reread this series occationally, and it still brings much to my life. Although the brevity of the books is deceptive, I would stick with the publishers recommended reading age of 8-12 (about second through sixth grades) because there is so much that can be learned and enjoyed in these books that a younger child may miss.

As a grown up, hispanic woman who grew up in New Mexico (whose grandmother's name was actually Josefina), I must say that these books are very factual and well written. Hispanic culture does not change much from generation to generation, and the depictions of the culturally rich traditions of a hispanic family from that area of the country are perfect. These books are a joy to read!

If you liked the OLD (70's vintage) copies of SOF, you'll love this book. Some interesting perspectives on various topics as well.

This book gives a new perspective on military tactics that can be used not only by mercs but also by regular soldiers. If we had implemented his ideas earlier, I feel America would have done a hell of a lot better in Somalia and other places. This is a killer book and I would encourage anyone interested not only in politics or the military or military history to read it, I would ask anybody who wants to read a good story to give this book a chance.

It would be a mistake simply to view this fine work as limited in application to Soldiers of Fortune. The writer offers valuable insights to the changed nature of the profession of arms that the mainstream, active duty military would do well to consider. This extends from intelligence gathering to the application of force. This book should be required reading for any Command and General Staff course. And if that does not happen, then the book should be read by the perceptive.

The author (no matter what his name or nom de plume) is clearly an educated and thoughtful man. His writing style is straightforward as are his observations. I agree that an update of this volume would be compelling reading.

John Gribbin as usual has written an insightful book that analyses new findings in physics in a big-picture sort of way, digesting them and making them comprehensible to the reader. Here he (along with Paul Davies) focus on the colourful world of quantum mechanics and its implications for the meaning of "matter," or lack thereof.

The basic idea in a nutshell is that the indeterminism of the quantum physics, combined with the inherent spreading of the schrodinger wave, means that the notion of fixed, set-piece, unchanging "matter" is misleading. It's an updating that sheds light on the nature of matter and casts doubt on the notion of a cast-iron, predetermined state of affairs and lifeless matter that seem to have been assumed since the 1600s. The book's main problem is its attempt to branch into cosmology, it does not mesh well with the rest of the book and the speculation in this area does not fit in with the taut, well-organized writing that characterises the rest of it. But the book is still worth reading-- simply make sure to read In Search of Schrodinger's Cat and Schrodinger's Kittens in addition, to see prime examples of Gribbin's writing.

Issues regarding nonlinear phenomena and systems, as well as quantum physics, string theory, and philosophy of science are examined.
Physicists Davies and Gribbin, two of sciences most prolific writers, discuss the reasons for the impending death of the materialist paradigm which took an almost absolute grip on the philosophy of science immediately after the publication of Newton's Principia. In fact they state that (whether or not it is widely recognized) the reductionists' "mechanistic" paradigm is now dead. "It is fitting that physics -- the science that gave rise to materialism -- should also signal the demise of materialism. ...the new physics has blown apart the central tenets of materialist doctrine in a sequence of stunning developments. ...in the abstract wonderland of the new physics it seems that only mathematics can help us to make sense of nature."
The problem is not that mechanistic Newtonian science is "wrong" but rather that it addresses only a limited representation of actual truth. The book also contains excellent descriptions of things like white dwarfs, neutron stars, and the difficulties in developing a quantum theory of gravity. Theories of wormholes, strings, and GUTs are well presented. The final chapter indulges in speculation about "exotic (non-carbon based, non-DNA based) biologies" -- which the authors concede should not be taken seriously -- and about the difficulties with ideas of "spontaneous generation" and "extra-terrestrial intelligence". The authors proceed to set aside their own cautions and speculate on these ideas, making the final chapter an exercise in science fiction. Otherwise a very good book.

If somebody is interested in modern physical theories about 'matter', he should read this book. It is written in a clear and very understandable vocabulary.
The main items in this book are the transformation of matter in waves and/or particles in the quantum theory, or its replacement by weird excitations and vibrations in the quantum field theory.

But he will also find good explanations of other phenomena, like the Kaluza-Klein space, the mathematical foundation of anti-matter, the not so empty empty space, the not so present present, the flowing or not flowing time, the disappearance of time, superstrings and chaos theory.
A further must read is the book of Brian Greene 'The elegant universe'.

Not to be missed.