I wish I had this book as soon as it was published. After programming on the S/38 and the AS/400 (in RPG) for over 14 years now (with some interruptions), I consider this one the best AS/400-related computing book I have purchased - ever! And compared to other computer books, well, if only that kind of quality would be available on other topics as well more frequently, either DBMS's or programming languages. The book saved one of my clients hours of work: with no previous SQL knowledge but having this book they were able to do some work with SQL that otherwise would have required them to write a program. Another client (and myself for my own system) took advantage of the chapters on Referential Integrity. If you're serious about accessing your data on your DB2/400 database, you owe it to yourself to buy this book !

It has become my daily Bible in my job as an AS/400 DBA. Even after reading the whole book last winter, I still seem to read a passage from it everytime I need inspiration on doing something new or different (or that I can't remember how it is done) with DB2/400.

I am looking to modernize our AS/400 database development with the latest modeling tools and functions without disrupting the traditional DDS-centric RPG development efforts of my programmer customers. I serve customers in dozens of countries with varying levels of SQL/400 knowledge, but being an ex-mainframe DBA, I appreciate the effort IBM has placed into DB2/400 (or "DB2 for AS/400") into giving it mainframe-DB2-like capabilities. I am hoping Paul Conte will come up with a new edition of this book for OS/400 V4.3 because I would love to see these issues addressed in the same manner that DB2/400 V3.6 is presented in this book. Maybe even a chapter devoted to interoperability issues between DDS and SQL/400 and why/how to make the migration would be splendid.

Having programmed the AS/400 since its inception, I thought I knew everything about the DB2/400 database. But Conte's insightful volume reveals new possibilities and capabilities.

Filled with a perfect mix of theory and hands-on examples, this book allows a reader of any level of experience to benefit from the author's many years of expertise. Conte is a stickler for professionalism and attention to detail, and "Database Design And Programming For DB2/400" not only typifies his love of excellence, but encourages the reader to raise his or her own personal expectations.

If you're a manager, buy every programmer a copy and make it mandatory reading. If you're a programmer who wants to be the best, you must have this book; my copy rests at arm's length on my desk. If you're an educator, this would make an ideal textbook.

Oh, what a great read. They certainly don't write them like this any more. I certainly enjoyed the climax at the end of act 1. There is absolutely nothing I can criticise about this gem of a book. Before I read this book I was a bit of a loner, but now I live life to the full. Thankyou Friedrich!

I have also studied this book and I was so amazed by the sexual tension and excitement created by the characters. I would recommend it to anyone!

I have studied this book with great interest as part of my further education studies in the German language. I was thrilled by the use of dramatic irony and symbolism to portray the many themes and morals throughout the play. This book was a ray of light in my otherwise dull life.

I read this book when it first came out around 15 or so years ago. The story really truly touched me and I regret the fact that I did not purchase the book at that time. (Read a library edition)
Since then, I moved to a completely different region of the world, and am anxious to get my new used copy sent to me so I can pour into a story that I've been longing to read again, since I've been trying to procure a copy of it for 10 years now!
If you are considering purchasing this book - don't hesitate. It is THAT good.

I also read this book in high school and it stays with me to this day, 12 years later, as the best book I have ever read. Paul's generosity and the relationships he developed were truly touching. What an amazing story.

I read this book when I was only fifteen years old and, still, ten years later and of all the books I've read since it is the only book that still stands out in my mind. I have searched high and low for it since but have not been able to locate a copy. It's a shame because it is hard to find such writing from the heart these days.

This book provides golfers at all levels of playing ability the opportunity to improve their game and also better understand "how and why" certain shots are made.

It is simply the "Bible" of golf.

Every golfer should own a copy and use it often.

This is the most far reaching analysis and treatment of the mechanics of the game that I have seen. It has value for the experienced golfer who understands enough to look for specific fixes for his/her own game, while having the same very basics that discuss the mysteries (nuances) of the game for those at the beginning of this utterly exasperating and pleasurable game.

I recommend this book highly. It gives you answers and fixes to any question or problem you might be having. I refer to it constantly.

I have been searching for this series for many years now. I had acquired it as a child, and lost my two books in a move. Ironicly, I ran across the two have half a country away. Eagerly I have read them both and have not been disapointed wiht the detail and intensity the charecters have been written. I have been driven to finish the trilogy, and am greatly disappointed to think that I will never know what happens to DiVega and Jodos. I recommend these 2 books to anyone who loves fantasy. If by chance you run across the thrid book please feel free to contact me. Excuse the errors I am not the best writer, that's why I read!

There is no trilogy. The Lost Prince and King Chondos' Ride were originally intended as one book. The ending isn't as open as most people seem to think. Go back and read it again, is there really any doubt to the outcome?

"I wrote the ending first," Paul once said, "after reading 'The Defence of Guenevre.' The book was written to lead to the ending."

Paul refers to the poem by William Morris. The Defence of Guenevre" The poem ends with Arthur's courtiers straining to hear an approaching sound:

"Her cheeks grew crimson, as the headlong speed

Of the roan charger drew all men to see

The knight who came was Launcelot in good need."

The deliberate understatement is stronger than any melodrama. Nor is anything more needed. Aside from the fact that Morris could count on his Victorian readers to know that Guenevre would be rescued, the arrival of a champion is enough to complete the poem. In her defence, Guenevre complains that she is unfairly damned because she was given a choice between two mighty lovers. Put on trial by one of those lovers, she is in despair. The coming of Launcelot, the second one, gives her hope.

With that in mind, can there truly be any doubt as to the outcome?

The World of the dark border is dominated by the eternal conflict raging between the Dark Lords and The mystic Hastur clan, guardians and protectors of the world. It serves as the underlying background for King Chondos'Ride. Istvan Divega, world reknowned general and swordsman finds himself in command of a relief force of mercenaries and borderman sent to raise the seige of Manjipe an ancient city near the Dark border. Unaware that he and his opponents are the unwitting pawns in a vast deception perpetrated by Prince Jodos, the lost prince. Who is posing as his brother Chondos, whom he has had kidnapped and spirited into the depths of the shadow. At the command of the Master one of the leaders of Dark things. Arrayed against Istvan are; Martos skilled swordsman a student of one Istvan's oldest friends, Lord Jagat ruler of Damenco and Prince Hansio lord of Mahapor who like Istvan a bears a mystic Hastur sword. As their armies meet in battle the Dark things watch and wait for the signal that will send ravening hordes spilling over the Dark Border into mortal lands. The Hasturs, unable to interfere due to two great battles being fought at opposite ends of the Dark border thousands of miles apart. Whilst Prince Jodos using magical powers gained in the shadow weaves a spell of nightmares and fear sewing the seeds of discord and mistrust within the royal court at his brother's capital. This book is a true epic involving characters that are driven by feelings of self doubt and an unwavering sense of duty, they reflect on the choices that they have made but do not sink into a mire of self pity. To them what has been done has been done learn from the lessons that have been taught. Paul Edwinn Zimmer has created a world that is breath takingly complete without having to resort the time honoured method of over description. He has assumed that the reader is intelligent and written accordingly. The Villians of the piece the dark things and their leaders are totally evil possesing no redeeming features yet,they are not shallow, they are totally alien in their needs and desires even the Vampires who were once human veiw the world in terms of their insatiable hunger for blood. Nothing of their former lives has any bearing on their perception of existence. This is a brilliant piece of heroic prose do not read it expecting a Dave Eddings/ Raymond E. Feist novel nothing here can be termed as convenient like a Wesis and Hickman book, here the heroes strive and die. For myself wishing to describe the book within to another reader who was curious about the nature of the writing within . I would describe thus: Its has the heroism of David Gemmell, the tough battle grittyness of Glen Cook's The Black Company, The World building aspects and narrative of P.C.Hodgell's Kencyrath series and the Epic qualities and Poetry of the works of Tolkien. So reader get this tome and enjoy and hope that his last book "The King who was of Old" gets printed.

The four volumes of the Raj Quartet overlap and complement one another, while at the same time forwarding the main storyline of the slow twilight of the British ascendancy in India, always with the rape of a white girl by Indian men as the central lodestone everpresent in the background, the nightmare which is seldom mentioned but which none can drive from their minds. Events occur, are discussed, witnessed as newspaper reports, court documents, interviews, vague recollections from years later, or perceived directly by the main characters. Then the next volume will take two or three steps back into previous events, and these same events will be perceived from another angle, perhaps only as a vague report heard far away across the Indian plain, or witnessed directly by another character, or discussed in detail long after their occurrence over drinks on a verandah. This may at times seem like rehashing, indeed as one reads the four volumes one will be subjected to the account of the rape in the Bibighar Gardens many times over; but what will also become apparent is that additional details, sometimes minor variations in interpretation and sometimes crucial facts, are being added slowly to the events discussed, as though the window to the past were being progressively wiped cleaner and cleaner with successive strokes of Scott's pen. In this way he draws the picture of the last days of the Raj not in a conventional linear fashion, but recursively, and from multiple angles. One gets the clear impression of life in India during the first half of the 20th century as similar in nature: Fragmented, multifaceted, largely dependent upon perspective and experience and never perceived whole or all at once.

Book 2 introduces what is going to be the main storyline of the tetralogy, although the rape in the Bibighar Gardens will remain in the back of everyone's mind, and sometimes at the front, throughout. First of all there is Mohammed Ali Kasim, a respected Indian Congressman arrested by the British as a matter of course when Congress finalizes its "Quit India" resolution; and his son Ahmed, the dissolute intellectual who spends his time in one of the remaining Princely States of India. Second, the Layton family is introduced, a typical example of the British military in India. Sarah Layton, the elder of the two daughters, is exquisitely rendered and will become one of the series' most familiar and constant characters. Ronald Merrick, the police officer who victimized Hari Kumar during the Bibighar Gardens affair, slouches back into the story as the best man at Susan Layton's wedding, only to be made into an unlikely hero and martyr at the end of the novel.

I thought that this was an excellent sequel to "The Jewel in the Crown", continuing Scott's dissection of the dying days of the British Raj. As World War II rolls on, tensions within Britain's Indian Empire increase.

The repercussions of the rape of Daphne Manners in the Bibighar Gardens continues to have their effect on various people, and not just on those who were involved directly in the aftermath of that incident. Scott begins to let his characters slowly unravel the truth behind the rape, but also examines the attitudes of both the British and the Indians towards the demise of the Raj and forthcoming Indian independence.

The British characters exhibit a deep ambiguity and unease (even guilt) towards their rôle in India - the current (and past) raison d'être of the Raj is unclear. Just why were they there and what legacy will they leave? More pertinently, what does the future hold for them, especially in Britain itself - if they return home, will they be fish-out-of-water, anachronisms?

The Indian characters see the Raj as moribund, but are uncertain about what to replace it with. Do they owe the British their loyalty and cooperation in the face of imminent invasion by the Japanese, or should they throw in their lot with the Japanese to get rid of the British? What kind of India will rise from the ashes of the Raj when religious and racial tensions seem so deeply entrenched?

Scott's view of this period seemed to me to be that the end of the Raj was a stumbling forward into history rather than a managed withdrawal from empire - a messy affair for both sides. A thoroughly interesting and stimulating read.

THE DAY OF THE SCORPION continues Paul Scott's very long story (total of 2000 pages) of the last days of British colonial rule in India. SCORPION is book 2 in the so-called Raj Quartet. These books are not about the external events per se as much as they are about the effects of these external events on the lives of several individuals, most prominently, Hari Kumar, Sarah Layton, and later in book 4 Guy Perron. In SCORPION, several new characters are introduced to the series, including members of the Layton and Kasim families.

In book 1, JEWEL IN THE CROWN, Hari Kumar was wrongfully jailed by the wicked Ronald Merrick for the rape of Daphne Manners Hari's secret love. When Daphne refused to press charges Hari was detained as a political prisoner. In JEWEL, the story of Hari's life was told from the court proceedings and other second hand accounts. JEWEL covers a period of about fifty years.

In SCORPION, Hari tells the story of his life up to 1942. A large section of this 500 page volume reads like a court proceeding since Hari shares his story with Captain Rowan, who has been ordered by the Governor to interview Kumar in prison.

Lady Manners, Daphne aunt, is a secret witness to the interview. It is Lady Manners who has persuaded the British authorities to revisit the reasons for Hari's imprisonment. During the proceedings, Hari is told Daphne is dead. "Twin rivulets gleamed on his prison cheeks, and then the image became blurred and she felt a corresponding wetness on her own..."

I think it would be extremely hard to follow this book without having first read JEWEL IN THE CROWN. A large part of SCORPION is used to elaborate and further the plot introduced in JEWEL. Dipping into SCORPION without having first read JEWEL would be like trying to watch a serial after missing a few critical episodes.

In addition, the introduction of the Laytons and the Kasims might also seem disjointed unless one knows SCORPION is not a "stand alone" novel. In spite of these limitations, SCORPION is a wonderful book, and thus I have given it 5 stars.

In SCORPION, Sarah Layton takes on the central role. Sarah is the only Layton to have had contact with Lady Manners and be concerned about the events in Mayapore. Sarah has two long exchanges with Ronald Merrick, Hari Kumar's nemesis. Sarah meets Captain Rowan Hari's liberator. Sarah is struggling with her own issues surrounding the lives of the English in India. Sarah is the one to watch. And Sarah is an Aries. Her sister Susan is the Scorpio.

If you know how creosote smells after a desert rain, this book is for you. If you don't know, this book will help you to understand the appeal of the desert.

A nice look into the Papago lifestyle of the '80s, some history, some desert lore, some naturalist bent.

A nice read, recommended.

I worked out in the Sonora for a few years and learned to love its wide open, quiet spaces, the sizzle of a cicada and the smell right before thunder breaks and rain falls in big warm drops.

Living in Seattle, when I long for open grey-white land, the shade of the palo verde, the shuffle of a zebra-tail, I go down to the basement and find this book. Pure magic! Culture, nature and philosophy, this book has it all.

Wonderful! One of the most eloquent and insightful books ever written on deserts, Native Americans, agriculture, etc., etc. A treat for both the mind and the heart...

It's hard to believe this isn't a work of fiction. This guy is filled with hate and rage and loathing as he watches the German-speaking people descend into madness. Incredible writing, powerful ideas. Get it.

The title is a calumny. As his translator, Paul Rubens, points out, Friedrich Reck-Malleczewen was a prophet - not in the vulgar sense of one who predicts future events, but a prophet after the fashion of Jeremiah, William Blake and Dostoyevsky: one who comments on the present from the perspective of the Most High. As such, even when his own death is imminent, Reck most certainly does not despair. Like the three individuals mentioned above, he is angered, disgusted, saddened and horrified by what he sees around him; his journal is filled with images of Calvary, the plague, and the Apocalypse; yet he continually strives to see his own and his country's ordeal as a time of suffering and repentance which must be endured to make way for a new and better world. None of which is to say that his thinking is "mystical" in the sense of being vague or escapist; indeed, the immense value of Reck's diary, both as literature and as a historical document, lies in its brilliant combination of sharp observation and lucid analysis. Although he makes the all-too-common error of lumping in the plotters of 20 July 1944 with the many opportunists who tried to dissociate themselves from the regime as defeat began to loom, Reck's analytical passages offer as clear and concrete a picture of the corruption underlying Hitler's Germany as any historian I have encountered. Telling details of life in the Third Reich - the omnipresent thuggery and tale-bearing, the forced barracks-gymnasium atmosphere, the all-pervasive lies and propaganda - spring out of every page through tartly written anecdotes and vignettes. The peculiar detestability of the Nazi functionaries - frustrated schoolteachers and jumped-up mailmen posing as masters of the world - is described and analysed with perception and admirable loathing. This elderly, conservative, royalist aristocrat - a member of a class who, because they did not support the Weimar Republic, are too often labelled supporters of the Nazis - displays a courage, intelligence, breadth of culture and (I cannot emphasise it enough) a faith which makes his journal as moving a human document as the more famous diary of Anne Frank.

It is true that Reck has a sense of class superiority to the Nazi's but that does not obscure his central point--he knew they were monsters--and he died for that. Counts for something you know. The invective is superb and more over Reck recognizes real resistance like the Scholl's (were they aristocrat?) and damns the generals assisanation plot as a an opportunistic move. Furthermore The Nazis crimes were pandemic--the annhilhation of the Jews, but also gypsies--and if one is making measurements which seems to me silly--the obliteration of 20,0000 soviet citizens. By the other reviewers logic if the destruction of the Jews is the question by which Germans will be judged, then Stalin becomes a heroe for saving the bulk of Soviet Jewry --sending them behind the Ural mountains--I don't think I want to go that route. It also explains why Israel refuses to make Dietrich Bonhoeffer a "rightious gentile" which is a scandal.
No The Nazis were monsters such total monsters that any costly resistance derserves honor. This is the best anti-Nazi book theis Jew has ever read.

I just came back from a livaboard dive trip to southern Thailand. The boat I was on had a copy of this book and almost every place I went was well described. I'm ording a copy for myself to better document my past dives, and plan my future ones. I really appreciated having the book with me. The only thing missing was a map of each dive site.

As a novice diver, I found this guide amazingly easy to read. Sites are rated on a 5 star system for both diving and snorkeling separately. Information on approach and typical conditions are given. Typical things that will be seen are also given. Icons for quick reference on each site such as approach by boat or shore, skill level, and other information make finding suitable dive sites a cinch.

For the diver or tourist who is contemplating a visit to Thailands reefs this book is an absolute gem. Ideal for divers and snorkellers of all standards, it is well presented and extremely informative. The number and quality of the sites reviewed is very good and it must be noted that the information concerning other divers needs ie. accomodation, equipment hire, dive companies, photography and medical arrangements is equally commendable. A reference book that I can guarantee will be well thumbed for a good few years.

This book is an excellent primer of the History of Pantheism, but, with an unfortunate, and a quite unnecessary, Atheistic bias by its' author, Paul Harrison. I am the only reviewer here, thus far, that is NOT a member of the authors' WPM or World Pantheist Movement, or its' members calling themselves, Scientific Pantheists, therefore, my review here is unbiased. The book is an excellent overview of Pantheism, in general, and I do recommend it highly. However, those that are actually looking for something even remotely " Spiritual " and/or even remotely " Purposeful ", in Life, and/or, in Cosmos, will only come away quite disappointed.

This book explains in a clear, informative style why pantheism is a workable, honest, and appropriate philosophy and way of life for our times. There is a World Pantheist Movement abroad, and Carl Sagan would, I'm sure, have been glad of it.

Dr. Paul Harrison intelligently discusses how Pantheism relates to other belief systems. He refers to numerous publications and thinkers through the ages. I would have liked to see more discussion of Pantheists and the belief/struggle relationships with technology and development. There was no mention of nature-based music/lyrics (i.e. John Denver) or outdoor experiences (i.e. camping, exploration). It is has numerous quotations but no pictures (of celestial events or nature photography) which in turn make it affordable. Highly recommended. I enjoyed it.