Crimson Empire had a lot of potential but Dark Horse failed to exploit it to the max. The idea of an Imperial Super-Hero that remains Imperial no matter what is very interesting, that this character was a member of the elite Imperial Guard is even more so, but beyond that, the story was hollow, the characters were not explored in depth and the art was not among the best for Star Wars Comics. Cover Art is Amazing (in this TPB you get a Cover Art Gallery for all 6 issues at the end of the book). Yes, the online issue #0 was adapted and included in this book, not at the very beginningm but a few pages into the story.

I am a huge fan of Star Wars, and have read almost everything written about it, but I am still capable of being disgusted by bad stories. Although the sequel leaves something to be desired, this comic blows all the others away. It is the tale of the last of the Emperor's Royal Guards, and why they were the most feared warriors in galaxy in their day. Kir Kanos is a great anti-hero, and the other characters manage to break the cliches set by other star wars works. No idealistic rebels here! The art is great, with wonderful martial arts action (why couldn't they get this team to draw Episode I?), and the frames are put together in a way to give the work an edgy, artistic feel. Definately get it!

Wow. This is truly an original piece of work. With the exception of "Tales of the Jedi" series(s), this is my favorite Star Wars graphic novel. The story itself is told so skillfully, engrossing you in a world filled with characters, that you forget that they were not in the Star Wars movies (with the exception of Wedge.) The art is the best of ANY SW comic, including the drab and dull Dark Empire. It is a shame that the sequel did live up to this piece of work.

Near the end of a two week trip to a far off land (for me at least), those uncomfortable things that at first seemed new and exciting start to become annoying and old.

It seems like Paul Theroux started feeling this way after his first two weeks... actually maybe even before. He manages to leave his personal stamp of disaproval on every Central and South American country in his wake... er... track.

The good thing is that his negative attitude is so obvious that you become desensitized to it, and it starts to feel like the grumpy narrative to a beautiful slideshow presentation by your Great Uncle Horrace.

Theroux's descriptions of people and places are so vivid, that his journey becomes less of a personal trip, and more of a documentary film of the beautiful landscape and interesting people that he meets. He is but a character in the film that you can choose to ignore.

Sidenote: Before I bought this book I had really wanted to go to the Patagonian area of Chile and Argentina. Since that was the only place that Theroux didn't seem to have a problem with, I instead went to Peru (he both hated it and got altitude sickness there, so I figured it must be a great place... and of course it was).

As a venezuelan I thank god that there is no train to my country and that Paul Theroux didn't stop in Venezuela because almost everywhere that he went , including part of the U.S.A, he had the ability, the gift to find only the negative things. So you should ask me, then why did I give this book 4 stars, because its fun to read. Paul Theroux, a young writer in the seventies, one day decides to leave his wife and kids in their home in London, go back to his parents house in Massachussets and from there take a train to the Patagonia: the farthest south that he could go. Sounds fun for an adventurous man, but all the time, all the places he keeps bitching about everything: The people on the trains, the people in the cities, how he misses his family, what is he doing there, about the food, about the hotels. Well you name it, but in the middle of all this bitching you can almost find yourself in the forest, in the middle of a civil war, in the top of the mountain, meeting Borges, every day completely different from the other.Paul Theroux can be real obnoxious, but he sure can write.

The Old Pantagonian Express is about 20 years old now but I still re-read it every couple of years. From the starting point in Massachussets, Theroux remarks on how his fellow commuters are merely commuting a short distance, whereas he is travelling to the tip of South America! There are many great moments and observations in this book. Travelling through Panama, Theroux finds himself with a repetitive fellow passenger who keeps pointing out the re-appearance of a pipeline that is coming in and out of view. Mundane stuff, but Theroux weaves it into the narrative in a way that only he can. Of course there are there are many interesting journeys through Mexico, Central and South America, but told in a unique way that was unlike any travel book I had ever read before. Theroux's many other travel books are entertaining and stimulating, but none so much as this book.

Like many of his more philosophical works, Jean-Paul Sartre dealt with almost taboo (at least in the 40s) social issues on the Age of Reason, usch as abortion, concubinary, the quest for personal freedom, and the government. The Age of Reason does drag somewhat, since it's a good 300 pages long, but it's worth reading, since some of the parts in this book are very well-written and keeps you in suspense throughout the length of the book.

The title of Jean-Paul Sartre's vividly realistic novel of Paris on the dawn of World War II refers to adults who have achieved sufficient maturity to accept responsibility for their actions. _The Age of Reason_ expertly weaves Sartre's philosophy of existentialism into a compelling story of people who desire freedom and responsibility but are extraordinarily incompetent.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines existentialism as "a philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe...and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's acts." Mathieu, the novel's lead character, is in his mid-thirties and proclaims that he would like nothing better than freedom but is curiously lacking in the necessary maturity. A penniless professor, he impregnates his girlfriend, Marcelle, then schemes to beg, borrow and steal to pay for her abortion. Mathieu even toys with the idea of marrying Marcelle. Mathieu is also in love with Ivich, a young woman whose self-inflicted wound Mathieu childishly emulates on a dare. Sartre's novel also contains a self-hating gay man, Daniel, who plans to save Marcelle, but only by further degrading himself and Mathieu in the process.

Sartre's writing style is true to life, naturalistic, and is never less than totally engaging. With the author we visit various Paris nightclubs and bars which have just the right touch of darkness and sleaziness. Sartre's characters are hopeless but recognizably human. Lola, a sad, aging nightclub singer, deeply in love with the completely useless Boris (Ivich's younger brother) evokes strong sympathy nonetheless. Even Mathieu, as despicable as his conduct often is, believes by the end that he has finally "...attained the age of reason."

The Age of Reason is one of those rare classics in literture that combine an interesting and readable account with a deep quest for understanding.Sartre has taken the disruptive world of Paris, on the brink of invasion by Germany in 1939, and used this backdrop to debate the meaning of freedom. Obviously the idea of freedom is subjective and Sartre certainly does not presume to have found the answer in absolute terms. He uses the protagonist, Mathieu, as well as the peripheral characters, to examine different view points; albeit, with mixed results. The Age of Reason can certainly be read as an independent novel, but if one is to truly understand Sartre's vision, it will be necessary to read the other works in the trilogy, The Reprieve and The Troubled Sleep. Both are excellent and follow up on the secondary characters that are first introduced in the Age of Reason. The three novels, known collectively as The Roads to Freedom, represent, to me, the most significant analysis of what freedom means to a given individual. It will force the reader to reexamine long cherished views and address their own concept of freedom. If you haven't been introduced to the writings of Sartre, The Age of Reason is an excellent starting point.

At least in the West we don't tell people how to think, unlike Catholicism and Communism. Besides what has religion ever done for anyone on this planet anyhow? NOTHING! Fear of going to hell is the only thing which compels people to "believe" in Him. Also what kind of omnipotent God would create Satan? Wouldn't a perfect God know that Lucifer would turn evil before he created him, and shouldn't God be able to destroy him then? It doesn't seem like God is very omnipotent. Why did God have to instruct Noah to build an ark to save everyone, couldn't God have just snapped his fingers and made it happen? And how could Noah fit two of every insect, bird, clam, sperm whale, grizzly bear, polar bear, arctic fox, penguin, and whatnot on this planet into his boat? And how did all these animals find their way to Noah's Ark? And where did all these different races of people come from? Did Noah take a black man, white man, yellow man, red man, or whatever on his boat too? Lastly, what kind of fool would believe the Bible is actually God's word? The bible was written by people, and it's been hacked-up, edited, re-printed, and re-translated countless number of times throughout the ages. Bibles are printed in dirty factories and then later sold for profit at KMart, they didn't come from God.

To quote a certain philospher: "There was a time when religion ruled the world, it was called The Dark Ages."

As a lapsed fundementalist, I read this book with some detatchment yet not without interest. I 100% agree with martin's analyis of Marxism/Leninism which is not dead but has for some time now been operating on a cultural front. Martin's take on the reforms of Vatican II, likewise was enlightening --I had only heard about them through the media. I find nothing controversial about this book. If the Christian faith is true, it is to be expected that duplicity and falsehood and worse come with the territory; was not Judas one of the twelve? If on the other hand there is no God then the Roman Catholic church (heirarchy) is the prize, for as Martin suggests it is the sole organization capable of uniting the world. Consider the example of Auguste Comte, one of the founders of sociology and professed atheist, he promoted 'science' and hated the christian religion yet at the same time, he venerated catholicism. (Dostoyevsky's Grand Inquisitor (the Brother's Karamazov)also comes to mind regarding the Roman Catholicism's unique position in the world. Reading this book has not only, increased my admiration for Pope John Paul II, but I also am thankful for the author.

Malachi Martin's work is a veritable "tour de force." With authority (he was one of the world's foremost Vatican Scholars), skill and erudtion he meticulously traces the geopolitical ambitions of Rome from beginning, i.e. Christ's alleged comments to Peter that upon him the church would be built, to end where the Vatican winds up in charge of the One World Government. Martin posits that anyone who was under the age of 70 at the time this book was written would be alive to see the day when the nation-state, as we know it, would cease to exist.

What will be most surprising to most readers is how intimately involved the Papacy is in world politics, all for the purpose of establishing the Catholic Church as the One World Government. (See Revelation 13, 17).

Whether or not Pope John Paul II turns out to be the eventual ruler of the One World Order is irrelevant. Dr. Martin's book goes into exhaustive detail how this Pope, more than any of his predecessors in this century, has worked feverishly to keep the Vatican on the world stage as a major player. Karol Woytila has had a clear-eyed view of what the church's role should be in world affairs dating back to the time when he was a priest during the Second World War working undercover for the US Government. He learned well at the feet of the master in this regard; Stephen Cardinal Wysinzski took the young cleric under his wing during the formative years of his priesthood, and the account of his tutelage of Woytila is spellbinding.

Readers will be fascinated to learn just how much the Vatican was behind the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, and just how closely the US and Vatican work on foreign policy issues.

This book could very well be subtitled "Prophecy Made Clear by Modern Events." John Paul II is the "Servant of the Grand Design;" papal hegemonist ambitions are in plain view. A blockbuster!!

....

The Pigman's Legacy is a book about two high school students who are trying to reconcile thier failed efforts to save the Pigman by trying to help another old man. They meet and man in the same old house the Pigman was in. John and Lorraine have some adventurous times with this old man. They grow just as close to him as they did the Pigman. This book is a very good book. I think Paul Zindel did a very good job of keeping the characters pretty much the same but making them seem more mature. The only thing he could have changed was the ending. I would recommend this book. Any person who has read the first Pigman book should read The Pigman's Legacy. It is the first sequel that I have read that I liked as well as the original.

The sequal of "The Pigman" at first looks totally uncalled for, and has the same basic plot. But at a second look you will see that this book, still staring John and Lorranie, has the same moving emotianal plot. This time, changing charactor build. The "Pigman" of the story is a grumpy old man running from the IRS hiding in the Pigman's house. This is a complete change from the friendly, welcoming, old portraid in the original Pigman. It has the same good humor and charactors. Zindel, again, works the reader into a huge mess of couping with problems. This book, I would give a PG-13 rating. It deals more with Sex and drinking the the original Pigman. It goes up and down, from happy points, when the old man is having fun for the first time in a casino, to sad points, when John spends all the money the old man won. Be prepared to cry at the end, with the same type of sad ending. A exelent book for lovers of the original Pigman. WARNING: NOT TO BE READ, UNLESS YOU HAVE READ THE ORIGINAL!!!!!

This sequel couldn't quite surpass "The Pigman",but it came close. At first I didn't want to read it because the reviews made it sound boring,but trust me,it's not! It's happier and less melancholy than the first book. The kids have matured,especially John. It's spiced up by Zindel's usual wacky storyline and wonderful writing. He understands teens much better than most adults. I won't give away too much,but this novel involves more romance. Weirdness binds a motley crue of people,including John and Lorraine,of course. I wish she would've featured more prominently. It seemed that John "wrote" more chapters. (And why do they like old people so much?) For those who appreciate humor and seriousness,sadness and joy,I highly reccomend this book.

Content Studio would be a good book if it went into more depth on the topics detailed inside. Dynamic Studio tries to do too much. You will find that the book will give you a general understanding of a topic but this will then need to be followed up with some more detailed research (which to me defeats the purpose of buying the book in the first place!).

I have also noticed that all the 'Friends of Ed' publications are rather repetitive of each other. If you buy the whole set of books you will see recurring examples, explanations and ideas frequently, especially in regards to the Action Scripting Topics. Again, as detailed in my review on 'Foundation Actionscripting' by Sham Bhangal in the same series, I would suspect they are selling more on appearance rather than content.

Do not even attempt to buy Dynamic Studio if you think it will help you design a fully functional dynamic Flash site. All the book will do will introduce technologies that you could use to build such a site and give brief examples on their use.

An excellent book! Well worth the investment! It transitions well from more basic concepts to more complex topics -- With lots of substance for people at all levels of experience. Even those with more expertise can learn a thing or two from the different conceptual approaches presented. The book is not just about "here's how to do the same old boring X, Y & Z, just in the updated version of Flash", it also says "here's some different ways of thinking about solutions that takes greater advantage of new features of Flash". I also really enjoyed the mini math and geometry lessons... it's good to know that years of high school algebra and geometry could be put to some use!

The interface design chapters were particularly outstanding; judging by how awful so many Flash sites are at integrating interactivity, PLEASE!! I BEG YOU!!! everybody read the chapters on designing interfaces! They are a "must read" for anyone who wants to improve their site's interactivity.

The game design chapters are also incredibly helpful as well, and I think are some of the first useful explanations of game design I've ever seen for Flash. Even if you're not designing games in Flash, using a familiar game like Asteroids as a vehicle for explaining some pretty clever design elements works very well. Not to mention, it's very cool to be able to make your own video games! Flash isn't just for dull corporate websites anymore!

I'll be incorporating the lessons learned from those chapters into all the stuff I do... even though I only get to do very boring stuff for a corporate site. And if I use what this book teaches, maybe someday I can get hired to make games and do cool interfaces!!! :)

I've bought numerous books on Flash and the Dynamic Scripting that can be intermingled with Flash.... Flash 5 ActionScript F/X and Design, Flash 4 Creative Web Animation, and different Wrox books on ASP, ASP databases, and ADO. This book ties ALL of them together. It explains motion scripting for beginners, and then it shows how to import variables from ASP, PHP, Perl, and Cold Fusion. These 1000+ pages contain EVERYTHING you want to know about Flash, it it with out a doubt, THE BEST FLASH BOOK EVER CREATED!!!! It even branches out Flash to other programs like Dreamweaver UltraDev and Generator, it explains how to display information from databases using Flash Turbine. If you read this book, you will be a master at Flash.

I rate the books I read by how well they draw me in and how easy they are to understand. If you want to learn about the lives of such big-boy billionaires as Bill Gates, Ross Perot, Warren Buffet and Sam Walton, then this is the book for you. I'm very picky with the books I read. I like the "How To" books that tell me how to accomplish my specific goal(s). Like the title to my review says, there are numerous biographies in this book about the most famous billionaires in the world. If you're interested in adding some zeros and commas to your bank account balance, I suggest you choose another book to invest in. The wealth-building strategies explained in here are pretty basic. The book was written well though.

This book is an extremely good starting point if you would like to reach the top ranks in net worth. It is not a simple collection of celebrity biographies of Wealthy 100. This is a complete spectrum of business strategies of billionaires -- H.L. Hunt, Ross Perot, Sam Walton, John D. Rockefeller, Bill Gates, Paul Getty, and Warren Buffet just to name a few. Mr. Fridson explores the histories the ultra-successful as actions of extraordinary businessmen operating in the ordinary economy.

Mr. Fridson is a Merrill Lynch Managing Director. An important caution for the individuals in the investment field: author points out and proves that to accumulate billions just by investments is not possible. He proves that to achieve billions in the investment field, one must acquire a substantial stake in a company and control the management and the direction of the company as a whole. This is precisely what Warren Buffet has accomplished, in despite of the common myth that he is just an investor.

If you have intention to try to get billions for the first step read this book. This is a must.

Imagine having the courage to write a book that is aimed at budding entrepreneurs who want to be billionaires. Millionaires, sure. But billionaires? How many of us would be willing to even discuss with our friends the thought of giving it a shot by taking a systematic approach to making billions? It is fascinating that someone would seriously spend that much time researching the strategies that were purportedly used by billionaires like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Ross Perot, etc. Even more amazing that they would write a book about it. That alone convinced me to buy the book. Okay, I also got it during the after-christmas sale at amazon.com for 70% off, but frugality is one of the key principles followed by the billionaires.

When you start reading the book, you realize that the author is very serious about teaching you how to be a billionaire if that is your goal. The book follows this format - the first chapter which is 28 pages long is definitely worth reading multiple times. It introduces the concept of 'Overcoming the Levelers' which in this day and age are the 'Menace of Competition' and the 'Obstacle of Social Conventions' and some ideas to overcome these. This chapter also talks about the obvious and not so obvious paths that have NOT been taken by billionaires, like 'playing the stock market' or 'salary'. The different key principles shared by the billionaires along with some of the strategies they followed are briefly described. Most importantly, this chapter provides some very deep insights into how these very successful people did it.

The rest of the book goes into the 9 different strategies that were employed by the billionaires in reaching their current position. This is a fascinating journey into the details of how they became so successful. There are also a couple of important chapters on choosing the right industry and some tidbits for the readers who are putting their own plans together. For those of us who spend a lot of time staying on top of the world financial news and trying to figure out how certain mergers end up in 'the whole is more than the sum of the parts' situation will find this book a treat. There are examples of these mergers where the author explains the theories behind high stock valuations. And it is all a very easy read. I have been unsuccessfully tyring to figure this out on and off for about 3 years and this book helped me understand this concept in just a few minutes.

As the authors rightly point out, a lot of people on the planet are very interested in making enormous sums of money - as witnessed by the popularity of state lotteries across the country and the world. Of course, most of us don't aspire to actually make this the central focus of our lives (lottery addicts excluded) for good reasons - lack of information on how to do it being the number 1 reason. There may be more certainty in taking the path to become a sports star, movie star or earn a doctorate than in making enormous sums of money. It just isn't clear how one can do it. That is obviously why there are so few billionaires in the world.

But this book is a fascinating read that can help you decide whether to really pursue this dream or set less lofty goals (like making enough money for a comfortable retirement) and stop trying to convince your spouse that you are going to become a billionaire some day, if only the economy would turn around or if only someone would give you a chance or if only ... This book has been helping me set clearer targets for myself by coming to terms with the fact that it is an almost impossible task to make that kind of money from nothing. Instead, it has helped me define a path and set a goal that is in tune with my own capabilities.

Get a copy of this book and read it cover to cover if spend more than 2 hours a week talking to friends about making a lot of money. I wish you the best of luck with this very important pursuit!

Java Pitfalls is an average book that junior level Java developer may find useful. The book is divided into several sections, with each section containing one or more ideas, tips, advice, pitfalls, "what not to do," etc. Java Pitfall is a fairly dry read and is not as solid as other books on the market that follow a similar style (think Practical Java by Peter Haggar and Effective C++ by Meyers).

Java Pitfalls covers the obvious and mundane (variable scope, how to compare strings, and try/catch/finally), GUI topics, and a handful of interesting areas such as thread synchronization, deadlocks, and string concatenation inside of loops. Junior developers should find some of the topics useful, but experienced developers will find much of the book lacking - perhaps worth a cursory glance at best. With that said, maybe the book should be marketed to novice developers because my overall criticism of the book is that it is not useful book for experienced Java developers. There is always a place for introductory Java books, but Java Pitfalls does nothing to excel and stand out from an otherwise already crowded retail bookshelf.

The most disappoint aspect of this title for me is the GUI coverage - there is too much! Of the 322 pages, over 119 pages (a third of the book) are dedicated to GUI topics. My personal opinion is that GUI topics should have been relegated to another title because the authors could not dedicate enough space to be really useful for AWT and Swing developers. At the same time the included material is worthless for the majority of Java developers that work with some derivative of the J2EE architecture (J2EE is not the focus of the title, but I think the criticism is fair).

I found a few topics in Java Pitfalls interesting and worth reading, but most of the topics are fairly lightweight for anyone that is moderately experienced with the Java language. I cannot help but think that novice developers will find useful tips and practices within the pages of Java Pitfalls, but there are much better Java books on the market, which serve the same purpose. Java Pitfalls is not a book that I will keep handy in my day-to-day use, and I doubt that it will ever show up in my rotation of references that I turn to when I am stumped and need to research an issue. There too many good books on the market for me to recommend a title as average as Java Pitfalls.

I can not say enough good things about Java Pitfalls. I actually recieved this book as a gift and was overwhemingly surprised with the amount of applicable knowledge that this book provided me almost immediately after I started reading it.

The premise of Java Pitfalls is primarily to help those who are familiar with the langauge and have had some experience producing applications in Java. As with all programming languages, there are always better, more efficient ways to do things. Some are obvious and usually cross many languages, and some are not so obvious and are very language-specific.

Java Pitfalls points out a lot of common mistakes made in Java development as well as providing optimization and means of producing much cleaner code that runs faster and uses less memory.

The examples are very thorough and the book is very concise in its reasoning for why certain ways of implementing Java are faster than others, complete with benchmark results comparing the common ways of implementing solutions to their more optimal solutions. The book doesn't just show you how to write code more efficiently, it also explains to you why some methods are better than others.

Again, I can't say enough about this book. It's like having a group of experienced Java engineers sittings beside you as your program. A great book all around.

I've reviewed quite a few Java books about improving the attributes of Java software. Some concentrate on improving the design, others the robustness of software or the performance. While they usually start out promising, by the end of the book you're left with a good understanding of theory but little practical skills. Java Pitfalls : Time-Saving Solutions and Workarounds to Improve Programs, breaks free of that mould, by providing a wealth of techniques and code that has real practical application. The title does not do it justice, however. Not only does the book show you how to improve programs, the advice contained within also saves you time, frustration, and effort.

After reading through even a few pages of tips within the book, you understand that the advice isn't dry theory, but practical advice gained from real-life problems that Java developers face. Michael Daconta, and his co-authors, offer warnings gained from the trenches of software development using Java.

The book is divided neatly into eight sections, covering different aspects of Java programming. A wide range of areas are covered, from the obligatory Java language syntax, to more fun topics like graphical user interfaces (using AWT and Swing), the utilities package and collections, input and output (I/O), and even improving Java performance. The one significant area lacking from the book, in my opinion, is a section on network programming pitfalls, and perhaps other advanced topics like databases. These areas are fraught with pitfalls for the unwary. However, for readers not involved with such areas, this is a moot point, and it leaves more room for other tips.

There are a total of 50 individual pieces of advice, and each is packed full of detailed code examples. Whether you're a Java newbie, or an experienced Java developer looking to improve your coding and reduce the frustration and time of software development, Java Pitfalls is an ideal addition to your book collection. With the usefulness of this advice, you'll probably find it taking a place on your desk though, rather than the bookshelf. -- David Reilly, reviewed for the Java Coffee Break

The Dargonesti are a race in obscurity, and while this book does little to shed some light on the main group of Dargonesti (it's more about a splinter group), it is an excellent book in itself! The characters are interesting, creative, and Vixa is an excellent person to center the book around: we see her faults, her strengths, when she is selfish and when she is caring. Gundabyr also plays a fascianting supporting role. A few rough spots exist - the half-hearted ending, for example, as well as some scientific errors (but I never noticed these - a friend pointed them out), and the misleading title detract this book from five stars but it is a very solid four.

The plot was good if you like storys with fantasy characters like elves, dwarfs, mages, and more. If you don't like storys with plots trying to save their country with characters of what I have listed, this may not be a book for you. The story is that a princess, Vixa and her friends are trying to save her country from intruders. On the way there, they got lost and find them selves on an uncharted island. There on the island they encounter many stranges things, meet a race of sea elves, and confronted a new foe. The book deals with some elements from D&D(Dungeon&Dragons) a game with fantasy characters on a mission or trying to reach a place that you can play with a group of friends.

I was deeply impressed with this work. I was literally riveted to each and every word. Not once in this book did I see the next bend in the road. Every time you think you have a good bead on what is gonna happen next, BAM!. You become dead wrong. This work was more than fascinating!

A fantastic work. This book deal with a lost race of elves called the "Dargonesti". This race lives at the bottom of a great sea. In this book you'll see..

(1) Qualenesti Elves
(2)Silvanesti Elves

(3)Dargonesti Elves
(4)A Kracken
(5)Humans
(6)Dwarves
(7)A gryphon

This is a absolutely fabulous read. If you are a veteran of this series, you'll love this book! If you are a newbie to the world of Krynn...you'll adore this book!

-Jon

Nikola Ruzicic (davor_ruzicic@bluewin.ch) This one really upset me! Mr. Vertigo doesn't have the strength of the other Paul Auster novels (Moon Palace or Leviathan). As it might be considered "good" by some standards it is nonetheless mediocre or even bad in comparison to the real Paul Auster. The story by itself might be considered "Austerian" but the development certainly isn't. It is too conventional for Auster and still to abstract for anything else. The characters are certainly well described in the first part but they tend to lose their strength in the second. As he covers the first 18 years of the life of Walt (the main character) in about 2/3 of the book he shrinks the rest of it to a mere short story that might as well be sold separately. He does this in other books but there the shortness aquires a significance as part of something bigger whereas in Mr. Vertigo it even makes the whole a lot weaker. I hope this was the first and last of Auster's adventures into mediocrity and given his previous books I think we can forgive him, though ... Rating 5 because it is much better than many other books but ... it isn't worth Paul Auster.

The storyline of this novel reminds me of a possible Walt the Wonder Boy inspired aero-acrobatic feat itself - it climbs very high, very slowly, nearly divebombs - yet pulls itself up at the last minute for a perfect landing.

Caricatured Walt Rawley begins this novel as a sort of Holden Caulfield Lite, broken down over time by Master Yehudi, his mentor and father-figure. The reader really sees the progression in his character over the first two sections of the book, his brief (reading-time-wise) dip into madness (third section), and his final enlightenment (very short forth section). (For those who get bit disappointed in the middle, I think the last page wholly makes up for it.)

This book (of course as do other Auster books I've read) gives an excellent view into the trappings of an individual - internal/external conflicts, emotions, etc. I really think, however, that the clincher is the relationship between Walt and the master - definitely greater than the sum of its parts. The reader sees the relationship one-sidely through the experiences of Walt, but the effects on his personality are so pronounced.

Recommended.

I think I heard someone once refer to MR. VERTIGO as Auster-lite. And on a first reading, sure, it does seem like he's pulled back and gone for a lighter touch with this one.

A second reading revealed that, no, this was Auster, full-strength. But I don't see this a a Paul Auster novel. No, this is a Paul Auster tale. Walt and Master Yehudi are wonderful characters who come to life in a way that reminds me of stories i used to hear as a kid from older people. At time and place far removed and some truly incredible goings on.

This certainly isn't Auster's best, I'd say Leviathon (today anyway) has that honor. However, if you are a fan of his work, you need to read this book. And I'd suggest a couple of readings, actually. if you are just now coming to Auster, well, i'd suggest Moon Palace or The Music of Chance as the place to start. I would say the trilogy, but i've talked to some who were a little put off by it originally. I don't get that, but so be it.