I have to admit I bought this book by mistake, thinking it the work of Arthur C. Clarke. You see, Clarke's name is big and bold above the title, while the actual author's name is rather hidden.

In any case, the story revolves around SPARTA, a.k.a. Linda, a.k.a. Ellen Troy, a genetically altered genius. Apparently, their are bad people who want to abuse poor SPARTA, so she must escape.

The problem is, about a third of the way through the book, it briefly becomes about Nikos the shipper and his efforts to keep his father's shipping business alive.

Then it's about Sondra Sylvester and her attempts to own an antique book.

After that, it's about an accident in space and the crew of the "Star Queen."

Finally, we get back to SPARTA. In short, this book meanders all over the solar system attempting to find a consistent plot. I realize this is only volume one of a six volume series, but try a little story cohesion. If the first novel struggles with a through line, how can you expect the series to hang together?

An excellent book and an easy read that combines a good mystery with a SF setting. I have read four of the six books in the series so far, and each has been excellent. The author combines great immagery and vocabulary and a great story line. With 6 books in the series, there is plenty to keep up the interest. Although it is a light read, this is a pure SF book. There are few ,if any, fantasy components.

If you're a guy. You will love SPARTA/LINDA. She is a dream (conceived by male writers... I would love to get a female's opinion of this book). This is very good reading of the Asimov/detective/SF variety. An easy read that combines a good detective mystery with a futuristic setting. There are 6 books in the series, so there is plenty to follow. Although it is a light read, this is a pure SF book. There are few ,if any, fantasy components.

The heroine is kind, practical, and pretty boring, really. Just about any other character that cares to walk onto the page outshines the hero. To tell the truth the romance between Lillis's jilted intended and Alexander's jilted intended was far more interesting. Too bad it only gets about 12 pages. I wonder why the author named the brothers Willem and Alex Baldwin. At least she didn't name the rest of the family Daniel and Stephen.

Lillis of Wellewyn was the most beautiful woman Alexsander Baldwin had ever seen. His younger twin brothers had kidnapped her and thought that he would be pleased by their resourcefulness because Lillis was the daughter of his most hated enemy, Jaward of Wellewyn.

Lillis had spent the last 10 years of her life in a convent and was anxious to get home, now she was being held prisoner by this hateful person who was undeniably handsome and already betrothed to a beautiful cousin. In order to save his people from ruin because of her father's demented anger Lillis was forced to wed this man, so that he could gain her 'bride's portion' which was the land and river that her father had dammed up.

What follows is an absolutely wonderful tale of wheeling and dealing medeival style. This was a very fast moving story, with many plots and subplots that were skillfully woven together and tied up so quite nicely.

I really enjoyed this story, my first by this author and I look forward to reading the rest she has to offer.

Lillis of Wellewyn was the most beautiful woman Alexander had ever seen. A bride out of legend. Yet never could he claim her as his own, for he had vowed to let her to when the last of his people were free from her father's tyranny.

Alexander Baldwin was known as an honorable knight, yet to Lillis he was nothing more than a bully who had married her for her dowered lands. A man who had not only made her his prisoner, but had slowly, and ruthlessly, stolen her heart.

I couldn't resist commenting on the "review" by "A reader." Well done! You've brought the publisher's press release and jacket blurbs vividly to life.

Mr Cartledge's edition is a well formed book abo ut 'ancient' Greece. The book has certain attractive features:

1) it is treating all historical aspects, rather than a narrow collection of them; so it starts talking about the greek landscap e and its importance, something not aknowledged by other a ccounts.

2) the chapters are written by well informed sch olars which in most cases draw information from the sources, or they reach well thought conclusions.

3) although the book could be useful basically f or the layman its standards are high and in most cases the truth (as given by an cient texts and archaeological evidence) is given.

However, I have found it inadequate in some poin ts; for example:

1) in the last chapter Mr Cartledge says that se arching for the 'missing' quark could hardly be considered the continuation of t he greek scientific program. This view is simplisti c: exactly this is what is going on; it is actually readily aknowledged by prese nt day particle physicists, and books on these subjects often start with theories of Anaximander, Empedoles et cetera

2) it is obvious that you can say 'a 'is differe nt from 'b' if you know well both 'a' and 'b'; yet Mr Cartledge informs us that ALTHOUGH LINEAR A is not understood SATISFACTORI LY it does not transcribe GREEK ( logical phallacy).

3) In science we can not prove the truth of a th eory; we use it as long as we can not find counterarguments, AND YET although al l evidence (including the huge discovery of the Ve rghina royal tobes) indicates that the MACEDONIANS were another greek group like the IONIANS the DORIANS the THESSALIANS, that AL EXANDER NEED NO INTERPRETER when speaking with atheneans or other greeks, that ALEXANDER TRANFERRED IN ASIA THE GREEK CULTURE and not the `macedonian'(! ), Mr Cartledge thinks that PERHAPS the macedonians were hellenes, OFFE RING NO SCIENTIFIC COUNTERARGUMENT (in fact for those who know, and Mr Cartledge knows, not, only the fact that the king of Macedonia WAS ADMITTED TO THE OLYMPIC games resolves every matter).

4) Finally the title of the book is misleading s ince Cycladitic civillization is also 'ancient' greece, Hellenistic times are al so 'ancient' greece, but the book does not refer to them!

OVERALL, the book is good, but to me created mix ed feelings since at many points I thought that Mr Catledge was trying to impose upon me, his narrow interpretation of the words, ancient greece, and greeks. Being a greek myself I WELCOME every scientifically based argument found in this book BUT I refuse t o follow personal 'beliefs'.

WITH THESE WARNINGS I would recommend this other wise nice, complete and attractive book to those who want to have a nonromantic but scientific view of ARCHAIC AND C LASSICAL GREECE.

**added: I see that 13 out of 17 people disliked the above review. Maybe because it was too critical. However, the purpose
of the review was to show that history must be science. Ignoring
evidence or making conclusions or theories on the light of poor
evidence is dangerous. Although the book is certainly informative, it is 'dangerous' for the new readers cause in
the places mentioned missinforms (although I would not go
far enough to say that this is done deliberately). A bit more
caution in the future, history is too important to be written
loosely.

I really like this book. The writing is very informative, but I also appreciated the illustrations. There are lots of them, and they are fully explained. It you take the time to examine each picture and its explanation, you will learn a lot. Sometimes the pictures don't exactly match the accompanying text, and this breaks your train of reading, but that's a minor flaw. This book is good for both beginners and Greek history buffs alike. If you are interested in classical Greek history, read this book.

Chef Paul flatly states that he wants to make my dinner better. He has, again. From devilishly (satanically) seasoned black beans to the "best damned grilled chicken I ever ate," Paul Prudhomme offers emotional recipes, "ladles of love," that you've made before, but that have never tasted like this. Each Chef Paul Favorite was quickly one of my favorites too. His "fast food" version of stuffed cabbage makes me smile in that it's as tasty as any of the versions in different cultures, but it's on the table in an hour.

Get this book for that above mentioned receipe. Worth 5 stars for that alone. Everything else is absolutely fantastic, but the chicken...WOW! I would pay twice the price for that receipe alone.

The recipies in this book use technique and ingredients to achieve a layering of flavors that is fantastic. I have transferred the methods to many other recipes with good results. Somtimes the spices Prudhomme calls for are hard to find in traditional supermarkets, but with the 'net and expanding availabiltiy this aspect is becomming easier to deal with. With some recipes you may want to cut the salt or heat to your preference. Buy this cookbook!

See, if I give this higher than two stars, it means I have to ignore the fact that the book seems to degenerate to a series of gruesome murders. I also have to ignore the fact that both the hero, Quint, and this reader, seemed to know who was the mastermind behind everything very early on--it was just a question of discovering all the complicated corruption, blackmail, and inhumanity behind the scenes. Another problem: I haven't even read the preceding book but I have the hero, as narrator, explaining that he uses exactly the same technique for getting vital info near the finale as occured in the first novel. Plus, some villainous motivation revealed at the end will likely have more impact if someone has read Quint's debut case. Oh well, teach me to read these things out of order.

There is a painful overdose of cutesy-joke lines where Quint creates a simile that ends with a reference to the 1990s (published in the late 90s, this book takes place in the year 2022). How many jokes do we need that go something like: "He was more nervous than a sleazy politico facing a scandal in an election back in the 90s, when they had elections."? Gotta be twenty quips like that.

On the postive side, the repressive future society is quite chilling, but the mystery content, which demands detailed locations, lots of suspects, and much police procedural, tends to mask an already bleak satirical side. The dystopia serves the mystery; Orwell's 1984 didn't have to get wrapped up with clues, red herrings, and whodunit logic. Johnston's effort does.

I will read one more Paul Johnston book...maybe his first Quintilian novel, an award-winner, to see if the story is stronger, and the suspense can be notched up.

Mr. Johnston's series takes place just a bit in the future, in Edinburgh. And the future he envisions here is not all that bright. But it is darn interesting. The protaganist is a free lance detective who works for a system that he doesn't believe in, and that doesn't like him. But they do need him. Quint is an outsider, even though his parents were behind the new government.

In this book, bodies are found with tapes stuck inside them. And since most music is outlawed.... well only an outlaw, or in this case outsider would recognize the music.This gives Quint an edge in investigating the crimes.

The story is well thought out, and the futuristic world portrayed in the books seems real. And the mystery writing is solid. Quint is a detective from the same school as Rebus, Amos Walker,and Harry Bosch. A bit of a smart [alec], cynical, self doubting. But also, very good at what he does.

This is a very entertaining read and well worth your time.

Jon

The Bone Yard is the second book in this series from Paul Johnston. The first was titled The Body Politic. The series is set in Edinburgh, Scotland. In the 2020's. The general run down is, the world has gone to hell, and the city has closed itself off. The allow tourism, which is the source of income. The city is ruled by a group of people known as The Council. There is also a police group known as The Guardsmen. Our hero, Quintilian Dalrymple, is a former guardsman who now operates as a detective for hire.

Quint is approached by a citizen who is being followed/stalked, and Quint doesn't think much of it. He promises to look into it just to make the guy happy. Of course mysteries being what they are, the guy turns up dead. And it's then that the story kicks in. The council brings him in to find the killer. He asks for and is given the assistance of a guardsman named Davie who is also a freind of Quint's. Together they investigate the murder, which turns into murders. Along the way there are illegal drugs, strange deaths, and people hiding the truth.

The book is a great read. Social commentary mixed in by way of Quint's outlook on the future city, and who runs it. The story is tight and the investigative work believable. Quint is a hardboiled detective typical of this fiction and fun because of it. The book wraps everything up in a wonderful ending that left me wanting more. Which I will soon have, as I have ordered everything available by this author.

Jon Jordan

The art in this book was really good. I didn't like the black and white drawings as much, which is why I don't think the artwork deserves a 5, but the paintings are excellent. The drawings didn't always look much like the characters from the show. For instance, the drawings of Anya hardly ever looked like her. The paintings, though - some of them looked almost looked like photographs, put through photoshop filters or something. Very nice. I found myself wishing that some of the BtVS comics could look that good.

Now, the story. It takes place during one of those bleak times in the series - after Buffy died for the second time, before the musical. Willow and Tara have some rough relationship moments because of Willow's overdependence on magic, and it's this problem that starts the monster troubles in this book. Buffy's still trying to get over the fact that she was torn out of heaven, Dawn is doing her best to become a deliquent, and Spike loves Buffy. Oh yeah, Xander and Anya are having relationship disagreements as well while they plan their wedding. Basically, this book doesn't tell you anything about the series or characters that you don't already know. This wouldn't necessarily be a bad this, if the story had been better. I didn't think the story was all that interesting, and it was only because the book was so short that I managed to get all the way through it at all. I would recommend this book for the art, but the story isn't worth it.

Buffy is having increasing difficulty adjusting to her return to the living in the sixth season. No matter how hard she tries, she has been unable to reconnect with her life and friends. During her absence, everyone seems to have developed a completely new set of problems. Giles cannot decide if he is leaving. Xander and Anya are engaged, but do not seem very happy about it. Tara is increasingly distressed about Willow's compulsive quest for increased power. Spike is in love with Buffy and not handling it very well. And Dawn, well, Dawn seems intent on becoming a juvenile delinquent. Nobody seems to have much time for Buffy, except maybe Spike, and he has too much time.

Now Dawn has taken up sneaking out at night with her friend Melinda and hanging out at the local rave. This is a tough scene, and the guy Dawn likes best, Skeeter, makes a hobby of drug dealing. This is bad news, since Skeeter is hung up on Velatti the DJ. Velatti has one major flaw, her other night job is drinking blood. The beautiful vampire convinces Skeeter to team up with Parnassus another bloodsucker, with a new drug to sell. This concoction gets its human users high and then turns them into a whole new flavor of vampire intoxicant. Dawn and Melinda, teenagers anxious to be cool are drawn right into the middle of this vampire's version of a meth lab.

While Buffy frets about Dawn, and tries to figure out how to get her life back, Willow discovers an ancient volume called 'The Book of Tears.' Unable to control herself, Dawn delves deeply into the book's spells and somehow unleashes a new horror on Sunnydale. Parnassus suddenly finds himself entranced by the Queen of Tears. In return for a promise of the ultimate high, he begins the process of opening a portal to the Queen's dimension. The main ingredient for this is the sacrifice of a virgin. Enter Dawn, once again.

With the entire Scooby gang dealing with one kind of addiction or another, Spike turns out to be the hero of this piece. He is the only one who realizes that there seems to be a disaster in the making. Unfortunately, no one wants to listen to him until it is nearly too late. By that time, Dawn has vanished and everyone is clueless.

On top of the show, we have Buffy comics, graphic novels, plain novels and now, illustrated novels. One has to admire the determination of the BTVS marketing folks for continually finding something new for Buffy's fans. Brian Horton and Paul Lee have combined forces to provide some excellent color and ink work. This makes up a bit for a novel that reads a bit too much like a comic book. Fassbender and Pascoe are good with snappy dialog, but they lack the skill of someone like Chris Golden when it comes to making an entire novel hang together. Still, it's good reading, but not to die for.

This book was put out in a different format. Mostly story line, but a few pictures. I absolutely loved it, and hope more will be coming. So much better than the comics, where there are just a million pictures of monsters, and almost no story. Glad to see Spike taking a more prominent role. Any story with Spike (or Angel) is worth a look, and this is one of the better ones.

Porter writes as if the North was never wrong, its commanders never fooled or mistaken, its armies never disspirited, and that the Union campaigns always succeeded. We all should know better. According to Porter, every time the Confederates didn't hold a field they were "repulsed handsomely." Every time the Union didn't hold the field, they were merely "compelled to retire." You will see these gross aberrations throughout this stale and shoddy work. His characterizations add nothing fresh about the famous personages surrounding him, and certainly his military perspective offers less in quality of insight than the diary of any Union private. There are many great books on the Civil War by the figures who fought it: this one can wait until you've exhausted everything else.

I read Grant's "Memoirs" on the recommendation of a cigar-chomping friend. It was a revelation. I began reading with ambivalence about Grant. By the time I was finished, he became a hero for me, for entirely unexpected reasons -- the clarity of his writing, for one; his modesty and straight-forward manner, for two others. I followed it with other volumes about Grant (including Bruce Catton's set) but it wasn't until another friend whom I discovered shared my feelings for Grant's genius recommended Horace Porter's "Campaigning with Grant" that I discovered an equally satisfying successor. Horace Porter's "Campaigning With Grant" is the next best thing to Grant's "Memoirs." Again, the clarity of writing, the descriptions of Grant's decision-making process, the anecdotes from the Wilderness Campaign on through the sieges of Richmond and Petersburg, and on to Appomatox come as a revelation -- at least, in part, when you realize this is one of those "source documents" all the great historians of the era have relied upon.

Apparently Porter assisted Grant in writing his "Memoirs" although there is not much (if any) dispute that Grant wrote them himself. While this may explain some of the similarity in style and substance, it probably says more about "like minds" than anything else. No matter. This is well worth the read and very rewarding.

If you had to read one book about U.S. Grant as a man this is it. Horace Porter knew Grant quite well and thought he book was written in 1896, it still retains a vibrancy and modernity to it. Porter wrote the book in an almost conversational style which is entertaining and interesting. Do you want to know how much Grant weighed or how tall he was? What kinds of foods he liked? How about a description of him necking with his wife in full view of Lincoln and his staff officers? Look no further than between the covers of this remarkable book. I guarantee you won't be able to put it down!

I can't believe I spent hard earned money on this mind-numbing drivel. The authors have little sense of continutity, endlessly engage in fringe-driven hyperbole, and generally have ignored the needs of the average, non-academic reader. I got more value out of the Pet Rock I bought back in the '70's.

This book has been a great help to me and my family.

I'm a grad student and I found that Bringing The Light Into A New Day very informative. This book should be read by everyone researching the Black family.

Important background! In late 1993, Martha Honey & Tony Avirgan recanted their previous claims that the CIA tried to [end] Pastora after determining that Sandinista intelligence was behind the assasination attempt. Doug Vaughan published an expose on this in the San Francisco Chronicle/Miami Herald on August 1st, 1993.

Considering that Brought To Light was published in 1988, and the book seems to imply that the lid would be blown off of these scandals, it's ironic to read it now and see that not only did nothing come of the expose, but no one even seems to remember (or care) about La Penca.

Brought To Light is designed as a flipbook, with each side having a complete story, and it's own cover. The stories can be read in any order, as they only really converge at the end.

I read Flashpoint: The La Penca Bombing first, and it's the best of the two. Joyce Brabner and Tom Yeates tell the story of a couple of American journalists trying to expose American involvement with the attempted assassination of a Guerilla leader in Central America. It's a gripping story, but with almost 15 years elapsing since it's original publication, I can't help but wonder what the REAL story is, and if anyone was ever brought to justice. Another reviewer here states that the whole story was later recanted....

Shadowplay: The Secret Team, is a whole other ball of wax. Both stories are based on a lawsuit filed against the Federal Government by The Christic Institute, in which they hoped to expose 30 years of illegal and unconstitutional U.S. covert activities. Where Flashpoint tells a straightforward docudrama tale, Shadowplay is like Oliver Stone on a bad acid trip. Alan Moore and Bill Sienkiewicz' hallucinatory tale is a conspiracy-nut's wet dream, but the art is almost as hard to follow as the twisting logic of the narrative, and the lettering is so hard to read, I was sorely tempted to just stop reading the book entirely, something I NEVER do....Usually I LOVE Alan Moore, but this story was just too much.

Overall, Brought To Light is an interesting read. If you already distrust "The Man", it won't tell you anything you didn't already suspect. And if you buy everything Uncle Sam tells you, you won't buy what the writers are selling.
It's an interesting look back at a time when it seems America was more naive and trusting in the Government, but that's about it.

Read Susie Morgan's book "In Search of The Assassin" in conjunction with this book. Susie was a survivor of La Penca and has doubts about the conclusions that this book comes to. Nobody wanted to talk about the bombing, and it is known that people lied to interviewers to cover up the facts.
Read with a pinch a salt.

Bound in _A Cat, a Man, and Two Women_ are three stories by one of Japan's most esteemed modern writers, Junichiro Tanizaki. For anyone who has followed Tanizaki's work, the stories are ostensibly by a younger Tanizaki; the stories capture hints of the perverse and psychological drama, which he has mastered in his later work. I must admit, having read many of his later novels first, I found the stories in the collection a bit slow. Nonetheless, as admier of Tanizaki's literature, I felt the collection gave me a better understanding of his progression and maturity as a writer. His attention to the psychology of the women characters vis-à-vis the male protagonist in the title story, "A Cat, a Man, and Two Women," reminded me of his novel _Quicksand_, written much later. The story "Professor Rado" is arguably a nascent version of _A Diary of a Mad Old Man_, which centralizes trans-generational desire and foot fetishes. Out of the three stories, "The Little Kingdom" was my favorite -- it gives the impression that Tanizaki is both an astute and creative social critic. The story reminded me of the novel _Nip the Buds, Shoot the Children_, by another notable Japanese author, Kenzaburo Oe, where children rule the adult world around them. The collection is worth a read.

Although extremely well written, the point of these stories escapes me. And this coming from someone who has a fair familiarity with and appreciation for Japanese literature. Despite the book's short length, it took me several weeks to get through it -- my interest and intellectual curiosity were never truly aroused. I was particularly dismayed by the stories' endings, which struck me as rather arbitrary and gratuitously abrupt. To be sure, it is nowhere written in stone that a story must always provide some sort of resolution. That doesn't mean, however, that it should end more or less in mid-sentence -- and with a 'ho-hum' from the reader.

tanizaki is my most favorite author ever since reading some of his works in college. therefore, i have read "a cat, a man, and two women" for leisure. i would have to say this is one of tanizaki's shortest works but not short of complexities of relationships of all sorts. the main part of this book deals with the complexity of not only the relationship between a man and his present wife (cousin) and an ex-wife but with a long time cat companion named Lilly. i don't know if i can call this a love triangle, more like a love rectangle. the cat, Lilly, is used and abused in this story. Lilly becomes the reasons and emotional links of all the problems between the man (Shozo) and his women, Shinako and Fukuko. A helpless animal is being "abused" by these characters, the cat can be used to represent Shozo's "actual" wife, the cat was "used" to make both wives jealous by Shozo without him directly trying, and the cat was snatched by ex-wife to lure Shozo back to her. focus is driven away from the human players in this story and is mainly on helpless Lilly. I felt Shozo never needed a wife in first place, all he needed was Lilly, Shozo is a real cat lover and tanizaki did well describing all the feelings dealing with loving a feline.