This is a new book in a series that gives you the tried and true. The style and pace continue into this new series and the characters are known. I would like to make the observation that maybe this is the last set, they have been getting a bit darker and slower as they go. The one thing that disappointed me is that there does not seem to be anything to new, sure we have different story line, but overall you know what is going to happen. This is an easy, comfortable book that does not surprise you, but delivers a good enough story. I am sure the die in the wool fans will love it.

Len Deighton is the master when it comes to Trilogy spy stories. One cannot help but pull for Bernard Sampson (and Werner) as he enters a new adventure in the almost long forgottton "Cold War". If you have enjoyed Deighton's other works, you will no doubt enjoy this book and the others to follow.

The three trilogies written by len deighton about Bernard Samson are second to none. They are gripping, from start to end.

Although nowhere near as good as the first 2 trilogies, faith hope and charity is still a fantastic set of books, and deserves nothing less than 5stars.

I only started reading spy game last week, and already I have finished all 9 books ... and will probably re-read them all again sometime soon.

They really are fantastic! no matter what type of book you are interested in (I prefer lawyer and detective stories) you will just love all 9 of these books!!

The world of MIDI orchestration is new to me, so I thought a book that was titled "The Guide to MIDI Orchestration" would give me a comprehensive approach to the subject. But, there was little of the absolute basics - like "hook your keyboard to x and you will get y," or "Your notation/sequencer program works by folding tab a into slot b," etc. There was a cursory discussion of orchestration, but many other books cover that more competently, plenty of text was dedicated to orchestral sample libraries (always a risk when discussing a field which relies on technology which becomes obsolete so frequently), and even a bizarre section that was devoted to interviews, but altogether of little help to a rank beginner like me. So, I can't really recommend this book to someone who knows nothing about how to get into MIDI orchestration. And, if you already know what you are doing then you won't want or need this book anyway.

I'm new to both orchestration and MIDI, and I did find this book helpful. Gilreath describes the practical limitations and strengths of acoustic instruments (i.e., range, timbre, articulation, etc.), and provides guidelines to help you mimic those characteristics in your MIDI compositions. I feel that the reviews of sample libraries were helpful, because many of the libraries mentioned (Miroslav and Siedlaczek in particular) are still widely used today. There wasn't a lot of "meat" with respect to the MIDI standard itself, but that wasn't the aim of the book. The focus was on MIDI orchestration, and in that, I feel the book succeeds reasonably well. If this book ever gets expanded and reprinted, a CD with lots of examples of the techniques and concepts Gilreath covers in the text would be extremely helpful. This is a book about music, after all.

As a folk musician who was overtly sceptical of anything that did not involve actual hands-on performance this book has transformed my views on midi orchestration after being persuaded to give it a go. The masterful explanation of techniques combined with the lucidity and clarity of the author's vision on arrangements and range of fascinating interviews make this the absolute must read for novice and master alike.

This supposed historical murder mystery will disappoint any intelligent reader unless she is deeply into the itinerary and military tactics of Alexander the Great, or what his soldiers wore. Their military clothes, that is. Author P.C. Doherty at one memorable point intrudes a scene of a "transvestite" Athenian footsoldier in makeup and drag swivel-hipping his way around Alexander's first Asia Minor army campsite, near Troy. It is unfortunately a typical example of Doherty's style: ludicrous and ahistorical, thinly written, and utterly unconnected with the plot. We do, eventually, get a fine recreation of Alexander's first great victory against the Persians, complete with what his soldiers wore into battle as well as Alexander's bold tactics, intricate strategies, fiery leadership, and personal bravery. And the Asian countryside is pleasantly depicted. But that's it. As a historical murder mystery, the book collapses, its plot totally unconvincing, its historicity in considerable doubt.

The problem is twofold. First, it appears that Doherty writes his novels at 3 a.m. during caffeine jags. Characterization moves from the muddled and inconsistent to the laughably stick-figure, particularly with Alexander's unruly bevy of battle-competent generals. The writing is hasty, off-putting, jerky. The plot makes little or no sense and moves forward in a similarly jerky, stick-figure fashion. The detective, a young doctor named Telamon, is (uncharacteristically for Doherty) somewhat complex as a person, but not very convincing as a sleuth. It is as though Doherty invented the deus ex machina to keep things moving along. The several villains are given internally inconsistent motivations and characterizations. Alexander himself is stereotypically (and ahistorically) pseudopsychoanalyzed by Doherty as the almost schizoid child of a stern dictatorial womanizing father and a feminist-mystic hysterical termagent of a mother; he is brilliant and commandingly mature at one moment, confused and peevishly childish at another. None of it seems well thought through, much less well plotted.

The second problem is Doherty's day job, as headmaster of an English preparatory school. Or, at least, so it seems. Sex between persons of the same gender, especially between adult and adolescent males, was an accepted commonplace of ancient Greek (as well as late Persian and Roman) society and it was an important part of Alexander's life and exploits. However, sex between students of the same gender, or between adult masters and their students, though constantly a temptation in single-gender boarding schools, is today utterly verboten. A headmaster who wrote in any way approvingly of such would soon be sacked. Doherty obediently follows fashion here, looking down his nose at any same-sex dealings. Moreover, modern readers ignorantly expect all same-sex relationships to be modeled upon and to approximate heterosexual ones; that the range of, and moral attitudes toward, sexual modes such as lesbianism, pedophilia, or transvestism would have been the same in the past as they are now; and that humans can only be either heterosexual or homosexual. Doherty panders blatantly to these oversimplified stupidities. While he admits that Alexander had sexual relations with several men, Doherty explains this away through amateur psychologizing. His adolescent males are either "bum boys," effeminate and mincing, or "normal," without any supposedly effeminate characteristics. Women are either "followers of Sappho" (that is, lesbian), or "straight." The reality of Mediterrenean sexual mapping two milennia ago was amazingly disparate from that of today--male/male permanent adult homosexual relationships were quite uncommon, sex by adult males with children (especially with boys) was normal and common, sexual promiscuity was a normal part of certain religious activities, transvestism was unknown, and males typically had sex with members of both genders during their whole lives, though less so as post-30 adults. (We know almost nothing about adult sexual relations between women.) Doherty seems to pride himself on his historical accuracy with regard to use of source materials, to the known events in Alexander's life, and to military matters, but he prostitutes himself on the altar of modern sexual prudishness when it comes to representing the sexual mores of Alexander's time. Along with his caffeinated writing, it ruins his historical murder mystery, for this reader at least.

First of all, I didn't realize this was a detective story.
It's about the mysterious murders that take place one after another in Alexander's camp, and a doctor called Telamon was summoned to join the camp to investigate the murder cases. Throughout the book, the king stays behind the scene, acting silly and some times as a nervous victim, until in the end the author reveals that he was the one who knew every thing.

The story moves very slow, with lots of unnecessary conversations (not dialogues), which the author seemed to have relied on to tell the whole story.
It starts with Prologue I, the scene in which Memnon and Darius go on with what seems to me a total waste-of-time conversation to talk about how to deal with this guy Alexander. But there is no significant progress, despite such a long conversation.
In Prologue II, Alexander's mother Olympias summons Telamon to her presence, and the two rambles on with a complete beat-around-the-bush conversation. The point and purpose of this meeting are not clear, it could have been done with a single intense narrative paragraph, instead of long, boring conversation.
And in the Prologue III, the author makes a huge mistake in giving a hint who the murderer is.
So the reader opens the first chapter with an idea of who the killer is.

Alexander wants to move on, but the sacrificial bulls indicate he should wait. Ptolemy, in this book an Alexander's rival, tries to manipulate the sacrificial bulls to control Alexander's decisions and plans, because he thought he was better than Alexander. More people get killed, as they hang around in the same place, and Telamon is baffled as ever. Nothing significant happens as far as the investigations go, for a long long long time, and it is a mystery how the pages filled up.
There is a battle scene, but some more unrealistic things happen at the battle field. I really can't tell the details, because it will ruin it for you.

In the very end, Telamon finally realizes who the killer is, and goes to Alexander, but the king already knew, he knew all along, and sends him to take care of the murderer.

The premise of the story is unclear, which makes the story sort of scattered, characterization is poor, historically unrealistic, and the characters are very unnatural. As a result, One wonders at the end "what was this all about?"

Though it is not all together terrible, it was an unfortunate disappointment for me. Not for mature readers.

Given Paul Doherty's prolific pen, this is the first of his many mysteries I have read. I must confess that I found this enjoyable but nothing makes it outstanding compared to contemporaries such as Davis, Saylor, Gregory et al.
The novel brings in a new sleuth - Telamon, boyhood friend of Alexander, physician extraordinaire - who uses his intellect to move through Alexander's encampment off the Hellespont to pinpoint a murderer who is killing both guides and physicians with some alacrity ensuring that a single winged celtic style dagger is left behind with each body together with quotes from the Iliad designed to unsettle Alexander's mind. In itself, this seems straightforward but Doherty moves beyond the plain murder mystery, taking us into the politics of the time as Alexander prepares to face both Arsites and Memnon, generals of Darius to weave a credible timeline and powerful motivation behind all of the actions. We are shifted from Alexander's camp to Darius palace to witness the thrust and counter of political intrigue as each seeks to confuse and misdirect the other.
In some respects, the place and method of this murder mystery echoes JMR's 'Nobody Loves A Centurion' with the culprit picking off people in a camp where politics is all important. Alexander's failure to gain good auspices, the spying and counterspying of multiple people all mingle to give both motive and opportunity to a range of people. Part of Telamon's problem is to discern precisely who is (or not) a spy and which side they are on.
Telamon is eventually enlists a red-haired Theban ex-slave, ex-handmaiden of Athena who becomes his assistant and, ultimately, provides the vital link to help Telamon discover who Naiphat, and therefore the culprit, is.
Doherty's grasp of the time is good, his characterization excellent (though Telamon seems overly dry occasionally) and his ability to confound the reader makes this an enjoyable read. The reason this only gets four stars is because all the protagonists have such good alibis that becomes inevitable that only one person can be the guilty party several chapters before the denouement. As such it ends up being more confirmation of strong reader's suspicions, rather than a real surprise.
However, this is enjoyable enough to ensure I read the next Alexander mystery from Doherty's pen.

Out of 112 pages, only five deal specifically with what to say in order to talk your way out of a ticket, and the rest of the book deals with general commen sense explanations of why officers are people too, all the instances where you CAN'T talk your way out of a ticket, and very brief explanations of some courtroom defenses. While the author has good intentions and provides some basic information, this book will NOT show you how to talk your way out of a traffic ticket unless you just have dumb luck. Check out the Internet for better "scripts" and ideas. ...

I don't know how to write a book review, but I do know that this book has been worth every penny to me and my husband. We have each avoided getting a ticket on two separate occasions. It has also really opened our eyes about the sensitive issue of drunk driving and how a policeman feels about it and what he will be looking for when he stops a car and smells booze on your breath. Whether you are a new driver or have been driving for 30 or more years, please read this book!

I just became aware that this book is available on Amazon.com and felt compelled to comment about it. I first bought this book about 5 years ago and some time after reading it, I was stopped for going 40 mph in a 25 mph speed area. I followed advice I remembered from the book regarding what to say and what not to say and was let go by the Highway Patrolman. On another occasion, I was not so lucky and received a ticket. (I guess I shouldn't have made a U-turn right in front of a police car). I followed the instructions in this book about "How to win in court" and the judge ruled in my favor. This book is full of advice, tips and inside police information not available from other sources and I highly recommend it. It has certainly made me far less fearful about being stopped by the police.

Teensy-weentsy photographs (of which there are few) and tiny drawings do not an identification tool make. Often, the verbal descriptions given for a butterfly do not match, nay, directly contradict the photograph or drawing included! The practice of providing a textual description on one page, a range map (if there even is one) on another, and yet a third page for the descriptive drawing make this a page-turning nightmare.

In short, take this book from your public library - don't waste your money on a very poorly done work.

As an amateur watcher just wanting to know which butterflies were in my garden, I was somewhat disappointed. I spent a great deal of time trying to compare the butterfly with the poorly represented plates. The few pictures scattered through the book were better, but I found errors in the identification given for the picture and the identification given in the plate and one was even not listed on the page they gave (or no where I have yet to find). The range listed were difficult for me to know if this species was in my backyard and not every species had a range map. These errors I found in one whole afternoon while trying to identify only THREE butterflies in my garden. Some of the book I like, like some of the intro information, but I guess other books have this info also. I was frustrated.

I got this from my son who needed a field guide to take to the park and forests. He loves it and so do I. Before we had borrowed our local libraries' 1950 edition of butterfly field guild. What an improvement! Unlike some people we just love it. The pictures are easy to use in the open where you can just notice a few things before whats being observed takes off flying. Opler is very good at listing the most obvious ID factors for each species. And it fits great in a back pack!

Having hit many a brick wall in my Walden research, I ran across Mr Heinegg's book. I had great hopes but all I found was great disappointment and disgust. I had heard his book was only published to further his "agenda" and now believe it to be true. Please note, however, that the harsh criticisms I offer should only be considered when reviewing his "work" on the Walden family as I have not reviewed his claims of other families. The Walden lineage he offers is incorrect, he cites non-existant census pages and claims people are listed on the census when they are not. I have found that Paul Heinegg reader's either treat his word as God's or they hate his work. Considering the misinformation he printed regarding my lineage, I despise his work. To cite federal documents that don't exist is preposterous! Researchers have a hard enough time tracing former slaves without being led on wild goose chases by some like him. I beg of anyone considering his book to research for yourself what he claims - you may be surprised at the inconsistencies and blatant falsehoods.

This would be a useful book, if the author were not so strident in his assertion, implicit in the title, that the native Americans in the middle states are in fact Negroes. My own research and that of others (notably Helen Rountree and Lea Dowd) has demonstrated the veracity of claims of Native American descent among the remnant groups.

Paul Heinegg's research is an indespensible tool for tracing genealogy for families from this period. As a person with fmaily from two of these surnames the same names appear in many records that I myself have located and the people were described in the same way.Much of the information is from legal documents and court cases and not the Census. People who wish to believe their mixed race (a racist would say they are only African American due to their diseased one drop)ancestors were only Indians, and most everybody in America claims they are an Indian these days (I suggest asking the Indians), should take some DNA samples and see what familial groups pop up instead of arguing with the documentation. Yes, nut cases like Walter Plecker went to great lengths to,on paper, eradicate the Indian ancestry of some people altogether, but the truth is that the Indian ancestry many families claim is often mixed with black or wholly non existant. The fact is that many of these people lied in order to "pass" with their dark looks and be free of the very prejudice some of their descendants obviously still harbor. Ironic. Sad too.

If you are expecting to learn anything new about German secret weapons then forget this book. Everything in it has been covered before countless times in other books dating back 40 years. Anyone with a moderate knowledge of the subject could have written this over a slow afternoon. Save your money and put it towards any of the other similar boos available at Amazon.com.

I was hoping for some interesting analysis and insight into the German weapons program, but alas, what I got instead was a fairly superficial chronology delivered in a just-the-facts-ma'am style. This book is pretty dry and unengaging as a result. There is so much more that could have been said about the legacy that German technology left to the world, particularly to the scientific and military communities. The potential of these WWII technologies often wasn't fully realized until years later. High-performance jet aircraft, the Soviet and American space programs and precision machining were all benefactors of the German research and development that took place during WWII. It would have been nice to get a deeper perspective on this aspect of the weapons effort, but this book doesn't deliver it. Too bad. If it weren't for the pictures, I'd have rated this book even lower.

Complete treatment of the many german secret weapons.Not so deep description, but I believe complete, including canons, rockets,air and earth based projects. Outstanding illustration.

2,000 years ago, a Roman-born slave named Corax escapes Rome after either: 1) his master kills himself; or 2) he kills his master (we're never told which one is absolutely true). Corax journeys to Palestine and becomes renowned as a healer and shifty miracle man. He encounters Jesus (known as "Jeshua"), steals his money, escapes from many evil, violent slave-chasers (who are after him for the crime of killing his master), and then journeys with Jeshua towards the area of the Far East, which is now known as the Himilayas. I disliked this book intensely. The writing style is as heavy and gray as boulders, and the author goes to GREAT lengths to describe bodily discharges, to make it sound "honest." About 90% of the story is LENGTHY descriptions of either the land traveled through, or deteriorating broken human bodies, with extensive references to all kinds of ancient "gods," and very little interesting interaction amongst the main characters. Park introduces about 20 vocabulary words of ancient reference, which he never defines, which is frustrating. The author seems to take pride in reversing every single myth about Jesus, just for the sake of doing just that, and gives zero insight into Jesus's character, or growth. I was extremely disappointed and annoyed.

An intriguing and fascinating novel of the spiritual development of two outsiders journeying to salvation beyond the reaches of the Roman Empire. Parks writes a fantastic story of the developing friendship and respect of two outcasts whose inimical paths crossed badly until their hostile relationships began to serve one another's interests.

Corax and Jeshua share their deepest emotions, without much talk, and spiritually advance from their physical and mental clashing as they both elude and endure captivity in their odyssey of faith.

Corax's spiritual quest provides a vehicle for expanding the Essene background of Jeshua, who followed his cousin John into the ascetic fold and who had to flee Judea prior to his public life, due to his being a misfit and an alien Galilean. How wonderful it is to know that Jeshua's humanity and his failing could lead him to such faith and strength. This is the message of Park's novel. That the strenth and toughness of the messenger was required for the strength of the message.

This novel projects the message of the more common gospels, by recounting the actual events (in the novel) which led to Jeshua's spiritual revivfication and revelation.

The Gospel of Corax is highly recommended by a Christian clergyman as a sensitive, insightful, work. Far from being iconoclastic or heretic the novel gives substance, experience and intelligence to the educational and spiritual growth of Jesus during the unrecorded years before his emergence as a spiritual, religious and political force in the Empire of the Caesars.

I almost threw this book away after about 50 pages, being a Christian and all, because it portrays Jesus, at first, as a hulking member of a gang of murderers and John the Baptist as a degenerate. That's a bit much. But I have an interest in the ancient lands where the story was to unfold, acoording to the flyleaf, and I know that some authors take a while to hit their stride. And indeed the writing gets better and better as one proceeds, as the author takes us through obscure lands of the east at the time of Christ, sprinkling his story with obscure characters from historical writings, for example those of Josephus. Dusty ancient beliefs and philososphies are brought to life through energetic characters we meet along the way. The ending seems a bit arbitrary, but at least there is a lot of action.

I bought this book for my trip to Kenya Uganda and Tanzania. I thought that I might want to travel to Ethiopia or down to Zambia and Zimbabwe....this guide is much too condensed to be helpful, and most travelers I met hated this guide and would borrow or end up buying the LP East Africa guide. You would be much better off buying a regional guide rather then this monster. Just the weight of the book alone isn't worth carrying around with you. I actually ended up ripping this book to shreads and keeping only about ten pages of it then buying the more in depth East Africa Guide.

Don't get me wrong, I love the lonely planet guides. Just not this one. I can whole heartedly recomment the East Africa guide and the Trekking East Africa guide.

This book, "Africa on a Shoestring, 9th Ed" has a broad coverage; although its chapters are not as detailed as many tourists would expect them to be.
Again, this book would have been of better psychic value, had its authors showed confidence in the sections they dealt with. Its 'information' became a wet blanket for me. Many readers who intend to visit African countries are likey to be discouraged by its relentless pessimistic approach. Its outlook is more critical than 'touristical'. The general impression is this: "something good may not come out of Africa". That is shameful! The term "bush-taxi", which was used over and over again, in lieu of a more cordial 'local-taxi' sounds offensive.
I think that if written (or revised) without assumptive bias, this book would be of better quality and value to its users.

Africa is large, and it's hard or impossible to concentrate so much information and advice into one book. Yet, Lonely Planet - as always - managed to do this with great muster. Unless you have time and money to buy the many LP guides to single regions and countries of Africa, this is the book you want before you even plan of visiting the black continent !