Two characters that work really well in comicdom is without a doubt Batman and Superman. Supes provides the strength, but it is Batman who makes it up with the brains. Their relationship is not mutual, but complimentary of one another. This, however, is not true for Daredevil and Spider-Man. Both characters are set in the same city, NY. Both hold real jobs when out of costume. And both are like what anyone of us, who has a best friend can relate to. They're real and they work very very well together. From the little gestures to the all time witty repartee between the two. They are so different from Batman and Superman, that the only thing they have in common with the others is the fact that each one knows the other's secret.

So what went wrong here? Paul Jenkins weaves a very poorly constructed story that involves the two best team-ups in all comicdom. This is not expected at all from a master such as Jenkins. One, who actually writes, Spidey each month and has written such unforgettable works as the critically acclaimed Inhumans and Origins. Perhaps one of the reasons why he falls short is the fact that he uses the mystic and the magic to bring these characters together to share a common threat. That may work fine with someone like Dr. Strange, just not DD and Spidey. A more street-wise threat would have been a much better choice to go forth into.

The art doesn't help either. Though it maybe right for bringing out the theme,plot and direction of the story, it just doesn't suit the characters. Spidey and DD should be drawn as humanly as possible, but with a touch of acrobatics. Phil Winslade makes you believe that Spidey is a rubber band. While that may work for a guy with spider powers, it's incredulous when it comes a simple acrobat such as DD.

I had such high expectations with this title and never thought twice when I saw that it was under the Marvel Knights imprint. I guess I just expected too much. Hope that the next team-up between the two does them justice and holds true to the witticism to seeing two good friends hopping around in costume. The three stars only come because you can never feel all that bad when you see DD (1 star) and Spidey (1 star) doing their thing, no matter how bad the story and art (1 star) are.

Aristotle 'Soc' Socarides, part-time fisherman, part-time private detective, is hired by the owners of Oceanus marine park to investigate the death of their much disliked whale trainor. The park's owners hope to exonerate suspected killer whale, Rocky, so the sale of the park to Japanese businessmen can proceed smoothly.

Within hours of accepting the case, Soc finds himself dealing with a fanatic animal rights group, being suspected of the murder of a former Oceanus employee, and employed undercover at Oceanus.

An overall enjoyable book with the exception of the author's attempt to inject humor via the use of numerous inane comparisons. The comparisons weren't funny and detracted from the otherwise solid read.

I thought that some parts of this book were a little boring and stretched out. The main storyline was good. It described a normal teens' life as normal, untill the teen got into alcohol and drugs. It then described how the teens' life would never be the same after the fatal accident.

This book is a nice overview of some deep-sky objects, but has a number of flaws. Overall, I would say you should consider it as supplemental material only, not a primary reference. This is unfortunate, as a more thorough job of handling this topic would be extremely useful.

First, like most (if not all) books in this series, there is no index. This makes it difficult to try and cross-reference information on an object to other books or charts. I fail to understand why a book of this type would not have an index, as with modern word-processing software, they are easy to generate.

Second, at the beginning of each month, there is no table of objects giving catalog number, common name, constellation names and coordinates, as I would have expected. There is only a list of catalog numbers. The finder charts are skimpy, also.

Potential buyer's should be aware that almost half the book (first 108 pages out of 248)is introductory material on such topics as binoculars, telescopes, how to observe, etc. This material, while good (although all aperture sizes are metric, with no translation to inches), is not why I wanted the book. The sketches are nice, as it is always helpful to me to see eyepiece impressions, as opposed to photos.

Given the price, I would recommend one of the 2 volumes of the Night-Sky Observer's Guide as being a better use of the money, but as supplemental material, it may be useful.

This book was compulsory reading for my International Security Environment course. Whilst I found it useful for background reading I felt that it lacked something in accessability. The comparative approach is partly successful however I felt that the book would benefit from some kind of easy reference section through which the more technical information could be better assimilated. That said, it is a difficult task to form a comparative study based on the different styles of the authors.

Although the book is written like an advertisement complete with testimonials, the content is based on sound metaphyscial concepts. The book starts with easy to follow step-by-step instructions on how to reach a deep meditative state which is followed by techniques to reeducate your subconscious mind. There are techniques to improve every area of a persons typical life experience. Like, Love, Money, Health and even finding lost items. It's not Emitt Fox, but there are areas convered in this book that could improve almost anyone's life.

This is book is great. If you have at least a 2nd to 3rd grade level this book will defiantly be a great book for you. It includes chord for the right hand. The bass lines. Note, this is not a how to book. This is a song book.

This was one of the earliest attempts to save submarine technothrillers from the end of the cold war. In this one, a band of Central Asian fanatics somehow manage to hijack a high-tech US Sub (SSN Kentucky) that is virtually undetectable. The Russians have developed technology that may allow them to locate the sub, but they insist that the Americans provide an ASW expert who can guide them to it. With little direction, the uninspiring crew of the equipped Russian sub don't quite cooperate with their new American crewman. On the flipside, the American is a washed-up former sub skipper with a terrible secret, one that undermines his killer instinct. The Russian sub equipped with the souped-up sonar is a Victor II class sub, an ancient nuclear boat (their successors, the Victor III first put to sea about 20 years ago). The plan is to train the crew on using the wonder sonar, then transfer both it and crew to a more advanced sub. Assuming there's time.

This was an interesting book, and between going into the novelty of its premise and the regular snatches of modern submarine technology, it's an interesting book. What sinks this story is the idea that it could have been an even more interesting book. We never get more than bare bones of an idea that the Victor II and its crew are at the bottom of the Russians pecking order (there's an evil Russian admiral with a topnotch flagship - a Sierra class attack sub that gives way to no boat; his disdain for the American and his new crew is one of the forces that slowly but surely elevates the hero in the eyes of his new crew). Unfortunately, neither the crew or the broken down Victor II become more than cardboard figures - so it's no fun when they swap ends and decide to help the American. The techno aspect of the book is somewhat light (not as much as Pat Robinson) and won't intimidate or enlight landlubbers like me.

The writings of Ignatious Donnelly (1831-1901) are still relevant and his thinking still original. Lawyer, congressman from Minnesota, entrepreneur, music and art lover - he may have been the only Congressman at the time to use all his spare hours in Washington to explore the Library of Congress. He was a prodigious, voracious and consummate scholar. As a writer, he became an instant success with *Atlantis: The Antediluvian World*. This book was not, despite its title, some pseudo mystical bit of fluff. He had discovered physical evidence for the existence of the Golden Age (plants we now call tropical flourished within the present Arctic Circle for instance) as well as physical evidence for prehistoric cataclysm. He theorized that the earth's great deposits of sand, gravel and clay were not the result of glacial movements but were produced by the debris of a comet passing close to or striking the earth. The Golden Age as well as the Great Cataclysm (known in Scandinavia as Ragnarok) was remembered in myth and legend all over the world.

Donnelly uncovered evidence that the drift was sudden, the poles were not as they are now ("some terrible shock displaced them") and heat meeting cold caused a thick world-wide cloud cover (which caused the subsequent ice age). Modern science corroborates this - the mammoths and all flora and fauna perished suddenly. The sea boiled in great fjords, rocks melted, and clay and gravel rained down from the sky. A recent PBS documentary claimed it was either due to a comet or a volcano.

Donnelly theorized that it was a comet. He devotes a whole chapter to comets and their nature, particularly the Biela comet as it related to the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. At the same moment in three different states (Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois) it was recorded that peculiar and devastating fires broke out. Even though history books STILL stick like fly paper to the Mrs.-O'Leary's-cow-kicked-a-lantern-in-the-barn story, heat intense enough to melt tons of pig iron couldn't have been caused by a barn fire.

Among other interesting conjectures, Donnelly thought that the Americas were the true ancient world (which ties in nicely with recent anthropological findings in North America proving quite conclusively that paleoindians didn't all come over the Bering Strait from Mongolia and Asia). He dug up Indian legends about a great conflagration and there is a fascinating passage about the book of Job being a chronicle of the great catastrophe.

As Paul Allen says in his 1971 introduction to the book, "He took no 'leads' from other authors or authorities in his investigation of these themes; he was a pioneer in the fullest and best sense of the word." This book is out of print now, but I bought it from Amazon.com only three or four years ago. Originally published in 1883, it is still worth reading in the 21st Century. I vote for yet another reprint.

pamhan99@aol.com

This book is about a dramatic conspiracy theory which surrounds the Vatican and the Third Secret of Fatima. It brings forth a lot of evidences to support the following aspects to the theory: 1. The miracle of Fatima was authentic 2. The Third Secret prophecied apostasy in the Church 3. The Church is in apostasy now, resulting from a long-planned infiltration by freemasons and communists 4. The Church has distorted the true meaning of Fatima via a Party Line interpretation of its messages 5. The Church has covered-up the true Third Secret in the past and continues to do so in various ways and 6. The proof of all of this is clear by the state of our current world, 9/11 being clear evidence of the failure of the Vatican to heed the messages of Fatima. The implication by the title of the book is that we are in the last days and Satan is exerting an overwhelming influence in the modern-day Catholic Church, starting at the top.

I have reviewed the book in great detail. In short, it does a very good job of providing the evidences to support its theory. However, it leaves out numerous evidences and logical arguments which go against every aspect of its theory. And on a number of occasion it makes what I feel are very misleading statements about critical points. From this perspective, I feel that the book doesn't respect the truth, as it depicts a distorted reality. It is one-sided. From what I can tell, it appears to filter all information through pre-concieved conclusions so that everything is presented toward that end. And then it tells the reader that it has proven many things in support of the theory. I agree with some aspects of their theory, but many of the evidences are in my opinion fairly weak. And, when one includes very critical evidences which the book entirely ignores, many of the 'proofs' become much less certain.

I have analyzed just about every argument in the book, and done some independant research to help hone in on the TRUTH regarding those 'proven' points. I have written an essay which analyzes the 6 points above in light of the evidences in the book, and some of those not in the book. If anyone would like to have a free copy of this essay to read (it's outlined by each topic, and designed for easy reading), which I feel is a more objective analysis of this conspiracy theory, feel free to write to me via email. You can find my address by clicking on my name.