What was shocking about this book wasn't anything in the plot (it was all rather predictable), but rather that Leigh actually wrote a decent book (who knows, maybe he is a decent writer, but you can't tell by this series). Kind of makes me wonder why he couldn't produce anything better earlier in the series.

Stephen Crane has written an excellent work in The Red Badge of Courage. This book takes place in a period of two days, giving Crane plenty of room to expand on his themes and go into great detail. This book catches the reader's attention by presenting the Civil War in such great detail that the reader cannot help but picture the scenes in their own mind.

The Red Badge of Courage tells the story of a youthful boy, Henry Flemming, who goes to war. After many rumors of battle cause Henry to doubt his courage when faced with battle, Henry's group finally goes into battle. Henry does not run away during the fighting, and gains confidence. However, the second battle that he sees causes him to flee. The rest of the story tells of How Henry comes to terms with his fear, and eventually returns to the battle line.

The only complaint that any reader could have is that Crane uses almost too much detail. Because there is so much detail, the reader could loose track of the plot. The great detail is, however, what makes this such an outstanding book. Any reader that can get "into" a book will thoroughly enjoy The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane.

The Red Badge of Courage is interepted as many as being an anti-war novel: it is not.What it does do is present the horrors and psychological aspects of war war without glory, but not without heroics and courage.Henry Fleming is in many ways an every-soldier: he joins the army out of patriotism and to prove his manhood; when the time comes to fight he doubts himself and runs away out of fear. It is at this point Henry comes to the crossroads of his young life: instead of completely deserting his unit he returns to his regiment and the battlefield out of a sense of duty and also out of shame and anger at himself. Once he returns he peforms heroically on the battlefield. I feel Crane's purpose in this books is not to make some overblown anti-war treatise like All Quiet on the Western Front, but to portray what he believed( and may soldiers who read the book agreed with him) to be the emotions and feelings of a soldier in war and also the true motivation behind courage and heroism. Crane shows through Henry, that heroism and courage in war is not something that comes naturally to man(or any animal, as shown by the squirrel scene in the forest) or can simply be conjured up out of blind obedience or extreme partiotism. Crane in fact argues the opposite: courage in war(or in and courage in reponse to violence) is something unatural, something that must be accomplished by overcoming our own natural fear and flight instincts.Henry is able to perform herocially because of anger, his sense of duty, his feeling of brotherhood toward his regiment and out of something deep inside himself that even Crane ( and nobody) could not totally understand . This is a great book about heroism, courage , brotherhood, duty and the psychological aspects of war. It is not a books that glorifies war ,nor it is it an anti-war treatise. It simply tells a story about war in a world where war exists.

Peace is a rare circumstance among major nations in the last 150 years. When war pushes peace out, everyone quickly realizes why peace is so important and desirable. When peace returns, the next generation can quickly fail to grasp its significance. In extreme cases, this can lead to romanticism of war.

Books like The Red Badge of Courage and All Quiet on the Western Front are important ways to pass along the message of how undesirable war is.

The Red Badge of Courage offers another benefit. Stephen Crane takes us into the mindset of mid-19th century America. At that time, the spiritual and the tangible were closely entertwined in peoples' minds. You will find a lot of religious metaphors in this book, that a modern writer would be relatively unlikely to use.

Another benefit of reading The Red Badge of Courage is that it helps to understand the profound effect that the Civil War has had on the United States. The significance of these events remains fresh for many Americans, while others ignore the events totally.

Although it is certainly not an easy book to read, it can be a rewarding one. You will find that you can discuss this book with a high percentage of all the people you will ever meet who like to read. That's a pretty nice benefit from reading a fairly short book.

I also recommend that you also think about where in your own life you have developed misconceptions that could harm you.

Leapin' lizards! This is an adventure at every turn of the page. One drawback is the complicated, hard-to-believe time travel aspect. I've personally never done it, so it kinda wrecks the credibility for me. Jurassic Park is better for credibility, but lacks the intelligent dinosaurs, which are a cool idea to consider. Better then either in my opinion, is Thomas Hopp's Dinosaur Wars, where no time travel is involved, and the intelligent (and very credible) dinosaurs are based on the latest science. They are as much birds as reptiles, like velociraptors with feathers. If you like the science fictiony time travel thing, stick to Bradbury's Dinosaur World. If you want a believable story based on the very latest science get Hopp's Dinosaur Wars.

This book has an excellent idea behind it (what do you expect, it comes from a Ray Bradbury short story) and the world created is very interesting. But, it seems kind of juvenile. The language and culture of the Mutata seemed to have taken little thought. Peter and Eckles aren't developed at all, for that matter neither is Travis. The very idea of Mundo's world (and Mundo himself) is ludicrous. But I saw hope for the series (just 6 books). Towards the end of the story the writing picked up. I saw a lot of room for improvement, but it got better. So, I'll try the next book in the series and see how it goes. Perhaps all six are worth reading, maybe I won't finish the next. It all depends on where Stephen Leigh takes the story.

Make sure your expectations are set right for this valuable book. Like Monson's "Annotated Guide to the Birds of Arizona" -- this book focusses on the occurence and location of bird sightings in Sonora. Valuable for determining the frequency and location of birds in Sonora, but no details on actual sites. NOT a Lane guide to Sonora by any means. Nor does it have any photos, descriptions, etc. My interest is the 'south of the border' occurence of Arizona vagrants, casuals, etc.

Well, after the third book i can rate the book one higher. Maybe it was John Miller or maybe I'm just getting into the character, or maybe i've invested so much time i'm curious as to how the story will end. I think the reason I like this book better was the samurai world. Leigh never makes the mutata or the gairk understandable to the reader, at least with the samuria, we alreardy have an idea what they are like. I hope the last three books in the series Leigh spends time making the mutata understandable.

It was bad. Don't get it. If Stephen King wrote it it would be 10 times better.

A fascinating collection of studies on Stephen King, though, by now a little old. The first intention is perfect : to take Stephen King seriously and to study him as a social, cultural and literary phenomenon, particularly in his multimedia dimension.

The first idea is essential : Stephen King is the son of a tradition that goes far back in US history. He is in no way a new phenomenon. He has to be studied as the heir of this tradition. But he melts two approaches together : the horror tradition and the melodramatic (I would prefer social or sociological or even psycho-sociological) treatment of his characters and themes. That's absolutely true of all his novels. We are in the real world, even when it is a fantasy like in the Dark Tower series.

The second idea is just as important : the impact of Stephen King on the modern world is enormous. He sells millions, tens of millions of volumes. His films are blockbuster successes. He touches an enormous proportion of the public. I disagree though with the fact that his main audience would be, on one side, middle class women looking for romance, with a touch of horror, and, on the other hand, teenagers looking for strong emotions. As for teenagers it is a lot more complex. They are looking for direct commerce with death and suffering in a world where such things seem so remote from our everyday life. As for middleclass women, it is totally wrong. Stephen King has capitalized over the decades on his younger public to touch now practically all segments of adult society.

The third idea is that there is a parallel between Stephen King's approach of the cinema, his critical reading of films (Danse Macabre) and Freud's approach of dreams, his reading of drams. This is absolutely dangerous. No we cannot and must not psychoanalyze Stephen King from his books. This is childish. And no, the parallel does not exist : it is intellectual tinkering. We cannot deal with a book or a work of art the way Freud dealt with a dream. The writing of a book is at least subconscious and most of it is conscious. A dream is necessarily unconscious. A dream has a purely pictorial, situational and impulse-driven syntax, whereas a book or a film is a lot more than that : it is language and as such has one syntax. It is situations and images (projected and recreated at times in the imagination of the reader), and these have a twofold syntax : that of the author and that of the reader or viewer. A book can be read against the conscious intention of the author. Finally a book does not reflect the unconscisous impulses of the author, but the subconscious, conscious, and at times but rarely unconscious personal positioning of the author within the contradictions of himself, society and his relations with society.

Finally, the fourth idea is that Stephen King has a fully developed style and this is absolutely right, and that is why his books are selling so much.

Just as Shakespeare was not THE Shalespeare of his times, Dickens THE Dickens of his times, Stephen King is not THE Stephen King of his times. But just as Shakespeare is a universal genius, Dickens another and Whitman (who was nearly nothing in his days) a third TODAY, Stephen King will be such a universal genius in maybe less than fifty years, because he gives us a full picture of America, of its nightmares and its dreams, but also a universal picture of bad and evil at work in both society and man (or woman or children). And this is my conclusion. Stephen King can be disliked by some and loved by others, just like any author was in their days, and he will still be disliked by some and loved by others fifty years after his death, but he will then be an unavoidable author both about today's America and about the universal divided nature of man (woman or children).

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

This was the worst book in the series. Why you ask? Because it was boring. Dull. I just couldn't get into it. Everything about it was boring. In fact the only reason I'm even going to read the last two books in the series is because of the time I've invested this far. (and I never did see the Spanish conquistadors mentioned on the back cover)