Was the real Attila a canine cartoon character? Did the Vandals really vandalize Rome? Why can't France and Germany ever seem to get along? The answers to these questions and more are contained in "The Dark Ages," an excellent volume from a youth history series by Isaac Asimov, best known for his works of science fiction. This book is clear, comprehensive, and still interesting to the contemporary reader of history, whether older child, teen, or adult. The reader will fill in the gaps in his/her knowledge, and gain deeper insight into the formation of European society as the Roman Empire faded and feudal Europe began to develop.

Though most were about time travel,I liked the FogHorn and Our lady of the saurapods.Though Strata,didn't have anything to do with dinosaurs.But still a great book!

Four years did I search for this book. Finally, a friend of mine surprised me with it one day after succesfully bidding for it on ebay. I was ecstatic. I have always wanted this book because I love Egyptian history and I love Asimov's writing. He did not disappoint. I remember reading at one point that Asimov wrote these history books with a younger audience in mind, "writing down" so to speak. Although admittedely the book was not full of his usual quarter-and-dime vocabulary words, I did not feel as though I was reading a child's book at all. His style remains supurb throughout. I highly recommend this book to any Asimov fan or anyone interested in an overview of Egyptian history.

This is quite a fun little book - a must for any serious collector of Asimov stories. A lot of the stories in here are pretty easy to find elsewhere - Let's Get Together, Lenny, Satisfaction Guaranteed, and Galley Slave are all amply anthologized in other books. But Victory Unintentional, Robot AL-76 Goes Astray, and First Law are relatively hard to find. Nearly all of the stories are high quality (they chose the best), and the book is small enough to squeeze anywhere. A personal favorite among Asimov anthologies.

I still remember how excited I was after finding this book back in the early seventies. Up to that time it was the only popular book on planetary geology. I remember that the section on Mars was especially interesting and extensive. Of course, thorough as always, Asimov also speculated on the nature of the environments of the other terrestrial planets and the moons of the gas giants. It was quite well illustrated with black and white illustrations.

This book fueled an interest in planetary geology in me that persists to the present day. I'm sorry that I let my old copy slip away somewhere along the line.

This very good book uses the premise that in other times and other places, many fantastic creatures lived. Isaac Asimov provides the introduction and also is the editor of this volume of wonderful stories.

There are eight stories, written by various writes such as Anne McCaffrey and Cordwainer Smith. The titles are also as intriguing as the writers - "Flight Over XP-637" and "The Anglers of Arz".

"The Smallest Dragonboy" by Ann McCaffrey details the rite of passage on the world of Pern. A young man cannot become a warrior until he is chosen by one of the telepathic dragons. The story details the struggles of Keevan to be chosen by a dragon hatchling and to become a warrior.

"The Botticelli Horror" by Lloyd Biggle,Jr reads like a 1950s sci fi movie. It involves a visitor from Venus that also lives in a sideshow. The Venusian visitor happens to paint in a manner similiar to Botticelli. This sounds rather nice to have an alien that could create those kinds of pictures but of course there's always a slight problem with aliens in sideshows.

"Kid Cardula" by Jack Ritchie is about a young man who wants to train as a boxer. Well, maybe he's not such a young man though he claims to be blue blooded - he is very strong and does suffer from photophobia. He requests all his matches to be scheduled at night due to his fear of sunlight. His favorite color is black, he has two long upper teeth and he gets spooked when another fighter makes the sign of the cross before a fight begins. Wonder what type of fantastic creature fits that description? I'm sure you can guess but the story is very entertaining.

"The Man From P.I.G." by Harry Harrison is also about visitors froma another planet. There appears to be nothing but pigs on the spaceship - except for the pig farmer. The pig farmer sets up in an area where "we're a little short of meat animals and the sight of all that fresh pork on the hoof..". But of course, these pigs aren't for eating purposes. And the pig farmer - he's not an ordinary pig farmer, either.

"Flight Over XP-637" by Craig Sayre is about alien scientists observing life on earth. An accident occurs to one of the scientists that has transformed to live on Earth. The story reconstructs the accident and gives you much more insight into the aliens.

"The Bees From Borneo" by Will H. Gray is about the best beekeeper and queen breeder in the United States. Through genetic engineering, Silas Donaghy's bees manage to surpass all other bees for production of honey. All goes well until a wild queen bee is introduced into the hives of Silas Donaghy's bees.

"The Anglers of Arz" by Roger Dee is about about scientists traveling to a strange land and investigating it. In that respect, it sounds similiar to "Flight Over XP-637" but the similarities end at that point. The scientists are from Earth and are exploring Arz, a strange world with an underwater city.

"The Game of Rat and Dragon" by Cordwainer Smith is about telepathic cats and humans working together to destroy a common enemy - to the humans, the enemy appears as a dragon. To the cats, the enemy appears as a rat. This partnership works for the benefit of both animals but causes some problems along the way.

All the stories are very well written and intriguing. I advise you to get this book and expand your mind as to what types of creatures may exist in the world. It is an enjoyable read.

I love the foundation series, I started reading it in 7th grade and never stopped

According to the entry from the "Encyclopedia Galactica" (116th Edition published in 1020 F.E. by the Encyclopedia Galactica Publishing Co., Terminus), Hari Seldon is the father of psychohistory, transforming the field from a set of vague axioms into a profound statistical science. However, it has always seemed to me that Isaac Asimov's creation simply did for the future what historian Arnold Toynbee did for the past. It was Toynbee who popularized, if not originated, the idea that history has cycles, an inevitable process of rise and fall that is evidence by every historical society from the ancient Summerians to the Soviet Union. Of course, Asimov does more than simply extend Toynbee's lessons about the past into the future, for while historians wait with great patience for the past to unfold itself, scientists have a pragmatism that aspires to much greater efficiency.

Consequently, Asimov begins "Foundation," the first book in what was once one of the pivotal trilogies in science fiction but has now become a crossover of epic proportions with all of the Foundation/Robot/Empire novels written by Asimov (and others), deals with the end of the Galactic Empire. For 12,000 years it had ruled supreme, but now Hari Seldon can see the writing on the wall. After the Empire falls will come a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that would last 30,000 years (I think the proportions are roughly the same for the periods of the Roman Empire and Europe's own dark age). Under the guise of preserving the accumulated knowledge of the Empire, Seldom receives permission to establish the Foundation, a sanctuary for the best minds in the Empire on the edge of the galaxy. However, his true purpose is to shorten the interregnum.

"Foundation" then continues in a series of separate but connected parts, each taking place long after Hari Seldon has died and each representing what becomes known as a "Seldon Crisis," a pivotal moment in which a choice needs to be made at a fork in the road: the right choice and humanity takes one of Seldon's predicted shortcuts. Four such episodes are presented in "Foundation," dealing with the Encyclopedeists, the Mayors, the Traders and the Merchant Princes. However, as you work your way through the original "Foundation" trilogy, continuing the story in "Foundation and Empire" and "Second Foundation," do not expect the pattern of predictability to be maintained. After all, that would be predictable, and while Asimov was interested in logic (evidence by his Robot stories), that has little to do with predictability.

Isaac Asimov remains one of the giants of what we can now refer to as "early" science fiction, and the "Foundation" trilogy, like his Robot stories, are required reading for anyone interested in the origins and growth of the field. Eventually Asimov got around to writing both a prequel ("Prelude to Foundation") and a couple of sequels ("Foundation's Edge" and "Forward the Foundation") to his original trilogy, and while you can read them in this "correct" chronological order, I would still argue for reading them in the order Asimov originally wrote them. This is not so much because what happens in the prequel is clearly informed by what happens in the "later" books, but because I think the trilogy loses something from a full-formed Hari Seldon. In "Foundation" he is a major figure, but a minor character. At least get through the original trilogy before you pay attention to he man behind the curtain.

Mr. Evans is a philosopher and Mr. Berent is an historian. Together they wrote this book a decade and a half ago to address hazards inherent in Christian "fundamentalism." More specifically to address the issue of biblical inerrancy. A fundamentalist is described as someone who maintains "that respect for the Bible requires the belief that it is inerrant, that is, free from error of every sort. Holding that belief, most but not all people who call themselves 'fundamentalists' often view the Bible as representing the very Word of God, dictated to writers who were Divinely preserved from error.... Doubts about the truth of any Biblical claim are seen as immoral if not Satanic" (p. xviii). The authors do not clearly distinguish between those who would consider the Bible as inerrant within the confines of each text's literary type and intended purpose and those who would hold all texts inerrant in a literalist dictation fashion. Either group, however, would find this book challenging their view of the Bible.

The major focus of this book is to show that the Bible is not infallible but affected by historical and cultural limitations in wisdom and knowledge. The authors maintain that "this book is written not to discourage either faith in God or reverence for the Bible." In fact the authors claim, "we are not 'secular humanists', nor are we 'fanatical liberals.' We believe in God and love the Bible. Our chief purpose in writing this book is to further the pursuit of truth..." (xviii). Later they maintain that "God has, indeed, provided mankind with an excellent source of inspiration and guidance in the form of the Bible" (p.30). Yet, what exactly they believe about God is never clarified nor what they consider excellent about the Bible. In fact their pursuit of truth is such that two noted atheists, Steve Allen and Isaac Asimov, can compliment the book with a forward and introduction respectively.

The book is divided into twelve chapters, an appendix, and some suggested readings. The chapters include: a presentation of the claims of some former fundamentalists (members of Fundamentalists Anonymous) that their religious instruction led to views that caused psychological trauma; a presentation of relevant teachings from evangelists Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell; five chapters pointing out "particular implausibilities or inconsistencies" in Scripture that arise when approached as inerrant; a chapter on conjectured historical influences on biblical authors; and finally a chapter (at four pages, tied for shortest with the first on what is a fundamentalist?) on "Unlocking the Wisdom of the Bible." The latter, by the way, gives no insights from Scripture but is simply a concluding call for "genuine questioning" of the Bible so as to recognize the misguided nature of viewing "the Bible as 'perfect' or 'inerrant'..."in order to make the wisest possible use" of it.

For the authors the Bible is very much a fallible book. It contains a pre-scientific cosmology and endorses some archaic moral positions that violate justice and decency. Even Jesus, while having some admirable traits, is portrayed in the Gospels "at times as narrow-minded, vindictive, discourteous, ethnocentric, and even hypocritical" (p.60). What, then, is the value of this book? Well, for those with an axe to grind against Judaism or Christianity it can supply lots of ammunition and leave them feeling intellectually and morally superior. For the "fundamentalist," for whom the book is intended, it might instigate a serious reappraisal of any smug or simplistic view of biblical inerrancy and interpretation. The authors' comparatively polite manner can have the effect of being hit by a mace under a crocheted wool cover. Sadly, I think the book's readership more likely to be of the former type rather than the latter. People tend to read according to their predilection. I would definitely not recommend it for those of fragile faith. But for those open to critical inquiry it is a very good critique of Scripture from a rationalist perspective.

The Greeks; A Great Adventure is a well rounded history documentation of ancient Greece that tells about the 7 wonders to Alexander the Great to the Roman Empire. It tells about scientists, philosophers, and mathematicians such as Plato, Hipparchus, Archimedes, Plutarch, ect... It gets to the point of wars and leaves out biased opinions. It's a great 307- page book by a great science fiction writer-Isaac Asimov. I wish it was still in print so I could give the one back to my school library that I have had for one year...