I think the first word that comes to mind when reading Austin's Underworld series is the poet's driving ambition. These are ambitious poems written in the grand manner of Hart Crane, David Jones and other heroic first and second generation modernists. I applaud this aspect of Austin's work. He attempts to give us a complete vision of the violence and depravity of the city--and sometimes its glimpses of beauty and human courage. Austin is at his best in this first volume, I believe. The Inferno Section pages 39--50 is a remarkable tour de force and should earn this poet his rightful place in the Norton Anthologies of the 21st century. The other volumes, to my mind, continue the theme, but much as an echo of the original thunderclap (although still worth a read for the sharp eye and language). All in all, William J. Austin is an exceptional talent, and a rare one, in these days when p.c. sentiments, simple-minded writing, fizzling fragments, and/or studied obscurantisms can earn one a position as "poet in residence" at XYZ U.

They say I got a thousand words to get out what I will about William James Austin, but I only need one: Reality. Gritty, grimy, gallant and golden, I love William James Austin. I came upon this man after seeing him at a reading when I was in New York on layover for a flight, and I decided to go out and buy Underworld 1 & 2. It didn't let me down. I don't read much poetry, but if I did, it'd be more Austin. It's the best Under___ since Dostoevsky. Does anyone know any other writers out there like him? I'd like to get it. I'll write again when I'm done with Underworld 3 & 4. Let's hope Austin kept it up.

First introduced to Austin's work through Underworld 3 & 4, I thought I'd give his first book a try. Wow! Underworld 1 & 2 is every bit as disturbing as its follow-up, if not more so. This is one hell of a trip through one man's nightmares. One of the two long poems in the book, "inferno," tracks a junkie's search for a fix through the city's underbelly. The margin notes loosely connect the action to Dante's own journey through the nine levels of hell. It seems that our protagonist is hunting for a piece of heaven not only for himself, but also for his girlfriend who is an amputee. Rough trade here, but brilliantly constructed. The imagery alone is unbelievably rich. This is New York poetry at its best. The back cover tells us that Austin was nominated for the Pushcart Prize by Richard Kostelanetz. Can work this distrubing win prizes? Well, Austin did win an Allen Ginsberg Prize. Watch out, Austin--with the recent flap over the Brooklyn Museum of Art's "Sensation" exhibit, the goon squad may be coming for you next.

To find a man like William Law in 17th century England is as unexpected as finding a violet blooming in the Arctic. It's almost beyond anyone's powers to fully describe the beauty, benevolence, and wisdom--and good solid sense--of his spiritual advice. Consider instead the character of those who have praised him: there's Samuel Johnson, who took up Law in a frivolous mood in his youth and found himself nearly bowled over; or closer to our own age, C. S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley. The most memorable parts of the _Serious_Call_ are those where Law (following the model of Theophrastus's _Characters_) describes several spiritual types and how their natures relate to the pursuit of the devout life. The _Spirit_of_Love_ is a later work, written after Law had been influenced by the German mystic Behmen; if you're not acquainted with Christian mysticism, it might be hard to follow. But do not miss Law's account of the Atonement, particularly if you're one who has always felt scandalized by the "blood sacrifice" theology emphasized in traditional Protestantism.

This is the most challenging book I have ever read on following the teachings of Christ practically in every day living. The conviction was so fierce that it was hard to get through the first chapter. His words bear so much truth it motivates you to want to be more like Christ himself.

These poems are very evocative, uncompromising and yet beautiful. I'm not much of a poetry reader but these got under my skin. I plan to buy another copy of this book for a friend.

If you want to see and read about Austin's history, this is the book for you. The book covers Austin's story from its inception in the late 1830s to the mid-1980s. Overall, I learned how Austin evolved into the city it now is.

Having just read Steven Saylor's "A Twist at the End" and visited the O. Henry Museum, I was most interested in Austin's history during the last two decades of the 19th century. Readers wanting to know more about other parts of the city's history will find that the text and graphical content puts each stage of Austin's development into a useful perspective.

I learned...and thoroughly enjoyed the process.

This is a tremendous book by two people (one a musician and the other a clergyman) who have experienced church music and worship in local churches and who have themselves contributed robust dignity and depth and passed it on. Ministers, organists, ministers of music and choir members who read this book will find themselves resonating with the authors profound understanding of the place of music in the worship service. I will go one step more--every Seminary should have this book on the "Required Reading List" and see to it that no one graduates until they have read, marked and digested its contents. I cannot recommend this book too highly!!

It's too bad that over the course of X-Men history, Jean Grey has died and been resurrected so many times that she's become something of a comic-industry in-joke. It's to the detriment of one's perception of the depth of the original story. She remains possibly the most complex of X-Men characters, and her dark history is chronicled in this well-written collection that tells what is considered the best storyline in X-Men's history.

My one gripe is with the artwork. Yes, it's dated, but there's a much more important issue here -- why is it that they used only one page to illustrated the climactic sacrifice? In this one scene is incorporated the fate of the whole team of X-Men (whether they will be killed by the Imperial Guard), the ultimate fate of the love between Phoenix and Cyclops, Phoenix' final decision (her humanity, or her power?), and the fate of the universe. Even the defeat of Colossus at the hands of Gladiator received more panels. The scant amount of space devoted to this devastating ending is a matter of storytelling, and the age of the comic doesn't excuse it from a fault on this level.

Other than that, it's one of the most effective orchestrations of the huge cast in the X-Men series. Most of the time, storylines in comic books like this revolve around the appearance of some anticipated character or another. Here it's driven by emotion and story development, and the Dark Phoenix/Phoenix character remains fascinating, driven less by malevolence than hunger and arrogance. One occasion where a lowbrow cultural form like the comic book has produced something worthy of deeper consideration beyond that of simple entertainment.

In the Dark Phoenix Saga, Chris Claremont and John Byre, firing on all cylinders, create the greatest comics story ever. It is a story that fits logically in the greatest run by an artist/writer team in a comic series ever (chronicled in the Essential X-Men Vol.2 graphic novel), but one that also stands so well on its own.

In a story where so many things are done right, it stands out because it is a primarily a story about conflict. There is conflict on virtually every page. Not just shot-em up, video game violence, but internal, character-driven conflict.

There is conflict between Prof. X and Cyclops over leadership of the X-men; between the fiery Wolverine and the control-freak Prof. X; Jean Grey struggles to control her dark side; Cyclops tries to mold the fiercly independent members of the X-men into a tight-knit team; Jean & Scott try to maintain their relationship thru the mounting chaos....

The X-men, the ultimate ousiders, rely on each other time and again and yet, their most powerful member turns on them and then saves them - repeatedly.

The X-men have a truly worthy opponent in the Hellfire Culb.

Obstacle after obstacle is overcome before the truly life and death battle at the climax. The escalation of tension is evere bit as gripping as when I read the original comics as a kid. Its lost none of the magic or mystery. There is none of the letdown so often felt when we re-visit the source of our nostalgia.

There have been a half dozen stories that were much more revolutionary than the Dark Phoenix Saga - from the death of Gwen Stacey in Spider-Man, to The Dark Knight, the Watchmen and Crisis on Infinite Earths over at DC. Yet, for my money, Dark Phoenix is better - not for its novelty or originality or life-like art, but because its that good.

It is up to each X fan to decide if subsequent events have diluted the power of the Dark Phoenix saga, but it is still the one story that everyone who really wants to know the X-Men must be familiar with.

Seemingly by a miracle, Jean Grey's life was recently saved by psychic melding with an elemental force called the Phoenix. Unfortunately, a price soon becomes apparent. At first in small ways, it starts to become obvious that the Phoenix has started to change Jean, wheather for good or ill not immediately apparent. As the obscene Hellfire Club - which makes Magneto look like a boy scout - tries to find a way to make use of Jean, it slowly becomes evident that the power of the Phoenix is becoming beyond her control. This time, not even her teammates - not even Scott - may be able to save her.

This story is still powerful, and younger readers should be aware that, at the time, it sent shockwaves through the comic reading world because nothing like the tragic resolution had ever been done before. It was grim indeed.

There is, however, a light at the end of the tunnel. As the remaining X-Men grieve, a young girl hesitantly arrives at Xavier's to begin schooling - a girl who had a peripheral involvement in the Phoenix events. She's Kitty Pryde, who will eventually become the love of Colossus' life, like a foster daughter to Storm and like a little sister to Nightcrawler.

Newer fans will be surprised in particular by the beginning of Kurt and Kitty's friendship. "I don't think the little Fraulein likes me", Kurt notes to himself during the calm before the storm. The matter is dropped in the whirlwind of events, but it will come back to haunt them both. The truth is that Kitty, in spite of her best efforts to hide it, WAS a bit frightened by Kurt for quite some time. It would take alot of mental conditioning on her part and patience and sensitivity on his before she became his fiercely adoring Katzchen.

Anyone who has read much of Lovecraft and his "family" of writers (August Derleth, Lin CArter, Henry Kuttner, Robert Bloch, etc.) is very familiar with the formulaic plot of "inherit/discover something, cross-reference with Abbie Hazred's 'Who's Who of Bad-Moods-With-Tentacles', and end by going mad and die gibbering in an asylum or becoming 'liquiescent horror,'" to the point that it becomes very difficult to surprise the reader any more with the denoument. Mr Spencer, though, has taken the familiar concepts and beasties of the vaunted Cthulhu mythos and woven them into an engaging, truly enjoyable tale. And he does an excellant job of utilizing the old mainstays, such as Yog-Sothoth and ghouls among others, in a way that re-introduces them, rather than re-hashes them. He also does quite well in showing interaction between society at large and one who has come to accept the "truth" of the Old Ones. And while the reading is light, even campy at times (especially the epilogue), it is one of the most intriguing mythos tales I have read. It is this type of writing that is going to keep the mythos fresh and alive.

Darrell Schweitzer's blurb for this book reads, "If Woody Allen had ever written a Cthulhu Mythos novel, it might have come out like this." Pithy, short, moderately funny, interesting, and entirely wrong. Yes, there are Cthulhu references here, and yes, Spencer can write with humor, but this is not "Everything You Always Wanted to Know about the Necrinomicon (But Were Afraid to Ask)." If we must resort to comparing Spencer to other writers, Resume with Monsters owes the most to Philip K. Dick rather than H.P. Lovecraft.

The main character is Philip (what a giveaway, eh?) who works at Ralph's One-Day Resumes in Austin, Texas. He moved there to find his girlfriend Amelia, who ran away from the high-tech company Micromeg that they had both worked at previously because of an accident which Philip crazily attributes to the workings of the Great Old Ones. Amelia attributes insanity to Philip, likely brought on by his obsession with the characters of H.P. Lovecraft, and manifested in the magnum opus of a novel that Philip is constantly revising entitled The Despicable Quest. Philip claims that the novel is the only thing keeping Yog-Sothoth at bay.

Is Resume with Monsters funny? Yes, but it is in its incongruities, the warped reality of what Philip sees and how others react. The strength of the novel is wrapped up in the ambiguity of Philip--we recognize him as an unreliable narrator, but, as in Philip K. Dick's novel, the question is not whether to trust the narrator, but how much one can trust the world. Spencer handles this well, and there are quite a few plot twists to make things interesting, including having Philip's consciousness flung back in time to relive the Micromeg incident, the zombie co-workers, and a management recruitment program straight out of Dilbert (well, if Scott Adams worked for Nyarlathotep, Inc.). Resume with Monsters is not as well done as Spencer's latest, Zod Wallop, but is well worth checking out, especially for fans of both Dick and Lovecraft.

H.P. Lovecraft always intended his Cthulu mythos to live through other authors' pens. If Lovecraft were alive today he would certainly find William Spencer Browning's treatment most entertaining. In "Resume with Monsters," Browning artfully welds together the infinite horrors of Lovecraft's Old Ones with the modern banalities of life in the corporate world. The result is a book loaded with hilarious dialogue, humorous scenes, and a good deal of light horror.

Philip has a big problem. He sees monsters at work, behind every filing cabinet, around every corner, in the eyes of his fellow co-workers, and in motivational pamphlets handed out in his paycheck envelope. In order to maintain his slipping sanity, Philip spends his free time constantly rewriting his sprawling 2000 page book called "The Despicable Quest," a Lovecraftian tome full of references to Azathoth, Yog-Sathoth, and other unpleasant beings from beyond space and time. Philip is aware that spouting off about monsters from dimensions beyond our own tends to alarm people, which brings in Lily, an aging psychologist who promises Philip she can help him through his troubles.

Philip probably would not have many problems with his demons if he gave up trying to save his ex-girlfriend Amelia. Philip's relentless quest to expose the monsters coupled with the undying devotion to his book infuriated Amelia, spurring a rancorous split. When she moves to Texas Philip follows her, desperate to convince Amelia that he once saved her from eternal doom when the two worked at MicroMeg, a giant international corporation (the details of which can be found in the section of the book hilariously entitled, "The Doom that Came to MicroMeg). Philip drifts from one low paying job to another, always on the lookout for the reemergence of the evil ones. Not only does Philip see potential evil at his own jobs, there seems to be something seriously astray at Pelidyne, a big company where Amelia just started a new job. It looks like Philip will have to return once again into the belly of the beast.

Spencer really has a grasp of Lovecraft's horrific intentions. His style does not reflect Lovecraft's ornate use of the English language, but many of the adventures Philip embarks on mirror a trip through a Lovecraft novel: the weird bending of time and space, the strange rituals of the Old Ones, and the feeling of helplessness one gets when confronting an evil beyond the comprehension of the human mind.

I suspect there is a lot of the author in this story. My copy has a painting on the front cover of a man who looks suspiciously like the picture of Browning on the back cover. The detailed descriptions of corporate stupidity and the shrieking mindlessness of working a low paying job tell me that the author spent many years working in the same type of jobs as Philip does in the novel. Anyone who has ever worked in a boring job with high pressure jerks as bosses will recognize and sympathize with Philip's plight. Ultimately, that is the greatest horror in "Resume with Monsters": the pressures of a job in today's world are worse than seeing monsters with dripping scales falling out of a time rip in the ceiling.

The comical aspects of the book abound throughout the story. Everything from Philip's confessions about the evil ones to the motivational pamphlets is gut bustingly funny. Be sure and pay attention to the group sessions during Philip's stay in the mental hospital. These scenes are some of the funniest in the book.

"Resume with Monsters" is essential reading for Lovecraft fans. Those who are unfamiliar with Lovecraft may want to read at least one collection of his stories before settling into this book because the references to particular entities are meaningless unless you understand the mythos. I am placing Spencer's book in my top five list of books read this year, and I hope you will too.

A lot of people have been talking about this book, so I had to check it out and now I realize why. William James Austin takes you to places that you'd never think of or want to go to. He caters to that voyeur in all of us. Basically, the man makes us feel dirty and like it. When reading this book there were so many moments that I felt like I was in the scene he created. It made me want to go back to traveling New York City's streets. And I never thought I'd like poetry!!!!!!

This isn't poetry. Underworld 3 & 4 is a mental journey through the most vulgar and sadistic aspects of existence and somehow, along the way, William Austin's words make you accept and appreciate them for what they are.

This man's command is sensational. Austin can take one from a simple narrative as "Ghost Story" right into such avant garde works like "Symphony," without allowing the reader to lose a beat of his visual style.

The last piece "Aenas in Hell" is perhaps the most successful work of experimental poetry that I've ever read. Here, Austin shows just how masterful he is. It's a thirty page piece that starting off as a narrative travels into every other poetic style, including a dialogue, and draws you in to a point where you're feeling the storms and artificial sense of safety that is being portrayed. It's as moving as a top notch quality performance.

Since reading this prized book, I've been trying to find out if Austin has been promoting it in any way. I can just imagine what such visual work would sound like coming from the mouth of its creator.

There are few books I dislike, but this book was one of the few that came close. While I enjoyed some of Austin's imagery, it seemed she went around in circles and never get to a destinaton. It was like reading a bunch of settings, but never getting any plot. The highlight of the book was Seyavi, the basket maker but the book itself seemed to be lacking. If you're looking for nature writing, read Linda Hogan's "Dwellings." It's a lot more personal.

I used to live write down the street from Mary Austin's old house in the Owen's Valley. I found her life very interesting and maybe from reading this book you get more of an inside on what her life was like.

Austin lived in the Owens Valley during a turbulent period at the turn of the century, and she observes the people and wild things dwelling there with a novelist's eye. But what sets this gem above all the rest is simply her writing, the plain beauty of her voice and phrasing. She achieves a tone that is somehow at once wistful and tinged with levity, very gently ironic yet always loving. Her words caress their subjects like -- well, like the pen and ink drawings that graced the original publication in 19-ought-whatever. They evoke all the richness of the place, its austerity, its pathos, its beauty, with a gentle affection that is sweet but never cloying, sometimes sad but never downcast. It has a kind of Zen translucency, filtered through the gently humorous, sensitive lens of a literary genius.

I am a hadware design engineer by living and purchased this
book hoping to learn more about pc bus standards, and pc
architecture. However, I quickly gave up on reading this
book. There is a lot of very detailed information in the
book - for example several pages of oscilloscope waveforms.
They fatten up the book. But, not much information is really
conveyed by them. A chapter on the AGP bus is very poorly
written. Did anybody knowledgable actually edit or review this
book before it was published? I was very disappointed
and ultimately had to obtain my information from other sources.
It seemed like the book tried to take a big standard, such as
AGP, and select random bits of detail from it to present. The
problem is that the book tries to go to far in depth for
the amount of text devoted to each subject and the effect is
a jumble of random, very detailed information which does not
make much sense. Furthermore, I found a LOT of editorial
mistakes which were very serious. Using the wrong term in
some contexts makes key information hard to decipher.

This is a great book on the PC architecture. The guy above seems to doubt the title with "Although the book says it's advanced". I found it to be advanced in the respect that it does not baby you through PC architecture basics and goes straight into the details and doesn't hold anything back. It's well written and doesn't leave anything out. I found the information to be current, covering Pentium 3 cpus and Hub-based motherboard architectures and making reference to newer Pentium 4s. (AMD's line of processors as well). The book also has programming examples and sample programs in C and Assembly, though not making it a major focus of the book. I found it to be a great buy!

I bought this textbook as a supplementary resource book for a Microprocessor class at school. It can be used as either a textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses in PC Architecture or as a general resource guide for practicing engineers. It provides a comprehensive, practical coverage of PC architecture in an easy-to-read writing style. Although the book says it's advanced and provides advanced topics, it also provides a good simplified foundation to understanding the components of the PC.

The format of the book is intuitive and modernized. There are many functional block diagrams of various configurations and interesting boxed notes throughout the book. There are also many remarkable data and facts items conveniently located all through the book. You'll also find many insightful comparison lists, tables, and diagrams that help clarify concepts. Overall I like the writing style, format, and layout of the book.

The book describes each of the main PC processors and compares their performance. It also observes the different types of main interface devices and shows how they work with the complete system. Past, current, and future motherboards are discussed in detail so that students and professionals can understand how data is passed around the PC. The text illustrates general PC Architecture principles and design methodologies. It is written on the premise that the student may know the basic components of a computer system but may have not had any formal training. The authors have done an admiral job at providing a complete picture of the workings of a PC.

SOME (but not all) of the topics covered in each chapter include:
1) The History of computers. How computers have evolved. Which computers have flopped and which have been successful. Top Achievers and Under-achievers.
2) PC Basics, Buses, Interrupts, Interfacing, How Bios works
3) Introduction to Intel Processors, A close-up look at the Processor. The 8088. Memory addressing.
4) 8086 Basics, Assembly language elements, timing, and moving data around in Memory.
5) 80486. Specifics about the processor, data definition, equates, memory, and timing.
6) Bus Cycles, Bus Controller and Direct Memory Access.
7) CMOS, Memory and I/O, and Ports
8) Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART) and Programmable Interrupt Controller (PIC)
9) Programmable Peripheral Interface (PPI) and Programmable Timer Controller (PTC)
10) Introduction to the Pentium. Overview, Development and Terminology. Also details the Pentium II and Pentium Pro.
11) Transaction Phase Signals and additional Pentium Pro Signmals
12) Memory basics, subsystems, and errors.
13) MMX Technology. Also profile of Pentium II.
14) Instruction Execution in general. The Pentium II block diagram, execution implementation, bus features, etc. Other transaction types and phases.
15) SC242 Signals and other signals.
16) Processor Developments. Various Processors. Detail of x84-64 Architecture
17) Interface Buses. The PC, ISA, and other Legacy busses. Comparisons of different interface bus types.
18) PCI Bus. Bus cycles, PCI operation, functional signal groups, cycle timing diagrams, pins, and faults. I/O Addressing
19) IDE Section. Tracks and Sectors, The IDE interface and communication. Hard Disks, Optical Storage, File systems, and Magnetic Tape.
20) SCSI types, Interface, Operation, and Commands.
21) PCMCIA (PC Card). Registers and various types and Pin Connections.
22) USB and Firewire,
23) Games Port, Keyboard and Mouse,
24) AGP and more PCI. AGP Connections, Configuration. Register and Pin Descriptions.
25) RS-232. Programs, communications between nodes, and Interface
26) Parallel Port. I/O Addressing. Interrupts, Interface, Data Handshaking, and ECP/EPP Mode.
27) PC Motherboards. Different motherboards such as the Intel HX, TX, 450NX PCIset, and 450KX PCIset.
28) Hub-based Architecture. 810E, 820, and 840 Chipsets.