The fourteenth of Patrick O'Brian's brilliant twenty-volume nautical series finds Captain Aubrey and Stephen Maturin in the south seas. After we get off the deserted island where O'Brian left us shipwrecked in "The Thirteen Gun Salute", we get a new ship, fight the French, find the Suprise, and finally end up visiting the penal colony that is today Australia. O'Brian, of course, has done his homework. The brutality, violence, corruption, and degradation of Australia make for some harrowing reading. Maturin occupies himself with his nature studies, surrounded by wholly new species, including the platypus that provides us with another cliffhanger ending. Because while "Nutmeg" is a sequel to the previous volume, it is also left unfinished. O'Brian's dry wit, intelligent prose, and nautical research are as powerful as ever. On to the next one.

This fourteenth novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series begins where the last one left off, with Jack, Stephen, and 157 crew members cast away on a not-quite-desert island in the South China Sea, attempting to build a schooner from the remains of the wrecked DIANE. After time out for a game of sand-lot cricket (these are Brits, after all), they find themselves holding off a concerted attack by predatory Malays. O'Brian certainly knows how to start his story off with a bang! With a little fortuitous assistance, they make their way back to Batavia, and Gov. Raffles supplies them with a recently raised Dutch ship -- which Jack renames NUTMEG. They set off to rendezvous with the SURPRISE, with adventures and single-ship action along the way, and eventually make it to the penal colony at Botany Bay. O'Brian has some pointed and highly critical observations to make on the British governance of early Australia, and he also maintains his high standards of character development, wit in describing the relationship between the captain and the doctor -- their personalities are extremely differenent in many ways -- and beautifully painted pictures of life and weather at sea. This is one of the best so far of the latter part of the series.

Let's face it, all of Patrick O'Brian's novels in this series are wonderful. The Nutmeg of Consolation is no exception. If you have gotten this far in the series, there is absolutely no reason to stop now. This one takes place primarily in the South Pacific and Australia, and therefore does not have much in the domestic life of Aubrey and Maturin. The novel opens when they are stranded on an island in the South Pacific. Adventures naturally ensue, and ultimately, they find themselves in Australia, clashing to a certain extent with the locals. All in all, a completely enjoyable novel, filled with the humor, the action, the human drama that we come to expect in the Aubrey-Maturin series. Enjoy.

"The Wine Dark Sea" is a slightly misleading title for this exciting continuation of the Aubrey/Maturin books. Much of it takes place on land, in Peru and the Andes to be exact, and those parts are wonderfully written as well as exciting. The nautical sections of this novel, while also thrilling, are really a continuation of the previous book "The Truelove" to such an extent that they could almost function as one novel! Characters are aboard whose motivations and actions will be mysteries to those who haven't read the previous installment in this series.

To those familiar with Patrick O'Brian's previous stories, "The Wine Dark Sea" will not disappoint! Just don't start here if you're not...

I once had a creative writing instructor who insisted all ofhis students read one of O'Brian's novels to learn what truly superiorwriting was all about. I chose The Wine-Dark Sea and am I glad I did. O'Brian is truly a master! The Wine-Dark Sea opens with Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin in pursuit of an American privateer sailing the South Sea. The British, already engaged in the Napoleonic Wars, have made the mistake of also blundering into war with a young upstart, the United States. Maturin, in the Wine-Dark Sea, desires to relieve the pressure on the British government by inciting the revolutionaries of South America, more specifically, Peru. O'Brian, a master storyteller, also has a sharp eye for detail. His descriptions of the landscape, the sea, life on board the midgit man-of-war and even the Andes are no doubt the best in all of literature. The spine-tingling barbarity and bloody battle scenes are so real, they'll make you glad you're only reading a book (although the writing is so good you may forget that at times)! I really can't praise O'Brian highly enough. He is both artist and perfect craftsman and beside him, most authors rapidly pale. If you love the sea, if you love adventure, if you just love a good book, you absolutely can't go wrong with The Wine-Dark Sea or any of O'Brian's other novels. All of them are just perfect. END

The Wine-Dark Sea by Patrick O'Brian

There are few prose stylists writing today who can compare with Patrick O'Brian for the smooth, evocative and fluid stories which come from his pen. This book, a particularly fine example of O'Brian's craft, is part of his Aubrey/Maturin series of sea-faring novels. Sailor Jack Aubrey, while a typically crusty man of the blue briny, is also a well-read and witty contrast and companion to Doctor Stephen Maturin, an erudite physician with a huge love of the sea. Together, the two have had many adventures, but in The Wine-Dark Sea, they face some of their greatest challenges ever with remarkable spirit and aplomb. The story here is great entertainment with lots of page-turning action, but the lush writing is simply seductive and so easy to become lost and quite "at sea" within. While these are often consider "men's books," I strongly suspect that many women would be attracted to the strong plots, grand characterization, and fine writing; there is never the least hint of the crude or the coarse in these highly literate, but so readable novels. I have often suggested the works of Patrick O'Brian to writing students as a model for crisp, fresh, lively prose and most highly recommend this series to anyone who loves a great read.

Hard-core comics nerds might be familiar with the writing of Robert C. Harvey through his eloquent and interesting columns in The Comics Journal magazine. That style carries over well to this book. His commentary is refreshingly brief, preferring instead to let the work of a century's worth of creative genius speak for itself.

Rather than give us a straightforward, linear (hence boring) history of comics, Harvey treats them as the masterpieces of art they are--just as there are various fine art "movements" (Surrealism, Cubism, etc.) the same holds true for the comic strip. Harvey divides comic-strip history into five such movements--the formative years, standardization of genres, the adventure strip, the gag strip, and the socially conscious strips of today.

We learn some things that may seem surprising at first, but on reflection are perfectly logical. First, even the most talented 'toonists weren't perfect--we see the strips in their original form--pasteovers, glue stains, pencil marks, and blobs of white-out litter the work. It's akin to seeing an X-ray of a painting by a Renaissance master--even Leonardo and Michaelangelo made corrections, sometimes painting over whole figures.

Second, the supposed decline of the quality of comics (and the rise of artistically bankrupt strips like "Dilbert") isn't the fault of the artists or the syndicates. (Despite sentiments to the contrary by "Calvin and Hobbes" cartoonist Bill Watterson, whose scathing diatribe against modern comics is reprinted in the book). Paper shortages during the Second World War, Harvey tells us, forced editors to cut the size of newspaper pages to save newsprint, which in turn shrank the comic strip. The advent of television immediately afterward forced newspapers to stick to the wartime standard permanently--and they have shrunk even more since. Such developments spelled the end of the lavishly drawn adventure-continuity strips (the detail could no longer be seen) and paved the way for strips like "Peanuts". Harvey doesn't talk about the role of the computer in perhaps reversing this trend, which is one of this book's few flaws.

Harvey, like other fans, pleads for the acceptance of comics as a "legitimate" art form, but does so without attributing to them any more significance than they deserve. No obtuse Freudian interpretations about what the comics "mean"--to Harvey, they are a unique form of art, driven as much by commerce as aesthetics. They are a throwaway medium for the general public, but as he shows us, that's more than OK.

Curated, with helpful annotations, by a leading expert, this is a beautifully produced exhibition catalog of the original art for American comic strips since 1896. Especially wonderful is the reproduction of cartoon originals in full color (not just black and white line art) so that preliminary blue pencil drawings, glue stains, and pasted-over changes are all clearly visible. (Copyright © by Roy R. Behrens from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol. 14, No. 3, Spring 1999.)

BRIAN'S WINTER
This book was the sequel to Hatchet and Gary wrote both of these books
Paulsen. This paper will tell you about a brief summary of the book along with some other things like how the main character developed along the book and what survival skills he had learned. I think the authors message was to make sure if you were ever in the wilderness that you had the survival skills that bran had learned or it could be that when your on a camping trip to make sure that you don't eat the wrong berries, don't mess with bears and other kinds of things like that.
Now to start out with is a brief summary of this book. First off this kid named Brian was going to see his dad in Canada and was taking a plane over there. So everything started out fine until they were flying over this lake and the guy that was flying him he all of a sudden he had a heart attack and croaked in the middle of the flight and was dead. So Brian took over the plane and crashed into the lake down below. And Brian had all of these things like a hatchet, matches and other important things like that. So he had all these things to do and live on his own until he was rescued. Sorry I cannot tell you the rest of it you will have to go and find out by yourself.
The second thing in how the main character developed in this story. So how he developed in this story is in the beginning he was all soft and didn't know much about the wilderness but since he was in the wilderness he found out a lot of things like how to hunt eat berries that yoyo could an could not eat. Then he built his own cabin and fires so I think now you can say he got stronger from this experience.
Finally I would have to give this book a rating of a 7 out of 10 because I think the ending could have been a little better then it was. But overall I think this book would have to be the best next to Romeo and Juliet. But like I said I gave you a brief summary, the character developed, and a rating.

As you know thirteen- year- old Brain Robeson was rescued in the book Hatchet, but what if Brian wasn't rescued. What if Brain had to learn to survive in the freezing cold Canadian winter with only a hatchet? It is extremely crucial that Brian takes everything he has learned and uses it to his best interests.
In the book Hatchet Brain came across many dangerous obstacles and in the process learned how survive in the wilderness but now it's even more vital that Brain learns how to stay alive because now Brain is going to have to live through the treacherous winter and the Canadian wilderness.
Brain's Winter was an outstanding book. I have no complaints, but I do admit Gary Paulsen does leave you hanging. Don't worry though because in the book The River he explains everything. I thought this book was excellent. This book definitely lives up to Hatchet.
I rate Brain's Winter an 8 out of 10 because it is an exceptionally outstanding book as well as Hatchet considering survival books aren't particularly what you would call my favorite type novels. The reason why I give this book a high rating is because Gary Paulsen is an extraordinary writer. Maybe because most of the stuff he writes about. He has experienced himself one way or another though out his life. He is so detailed like he knows exactly what he is talking about. That's what makes this book so interesting. I definitely recommend it.

Brian Robeson is a teenage boy and he wants to survive the wilderness. The novel Brian's Winter is written with great, realistic details. It was also written with simplicity, which is why I liked it. I could understand it, completely. Brian is a thirteen-year-old boy who hasn't been rescued, from the novel Hatchet. So he has to face the cold winter months, alone in Northern Canada. This time, Brian has a survival kit, which he found in the plane wreck. The kit includes a rifle, two butane lighters, a fishing line and a sleeping bag. But he still has to find some food, to stay alive...I liked this book because it has a lot of hunting, and suspense in it. When Brian was in the woods alone, he hunted, and I could imagine that I was he. One part I liked in particular was when he found the Cree, and he was warm and stayed full of food.

I agree with many of the reviewers below that this book was helpful and often interesting. It gives a readable orientation to one of the most important movements in the software industry today, and the editors have been fortunate to gather together so many contributors who obviously know whereof they speak. In particular, the editors' Introduction, Eric Raymond's "Brief History of Hackerdom," Richard Stallman's account of GNU and FSF, Bruce Perens's discussion of Open Source, and Tim O'Reilly's essay on "Infoware" were informative and thought-provoking.

That said, it should be noted that the Amazon reviewer above gets it wrong when she writes that the book gives a "fascinating look at the raging debate." In fact, *nothing* about Open Source is debated in this book, which is a major disappointment. As the reviewer from Princeton below notes, the goodness of everything Open Source and the badness of everything Microsoft seems to be a given for many of the writers. At the risk of criticizing the book for not being something its creators didn't intend, I think it would be greatly improved with the addition of a wider range of viewpoints and even a dissenting voice or two. (There are a number of essays that could give place to some alternate content: Eric Raymond's second essay, "The Revenge of the Hackers," leans heavily toward the self-congratulatory, as does the Netscape cheerleaders' "Story of Mozilla." And Larry Wall's "Diligence, Patience, and Humility" seems to have been included not on its own merits but on the author's reputation as the Perl Deity.)

A final wish is for the book to address a broader range of readers. As a longtime computer user but a relatively new programmer, with no formal business training, I found many of the essays to rely heavily on the jargon of hackers and MBAs. More editorial control here, in addition to a broader range of content, would make this book seem less like preaching to the choir and more effective at spreading the Open Source gospel.

This is a good idea on O'Reilly's part to try to document the history and goals of the Open Source movement, which had roots in several college campuses and research labs in the '70s and '80s, and became news in the late '90s with the popularity of Linux, Apache, and the decision of Netscape to open its browser source. The best introductory piece, however, is probably Eric Raymond's "Cathedral and the Bazaar" which is not in this book(O'Reilly publishes it separately, but it's available free on the Web and short enough to be read in one sitting). As for this collection, I liked Robert Young's business case for distributing open source - his story of how Red Hat was launched reminds me of the Compaq tale of "three guys in a restaurant". The Apache article is also quite good, and Linus Torvalds offers a brief but interesting (and characteristically opinionated) article about how Linux evolved technically. There's also a good article discussing the various open source licenses (BSD, GPL, Netscape, etc) and what they do and don't restrict.

Others I was less impressed with. Stallman's article is predictable and self-serving. He explains how he evolved his software-as-gift philosophy but doesn't come close to terms with how the software industry can support substantial employment if all source is given away. There's yet another history of the different branches of BSD Unix. There's a breathtaking inside account of the launch of Mozilla which ends with the fancy Silicon Valley party when development has finally gotten underway. The low point is Larry Wall's "essay", which is a frankly ridiculous waste of time and print.

Although this is a mixed bag, there's enough reference material and interesting points of view to keep the book around.

Open Sources is a collection of essays by people who have been involved in a prominent way in what is being called "the open source revolution." The authors are all very bright people with good intentions and diverse viewpoints; this makes for interesting reading. However, I had a problem with the introduction. In fact, I hated it. It attempts to couch the issue of free vs. non-free software in religious terms: in the bad old days, free software only came from universities or other government-funded research. Then, a few companies saw the light and began to open-source their software; currently the industry is divided between these companies (the saved) and the rest of the companies (the damned) who will spiral into oblivion due to their proprietary selfishness. I thought the presence of this sort of rhetoric in the introduction, which sets the tone for the rest of the book, was particularly unfortunate.

The essays in Open Sources are a mixed bag. Kirk McKusick's history of Berkeley UNIX is great, as is Michael Tiemann's history of Cygnus Solutions, RMS's article about the GNU project, and Bruce Perens' article about licensing issues. Also, I really enjoyed the transcript of the infamous 1992 flame war between Linus and Andy Tanenbaum about the merits of Linux vs. Minix. On the other hand, Paul Vixie's article about software engineering is pretty random, Larry Wall's article does not seem to have a point at all, and Eric Raymond's

second article and Tom Paquin's account of the open-sourcing of Netscape are too self-serving to be useful.

Overall, I enjoyed this book quite a bit. However, the year that has passed since its publication has exposed some of the more outlandish predictions made by its contributors (Eric Raymond said that Windows 2000 would either be canceled or be a complete disaster). My guess is that Open Sources is not destined to become a classic. Rather, in a few years it will be viewed as an interesting but somewhat naive period piece.

Just finished prepping for the NT Server 4.0 Exam using this book as the main study guide. Very well laid out with good use of text/colors, very typical of the New Riders Next Generation Study guides. Exam covers a VERY broad range of info and the book does a good job of covering it all. The author is very knowledgable and brings his practical experience to the book. My only complaint is the low number of study questions in each chapter. Recommend adding the Exam Cram book for those study questions. Also would not recommend the MS Press study kits, they are not worth the $$$ (unless you need the 30 day eval. software) and it helps to have a non-Microsoft point of view...

Overall this is an excellent book to use as your main study guide, but I would also suggest using another source of information. The Enterprise exam that I took had several indepth questions relating to the IIS 3 as well as other topics that were gone over only briefly in the book.

Overall a good purchase, as long as it's not your only source.

This book is well written, making it easy to read and understand. The content layout is also well done, making it easy to see exactly what is required to know for each exam objective. There is some small detailed information missing but I found that the practice tests identified this information to you anyway, so overall the content is adequate (the Sybex books I'm using, also have information missing). I did notice questions in the real exam relating to previous exams, so I would recommend doing the subjects in the following order: Networking Essentials, NT Workstation4, NT Server4, NT Server4:Enterprise. I found the practice exams to be an invaluable aid for studying for the exam and they are similar to the real exam. I used the Sybex books for my elective subjects, and found them to be very poorly written. The Sybex books were not easy to read and understand and the content was layed out in a poor way, making them hard to identify information for each exam objective.

This one isn't up to par with it's predecessor's. It's an okay read, but not as engaging as the first two. It's hard to believe the "Outfit" guys are that easy to steal from and kill. It all happens so easily that it's not very enjoyable.

The name is Parker and he's not one for making idle threats. When he talks, he follows through with brutal efficiency. And so, when he warned the organised crime boss not to cross him or he would hurt the organisation, it would have been a good idea to listen. What would not have been a good idea was to attempt to put a hit on Parker.

When the hit fails, as of course it must, Parker sets in place a devious plan to hurt the Outfit just as he promised. What follows is a highly entertaining string of crimes around the country, striking blow after blow on behalf of our anti-hero, Parker.

If you're simply after a flat out entertaining book of action sequences that aren't cluttered up with pesky character development, then this is the book for you. As a matter of fact, the entire Parker series is for you. Parker remains the true dispassionate enigma. Sure he's heartless, cruel and vindictive but you've just gotta love the rascal.

I absolutely love Richard Stark's (Donal Westlake) Parker novels! Here we have THE OUTFIT back from 1963 and it still works today! Parker and his underworld cohorts decide to toss the rule bookl out the window and start knocking over syndicate scores. This is tight, fast, and hard. Read Stark or miss out entirely!

I expected a careful, general overview of the various uses of technology in music. This book is clearly for a classroom that uses Macs and the specific software indicated. There is not one entry for Finale, nor microphone/recording techniques. The book is pretentious in its organization (academic music ed. types) and woefully lacking in providing the required general overview of concepts, and prefers to teach specific software applications, many of which are not mainstream.

Not exactly the greatest book I've ever owned...the computer background information is woeful (I found 3 glaring mistakes in 70 pages of material by just skimming). The book has generally good information on the software it covers and a pretty good intro to MIDI.

This is a great resource for a lot of people. Whethr you are a music teacher looking to enhance your music teachning with some technology, or you are a professor wanting a textbook for a music technology class you are teaching, this book has something worth-while. David B. Williams and Peter R. Webster are veterans in the field with many years' experience.

A fine book for Intranet development - a seriously flawed effort for Internet work. All material is covered using VB script, which is utterly worthless if your trying to develop a site that works with both Navigator and MSIE. Though you can complete every task discussed in this book with either VB or JavaScript, the authors summarily dismiss JavaScript. Don't purchase this book if you plan to develop sites that work across the browser divide!

The reader from Raleigh, NC obviously didn't read the title of the book before purchasing. This is an "IE4" book, not a Netscape, or any other third-rate browser book. If you want cross-browser support, than DON'T buy a book that is named "IE4 Programming".

I though that this book gave decent coverage and was worth the $.

I appreciate the authors' simple style--direct-to-the-point in simple English (unlike the abstract prose used by experienced programmers who lack the gift of of sharing information in simple terms). The book has lots of examples and screen shots, and with generous lists of properties, methods and events. The indices at the back of the book serves as a reference when done with the entire book. This book is a must in every Web programmer's library.

I remember when Camelot 3000 was originally released by DC. It was their first Maxi-Series, and Brian Bolland was so late with the art that it took over three years to put out 12 "Monthly" issues. The chaotic release schedule insured that I was never able to see how the series concluded...

Flash forward almost twenty years: I'm almost 32 years old, and I guess I actually HAVE matured somewhat, because instead of the amazing classic I remembered, Camelot 3000 came across as cliched, corny, and just plain weird. The story takes place in the year 3000. when an alien invasion of Earth is in full swing. Young Tom Malory, after seeing his Mother and Father killed by the invaders, stumbles upon the crypt of King Arthur......Arthur is resurrected (As per the prophecy), and soon enlists Merlin and the reincarnated Knights of the Round Table in his war against the Aliens, who are actually the puppets of his half-sister Morgan LeFay. The long length of the book allows for some nice character exploration, and the art by Brian Bolland is great. The down side is this: Readers expecting a masterpiece will be disappointed by Mike W. Barr's script. Bolland's art is great, as I said, but I spent more than a little time laughing at his ridiculous "Futuristic" clothing designs. VERY dated.....

Overall, worth a look for the curious comic fan, but not recommended for the more discriminating reader.

I had extremely high hopes for this one. After reading several other '80s DC classics set in the future (Ronin, Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns), I was expecting something spectaclular. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. Don't get me wrong, its OK, but its not the masterpeice some people say it is. Brian Bolland is my favourite artist and I was expecting his work to be of the same standard as The Killing Joke, which is the only other interior work of his that I have seen. It doesn't come close to that. Of course, the reason is obvious. Killing Joke was only 48-pages long and he took three years to draw it. Camalot 3000 is about 300 pages long and he probably had a stricter deadline. I always wondered why Bolland didn't do more interior work. Now I prefer that he sticks to covers because almost every one is a masterpiece. Story-wise, it is significant because it is one of DC's first mature comics and helps set the stage for Vertigo and so on. Although the climax was good, I found that some of the characters were not very well developed. Even King Arthur himself could have been made more real. Morgan Le Fay is excellent though as is Sir Tristan. The love triangle between Lancelot, Arthur and Guenevere could have been further explored also. Guenevere just doesn't seem to love Arthur at all, so why is there a triangle in the first place? She should just leave him.
There are some intersting twists throughout, however, and it is unfortunate that DC doesn't make maxi-series like this very often these days.

It is a grim, overpopulated world, short on resources, as well as hope. Long ago man abandoned the dream of space to focus on more "practical" needs. The powers-that-be rule with an iron fist. Dissidents, criminals, and undesirables are genetically altered into zombie like "neo-men"- mindless muscle to use against the masses. Then, if this was not enough, into this hopeless, hellish cauldron came invaders from the stars that we had turned our backs on. London was in flames and it looked like the world truly would end with a whimper- on its knees.

Enter Arthur Pendragon, the One True King, to unite a planet as he once united a kingdom.

I especially enjoyed the closing page of this excellent graphic novel, with it's suggestion that this is not only a timeless, but cosmic, myth cycle. Where ever evil gains the upper hand and hope dies, no matter how far-flung the planet, the universe crystalizes out a True King to set things right once more- to defend the dream of what was, and what yet may be....