I highly, highly recommend this book.

"Dances with Wolves" is a lot of fun, and a lot more. It's an intelligently structured adventure drama that's hard to put down, and a fascinating study in cross-cultural communication.

Like much of the "noble savage" literature of the past, the story tends to idealize rather than humanize Native American culture. True, it does it so skillfully that we tend to believe we are among real people. But the sheer brutality with which the U.S. Army is depicted, in contrast with the totally benign Native Americans, smacks of caricature. We may deplore the actions of the U.S. government against the country's original inhabitants, but presenting every individual U.S. soldier as a vicious animal and every individual Comanche as a friendly candidate for sainthood overstates the case.

The best part of the book is the long development of the relationship between John Dunbar and the Comanche, told with skill and wit. After this phase, Dunbar emerges as rather too much of a hero to be believed, but the book is still highly entertaining.

Feeling Kicking Birds gut-wrenching realization that his way of life was forever lost was sobering. There could be no happy ending to this story and the lack of embellishment to the popular character's deaths, I think, coincided with the white mans attitude toward the Indians. (They didn't give it a second thought.)

It's ironic that Blake originally despised Custer while writing DANCES WITH WOLVES then, later, found he liked Custer after all. If only he could have written about Custer's last days with more passion and ambition, yet, he did not.

I do NOT think this is a good book to start one's discovery of Custer. For that, I'd strongly recommend Louise Barnett's TOUCHED BY FIRE.

Don't expect a nice guy who dances with wolves. This one kills with "Wolverines."

Penned by the best-selling author/Academy Award-winning screenwriter of DANCES WITH WOLVES, in Michael Blake's MARCHING TO VALHALLA we again journey West to the savage frontier of post-Civil War days. Only this time our guide's no Indian lover -- he's an Indian fighter. And an immortal legend. George Armstrong Custer.

But as we accompany him on this journey through uncharted territory, we discover -- soul-wrenchingly -- he's as mortal as the rest of us.

It is 1876. On a long march to what Custer hopes will be his most glorious campaign, he decides to record his daily thoughts and observations, as well as the events that led him here, in his Journal. It is through this Journal that we enter the secret catacombs of his "true heart."

The skeletons of fallen Confederate soldiers unearthed by rain. The dark entombment of Custer's dreams during his court martial and suspension from military duty. The taste of blood-lust, more satisfying than the finest wine, when he commands the brigade known as "Wolverines" on the battlefield. And piercing the mists as magically as the rainbow-colored suns he glimpsed during the Washita Campaign, the love Custer shared with his wife, Libbie.

Through Custer's eyes we see the beauty of the prairie flowers, the way light "dances" through the cottonwood leaves. And through his eyes we see the horrors of war. Battlefield carnage. Three mutilated bodies found at a stage station. The senseless burning of a Cheyenne village.

Michael Blake's a master, and his imagery flows like warm, golden honey. His words ambush us and hold us captive. But secretly we hope he'll never let us go.

When Blake sends us riding across the plains to that final destination, Custer's thoughts whisper tragically through our own hearts. And for that brief, flickering moment we know the name of the horse we ride -- Fate.

The information you need seems to be there, but it's so hard to get to it that this book isn't worth the money. Not only did I get this, I had to spend another 30 bucks just to replace this one with something better organized, and more comprehensive.

The book is so poorly organized and written that it constantly introduces concepts on one page and then reference other chapters and pages later on in the book. You will waste more time trying to track down bits of useless info strewn all over the place instead of learning anything useful about Flash.

The aweful practice examples supplied by the author are plagued with inaacuracies and errors that will frustrate you and make you doubt your intelligence. After wasting time retracing step after step, even a novice like myself figured out that there were missing steps in the exercises that rendered these practice examples absolutely useless and beyond pure frustration. The author is obviously clueless about the subject and the publisher no better for releasing such book with such deceiving title.

I have since bought another book, SAMS - Teach Yourself Macromedia Flash MX in 24 Hours, now the author Phillip Kerman knows his stuff and the book is a joy to read, practice and learn. Take my advice buy Mr. Kerman's book, it is well worth the extra $2.50.

I'm a strong reader and user of technical software books and am familiar with many, many that are out there and many, many are just plain terrible! This book shines on in the cloudy night of the myriad of books that have been written...especially about Flash!

Ms. Blake: keep up the grand work!

I first read it almost ten years ago, shortly after reading "Dances With Wolves" and thinking (at the time) that "DWW" was the best book ever written. However, this story about a young airman awaiting court martial, has absolutely none of the poetry, imagery and excitement of "DWW". The characters, though interesting at first glance, are underdeveloped, and the ending silly and unfulfilling (although, if I'm not mistaken, I believe that at the time that the novel was being finished, Mr. Blake was dealing with cancer). The different plot twists do nothing in the ways of building to a climax. Actually, the most dramatic part of the book is when our hero, assigned to permanent latrine duty, has to deal with the messes made by all the guys of the dormitory who are all suffering from the same food poisoning all at the same time. This is definitely not the ideal book for those who enjoy the kind of great writing contained in books like "Dances With Wolves".