I've always thought of John Byrne as a competent, if unspectacular, author, but Whipping Boy was a compelling read. Byrne's hypothesis of "what if there were no guilt" quickly leads the characters in a downward spiral that is all-too-believable. Whipping Boy, when read in a contemporary America of school shootings, child abuse and use of illicit narcotics, is a gripping cautionary tale about the decline of morality and the consequences of a society that too often takes the easy way out.

John Byrne has created a masterpiece of modern horror. At times it becomes a truly disturbing look into the human conscience. Byrne's characters are genuine, real, and average, which makes the horrors they commit all the more atrocious. This book is a must read.

I have to say this book succeeded in scaring me as no Stephen King book did. It's a shame that this book is out of print. I think horror fans have missed out on a unique take on the horror genre.

I actually bought this when it was first released in 1988. It's just as good now, obviously, since it has been re-printed, and is still available. This is real Superman! No "Fabio" hair, no watered down powers. Clark Kent is, well, Clark Kent, not a "hip, slick and cool" yuppie. This is the Superman that flies through space and does amazing things, not the one who gets killed off by "Johnny-come-lately" no-brainer two bit villians. If you like the Superman, and don't think that improving him means changing his costume, identitiy, and powers rather than improving the stories (such as the way Frank Miller did with Batman), you'll likely enjoy this book. Excellent pre-"Doomsday" Superman! If you haven't bought it already, go ahead, you deserve it! I give it five stars(because six aren't a choice)!!

I enjoyed this story because it really showed off Superman's power.

This is a very entertaining story because Superman is challenged to find a way to free the planet Earth from captivity by extraterrestrial aliens. Superman's power is pushed to the limit, but this gives the reader a truly exciting look at what our hero can do if necessary. If you are a Superman fan or enjoy a good science fiction story with a super hero in it, than this book is a must read for you. It's definitely 5-star reading material.

This is a must read for anyone working in the technology industry. Well... for people working in any industry, for that matter.

Amazing insight into the people and events that have shaped our era. Written so well, one could be mistaken for thinking this is a novel. I read this over five years ago, and I just could not put it down.

As a professor of Marketing, I highly recomend this book to my students. Sculley is a genious and his ideas might inspire future leaders to move on for the best of our mankind.

I have read The Snow Blind Moon, cover to cover, three times now. I have loaned and given the book to many people who all agreed that it was superior. The characters are welldeveloped and real. The story of white settler and Indian has never been presented with more understanding and sympathy. Why the movies have not discovered it is hard to comprehend.

I'am french and bought this book in 1986 when i was student in London. I thought it will make a very good movie. Seven years later "Dance with the wolves" was released and was a major success worldwide. For all the ones who liked "Dance With the Wolves" buy this book, it is definitively better, well written and as said the Observer: Anyone with a soft spot for the Old West...is bound to relish THE SNOWBLIND MOON

Batman. Byrne. 3-D glasses. That's enough for me. Fine it if you can

I have formally reviewed this book for ASIS and Security Management. I gave it five stars for practical content in the way of useful solutions to the number one social problem today, and its easy reading style. This book should be required reading for any person concerned about the mounting epidemic of aggression/violence and who wants to move from being part of the problem by lack of awareness to becoming part of the solution with early intervention. Great book! The Glossary is loaded with interesting strategies you can apply right now.

War and Remembrance collects some of the greatest Captain America stories ever told. Creators Roger Stern and John Byrne prove themselves tremendously adept at handling standard superhero fare--Cap slugs it out with robots, vampires, and assorted other supervillains--but they also add a layer of complex characterization, as Cap faces a tough decision about whether he should run for president (really!) and as he meets the nicely fleshed-out members of his Brooklyn Heights supporting cast that played a major role in his life for decades afterwards (and really should continue to do so). All this, plus the definitive Cap origin story. This book is definitely worth getting your hands on.

Cruiskeen Lawn was the title of the long-running column in the Irish Times (1940-1966) written by Myles na gCopaleen. Wildly innovative, funny, biting humor, wit and wordplay characterize the column. There are three collections: The Best of Myles, Further Cuttings from Cruiskeen Lawn, and The Hair of the Dogma that give a taste of Dublin's daily bread. In addition to writing as Myles, the author, whose real name was Brian O'Nolan, wrote five novels, all available under the name Flann O'Brien. If you want a laugh, try any one of them. If you've only dipped into the font with the Best of Myles, you'll be doubly blessed by Further Cuttings.

this compilation contains, without qualification, THE funniest writing of the twentieth century, so it seems churlish to list complaints. Some of these are unavoidably the nature of the material - Myles na Gopaleen wrote a regular column for an Irish newspaper for a quarter of a century, so the very local concerns discussed in some of the pieces render them impenetrable to all but Irish historians.

The biggest problem is with the editing, or lack thereof. There are no explanatory notes offering historical, social or political context; there are no translatoins of the many German, Latin, Irish etc. interpellations. One could argue that this leaves us in the same position as those first newspaper readers, but Myles' predominantly middle-class audience could boast a sound classical education and a greater familiarity with the allusions so liberally scattered here than we do today.

Finally, the decision not to print the pieces chronologically (none of them are dated), but by subject, distorts the work, handicaps its versatility and can lead to repetition and tedium.

That 'the Best of Myles' remains one of the last century's few genuinely important books is entirely due to the indestructible persona(e) of Myles himself, hypercultured, alcoholic, visionary verbal contortionist with pretensions to aristocratic heritage. His phlegmatic invective at local problems such as sewage systems and the civil service are less valuable than his assault on language as it had (has?) degenerated into cliche and received opinion in the culturally sterile Ireland of the 1940s and 50s; and in his post-modern project of demolishing hierarchies of linguistic and artistic endeavour. Reading Myles has a bracing effect - he forces you out of habitual mental laziness; forces you to think HARDER.

Flann O'Brian is absolutely one of the greatest practitioners of language. This collection of his work, "The Best Of Myles", is some of the finest writing I have ever had the pleasure to read. Gaelic, English, French, German, and Latin, are 5 languages he writes fluently. He is the personification of all that is famous of Irish Wit. There appear to be few topics he did not comment upon or release a withering appraisal with pinpoint precision.

Mr. O'Brian wrote for a daily newspaper until his death in 1966. The volume and quality of the written material he produced is amazing. This 400-page book is one of five that are available and that I intend to read. There is virtually nothing about his personal history in this volume, so hopefully there is a biography in print documenting the time he spent learning and practicing his craft. The only downside to this book is that some is in Gaelic with no translation, and there are many articles that will seem to exist in isolation if the reader does not have some knowledge of Irish History. Even if these commentaries were removed, the balance of the work would still be a remarkable literary performance.

Some of the best pieces were his comments on the affectation in so many facets of daily life. And his specific attacks on, "bores", and all the pretensions of the world of modern art, and those who would pretend to posses knowledge of which they are bereft. He creates institutes and foundations and companies dedicated to servicing frauds and exposing the truth. Much is for pure fun, but like all humor contains truth. He offers the services of a company that will come to the home of any illiterate with a library, and his people will either rummage through your books for a pittance, or for a more substantial sum, will dog-ear pages, write brilliant marginalia, and leave tickets and programs to various cultural events as though they were misplaced bookmarks. And for those who have the funds, books will receive forged inscriptions from their authors, and letters of thanks to the book's owner for their help with a particularly difficult passage.

This book came at the end of 2001 for me. I hate lists of the best of the year; however nothing I have read this year surpasses this book, absolutely nothing!

Good humour is something everybody likes and I yearn for. For quite a long time I thought that there could hardly be anything better, or at least as good as Ephraim Kishon's short satires or Douglas Adams' space phantasmagories. It was hard even to imagine something like that because I was sure my stomach would disintegrate after something like that. And than I ran into Flann O'Brien's The Best of Myles. Indeed, that was the first time for me to get familiar with him and certainly the best possible. His columns are far than hillarious, obviously because he plays with things we consider as common, everyday problems, and maybe not even problems. All the wild thoughts one could get in moments of being very bored O'Brien would write down and bring to their final reductio ad absurdum. He wouldn't wait to be stopped, he would just carry on scribbling complete nonsense, dipping even into some other languages like Latin or Gaelic in a wild rage of an admirable inspiration.
Yes, one more thing that admire him for. He would deal with Gaelic and even write in it, he would mock with politics and politicians, with history and society and even so, he managed to stay completely non-political. At least he left his columns that way. The Best of Myles is best to read before his longer and more ambitious works like The Third Policeman or At Swim-Two-Birds. And also after them.

This century has seen two comic novels rejected by publishers when they were first written, only to be hailed as masterpieces decades later. These are are 'A Confederacy of Dunces' by Kennedy O'Toole and 'The Third Policeman' by Flann O'Brien. Sadly, rejection led to their author's (respective) suicide and alcoholism, and recognition came only after both writers had died. There isn't room here to explain why I love 'The Third Policeman' so much. It is by far the funniest book I have ever read, yet it is also one of the most chilling, and ultimately one of the most mind-bending. 'Is it about a bicycle?'............ read it and find out!

This is the funniest book I've read in a decade. First of all, it's the sombre yet academical tone of the narrator (the main character has no name for he has forgot his own name) --- who would have expected to find footnotes in a novel? Second, the weird things described in the novel and the way people argued make perfect logical sense although we all know it's all nonsense. Third, the creation of De Selby shows that Flann O'Brien is a story-telling genius, so much so that the first time I read this book I thought that De Selby actually existed!! And only thanks to my university library which boasts a big hoard of books, COPAC, and the British Library, I'm finally convinced that De Selby have never ever lived. Oh how I wish to find a book written by De Selby --- because it'd be great fun to read his books!

BTW, there're even more De Selby in "The Dalkey Archive"!!! And don't read "The Poor Mouth" unless you're ready to read 100-odd pages about the boiled potato diet of an Irish family.

There can be few more chilling discoveries in life than to be rambling around Amazon.com and find that there are 311 reviews of The Celestine Prophecy and only one, ONE!, of Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman.

This book, along with Gravity's Rainbow, The Recognitions, Auto da Fe, The Burn, and a small handful of others, is a masterpiece of the 20th century - a book people will be reading while they pilot their spaceships toward a hard day's work on Venus or some such thing a kajillion years into the future. It is also one of the few satire's that doesn't succeed by denigrating us and one of the few post-modern works that does succeed by making us howl with laughter.

I dare anyone to read the first line and then put this book down. Undoubtedly the best first line in English literature (though Garcia Marquez's first line in 100 Years of Solitude is probably the best first line in all of literature).

I won't go on about plot twists - only urge fans of literature that expands understanding while entertaining to pick up this book by the greatest of Irish writers (you read right, THE greatest).