David Campbell's work is a much needed critical analysis of the making of the Gulf War. This brief but important work serves almost as a case study of Campbell's previous book, WRITING SECURITY. It also serves as a reminder that the politics of identity has always been and will remain to be a dimension of foreign and security policy-making. By choosing to look at such a recent crisis, Campbell successfully points to those policy decisions that were taken not in order to 'solve' the crisis, but reinscribe US identity as the only superpower in the post-Cold War era. After reading the book one cannot help but wonder how would an essay that adopted Campbell's approach to study the reinscription of Iraqi identity through foreign and security policy making during the Gulf War would look like.

The Silver Horn is the first installment in the new, semi-promising Eaglesmount Triogy. The book tells the story of Vair, a young pine martin. He and his father decide to travel to the annual Watersmeet Fair, in a nearby village. However, the night before they leave, dangerous vermin kill his father, and take the rodent captive. After visiting the mysterious Lord Owl, who gives the band an assignment, they travel to Watersmeet. While there, the vermin begin their search for a mysterious silver horn, which the Lord Owl wishes to have. When Vair discovers who has the horn, he must protect them-and save the whole village of Watersmeet from the destruction of his captives.
While well-written overall, this book has its flaws. For instance, many of the characters run together, as their names are all similar. Also, the plot, while well-concieved, is extremely reminiscent of the Redwall books by Brian Jacques. Nevertheless, The Silver Horn will captivate younger Redwall fans, as well as those who relish animal fantasy, with its action and adventure!

This audio collection contains two cassettes and unabridged versions of many of the short stories in Guterson's collection, but not all stories are included in the audio version. Sorry I can't tell you which ones are here, cause the cover for some reason has no contents listed, and narrator Campbell Scott often moved so fast from one story to the next I never heard the title of half of them.

By and large, I liked the stories on tape number one, especially the poignant tale of two brothers growing up in the 1960's whose family leaves their Oregon coastal motel and moves to Seattle. I think that one was titled "Day of the Moonwalk" or something like that. There is a real sense of nostalgia here, and the interplay between the brothers was heartwarming as they realized they didn't share a bedroom anymore, and as they scoured downtown Seatlle for a basketball hoop.

I also enjoyed the duckhunting tale (probably "Opening Day"), as well as the doomed romance between a bookish young girl and a minor league pitching prospect. I thought the book was narrated effectively by actor Campbell Scott (he of the movie "Singles"), who handled dialogue especially well.

However, especially once we get to tape two, Guterson sometimes lapses into an overly descriptive, somewhat experimental style that probably would give creative writing professors nationwide fits. I was particularly appalled by the story involving the young guy who wanders over an old man's land in Massachusetts, on his way to a nursing home to care for the elderly. Throughout the story, Guterson bombards the reader with an endless array of adjectives and adverbs, over-extending his sentences with unnecessary verbal flourishes that ruined the otherwise mediocre story for me. Hemingway, always a proponent of lean, unflowery prose, would have spun in his grave had he heard this one.

I really liked Snow Falling on Cedars, and Guterson has a knack for writing about the Pacific Northwest and using the setting as an integral part of the story. These stories show a young writer first experimenting and finding his voice, with a handful of successes surrounded by an occasional clunker.

I'm surprised how many really did NOT like his stories. It seems that after reading his novel, they wanted greater things from these early short stories. I found lots of promise in these short stories with much of the subtle style that he uses later in Snow Falling. The strongest stories in the collection involve young boys growing up in the Northwest. Although the action is lots of hunting and fishing, there is a major undercurrent of emotional tension and frustration. In some ways, these remind me of some of Hemingway's early stories, not so much in terms of style, but setting. The Hunters, for instance, brought back images of Hemingway's The Battler. If I could have given this collection 3 1/2 stars, I would have, but it's just short of 4. Still, I enjoyed almost every story in the collection. Guterson is a "show" not tell type of writer, so I suspect some readers weren't watching closely enough. There's beauty and depth in some of these stories.

I'm aghast when I read the reviews of my fellow readers but then I take in account the common misperception that a short story is somehow easier to write or a lesser achievement than a novel. The truth is that short stories are more difficult to write, every sentence must punctuate, there is no breathing room. In the two novels I have read of Guterson, the endless pages of description are wonderful but can be top-heavy at times, whereas these stories are lean creations, leaving me wanting more. While it's no Pigeon Feathers, Guterson has been handed the wordsmithing baton from Updike, and the rich prose reminds me of Updike, satiating a yearn I have for quality short stories. I thoroughly enjoyed these, I liked them better than either of his novels, I hope he writes more.

I'm inclined to disagree with the reader form New York - while I can't imagine Campbell ever liking much about the Reagan administration's foreign policy, I nonetheless believe that his work asks questions which are not easily (read: comfortably) answered in american foreign policy.

That being said, this is NOT a book for the reader uninitiated to either abstractly theoretical examinations of internation political science, or to the postmodern/poststructuralist philosophy project.

All the same, though, a fascinating read for those in the field, or with an interest...

I just want to take a moment to disagree with the gentle reader from NC. This was, in fact, my introduction to poststructural international relations theory. And while those who are familiar with the terms of the discourse will necessarily understand more than those who are only just beginning to engage these questions, one ought not be concerned about comprehending this book if one doesn't have a strong background. Indeed, the careful reader will be able to glean quite a bit about american foreign policy from this text, and will (hopefully) be given some grounds to continue his/her exploration into an ethical poststructual discourse of international relations.

Drawing heavily on Foucault and the philosophy of identity, this book provides a new and logically sound alternative to viewing international relations through the currently dominant neo-realist paradigm. It is well documented and provides a solid explanation of our foreign policy that takes into account such complex social factors as the quest for identity, as opposed to observing foreign policy as simply a political or economic power-play. It is an excellent book with a unique perspective, and should be read by anyone who desires a complete view of how nations relate with each other.

This book is a page-turning thriller with reasonably decent writing. Characters are a little more than cardboard, but not much. Regrettably, the plot centers around the "science" of astrology, which for most people will render it ridiculous and boring, notwithstanding the use of standard devices to create tension and pacing. Fine for a lazy afternoon on a day when you've nothing else to do. Otherwise, avoid it.

This is a fast paced, page turning thriller. A wholly plot driven book, there is little character development. So, if one is looking for a literary feast, one should probably look elsewhere. If one is interested in a book with an interesting plot and a somewhat surprising ending, this book fits the bill.

In the small town of Bensonville, the unthinkable happens. Everyone suddenly seems to be striken with illnesses that turn inexplicably fatal. Within hours the town is decimated, as if it were a plague ridden, medieval town. No one knows why. The few survivors are stunned. One of these is Jess Barrett, Rhodes Scholar and Ph.D. He teams up with presidential aide, Micah Maruyama, along with a team of renowned medical doctors to discover the cause of this seeminly inexplicable phenomenon. Enter beautiful and intelligent Vera Norman, a highly respected astrologer, who assists them in unraveling the mystery surrounding this epidemic. It turns out not to be a medical problem, but rather, something far more sinister and intriguing.

This book gets off to a running start and simply does not let up. It will appeal to those who enjoy Michael Crichton and Robin Cook novels. as well as to those who simply enjoy a good story.

Ignore what the other guy said. I really liked it. It was a book that you never wanted to put down . I am not much of a reader but I really enjoyed it.

This Introduction to Quantum Computers reads like a textbook on a subject that does have material to it, but nothing that demands a textbook. At this stage in the game of Quantum Computing, the material that has been discovered is more than enough interesting fodder for a book, but a textbook-boring approach is not something that is going to make this book sell. There are probably not many Quantum Computing classes in colleges, and unless the book is made for people directly working in the field (it's not), there isn't enough interesting information to keep the reader awake.

I think this book may have been written in 3 days also!!! Just another book to catch the VB 5 Wave. Let get real, try out "Teach Yourself Visual Basic 5 in 21 Days" by Nathan Gurewich and Ori Gurewich this book it what you want!

This book should not be in print. It is so full of errors, and the writing style is so poor that I did not have the patience to tolerate more than 40 pages of it. It begins by teaching you how to create a directory in Windows explorer. I think they could assume you know how to use Windows as a pre-req.

I found this book to be very basic... After you're done reading it ...is useless =( It teaches you VB programming terminology and concepts. The whole entire book has a goal of teaching the reader by following 1 example program which you reproduce and go into deltails as you learn the simple concepts of logic.

...if you have a basic knowledge of porgramming in vb or any other language ....don't bother with this book....leave it to the beginner...but then again.... once your done with the book ...only good thing you can do is give it to someone else.

-College Student

One word to describe this book - outdated! Written in 1990?? How about an updated version that doesn't include information on sites that are no longer open or are in decay.

Like so many books on computer technology, the authors seem to think you need to know how the engine works in order to start the car, so they spend 100 pages explaining the technical inner workings of cyberspace, FTP, gophers, veronica, jughead and other stuff that you don't need to know in order to click the mouse on "search." If you want to know the technical stuff, find the nearest Alpha Geek who will be more than happy to explain the inner workings of the 'net to you in terms you still won't understand. This book has a 1995 copyright, so do I even need to mention that the 200 pages of resources in various disciplines is woefully outdated? I think not.