Not only would I highly recommend this novel to all Fantastic Four fans, I would also strongly recommend it to those who are fans of Mr. Fantastic. This book proved how he could pull off having his own solo limited or ongoing comic series. Also worth mentioning was how the characterizations of all members of the F4 were done right, unlike in their current comic series. If you have only to buy one Fantastic Four novel in your lifetime, make this one it.

I think for the last several years now, the Fantastic Four novels have been better written then the comic. Case in point is this novel by Pierce Askegren. This writer makes good use of many leading FF characters that first appeared in the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby FF issues. The mad thinker is a complex villain here, Black Bolt and the Inhumans play important roles in the story, and the Fantastic Four are presented as the human heroes that they are. No fancy gimmicks here. It's a straight forward story from start to finish, and I'm very grateful for that.

Michael Jan Friedman's _Redemption of the Silver Surfer_ has been getting all the attention, but I think Pierce Askegren's _Countdown to Chaos_ is even better. The characterizations are all perfect, especially the Thing, and the plot is _much_ more interesting (and complicated!) than the usual villain-takes-over-the-world kind of stuff. Plus, it's much better than the comic book has been in about fifteen years. Don't let this great book pass you by!

Paul Thompson touches sensitive issues in black and white with "Faces." The African American expereince in America is still being defined. This effort embodies the sincere reflections and insight of an African American looking backwards and forward at the same time. I think it is exceptional and the audio tapes make it convienent. Dr. Bill Adkins, Senior Pastor Greater Imani Church Memphis, Tennessee

Insightful, new angles and completely honest and unfiltered views of the current status of African-Americans, Paul Thompson's Faces Pressed Against the Glass is the first book in 30 years that gives views of African-American culture in terms not chosen by the media or the majority culture. I particularly appreciated Thompson's unique phrasing and his willingness to tackle black subjects that media-chosen black writers are frightened of. A great set of tapes that I hope will soon be in book form on all shelves.

Paul Fleischman's writing stirs more ideas than could be followed tghrough in the space of an essay. His language has a technical tone yet tends toward the poetic. Some sentences need to be read more than once. But for those who find themselves drawn into his writings, these challenges fall away to reveal a rare gem. His unique style is integral to the power it evokes, and he writes things I have always wanted to be able to read. My favorite was the title essay, Karma and Chaos, where he explains, and better yet, demonstrates, how a life in line with karma can yield a balanced personality without sacrificing intellectual integrity. To me this book exudes compassion, wisdom, and joy.

This collection of essays is the most lyrically beautiful and forcefully personal account of the effect of the Buddha's teachings in real life I have ever read. Dr. Fleischman writes with the soul of a poet and the critical thought of a scientist. His and his family's life and growth together in Dhamma shine through again and again as the real theme of the essays. Anyone who wonders about the amorphous interface between modern psychotherapy and the Buddha's path should not miss the essay, "Vipassana Meditation: A Unique Contribution to Mental Health."

And the title essay, "Karma and Chaos" is an amazingly fertile presentation of the ancient and timeless teachings of the Buddha in light of the cutting edge discoveries of western science.

Mu Soeng, director of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, has said of it: "I just finished reading the essay on Karma and Chaos from your book and I want to congratulate you on an extraordinary piece on Dhamma and scientific perspectives. I would like to say that it is one of the shining moments of how ancient wisdom tradition from the East is being received in the West. The language is beautiful and there is a cogent and passionate communication of some very complex ideas in ways that do not oversimplify them and yet make them accessible."

Forge: Out of Chaos is a labor of love, that much is obvious. Everything is well thought-out; the authors put a lot of effort into the game world and it shows. The cosmology--fallen, banished, and "disappeared" gods--is detailed, brief, and not at all overblown. That's a rarity for fantasy cosmologies. After reading through the book, I was ready to play, and in fact my gaming group is preparing to sit down soon and do just that.

This is the way role-playing games should be written and presented. Everything you need, mechanics-wise is presented right here, in this one book. Character creation, magic, combat, monsters, it's all *here*. You don't need to spend $100 just to get enough rules to run a game, like you do with many other systems.

In addition, Basement Games supplies what seems like a marvelous level of support. E.mail them with a question, and the authors will answer it quickly and graciously. They have an online membership program; for $10/year, you'll have access to what promises to be a ton of information on the World of Juravia, including empire packets, mini-modules, new skills and spells and items, you name it. Compare that with another well-known fantasy system, where you'll spend $30 for a world setting alone that has less than half of what Basement Games will have.

Taken as a rulebook, and as a complete package with the rest of Basement's offerings, this book is easily worth five stars. Why, then, did I only give it four?

I subtracted two stars because some of the rules and mechanics are kind of strange, at least to me. When I generated a sample character--which is done with dice rolls, thank you very much; it's good to see somebody stand up to the tyranny of the "character point" advocates, all weirdnesses aside--I came up with a speed of 2. Looking at the table, 2 is 120 yd/min. Running. I'm fat and out of shape, and I walk faster than that. I honestly don't think that an adventurer's top running speed should be a fast walk.

Similarly, your "Luck" factor, which is critical in saving throws, is also randomly determined. I can understand the reasoning behind this, because some people are just luckier than others (at dice, for example :), but it was a little frustrating.

Also, the races seem a little unbalanced; there are so many drawbacks to playing a non-human that I honestly couldn't come up with a valid reason to play anything but a human. That could be just me, though; I tend to bias towards human characters in RPGs. Non-humans in Forge have a combination of saving-throw and racial disadvantages and advantages--but mostly disadvantages. Even just for the role-playing experience, I don't think I want to play a race like the Higmoni, for example, who emit a foul odor. Hmm, or maybe that just hits too close to home :)

Finally, I also couldn't come up with a reason to play a mage. There are so many restrictions to Berethenu Knights (basically, paladins) and other magic users that it seems like it would distract from your enjoyment. For example, most spells have a possibility of harmful side effects, determined randomly, and side effects apply every time you cast that spell. Having said that, though, the magic system is *incredibly* innovative, and I may run a mage or two just to see it in action.

And that's the key. See, this game is a lot better than three stars. Or four stars. Or even five stars. And that's all because it's so darn innovative. I finally settled for four stars, because the game isn't perfect. There are things not to like, even as there are things to be enthusiastic about.

Let me mention the combat system briefly. Here is where the creativity and innovation really shine through for me. In another well-known FRPG, a fighter could theoretically wade into a pack of kobolds and lay waste to them without taking a scratch. In Forge, that almost certainly won't happen, because every character has two defensive values, one that takes into account Dexterity and armor, the other which doesn't. Only one opponent at a time takes on the main, modified defensive value; the rest fight against the unmodified value. As you can imagine, this makes for severe problems when taking on two or more opponents, as it should. My little testing group loved this.

The method of skill advancement is also quite good; you have opportunities after every adventure to increase your skills in certain areas. I don't have enough space to go into it here, unfortunately. The system itself is a hybrid of skills-based RPGs and class-and-level RPGs, and for the most part manages to do both fairly well.

In short, I would recommend purchasing this book; for twenty bucks, you get a complete game system, and how many RPGs offer you that anymore? There are lots of innovations here that make it worth at least reading, even if you never play. For the student of game design, it's a valuable text. Some of the mechanics are strange, but ultimately the sheer originality of the game outweighs what's strange.

Forge: Out of Chaos is the core rulebook for Basement Games' fantasy roleplaying game set in the World of Juravia. A great variety of player character races, a point-based skill system rather than "professions," and new spins on game mechanics such as experience points and spell-casting highlight this worthwhile fantasy milieu.

Open this book and you're immediately surprised: while they were bending game rules, the guys at Basement Games went ahead and broke the usual table-of-contents-etc. order of book creation. Mythology of the world's beginnings fills the first few pages, explaining how the first god Enigwa shaped the sun, the world, the other gods, and finally, humankind. How the squabbling younger gods warped the basic shape of human life into other races and also created monsters, disease, and undead horrors sets the scene for the whole World of Juravia campaign.

There are eleven races for players to pick from, including humans--for me, this and the point-based skill system are among the strongest arguments for trying this system.

Humans are the base from which the other racial statistics vary--but the nonhuman choices are rich indeed. For the combat-lovers, there are the many races created by the fallen god of war: the tall Berserkers, with ridged foreheads (very Klingon in appearence) and extraordinary combat bonuses; the Higmoni, with boar-like features, rapid healing, and infrared vision; and the one-eyed, hairy Ghantu, over seven feet tall with massive combat damage. There are also Dwarves, children of the god of justice and honorable combat: their sturdy physique grants them many bonuses.

For the wizard fanciers, there are the lizard-like Kithsara, children of the god of the elements, with naturally enhanced magic talents and a powerful biting attack; the light-shunning Dunnar, created by the goddess of enchantment, with weird, almost undead appearances, exceptional night vision, and innate abilities to detect magic & shield against mind magic; and your basic, magical Elves.

More unusual character choices are the Merikii, the territorial feathered, flightless children of the goddess of beasts, Sprites (courtesy of the goddess of the harvest), and the shrew-like bipeds called Jher-ems--excellent trackers and natural empaths. Curiously enough, we are not given the mythological origins of either Elves or the Jher-ems--perhaps this is deliberate on Basement Games' part. I'd like to see a module or online rules addition covering that eventually. Basement Games has made its new rules public and free, rather than issuing scads of expensive new editions.

This multi-racial world flows naturally through the World of Juravia modules offered by Basement Games, such as The Vemora, Tales That Dead Men Tell, and The Temple of Nanghetti.

Characters are built by purchasing skills (or acquiring them through opportunities during adventures) and building them through use. If you don't use it, you don't advance in it--a much more logical approach to "experience points" to my mind. Magic itself is treated as a skill, making the profession of mage a result of learned skills (more below on mages). Resulting characters are much richer in abilities than the straightforward "I'm a fighter, I can't do that" model of some systems in which advancement is quick but capabilities are rigidly limited.

Ability to advance in skills in Forge has some built-in brakes, preventing some of these super-monster deity characters that are typical in long AD&D campaigns: in Forge, advancement is not automatic. For "experience points" the player receives chances to dice for skill advances. Also, a skill has a base score which is calculated differently for a high-level character than for a low one, changing the mechanics of advancement when base scores pass 100%. This keeps even a long campaign from acquiring the yawning "easy victory" boredom disease.

Mages, or characters who have acquired the magic skill, are of two types: practitioners of Divine Magic or of Pagan Magic. Mages of Divine Magic are of two types, requiring a bond to one's deity and adherence to particular principles: Berethenu Knights follow the god of justice and must live according to rules of Poverty, Self-sacrifice, and Honor, while Grom Warriors follow the god of war imprisoned in the underworld, and live through Personal Glory, Selfishness, and Pride. Failure to adher to the divine principles causes the Knight or Warrior to lose his magical ability, permanently in the Warrior's case. Pagan magics require spell components to activate spells and may specialize in Beast Magic, Elemental Magic, Enchantment, or Necromancy. Interesting game mechanics add variable destruction/preservation of spell components and the ability to "pump" a spell several levels in strength.

Physcial combat involves two defensive values instead of one, allowing for you AND your armor to be damaged or destroyed. Monsters run a huge gamut from various mythologies to originals from Basement Games. Minotaurs, phoenixes, and dragons share the world with various demons, scaly Mul-Hounds, Rhino Lizards, and elemental creatures such as Frost Heaves.

At Basement Games itself, you will find many additional free campaign materials and may also try the World of Juravia membership program, in which you'll receive Empire packets, ready-to-play mini-adventures, floor plans for temples and dungeons, new monsters, and much, much more.

An excellent game system--well worth it.

--Sharon Daugherty for Skirmisher Online Gaming Magazine

For those who like fast-paced witty dialogue, cruise through Jennifer Labrecque's latest escapade. Jennifer blasts through the cop stereotype. This time the hero is a true Y2K man who deals with a group of incorrigible kids in a funny, sensitive manner. Her kids are right on the money. So plan to sit back and have a good laugh.

"Kids+Cops=Chaos" by Jennifer LaBrecque. Detective Sloane Matthews objects to his latest assignment of going undercover as a nanny to the three young children of suspected Pre-Columbian artifact smuggler Max Cheltham. When he gains employment at the Cheltham home, Sloane, who has no experience with kids, feels like the Ransom of Red Chief until he meets the aunt of his charges. Now he must deal with Aunt Jo Calhoun who has left Sloane's heart in chaos worse than the three caballeros. Humor+fun=entertaining tale.

"Moonstruck" by Sandra Paul. Dee Evans is the perfect executive secretary never letting emotion get in the way of doing the job. So when insanity struck her, she rashly mooned her staid boss, Jason Masters. An outraged Jason orders Dee to learn who would disrespect the boss even if he thinks the butt looked cute. Like any good secretary, Dee figures how hard can it be to keep her boss in line, but love interferes with her office duties making that one impulsive act seem conservative. Readers will cherish this amusing romance.

Both Duet tales are quite humorous as situations impact the lead males into realms they never faced before. Jennifer LaBrecque and Sandra Paul maintain the amusing yet high quality of this strong imprint.

Harriet Klausner

Hoel, Port and Stone put together a three volume series on probability, statistics and stochastic processes. In 1975 I took the first year graduate course in stochastic processes and my Professor at Stanford Yash Mittal elected this text for the course out of a number of possibilities. This book was particularly good for an introduction to Markov chains, the backbone to stochastic processes. I learned a lot from it and found it easy to use as a text. I then bought the other to books to complete the trilogy. At the time Hoel and Port were at UCLA and I believe Stone was already at Berkeley.

This is an excellent text for a graduate course that stands the test of time. If it has been revised, I am not familiar with the new edition and any possible changes that may have occurred.

This is the last volume of a series of three excellent texts by Hoel/Port/Stone on probability, statistics and stochastic processes. The way they write should be the standard for all of other authors. Concise, clear and intuitive. Lots of worked examples and exercises with answers help readers go through those topics. If you are lack of knowledge in probability and want to know stochastic processes or even financial mathematics. These three books can be your short cut.

This is the last volume of a series of three excellent texts on probability, statistics and stochastic processes. The way they write should be the standard for all of other authors. Concise, clear and intuitive. Lots of worked examples and exercises with answers help readers go through those topics. If you are lack of knowledge in probability and want to know stochastic processes or even financial mathematics, these three books can be your short cut.

No question about, when Paul Rand (and others)made the different logos that are in book, it worked like a charm. For the 70s and 80s, that is. There are lessons to be learned but the book feels stuck in the timeperiod 1970-80. So before buying it you should check it out first.

This book is a wonderful source of inspiration, worth owning for the essay "Good Design is Goodwill" alone. The text appears at first to be slight, but will leave your psyche feeling nourished; Rand's writing style was very much like his graphic style: it's economical, but every word is perfectly chosen and placed.

Unlike many books, this book allows you to practice your knowledge of production systems. This book is a good addition to any production systems (production inventory control, production operations management) class. It provides a good, basic overview of many of the principles needed for the production control professional. The main advantage of this book is that it has a diskette with it to allow practice of the principles. A tool called ProDSS is included to aid in many of the calculations using Excel macros. These calculations include forecasting and labor requirements. There is also a simulation to evaluate your decisions against a factory environment. However, you must have the instructor text with diskette to utilize this feature.

I consider this text an excellent choice for the basics of production systems. It is also an excellent addition to any college level production systems class (although I really think another text like Factory Physics should be used also to provide more details to much of the content.)