In
the current dino-mania, fossil mammals are overshadowed. Too bad;
there are many curious and wonderful creatures in the mammalian
lineage. Yet, few well-illustrated popular books on the subject
exist. Bjorn Kurten's _Before the Indians_ had blurry charcoal
drawings. The late George Gaylord Simpson was an authority on
prehistoric South American mammals, but little more than a doodler
with a brush. And Colin Tudge's wonderful _The Time Before History_
had no pictures at all.

So this book is most welcome. Mauricio
Anton is a gifted artist. Cats and catlike creatures such as
nimravids, homotheriums, saber-tooths, dirk-tooths, all seem to live
again in these color and b/w pictures. The only beastie which is
unconvincingly rendered is the poorly-known _Thylacoleo_, the
marsupial lion.

Through the reproductions and discussions of these
and other animals, one gets a lesson in how different animals adopt
similar body plans, based on their ecological niche. Large top
predators are robust, while middle niche hunters are more
gracile. Thus, we are told, _Thylacoleo_, the largest nimravids, and
the largest saber-tooths resemble lions, while smaller predators
resemble cheetahs and leopards. All in all, a must for big cat- and
paleontology- lovers, the latter who may be getting tired of
dinosaurs!

Not for the squimish... you will never let your kids out of your sight again!!

John Paul Allen takes you through 7 decades, many
lives And one very evil soul!!

Not for the squimish this book is scarey and
disturbing.

You will never let you kids out of your site again.

-Kingdom of Shadows Review

Narrator Harry Crane is an old man looking back on a pivotal, traumatic, boyhood summer, which begins with his discovery of a "colored" woman's mutilated body by the river near his rural Texas home in the midst of the Depression, 1933.

From the first his constable father's groping investigation is thwarted by a prevailing white apathy, even hostility, and by his own lack of expertise. More bodies are found but nothing is done until a white woman is murdered and rising hysteria leads to a cataclysm of violence, which sends Harry's father into a spiral of depression and defeat.

Fascinated by the crimes, his fears bolstered by folklore, Harry probes at the edges, eavesdropping and doing his own secret investigating, together with his younger sister Thomasina. Lansdale, author of numerous horror, suspense, and Western novels ("Blood Dance," "Rumble Tumble") heats up a cauldron of ugly racial tensions, country superstitions, casual brutality and ignorance in the bucolic Texas lowlands.

Dark and poignant, as much coming-of-age novel as mystery, the narrative explores a boy's relations with his adult family, particularly his father, and his grappling with a new understanding of the world's venality and depravity. Harry's rural voice rings true and the realistically halting pace accelerates to an explosive climax.

When you get done with this book you'll probably think, "I can't believe I just read that." As sick as it can be, you'll keep turning the pages wondering what else Lee could possibly do next.

If you like your stories tight, blunt, and graphic, this book is definitely one to have on your shelf.

The descriptions of the ancient alien machinery is uninspired, and the beauty of the world that comes across in the game is noticeably absent. Brink's crystal madness is understated, and instead of becoming a raving, screaming madman, as he does in the game, he sort of states that he has a problem with Boston Low and lets it go at that. I was extremely disappointed in this book.

Now, down to the book. I like Alan Dean Foster's work and I've been pleasantly surprised by his work in the past, but this book changed a few things from the game that lost it a few points in my mind. Boston and Maggie]s roles have been reversed. Boston is no longer the joker and teaser of the party, Maggie is. The character of Brink no longer goes crazy over the crystals, he is much more subdued which worked against the tension of the story. The beauty of Cocytus felt somewhat diminished as well. Apart from that, the book is certainly worth a read if you want to get a little more background of the game.

I will be very disappointed if Steven Spielberg doesn't get around to making this one day. I'm not usually a fan of his work, but he did a great job on "Minority Report" last year, and I'm convinced he could do great justice to this tale. It has the potential to be timeless.

Alex meets an old friend Jere Sloan and the woman he loves Charlotte "Charlie: Calder. Charlie instantly wants to share sex with the musician. They go home, leaving Jere behind. Alex's brief elation dissipated once he reads "The Aegrisomnia" and becomes involved with the One-Who-Tempts, a shade residing between the living and the dead. The malevolent spirit tempts Alex to surrender his soul and destroy everyone he cherishes.

Nancy A Collins does for voodoo what Anne Rice has done for vampires. The characters are fully developed making them seem authentic though pawns in a cosmic chess game played by essences much older than mankind. TEMPTER is a temptation that horror fans will want to repeatedly reread.

Harriet Klausner

The book is a good narrative history of the campaign and one can learn about the ebbs and flows of the military strength of both sides and the key events. The book is now a little dated and probably the best one volume history is When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army stopped Hitler by David Glanz.

The reason why it is dated relates to the partial opening of the former Soviet Archives which now allow for a better understanding of what happened. One example of this is the Mars operation, an attack which was launched on Army Group Centre by General Zhukov at the same time as operation Saturn the attack on the Sixth Army at Stalingrad. Operation Mars was a complete disaster. An initial penetration was cut off and the Soviets lost 200,000 men. After the war Zhukov covered up this failure for reasons of pure vanity. Clark in his history accepts the disinformation which was put out by Zhukov that it was a feint attack to prevent Army Group Centre reinforcing the Sixth Army.

Other material has led to modern historians having a better understanding of the Stalingrad campaigns and the Battle of Kursk. In the past there has been a considerable debate about whether Paulus should have broken out from the Stalingrad encirclement. Glanz has shown that this was not a realistic possibility as the Sixth Army was only supplied on a shoe string and had low stocks of ammunition and petrol prior to the Soviet attack.

Despite all of this Clarks book is interesting. As most people would be aware after the war the German Generals in their memoirs tried to deflect blame from themselves onto Hitler. Clark was one of the first writers to come to a more objective analysis of Hitler's role. (Although ironically this could be for the wrong reasons. In his diaries he confesses to being sympathetic to the Nazis.)

Author Clark covers several major fronts during the German attack on Russia, and at the same time provides some excellent analysis on the battles and the infrastructure, both political and military, that supported them. The book is very readable and helps provide a clearer understanding of that piece of history from the attack on Soviet territory to the Soviets entering Berlin as Hitler took his life. Therefore the 5 stars.

Although Alan Clark presents his reasoning for what he chose to report on, I, the reader, still felt a little left out. - I expected more of Moscow, on the one hand, and more analysis on the Russian political picture towards the end, on the other. In some cases, Clark would lead us somewhere, but then not follow through. Thus the 3 stars.

Overall, however, this book is must reading to the World War II scholar. In keeping with where Clark leads us (to Stalingrad and Soviet commandos' street fighting), I would recommend reading Commandos from the Sea : Soviet Naval Spetsnaz in World War II (Naval Institute Special Warfare Series) by Iurii Strekhnin, et al - For a broader view of where Clark takes us in his detailed "Barbarossa" analysis, I would strongly suggest the reader pick up a copy of Why the Allies Won by Richard Overy.

As other reviewers have noted, this collection is not made up of all winners. In any collection of nearly 40 stories, there will be some poorer stories. While this collection does not have any bad stories, there are several short vignettes that perhaps should have been left out of this collection.

Several of the stories in this collection left me reeling. 'Lot Five...' is a marvelous story that really defies description. There are several acolytes of a cult-like leader who are attempting to wend their way through a maze of doors, hallways, and security guards to reach the guru. I loved this story. It was weird and horrific at the same time.

Another of my favorites was '...And the Angel with Television Eyes', a story about a tele-screen actor who's been plagued with bizarre dreams. He wakes one morning to find an iron griffin on his balcony. The griffin tells him that he's being summoned by some sort of ethereal lords. Before the actor can act on the summons he's kidnapped by hideous harpies and taken to a rooftop balcony where a metal man, Lord Thanatos, tells him that the griffin is attempting to trick the actor. A large battle ensues in which the actor learns of his true identity and the large mystery behind the events of his morning. I am excited to hear that Mr. Shirley has recently completed a novel expansion of this story, due in 2002.

As the title of the collection indicates, many of the stories in this collection are very weird. In fact, the stories are organized by their weirdness. The first section is Really Weird Stories. The second is Really, Really Weird Stories...and so on.

Those of us who love weird fiction, and you know who you are, should pick up this collection. It's full of great weirdness. I should point out that many of the stories in this collection contain explicit sexual content, so if that's not your thing, stay away. On the whole, I found this collection to be a mind-blowing trip through the works of a brilliant author, John Shirley. Immediately after finishing this book, I jumped online and ordered several other Shirley titles. I fully expect to enjoy them as much as I did this one. Recommended.