I had seen this book at the library, and being a fan of Dante's Inferno, I checked it out. I was a bit disconcerted when I realized not all the stories take place in or near Hell, as the title suggests. Most of them occur here on Earth, where the characters are in a metaphorical hell. Surprise! Only a handful of the stories are worthy of note, including Gene Wolfe's and James Longrove's. The stories take place either in Hell, Chicago, or London. I found this last fact sometimes discouraging--i.e., I ended up skimming the story.

I recommend you get this book from the library before you spend the cash at a store.

Can't put it down. The intro promises that all the stories will be related to Dante's Inferno theme of Hellish portals on Earth, but they aren't all on that theme (in fact, one is a remake of the Christmas Carol). Scary and thought-provoking none-the-less.

I can't agree with the other reviewer. I found many of these stories scary precisely *because* they were based in metaphorical hells - hells we might actually live in, rather than encounter after death. Also, many stories were set in hells that were not on Earth but were also far from the fire-and-brimstone stereotype. The story "Office Space" alone makes this book worth buying.

If this book does not become a classic, I will be shocked and appalled. The murder of political rock musicians has long been a subject of speculation. Wish I had a nickel for every time the death of Morrison or Lennon was brought up, followed by the refrain "I'll bet the government did it." Constantine not only lays out the killing program and operations in detail, he provides the intelligence community documents in which the deaths of outspoken musicians were mandated. Who can doubt it when the CIA's own files contain orders to kill? Some programmed zombies out there subject to media manipulation will have a hard time with the many epiphonies that Covert War offers, but reality is often hard to take, even many years after the fact. This is a dispiriting, and as Constantine keeps reminding us, fascist culture, but much needed reforms will never come about until people who have become complacent and satisfied with the status quo gather as much courage as writers like Constantine possesses in his little finger.The debunkers can eat cake - I'll take this feast of buried truths any day over the pablum the media turns out to quell the national conscience and turn us all into mindless ultraconformists. This is the dark side of the air-conditioned nightmare that is Amerika. A fine book, recommended to everyone who loves rock music.

I have never picked up a book on rock n' roll deaths quite like this one. Each chapter is a gold mine of information, teeming with fresh insights on the deaths of John Lennon, Tupac Shakur, etc. There are many who would like to silence Constantine, and so some reviews will no doubt appear here criticizing the book erroneously. David Goldberg's review, for instance (above) makes false claims. This IS Alex Constantine's best work to date, and that is saying a great deal, because he is the most articulate anti-fascist researcher around. This book is long overdue, and yet it is far ahead of its time. Bravo, Alex, on an excellent read.

The revolution will not be televised, Alex Constantine is a writer who is exposing the right wing fasict (terrorist) intelligence agencies of the USA. Read this and you will be enlightened. And to those who call it Conspiracy theories??? These people are brainwashed by the corporate-owned media. ...

This book is what it claims to be - a guide to the way Indonesian is really spoken. But there isn't really a lot of language contained in the book. It is not a substitute for a text book or a phrase book, but it can add nicely to what you are already doing withthe language. It includes a brief grammar and pronunciation section atthe beginning, however, it does not indicate in the text the difference in the the pronunciation of "e" which is unpredictable. Also, I was very surprised to see that the author has omitted the common slang words for girl and boy "cewek" and "cowok" respectively. On reading some of the other reviews, you may getthe feeling that this book is going to get you into trouble if you use the phrases. It is made very clear which phrases will get you into a fight and which are obscene, so it is not really a problem. You can use a lot of the phrases and sound natural. I would say that about two thirds of the phrases can be used without a problem and the other third are there for your amusement. Furthermore, you can buy this book in the knowledge that the information contained therein is correct. This is something that, having read the reviews of Constantines's other books, and through personal experience, is not always the case.

An excellent introduction to slang and idiomisms, use it carefully and you'll have a superb time. I tried it in many bars in Jakarta and Bali to great effect.

I am glad I took this book with me on my trip to Malaysia and Indonesia. It teaches you the basic language that people actually speak, and not the language of the textbooks. What is good is that it also has many slang words and phrases that you can't find anywhere else, though they range from mild to very strong! Also sexual expressions that you should use with care. But the main thing is: This book is great fun.

Garth Ennis' work on Hellblazer is some of the best in the medium, but this trade horribly dissapoints. Any no name writer could spin this tale of John Constantine, it's suprising to see the Ennis name on it. Constantine himself loses most of what made him so cool in other Ennis works... He becomes an everyman in this book, a nobody with nothing so cool about him that someone would want to write a book about. But sadly enough, Ennis has done it, and it's a stinker.

I am sad to say that I didn't enjoy this as much as other Hellblazer TPBs that I have read. The art was OK, but the storytelling was jumpy. I love the character of John Constantine, though. They shouldn't 'Americanize' him with Nic Cage in the movie.

I have to believe that whoever didn't like this collection either doesn't get it or refuses to accept it. To be fair, the opening story is a little out of the ordinary for the usually London-based Constantine. Whereas Garth's other spectacular book PREACHER embraces the American Myth, "Damnation's Flame" thouroughly reveals it for what it is...a myth. Caught in a sliver of Hell, John encounters slaughtered Indians, soldiers who died for nothing, streets covered in crack, and a positively wanker of a president.

The other stories aren't earth-shattering, but they are enjoyable. John visits his old friend Brendan and meets Kit in a flashback to his days at Ravenscar (the mental hospital he was in and out of for three years). John also meets Brendan, now a hard-drinking ghost, in the present. And back in London, Chas tells his mates about one of the many times Constantine was apparently killed, and how this time there was even a funeral for him. The entire Ennis cast was present (Header, Kit, Brendan, Rick the Vic) as well as the Delano cast (Ray, Chas, Ritchie, Cheryl), and Moore's little-seen Emma.

By the way, if the sight of John F. Kennedy walking around with his hand pressed against the hole in his head to keep his brains from falling out isn't enough incentive to buy this book, check out his best line from the story:

"To be seen in a historical context as the conscience of the United States is not the honor one might think. It is, in fact, a burden, and one that I was...at the time...loath to shoulder. My chief concerns were, to set the record straight, immediate political survival, and regular extramarital sex with as many women as possible.

The romanization in this book is virtually incomprehensible. A better, more consistant romanization would great. Hangul for those who know it would be even better. As it is, some native speakers I showed this to had a hard time figuring out what some of the stuff is. The poor choice of Korean notation makes this book nearly useless for figuring out many words and hence only 1 star. More comprehensive notes on terms would be great too instead of mainly a massive vocab list that likely has many errors and misses many nuances.

Overall this book includes a wide variety of up-to-date expressions and slang. I had heard many of the phrases in Korea, but until reading this book I didn't know what they meant, proof that this book is just as useful for advanced students as well as for pure beginners. My main gripe is with romanization. For example, Korean has an "uh" sound and an "oh" sound; in this book they are all written the same way. Also, the author has no knowledge of Korean grammar (e.g. he says "mashida" literally means "liquid"), which gives me less confidence to use phrases I have never heard before.

This has more of the more up-to-date slangs present in Korea! It also includes many of the words that have double meanings, just as we do in English. Many dictionaries don't carry the alternative meanings that is used now, so this book really helps both English and Korean speakers who can pronounce the words correctly. Finally! I was able to use it extensively to communicate with many of my students and on my trips to Korea, and my younger cousins were able to use it to communicate back with me and others. This is the beginning of a great slang library!

After having lived in Japan and interacted with Japanese on a daily basis, as well as a good dose of Japanese television and movies, I can tell you that most of the phrases in the book are just not used, are probably outdated, or even taken from obscure dialects. If you are looking for a good book on Japanese 'slang', I'd reccomend "Kansai Japanese" by Peter Tse - while not really 'slang' per se, it is one of the most interesting and lively dialects in Japan, and more useful than any of the 'slang' found in this book..

Japanese Street Slang.. vulgar, outdated, and just not slang. The author expresses that the so called "slang" of Japan is something that is not acknowledged by those who profess or study the language professionally. While the purpose is interesting, the proof however is not convincing. I doubt the existance of a Japanese slang like that portrayed in this book. Besides many horribly dirty, gross, outdated, and innaccurate words in this book, there is not much else of practical use. I strongly discourage the purchase of this book for communication in Japanese because most of the words are not even used anymore or are not known by many Japanese speakers. Few words are of much use, and those which are have no distinctions from the other not so quite useful words.

I think the author either made a profoundly deep excavation into the tiny corners of the Japanese language, or just some of the material is fabricated. If you read this book, please keep in mind that many of the words or phrases are not used in everyday Japanese speech. I do not reccomend this book.

This book has been moderately useful because it gives you vocabulary that makes Japanese interesting and come alive. Most Japanese books don't include the slang spoken on the streets, which essentially is the way people speak. Try listening to TV in Japan and you'll understand why Berlitz insturction gets you no where in your quest to learn the language. No one speaks the way you will learn through books. This helps and does have some important slangish grammer focuses like the use of "me" for males from the polite "watakushi", the usualy "watashi", the boyish "boku", and the rough "ore".

However, there are downsides to this book. It is terribly out-dated and with slang, you need to be on top of the latest phrases. I would give examples, but they would probably be offensive. More research and a new edition is needed. Moreover, the explainations of the words and expressions are too long: more vocabulary could be included instead of a mass of explaination. Some slang I learned from Japanese speakers was from the 80's and I got ridiculous smiles from locals. They hadn't heard "that" in years.

One last word...the words in the book can be offensive and try them out with younger friends. Unko means "poo-poo" in Japanese, not the offensive 4-letter word the book says it means. Kids use it as well as wildlife shows. A lot of other words in here have debatable meanings, but the majority are interesting.

Here is a theory which claims to have scientific backing but doesn't give any, because there isn't any. The author claims that unnamed "scientists" have produced "extensive evidence" of the "genetic link" between personality and blood groups. This would be news to the scientific community worldwide, which has found no such link. He even gets his basic facts wrong, for instance saying that "if your parents are A's, so are you." (The truth is that offspring of A parents can be A or O.)Most of the book reads like a teenybopper astrology column, telling O's they are easygoing and funloving, A's they are athletic, AB's they are creative, etc. Something for everybody, all of it imaginary! You might as well save your money and read your horoscope, or tea leaves, or patterns on your wall. This book will be useful only to science teachers and other thinking people, as an example of how much fluff is out there to entertain the gullible public.

You seem to be a type-A person. Your type tends to become overly defensive, which explains your unwillingness to accept the concepts that this book has taught you. Try not to take it so personally. It is very sound advice, to be taken with a grain of salt like ANY advice you may come across during your journeys through this uncertain life, young Jedi. Distrust breeds anger, anger leads to hate, and hate brings...

suffering.

May the Force be with you, peeved Jedi.

You will not become an expert on bloodtypes or personality traits simply by reading this book. The book, however, will give you some general understanding of why people behave, study, work or play differently.

After finishing the book, you will be surprised how many times you will guess your friends' bloodtypes correctly and how much you can tell about their personalities.

I would recommend this book to any of my friends, particulary those in the HR field.

well, i asked my vietnamese friends their opinions...they said the language was not accurate. but the choice of terms was humerous.

this book deals with slang which must vary greatly...I don't think it really deals with an regeonalisms, it just has some cute phrases...dirty words, etc. that you won't find elsewhere. perhaps it's a good idea, but could be better done.