Finally, an accurate account of the drug situation that took place around Miami, Bahamas and originating in Columbia. Interesting to read of the stand the Bahamian government played in all the dealings. An excellent read!

While reading the book you feel like you are there. Excellent book

"Mandrake" (I use the UK title of this book.) is a couple notches better than "Flint". While that was sometimes very confusing, with all the flitting back from past to present, and all the to-ing and fro-ing of the various fraudulent monies, and lots and lots of characters who all seem to meld into one. This one is far better.

It's still confusing, at times, but not nearly as much. The writing is brilliant...its incredibly compelling and powerful, written in a tense, brutally efficient and to-the-point style. The book speeds all over the globe, from the US to Croatia and the pace never lets up.

The characters are mercifully fewer, and are slightly better developed. the plot is complex and interesting. I can certainly reccomend this book.

The Financial Strike Force is an international organization that focuses on money laundering on a global scale. Grace Flint, FSF Assistant Director is poised to bring down German crime czar Karl Groeber but it turns sour when an agent is killed. Grace takes this personally because she personally recruited the operative.

After going over the failed investigation, it becomes apparent that someone with insider knowledge sold them out. That person is Grace's husband Ben. It turns out that there is no record to prove that Grace's husband ever existed, which means he was a spy designed to get close to Flint. When Ben causes Grace's father grievous injuries she vows to hunt him down and bring him to justice even if it means going through Karl Groeber to do it.

Grace Flint is a flawed imperfect heroine who endears herself to the audience because of her willingness to take responsibility for her actions. Except for her, it's hard to tell the heroes from the villains in FLINT'S LAW because most of the players have their own agenda and alliances. The story line compulsively compels readers to finish this tale in one sitting. It will be very hard to wait for the next installment in this dynamic new series.

Harriet Klausner

Though it has been some twenty years since I read this book I have found it impossible to forget, a book that changed what I know. It would be, I imagine of interest to students of engineering and flight as well as a cautionary business tale. Though it is a nonfictional account of the jumbo trijet race is often reads like a whodunit and occassionally rises to the heights of great literature,e.g. describing a 747's take-off roll as " a cathedral in motion."

First published in 1976, and out of print fairly soon after (accidents fade quickly from public memory) this book is an exceptionally comprehensive and researched work focusing on the Turkish Airlines DC-10 crash of May 1974.

How did 346 people die such a tragic and somewhat brutal death in a forest just outside of Paris?

This book not only answers that question specifically in terms of the structural failure of the airliner, but perhaps just as importantly discusses the events leading up to the crash, and why and how it could and should have been avoided.

I must give full credit to the (British) Sunday Times Insight team for producing what I consider one of the most exceptional works of Journalism of the 20th century.

Most Engineering Students and indeed Engineers will find this book absolutely fascinating. Students of ethics might find it of considerable interest as well, as should the general reader.

*Destination Disaster* is a remarkable book of the politics in the (wide-body) commercial-aviation industry, and an accounting of the political warfare between McDonald Douglas and Lockheed Aircraft to gain acceptance of their designs during the early competition for wide-body commercial aircraft. One company, McDonald, pushed hard in Washington to prevent the technically more-advanced L1011 from being accepted in the commercial airline industry, only to see its candidate, the DC-10, later prove to be a safety nightmare. It is a spell-binding account of the troubles that ensued. In the end, Douglas' effort helped prevent acceptance of the L1011 for large-scale orders, and the plane ended production far too soon due to lowered order rate.

This out-of-print book is a must-read chronical of what happens behind the scenes in the highly competitive airline industry. It is well researched and written.

Many early novels, moreso a first attempt, are usually far from successful. Even great writers have early works that they would rather not be reminded of - Follett's 'Modigliani Scandal, Le Carre's 'Call For The Dead'. That makes this book - a spy thriller in the vein of Le Carre- that much more impressive. Police and money laundering rackets have replaced Le Carre's Spies and Cold War animosities.

Detectives Grace Flint and Paul Pendle are on an sting operation hoping to nab serial rapist Frank Harling and his lawyer Clayton Buller. Doesn't happen, What happens instead is Harling smells a rat. Pendle is shot dead and Grace is gunbutted and beaten and stomped to within an inch of her life - the book is violent - but not needlessly so. Buller, overweight and now overexerted from the beating he just administered, collapses behind the wheel of his car, dead from heart failure, Harling escapes. Grace convalesces slowly, physically she heals, mentally she remains seared, her shattered face mends. She is 'Amazing Grace' for her recuperative powers but moreso because of her determination to return to the Major Crimes Division.

What is truly amazing about the book is that as detailed and developed a character as Grace is, she's not really the main character. On a case which takes her to Miami, Grace eventually picks up Harlings trail - and disappears. It's time for the equally complex and detailed character - Harry Cohen to make his entry, and find Grace. Cohen is reminiscent of well known characters from this genre - he reminds me of George Smiley or Deighton's Harry Palmer - men who seemed like milk toast on the surface but underneath had some steel strengths.

Thoroughly enjoyable. Hurry, write another.

A foul windy and wet day and 700 odd miles before me was not conducive to a happy day. So I put the first Flint cassette in to the car player. The day took on a new meaning. I was gripped by this extraordinary exciting story. I had already read the book it made no difference to the excitement.The miles fell away even idiot drivers were an irrelevance as I became immersed in the world of Grace Flint, a British under cover detective inspector, who is so real but goes through the kind of reality no one in their right mind would want to experience. It is a very special story and the plot is cunningly crafted by Paul Eddy. I thought ahead but each time the story proved me wrong as I was lead from one direction to another. The story has pathos and incites rage(not traffic) then laughter then satisfaction. It is a very stimulating story with a heroine of courage and beauty, the latter from the delicate hands of a plastic surgeon's scapel as a result of a savage beating. One word -terrific.

When a friend recommends a book you politely listen as they talk about it. When they continue to rave about it you get the book.

One might think, "Oh No, another cop story." However, in this case I and my friends haven't seen or heard (audio books) such realistic excitement since Joseph Wambaugh hit the scene. That's because we're cops and we don't get excited unless it's good, it's real, it can happen, it has happened, been there, done that, seen it and it tells it like it is.

While reading this book you become Grace Flint's partner, the one that can only listen and watch. The one wondering how she'll react, how the rest of the team will react. The action, the plot, all of it invokes feelings that can cause you to leave sweaty prints on the pages.

The book moves fast when it should. It has been said to be slow in certain areas, but in those areas you obtain the information you will need to prepare for the action, just like you would on the job.

Paul Eddy has done a splendid job on the book and Grace Flint. I wonder, have the names and places been changed like Jack Webb would say, is it really fiction?

Treat yourself to what will be one of the best books that your likely to ever read. Prepare yourself to read a book that is hard to put down and will leave you wanting more Flint when you've finshed.

AKA the NDT Handbook, the NDT Handbook, the NDT Handbook, the NDT Handbook, the NDT Handbook, the NDT Handbook, the NDT Handbook, the NDT Handbook, the NDT Handbook, the NDT Handbook, the NDT Handbook, the NDT Handbook, the NDT Handbook

"the prophet who prophesies will be recognized as one truly sent by the Lord ONLY IF HIS PREDICTION COMES TRUE."(Jer.28:9)

This is the inerrant litmus test of Bible prophecy: 100% Definitive Factuality in ADVANCE of freely chosen agent decisions, 0% error rate. Openism is DOA,AWOL,Mene-Mene-Tekel-Uparsin at this point! The handwriting is on the wall!

"Hear the Word of the Lord all you exiles in Babylon. This is what the Lord Almighty says about Ahab and Zedekiah who are prophesying lies to you in My Name. 'I will hand them over to King Neb. and he will put them to death before your very eyes. Because of them, all the exiles from Judah in Babylon will use this curse: The Lord treat you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon burned in the fire.'"

An irrefutable case of EXHAUSTIVE DEFINITIVE DIVINE FOREKNOWN FACTUALITY about the future free decisions of Ahab; Zedekiah; King of Babylon specifically using fire for execution; and all exiles using the exact, precisely predicted curse based on the free decisions of Ahab, Zedekiah, King (all inextricably interlinked) in the OMNI-Mind of God, freely played out in time

Openism's 'extensive indefinite forecasting' cannot account for such prophecies. (Too many to list here - see separate reviews for 'Beyond the Bounds'; 'God Under Fire'; 'Bound Only Once'.)

Why must Gregory Boyd set up a hyper-Calvinist view as straw antagonist, then make his 'case' for why his Open Theory is the 'most Biblical' (compared to what??)? Ajarism (Free Futures are seen by God as through an ajar door darkly) can't help but seem more palatable by comparison with the ultra-Calvinist
'Closed door known but to God' or Liberal Process 'Wide-Open door unknown to God'.

The nebulous argument for 'Infinite Intelligence' to compensate for 'Non-infinite knowledge of free futures' (known as Divine Nescience,i.e Ignorance) is verbal legerdemain for denial of genuine, meaningful OMNI-science as the Bible teaches.

God is, according to Boydian theory, MULTI-scient or MAXIMI-scient (God knows a lot, more than anyone, the maximum logically knowable, but not quite EVERYTHING as the Bible says).

Instead, Gregory makes God out to be of such great intellect to work around His deemed lack of Infinite Foreknowledge of all future mortal free Shalls and Shall nots, Wills and Will nots. Boyd invents a new sub-Attribute to compensate for eviscerating another Attribute to allow God to come out O.K. in the end.

But it backfires. It only creates a deity in a limited human's intellectual image. In exchange for the Biblical Jesus of Infinite awareness, foresight, prescience and precise knowledge of all Space-Time events/decisions from Eternity Past to Eternity Future and all in between, we are left with a supreme weather forecaster or chess grandmaster. However as we all know, weathermen are often surprised, wrong, erroneous and mistaken. Garry Kasparov and IBM's Deep Blue have both lost against each other. Is this the sort of Jesus that Gregory Boyd sincerely believes in, trying to persuade others to accept,too?

'Infinite Intelligence' is woeful consolation for 'knowing' free agent futures as predominantly possibles, maybes, contingents, risky what-ifs, potentials, probables, likelihoods,
projections, indeterminates, variables, random chance, unpredictabilities, uncertainties that may after all not materialize to divine expectations/forecasts.

It is here that the equally nebulous Boydian concept of 'Theo-Repentism' must be triggered to explain how Jesus handles free futures that don't work out as anticipated. When confronted with new information, or in relating to free decision makers, the Eternal Lord Jesus then changes the divine mind, repents (of wrong-doing, wrong-guessing,wrong-imagining, wrong-thinking,wrong-prognosticating, wrong-speaking,wrong-predicting, wrong-prophesying, etc.) or regrets, rues prior decisions based on incomplete data, wishing they could be do-overs or in need of retraction or repair. Infinite Intelligence kicks in at this stage for 'divine damage control' to salvage a draw and prevent checkmate from all the free-ranging opponents who act/decide contrary to the limits of divine predictability in the chaotic chessgame/meteorology of life.

Sound puzzling? It is. Especially when you read the seminal book by Gregory Boyd that started it all: 'Trinity & Process' (see separate review), based on Hartshorne's 'Omnipotence & Other Theological Mistakes' (see review where you discover that Boyd's Omnipotence is no less limited than his Omniscience).

It seems OMNI (Latin for All) cannot mean OMNI anymore, at least for Open Theorists. What then becomes of OMNI-presence? Infiniteness? Eternality?
Transcendence? OMNI-sapience (ALL-Wise)? What happens to all the Historic-Evangelically understood Trinitarian Attributes? How are they Openistly redefined/updated for modern consumption? Only God knows (or, maybe He doesn't? Stay tuned!)

Most unfortunate that books like this which incorporate non-evangelical 'theology' alongside historic Christianity are distributed for uncritical consumption by a non-discerning readership. Seeking wider respectability, Openism/Ajar Theory merely shows with every published page how far Boyd-Pinnock-Sanders have headed AWAY from the Bible and TOWARD a vivid, free agent imagination a la borrowed elements of Hartshorne's Processistic, non-Scriptural philosophic fabrications.

The LORD said it best in Job 42:7 "I am angry with you..because you have not spoken of Me what is right."

This book rates 3 stars for including 3 Biblical/Evangelical views, but subtract stars for Gregory's use of contemporary philosophic presuppositions applied to selective misinterpreted Bible texts to provide a marginal audience the latest heterodox option to counter the straw antagonist of hyper-Calvinism.

Ultimately can't persuade in any cogent, balanced, unbiased way.

The OMNITrue One Who has Eternal Exhaustively Divine Definitive Foreknown Factuality of ALL Free Futures, Infinitely Uninformable ,Unrepentable,Inerrant, Incorrectible, Infallible, OMNI-Present (Ever-Present I AM in ALL point-moments of space-time: Length-Width-Height-Past-Present-Future), Eternal, Limitlessly Aware,OMNI-Relational,Interactive LORD Jesus said,

"Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?"

Just one Scripture from Jesus settles the Foreknowledge Issue once for all:

"I AM TELLING YOU NOW BEFORE IT HAPPENS SO THAT WHEN IT DOES HAPPEN YOU WILL BELIEVE THAT I AM HE." (John 13:19)
Not forecasting, possibilizing, but TELLING. Not if, but WHEN.
Not may,might,could,perhaps should, but DOES happen. 0% Uncertain. 100% definite. That's genuine Omniscience. Amen.

Interesting that this book would present as one of the "evangelical" options of what God knows and when He can know it:
the curious notion that God possesses EXTENSIVE INDEFINITE FORECASTING (a la weather prognosticator or chess grandmaster) subject to all the iffiness and unknowable randomness of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and Chaos Theory working themselves out in a fallen world unbeknownst in advance to the Creator! Boyd's presupposition is THE FUTURE DOES NOT EXIST YET, EVEN FOR THE OMNISCIENT/ETERNAL CREATOR GOD, except as mere possibilities yet to be freely actualized.
Therefore He is the deity of what is humanly,logically possible.

Boyd's Neo-Processistic philosophical theorizing becomes more incoherent with each book. How can God know how He will definitely act in the future if He doesn't know how sinners and demons will definitely behave? If our decisions don't exist until we freely make them, how can God's decisions exist until He freely makes His in response to ours in response to others in response to the devil's in response to... ad infinitum?? If all God can know are ultimately possibles (not actuals, definites), then ALL He can know about future agency is INDEFINITE (MAYBE). Thus Boyd teaches EXTENSIVE INDEFINITE FORECASTING - which he calls Omniscience! Talk about verbal legerdemain! God can only know what is humanly,finitely knowable

A careful study of the Bible shows rather the truth that there is NO LIMIT to the extent (past,present,future) of God's knowledge. It is ETERNALLY EXHAUSTIVE DIVINE DEFINITIVE FOREKNOWN FACTUALITY OF ALL FREE FUTURES-OMNIPRESCIENCE
His understanding is INFINITE. That God definitely knows in advance precisely what sinners and demons WILL/WILL NOT do doesn't mean therefore that they are thus forced to, or thereby lose their agency/moral responsibility. Neither is God to blame for the foreknown exercise of their agency. He retains full final say, ultimate control and awareness as definite in advance of ALL they will choose to do. Because some mortal minds can't reconcile this profundity, Open Theory (Ajarism) is the misbegotten result. With all due respect to sincere but sincerely wrong Gregory Boyd, there is little about Neo-processism or EIF (EXTENSIVE INDEFINITE FORECASTING) that can be understood in any sense as Biblical or Orthodox Truth about God's Attributes such as OMNISCIENCE/OMNIPRESENCE. God is ever PRESENT at every point/moment of space/time, including ALL the FUTURE. The I AM is ALREADY THERE/THEN waiting for us just as He IS with us HERE/NOW.

Otherwise well-written. 1 star for attempting to resurrect the long-discredited 'Nescience' pseudo-theology of the late 19th Century (with some elements of 16th Cent. Socinianism) via a self-refuting misunderstanding of how God interacts with ALL FUTURE MORTAL AGENCY: Comprehensively, and for Open Theorists, Incomprehendible.

Most of the reviews on this page miss the boat entirely. Rather than actually reviewing or recommending DF the reviewers are merely venting their anger because their particular view is challenged.

Pay them no mind. DF is an excellent book. Buy it and read all the views with as much of an open humble mind as you can. It's better than the alternative spoon feeding that is rampant in many circles of Evangelicalism today.

The glossary is a great idea more publishers should follow.

Keep em coming Eddy, Beilby, Gannsle ....etc.

Much of this book is quite helpful when it sticks to basic Bible truths historically held by genuine Evangelicals regarding the Gospel, Deity of Christ,Justification, Sanctification and so on.

But 4 stars deducted for labeling liberal, non-evangelical philosophies/fabrications as 'Across the Spectrum' i.e. within the bounds of Evangelical Historic Christian Faith.

Right off the bat, Boyd (a Bapt. Gen'l Conference pastor of Woodland Hills Church and Theol. Prof. at Bethel College) denies his own denomination's Affirmation of Faith regarding Bible Inerrancy. BGC used to require all pastors/professors to uphold and abide by its Affirmation of Faith in all matters.(Will BGC Pres. Sheveland and upcoming Annual Convention enforce their Affirmation by requiring a retraction or resignation from the wayward false-teacher??) But Boyd for upwards of a decade has not only jettisoned much of his denomination's Doctrinal Statements,(see his first book Trinity & PROCESS, liberal,unbiblical non-evangelical philosophtheology that is the fountainhead for all his beliefs/books) but publicly teaches and authors books promoting clearly heterodox, aberrant and liberal (Princeton/Yale variety)neo-Processism theories about God's attributes no longer being literally OMNI in nature; theo-repentism, God 'changing as it is beneficial to change' including the Divine Mind/Will; 'the future doesn't exist until free agents create it for God to know as fact';etc.

Where does Boyd get all these ideas? Not from an Inerrant Bible. He believes in 'Limited Infallibility' which is theo-speak for the Bible is error-ridden in matters of science, history, nature, philosophy, biology, geology, etc. It is only 'infallible in matters of faith and practice' according to Boyd (see his Woodland Hills Doctrinal Statement re the Bible). Of course, Boyd does not address in his essay in the book how the Bible can err in matters not relating to faith/practice (things we can see, taste, test, verify), but not err in areas we can't verify. Evangelicals historically have believed the entire Bible relates in one way or another to 'faith & practice', even history, science, nature, etc. If the Word of God can't get the one motif right, how can it get the other one 'without fail'???

If God can author the universe by saying, 'Let there be Light!'
Can't the same Author author a flawless Book and get it right?

Another problem is Boyd's dismissal of a literal, real, eternal hell for the lost. He speculatively advocates a form of annihilationism or reprieve or some other neutralizing of the full force of the Biblical description. (Why he doesn't advocate making similar neutralizing adjustments to the language for the 'Heaven side of Eternity's coin' makes his position even more dubious and lopsidedly inconsistent.) Boyd claims that the Bible's language for hell is contradictory: 'flames of fire' and 'outer darkness' are "mutually exclusive". Boyd can't envision how darkness and flames of fire can co-exist simultaneously.

But genuine Evangelicals can. Look at aerial news footage of a volcano lava flow or forest fire at night. Pitch dark atmosphere, but glow of deadly, devastating fire in the damage path. Dark and fiery at the same time. Boyd cavalierly dismisses the metaphoric language of Jesus Himself in describing the horrors of a real, literal, burning, outer darkness eternal punishment. That's his privilege. But to call his contrived 'non-literal,non-eternal' hell an evangelical belief is Beyond the Bounds of Christian and academic integrity. Revelation says, "They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever", "will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb", "the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever". If anything, the real darkness,literal fire, endless conscious torment of hell vastly exceeds the limits of inerrant Biblical language to convey. The Bible understates the facts, where Boyd would have us believe it overstates/exaggerates the literal truth.

Sorry, Gregory Boyd. We'll stick with Revelation, and what Jesus, John, Peter, Paul, Jude, Isaiah and the Word of God inerrantly declare as fact about eternal conscious punishment.

This book is helpful to see just how far some Christians will go to stretch the tent ropes to include all sorts of contra-Biblical modern theories and presuppositions under the label
'evangelical'. But calling a sterile mule or diseased donkey by the name of Stallion does not make it so.

If this book is compared to "Beyond the Bounds", "God's Lesser Glory", "God Under Fire", "Bound Only Once", "Battle for God" and the forthcoming "God's Greater Glory", Boyd's aberrancy can be clearly documented in detail for the concerned Evangelical.

It is dismaying to see how Boyd's processist philosophy lens has blurred his theological teachings into myopic heterodox nearsightedness. He needs a new Optometrist: the Holy Spirit and a Large Print Bible.

This book rates 1 reluctant star. Engagingly written, but serves only as a mask of Boyd's true intention: to claim his personal positions 'Evangelical' while subtly undermining the Genuine, Historic Biblical Doctrines of Christianity.

While posing as a 'devil's advocate' of the opposing side on many issues of contemporary Christian Theology, Boyd unwittingly goes too far in his essays revealing his antipathy for the Evangelical position in many cases, especially Inerrancy. He couldn't be more patronizing to true Evangelicals.

Cleverly calling his position 'Infallibilist', he violates his own BGC Affirmation of faith at Bethel College (where he is a professor) and his own church Woodland Hills. BGC clearly states in Affirmation of Faith: Bible is INERRANT. But Boyd slyly and short of intellectual integrity writes the essay refuting Inerrancy in favor of an ERRANT BIBLE. He leaves the reader hanging about apparent discrepancies in the account of the "70(sic) missionaries" in the Gospels. 'Staff or no staff?'

Embarrassingly, not only is Boyd himself ironically ERRANT (it was the 12, not 70!), he fails as a serious scholar to admit this issue has been chewed on and resolved satisfactorily by the Reformers and recent real Evangelical scholars like Geisler (When Critics Ask)and John MacArthur's Study Bible (Luke 9:3). Mark says 'take nothing except a staff'; Matt./Luke say 'do not acquire/go get a staff'. Boyd cries, Aha! Mistake! Gotcha!

Sorry, Gregory. All Jesus is saying without contradiction is basically, "Take along only what you have in hand; if you have your staff, fine. If not, don't go get/buy/procure one. Don't bring anything extra but the sandals on your feet and the clothes on your back." The accounts are most likely composite of several trips or likely Mark is one specific representative trip. All are excerpts. We don't have full transcripts or the whole packing list. Boyd is looking for errors/conflicts when they can readily, plausibly be explained(since Church Fathers).
Why not give the eyewitnesses who were actually there - and the Holy Spirit Himself - the benefit of the doubt?? Fair enough??

Since he rejects his own BGC denomination's Affirmation on Inerrancy, his presuppositions are showing in his 'devil's advocate' essay.
Why his own denomination President Jerry Sheveland or Bethel trustees don't resolve the matter by Boyd's public, repentant retraction or resignation is not Across the Spectrum, but Beyond the Bounds.

This book is Boyd's 'coming out' as clearly NON-Evangelical, aberrant, heterodox, false doctrine, pseudo-theology.

However the book is recommended to see how far some who claim Evangelical status have strayed from the Inerrant Word of God.

This is an excellent book.

Its excellence is not so much in the contents discussed but by the fact that the differences within Evangelicalism are finally laid open for all to examine. In the spirit of Zondervan's "views" books "Across the Spectrum" will only serve to improve academic, intellectual, theological, and philosophical reflection.

Differences in theological issues are many. However, they need not divide but make up the richness of what Roger Olsen calls the Mosaic of Christian belief.

Those who attribute to Boyd malicious ulterior motives are misguided. "Across the Spectrum" to anyone who reads it is not meant as a defense of any particular view. Opposing views are each fairly represented and easy to understand.

Rather than labeling our brethren as heretics for holding diverse viewpoints (within the pale of orthodoxy) and accusing some of attacking God I wish others would look beyond their own insecurities, biases and presuppositions and enter into humble dialog with opposing views.

This book has so many errors and inaccurate statements that it would definitely place a newcomer to VBScript (which it was obviously written for and by) on the WRONG track. I purchased this book as an aide to prepare for a class I was teaching, and I wasted my money. Do not buy this book!

I wanted a good primer and reference guide to VBScript - this book was both. There are a few typos here and there, but I think it's a great book and have gotten a lot of use out of it. This was the second book I have bought from the "Unleashed" series and I just bought a third!

With all the other reviews I was apprehensive in buying the book. I bought the book anyway, just like any other computer programming references you would get ideas and techniques here that other books do not offer. A definite must have if you want to improve your skill in SCRIPTING!

This book is terrible. In the first three chapters, they emphasize "plan twice but develop once" as an approach for DB development, which is good. Unfortunately, they don't seem to follow their own advice. The authors walk you through examples on a provided CD, but the instructions don't even match what's on the CD. Also, days 1 and 2 were completely OMITTED on my CD. This is my first and last SAMS book.

While this book *teaches* very well, it has a number of small printing mistakes and mislabels which could be confusing to those not following along very closely. I recommend it if you're willing to work with it.

All in all it was decent. The first 14 chapters were fine. The two chapters on Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) were fair at best. The Chapter on Objects and Collections should not have been there. I actually went out and got another book for these topics. They had a nice little section on DAO in the end however it was coarse. Keep in mind, the VBA sections were not very good at all. I question why they even put VBA in a entry level book.

For the user who want to get more out of Access 2002 or the user who wants to prepare for a MOUS certification, this book is fine. Keep in mind it is not Microsoft MOUS Official Cirriculum so the Certification Objectives are not identified in the text.

SAMS Publishing drops the ball once again in the editing area. Please note that you will have to go to the website to get the Chapter 2 exercises. The omission of the Chapter Two files can almost be forgiven due to the fact that the files are small in size and easily downloadable.

I have about 5-6 of their books and they are all buggy, lots of typographical errors. This one falls about average for SAMS in that area, not their worst, not their best. I would have given 4 stars if they didn't have so may typos, otherwise the non-VBA content was good.

This book is a good buy for the beginner. It covers areas that the other teach yourself books have not covered on Access. Mainly design issues. You may be able to create a working database, but without proper design, the pain of correcting it is intense.

I strongly disagree with all of the other reviews... I am not a beginning PC user (MCSE & CNA), but I've never had any experience with Access. Yeah, there are typos, but if you understand the exercise, you should be able to figure out what to do. I have recommended this book to several of the people that I work with in IT. The author does remind you to open the program way too many times, and the author does change at day 18 (for the worse) - I now have a very good understanding of Access, all thanks to this book.

Yes, the errors are annoying, yes the repetition of basic information is at times annoying but come on, deal with it you babies. The main reason I bought this book is because of the step by step walkthroughs. I am perfectly familiar with a computer and this allows me the benefit of skimming, which perhaps is essential to use this book to it's potential. Who cares about the typos as long as the steps are valid, and I have found them to be. This book surpasses all the available free tutorials out there on the web and I am honestly happy I got it. One caveat, you do have to be able to think imaginatively and read between the lines. If you are unable to do this, as many people are, don't buy this book. Take a class where someone can walk you through it and answer your questions. Also, the book clearly states in the beginning that it is not for beginners, but for those already familiar with basic concepts. Like so many other books out there this one is sink or swim, personally I like it. I can't believe someone wrote a negative review because it was difficult to remove the CD without damaging the back cover, how ridiculous.