This beautifully crafted story warms the saddened heart. It reveals a grieving heart that risks pain to find love again. This true adventure of a sensitive soul is both a revelation of deep pain and of deep joy. Mrs. Friedman is able to express the decisive moments in which we either continue old habits or venture into deep emotional waters in search of love. Her grief and her triumphs promise hope in a world of loss.

Trail Of The Dove is an eloquently written story, every word flowing like a midwestern breeze. Here is a senior citizen, adventurous,forever youthful and somewhat opinionated, embarking on a cross-country motorcycle trip with her grown son, both of them learning along the way. I found it delightful, easy reading. Recommended for all ages!

Hang on it's going to be a bumpy and very wet ride! A sincere and moving story of a mother and her relationship with her sons. I felt as though I was riding along with Dorothy and living her experiences.

So far as it goes, this book offers a decent selection of writings, but I am dumbfounded that Boaz considers the deprivations of liberty in the name of psychiatry and medicine so trivial as to not warrant the inclusion of an essay by Thomas Szasz. Or perhaps Boaz does not consider psychiatric imprisonment to even qualify as anti-libertarian.

This is a good intellectual book that covers writings from past and present thinkers like John Locke, Thomas Paine, and Milton Friedman. This is not a fast read -- but the good thing is that you can pick and choose what chapters to read. This is the ideal plane book for someone that wants to expand the mind.

This book inspires us to think about how collectivist ideas can damage our civil society. With its writings, this book also gives us a historical perspective of libertarianism since we keep in touch with all kind of authors: ancient (e.g. Bible, Lao-Tzu,), classical (e.g. John Locke, Adam Smith) and contemporary (e.g. Ayn Rand, Mario Vargas Llosa).

Britain started out ahead, but partly for that reason her carrier forces (and especially planes) were less suited for combat than America's. This is an excellent study of how that came to pass. Sadly missing is an equally insightful look at the Japanese carrier fleet, which in the winter of 1941-42 was arguably the equal of America's.

An intelligent and thoughtful study of how it happened that the United States started late, yet managed to enter World War II with a better carrier force than the Royal Navy. (In part, this was because the US *did* start late, and therefore didn't have an installed base of obsolete equipment.)

The only problem with this book is that it doesn't give equal time to the Japanese carrier fleet, which as it happened was America's only real competitor in this developing science.

David F. Friedman was a pioneer in the world of exploitation movies, so I was quite excited when I found out he'd written (with Don Denevi's help) his biography. "A Youth in Babylon" is a fascinating and entertaining read, detailing Friedman's early years in the promotions department at Paramount, his association with roadshow titan Kroger Babb and his partnership with Hershell Gordon Lewis (a.k.a. The Wizard of Gore). Cheerfully chauvinistic and heartily embellished, it's hard not to be charmed by Friedman's story, even if you wouldn't buy a used car from him. The conversations and events recounted in "A Youth in Babylon" often read like they were lifted from a script to one of his movies. Friedman even details a conversation that occurred between his wife Carol and his business partner--while he was out of town! As interesting as Friedman's autobiography is, I was disappointed by what he chose to leave out. I could've done with less history on Kroger Babb and the "Forty Thieves" in favor of Friedman sharing his experiences on his post-Hershell Gordon Lewis movies like "A Smell of Honey, A Swallow of Brine" and "Brand of Shame." He hypes a sequel to his bio (called "Kings of Babylon") in the final pages of this book, but to my knowledge it's never been published. Nevertheless, "A Youth in Babylon" is a must-read for fans of the movies that were so trashy even Hollywood wouldn't make them.

You can't help but love this book if you have any appreciation for trashy cinema and exploitation. Friedman lays out his whole life story and then some, giving a hilarious insight into the birth of low budget and sleaze cinema in the US. As another reviewer noted, it is impossible to tell what percentage of tales in the book are fact. Nevertheless it makes for a great read on a neglected area of modern culture, as well as providing a fascinating profile of a very interesting character!

How factual is A Youth In Babylon? Considering Friedman is one of film's sweetest talking showmen, that's hard to say. But you're not going to get a first-hand account of working with Kroger Babb and H. G. Lewis, no matter how puffed up it may sound, anywhere else. In the end, like any well delivered Elliott Forbes routine, you'll feel inspired! It may be bull, but it's still quite entertaining.

It's a pretty good book...
Oh and one big real why I even decided to write a review is that David Friedman is actually the son of Milton Friedman. But that is not mentioned anywhere in the book, which is a nice gesture of anti-nepotism. Anyhow back to the merits of the book. The topics are quite easy to grasp and very interesting. After reading this you may want to go check out game theory and the law which is more specialized. The book is well written and we use it for our economics analysis of law class.

Anyone who has had the privilige of debating David Friedman on the Internet knows that he is though-provoking. Most books about law discuss this loophole or that bias or perhaps the outrage du jour. What is missing, though, is an alterative system.

David Friedman comes at the subject from a different angle. What if the legal system operated like any other market system?

Well, not just ANY other market system. One of the presumptions is that to be truly efficient the market must be completely free. Any system today is encumbered by vested interests, many of which can be traced back to an economic concern. Why not bring that out into the open?

Would you subscribe to a traffic court where penalties were based on how much economic damage your behavior caused? In a way, you already do!

You'll be thinking that way about all manner of legal issues after reading this book. A good addition to anyone's shelf, especially those of us who enjoy a philosphical reality check.

This book, as its title suggests, is on the ECONOMICS of law. And as Dr. Friedman skillfully illustrates in the text, economics has a great deal to say about both the theory and application of law. In particular anyone interested in understanding how modern systems of law arose will find fascinating information in this book that isn't often discussed in your run-of-the-mill law, history, or economics courses. This is just the sort of information that is important to achieving a better understanding of the structure of legal systems, yet is, perhaps necessarily, left out of most courses in law (or history or economics) because it doesn't neatly fit into any one category.

The use of economic tools and ideas to analyze and understand legal systems is a relatively new idea. Yet as you'll discover when reading this book, it is a very GOOD idea. One that yields immediate and satisfying results. The book places modern legal systems in their proper historical context. It compares private and public methods of handling a variety of legal issues and disputes.

What does economics have to do with law? Suppose legislators propose that armed robbers receive life imprisonment. Editorial pages applaud them for getting tough on crime. Constitutional lawyers raise the issue of cruel and unusual punishment. Legal philosophers ponder questions of justness. An economist, on the other hand, observes that making the punishment for armed robbery the same as that for murder encourages the muggers to kill their victims (since they are less likely to be caught if there are no surviving witnesses). This is the cut-to-the-chase quality that makes economics not only applicable to the interpretation of law, but beneficial to its crafting.

Buy this book or steal your friend's copy. It, along with David Friedman's other works, are well worth reading.

Feminists have been bashing "phallocentric" culture for a couple of decades now, but most have not bothered to examine or explicate the central element of such culture, namely the male organ itself. David M. Friedman has written a well-researched, admirably forthright account of Western culture's alternating aversion toward and obsession with the penis. Friedman tracks this evolution from the semen-drenched religious texts of ancient Sumer (where the word for semen is the same as water, and the gods literally bathe the world in sperm) through the ancient Greeks and then how the organ was "demonized" by St. Augustine and the Catholic church. Other chapters consider how racism has centered for centuries on white male fear of macrophallic African men, as well as Freud's attempt to "universalize" penis envy and castration anxiety. While one might quibble with a scholarly detail here and there (notably Friedman's acceptance of Foucault's theories about Greek sexuality, which have been notably contradicted by more recent scholarship), this is such a well-researched and engagingly written study that it deserves to be widely read. Men and women alike will gain a clearer understanding of why we put fig-leaves on statues and why a cigar is not always just a good smoke.

David Friedman's book A MIND OF ITS OWN: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF THE PENIS is excellent -- well researched and footnoted; parsimonious but amazingly thorough; humorous and frightening; enlightened and enlightening; and one of the most readable and well written books I've read in a while. I don't ordinarily read the publications Friedman writes for (GQ, Esquire, Village Voice, Rolling Stone) but I found his investigative reporter style smooth as silk and reminiscent of that of Andrew Sullivan whom I admire.

I would not have read this book except for it's intriguing cover and my ongoing interest in the subject of fertility (I wrote my Master's Thesis on the nexus between female fertility and labor force participation). Following my reading of Clara Pinto Correra's OVARY OF EVE, and McElvaine's EVE'S SEED, this book seemed a natural fit, and Friedman has filled in some important remaining gaps in my education. I had no idea men took their penises so seriously. I recomend this book to sociologists, demographers, psychologists, urologists, and just about anyone who is interested in the penis or contemplating taking Viagra.

Gosh, I must be naive, but I had no idea men had suffered so much. I knew women had suffered and are still suffering all over the world (particularly in Muslim countries) but whereas women have suffered from the pain inflicted upon them (by men), men inflict pain -- on themselves, young boys, women, young girls and animals -- all for the sake of an erection it would seem. Reading this book requires a strong stomach.

Freidman has covered every possible angle from which the penis can be examined -- war, mythology, politics, physiology, poetry and literature, psychology, medicine, religion. He begins his book with an exploration into the perspectives of the ancients towards the penis -- Egypt and the Osirus myth (he lost his penis); Greece and the cult of male love (homo); Roman manhood (hetero and homo but only if one is the penetrator not the penatratee); the Bible (forget it), circumcision (ouch), Gilgamesh (off with it), the Jews (dead giveaway). Next comes the CHURCH from Augustine (forget it) and Julian the Orthodox (I wish I had been raised Orthodox); Thomas Aquinis and later the Protestants including those heads of the English Catholic Church -- Henry the VIII and James I (conflicted to say the least). Friedman then tackles science and medicine. He summarizes the work of Correra Pinto and other excellent sources who have written extensively on the history of human fertility research. He discusses the anatomical work of Leonardo da Vinci (is there anything he did not take apart??); He covers the Freudians (introspection and cocaine) including Stekel and other psychoanalysts who studied male frigidity; He summarizes the machinations of a raft of medical quacks, simpletons, sex-crazed misfits and other degenerates who did BAD things to unsuspecting males and females in the name of medicine and medical research.

The last part of the book, pure investigative journalism, is a succinct and well written summary of the search for a medical cure for impotence. He describes the involvement of academe and physicians with the drug industry; stock investors like Bill Gates and Ross Perot (and you thought it was a military-industrial complex!); the Viagra trials (yes, this drug is still being "tried" -- no one knows the long-term effects); and many other contemporary angles and issues including the feminsts perspectives on the topic of male penises.

I enjoyed the book and I'm glad I read it, but it left me a bit sad. I really hope and still believe that there are men who don't think the one-eyed-jack is the most important thing in the world -- a world where females and children are destitute, starving, in bondage, overworked and abused.

It is hard to write a book about the penis without dealing in euphemisms and double entendres. Yet this book uses them well to show the role the penis has played in the development of western culture. The book is a cultural history of the penis, and explores human (mostly men's) thinking about the male reproductive organs.

The first chapter, The Demon Rod, explores the moral view of the penis as it developed from ancient times through Christianized Western European thought. Is the penis a gift of the gods or man's link with the devil? This is the question that is explored in this chapter. From the phallic cults of ancient Sumer, Egypt, Greece and Rome, through the Jewish circumcision pact, to the demonization of the penis by Christian thinkers like Augustine, the role of the penis in the relationship of man to his god is explored.

Chapter Two, The Gear Shift, starts with Leonardo da Vinci's anatomical dissections and examines the early attempts of western science to discover the biological rather than the mythical aspects of the penis. The period covered is the 16th through the 19th century. Most of the science, though well-intentioned, is colored by the moral thinking of the time. Although much is learned, many false theories coexist with newly discovered anatomical facts.

The next chapter is called The Measuring Stick and is a look at the theories surrounding Racism and penis size. It outlines the history of the belief that males of African heritage have greater penile size than any other race. From Noah to Mapplethorp, the fascination and fear associated with this concept and the racial theories that developed along side it are well laid out.

The Cigar is Chapter Four and it explores the influence of the penis on Freud and psychoanalytical thought. Here we move from the physical manifestation of the penis to its effects on the psyche, both in the individual and the culture. With quotes from Freud's writings, we see his development of the theories of the Oedipus Complex and the vaginal orgasm, and their effects on modern society.

Chapter Five, entitled The Battering Ram, is a look at the feminist reaction of the 1960s to the Freudian emphasis on the penis and vaginal orgasm. These feminist thinkers shift the focus to the clitoris as the center of satisfying sexual relationships for women. From Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique to Andrea Dworkin's Pornography, the link between the penis and sexual violence in feminist writings is outlined in wonderful detail.

The final chapter, The Punctureproof Balloon returns to the physiological study of the penis that started in chapter two. However, this chapter picks up with the 19th Century with its quacks and misinformed physicians and takes us up to the present day's modern medical marvels. Here we see urologists taking the study of impotence away from psychoanalysts and developing medical treatments. This is a wonderful historic outline of the creation and cultural impact of Viagra and other pharmaceutical treatments for Erectile Dysfunction.

All in all this is a fascinating popular treatment of a topic that tends to either not be discussed or is discussed so informally as to have little regard for the facts. This book tells it all and backs up the facts with 35 pages of Notes to the bibliographic sources. To help the reader find the facts a 12 page Index ends the book. Eight pages of black and white pictures illustrate some of the topics described in the book. This book is entertaining and informative reading for anyone who has ever wanted to know about this organ and its role in society.

David Friedman has an uncommon ability to illustrate complex topics in Economics, Law, and Liberty. Yet while he skewers the collectivists, he also points out that some Libertarian positions are overly simplistic. His book helps you think, even when you have reservations about a few of his positions.

The book has 4 parts. Part 1 is devoted to defending Human Rights in property. Part 2 is devoted to ideas for reducing the influence of goverment. The chapter "Buckshot for a Socialist Friend" is precious. Part 3 is an exploration of how a society might exist without a state, along with an admission that this might not always be possible. Finally, Part 4 is addressed to Libertarians in general.

While I am more of a rights based anarchist, I can appreciate utilitarian arguments against government. No one does a better job at presenting a utilitarian case for anarchism than David Friedman does in this masterpiece. Not only is Machinery of Freedom intellectually acute and persuasive, it is also a humorous and easy read for the lay person interested in libertarian thought.

This book touches quite a bit on the issues that most libertarian anarchists find difficult to deal with, such as national defense and polycentric law. A good critique of government education is also offered as well as a two part section on monopolies. As a seasoned libertarian, I most enjoyed the postscript, which focuses on more advanced topics like private currency, law and econ, and anarchist politics.

In sum, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in anarcho-capitalism, from those new to political philosophy to well versed freedom fighters.

Once in a while, one reads a truly extraordinary book. The Machinery of Freedom qualifies for a variety of reasons: its intellectual rigor and honesty, and its fearlessness in asking tough questions.

Friedman's distrust of intellectual orthodoxy and his distaste for complacency come through everywhere, as he systematically sketches out his ideas about the society he thinks would leave the vast majority of the world's inhabitants better off. Not infinitely better off -- there are no utopian dreams here -- but materially and spiritually better off.

Central to Friedman's thought is the notion that governments are finite, constrained institutions like any others -- hardly the infallible entities for which we simply design outcomes. Whenever someone says 'There's a case for government intervention here,' the implicit assumption is that the intervention will be done flawlessly and properly. That's not always, or even often, the case -- intervention has to be viewed as a tradeoff. If it makes little sense to assume that there are perfect markets, then it makes even less sense to assume that there are perfect governments. Friedman makes a convincing case that we should rarely, if ever, expect government to produce better outcomes than the market does, simply because of the different incentives those two processes present individuals.

I am not entirely persuaded by Friedman's argument, but I would be hard-pressed to give a good reason therefor. That means I am not thinking clearly, which is hardly Friedman's fault. At the risk of sounding redundant, I can't recommend this book highly enough.

The story told in this book is rather dull and boring. I had hoped for much better. It also failed one of my major criteria for a novel; it was never edited. At various points throughout the book Sulu is refered to as the navigator or helmsman. On particular scene has Uhura, seeing Chekov look at her, ponder about the navigator. The very next paragraph she is now ponder about the navigator (Sulu). Very annoying. In order to make this book more enjoyable I found myself visualizing very colorful "sign language" by various character. Sign language plays an important part in the story.

Overall, I was very disappointed in this book.

Books written by three authors tend to be either bland or disjointed. Bland because arguments over the story line led to a mushy compromise or disjointed as some of each authors ideas were incorporated into the book. Neither is the case here. This is a book in the finest tradition of the Star Trek model. The new characters are well drawn and we get to see a side of Commodore Wesley that was not apparent in the original series. Chronologically, the story also takes place shortly after Chekov first arrives on the Enterprise, and a subplot follows his first days on the Enterprise where he commits some errors of enthusiasm.
The book begins with devastating attacks being carried out on Federation colonies. At first the only point of the attacks appears to be the destruction of Federation sites. However, after a great deal of investigation, the purpose turns out to be much more sinister. The Enterprise engages the raiders and just manages to defeat them after learning of their origins.
This is one of the better books in the Star Trek series and I found it difficult to put it down.

Star Trek: The Disinherited by Peter David with Michael Jan Friedman and Robert Greenberger is a TREK tale told well. The collaboration of the three authors gives the story a full body of adventure as the characters are fleshed out. You get the feeling while reading this book that someone has spend some time writing this story.

As Kirk and crew, minus Uhura, speed off to save another Federation world suffering from an unknown space attack, only to find the worlds completely devastated. Ready adventure is apparent when the attacking fleet severly damages the Enterprise and make their escape.

But, Spock finds something of great interest that could make a difference in the fate of the Federation, let alone the Enterprise. Uhura is on a mission of her own... making this a two story adventure... working the plots of these stories together, the readers get a better picture of the adventure.

This is solid classic TREK told well and written to keep your interest with an ending only found in the TREK universe.

As the title indicates, David Friedman's Hidden Order is a great supplement to any microeconomics course. Although many of the books' analogies will amuse most readers, a casual reader who does not understand microeconomics will be lost by Friedman's indifference curves and budget constraints. It seems that he has taken a typical microeconomics book and tried to make it more exciting with fun and interesting examples.

If you are an economic's student, the book will help to add to the learning involved in thinking about economic issues since it uses an "economic naturalist" approach. Economic naturalism attempts to help students to "see" the principles of economics at work in every day life. Friedman uses numerous examples like babies, dating and rush hour traffic to help explain human behavior through the lens of economic thought. His analogies are often humorous and well-supported by basic theory learned in micro 101, but I found myself bored with many of the graphs that he uses to support his examples (and I have taught economics for two years to college sophomores). The book would have been much more fun if Friedman dispensed with the charts and micro jargon, assuming that the reader understands the theory. If you don't understand it, don't waste your time with this book. The analogies will be interesting, but the supporting theory will seem tedious.

But, if you are a student of economics or a professor looking for a compendium of great examples to use in class (or a supplement to the text you are using), this book holds much potential. If you have never taken an economics course, I would look for another book.

Whether a student, fan, or stranger to Dr. Friedman, we are all left to give him praise for his enlightening work. After completion of this book, the reader understands just how strongly our daily lives are governed by economics. Whether it be buying a used car, getting married, or voting, this book teaches us that we can not make a single decision in life without resorting to economic thought. As a student of Dr. Friedman, Hidden Order served to me as a great tool for understanding his way of thought and opened my mind to the practical applications of economics. Just as well, to a stranger of Dr. Friedman, this book will serve a full plate of refreshing thoughts. I would recommend this book to fellow economists as well as to anyone who has never even taken an economics class.

Be prepared to think as you read this book, it is not just a tirade as so many books with an economic ax to grind are! But the effort you must put into understanding this book will be well rewarded. I paticularly liked the concepts of buyers surplus and sellers surplus, they have enriched my views as to what happens when exchanges take place.

The mainstream media still does not understand international trade in even the most basic way. This is amazing and distressing to me. I was glad to see the author compare this to still accepting the ancient Ptolemiac view of astronomy. Please folks, read ANY economist about foreign trade, what is NOT true is the imports=bad, exports=good notion despite the claims of bumper stickers (Buy American) and politicians (Pat Buchannon). Journalists, please research this issure a bit before you speak!

Fourtune's Light....a priceless jewled seal of a powerfull trading house, has been stolen and an old friend of Rikers is implicated with it's theft. He can't belive his friend would have done such a thing, and is sent on a mission to find his old friend, and the Fourtunes Light, which must be present for a merger between powerfull houses.

In the meantime, Riker askes Data to check out a holodeck program he's been working on while he's gone. I must say that Data's portraial is innacurate, and I find it hard to belive Data could be so inept(for his standards) at Baseball, and understanding the rules. Still, it's an interresting sub-plot which breaks up the intensity of Rikers mission.

Once underway, Riker and his partner on the planet discover a web of decit and criminal activity. To top it off, someone is now on to Riker and his partner and he's a target from people who want to keep the Fortune's Light hidden, as well as other plots which have far reaching consequences.

A decent, but not great book.

Star Trek - The Next Generation: Forture's Light written by Michael Jan Friedman is a well-written book involving a detective stroy plot mixed with sports fiction as the Enterprise crew trys to solve a mystery and recover a theft of the Madraga Criathis family seal the Fortune's Light... that is supposedly stolen by Teller Conlon one of Commander William Riker's best friends.

As this plot unfolds, William Riker is working on a baseball holodeck program and is called away to the surface of Dante Maxima Seven where the government is controlled by huge social/economic entites that control the general population, to find his friend Teller Conlon. Riker leaves the baseball program in the holodeck and Data tries it out. This plot gives Data a real workout with all of the baseball speak and the nuances of the game as Data tries to understand and play the game.

Both plots were well-written as they kept the readers interest, for two unlikely plots to blend together and form the backbone of the book's plots, they melded quite well. This book is well-toughtout as well as well-written and you can tell it by the way the book flows. The only thing that I can't see is Riker being a detective... he's more like a bull in a chna store type who's rough and tumble antics get him out of a lot of tight spots, but Friedman used this quality to an advantage as Riker is teamed up with a local woman who's sole purpose is to help Riker investigate and they run into a lot of impediments along the way. Riker is no "Columbo" but he gets the job done with action-adventure following along with the mystery.

I gave the book only four stars as the character development was a little shallow at times and the plot was rather predictable. Only for those reasons, otherwise the story flowed well and you were entertained as you read on it the book.

This book is a very good example of just how far good writing can take a mediocre concept. I was truly unimpressed with either of the plots in this book, yet found myself being drawn into it in spite of myself due to the excellence of the writing.

I suppose it is unfair to actually say that the plots are BAD. They do not, however, resonate with me at all. The primary plot is a detective and mystery fiction plot in which Riker has to unravel a mystery on a planet where a friend of his has disappeared, allegedly after stealing a priceless artifact. I'm not universally opposed to detective fiction, but I generally find that they don't work overwell as Star Trek plots, and I certainly don't see Riker as a viable Sam Spade type. Further, this plot just seemed rather blase, and it truly required exceptionally adroit writing to get me to care about it. In a way, I never did, but in spite of that, I found it difficult to put the book down toward the end, so Friedman must have been doing something right.

Furthermore, the secondary plot involved Data playing "major league" baseball on the holodeck, trying out a program that Riker had written for himself just before being called away on his mission. Again, I don't necessarily object to sports stories; one of my favorites is "If I Never Get Back", by Darryl Brock. But I don't much care for holdeck stories in general, even if they are merely subplots and not the major focus of the story, nor do I generally care for the "Data does something offbeat in an attempt to learn more about what it means to be human, and in the course of doing so, commits many amusingly silly faux-pas" type of story, of which this was certainly one. In fact, I generally don't believe that baseball and Star Trek mix well; it's one of the things that cause me to grit my teeth whenever it's brought into play in Deep Space Nine due to Ben Sisco's hobby. I certainly disliked the episode "Take Me Out To The Holodeck" about as much as I've disliked any Star Trek episode in any series.

So imagine my confusion to discover that I was actually enjoying the scenes in that subplot also, in spite of the fact that Friedman's apparent knowledge of baseball is somewhat limited, and his claim that both Data and Geordi would have difficulty understanding the concept of a curveball somewhat dubious.(I realize that for years engineering types swore that it was an optical illusion, because it was physically impossible. But those days are ALREADY behind us; certainly, engineers from three or four hundred years in the future should have no difficulty with the concept. Nor do I believe that it would be all that difficult for Data to track the trajectory of a curveball and hit it soundly.)

I find that I can't in good conscience give less that four stars to a book so well written as to be enjoyable and even captivating in spite of a basic concept that I simply can't see the point to, but neither can I give five stars to a book with such an unattractive concept. If you find the idea of mixing detective fiction AND spectator sports fiction with your Star Trek fascinating, you'll certainly love this book. If, as I did, you find either or both of these concepts seriously dubious, you might still like it. But if you're unwilling to deal with the cognitive dissonance produced by enjoying such an unattractive story concept, steer clear of this one.