This 3-novella anthology was first published in 1973.

Effinger, George Alec: "And Us, Too, I Guess", while written for this anthology, also appears in Effinger's collection _Irrational Numbers_. The viewpoint alternates between the 1st person narrative of Dr. Davis, a scientist, and the 3rd person narrative of Paul Moran, a factory worker.

Davis seeks to rebuild his career yet again after the latest of a series of catastrophes. In his own mind, at least, he's not responsible for any of the troubles that have befallen him - and in his secret heart, he admits that he enjoys disaster, if he can sit back and watch. Moran, on the other hand, would claim only one disaster - his unhappy marriage - but might be honest enough to admit his own contribution to the problem.

They seem to be a study in contrasts, save for the two points they have in common: dissatisfaction with their lots in life, and a passion for raising mollies (a breed of tropical fish). On the morning the story opens, both Davis and Moran find that all their pets have died in the night, with no visible cause of death. Upon seeking replacements, the hobbyists learn gradually that *all* mollies everywhere appear to have died that same night. Then a few days later, another species - an obscure fungus - is found extinct, and an ominous pattern of tragedy begins to unfold.

Dozois, Gardner R.: "Chains of the Sea", which also appears in Dozois' collection _The Visible Man_, is an SF story of the day aliens "invaded" Earth, and the story of a kid who retains the ability to see "the Other People" long after his friends have forgotten them. (They share the Earth, but in ways that most humans can't perceive, and that even the AIs who *really* run human civilization aren't really aware of - at first.)

The story alternates between 3rd-person views of the aliens' arrival, and of Tommy's problems. The alien landings thread is mostly to do with the AIs' handling of the issue. They've never bothered to inform their "owners" that they communicate almost instantaneously when they wish, with no regard to their "owners'" political disagreements. Tommy's thread ties up with this because the Other People, like the AIs and human governments, are preoccupied with the aliens' arrival.

The title is a metaphor from a story-within-the-story, made up by Tommy during his after-school games. Tommy himself is caught between his abusive father, the uncaring school system, and the mysterious activities of the Other People. "He knew now why Steve had said the dragon couldn't get away. It lived in the sea, so it couldn't get away by going up onto the land - that was impossible. It had to stay in the sea, it was restricted by that, it was chained by the sea..."

Alone of the trio, "Chains of the Sea" suffers from sub par copyediting, in the form of occasional spelling mistakes, and botched grammar during a flashback. Otherwise, it's an excellent story, my favourite of the three. For instance, the media near one of the landing sites gives it continuous coverage, even though they have nothing to say, and an attempted media blackout causes far more trouble than the initial coverage - including a rash of lawsuits. The only telltale sign of its 1973 composition date is a simile, describing distorted time perception "like 33 records played at 78 RPM".

Eklund, Gordon: "The Shrine of Sebastian", set far in the future, opens with a few paragraphs of quotation from a manuscript being written within the story: _The Book of Man_, a work that the robot Andrew hopes will rival the Bible in time to come. His less-than-objective opinion is that it's at least an equal, containing neither fiction nor parable but what actually happened millennia ago when Sebastian spake of his vision unto the people of Earth, guiding them to the great spaceships bound for a new world. As the story progresses, the reader can draw his or her own conclusions about the accuracy of Andrew's assessment of his work.

In one sense, the story is linear, beginning on the day of Pope Maria's death, leaving her downtrodden husband Julian with two legacies: the title of Pope, and a command to bury her at the shrine of Sebastian. Why did such an arrogant, self-satisfied woman want to be laid to rest at the heart of a heretical movement? (The reader, of course, has additional mysteries to ponder, picking up clues on the state of this far future world from evidence in the story - no heavy-handed exposition. In fact, the story avoids exposition to the point that the reader may be left floundering through the unsavory incidents that befall Andrew and Julian. I greatly prefer the thread following Andrew's better-organized viewpoint to that following Julian's.)

This book introduces a method for explaining and comprehending complex IT systems--a critical part of building scalable and flexible systems that meet business goals. Start by using ethnographic interviewing techniques to identify priorities and context for the process that the system supports. Use task analysis and more interviewing to identify what people do with the system, the information they need and use, and what they do with that information. Map this to a known library of established "problem-solving patterns" or "templates" that have been identified as part of artificial intelligence research. Review, test, and refine the pattern. Map this "cognitive pattern" to the current or planned function of the system and you have developed a system for understanding, communicating, and modeling the system in terms that can be comprehended and tested by humans. This process resolves many of the problems with traditional modeling techniques that result in documentation and models created with varying levels of abstraction and detail and leave both systems architects and business modelers struggling to figure out how it all fits together. The process is far too complex to detail thoroughly in this small book, but it does an admirable job of outlining the entire process, and how it can be applied to meet a number of system and business modeling goals. It also identifies numerous information resources to take you to the next step. Readers should note that the first chapter contains some of the worst examples of gratuitous and useless artwork I've ever seen, and has many long academic sentences that are likely to make many people stop reading right there. But keep going...This book is definitely worth the read.

Bob Gardner's 'The Complete Private Pilot' was in depth, informative, and interesting, as well as easy to understand. This is the type of book you can pick up before you ever step foot into an airplane and comprehend it cover to cover. My instructor suggested the title and assigned two chapters before every flight, but that first evening I read 7 of the 15 chapters! Mr. Gardner gave me the extra confidence I needed to sit in that left seat and I'm here to thank him for it.

The experiments are written in a clear way so every reader might understand them; it is a useful text for science fairs projects, and an electric and magnetism demonstrations guide, also. It may be recommended for 6-12 students and teachers, but is a useful tool for parents, too.

As a teacher who loves to use toys to get my point across, I found this book very valuable. It not only explains how certain toys work, but also tell you how to make your own. This is a far cry from the traditional science fair book -- and a vast imporvement.

Parents and teachers alike will get their money's worth for this book.

This book only has common sense ideas in it. I generally like the motley fools products. However, this book should be purchased only by those who do not have a basic understanding of how to save or prepare for college. We all know it is best to start saving early and talk to people at the schools about how to get a scholarship.

This book tackles a daunting financial topic and makes it easy to digest. Best of all, it's only 125 pages, so I didn't have to commit hours and hours of my time to learn what I needed to know. The book offered charts, tables and plain English, distilling topics such as the Education IRA (now called the Coverdell ESA), 529 Plans (there are two main kinds of these and you can sock away up to $100,000 or more in them -- who knew??) and even paying for elementary school and grad school. Oh -- and did I mention that it's funny, too?

This book is designed with the young student in mind, reaching for the ages that are starting their science in school and building a foundation for them to start with. It gives the basics of weighing and measurements, basic thermodyanmics (very basic, like evaporation in boiling), gravity, etc. A simplistic view of science for the beginner, not useful for adults or anyone who has the basics down. Suggested for grade school science teachers as an idea pool to convey how science can be demonstrated.

June 30, 1999 What is creativity, is an audio lecture which needs either better focus or a better title. In short it needs to be redevloped to be somewhat more creatively entertaining. When I purchased this audio book I thought I was going to be getting an imaginative fun philosiphical look at the human condition for being able to be creative. What I received was a series of four essays which sounded like they were read by a robot. Too analytical and definitely NOT VERY CREATIVE or interesting. (Special note I've only made it through the first one.) By looking at the copy right date its easy to tell that this is one of Audio Scholars first audio novels so I can't be too critical. They're later ones are much much better especially, T-Rex and the Crater of Doom, which takes a palentology scientific discovery and turns into a really fun adventure of science and discovery. I would really like to see this particular product redeveloped into a fun imaginative philosiphical look at the human condition for being able to be creative, similar to the T-Rex mention above. Leave the analytical discussions of paintings out as they are too specific and I found them oh so boring. It's alright to create an audio lecture on the history of art, but that's the history of art and not creativity and the human condition per say. I would tell listeners to avoid this audio novel and wait for it to be redeveloped properly. Arnold D Veness

What is creativity? I owe an apology to Audio Scholar for my first review. I should have finished listening to the whole whole audio novel before saying anything the whole work. My first review only pertains to essay 1 on tape 1. After abandoning the first tape because of unpredicted content I continued with tape 2 and was pleasently surprised with an engaging discussion on the philisophical nature of creativity and the human condition. One of my favorite readers, Jeff Riggenbach, read the last of the four essays. I would still like the audio book redeveloped to have more emphasis like the content contained in essay's 3 and 4. Arnold D Veness

I would like to know the cost of this item, and how can I aquire it? I have one of these books. I know that it was published in 1925 through the University Press, NY at 32 waverly Place, New York City,NY. The publisher William Edward Rudge Huntington Nason PHD. It is a hardback book, large in size, and has the original hand drawn science of forms and all its sizes of structure. This book has been in our family for a very long time and I have no idea where it came from. If you have any information about it please let me know.

Paula Worthington
Brenda Salinas
1201 East Fishcreek Rd.
Grand Prairie, Texas 75052
972-262-2452

Dr. Richard Gardner has devised unique theories and research models to explain why in all normal families the children have sex with their fathers. It is only the abnormal family, those families with a crazy, maladjusted, sexually unresponsive mothers, do the children not have or enjoy sex with their fathers. Good reading for pedophiles.