Tanith Lee displays her usual inventiveness in Gold Unicorn; the result is a very satisfactory sequel to Black Unicorn.

While not, in my mind, quite as enjoyable as the first one, Gold Unicorn nonetheless remains a well-crafted fantasy in a creative and unusual world. Darker than its predecessor, Gold Unicorn explores Tanaquil's struggles between loyalty to her half-sister Lizra, now the dreaded conquerer, and her own belief that the ideal world her sister strives for cannot be achieved by war. Added are several complications-- a massive mechanical gold unicorn Lizra has ordered Tanaquil to fix for her war campaign, the mischievous peeve, stinging mousps (a magician's creation formed of mice and wasps), Honj, the enigmatic consort of Lizra...and a hell world to parallel the perfect world Tanaquil saw in the last book.

Obviously some people won't appreciate this book, but to those who enjoy Tanith Lee's particular style, Gold Unicorn is the perfect way to spend an afternoon.

Really, the sequel is very, very good. There are still more interesting, complex characters, a strong plotline, and all kinds of surprises, twists, and magic, magic, magic. Tanaquil is her old complex self, as wonderful and strong and clever and dry as she was in the first book, Black Unicorn. Her familiar, the peeve, is also going strong, and I particularly liked it in the sequel.

At first, it may look to some readers like the book is just another formulatic epic-battle-type fantasy, but Tanith Lee takes all the old, used-up cliches of this sort of fantasy and reweaves them, turns them upside-down, completley rejeuvenates them.

This is a wonderful book, and a worthy sequel. I would have liked it perhaps if Tanaquil had just gone on adventures by herself (and the peeve) and there had been no war element, but this sequel is still good the way it is.

Altogether, I wasn't disappointed. Fun book! Well worth reading!

Great light read! Though not as good as the black unicorn, the gold unicorn is still a enchanting read.

The book is divided into two major sections.

The first section's greatest contribution is its perspective on individual Old English words. If you are intrigued by kennings, then there are two or three interesting chapters in this book which seem to offer a novel treatment of the subject. This work has a comprehensive bibliography and seems solidly based in text.

The Christian context, in structure, language, character, etc. is the overarching theme of the second half of the book, which is divided into chapter length essays. This section would be most useful to someone investigating the pagan/Christian juxtaposition in Beowulf. At times I disagreed with various points/premises, but the overall argument was compelling.

A collection of ads and drawings of silverplate patterns. I have 5 different patterns that we collect. This book only had 2 of the five.

This book has lots of nice pictures and drawings that show good detail of the different patterns. There are lots of patterns to choose from including some that are very old. The only problem is that it doesn't really have a good variety of brands. Also, it took me a while to figure out where the values are. Once I figured that out, I got real tired of flipping back to the front cover over and over to see what my pieces were worth. However, if you've got the right brands this could be the perfect book for you!

If you have an old set of silverplate or odd pieces, especially older ornate pieces of flatware,this is a good guide, well illustrated, with many reproductions of original catalogs. I found pattern names of several odd serving pieces which led to a search for matching place settings.

This book is written in a journalistic style. I felt that the authors, to an unacceptable degree in my view, became apologists for the miner's union and the man convicted of murder. The authors justly establish that the mine boss and the Pinkerton Agency did little to help defuse the labor unrest. However, the same could easily be said of the union.

The book promotes that it tells the "true story" of this labor dispute and the criminal probe. Yet, I found I had to question the impartiality of the authors, when they omitted or interpreted some details of the case to further their viewpoint. Case in point: during the trial the authors referenced, in very sanitized language, the crude manner in which the accused had spoken of female boss, Peggy Witte. The hateful language actually used, published and quoted elsewhere, would have allowed the reader insight into the mind of the accused. Watering-down and glossing over this testimony in the book, seemed to me to be an effort to shelter the reader from understanding this man's capacity for hatred.

For those interested in the case, I recommend more highly, the book "The Third Suspect." It describes the situation in, what I believe to be, a more impartial manner. It tells the story and accepts the jury verdict of guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Even though Boren is an experienced writer, and a good one at that, he embellishes his books to the point where they are no longer a reliable source of information. He has embellished the truth so much so, that this book is nothing short of a ficticious tale. Anyone who would use this book to aide them in a search for the Lost Rhoades Mine, or the fabled Shin-Ob is running after a ghost. Mr. Boren also invented the Shin-Ob, as well as the word "Towats" to mean "The Great Sprit". Towats means "Man" nothing else. This book is great for the fire place.

The Gold of Carre-Shinob is at the most very interesting reading. There are fantastic stories of long lost mines and Spanish gold in the mountains of Utah. But as far as being historically accurate, well... Boren seems to favor re-writing bits of history here and there throughout the book to support his tales. Read this book not for its historical accuracy, but rather for its intrigue and adventure.

If you use this to search for gold it will be useless, but, for early history items concerning mining and general history it is a 'goldmine.' I thought it was well done.

I enjoy learning about 1850s California, so I quickly bought this book. My excitement turned to dismay when I was 40 pages in and the auther was still talking about herself. I thought this book was supposed to be about the Gold Rush.

I only made it about 150 pages before I bestowed upon this book a rare honor, one that I have only bestowed upon two other books in my life: I threw it away. I refuse to allow any other human being to be subjected to its unfocused, egotistic narrative.

Avoid this book and (unless you're interested in personal accounts of lesbian difficulties) everything else written by Susan Lee Johnson.

While some of the topics Johnson brings up such as the mixing of cultures that takes place during this time, she lacks the organizational skills and talent as a writer to make the book compelling. Her work is all over the place and it's hard to follow especially when trying to use it as the basis of a research paper (which is what I had to do for a upper division history class of mine).

I always thought reading a book about Gold Rush-era California would be interesting, but Susan Lee Johnson has been able to make it seem not very compelling.

This is a "People's History" sort of book, a tale of the minor characters in history, in particular the miners and their society. In such a book, there are oppressors (often white males) and oppressed (usually women and non-whites). Johnson supports this thesis with numerous tales of robbery and murder, which may all be true, but also reflect a political agenda that she is trying to promote. This removes any real objectivity from her book.

The main problem with this book, however, is it is not very well-organized. Johnson has filled the book with some good (and some not-so-good) anecdotes, but there is not all that much joining these stories together. The result is a sometimes informative but usually rambling work. In the end, I felt like I hadn't learned very much about this era other than a few tales that needed a better context.

The book has some good photos, but the printing is poor quality and the layout and design are sloppy and confusing.
Whole sections of the text are lifted directly from Vincent Seyfried's "The Long Island Railroad: A Comprehensive History." And the source of some of Brian Merlis' photos must be questioned.

having grown up in sheepshead bay, I couldnt say no to this book. Pictures and history are quite interesting, but they arranged somewhat haphazardly and the history is not in chronologic order. A good book if you are from the area

It seems that all Boren has managed to do in this book is rehash what has already been written and copy letters that have already been published. If you have read Footprints or any George Thompson books you will be sorely disappointed in this one. No new info, just a redo to generate some $$ while Boren is in jail. And by the way, how is he writing this when he has been in jail for the past 10+ years. This is the randoms ramblings of a man in prison too long.