Whereas I am always greateful when new Holmes stories are released, particularly in anthology form, and as long as they do not deal with utterly bizarre places or events, I found that these stories were rather lack-luster. Within the first three days I had the book, I read through five pieces, none of which were as remarkable as I hoped they would be. The usual contributors are here, and one can usually expect outstanding entries by Loren D. Estleman and Edward B. Hoch, but here their stories are as flat as the rest. Hopefully in their next effort, the writers will write more engaging tales.

I was really looking for a book on real accounts of ghosts in New England. I used to have a book like that, but loaned it to an ex-friend.

I really did however enjoy reading this particular book, even though it was not exactly what I was looking for.

I would recommend this book to anyone that like to read ghost stories.

Olympic contests between the Soviet bloc and America were often exploited for propaganda purposes, the outcome of an athletic event supposedly saying something significant about the victor's country. This 1984 anthology, from the height of the Cold War, has several stories built around that notion.

Tom Sullivan's "The Mickey Mouse Olympics" and Nicholas V. Yermakov's "A Glint of Gold" both feature Soviet and American Olympic athletes genetically modified for their events. Sullivan plays the notion for genuine laughs. Yermakov's story is much more serious and shows the price the competitors pay as propaganda pawns. He also works in a defection subplot.

Walter F. Moudy's "The Survivor" abandons all together the notion of mere symbolic combat in the Olympics. In his future, the USSR and USA each put 100 man combat teams into the arena, and they don't come out till one side is annihilated. It's all televised, of course. Moudy is not content to just do a story of future gladiatorial matches. He also delves into what the combat conditioning does to the soldier, what kind of person it produces. It isn't idle speculation, either, because all the survivors of an Olympic War Game get to do whatever they want with no legal sanctions. It's one of the highpoints of the anthology.

Not all of the stories deal with future Olympics; the general theme is competition.

In the case of the dentist in Piers Anthony "Getting Through University", basis for his novel PROSTHO PLUS, the competition is to get accepted to galactic University, School of Dentistry. Anthony creates an entertaining story out of the complexities of dentistry on the galaxy's aliens.

Other highpoints are Norman Spinrad's "The National Pastime", "The Wind from the Sun" by Arthur C. Clarke, and "Prose Bowl" from the team of Bill Pronzini and Barry N. Malzberg. Spinrad's story tells of the invention of Combat Football and its fans very violent enthusiasm for it. It's a 1973 story but hasn't dated that much, especially since wrestling promoters now talk of starting their own football league. Clarke's story combines hard science and melancholy in a solar sail race. Also titled "Sunjammer", it was probably the first story to use the idea of solar sails. "Prose Bowl" makes hack writing into an hilarious spectator sport, but it also says some serious things about writers and their audiences.

On the decidely low end of the anthology are Jack Vance's "The Kokod Warriors", about aliens who fight elaborate combats and the humans who bet on them, and Charles Nuetzel's "A Day for Dying", one of those stories with a decadent society of televised bloodsports and an unconvincing revolution to topple it. George Alec Effinger's "From Downtown at the Buzzer", about some aliens fascination with basketball, is marred by a vague ending.

In the entertaining-but-nothing-special category are the rest of the anthology's works. George R.R. Martin's "Run to Starlight" has aliens playing football against humans. The aliens turn out to have a more realistic view of the games' ultimate significance than the humans. Bob Shaw's "Dream Fighter" is another one of those stories where combatants assault each other mentally with horrifying symbols. Suzette Haden Elgin's "For the Sake of Grace" is a feminist story about a poetry contest on a world with an Arab-type culture and the young girl who dares to enter it despite the horrifying consequences of failing. Robert Sheckley's "The People Trap" is a witty, grim tale of a race for land in an overpopulated world. "Why Johnny Can't Speed" by Alan Dean Foster is another combat on the highways story. It was possibly a response to Harlan Ellison's classic "Along the Scenic Route". "Nothing in the Rules" by L. Sprague de Camp is about the chaos caused by a mermaid entering a swimming match. "The Olympians" by Mike Resnick is not, despite the title, a future Olympics tale. The Olympians are an elite group of humans who specialize in humiliating aliens in athletic competitions.

There are enough good stories here to justify taking a look at this anthology.

Robots in Judgment was editor Asimov's preferred title for this anthology since the stories cover more ground than just robot detectives.

Oh, there are robot detectives here all right. Asimov's famous human and robot detective team of Lije Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw are here for their only short story appearance, "Mirror Image." The murderous mobile law enforcer of Ron Goulart's "Into the Shop" captures the same criminal -- again and again. A robotic Sherlock Holmes, his Cockney-rhyming robot dog, and a Watson of mysterious origins investigate the case of a possibly mad industrialist on a future greenhouse Earth in Edward Wellen's "Voiceover".

Wellen also gives us an interesting, proto-cyberpunk story, "Finger of Fate", with its hard-boiled, if immobile, computer who prowls databases and public records to solve his cases. The machines of Harry Harrison's "Arm of the Law" and Harlan Ellison's and Ben Bova's "Brillo" are not exactly detectives but robot cops, and each must deal with police corruption and the difference between theoretical law enforcement and carrying a badge in the real world of humans. "Brillo" also deals with bluecollar fears of being replaced by machines. The tin stars of Larry Niven's famous "Cloak of Anarchy" supervise a Free Park where anything except physical violence goes -- until an artist decides to put his political ideas into effect and disable them. Stephen R. Donaldson's "Animal Lover" is a cyborg federal cop sent to investigate a hunting preserve with an oddly high body count of hunters.

Stories that don't feature robotic investigators and law enforcers are Christopher Anvil's tedious "The King's Legions", a tale of political machinations and a nearly-magical, sentient spaceship. Technological innovations since its original publication date of 1963 make Larry Eisenberg's "The Fastest Draw" a fully realistic story. In it, a man obsessively tries to make his fast draw competitions with a gunfighter simulcra more realistic. Harry Harrison's "The Powers of Observation" is a predictable but involving tale of espionage and androids in a Cold War Yugoslavia. "Faithfully Yours" by Lou Tabakow, about a convict fleeing some implacable retribution, is flawed by an irrelevant beginning and an ending that stops at the point where things get interesting. The strength of Donald Wismer's "Safe Harbor" is undercut by the rather unbelievable motivation of a central character who opts out of a world largely automated and administered with the help of "bugs", skull implants that monitor health and track their users in case they need emergency aid. Henry Slesar's "Examination Day" is famous but doesn't really work. Its surprise ending is probably there to make a satirical point but about what, exactly, is unclear.

Robert Sheckley's "The Cruel Equations", though, is a clever and funny story about an inflexible guard robot and the man who has forgotten his password but must pass by it -- or die on a desert world.

Not every story is perfect but, with the exception of Slesar's and Anvil's, they're all worth reading, and readers should, especially with the Wellen stories, find some overlooked gems here.

Overall this is a pretty enjoyable collection. Not terribly outstanding but not the worst that I've read either. All of the stories are supposed to take place within an urban environment and draw on the horror from that situation. Some worked; some didn't. It seems to me that "theme" collections like this usually bat around 50%. It would be better if just the best stories were hunted out rather than trying to apply to one theme only. I've listed some of my favorite stories below:

"Prey" by Richard Matheson - A woman's present for her boyfriend takes on a life of its own.

"The Father-Thing" by Philip K. Dick - A story very similar to Invasion of The Body Snatchers but with children as the heroes. (Developed at the same time as the original story.)

"The Tunnel Ahead" by Alice Glaser - A family outing to the beach on a very crowded world

"The Chimney" by Ramsey Campbell - A boy's terror with facing what may or may not be coming for him

"The Litter" by James Kisner - A man's cat has kittens while his neighbor's dog has puppies, they think

"The Shaggy House" by Joe R. Lansdale - Two old men do something about the deterioration of their neighborhood

"The Book of Webster's" by J.N. Williamson - A man and a young woman travel the country adding to their collection

Vampire Slayers is one of two things, depending on the reader: an absolute, must-have for the fan of vampires and particularly vampire-hunters; or, for the less-than-pleased with Van Helsing, a curious and eclectic selection of occult stories. Those who don't like horror at all will probably be bored (many of the stories involve similar settings: vampires take over the world), but fans will be entertained, as the stories stretch over many writers and styles.

Although it's unlikely that these fifteen previously published vampire stories are actually "the greatest" in their field, they are certainly well written, most by distinguished authors. Beyond that, it's difficult to make generalizations about the stories in this volume. Some are long and some are short; most of the vampires are antagonists, but a few are good guys, or at least trying to do the right thing. There is romance and tragedy, suspense and comedy.

Sillier entries include "The Bat Is My Brother" by Robert Bloch, an early good vampire-bad vampire story, predictably cliched in its portrayal of the evil vampire, and "Dayblood" by Roger Zelazny, a topsy-turvy perspective on vampires that never quite overcomes its strained premise. "Valentine from a Vampire" by Daniel Ransom, with its victimized good vampire and the man who falls in love with her, also never quite manages to be convincing. At the opposite end of the spectrum are the darkly romantic "In Darkness, Angels" by Eric Lustbader and Tanith Lee's "Red as Blood," a fairy tale gone deliciously bad.

Seldom-reprinted stories include Jane Yolen's "Mama Gone," a child's own tale of redeeming the undead, and "Child of an Ancient City," Tad Williams's vampiric variation on the Thousand and One Nights.

There is a depth and grace to the best; the weakest are at least interesting as curiosities. Although this book has little new to offer the confirmed vampire fiction collector, it is a good place to begin for anyone curious about the variety of vampire fiction available.

CONTENTS: Robert Bloch, "The Bat Is My Brother"; Eric Lustbader, "In Darkness, Angels"; Roger Zelazny, "Dayblood"; Brian Stableford, "The Man Who Loved the Vampire Lady"; Philip K. Dick, "The Cookie Lady"; Robert McCammon, "The Miracle Mile"; David Drake, "Something Had to Be Done"; Daniel Ransom, "! Valentine from a Vampire"; Jane Yolen, "Mama Gone"; Karl Edward Wagner, "Beyond Any Measure"; Tanith Lee, "Red As Blood"; Richard Matheson, "No Such Thing As a Vampire"; S. P. Somtow, "The Vampire of Mallworld"; Tad Williams, "Child of an Ancient City"; Dan Simmons, "Shave and a Haircut, Two Bites"

From Mr. Chopra's book, "He didn't know what the term meant, only that yesterday had been Ash Wednesday and tomorrow therefore Good Friday." This quote was taken directly from Mr.Chopra's book "Lords of Light" a novel, page 219. Mr. Chopra, for your information, Ash Wednesday is not part of Holy Week. It begins the day after Fat Tuesday, 40 days before Holy Week even begins. Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday (March 28th of this year) continues on to Holy Thursday (April 1st), Good Friday (April 2nd), and Holy Saturday (April 3rd). This year, Ash Wednesday was observed on Wednesday, February 17th, as far away from Good Friday as 40 days can manage. I was disappointed at the lack of research which caused this error and the inability of the editing staff who proof a book in not picking up such a glaring mistake.. I do wish to compliment you on the accuracy of the Jewish traditions.

Chopra and Greenberg have "created" an epic parable for the closing scene of the one act play called The 2nd Millennium.

If you can flow past the occasional factual "error," this is a book that takes up where the Torah-Bible-Koran leave off.

For ages descriptions of Utopia, Heaven and Paradise have lacked vitality, meaning and excitement. Recently theology, science and psychology have crossed to spawn a vigorous new spiritual awareness that is reflected in many nonfiction books, some by Dr. Chopra.

Lords of Light is an entertaining, action packed, thoughtful and humorous story of a modern day Saul of Tarsus. It is a great read, and it feeds the soul.

Let it take you on a journey of the fantastic! I do not typically enjoy reading, but I found Lords of Light to be a very intriguing and very enticing book that includes fantasy and wonder! It also includes historical facts that have been blended into the writing, but you don't realize that you are learning while you are following the fantastic story of good and evil, dark and light...determining what is good and what is evil is the true creative twist Deepak Chopra creates in this fantiastic novel. Try it, you'll love it!

This is without a doubt the worst Clancy book I have read. I bought Bio-Strike because I loved his previous Power Plays work, Shadow Watch. This book was slow getting set up. I felt this took up at least half the book. It finally got pretty interesting, but then Clancy hung the ending. I don't mean he left it open to an interesting sequel; there was no closure to this story, and I don't look forward to reading a continuation of it.

This book was a terrible book. The content was pretty boring at most times. This was nothing like the Sum of All Fears, or Patriot Games. I only liked brief parts of it. Hey Tom! Pick up the pace!

This story seems to jump from topic to topic without any real coherence. When the end finally came I was so lost, I didnt even realize it was coming. Not worth buying.

This book is not exactly very bad, but it is quite weak. A shallow story, weak characters and not well written. I had the impression that the author, opposite to the REAL Clancy, didn't alwyays know what he's talking about. Dear guys at RED STORM: I'm getting tired of books with Tom Clancy on the cover but not inside. I think that even Mr. Clancy didn't like the book too much. Look at the editorial. In his "Op-Center" series he always thanked his ghost-writer for the "invaluable contribution" to the book. This time, in POLITIKA, he only thanked the ghost-writer for the "valuable contribution." Quite a down-turn, isn't it? Mr. Clancy, WRITE another book on your own and stop launching boring spin-off series!END

//From an unacknowleged letter to the publisher about the paperback edition// Page Erratum Comment 18 Bashkir...Far Eastern I think you mean "Siberian"; the Bashkirs are not in the Far East. If "Bashkir" is not an ethnic Bashkir, why does he have this name? (There is a famous pianist with the name Bashkirov) 30 Romual Perhaps you mean the Polish first name Romual'd (the apostrophe indicating the Russian soft sign, that being how the name is spelled in Russian) 43 Bishir yetso Neither I nor another experienced Russian linguist have any idea what this means. 62 vor v. zakone The period is not necessary (it's not a middle name!); rather than "godfather", such a person is more like the Mafia "made man" or, simply, "professional (as opposed to petty) thief", who subscribes to a code. See "Soviet Prison Camp Speech", by Meyer Galler, based largely on Solzhenitsyn's early works, for an excellent reference on this subject 110 Republican convention ?the previous summer"; in 1998? 181 Gorbachev He wasn't president in 1992 235 MIDI MIDI is a digital protocol governing the transmission of musical data between sound modules/synthesizers and computers or other sound modules/ synthesizers 261 Zgranitsa etc. Za granitsa (SIC) is a prepositional expression; no native Russian speaker would use it as the subject of a sentence like an English speaker might. 337 Mercedes Wold a rabid Russian nationalist/ Communist be seen in one of these? Bad image. . 343 Komerade ??? You mean "tovarishch"? "Komerad" is what German soldiers traditionally say when about to surrender 364 IL-76 This is a cargo plane, not a passenger plane. Although it is used to carry paratroopers, they don't sit in "passenger seats" any more than US airborne units do.

Politika is a book that has an intriguing plot, with different exciting events woven

into it. Tom Clancy, in this book, braves waters no author has journeyed into before,

adding in terrorists, Mafia intrigues, and even the DEATH of Boris Yeltsin, leaving

Russian factions battling for control of the world power, and leaving one important

government businessman in the middle of the whole thing. Roger Gordian, is the man

behind Government and military technology. His corporation is attacked by Terrorists

and Mafia Russian factions. At the head of this secret war, is a Russian Gangster

known only as Penchanko , who has employed a world class assassin known as

Gregor . Roger Gordian must strike back using a covert team called SWORD, and is

forced to watch the new millennium turn into a terrorist attack as Times Square on

January 1st, 2000 is turned into sulking ruin...