Although these stories may not be as polished as Howard's later works, I find them fascinating because not only do they clearly indicate the direction which Howard's writing will take, but the hero is so unlike any others that Howard created. I read the Kane stories long after I was familiar with Howard's other stories, and was rather surprised by the type of character that he had created in Kane. As for accusations that Howard was a rascist, if one takes into account that Howard considered Africans as barbarians and that he placed barbarians on a rather high pedestal (Conan, Kull, etc...), and if one also takes into account the direction which his Solomon Kane stories takes, then one would have to be quite the ignorant, knee-jerk liberal to think that.

This a collection of all Robert E. Howard's writings using the character Soloman Kane, a Puritan warrior who is driven by conflicting urges of vengeance and chivalry amidst supernatural foes. Most tales take place in Africa, where allied with a mysterious ju-ju man he has strange adventures, battling ancient races and ancient evils in his quest to deal out justice.

These stories are very good on the whole. There area few poor tales by Howard's standards, and the one with a vampiric queen is a big let-down considering its potential. But there are a few classics - such as 'Wings in the Night', a superbly-drawn story with excellent characterisation and narrative action. The personage of Soloman Kane is very interesting and truly three-dimensional. Just a shame that Robert E. Howard didn't get to use him more often in his writings.

howard's descriptions of the puritan with a sword and a pistol, makes Solomon Kane his most interesting creation. the concept in these stories are great too, and varying. some include magic, there are pirats and vampires. as always howard is unmatched in his combat descriptions. true greatness. one sad thing, though: the "completion" of some stories by Ramsey Campbell. awful. the guy hasn't got a clue. Solomon Kane sudenly tolerates corruption, one story has an incredibly stupid ending. Campbell was definitely the wrong choice. make up for it, get someone else.

Peter Bogdanovich has written a book that is for the movie enthusiast. I suspect the general reader may find some of the interviewees obscure, and the topics technical. I feel that is their loss. For the student of film or film history, this is a treasure trove of information, ideas, experiences, and feelings about films taken from interviews with some of the most distinguished directors in movie history. The author's selection is not encyclopedic, but the directors' experience spans from the earliest years of silent film to the present. These men are not just informative, but their strong and distinctive personalities show in each interview, giving the sense that one has actually met and understood many of them. Some of the interviews are brief, or even very idiosyncratic, but the best are delightfully personal. This is a long book, but affords many pleasant evenings of good conversation. It also makes one want to go back and see the films again!

This is an incredible book that contains Bogdanovich's various interviews with some of Hollywood's greatest filmmakers. These are not detailed biographies however, they are an in-depth conversation about the filmmaker's films and his own feelings about them. While some go into the individual's past it is just so you can get an idea of the personality of the filmmaker. This is a must-have book. A good way to look at it is to read it through once and become familiar with all of the directors, some of whom may be new to you. Then as you view their films go back and read what they have to say. Though sometimes their comments are very brief, it's one of the few sources you'll find where the film-maker makes direct reference back to a film. And I don't know what it is about Bogdanovich but he always brings out gems of truth from those he interviews.

You can spend years going to film school, or you can read this book! Bogdanovich does a great job with this collection of interviews of great film directors. Not only does the book give you a good inside view of the craft of cinema, but it also acts as a history book of the film industry.

This book would be good for the serious indie director who has bet his/her credit cards on their dream or even the special person in your life who stays up until 4am watching the Turner Classic Movie channel.

There is something here for everyone as there is a wide range of directors who work in a wide range of styles. There isn't a genre that isn't touched in this book - from Hitchcock on Horror to Chuck Jones on cartoons. What's great is that Bogdanovich captures insight into directors that are no longer with us (like Fritz Lang who directed Metropolis). Since the directors tell their own stories, you don't get the Hollywood hype filter.

If you had to buy one book on film this year, this would be it!

This memoir of the relationship between Novalyne Price and Robert Ervin Howard is a fine historical document. It does have its moments of humor, pathos, and insight. However, it's not a very entertaining book, and one can see why Mrs. Ellis (Novalyne's married name)never became a professional author (until this book). I'm glad I bought it and read it, but principally for its historical significance into the life of Robert E. Howard, one of the 20th Century's finest writers of adventure fiction. ONE WHO WALKS ALONE was made into the excellent flim, THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD, starring Vincent Donofrio as Howard, and Renee' Zellwegger as Price. A case in which a film was better and more effective than the book.

Still and all, I do highly recommend ONE WHO WALKED ALONE. It's a fairly good read, and does give a great deal of insight into the strange life of Robert Ervin Howard.

I began reading R. E. Howard's stories about ten years ago when a very intelligent friend informed me that Howard had been one of the best writers, along with H.P Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, for Weird Tales magazine at its beginning. These stories swept me away into Howard's incredibly savage Hyborian age, with their action, devilish plotting and larger than life heros. I realized, before reading the introductions about Howard, that the man who had written these stories was larger than life himself. So when I saw the movie of his life, The Whole Wide World, in the grocery store, I rented it. At the end it credited Novalyne Price Ellis's memoir, One Who Walked Alone, as its inspiration. N. P. Ellis was Howard's girlfriend during the last four years of his life, the period when he was writing his Conan stories. Mrs. Ellis, a great high school speech teacher and drama coach at the time, kept diaries and observations of her time spent with R.E.H. and had them transcribed much later into the memoir. N.P.E. had wanted to become a selling writer for most of her life, and the memoir shows that she had a tremendous eye for detail, assessing what drove people, and the speech patterns of the time. This is a fabulous book told as dramatized encounters, arranged with perfectly-captured coversations she'd had with Howard and others, and carefully detailed scene development. I enjoyed the story so well that I actually went to Howard's house in Cross Plains, TX which they like to show as a museum. I spoke with many people there who knew about the Howards.

This is a wonderful memoir about Robert E. Howard,the creator of Conan the Barbarian. The author, Novalyne Price Ellis, fondly remembers her close relationship with the troubled pulp fiction writer before he killed himself. An inspiring movie, The Whole Wide World (starring Renee Zellweger and Vincent D'Onofrio), based on One Who Walked Alone, was critically well accepted. Because of viewer and reader requests, the book has been reprinted by Donald M. Grant, Publisher, with a beautiful new jacket cover. The book and movie are both very touching and worthwhile.

Robert Westbrook shows his talent and his literary roots in his new mystery series. Also author of Intimate Lies, Westbrook knows the Southwest first-hand. He draws you into the outsider viewpoint and tells an intriguing story. The star of the tale takes you along on an eerie investigation to discover what might be an imagined apparition, a deadly hoax, or an evil supernatural being.

I found this book to be an absorbing, page turner. The author's descriptions of Taos and the characters were very realistic. I felt I knew the characters well. It is a mystery written with cleverness and humor. The ending was a real surprise. I recommend it highly to mystery lovers.

Ghost Dancer was great fun to read. Not just another Hillerman type southwestern mystery, this was far more clever and had more colorful characters. Great social commentaries, witty and insightful writing and a well constructed mystery that led me down many wrong paths.

Most of the tales in this volume are in 1st-person; however, the reader would do well to remember that sometimes stories may chronicle a *deceased* narrator. For one thing, the style I refer to as "flashback/present" involves a present-day narrator who, in the midst of the present-day story, recalls a dramatic story of a past life, which (while complete in itself, as a story) fills in background for the present story. Some stories end in tragedy, some in triumph - and others in both.

Please take time to appreciate sly Lovecraft references, e.g. "the Necronomicon in the original Greek translation" (as opposed to the Latin translation). Lovecraft and Howard are described in GURPS Who's Who 1 & 2 (respectively), including their long-distance friendship, if you're interested.

"The Voice of El-Lil" - The narrator meets a man who once found the lost city of Eridu - founded by refugees from the fall of Old Eridu in Sumeria, 4000 years ago. He still can't bear the sound of gongs, which bring back the memory of the temple of El-Lil.

"The Cairn on the Headland" - Style: 1st-person flashback/present, where the flashback is one of Howard's takes on Clontarf, the battle that ended the Dark Ages by breaking the back of the sea-rovers. Why was a great cairn raised on the battle-plain, when the rovers couldn't stay to bury their dead? And why, ever after, was it worth a man's life to carry holly within a mile of Grimmin's Headland?

"Casonetto's Last Song" - Casonetto, the great tenor, ordered the destruction of all his recordings before his execution - save one, which he arranged to have mailed to the narrator, who exposed his murderous cult to the authorities. What song has he sent to the man responsible for his death?

"The Cobra in the Dream", "The Dream Snake" - These stories, while different, each have at their core a poor devil tormented by a recurring nightmare, in which a snake comes closer and closer to killing him with each repetition of the dream. In the end, the victim fears that his next dream will bring his death - so that he at last confides in the narrator (a different person in each story).

"Dig Me No Grave" - "...I shall need none." Such were the final words of the will of John Grimlan, which he handed to Conrad, his executor, with instructions for Conrad to carry out even if Grimlan later weakened and tried to countermand his orders. Now Conrad has asked Kirowan (in his first appearance, and who is narrating) to accompany him as he carries out Grimlan's request.

"The Haunter of the Ring" - Evelyn Gordon's ex-suitor finally sent a belated wedding present - and now she's tried 3 times to kill her husband, with no memory of doing so. Not that there could be any connection...

"Dermod's Bane" - Kirowan, the narrator, was advised to seek out Galway, in the hope that the salt sea or Ireland itself might ease his grief at his sister's death. To this day, the great tree known as Dermod's Bane marks the spot where his ancestor killed his great enemy...

"King of the Forgotten People" - The forgotten people in this instance are human, for once - a pleasure city built for Genghis Khan, rediscovered by a scientist seeking a place to conduct research without pesky restrictions about safety, live subjects, and the like. Unfortunately, Barlow didn't reckon with his wife; despite their bad marriage, she felt duty-bound to send Brill on an expedition to discover Barlow's fate. (The story centers around Brill, although it's one of the few in this volume written in 3rd person.)

"The Children of the Night" - Style: 1st-person flashback/present. Kirowan appears in passing; the narrator is also that of 'Haunter of the Ring'. If you like this one, check out "The Shadow Kingdom" (a Kull story) with its debased snake-people.

"The Hyena" - The narrator, a tenderfoot in Africa, isn't very bright - he can't quite reason from A to B to C, as Tey would have put it. A) A local chief quarreled with a widely respected fetish-man, B) the chief was killed by a hyena, and C) everyone is now terrified of the fetish-man...

"People of the Black Coast" - Style: narrated by a man whose fiancee was flying him from Manila to Guam - only to crash on an unknown island of steep cliffs and echoing silence. Deserted? You wish...

"The Fire of Asshurbanipal" - If you're going to go looking for treasure in lost cities, take my advice: don't pick one that got a special mention in the Necronomicon.

this is a great collection of horror stories. perhaps not particularly well invented or original, but excellently written, good descriptions of the primal fear in man, great descriptions, and the suspence never lacking.

If you like the Indiana Jones films - as most people in the planet did - this is a book for you.

I'm inclined to believe that Robert E. Howard, along with other pulp writers, are the inspiration for many films of decades later, up to this day... This book is a collection of such influences: adventure in the wilderness; quests for old tombs in eerie places; ancient horrors reborn; and tough guys - plenty of them, ready to punch, smite and shoot their ways through hordes of mean enemies.

On a side note, when you pick this book, try ignoring the fact that it's filled with racist undertones. If you leave that aside, I believe you'll have great fun. For this book has the essence of adventure.

This book was pretty good. I like the diary ones. I also like Florida. If you like traveling, and the beach, you'll love this book!!!!

Shore Thing is about two twin girls that go on a field trip and have the most fantasic time of there lifes. This book is really great. I think that it is the best one out of the whole series. It has a great cover and from beginning to end it is marvelous. You should read this book and find out by your self. So buy the book or read some more online reviews to know more about it. I hope you enjoy it.

It's a SHORE THING that this books rocks! I think this is the best book out of their whole Two of a Kind series. Two For The Road connects with Shore Thing since they are Diaries and it just rocks. If you have not read it yet, you should! And the cover of Shore Thing and Two for the Road rocks! They are so cute with their pig-tails and their awesome outfits! Out of my 15 Two of a Kind books, this is #1!

This book was well written, but the language was extremely sophisticated. The author wrote the novel in how ,now days,we thought the residents of the Medival Times talked. The overall story wasn't too bad, but not as good as I thought it would be. Although the novel was difficult to read, from what you could make out was truly brought to life. You could tell that Howard Pyle truly has a love for writting; reflected from the content in the novel. This novel would be for anyone with an adventerous soul. This novel truly helped my understanding of the Medival history.

Even though this book is very well written. It is NOT and I mean NOT a 9-12 book. The grammar and words are for the reading level of a high-schooler, or adult. Unless I have read a different version... They had the same covers and everything, but it was a hardcover. I don't recommend this to an average kid, unless you're some ultra genius.

I found the book very interesting. It is a great story of legend. The stories have been passed down for many generations; Howard Pyle has done a great job of keeping the stories alive and well written. The characters in the book are all very well developed, by not giving you all of the characteristics at one time. From the beginning to the end, never telling more than what need's to be told. In the beginning of the novel starting with the young King Arthur, before he was the king, telling of how he meet each one of the knights of the round table, and how they came to be at his services. To me that most interesting part of the book was in the beginning when Sir Kay and the other knights where engaged in the battle, the description of the fight, and especially of how Arthur came by the great sword excalibur. The descriptions of not just the first, but of all of the great battles involved in the unfolding of the final story are just great. The book is a great piece of literature and I would recommend it for anyone who needs a little adventure in his or her lives

ASHLEY CAN'T BELIEVE IT, HER SISTER WENT HOME BACK TO CHACIGO BECAUSE SHE WANTED TO BE WITH HER OLD BASEBALL TEAM AND LEFT ASHLEY AT WHITE OAK ACADEMY ALL ALONE!BUT NOW THEY BOTH NEED EACH OTHER BECAUSE ASHLEYS COUSIN HAS DONE SOMETHING TERRIBLE HE CHEATED OFF HER BOOK REPORT AND ASHLEY WILL PROBABALY BE IN BIG TROUBLE AND MARY KATE NEEDS ASHLEY BECAUSE SHE WANTS TO BE IN A SCHOOL PLAY BUT ALSO WANTS BASEBALL! SHE HAS TO FUIGRE SOMTHING OUT ABOUT THIS AND ASHLEY'S THE ONLY ONE THAT CAN HELP HER AND ASHLEY FEELS THE EXACT SAME WAY ABOUT HER PROBLEM ,THAT MARYKATE IS THE ONLY ONE THAT CAN HELP HER TOO ! WHATS GONNA HAPPEN READ AND FIND OUT!

I think this book was really good... it keeps you wondering whats going to happen next. Because Mary-Kate and Ashley don't get to talk to each other for about 3 weeks even though they keep sending e-mails to each other and calling each other they don't get to talk and each of them gets really mad and think each one hasn't even tried to talk to them. They are seperated for most of the book. Mary-Kate trys to join the softball team and the Peter Pan play. I would recomend this book if you read the two of a kind series!

I think this book was really good... it keeps you wondering whats going to happen next. Because Mary-Kate and Ashley don't get to talk to each other for about 3 weeks even though they keep sending e-mails to each other and calling each other they don't get to talk and each of them gets really mad and think each one hasn't even tried to talk to them. They are seperated for most of the book. Mary-Kate trys to join the softball team and the Peter Pan play. I would recomend this book if you read the two of a kind series!

I used this book as a text for a graduate level "Fixed Income Analysis" course. This book covers almost all the fixed income financial instruments from plain vanilla bonds to interest rate derivatives. However, reading this book leaves the reader with a desire for more than just the peripheral knowledge, which is all this book offers.

Theoretically, this book justfies its being called a handbook, but on the mathematical front, it stands absolutely nowhere. There are little or no examples used in the text even though the author touches base on the advanced topics sometimes. Any fixed income practioner, including me, will tell you that ONE JUST CANNOT LEARN FIXED INCOME CONCEPTS WITHOUT GRASPING THE MATH BEHIND THEM, and this book scores poorly in the quantitative analysis. Fixed income securities are extremely sensitive to interest rate fluctuations, and hence, it would be only sensible to present atleast a few chapters trying to explore the concepts used in the modeling of interest rates. But this book doesn't do that. There is little quantitative discussion about duration and convexity, two of the most important risk-measurement tools for bonds.

Since it is called a handbook, I don't see any reason why the author should hold back advanced concepts from the readers. Conversely, since this book doesn't attempt to teach all the concepts to its readers, it should not be called a handbook. This problem is actually common to all the Fabozzi books. Either his math is weak, or he is just busy making money writing a handbook on every possible fixed income security. It's only a shame that a capable and learned individual like him should do such a sloppy job.

I would recommend books by Bruce Tuckman, Garbade, or Horne for more advanced and intelligent discussions on fixed income securities and interest rates rather than this book. One really need not waste money on this book. Theory on Fixed Income instruments is widely available from Federal Reserve publications, which are almost always free. Put your money only where it will produce fixed & positive returns - Fixed Income 101.

This book contains everything a beginner could care to know and everything a professional needs to know. This book is a study in fixed income securities from the basic to the complex and should be a source of information and reference for anyone studying or practicing.

This book has everything that you would ever want to know about fixed income securities (AND MORE). I used it in graduate school and it sits on my desk ready for action. It doesn't have any dust on it, because I still use it. This book is not for the newcomer, but I don't think that was the point.