I just bought the book on e-bay, and have already read it!!! i highly reccomend this book! as a child i think its better than the movie!!

Last time I checked, the book comes before the movie......so the movie would be the one changed, not the book.......correct me if I'm wrong......

I liked the book a lot better than the movie because you see the peoples feeling so much better. This also has scences that explain what happens a lot better. This is a must read book!

I stumbled across this book by accident one day and it has turned out to be my find of 2001 -- one of the most enjoyable books I have read in ages. Taylor, a youthful New York journalist and poet, was sent out to California to file back dispatches on this wild, gold-filled, lush place in the seminal gold rush year of 1849, when California was a sprawling region, and not yet a state. And what a fabulous job he does -- this reads more like an engaging adventure narrative than non-fiction, and I could not put it down -- a reader is completely transported into another place and time. One cannot fail to be fascinated by the bustling, energetic, multi-ethnic, can-do place that was the west coast. If you know California, especially the San Francisco, Monterey and Sacramento areas, Taylor's descriptions of their still-untamed landscapes will be both familiar and strange, but always utterly lovely. His reports of the gold rush regions are extraordinary, as is his walk -- yes, *walk* -- from San Francisco to Monterey... this at a time when a galloping horse could get from San Jose to San Francisco in perhaps seven *hours*. Taylor is funny, honest, generally very clear-eyed and unsentimental, and his writing is of very high calibre. Kudos to Heyday Press for bringing this wonderful book to a new audience. I am giving it to everybody as a gift this year.

Bayard Taylor, with the eye of the photographer for detail and composition and the writing talent of the professional journalist Horace Greely so willingly paid, provides the reader with a fantastic look at California of the mid-1800's. His vivid descriptions of the people, the events, and perhaps most importantly, the pre-development beauty of California's wild mountains, seacoasts, and valleys, made this reviewer (a native Californian) long for a time machine to allow visits to the wondrous collection of experiences described by Taylor. From his many travels across the land, to his viewing of the first California consitutional convention, his words allow the reader to feel the wind in one's hair as the California-bred horses fly at top speed across the valleys and through the washes, or to be a fly on the wall as the convention delegates reach compromises which shaped and prepared the State for it's Golden future. The pictures he paints of the natural environment of early California are so dramatic that they must certainly encourage all attempts to preserve the tragically few expanses of California landscape remaining. This is a book for Californians (and those who love the state) who wish to return, if only for a few brief moments, to the sounds and the sights of it's birth: raw, chaotic, beautiful, yet with a rich Spanish/Mexican heritage and social codes that provided a useable framework to maintain law and order. Taylor describes it all, allowing us to understand not only what was happening, but also why. It's a great book.

Este el primer libro que lei de comienzo a fin. ya que nunca pude ver la pelicula, ni en el cine ni la televisión. Porque siempre me pasaba algo malo. incluso cuando re-editaron la pelicula me dormí en el cine. Cuando la lei me dio una buena perpectiva de lo que era ser un caballero Jedi y el valor que significado dentro de la cabeza de su director George Lucas. El personaje que lo describio bien el escritor James Kahn fue para mi gusto Luke por su extraordinaria transformación de los otras dos libros anteriores. ¡Este libro es el mejor de todas las novelas de ficción!

The Epic Of Gilgamesh: A Myth Revisited is the oldest work of literature in recorded history and an epic poem which is aptly translated into English by Danny P. Jackson, and into Hebrew by Saul Tchernichovsky. Color illustrations in an impressive mosaic style mark this hardbound, bilingual rendition, and three informative essays about Gilgamesh round out this most impressive volume. An evocative and powerful presentation, The Epic Of Gilgamesh is an enthusiastically recommended addition to any personal, academic or public library collection.

Vannevar Bush was Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development. In the July 1945 edition of the Atlantic Monthly, he published a popular science article entitled "As We May Think." Bush discusses a device called a "memex", a sort of workstation with vast optical storage and mechanical information retrieval using associative indexing and "trails". The article is of interest today not only because he happened to get pretty close to how the future finally turned out, but also for the fresh perspective from a time before interactivity itself had been invented. It is also curious to see what he got wrong. Unlike our present day Visionaries, he completely failed to anticipate the introduction of Microsoft Windows on the PC.

Overall, this is not a huge book, but contains elements to complete the movies storyline. Even with a 3 film span, the book is harder to read than most Star Wars novels, including SW Episode II. However, George Lucas' vision is realized in the most basic of ways in the 3 stories that weren't shown on film. Simply put, you aren't embarking on a strict movie tie-in when you turn the pages, rather a raw form that the movies followed. For those that want to read the original storyline, and I'm not saying it's 100% different than the movie counterpart, pick up this read. It's hard to put down. The first tale, A New Hope (Episode IV), shows Lucas' initial vision, while Ep. V & VI more or less expand the story already in place. No true Star Wars fan should be without this, if I may, companion piece.

***The reviewer is author of: Amber Spirit: Poems & Stories (Hats Off Books, 2001) and a frequent magazine contributer & short story contest judge.

Rated and reviewed by ROBERT ELDRIDGE

The books are great, but they only serve as for you remembering the movie, knowing a couple of things that were cut but were written in the script and knowing what these great characters were thinking at the very moment.

The books are short, yes and if it were only for them the Star Wars book universe would be very short, that's why Lucas has hired so many talented authors to expand the book universe in all of those novels that have come out explain what happened before and after the story that he's presented to us in his movies.

These books are not on what the movies are based, the scripts were written before, the scripts are of about 100 pages each, these books are novelizations of the movies that came from the scripts, these books are almost the scripts only that in novel format.

Stop posting reviews commenting on that they are too short, because for me they are not all what we've gotten, we've gotten many other novels that are not to be taken as each story they are to be taken as ONE huge amazing story filled with everything, comedy, drama, action, adventure, love, romance, some stupid points and some intelligent points, there's a little bit of everything in a story set on a galaxy far, far away.

Pretty much the case with watching the movies too for most of us, isn't it? Excellent adaptations of the classic trilogy stories in one book, and a must for true-blooded STAR WARS fans. I only hope that in the future, after Episodes 2 and 3 have been made there will be a new addition with the novels to all 6 available. Until then, I'll keep my fingers crossed!

When NPR's audio adaptation of the first Star Wars film hit the airwaves two decades ago, it was as big a landmark in the history of the Star Wars "universe" as any of the subsequent movies. By stripping the story down to the essentials of character, it proved that the appeal of Star Wars is not merely visual flash, but something more enduring, characters you care about, villains you love to hate and (that oldest of rivalries) good against evil. The writing was excellent and the cast equally good, including as it did Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels as Luke and C3P0 respectively. When NPR produced a radio version of The Empire Strikes Back a few years later, Billy Dee Williams came on board to recreate the role of Lando Calrissian and the producers' winning streak continued.

It would be over a decade before the production team got the chance to complete the trilogy with Return of the Jedi. Sadly, just as Return of the Jedi was the weakest of the original movie trilogy, it is also the weakest of the three radio versions. That is not to say it isn't enjoyable, because it is. Rather it can't quite match the exceptional standards set by the previous two series.

Part of the problem is the casting. Although Anthony Daniels returned to play C3PO, Mark Hamill does not reprise the role of Luke Skywalker. Unfortunately the actor who took the role, Joshua Fardon, does not convey the increased maturity of the character in this part of the story. Fardon's performance has a quality of over-eagerness that seems more suited to the naive farmboy that Luke was when we first encountered him rather than the fully trained Jedi-to-be he is here. Good as the other performances are, especially Brock Peters as Darth Vader and Ann Sachs as Leia, this misguided interpretation of Luke leaves a large hole in the story.

Part of that hole can also be attributed to the writing. Like the previous adapatations, Return of the Jedi was scripted by the late Brian Daley. Daley did a good job of translating what was perhaps the most visual of the three original Star Wars films into the audio medium, but he doesn't open up the story the way the previous two series did. Whereas the radio versions of Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back took the time to show us more about the characters, Return of the Jedi is, for the most part, just what we saw on the movie screen with a handful of extra scenes thrown into the mix.

Those criticisms aside, anyone who is a fan of radio drama in general or Star Wars specifically will enjoy these programs. In the final analysis the producers understood the ways in which sound alone can fire the imagination. Using that knowledge, they have crafted yet another fine way to enjoy the magical world that George Lucas has given us.

Thanks to the many requests of Star Wars fans and radio enthusiasts alike, the team that brought us the radio adaptations of A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, reunited to conclude the original saga. Made exclusively by Highbridge, Return Of The Jedi, once again uses the film's score by John Williams and sound effects by Ben Burtt, to make for a top notch production. By using the actual soundtrack from the film, it gives the audio production crediability, as opposed to being made without it.

Once again, directed by John Madden, Jedi reunites most of the actors from the previous adaptions, with a couple of notable exceptions. Mark Hamill, who reprised his role as Luke Skywalker, for the first 2 productions, is replaced by Joshua Fardon. While, Billy Dee Williams, as rogue Lando Calrissian, is replaced by Arye Gross. As hard as these gentlemen try, because of the original actors previous involvment with the other two radio dramas, its difficult to imagine anyone else in those parts. Fardon's portrayal lacks the maturity of Hamill's character in the film version, Gross comes off, not quite as smooth, in playing Lando. The rest of the main radio cast, from the other two adaptations is thankfully intact. Actors Anthony Daniels, once again as C-3PO, (who has appeard in all 3 radio dramas as well as all of the films in the series) Brock Peters as Vader, Perry King, as Han Solo, Anne Sachs as Princess Leia, all complete their character arcs in the seies with style. Actor Edward Asner as the gangster Jabba The Hutt and John Lithgow as Master Yoda, (as he did in the Empire radio drama) use vocal talent, like no others, to bring these 2 unique characters to life.

Sci-fi author, Brian Daley, once again. wrote the radioplay for Jedi. As before, there are a few additional "scenes" presented, not in the film version. The end result is very good, but thanks to its shorter length, and the casting changes, I mentioned, Jedi doesn't seem quite as epic, as the other radio dramas in the series. Sadly, Daley passed away soon after the dialogue was recorded, and the production is dedicated to his memory. His script is very faithful to the film and the added scenes remain true to the characters and story.

If you own the other two radio dramas in the series, Jedi is a must have, minor problems and all. The story has six episodes, presented on three compact discs with a total running time of nearly 3 hours. Recommended

Return of the Jedi has always been my favorite Star Wars movie, both because I like how all the characters matured, (especially Luke) and because it finally delt face to face with the dark side, possibly the best force of evil ever thought of in the realms of fiction. This book exheeded not only my expectations for the book itself (which were very high) but even surpassed the movie in some ways. The author has a deep, highly emotional writing syle which apealed to me greatly, and was so profound that all through the book I truly felt as if was there, a part of the story. Every Star Wars fan should read this at some point, especially those who didn't like Return of the Jedi because they thought it was weaker than the others. I could almost garantee this book would change their minds. Also, the author did a tremendous job on the characters. Just they way they were presented made me truly feel for them, even characters who were previously not my favorites. At times this book had me sitting on the edge of my seat actually wondering if maybe this time it would turn out differently, and the part where Anakin Skywalker dies almost had me in tears. Anyway, I don't think think this book belongs in any particular age range, though probably some of it (in fact a lot of it) would most likely go over the heads of people younger then twelve or so.

I first read this book when it originally came out in the late 70's or very early 80's (the date listed in Amazon is a reprint), and at the time found it very different from the usual veins of fantasy (Howard/Lieber/Tolkien, Piers Anthony/Terry Brooks/Alan Dean Foster, LeGuin/McCaffery etc). It incorporates sci-fi and fantasy, anthropormorphic animals and fantastic creatures, and a post-apocalyptic setting in what seemed (at the time) a fairly innovative manner. I lost the book in a house fire back in '87 and found another copy a few months ago; having forgotten all but the basic plot it was pretty much a new read again, and very different this time. I got the same feeling reading it that I got when reading The Worm Ourborous: the work is very dated and much has come since then to lessen its standing among the fantasy genre. It's been a long time since Metamorphosis Alpha/Gamma World and "sexy fantasy" (70's style, not the "Chicks in Chainmail" or "VampLust" stuff you get today). It was definitely R rated and aimed at a college age audience, unlike most of the genre today.

Nonetheless it was a good story and worth reading again, though I doubt I'll read it a third time. Others have reviewed the plot extensively, so I won't bother here. I will say though: don't waste your time with any of the others in this series. It's very obvious from the way the story is structured that this was a one-off that became a trilogy (the same way Star Wars was a one-off that became a trilogy (now a dual trilogy), but nowhere near as well put together), and the other books (Time's Dark Laughter and Timefall, which I also found at the used book store when I bought this one) are very disappointing. In both the author totally re-interprets his setting, characters and history, attacks the original material from a different angle, and drags the reader along for a few hundred painful pages.

I think it would have been a different experience had I read this book when it came out-- but now, regardless of who came first, most of the ground in the book has been covered (and covered better, IMO) by other writers. Although Kahn deserves credit for making relations between the species realistic, his explanation of how we ended up with real creatures out of myth is strained and simplistic.

I recently read "A Plague of Angels" by Sheri S. Tepper, and was struck by the many similarities between the way Tepper integrated fantasy into science, and Kahn's work in this book and its sequel, "Time's Dark Laughter". Given that this work precedes Tepper's by at least a decade, it seems likely that Tepper was inspired by Kahn's work, though it's certainly possible she came upon the idea independently.

Kahn introduces many interesting forms of modified humans and genetically-engineered fantastic beings living in a post-technological world. There are engineered vampires, who generally live peacefully with large harems of humans; centaurs; and "neuromans", cyborgs who have replaced all their body parts and fluids with synthetic materials. The "neuromans" chose to modify their brains also, with different groups enhancing different personality traits to become ultimate hedonists, philosophers, warriors, etc.

If you enjoyed "Angels", you will enjoy the "Time" books, assuming you can find them, of course. If you didn't enjoy "Angels", or didn't read it, try to track these books down for a well-written tale of science as fantasy.

Unlike the original of the series (World Enough, and Time), this book has no excuse for its flaws and that's a shame. WEaT was, for its time, something very different from the usual fantasy novels on the shelves. TDL unfortunately isn't so much a sequel to WEaT as a reinterpretation of the original and continuation of the original storyline to a drastically altered conclusion. And I don't mean this in a good way...

The author takes the original setting and characters and begins to tie up loose ends, beginning with the "Joshua and the Queen" plotline. This (through Rose, another character from WEaT) initiates a second "rescue journey" by the remainders of WEaT, a new character (Aba) and one from WEaT that was only lightly utilized (D'Ursa Magnu). However, the characters are definitely five years older and much different than before, and the rescue journey plotline and concurrent expansion of the setting (further details on The City With No Name, the Queen, and the general West Coast area) only take about half the book. So far so good...

But then the author utterly re-interprets everything about the novel(s), including characters, plotline, history and such, with the birth of The Child. It was almost as if he wrote the first half a year or so after WEaT, then wrote a dozen movie knock-offs for Spielberg and Lucas, then remembered he had a novel to finish and came back to it with an entirely different concept on what it was about. And the new concept just doesn't fly. It's ponderous reading, even moreso than any volume of the Thomas Covenant/Illearth War series, and drags out to its inevitable conclusion in spurts (many wasted words filled unnecessary paragraphs, whereas entire other sections which should have taken several chapters were completed in but a few pages). The storyline was very uneven, and after only a few chapters I didn't even care what was going to happen anymore...I just wanted the book to end.

But as bad as that was, the author had one more rotten trick up his sleeve to firmly cement a Two Star rating here. At the end he totally re-interprets the setting from post-apocalypse USA in roughly 2300 CE to a pseudo-Hyborian age type setting where everything in the books has actually happened in the *past* relative to modern times, and explains it with a trite, contrived "Time is a rubber band and everything repeats itself again and again" bit of pop philosophy. Yes, this is as bad as the infamous "Luke, I'm your father" reinterpretation in Star Wars, and it's not even an original idea. Moorcock used a similar concept to MUCH greater effect in his Eternal Champion novels a decade or more prior to TDL. Then, in conclusion, the author drops a short "and here's how some of them lived happily ever after" epilogue into the mix to tie up loose ends, having left Beauty in the Mosian Firecaves and Aba in search of his sister and lover.

I'm hoping that someday, someone will rewrite WEaT and TDL as a movie script, throw out everything about The Child, and make a good 150 minute action-adventure fantasy movie from the material. But somehow I doubt that will happen; I can't see it being done well-enough to get anything less than an R rating while remaining true to the vision of the original setting and plot, and it certainly would test the boundaries of cultural acceptability (it's an anthropomorphic world, with humans and vampires as well, so there are quite a few scenes of animal/human/vampire "interaction" that play with the bestiality taboo...just how are they going to explain the relationship between Josh the Human and Isis the Cat)?

This series, of which this is the second book, is one of the most memorable I've ever read (3 times now). The concept of going back in time to create the present is exceptionally well done - the David Gemmel Jon Shannow novels have a similar concept. The idea that our mythology is based on past cycles of earth time is also very well done. It's a pity this volume (Time's Dark Laughter) was left on a flight to Perth and that it is now out of print.

This was one of the three best books I have ever read. The characters were engaging, and the plot was so thick that once I picked this book up, it was not possible to put it down. If you're looking for a book so good that you will stay up all night reading, this is it!

The early drafts of the script for Poltergeist were either a chaotic mess or James Kahn took some liberties with the main story. Either way the results are not nearly as effective as some of the rave reviews would lead you to believe.

Strobes, creepy voices, and crawling steaks were fun on-screen. But much was missing (or just badly acted by secondaries).

Much is explained in the book, and more detail is given as to the nature of the attacks on this fictional family. Taking nothing away from the awesome acting of the primaries JoBeth Williams and Craig T. Nelson, the book lends more depth to the little girl, Carol Ann, the midget psychic who comes tot he family's rescue, and the paranormal investigation team who stays at the house. Each incident is deepened and expanded, providing more true fear material and less photographic shock.

More robust than the movie, and classically chilling, Poltergeist is a must-have for horror enthusiasts.

Just shut the closet door before you read!

Books are usually better than movies. This one is a toss up. I love the film for it's visual aspects. I adore the book for it's details that the movie could never bring you.

I was freaked out on many occasions reading "Poltergeist". The part with "the beast" and how it thinks and hates really got to me. To think that they, the spirits, are standing there in front of you without you even knowing. The battle between "the beast" and Tangina is epic.

It was an extremely well written book and thank goodness a damn good movie. Enjoy them both.