Basic essential knowledge for chess players ! for intermidiate players ( 1600 - 1800 ) to improve their attacking skills .

I'm not a newbie at chess, but I got lazy for awhile. I started at World Chess Network.com , and was a measly 400. However, within two weeks I've jumped to 1000+, and have beaten people as high as 1300! If you practice with this book anything is possible.

Goes over classic games and explains what's going on after every couple of moves to keep your interest. Some of the sweetest games ever are in this. Especially Anderssen vs. Lierskitzky!

This book is not aimed at people who don't know how to play, try weapons of chess by bruce pandolfini for that.

Maclean's work, "Young Men and Fire" starts to unravel myriad layers involved in modern firefighting and just why these layers can, have and will turn deadly. The number of "players" in the begining of the book can prove difficult to keep track of, but each is well researched and given a chance to speak. Although Maclean's opinions are not held back he does offer several different points of view contrary to his own and others. Despite a feeling that Maclean may be "blaming through hindsite" his offering comes closest to the fear and finality of working a wildfire gone bad. Perhaps Maclean's message, as was his father's, is that we haven't learned from the past. This is pointed up yet again in the near-tragedy this past summer in Nevada; that of six young firefighters being trapped on a ridge while a wildfire took a run at them. This incident wasn't made public til recently and the "blame" was the same as Mann Gulch, Storm King Mountain and the next blow-up that takes the lives of firefighters. Maclean's opinions aside, the book is a great read with an underlaying message of, "Never forget these lessons, let their sacrifices be enough."

This is a detailed, accurate and captivating narrative. Fire on the Mountain is truly a service to the fire fighting community because it dispels many of the inevitable myths and rumors about the South Canyon Fire. In 1996, I jumped a fire with Eric Hipke who was one of the most fortunate survivors on South Canyon. He said he was impressed by the efforts John Maclean was making to write this book. In April of 1995, Maclean quit a long-time career at the Chicago Tribune where he had been an editor, correspondent and reporter. He spent the next 4 1/2 years researching and editing material for Fire On the Mountain. The bookÕs thoroughness and accuracy reflect his professional experience and talent. John tirelessly researched every aspect of the story. Of the 49 firefighters at South Canyon, 35 lived. John interviewed 30 survivors. He gathered photos, dispatch logs and copies of anything that was written during or after the fire. Firefighters on the fire reviewed every chapter. This is the most authoritative work done on the fire. Much more detailed than the official report which took 45 days to complete. Maclean's account is very readable.

This is such a remarkable book. It satisfies on several fronts, creating a visual world that stays with the reader long after the last sentence is finished.

Maclean's research was complete and meticulous. He compiles his work into an astounding, captivating narrative that draws the reader along as the tragic events unfold on Storm King.

I felt as if I were there on the west flank line with the Prineville hotshots and the smoke jumpers. As I read this compelling book, I felt as if I'd known each of the victims for many, many years. I could actually feel the superheated air and smell the toxic gases coming off the blowup.

Along with a gripping narrative, Maclean incorporates analysis of events and decisions made prior to, during, and after the tragedy. This, again, is based on hours of interviews and meticulous research.

His reconstruction of the final moments of each of the victims was very benifical as well.

I've never been to Storm King Mountain, but after reading this truly exceptional book, I plan to go. I didn't know any of the victims or people involved either, but after reading John Maclean's exceptional book I feel as if I were there.

Buy this book, read it, cherish it, be moved by it.

It is a lasting memorial to those who died on the mountain.

It has been some ten or twelve years since Dr Paula Fredriksen introduced her earlier book, _From Jesus to Christ_. That earlier book was a "discussion of the development of the New Testament's theological images of Jesus." This current book intends to be an attempt to describe the historical Jesus and explain why theological images developed about him.
Fredriksen recognizes that her book is one of many in more than one quest for the historical Jesus. The first quest culminated with Albert Schweitzer's work. The second quest was typified by Rudolf Bultmann. Fredriksen sees herself in the same quest as Crossan, Vermes, Sanders, Wright, etc.
Fredriksen believes that she has found a "polestar" by which we might guide our way through the myriad writers and their discussions. That polestar may be found in the fact that not only was Jesus executed, but he was crucified.
Since this is not a mystery novel, Fredriksen's conclusion may be revealed. On one hand, Pilate could have easily had Jesus executed at the behest of the chief priests. On the other hand, had Jesus posed any political threat, Pilate would have crucified the followers of Jesus as well. Pilate crucified Jesus because Jesus had a message of the imminent coming of the Kingdom of God which excited the crowds at a Passover celebration in Jerusalem. With the death of Jesus, the excitement of the crowds abated.
If a reader prefers s/he may read just the first and last chapters of Fredriksen's book. Fredriksen includes a chapter on what was most distinctive for a Jew during the time of Jesus. A long chapter follows in which Fredriksen traces trajectories of the meaning of messiahship back through the NT writers to Jesus. And yet another chapter describes the contexts of Galilee and Judea in which Jesus lived and operated. The adage that getting there is half the fun applies to this book.
A brief response to Fredriksen's proposal is in order. That Jesus was executed in order to avoid a massive riot is very plausible except for two things. First of all, it denies the testimony of the NT writers. And second of all, it does not explain the anti-Jewish polemic found in early Christian writings.

Fredriksen (Boston Univ.) builds her account of Jesus and the early Jesus movement around two facts. First, the Roman prefect Pilate executed Jesus by crucifixion, a form of execution typically applied to political insurrectionists. Second, the Roman authorities did not execute the followers of Jesus as political insurrectionists. How, then, does the Roman crucifixion of Jesus make sense? Fredriksen proposes that while knowing that Jesus was not a political insurrectionist, Pilate used his crucifixion to restrain the potentially insurrectionist Passover crowd in Jerusalem, which had eagerly anticipated God's impending redemption and liberation, announced by Jesus. Jesus was thus crucified as Pilate's means of calming the turbulent Passover crowd, but Pilate had no need to crucify the followers of Jesus as well. Fredriksen supports this hypothesis by giving special attention to some historical themes in John's gospel. She doubts, however, that Jesus was interrogated by either the Jewish High Priest or Pilate. The book is eminently readable and characteristically honest about its speculative moves in historical interpretation. Fredriksen is also honest about her Humean skepticism of miracles. The book will benefit students from the upper-division undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as teachers. A recent related work is Dale Allison's Jesus of Nazareth: Millenarian Prophet (1998).

The words that come to mind having absorbed the arguments of Paula Fredriksen in "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" are "common sense". In her book she has not fallen prey (like so many in historical Jesus studies) to the predatory gaze of "method" neither has she been overly waylaid along the way by a need to pander to various "audiences" either contemporary or ancient. She has done history - Jewish history - and, in my opinion, done it well. Her Jesus is "a prophet who preached the coming apocalyptic Kingdom of God." She follows this tack not least because it enables Jesus to cohere with his immediate mentor, John the Baptist, and the movement that "sprang up in his name" - the first Christians. Fredriksen believes that in many ways what Jesus preached was revolutionary only in the sense that he talked about God's kingdom NOW rather than SOON - it was a matter of TIMETABLE and not CONTENT. Thus, Fredriksen contributes another Jesus to the current round of thoroughly Jewish Jesuses.

A key and noteworthy aspect of Fredriksen's work is the insight that the itinerary of John, as against the Synoptic Gospels, may be closer to the truth. That is, Jesus was known in Judea and Galilee rather than just Galilee. This allows her to say that Jesus, being known in and around Jerusalem, could be seen as a one man threat in a sense, rather than the leader of a revolutionary movement or army. Thus, when the time came to do away with Jesus his followers were left alone since they were never perceived as the threat Jesus was. This threat was due to Jesus ability to galvanise the crowds with his imminent eschatological message, a message which at his final Passover may well have been tinged with a crowd more and more convinced of his possible messianic credentials. Thus Jesus was executed by Pilate as a political insurrectionist.

So what other examples of scholarly common sense might we find in this book? Well, the insight that searching for the historical Jesus now requires knowledge of the historical Galilee and historical Judaism. Further, the suggestion that Jesus is not the all-seeing, all-knowing individual some scholars (and many readers) assume him to be. Why can't Pilate's action against Jesus have caught him by surprise, for example? Further, but by no means finally, that Jesus' messianic identity might well be in some way concretised in the consciousness of those following Jesus before the crucifixion and, indeed, act as a fatal impetus towards it.

So here we have a book of eminent common sense which attempts what was seemingly becoming thought impossible - a reasoned and reasonable view of the historical Jesus which attempts to make sense of our historical evidence without fuss, bluster or fanfares of publicity. I judge that Fredriksen has done as good a job as we can expect against the current background of research - and in a way that is both readable and enjoyable. As a current postgraduate student specialising in the historical Jesus,I recommend this book to every reader interested in the subject.

I'm a user of 3D Studio R4, and so I thought that I could easily transfer the lofting skills into 3ds max without too much of a problem. This book, however, doesn't use many of the techniques used in the Inside 3DStudioR4 book by New Riders. It's definitely not for beginning users looking to learn the fundamentals of using 3DSmax. I was disappointed at its learning curve, but I assume if you're comfortable with 3DSmax1, then this book might be for you. If somebody knows a book for 3DSmax2 that is in the same vein as Inside 3DStudio R4, then please email me ;)

Many books on the market will give you step by step instructions how how to create a scene, or create certain effects. Although this is sometimes handy, it doesn't easially allow the user to incorperate the skills they learned into their own work.

Inside 3D Studio Max shows you the concepts behind how the program works, and allows you to apply these concepts, and skills to your own work, rather than a preformatted tutorial. It is this fact, however, that makes the book not extremely useful for modelers who are new to the program. This book often speaks of the manual which ships with 3DS Max, and the writer made it clear that this was not yet ANOTHER MANUAL. Inside 3D Studio Max explores how to expand your ability.

If you have no prior modeling practice, read the manual which ships with Max, then buy this book. If you do that, you will appreciate what is taught in this massive book.

This is an overall GREAT book, and it has really helped me to become a much better 3D artist.

There's a thing common to all classic books: even if you've read one from cover to cover you discover something new every time you open it. Things that you glossed over earlier suddenly start to make sense. This book is no exception. Since 'Inside 3D Studio Rel. 3' the authors have provided an unique insight into the world's most popular 3D programs. This book raises the standard even further, providing enough grip for the novice and a treasure trove of knowledge of the professional. The best thing about this book is the explanation of the PRINCIPLES behind 3D Studio MAX. Instead of the 'do this-screen shot-do that' methodology, the authors have concentrated in the core ideas behind every tool and procedure. If you want MAX to be an extension to your right brain, get this book. Read it all the time. Do the tutorials. Keep referring to it for ideas. You'll discover what you were missing with other books -- the real goods on making MAX dance to your tune.

Dawn Powell and I would have gotten nowhere had this been my first introduction to the legendary author. The Wicked Pavillion, read first, sent me into a state of celebration. The letdown following the Locusts Have no King was considerable. The latter is a tedious experience that, (excuse the psychobabble,) conscribes readers to a state of anhedonia. I certainly did not wish to tarnish the reputation of this author who'd already been cheated of earthly honors, but hey, the book is a flat out bore!
Locusts' characters evoke no reader sympathy, no one from the hero and heroine to the callous adventurer, with a Waugh-like name of Dodo, were capable of eliciting a spark of affection or even hatred. What is left, in this, flattening love story, and 'satire' of the publishing industry, consists of drinking, self destructive sex and varieties of mistreatment. (But don't get your hopes up.) By pushing through in a completely unsympathetic exercise, the progression of chronically drunk, tortured and meanspirited I could not separate one good person from the bunch. The most fitting conclusion would have been that they would all go off like a bunch of lemmings. My Powell praising, drum thumping, hurrahs that followed The Wicked Pavillion, became self-conscious murmers. At the final page, I still could not figure out if it was a good or bad ending. No kidding! These are lackluster,bloodless characters whose collective destinies and abuses are about as compelling as a guy taking your change in a toll booth during rush hour. If there were some of those dry zingers, they couldn't provide relief. Folks, this is a complete dud! So, if you too are determined to be a part of the hoopla around this author, so wrongly overlooked during her lifetime and belatedly annointed as pretender to the American comic throne, the Yank's Waugh, and all of the rest- by all means, do not start with this [book]. Indeed, I suggest that you don't go there at all, for you run the risk of being so turned off that you may miss the best party of the era!

The title of Dawn Powell's 1948 novel is derived from the Book of Proverbs: "The locusts have no king, yet they go forth all of them by bands." The title suggests a certain degree of smallness, conformity, and crowd (swarm) mentality -- a lack of vision and a falling off of what creative life could be. I thought invariably of Nathanael West's "Day of the Locust" set in Hollywood, besides New York City that other center of American dreams. West's novel is a novel of irony which depicts conformity, crassness, and lovelessness in a manner that does resemble Powell's novel. There are parallels in Powell's book with many other novels as well.

"The Locusts have no King" is set in New York City between the period of the end of WW II and the first test nuclear explosion on Bikini Atoll in 1947. The novel is a story of fallen ideals and of the difficult effort required to keep and recover at least some sense of one's ideals. The ideals in question are primarily those of true love and passion and also those of following and remaining faithful to one's dream -- in the case of this book, the dream of writing

The story is told in Powell's sharply ironical voice. Some readers find her voice cool, brittle and impresonal. But I got involved with the main characters and found it moving.

The central character of the book is Frederick, a serious writer and scholar (not attached to any university) who studies medieval history and writes books and articles which few people read. For many years, he has been carrying on an affair with a woman named Lyle, who writes plays together with her crippled husband. Frederick's head is termed by what we today would call a bimbo appropriately named Dodo. ("Pooh on you"!, she says, througout the book) At the same time, Frederick's financial fortune turns when his publisher prevails upon him to edit a periodical appropriately named "Haw" which becomes a commercial success.

The main plot of the story involves Frederick's attempt to understand and put his love life and his writing life back together.

Powell develops this basically serious story is an atmosphere of superficiality. The story moves forward in the bars and pubs of New York City and in party scenes among those on the make. Powell is a master at describing the bars and the streets of New York and in depicting party chatter. The book is full of tart, cutting one-liners and of aphorisms. The theme of fallen ideals in love and thinking is carried through in the settings of the story. Powell has a deeply ambivalent attitude, I think, towards these settings. She clearly knows them well.

This is not a book to be read for the author's skill in plotting. The book is cluttered with many characters and incidents. Powell is a wondeful prose stylist in this book as in her other novels that I have read. In this book I found places where the prose as well as the characters were cluttered and laid on too thick. The strength of the book lies in its description of New York and in Powell's description of how ideals and visions can come short. I found this poignantly displayed.

Powell's own description of "The Locusts have no King" offers valuable insight into what the book has to offer. She wrote:

"The theme ... deals with the disease of destruction sweeping though our times... each person out to destroy whatever valuable or beautiful thing life has... The moral is ... one must cling to whatever remnants of love, friendship, or hope above and beyond reason that one has, for the enemy is all around ready to snatch it."

This is an excellent novel by a deservedly rediscovered American writer.

This is a fine, funny satire of New York literary life, and of the thousands of "real New Yorkers" who arrive from their small town or boring suburb and don't write that great novel, or make it big in the theatre, but live the literary lifestyle and are, in fact, "pretentiously bohemian, loudly literary" - in fact, not very likable. You've met people like this, and thanks to the talent of Dawn Powell you can laugh your head off about them.

Here's the guy who tells you "The reason I never went in for painting is I'd want to do it so much better than anyone else." Here's the woman whose "voice showed such cautiously refined diction as to hint at some fatal native coarseness." Here's the folks at a party "generously happy in the pleasure their company was surely giving." And here's the stranger who bends your ear with: "My great ambition has always prevented me from doing anything."

A great piece of description comes during Powell's depiction of a night school for recently-arrived "real" New Yorkers afraid of revealing their ignorance: "There were courses in Radio Appreciation," and such like, leaving the narrator "marvelling afresh that so many grown up, self-supporting people should be eagre to spend money studying not a subject itself but methods to conceal their ignorance of it."

The whole novel is a vast canvas of such scenes and throughout Powell is painting a absorbing picture of 1940's New York (and the New York of today!). One thing Powell is excellent at, in a way Eugene O'neill is, too, is in stripping away the pipe dreams that people veil their lives with, and showing the reader the real, stark truth. Her satire is worthy of Saul Bellow and Gore Vidal; indeed of Aristophanes and Petronius - the latter two writers she loved (she was friends with Vidal, too, in the New York of the 40's and 50's). If you like this one, try her Happy Island, and indeed, all her New York novels.