List price: $125.00 (that's 75% off!)
Die hards who even have interest in this novel already know the story behind Spider-man. So are there any real spoilers? Not really. We all know about his relationship with Uncle Ben and Aunt (ug) May. We all know about his pining for Mary Jane Watson (sorry, no Gwen Stacy this time around). We all know about Norman Osbourne and son Harry and their developement into Green Goblins.
What might not be translated on screen is the motivations and the incredibly well-written and fleshed out thoughts provided by the clever Mr. Peter David in this novel. I found myself once again thoroughly entertained by this man's writing style. Unless Sam Raimi is a genius (okay, so he's close) he won't be able to fully communicate the "radioactive" spider's motivation behind wanting to bite Peter as Mr. David does so well in the novel. Peter David knows comics and Spider-man so well that this movie will most definitely be more entertaining after reading the novel.
After reading this novel, I believe that you'll feel like a well-educated art lover who will get to go to the Louvre for his first time this May. You'll know the ins and outs and thoughts behind scenes...but seeing the real thing will be just that, "the real thing".
There's nothing to spoil essentially although there are a few "surprises". But one real surprise I believe will be seeing if the acting abilities of Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Willem Dafoe, and company can portray these characters faithfully as I've made them out to be in my head over all these years. Sam Raimi's action sequences will be the true star and the films greatest surprise.
Fear not, reading this novel before seeing the movie should not spoil more than you will gain. It's a great read and it'll just get you prepared for appreciating this movie as it should be viewed. I bought the book today and finished it tonight, and darn it all, I wish that opening day were tomorrow.
If you're a fan of Peter David, then you have to get this book. His style of writing lets the characters come to life and we care about all of them, even they bad guys.
If you liked the movie, then you need to read this book. It adds to much to the Spiderman experience. If you start it, you won't be sorry.
Anyway, Peter David did an amazing job. I know that my intense inspiration to read the book so quickly was not only because of the fact that I loved everything about the movie, but because his writing delved me in. I especially loved the scene when Peter Parker was a child, and he thought Uncle Ben made "perverted rice." Such charm...and very funny, too, considering my dad mentioned "He wont be making rice anymore" the second time I dragged him to it.
Peter David, it was a pleasure, and I'm truly glad I got to read it...I only wish more of these scenes in the book were mentioned in the movie.
Thanks, Anna
List price: $59.99 (that's 50% off!)
Mastering Maya Complete 2 is a well rounded, well written presentation of maya that goes far beyond simple instruction. The authors offer that (unfortunately) rare commodity in books of this type: insight.
It is obvious that the authors have sorted through maya's extensive tool set and found what works ELEGANTLY. We are the beneficiaries.
The offical maya manual explains functions well, but leaves you guessing as to when those functions can be actually used. I suppose that is part of the challenge of being a 3d artist, but if you're lazy like me and like to be held by the hand of professionals instead of wasting many hours/days experimenting, get this book. you'll cover ALOT of ground in very little time(compared to A/W's expensive maya encyclopedia).
I'm looking forward for the 3.5 Complete revision from the authors!
List price: $49.99 (that's 30% off!)
The material was delivered clearly, not necessarily simple... but it is clear. The book is worth all my hard saved money... and im glad to have it, and its fun to read too...
The book wastes no space on trivial stuff like how to open your compiler or use a non-standard C function. Instead, it goes directly into what's important, explaining the concepts and giving concrete examples where appropriate, all using ANSI C.
Since most of the issues aren't dependant on the implementation schemes, almost any advanced programmer would benefit from this book, even if he/she is not programming in C (assuming advanced knowledge of C, of course). The only exceptions are the topics that talk about the ANSI C rules and code organization and optimization. The only disadvantage here is that this book doesn't cover object oriented concepts, but that's not a surprise of course as the book is titled "C Unleashed." But still for anything else other than that, this could be a great help even to C++ programmers.
The book chapters have been written by more than 10 experienced programmers, 6 of them are really good, which makes each chapter standalone as a small tutorial on some issue. The writing style of Richard Heathfield and many of the co-authors is very nice to read and clear to understand. Some parts, of course, do not have that nice writing style, but throughout the book, the technical information is very clear and easy to comprehend.
I wouldn't recommend this book to any new programmers. But for the more advanced ones, this is something they would want to check.
-Mokhtar M. Khorshid