I read this book, "Sliders: Parallel Universes" and decided that I had to present a fair analysis of it to those who might buy it, i.e. diehard Sliders fans. (Sidenote: Those of you who stuck around through and after Season Three, you deserve a medal.)

This book falls short of being good for several reasons which I can name off of the top of my head. For one, the book for the most part is no longer relevant. It doesn't deal at all with the current season being aired on the Sci-Fi Channel and there are no interviews with Charlie O'Connell, Marc Scott Zicree and many others who would be vital to any complete Sliders volume. I realize this is because the book was delayed so long, but couldn't they have made some changes during that time?

Secondly, Brad Linaweaver's wit leaves much to be desired. This is a much bigger problem than would normally seem the case because he liberally splatters it all over every page, including episode synopses and interviews. Brad, just write it straight, it's not a showcase for your writing talent, it's an episode guide for Sliders for crying out loud!

Thirdly, the book provides little information that you couldn't get over the internet. Despite the disappearance of the Sliders haven known as the Expert's page, most of this interview information and all of the episode guide can be obtained on just about any Sliders page in existance.

Who should buy this book? I would recommend it to Sliders fans who do not have access to the internet and/or have missed early episodes (Season One to Season Three). Otherwise, I would recommend passing this one by and maybe buying an alternate history book instead.

Instead of being a dry, boring description of episode plotlines and lists of stars, Sliders: the Classic Episodes is written as though one friend is telling another friend all about a show he really likes-- the good stuff is praised and the bad stuff is razzed. I enjoyed reading this book, particularly knowing that it had formal approval by the producers of the show. Amazingly, Linaweaver was able to get in some pointed digs on what were surely sensitive topics (the firing of John Rhys-Davies, for instance).

There is a good selection of still photos from the show, but in general they seem muddy or murky. This is probably the result of making black-and-white photos from color photos. But while some of the photos seem nice and sharp, there are others I really question why they were used (Mel Tormé, for example, on page 124 -- nice shot, but it just looks fuzzy).

An especially nice touch to the book is the great interviews with the stars AND the producers/creators/writers. Actors on any series can tell us about how they enjoy the show and the work they're doing, but often they don't have any great insight to offer into the whys of what the show is all about (John Rhys-Davies being a most notable exception in this cast). By having interviews with creators Tormé and Weiss in the book, we get to learn about how they developed their theories of what the show is about and how it was supposed to work. I really enjoyed the interview with Tormé because it showed that someone was really THINKING about the situations they were setting up and understood the real history behind the alternate they were presenting.

Brad Linaweaver has pulled, this book off in style,having watched Sliders since its birth, I was doubtful of the author being able to recreate, the suspene and magic of the show into descriptive writing contained in the episode scripts within the book.

Other aspects witch are a treat are the interviews, with the shows creators, and stars (Tracy Torme'& Jerry O'connell) to name a few.

The only downside is the lack of any decent colour pictures, as they are black & white. Never the less a worthwhile investment for any Slider's fan and their bookshelf.

Not recommended unless you are interested in hearing Schulman expound on the virtues of libertarianism. You'll learn more about Heinlein from Expanded Universe and Grumbles from the Grave.

The more Heinlein you read, the more you must read. Inevitably, your curiosity about who he was and how he became one of the world's most extraordinary writers begins to eat at your intelligence. Incredibly, J. Neil Schulman, a mere boy at the time, was able to gain Heinlein's complete confidence and trust. This text of the interview Schulman was able to arrange with Heinlein will answer a thousand questions for you. Schulman was as prepared to interview the great man as any person could have possibly been. Any consideration of Heinlein's life and work will be incomplete without including this small in size, but gigantic in significance, look into the mind of Heinlein, whose genius will only be regarded as greater with every passing year. The author, Schulman, went on to become a terrific science fiction writer himself, winning two Prometheus awards of his own.

The interview has a great forthrightness to it, like having lunch with Heinlein and listening to him hold forth. This is the only place I've ever seen his opinions on Ayn Rand, NASA and its incredible ability to make spaceflight boring, and why Heinlein couldn't like one of his characters better than the others. Schulman acquits himself well -- if he hadn't, Heinlein would not have spent an hour with him, let alone 3 & 1/2. I read the _Job_ review with interest, and found the analysis illuminating.
If Heinlein was your 'Dutch Uncle' too, you'll want this book.

I found Volk very disappointing. The book is poorly written and full of trite cliches. Mr. Anthony is certainly capable of better. He seems to have an ideological axe to grind but should have checked his facts more closely. The historical 'facts' presented in his last chapter are untrue and have been negated by reputable historians including John Keegan and Steven Ambrose. Spend your money on a different book. I wish I had.
Barnes & Noble refused to show this review.

This book is written so poorly. Anthony should have spent a month or more actually reading through the book and questioning things, instead of writing it and leaving it at that. Is it even remotely believable that after Quality falls in love with Ernst that she tells his former fiance, "Oh, I know a perfect guy for you, (who just happens to be my former fiance) if only you could meet ..." And of course, they do meet, oh-so coincidently. That is just one example of things working out too neatly to be satisfying. Half the book reads like poor journalism, the other half like an adolescent attempt at literature. I hate to be harsh on Piers, but dang it, I want to see him go back to writing REAL novels, with real characters, real conflict, and a real plot.

Piers Anthony bills Volk as a politically incorrect novel of the forbidden love between a Nazi officer and the Quaker fiancee of his pre-war American friend. Volk nicely brings out some of the ironies of WWII: that not all Nazis subsribed to their party's ideology, and that the Allies also engaged in practices as barbarous as the Nazis did.

Unfortunately, the novel does little more than play around with some of these ideas or the characters themselves. The storyline covers a six- or seven-year period, but little in the novel reflects that. Nor is it particularly unsettling when the Quaker woman is captured by Nazis for smuggling Jews; nor can the reader really feel that woman's anguish at the compromises wartime forces on her.

Additionally, the book is rather poorly edited; while Xlibris allows authors to circumvent the big publishing houses to get their books into print, it apparently doesn't provide editing services. In the case of Volk, Piers Anthony would have been better off hiring a freelance editor or giving the book a closer second read himself.

Volk is readable, but disappointing. Unless you're a tremendous fan of Anthony's writing, you're unlikely to finish Volk after you put it down.

I can do no better than to quote a reviewer of another of Mr. Schulman's books. "The book contains very little material written [originally] for this edition; rather, it's a compilation of various unpleasant e-mail threads and letters to the editor. It seriously aggravated me to have paid for a book containing verbatim transcripts of junk I could have read for free on the Internet. Mr. Schulman is bright and makes some strong arguments, but overall the work is shoddy -- petulant, unscholarly, and devoid of editing."

This book is more of the same: random notes and web postings bound together and sent to the printer. It is unfortunate, as Mr. Schulman is clearly a thoughtful proponent of liberty.

I would highly recommend his fiction, particularly "Alongside Night", however.