...read this book .... It was so good in fact, that I literally did not put it down. I have read it three times since, and it has lost neither its freshness nor its impact.

The highest scoring Japanese ace to survive World War II, Sakai's book was the first of its kind--a first hand account from the "enemy's" persepective. It was astoundingly popular and Sakai became somewhat of a hero in the United States, and until his death from a heart attack in October 2000, he received countless "fan" letters, all of which he answered.

His story chronicles the rise and fall of not only the Japanese Naval Air Forces, but Japan itself. The thrill of victory and the bitterness of defeat are crystal clear. It is amazing that a story translated from one language to another can be so vivid and engrossing.

For a brilliant history lesson about the Pacific War during World War II that will keep you on the edge of your seat, this is the one. Through it all, you are there with Sakai be it in the cockpit or on the operating table. The "Classics of Naval Literature Series" version is superior to all others (for reasons explained in its FOREWORD). Highly recommended.

One of the best books on air combat I've read. Saburo Sakai's 500 mile trek back to Rabual from Guadacanal in his crippled zero is a testimony to the man and to the nature of war. "Samurai" is another book you won't be able to put down. It's the Japanese version of "The First and Last" and the reader follows Sakai's career from the early days of Japanese victory to the war's conclusion. I was particularly struck by the comparative decline in the Japanese Zero as America moved from P40s, P39s and F4Fs to Zero killers such as the F4U, F6F, and P38. *NOTE* Samurai has recently been under scrutiny for questions relating to its historicity. The climatic account of Sakai's encounter with US torpedo bombers has been singled out as particularly spurious. For more reviews see the "WWII Aviation Booklist" http://www.ampsc.com/~prophet/booklist.html

I first read this book in in the eighth grade. It was so good in fact, that I literally did not put it down. I have read it three times since, and it has lost neither its freshness nor its impact.

The highest scoring Japanese ace to survive World War II, Sakai's book was the first of its kind--a first hand account from the "enemy's" persepective. It was astoundingly popular and Sakai became somewhat of a hero in the United States, and until his death from a heart attack in October 2000, he received countless "fan" letters, all of which he answered.

His story chronicles the rise and fall of not only the Japanese Naval Air Forces, but Japan itself. The thrill of victory and the bitterness of defeat are crystal clear. It is amazing that a story translated from one language to another can be so vivid and engrossing.

For a brilliant history lesson about the Pacific War during World War II that will keep you on the edge of your seat, this is the one. Through it all, you are there with Sakai be it in the cockpit or on the operating table. The "Classics of Naval Literature Series" version is superior to all others (for reasons explained in its FOREWORD). Highly recommended.

My grandfather was born in 1888 in the town of St. Martinville, LA and turned the century with the rest of Mr. Capuder's cast of characters. Even with that connection, in reading this book I still learned things about my ancestors that I didn't know. It is amazing how real these folks still are on the pages of Le Petit Paris, as if they'd just closed their storefront or doused their lantern for the night, not the century. I am the author of a book of Cajun poetry, Porch People, that tells the stories of these same people two generations later and it is with great respect and pleasure that I add Mr. Capuder's vast information to my own.

The book takes you back in time. The author makes you think the people are still here with us today. And he makes you feel like you're living in the past. The book is very informative, interesting, beautifully detailed with pictures, and sectioned. It's our own heritage and the way they lived. It has cross references which makes it even more interesting. But most of all it leaves you hunger for more.

This book is a small treasure of riches from the past for rural southwest Louisiana. The turn of two centuries finds us viewing our ancestors as if they still worked this land and shopped these store fronts. I learned things about my own great-grandfather that our family oral history had not documented. Mr. Capuder has done a wonderful job condensing such a vast history into such elemental beginnings.

This book is well-written and covers a vast scope. Contrary to what the title might lead you to believe, this book covers a lot more than just plain mediums. In fact, it offeres detailed information on just about any faction in the Skinlands that might interact with the Restless Dead: "Boardwalk mediums" found at carnivals and circuses the ruthless Giovanni vampires, even charlatans and frauds who possess no real talent, but manage to offend wraiths with their very presumption and chicanery.

This book is definitely worth the purchase price- it will enrich virtually any Wraith chronicle.

This is a fine resource for mediums, much better than the Quick and the Dead. The systems stuff is vastly improved, with a battery of new merits and flaws for mediums that I actually found useful (and can be used to supplement or replace the hedge magic paths for interacting with wraiths). There is some good stuff on summoning, a large section on Native American medicine men and shamanic dealings with the dead, a fresh look at many of the old ghost-dealing groups, and a new ability for those people who have had enough with wraiths shouting in their ears.

This book will do exactly what they said wasn't possible by illustrating how video and sound can be integrated into your Flash presentations, placing you at the extreme edge of creative web design. The application of such tools as AfterEffects, QuickTime, SoundForge and Wildform test the boundaries of Flash and suggest ways to take sound and video beyond Flash and into the realms of Shockwave.

Showing you how to break your site down and incorporate video and sound, the techniques covered in this book capitalise on the capabilities of Flash whilst tackling its limitations head-on. It will then look at how to take web ideo and sound a step further with Shockwave presentations.

This book is a must for any history buff or anyone interested in what the "other side" of World War II was like. This work chronicles the career of Saburo Sakai and his many air battles throughout World War II. His words debunk many myths about Japanese pilots (he even admits to turning back from a suicide mission) and gives one a personal feel to the historical events that unfolded around him. One can also plot the technological climb of aircraft as Sakai describes how adversaries steadily got better and better. This book would even be good reading for "peaceniks" who think development of new aircraft and weapons are a waste of money. They will see through Sakai's work how one superior fighter plane (the Zero) was able to command the skies in the Pacific war for several years until better aircraft were turned out by the U.S. In the future, the U.S. may not be so lucky. This is a superior book and is one of the best written about World War II.

Saburo Sakai was a national hero in Japan as its greatest surviving air ace of world war two. This book is his story. It is a fascinating and honest look at the air war in the Pacific from the Japanese perspective. Sakai is shown to have been a patriotic and heroic fighter, who, like most soldiers, gave little thought to the politics of the war. Like young men in many lands in many times, when his country called, he answered.

Sakai gives us an honest assessment of both sides as regards the Pacific air war. There is little or no jingoism here. He highlights some of the critical mistakes that the Japanese navy made in the war--one of which was that before the war the Navy only turned out about 100 pilots a year--not remotely enough for the total war Japan was about to wage against the world's greatest industrial power. The standards for entering and graduating from the Naval air training course in Japan were unreasonably high, and simply prevented the country from producing the number of pilots it would come to need. When the Americans eliminated over 300 Japanese pilots in 3 days at the Battle of Midway, Japan never recovered the loss of these trained men. On the other hand, Sakai reminds the American reader that in the Japanese America faced a motivated, intelligent, and very brave foe deriving from a violent military tradition.

The book also includes some very interesting glimpses at the Japanese home front during the war. Life in prewar Japan was hard for the lower classes--sufficiently hard that even the savage discipline (which Sakai describes at length) of the Japanese Navy appeared to be a reasonable alternative to the grinding poverty he otherwise faced.

Overall, a wonderful look at "the other side of the hill" and into the mind of one of World War Two's greatest air combat pilots.

I first read this book in in the eighth grade. It was so good in fact, that I literally did not put it down. I have read it three times since, and it has not lost its freshness nor its impact.

The highest scoring Japanese ace to survive World War II, Sakai's book was the first of its kind--a first hand account from the "enemy's" persepective. It was astoundingly popular and Sakai became somewhat of a hero in the United States (to this day he receives countless letters, all of which he answers). [Note: Sakai died of a heart attack in October of 2000.]

His story chronicles the rise and fall of not only the Japanese Naval Air Forces, but Japan itself. The thrill of victory and the bitterness of defeat are crystal clear. It is amazing that a story translated from one language to another can be so vivid and engrossing.

For a brilliant history lesson about the Pacific War during World War II that will keep you on the edge of your seat, this is the one. Through it all, you are there with Sakai be it in the cockpit or on the operating table. The "Classics of Naval Literature Series" version is superior to all others (for reasons explained in its FOREWORD). Highly recommended.

The basic content of this book is excellent. It provides a readily accessible introduction to the principles of engineering. This book could easily be used as the text for a first year course in a unified engineering curriculum including Computer Science. The one flaw with this book is that it appears to have been rushed out by the publisher. Many of the page references are to the wrong pages and some of the pictures are rather blurry. Finally, the instructions for creating and downloading ICB files to incorporate assembly language modules for interrupt side programming and similar purposes needs to be reworked in a future edition. I hope that a future edition will also have a chapter on electrical design and construction techniques to compliment the chapter on mechanical techniques. I also look forward to a third chapter on sensing and possibly a second chapter on control theory. Regardless, this is overall an excellent book and should be acquired by anyone interested in small robots.

This book presents an introduction to various aspects of robot building and planning. It is written as an undergraduate textbook, and contains numerous exercises throughout the text. The book assumes that students and other readers will have access to Handyboards and LEGO Technic equipment, as well as a desktop PC and hobbyist-level soldering equipment. The book walks the reader through analyzing a Handyboard, how to use it, how to build custom sensors and motors, and how to write programs in assembly language. All of this information would be very useful to first-year engineering students as it would help them put theory from many of their other classes into practice. Nevertheless, most of the tasks and programs described in the book could actually be built with a standard LEGO RCX brick. On the other hand, a person who masters the material in this book would be able to take advantage of the extra sensors and motors that the Handyboard supports and build far more sophisticated robots than would be possible with LEGO Mindstorms equipment. Anyone who builds robots using LEGO equipment, whether with a Handyboard or an RCX, will find information in this book about Braitenberg vehicles, LEGO design, control theory, and robotics contests quite useful. The introduction to Assembly language in Appendix A is also presented in an easily accessible style.

I found this to be an excellent introduction to how to build a fully functional, autonomous robot. This book covers everything you need to build robots using LEGO Technics (think LEGO blocks plus gears, motors, etc.) and a Handyboard, a robot brain developed to get the hard digital electronics out of the way so you can concentrate on putting together a good design with motors and sensors and software intelligence.

As someone looking for how to break into robotics without first getting bachelors in Electrical Engineering or Mechanical Engineering, this book was for me. I got the basics of the two topics covered and was able to dive right into the interesting "what can I do with my robot" scenarios.

This book also goes into some detail on inexpensive sensor components out in the electronics market and how to use them in robots. I found this to be a great source of ideas and instructions even when not creating robots using the Handyboard brain.

For those looking to dabble, be aware that this is a book best used in conjunction with real, live robot parts. (...)

I enjoyed this book, and although not EVERY story was great, they were very good. I think that it makes a fine book by itself, and a great book in memory of the late Roger Zelazny. This is a must have for Zelazny fans.

I was one of the contributors to this book, which was originally to be titled FRIENDS OF ROGER. I still wish it had been . . . although a book by all of Roger's friends would be a very thick one; I don't believe there was anyone who knew him personally who didn't love him - and I think everyone who knew and loved his writing felt they had lost a friend when he died.

I won't comment on my own story, but there are plenty of others of outstanding quality, well worth the price; John Varley's is my pick for best of the bunch, with Walter Jon Williams in there pretty close . . . but really, you could hardly go wrong just opening this book at any one of the stories and beginning there.

The cover is, admittedly, butt-ugly; and this should have been a hardback - as much money as Roger made for Avon in his lifetime, you'd think they could do a little better by his memory - but never mind; the contents more than make up for the exterior.

If you are one of those (us) who cherish Roger's memory, buy this book as your expression of appreciation for his memory. Or if you're just looking for a lot of damned good reading . . . .

This fascinating review of nuclear strategy covers the period from 1945 to 1990. It is extraordinarily clear in presenting the options faced by Presidents and decision makers, and how they resulted in strategy that varied between "Nuke them back to the Stone Age" in 1948 to "MX Racetracks in the Nevada Desert" in the Caarter and Reagan Administration.

I found it a most compelling read, causing me to sacrifice sleep to continue, because it names names, dates, and places. Insight into all the news figures I grew up seeing on TV News.

I grew up as an Army Brat in the 1960's and 1970's, and this book explains why many of the weapons systems came and went. In-fact, it explains why our family "Came and Went" on a few stations!

I highly recommend this if you have even a passing interest in Nuclear War strategy and National Policy, or even in what part you and/or your parents/grandparents played in the "Big Picture".

This book was one of the greatest I have had the pleasure to read. I was so fascinated reading this that I stayed up reading the book for three days straight. I then had to read it again, this time going four days without sleep, mainly because I'm an idiot. I gave up work and school studying the tactics used in the groups mentioned. I was very intigued, and have started reading it again. ...

What is your leadership style? How will you identify your leadership style? How will you create the optimal leadership environment? How would you engineer the leadership situation of your subordinates? The authors presented the book in such a way that you yourself can measure your personality characteristics and your leadership (or managerial) style through participating in the clearly formatted questionnaires. The book was written in an easy-to-read style by using rating scale methods of assessment as measuring device. Each chapter was concluded with a feedback and summary. The last chapter deals with the leader match scales to determine your overall situational control from the sources of your points in leader-member relations scale, task structure scale, and position power scale. Those who want to know what kind of leadership style they possess and how to exploit their potential in different situation should read the book.