Well, well well. I thought this book would be a good idea to enligten my beautiful son Seth to my new found alternative lifestyle. I came out just three months ago, after three failed marraiges and one undelivered mail order bride. I gave lil' Seth this book to try to help him understand why Dwight and Daddy are always going to the golf course in shorts. Let me just tell you, Seth won't even look at me now. He's unresponsive to my fatherly affections and is almost catatonic when I pick him up for my weekend visits. It's like parenting a turnip. So all I have to say, is wait until your child sees enough Jerry Springer shows to understand that Daddy's gay. In conclusion, I feel that this book has ruined my relationship with my son - my pride and joy - for the remainder of my natural life. I think I'm going to have to buy a kitten. In retrospect I feel I would have had a better chance of showing my son the benifits of my lifestyle without the aid of your phony book! Love one another, and try to be open minded. -James.

Great book - from the point of view of a young daughter bragging to classmates that she has three fathers - the reactions follow. Bonus - book has multicultural characters.

This is a great book. Do not hesitate to buy it. See also Melanin Sun!

Tho most of this collection is recycled from earlier George R.R. Martin short-story packages, there R a few new stories -- "Nightflyers" is a very good, very vivid interstellar horror story, with a lot more going 4 it than just the mystery at its center -- good believable characters, involving happenings, & most of all the Volcryn, another haunting creation of George at his very best. "Nor the Many-Colored Fires of a Star Ring" is a sequel to George's earlier story "The Second Kind of Loneliness," & is also outstanding. "Weekend in a War Zone" is average, nothing special. The other stories include his classic "Song for Lya" (which U should already have read), "Override," & a couple others. Worth it just 4 the stories U can't find elsewhere.

Since reading A GAME OF THRONES, I have been trying to hunt down all of G R R Martin's earlier out-of-print works -I haven't heard one bad word about any of them yet. NIGHTFLYERS is one of the few I have found thus far, and it was well worth my effort. It contains six excellent short stories of horror and science fiction.

The title-novelette, "Nightflyers" is by far the best... A team of nine specialists takes flight on the Nightflyer in pursuit of a legendary alien spacecraft, eons old. But things on the Nightflyer aren't exactly as they seem, and it's captain isn't sharing all he knows.

"Override" and "A Song For Lya" are two more great pieces, but they can also be found in another of his collections, A SONG FOR LYA. A fourth great story, "Weekend In A War Zone" takes a look at one of our future forms of entertainment- recreational warfare! I wouldn't have minded if that story were a lot longer.

The last two stories are just ok, but all in all, this collection is well worth your time. Because of his recent popularity, Martin's older works should be hitting shelves again soon, but if you can't take the wait- check the libraries and used bookstores like I did

Nightflyers: In the title story, nine people set off on the Nightflyer, a space trader owned and operated by Royd Eris, in search of the Volcryn, a mythical race of sentient beings traveling through space for more than eighteen thousand years. As they travel through space to the outer edges, they begin to realize something is wrong. Their captain shows up only as a hologram, and their only telepath begins to sense something wrong. One by one the passengers begin dying, and the survivors discover they are not alone on the ship. Now they must trust the captain they have never met face to face, and as the Volcryn come within range of the Nightflyer, they learn also that the massive, alien, quiet ship is not what was expected either.

Override: Imagine you make a decent living as a corpse handler on a pretty planet named Grotto. To you, working with the corpses is a job, not all that unpleasant, but others on Grotto call you and your kind "Meatminds" and want to do away with corpse labor. And then, you discover someone has an "override box", and they are able to take control of the corpses away from you. Miles away from town, without control of your corpses, will you survive?

Weekend In A War Zone: Welcome to Maneuver, Inc., where you can pay a great deal of money to sign up for some weekend war games. Only unlike a weekend of tennis, you might not come back alive, because these games are real.

And Seven Times Never Kill A Man: On the world of Corlos, the Children of Bakkalon reside within the City of Steel Angels. Outside the city are the forest folk called the Jaenshi, living quiet lives in harmony with planet and gathering around their clan's pyramid. The Steel Angels come out from their city and destroy the pyramids, hunting and killing the Jaenshi, calling them soulless animals. The trader neKrol has come to Corlos in his ship, the Lights of Jolostar, in an effort to save the Jaenshi. Is there room on this planet for more than one race?

Nor The Many-Colored Fires Of A Star Ring: All around the galaxy are the Star Rings, "gates" to different parts of the universe. Kerin and Jenny are at the Nowhere Ring, ready to try Jenny's theory of a self-sustaining ring using no nullspace engines.

A Song For Lya: Robb and Lya are summoned to the planet Shkea, where the
Terran planetary administrator has become concerned with the number of humans joining the Shkeen Cult of the Union. With their psi talents, they travel to the city to learn of the creatures called Greeshka and their role in the cult. It is the only religion of the Shkeen, and one of the Talented will fall victim to this cult of love.

This book is entirely too similar to C.W. Metcalf's 1992 book,
"Lighten Up: Survival Skills for People Under Pressure." Mr. Braverman should find his own material.

I found this book to be a great resource for getting over anything in life, be it a bad relationship or tough business times. My PR firm is using some of Terry's ideas from the business chapter; whoever thinks work cannot be fun must read this book!

I strongly disagree with a previous reviewer's assessment that Braverman's book is similar to Mr. Metcalf's. This book is chock full of ideas to implement in everyday living with levity, and a great asset to have in my clinical practice. Thank you Mr. Braverman!

In the Preface Beasley-Murray (B-M) asks why yet another commentary on John's Gospel and answers, "It seemed that there was room for an attempt to pass on some of the treasures of modern study of this Gospel and with them to combine one's own findings and convictions." To this end he remains faithful throughout the Introduction and commentary proper. We are treated to some of the best insights into John's Gospel, both B-M's and many an eminent scholar's. His enthusiasm for the project shows up again when in the Introduction he describes some of the commentaries on the Gospel in the past fifty years as "among the greatest expositions of the Word of God that have ever appeared" (liii).

The 61-page Introduction is important. It covers the literary sources, development of the traditions, religious relations, authorship, date and place, selected aspects of theology, purpose, and structure of the Gospel. It is rich in theological ideas. It was "as if scales falling from the eyes" as B-M listened to his mentor, C. H. Dodd, explain the structure of the episodes of the Book of Signs (chapters 2-12), each episode consisting of sign plus discourse, and each encapsulating the whole Gospel. He realized that that was probably due to the Evangelist's preaching, as the Evangelist expounded the significance of the traditions in the light of Christ's death and resurrection. Now a familiar observation in Johannine studies, the concept that much of the Fourth Gospel was the product of preaching must have been a creative thought then. New insights have continued to flow unabated as scholars delved into the depths of this Gospel. Nowhere is it more apparent than in the discussion of the Gospel's dual nature, simultaneously depicting the historical ministry of Jesus and the situation and faith of the Johannine community some 50(?) years later. "The Evangelist sets the historical ministry of Jesus in Palestine in indissoluble relation to the ministry of the risen Lord in the world" (xlvii). If Luke traces the origins of the Church in two volumes, one [his Gospel] of Jesus and the other [Acts] of the risen Christ acting through his disciples, John presents the historical Jesus and Jesus the risen Lord together in one book and a single perspective. B-M masterfully sketches in succession how each of several scholars has treated this theme, in the process displaying a fascinating interplay of ideas.

Several other important themes that recur in the commentary proper make their first appearance in the Introduction. While the Kingdom of God is scarcely mentioned [only in vv. 3:3,5], "every line of the Fourth Gospel is informed by it" (xxxiv). The Paraclete actualizes the words and deeds of Jesus in the life of the Church -- the Fourth Gospel itself "is a supreme example of the truth and application of the Paraclete doctrine which it contains" (liii). The concept of Son of God (closely associated with Son of Man) is the prevailing characteristic of Johannine Christology. The glorification of Jesus coincides with his crucifixion (unlike Isaiah's Servant who is exalted because and after he had suffered). The realized eschatology of John is not to be divested of its future aspect (contrary to Bultmann). All these, and more, are elements that B-M uses in the commentary discussions of John's theology, which turns out to be largely Christology. In the end you have to agree with him, "The theme of the Fourth Gospel is Christ" (lxxxi).

In common with other scholars, B-M accepts a four-part structure of the Gospel: (A) The Prologue; (B) The Public Ministry of Jesus, otherwise referred to as the Book of Signs (Dodd, Brown); (C) The Passion and Resurrection of Jesus, also known as as the Book of the Passion (Dodd) or the Book of Glory (Brown); and (D) Epilogue. He expresses a reservation, though, concerning the nomenclatures "Book of Signs" and "Book of Passion/Glory", since he considers that the WHOLE Gospel may be viewed as a book of signs and as a book of the passion and glory of Jesus. As he interacts with the established figures of Johannine scholarship, B-M does not hesitate to disagree as well as to cite approvingly, for he is a Johannine expert in his own right. He argues his case very well indeed, but to get the benefit of it you have to read thoughtfully. B-M is never shallow and merits careful study. Knowledge of some Greek will help, but you can still gain a great deal without. Running to about 600 pages, as compared for example with Brown's two-volume, 1200-page work (Anchor 29, 29A), this commentary is necessarily less detailed. But as a presentation of modern Johannine study coupled with the author's independent understanding, it is certainly a noteworthy effort.

The second edition (1999) is identical with the first (1987), with the addition of supplementary bibliographies and reviews of a number of significant books on John that had appeared since the first edition (for example, John Ashton's important "Understanding the Fourth Gospel"). The commentary follows WBC's usual format. Some find the format "unfriendly", but it is not so. The usual gripe that references are given in line with the text (not in footnotes) hardly deserves notice. If you are ready to go beyond introductory expositions of the Fourth Gospel, give this book serious consideration.

I have both the original 1987 edition and the "revised" 1999 edition. To the publishers credit, the 1999 edition does state flat out that the only thing new is 50 pages of updated bibliography and reviews of major book on the Gospel since the original publication. This is all located in one new section in the introductory material. Otherwise, the two editions are identical page for page (even the numbering). If you have the 1987 edition, don't get the 1999 edition unless you need/want an updated bibliography.

If you are looking for a secondary commentary on John's gospel, then Beasley-Murray's is the one for you. Not as detailed as the others like Morris, Schnackenburg and Brown; but detailed enough for Bible study and message preparation. The Do not purchase it as your main commentary for you will soon need to go out and buy one of the others mentioned above. I have not seen the second edition as yet.

It is a wonderful idea to make available recordings of great speeches. I hope we have more of this in the future.
In the case of older speeches, the selection is very good, considering the restraints of time, and the readers are uniformly excellent.
As for the modern speeches, it is a marvel of technology that we can hear these speeches as delivered. It is incredible that we can hear the voice of William Jennings Bryan. I can listen to Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" a thousand times and never tire of it! How I wish I could listen to the voice of Patrick Henry! But this selection is too heavily weighted to the modern, and many of those do not deserve billing as the GREATEST speeches of ALL TIME. Also, some of the modern speeches which are included are abridged, e.g. Reagan is cut off in the middle of a sentence, while lengthy and undeserving speeches are played out in their entirety.
Also, with only a few exceptions, the selection is almost entirely American. It is hard to understand why Jimmy Carter's lengthy speech on energy policy is included, while Pericles' funeral oration is not; or why only a small portion of a single Winston Churchill speech is included; why while Bill Clinton's complete 1993 pulpit address, in excess of 20 minutes, is included.
It would be helpful if the complete list of speeches were available to online buyers, as it would be to shoppers in a brick and mortar store.

I have listened to this collection twice now, both times with pleasure. Hearing the acutal voices of Amelia Earhart, Rev. Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill and Neil Armstrong made a deeper connection than simply reading their words. The collection showcases different subjects and many times contrasts opposing viewpoints of the ideas. This volume is a fantastic introduction to the moving ideals and sometimes sad truths that have influenced Western Civilization.

If humans are so smart, why do they behave so stupidly? Why are the talking monkeys so greedy and hateful? Where did civilization go wrong? The author of "The Time Machine" tries to figure it all out in this oft-overlooked and slim volume of original, non-fiction essays.

THE DOCTOR'S DILEMMA is one of Shaw's most biting critical commentaries...this time on doctors. Shaw hated doctors, as a result of a botched operation on his foot, so here he portrays them as a group of ignorant, bull-headed windbags. All, that is, except for one doctor, who has actually found a cure for tuberculosis. The "dilemma" in the title is whether to use the cure on a talented young painter who is a moral and ethical sleazebag, or on an upstanding middle-aged physician who is a good soul, albeit a boring and relatively mundane one. All this is complicated by the fact that the doctor is in love with the painter's wife! The biggest problem with the play is that it has lost some of its impetus in the last century. Antibiotics can now cure tuberculosis, and the medical profession is far more restricted in its use of "experimental" treatments than it was then. However, Shaw's wit and invective is still poignant even at the end of the twentieth century. A must-read for Bernard Shaw enthusiasts....

Now THIS is where I thot George started seriously slipping (if it wasn't when I saw the small amount of new work in his previous collection, NIGHTFLYERS). There is 1 good new story here -- "In the Lost Lands." It has the mood & magic of so many of George's early greats. Some of the other stories R recycled from George's earlier collections: it's a pleasure 2 C "With Morning Comes Mistfall," "Second Kind of Loneliness," & "Lonely Songs of Laren Door" again, & they certainly brighten up this package. "Unsound Variations" is a pretty good chess story. "Under Seige" is pretty solid, 2. But the others R mostly disappointments. "Portraits of His Children" won a Nebula Award, & tho it's a vivid series of character sketches, I didn't get what all the fuss was about. It's tuff 2 keep crankin out greats at the low rates of pay in the SF field. Is that why George took a 10-year vacation to TV?

Mr. Martin is easily becoming one of my favorite authors. I will admit that I had not read any of his works until the 'Song of Fire and Ice' series was created. I figure you have to begin somewhere though. While reading this book, I found that he not only can sweep you off to other worlds with ease, but also make you teary eyed when reviewing just what his characters are going through and the strength and/or weakness that they reveal. It's a shame that this book isn't more popular. It truly is great. From a group of men playing with all their heart in the last super bowl (only to be replaced with a computer with no emotion to emulate them), to a group of old 'friends' finally confronted with their failures and being told why exactly they came to be, you'll be surprised by just how much you'll be pulled into their lives. There are eleven stories all together, and I'd recommend each and every one of them. All run the gamut of emotions. All represent a different facet of our lives.

On a further note, I don't have a clue what the 'Incest' guy was talking about. The story that is the namesake of the book has a scene where a father and daughter are laying together in bed consoling each other, I assume that he might have interpreted what happened incorrectly (or then again, perhaps I did).

The story "Unsound Variations" was just amazing! a single move in a chess tounament that one of the weaker players made ruins the lives of the rest of the team in ways both disturbing and unimaginable...

The "Ice Dragon" won an award and after reading it and wiping your tears away you will know why... its simply amazing how one man has so many stories that, in just a few pages can cut through a persons layers of bitterness and expose emotions that one may have believed to have been long since dead.
("With Morning comes Mistfall" and "Lonely Songs of Loren Dorr" fit into this category...Not to mention the Title story about a Daughters mystical Paintings...)

For you anarchists out there you will find the story "closing Time" has a pleasent way of dealing with the whole mess out there....

A total of 11 wonderous and magical stories affiriming that GRR Martin was the Master even before the Song of Ice and Fire was Created.

Buy this book! It will be [$$$], but its worth it if you want to laugh and cry again.

The author himself explains on this Amazon page that he wrote the book as a non-baseball fan who wanted a subject for his writing fellowship, and had met Jackie's widow. This book is for people who admired Jackie, his quiet heroics, his battle with his inner pains. The sources the author says he used are apparent- they are Jackie's youthful and off-season coaches, friends and business associates, as well as his second wife. They are not primarily baseball players. The account of any given year is strong on Jackie's off-season activities and weak on Jackie's baseball season, or anecdotes relating to it. An unintentionally humorous error stemming from the author's lack of baseball knowledge occurs in the wrap-up of Jackie's stats for the season prior to his first retirement. Mr. Martin mentally transposed the numbers in two columns in his own appendix, and credits Jackie with 67 stolen bases in 1959! Maybe Luis Aparicio was overrated! (Jackie actually had 20 SBs and 67 SOs in 1959.)

As one might expect from such a source, the book is better-written by far than the standard baseball bio. But the choice of a subject famous for an activity that does not captivate the author creates a certain monstrous gap in the purpose, and a real loss in describing Jackie's climactic voluntary retirement from the game at his peak, a mere one year after winning the MVP. If Mr. Martin was half the baseball fan he is a writer, the book could have soared to something like a Greek tragedy. As is, it will appeal to those interested in the man, in the personal foibles and flaws inherent in all humans, and in the efforts of spirited people to overcome them. These efforts better grip the reader when made by one, like Jackie, who has attained greatness in one of life's pathways.

THIS IS A WELL WRITTEN BOOK ABOUT A VERY INTERESTING MAN. JACKIE WAS TRULY A VERY GIFTED ATHLETE. HE HAD A LOT TO OVERCOME IN HIS PRIVATE LIFE. I REALLY ENJOYED HIS STORY. THE AUTHOR DOES A FINE JOB RETELLING JACKIE'S CAREER AND LIFE. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS TO ALL BASEBALL FANS.

What makes this book so great is that after reading it you have a new found respect for professional athletes and people who are thrust into the public spotlight. Jackie's life was not only interesting, but very demanding and trying for him and his family. This book dispelled my notion that people in Jackie's position were just part of the glitz and glamor of this nation and not so much a citizen like the rest of us. I wish everyone could read this not only because it's a great story of a man's life and all the historical events that took place around him, but also because it made me realize just how human and vulnerable even the seemingly 'mighty' are.

George R. R. Martin is my favourite living author, and having met him a few times in conventions, he's also a really great guy. That Quartet is a frustrating read has nothing at all to do with Martin's truly great writing prowess, and everything to do with the problematic selection of material.

Frankly, there are two possible audiences for 'Quartet', and the book is a somewhat scysophrenic appeal for both.

For the die hard fans such as myself, the collection offers 'Black and White and Red All Over', the beginning of an unfinished novel, and STARPORT, an unproduced pilot for a television series.

For the newbies, the collection features The Skin Trade, Martin's fantasy award winning werewolf novella, and Blood of the Dragon, an exerpt from 'A Game of Thrones'.

Thus, no matter in which category you belong, the collection is only half for you.

'Black & White' begins with a classic Martin line 'On that dump April Morning Ned Cullen started his day with a glass of cheap champagne gone flat, a cup of cold black coffee, and a Murder'. Merely reading that line made chills run down my spine. This, I knew immediately, was going to be top notch Martin.

And it is. The story of three journalists trying to solve a Jack the Ripper style Murder in later Victorian New York City is so obviously among Martin's best works that one is left amazingly frustrated to know that there is no ending, that the story ends in the middle of a scene, with a note from Martin which says, effectively 'that all I've got, sorry'.

As great as 'Black & White' is, though, you can see why it was rejected. The complicated structure, and the detailed description of NYC (Martin has a knack for the Historical narrative, and it is a pity he doesn't do it more often. Even more than in his Fantasy and Science Fiction, Martin has a way of making the past come alive) carries through a hundred pages in which, plot-wise, little yet happens. Martin is setting the base for the larger scheme, but, like Fevre Dream and A Storm of Swords, the build up is slow and meticulous and careful, unlike A Game of Thrones, where the action begins immediately. This is hardly a bad thing for itself, and Black & White handles the exposition superbly, but as exposition, you cannot see where he's going yet.

The Next piece is 'The Skin Trade', the werewolf novella. Willie and Randi are among Martin's most memorable characters, and the tale of haunted hunters is among his best. The only weakness might be the slightly too complicated plot - after several readings, I'm still not one hundred percent sure I know exactly who did what and why.

But there is so much great writing there, such a powerful and nonchalant description of the paranormal, and Martin's wonderful way of making the exotic into common life, without losing any of the majestic beauty

So you admit you're a werewolf?"
"A Lycanthrope... . So Sue Me. It's a medical condition. I got allergies, I got asthma, I got a bad back, and I got lycanthropy, is it my fault?'

But than, a different character describes himself "Perhaps I'll come for you myself some night. You ought to see me... . My fur is white now, pale as snow, but the stature, the majesty, the power, those have not left me... We are the dire wolves, the nightmares who haunt your racial memories, the dark shapes circling endlessly beyond the light of your fires."

An unproduced Screenplay, STARPORT, is a pilot for a series that never happened. As such, it is a shame that Martin doesn't tell us something of what he had planned for the series. It is difficult to judge the story on its own. For example, is Kim, the Nazi girlfriend of undercover cop Aaron, a character that was supposed to return again? If not, she gets much too much screentime.

STARPORT follows a police force in near future Chicago, where an alien constructed base exists. The screenplay does a good job of introducing some memorable characters, but the plot suffers. Usually, Martin is a masterplotter, his tales brilliantly conceived and excecuted. Here, however, the plot is little more then a mechanism to get the characters to meet and interact. Particularly weak is the solution to the mystery, which is obvious and expected, and robs us of a character which could have been a very effective source of conflict for the series.

But STARPORT is a great piece of writing anyway, and would have made a very good introduction to what might have been the best SF TV show in recent memory.

The final selection is an excerpt from A Game of Thrones, telling the story of Dany, the princess lost in the wilderness, wed to a barbarian but fearsome warrier. It is, of course, a very fine piece of work, the Dany narrative being one of the best realised parts in Martin's brilliant novel, but it is the least valuable in the bunch, because I doubt many readers of this book have not read it before. and I have the feeling that the amazing climax to the story is more effective as the end of A Game of Thrones, than as a conclusion for a supposedly self standing novella.

Ultimately, I greatly enjoyed Quartet, both the fiction and Martin's wonderful introductions, but as the selection of pieces included is problematic, I can only recommand Quartet to die hard -got to have everything- fans such as myself. If you are a casual reader, one who only read few if any Martin stories, you'll be much better off picking A Game of Thrones, Fevre Dream, the anthology Sandkings, or Robert Silverberg's Legends, which contains Martin's The Hedge Knight among much other great fiction, as introduction to one of today's greatest writers.

As the title implies, Quartet is a collection of four of George R. R. Martin's earlier works, two of them previously unpublished, the other two previously uncollected. "The Skin Trade" and "Blood of the Dragon", both previously published, are award winning works, the former a horror story, the latter high fantasy; "Black and White and Red All Over", the initial selection in the collection, is an unfinished historical novel regarding Jack the Ripper's exploits in New York around the end of the nineteenth century; the most interesting piece in the collection is the script for the unproduced television show, "Starport." Introducing the collection is a short piece by long time Martin collaborator, Melinda Snodgrass, and Martin introduces each of the selections with brief biographical notes, all of which are rather interesting as he plots his transition from novelist to screenwriter to novelist again, spanning nearly a decade. The collection, for both Martin enthusiasts and novices alike, holds quite a bit of worth, although "Black and White and Red All Over" provides a bit of a barrier to the rest of the collection.

While interesting, Martin's historical recreation of the Ripper's supposed exploits in New York, based in part on the mysterious, and historically accurate, death of a prostitute by the name of Old Shakespeare in emulation of Jack the Ripper is rather difficult to overcome, possibly because the reader knows that the novel, and the mystery, remain unfinished. Although entertaining, and well crafted, simply knowing that the mystery has no solution, like Charles Dickens's The Mystery of Edwin Drood, makes intellectual investment in the narrative and the characters rather difficult. If the novel is ever completed, it will surely stand with the best of Ripper fiction, alongside such works as Alan Moore's From Hell (2000), as well as among the best of Martin's own work.

Martin's werewolf novella, "The Skin Trade", is the most engaging of the collection's work: It's a traditional page-turner horror novella, with the pacing of a well-plotted action film. The characters are interesting, the mystery well constructed, if not slightly transparent, and Martin handles lycanthropy with aplomb. Like the equally well-plotted "Blood of the Dragon", a novella that factors in to Martin's high fantasy opus, A Song of Fire and Ice, which won a Hugo for best novella in 1997, "The Skin Trade" is a wonderful read for both Martin fans and not. But having both been previously published, it is the script for "Starport" that makes this collection worth owning.

As Martin details in his introduction to the 168 page script, which comprises the most space of any of the selections in the collection, "Starport" was the proposed SF series to replace Alien Nation on Fox in the early 1990s. Explicitly a cop drama, much like Hill Street Blues, but more in line with Alan Moore's recent Top 10 comic book series, "Starport" concerns a near future Chicago police department that concerns themselves with the vast influx of alien races that have begun trade with Earth, with Chicago acting as one of the three "starports" on Earth to facilitate such. The cast is an ensemble of characters, most of which are human police officers and detectives, but accentuated with alien diplomats, merchants, and workers. The sheer inventiveness of the fictional world that Martin created in "Starport" is amazing, more so than his carefully constructed alter-Earth in the Wild Cards series, and while reading the script, it's hard not to mourn the loss of such an amazing entry into SF television. Engaging, funny, intelligent, the only aspect of "Starport" that is a little trying is the Klingon-esque Angels that play alien foils to the human cops with their arcane honor based culture. But "Satrport" is an amazing piece of work, and hopefully one day Fox will realize their loss. But until then, at least "Starport" is published, alongside some other outstanding work from Martin's most important phases of development.

I give this book 5 start because of it's uniqueness.

George R.R. Martin is the greatest author ever, and he knows it. Not many authors could put out a book with an incomplete story, a screenplay, and 2 materials that have already been published (one being just an exerpt from Song of ice and fire). But this book works here becasue of the intoductions and explanations to the stories...too often we forget that there is a real person writing our stories and that they have problems and concerns in life too..this book gives us back this precious insight...

the story "black and white and red all over" is an incomplete jack the ripper mystery and is the best of them all.. it is 100 pages with no ending that ends mid-sentance!!! but when finished i was dying for more....now i will probably never get more but in some cases that is what reading is all about...

Buy this book, (Especially the awsome limited edition hardcover)