Trinitarian theology is a difficult subject. Scriptural references are few and their meaning is not obvious - indeed, they can easily be read as contradictory. In fact, there is no explicit description of the Trinity in the scriptures at all - the orthodox view of the Trinity (three persons in one God) is an inferential conclusion from scripture that took generations to piece together. Having arrived at that conclusion, the next problem was to understand exactly what it meant - a problem difficult enough that many argued that it was simply a mystery the answer to which we might know in the next life but not this.

This famously difficult problem is the subject of Augustine's "The Trinity". In addressing it, he has two motives. His first motive is to combat non-Trinitarian heresy by showing the scriptural support for the concept and by showing that it is not inherently contradictory. His second motive is to attempt to understand the Trinity more deeply, to satisfy the scriptural directive to "seek His face evermore".

"The Trinity" is a long book, the second longest work in the Augustinian corpus, and one that he worked on, intermittently, for sixteen years. He might not have finished it had not the unauthorized publication of the first twelve "books", led him to write the final three in order to avoid having the work available only in an incomplete form.

"The Trinity" begins with a consideration of the Scriptural references to the Trinity, with the aim of reconciling them and explaining them through the supposition of three equal persons in one God. Augustine is at particular pains to maintain the equality of the persons: that the Son is equal to the Father, and the Holy Spirit equal to both. Of particular concern to Augustine are the references to the Son and Holy Spirit being sent, with the implication that the Father who sends must be superior to them. This presentation takes up the first eight books.

From there Augustine aims to develop some deeper understanding of the nature of the Trinity. His approach is to use the fact that the Man was created in the image of God. Given this, Augustine reasons, there should be some image of the Trinity in man. This leads to the consideration of a succession of trinities - the lover, beloved, and love; memory, understanding, and will; the objects of sense, the will to attend to them, and the sense impressions of them; etc. This presentation, which take up the next four books, is interesting, but often perplexing. It is easy for the reader to see that the trinities he names are not analogues of the divine Trinity, and it can be perplexing to attempt to understand how Augustine intends to bring this discussion of the trinities in man together.

It is in the last few books, written after the premature publication of the earlier books, that Augustine works to reverse the centrifugal tendencies of his discussion of the trinities in man and unify them into a whole. The trinities in man are held up not as exact analogues to that in God, but as a ladder, starting with the most carnal and rising towards the most spiritual; we do not find a single Trinity like that of God within ourselves, but we do find a series of them that we can ascend, and in ascending it we approach the divine Trinity and a deeper understanding of God.

I am a longtime gamer who probably has spent more on rolegaming then I can afford since the late 1980's. My shelves are filled with books for dozens of game-systems but Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP) remains one of my personal favourites.

This superlative product was originally published by Games Workshop as two separate books: Power Behind the Throne and Warhammer City - Middenheim. This Hogshead version has the full material from both books in one handy volume. The first section of the book, Power Behind the Throne details an extremely intricate conspiracy by the forces of Chaos in the city Middenheim.

A distinct contrast to the wimpy plots so prevalent in the fantasy roleplaying industry, this is a grade-A, master-level investigative scenario for the veteran player. The huge cast of characters each playing a part in the adventure, yet having motivations and plans of their own, make this adventure a real challenge for players and gamemasters.

This book should be on every gamer's shelf, regardless of which game system you play as an example of how it should be done. Be warned though, the deep roleplaying and many conversations required will bore the combat-oriented player to tears. Real roleplayers who fancy themselves as the fantasy equivalent of Poirot or Holmes will have the case of their lives to unravel.

This enlarged, revised edition gathers almost three hundred great speeches from nearly every historical era and nation from ancient to modern times, and makes for an outstanding volume. This edition adds fourteen important speeches delivered between 1974-97 and makes for an exciting display of messages.

this collection contains a good deal of good stories like daoine domhaine and the church in high street. stories by campbell, lumley, copper, sutton..... not the most inventive stories i have read, but good storiess, well written. this is in fact one of the finest pulp collections

H.P Lovecraft, while unappreciated in his own time, is now widely regarded as one of the true masters of horror fiction. His proficiency at creating deeply unsettling locales and creepy atmosphere is legendary, while his imagination is viewed as limitless in its breadth. He was also very giving when it came to other authors and his personal inventions; his Cthulhu mythos, centred on beings of hideous visage and infinite age (the "Old Ones"), has been taken up by countless authors since, at his own bequest.

It is only natural, then, that his other stories also be used as fertile ground for the imaginations of others. Stephen Jones has commandeered this challenge, corralling an impressive group of authors to edit together homages and emulations to one of Lovecraft's most redoubtable tales, "The Shadow over Innsmouth." The result is much in keeping with Lovecraft's own writings; they are by turns gripping, frustrating, brilliant, and overall, unforgettable.

"The Shadow over Innsmouth" leads off the collection, an atmospheric yarn of a tiny Massachusetts hamlet which harbours a dark secret. Into this town comes a curious young man with an interest in architecture; what he discovers is a village who claims allegiance to the Esoteric Order of Dagon, a strange religion with more than simply surface connections to the sea. In what is essentially a chase novella, Lovecraft weaves an atmosphere so dank and damp, you can practically feel the sea breeze on your skin, and smell the unpleasant aroma of rotting fish.

Lovecraft has penned an exercise in suspense, a unwholesome tale of insanity and beings beyond imagination. It also displays some of Lovecraft's lesser traits; he has a prevailing habit in his writings of describing entities which "cannot be described"; things of such loathsome natures that his protagonists cannot bear to remember their features, much less describe them for the reader. As well, his dialogue, minimal though it is, is rather stilted. Stephen King, in his memoir/treatise ON WRITING, states that, in all the millions of words Lovecraft put to paper, only five thousand or so were spent on dialogue. It shows. (King has also dabbled in Lovecraft's world; see his short fiction "Jerusalem's Lot" in NIGHT SHIFT, and "Crouch End" in NIGHTMARES AND DREAMSCAPES.)

That aside, "Shadow" is a marvellous tale of the macabre, and lends itself easily to other writers's themes and styles. Nonetheless, a severe fault with this compilation is that some author's follow Lovecraft's style too lavishly. Basil Copper's "Beyond the Reef," an almost direct sequel to "Shadow," is rather confusing in its melange of Lovecraftian wordplay and Copper's plot. This is not to mean that it is worthless, far from it. It has moments of true terror and mystery; it simply doesn't hold together in the end. However, Ramsey Campbell's "The Church in High Street" manages the feat of successfully combining both Lovecraft's expressions and Campbell's ideas.

Of the stories that can trace direct themes and atmosphere to "Shadow," Michael Marshall Smith's "To See the Sea" is the most accomplished. Transferring the basic plot to the English shores, Smith tells of a tragic love story, family mystery, and horrors from beneath the waves. It is mesmerizing in its balance of the sanity of an outsider and the insanity that religion can provide. Brian Lumley's "Dagon's Bell" is almost Smith's equal, in its telling of archaeologists, hidden monsters, and local customs for dealing with said monsters. (Lumley has some experience in this area; he's used Lovecraftian themes and characters in his writings for years.)

Despite the inclusive quality of these stories, the least of them suffer somewhat through a necessary knowledge of their forefather. Reading the tales on their own, without the fortuitousness of familiarity of the original, lessens their impact. More striking and memorable are stories which take certain aspects of Lovecraft's prototype, and venture forth into new dimensions of fancy.

Neil Gaiman's entry, "Only the End of the World Again," benefits from his unusual take on the denomination of Dagon. He almost repeats the tale, but adds the unforeseen element of lycanthropy to the mix. Like the best of Lovecraft, it is eerie, confusing, and sticks in the mind long after the pages are closed.

Arguably the most entertaining piece is Jack Yeovil's "The Big Fish," which goes in a direction Lovecraft likely never dreamed of; detective fiction. In Southern California, a private eye gets enmeshed in a case involving a sultry yet off-putting screen siren, a missing child, mobsters, and human sacrifice. Yeovil conjures up a mix of Dashiell Hammett and Poppy Z. Brite, resulting in sheer enjoyment. It would make a good duo with Clive Barker's tales of his supernatural investigator Harry D'Amour.

H.P. Lovecraft is not an author for every taste; his style is far more esoteric than, say, the mundane horror fiction of Dean Koontz or Bentley Little. Yet there's no denying the influence he has had on a generation of authors. SHADOWS OVER INNSMOUTH is a prime starting place for anyone who craves more than Koontz can provide.

...and it's all right here.

Lovecraft's own inspirational story, "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" - curiously, one of his own least favorite, but one of his best - leads off this terrific collection of clever spin-off tales by contemporary authors on the same theme: namely, that there are isolated seaside places around the world where the inhabitants not only pray to, but interact with, ancient subaqueous demon-gods from other worlds.

Many of the tales are more or less sequels to Lovecraft's seminal story, set in and around Innsmouth itself, the fictional Massachusetts town the author first "sailed" the concept in. Each of these reads very well as its own stand-alone piece, successful entirely independent of Lovecraft's story, but all the more entertaining for being one way or another connected to it. Other tales, such as Ramsey Campbell's "The Church In High Street," are set in other locations, like the decayed, dockside areas of Great Britain, where similar interbreeding with noxious hellspawned water-gods also is occurring. One especially good story, Kim Newman's "The Big Fish," actually reads like a credible direct sequel to Lovecraft's original, and is all the more perfect for essentially performing like a 1930s noir-horror film. Even Neil Gaiman gets in on the act, with a skin-crawling little bit of nastiness about an Innsmouth descendant coming to terms with his gruesome genetic heritage.

One thing you can count on, in this collection: something in it will definitely appeal to your Lovecraftian tastes - so long as that taste is for fish.

In modern times, legal firms scour the internet looking for ANYTHING which comes up as a hit for a trademark, regardless of any actual infringement. To make things worse, they are attacking noncommercial activities, and squelching free speech because of the simple finances involved in defending yourself. This book does a FINE job of explaining exactly what THEIR rights are, but not a very good job at all of explaining fair use with trademarks, what constitutes infringement, and what makes up commerce. If you're looking at this book to help defend yourself from some 'cease and desist' letter you unfairly received, sadly it is of little help. I hope in the future they add items for the common man.

I bought this book for my job when I realized that there was a dirth of trademark knowledge in the office (and in my head!)

It has proven to be very useful. I find the book's organization to be very intuitive. Each section (patents, copyrights, trademarks, etc.) has alphabetical definitions of the related terms. There are even examples of official correspondence.

Although my main goal was to learn more about trademarks, I have learned a lot more about patent terms by reading the book. This book finally helped me understand continuations and divisionals.

My only complaint is that the book tends to focus on U.S. filings and doesn't include a lot of foreign information. I know this would probably make the book longer, heavier, and more dense -- but I tend to have more foreign maintenance fee questions come up in my day-to-day job.

Still, I'm very happy with the book and find it very useful and well-written.

An analogy would be Webster's Pocket dictionary compared to the full text. This book is more like the pocket version. I really liked the layout. I thought it was very easy to read, understand and find things. The statute summaries were accurate and insightful. Still, the definitions weren't exaustive, the summaries were cursory and the text would have to be supplemented to be a complete reference.

I would recommend this book, esp. to a non-lawyer. But as for what I was expecting it just needed more depth.

Reviewer: Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics

When you pick this book up, it looks like a very promising exposition of computer face recognition. However, the best part of this book is its attractive dust cover. Large parts of the book are purely descriptive discussion. At the beginning, this discussion provides an overview of the challenges in this area, as well as many of the buzz words that might be useful for writing an inroduction to a proposal. However, most of the descriptive discussion is somewhat vague and lacks any real insight into what the problems are or how one may go about solving them. One hopes that when the writers get to quantifying things with some mathematics, things will get better, but they don't.

The first mathematical descriptions were so fuzzy and poorly motivated that I was discourage from reading farther. The authors throw around probabilities w/o clearly defining what they mean, variables that tax the reader to supply an explanation of what they represent, and changes in formalism that are just confusing. Quite possibly they know what they are talking about, but they owe the reader a much bettter explanation of what they are trying to say.

From a cursory review of the remainder of the book, it appeares to be a collection of various equations w/o much of an explanation on how these would be applied to the problem of face recognition.

After reading this book, you may be more familiar with the jargon of the subject, but not much closer to understanding face recognition