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It's possible that it is so succesful because there are only two writers, which clearly helps the pace. And ofcourse, the fact that half the book is written by my favorite writer George R. R. Martin, speaks for itself.
Dead Man's Hand is a 'parallel novel' to Wild Cards VI: Ace in the Hole. It follows a plotline that was mentioned in WC6, but not exploared - Chrysalis's murder, and the attempts by Martin's Jay 'Popinjay' Acroyd and Miller's 'Yeoman' Brennan to find the killer.
Popinjay, previously meerely a secondary character, proves to be a classic Martin hero - witty, clever and seemingly superficial, there is more to him than meets the eye, although that is only revealed slowly. I must admit I was disappointed that we won't see the Turtle in this story, but Jay was a suitable compensation.
Yeoman was a different story. Although I have allways liked him, his new love affair with Jennifer 'Wraith' Maloy, is not only unlikely but uninteresting, unlike his past relation with Chrysalis. Now Brennan is little but your average action hero running aroung beating people up and delivering one liners.
As a mystery, the novel works rather well. Certainly the identity of the killer is unexpected. On the other hand, the authors don't quite let you feel this is a Mystery novel - you're too focused on the action/thrilelr plots resolving the story of T-Malice, the master that enslaved so many Wild Cards characters, and the Shadow Fist gang - who try to benefit from Chrysalis's murder.
One of the things I liked best about this novel was the focus on jokers. Although the heros are an ace and a nat, there are more Jokers active in this Wild Cards novel than in any other, many of them showing strength and courage. The Wild Cards series tends to focus on Aces, but I personnaly like the Jokers at least as much, and quite possibly more. The dark side of the Virus, so to speak, can be more fascinating than the more obvious Superhero stuff.
Overall Dead Man's Hand is a thrilling ride, filled with action, advanture, cool ideas, and an extremely powerful climax, in which there is a confrontation between several major characters. The confrontation at the end is one of the Wild Cards' strongest moments, and this novel certainly holds up there with DOWN AND DIRTY, as the best of the Wild Cards so far.
The book divides the plants into five sections for easy use. The wildflowers are further divided into colors to help find and identify them quickly. The five sections are (1) herbaceous wildflowers, (2) vines, (3) trees and shrubs, (4) cacti, agaves, yuccas and other succulents, and (5) miscellaneous plants, weeds and growths on trees. These are followed by appendices on how to identify common plant families and "plant watching" as a hobby (collecting plants, how to make a plant press and save your specimens, and a sample wildflower documentation sheet). Finally, there are three glossaries and an index.
While some might complain that the plant photographs are not printed with the specimen entries (they are grouped together in the center of the book), this is really quite handy. Each photo is numbered identically with the entries, so matching the photo with the description is really very simple. Indeed, it is quite easy to find the flower by its photo and then look up the corresponding plant description by the photo number.
All in all, this is the only wildflower field guide Texans will need. If you want a desk reference, that's another matter.
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The man Jefferson described so admiringly was George Mason of Virginia (1725-1792). Almost without exception, his contemporaries in America's real 'greatest generation' considered Mason one of their leading lights. Helen Hill Miller's excellent biography -- first published in the 1930s, reissued in 1966, and reprinted again in 2001 -- makes it clear why their assessment is correct.
One reason he is so little remembered today is that he consistently shunned the limelight, and usually refused public office. He wasn't a spellbinding orator like Henry, a natural leader like Washington, a 'character' like Franklin, or a renaissance man like Jefferson. What he was, was a man with a keen insight and penetrating mind, who had thought deeply about government, society, and how the two interact. This leads Miller to give Mason the apt label, 'constitutionalist.'
Mason was the author of the Fairfax Resolves and the Virginia Declaration of Rights -- a document that not only anticipated and inspired the Declaration of Independence, but also the Bill of Rights and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen -- and he was central to the crafting of the post-Revolutionary constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia, 'the first American constitution to be prepared with a view to the establishment of a permanently independent state' [p. viii]. Later, his writings framed the Northwest Ordinance, possibly the most significant act taken under the Articles of Confederation. He was a key participant in the Mount Vernon Convention, which led directly to the Annapolis Convention of 1786 and, in turn, to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
One of Virginia's delegates to the Constitutional Convention, Mason was a key participant in debates. Ultimately, however, he could not sign the document he helped create. In the Virginia Ratification Convention (one of the most fascinating moments in American history, in my opinion), he led the fight against the Old Dominion's adoption of the Constitution.
Mason's key reasons for opposing the Constitution included its lack of a bill of rights and its continuance of the slave trade. Miller does an excellent job showing us the workings of Mason's mind on these questions.
Mason's passion for anonymity -- which led him to refuse the offer of one of Virginia's two seats in the U.S. Senate -- was one of the defining characteristics of his life. In his will, he advised his sons 'to prefer the happiness and independence [of] a private station to the troubles and vexations of Public Business.' Two centuries after his death, however, Mason deserves not anonymity but celebration. He is one of the truly great figures in American history ... not just for his passionate love of liberty, but also for the concrete ways he worked to make sure that liberty would be enjoyed by later generations. Helen Hill Miller's excellent biography is a centerpiece in the effort to win Mason the thanks he deserves.
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