I can't believe how fantastic this book is! I got it for christmas and have a hard time putting it down. Considering the weight of this encyclopdiac work that's saying something. Pound for pound worth it's weight in gold or platinum! Only a few notable omissions that I would have liked to see (ie. "The Valley Forge" from Douglas Trumbull's "Silent Running" ) Probably the most amazing relvelation is that many current designs have thier genesis back in the late 40's ! Truly a must have for anyone who dreams or dreamed of interplanetary voyages!

Exellent book for any rocket or sci-fi enthusiast. The illustrations and drawings bring home man's facination with the heavens. I have read numerous publications concerning rocketry, and by far this is the best book I have yet to see published to date. I was blown away by the sections, 'The Archaeology of the Spaceship', and 'The Experimenters'. All dealt with rocketry ante-WWII. There are also page after page of NASA concept vehicles that were never flown, including several pages of Apollo and Space Shuttle designs that did not make it to the lauch pad, but yet look like they are ready to just rocket from the page. This book would be a great source of information for those who scratch build model rockets. Color illustrations, 3 view diagrams, an appendix of U.S., Soviet, and international lauch vehicles; what more could one want? If I could only own one rocket book, this would be the book I would chose over all the rest! Buy this book, heck buy 2 and give one to a friend!

Comment: Sensational chronological roundup of text, photos, and sketches of virtually every spacecraft and launch vehicle design every conceived but never built. A gold mine for space-struck baby boomers.

Usually most history books are as dry as the dust with which they deal. But with THE HISTORY OF EARTH, Hartmann & Miller tackle with vast success a topic that is only marginally understood,at best, by the layman. And make no mistake; this history is for the layman, but one who has a desire to know where we come from and where we may be going. Part of the learning process involves digesting a flood of data and making sense of it. Hartman & Miller use dozens of drawings, pictures, and mattes to bring to life a series of threads that they weave into a coherent whole.

What the authors reveal is a planet that may well stand unique in the universe. The precious element called life arose on earth in such a fortuitous manner that the odds of life having spontaneously arisen in any form were so staggeringly improbable that I marvel that I am here right now to pen these words. Yet, life did arise here, and Miller & Hartmann trace the long sequence of twists and convolutions stretching from the Precambrian right up to the present day. Most readers who go to the trouble of buying this book probably took a course or two in Earth History in school. What this book provides is a much longer and more comprehensible version of the geological timeline that readers have seen but failed to grasp. After finishing this work (I read it as if it were a novel), I concluded that if we here on earth are truly alone in the cosmos, then we had better take full advantage of our having won the Cosmic Lottery. We are not likely to win twice.

This book was wonderful in that it gave me a valuable and easily understandable introduction to earth science, evolution, plate tectonics and planetary science, to name a few subjects. The only glaring mistake in the book, which I recognised because I am a biologist, is that the author refers to DNA as being made up of amino acids. This is incorrect. Proteins are made of amino acids; DNA and RNA are composed of nucleotides, entities completely different from amino acids. Despite this problem, the book is still excellent reading. I am buying several copies to give as gifts to family.

As a trained engineer and educator, I've scanned, read and studied many books on science. This is far and away the best I've ever seen. As magnificent as the painted illustrations are, they simply match and support the superb quality of the text itself.

Covering the full range of natural history, "The History of Earth" not only explains how the earth and life evolved, but explains how we gained this knowledge, or why we believe it to be so. Where multiple theories exist to explain something, they are each given fair coverage, with the evidence for and against each theory explained.

But most important, the book is accessible to all adults as well as to children. I began reading it (with some side explanation) to our kids when they were 7 and 10, and they loved it.

The book begins with an explanation of the formation of the Earth and Moon, describes the likely origins of life on our planet, and explains the changing environment and how that led to the origin of life. This is followed by in-depth treatment of the evolution of the diverse lifeforms leading to today's species, and excellent coverage of recent and current geological phenomena. The book concludes with a projection of the likely future of the earth over the next billion years or so.

I cannot praise this work highly enough. If you only buy one science book for you or your kids, this is the one you want.

Creating Learning Communities: Models, Resources, And New Ways Of Thinking About Teaching And Learning is a benchmark anthology of essays and insights representing a wealth of outstanding commentary from a variety of contributors on educational issues and innovations ranging from homeschooling and distance learning to autodidactics and learning clubs. An outstanding and highly recommended addition to academic and professional reference libraries, Creating Learning Communities can help educators and policy makers to develop true learning communities beyond the traditional borders of brick & motor buildings, conventional class room structures, or anachronistic curriculums.

As this book says it is time to think outside the box. While most educators think that changes must be made in the education system they are stuck in the school/teach/educate syndrome. 'A Coalition for self learning' believes that social needs, brain research and new techniques and technologies demand a radically different learning system, and makes it possible. And, that is happening with the proliferation of homeschooling and the emergence of "cooperative community for life-long learning centers" that are forming the foundation for a radicaly different society.

Ron Miller has collected some of the hottest new ideas and models for the educator, student or parent looking for a way out of current institutional education.

Written in the style of a traveller's guide book, the authors take you on an interplanetary cruise describing each body in detail. The book runs from the largest (the Sun) to the smallest objects (comets and tiny asteroids) in the solar system. The illustrations are either photos from spacecraft that have visited the various planets and moons, or are hypothetical paintings based on what the surfaces may look like. One particularly striking painting is of the surface of Pluto, with the sun as a mere bright speck in the sky.

I'd recommend this book to anyone with a passing interest in astronomy or the planets, it's a great read and never gets obtusely technical. Ron Miller and William K. Hartmann are without a doubt the finest planetary artists around today.

An excellent book with stunning original hand-painted art. This book discusses the worlds of our solar system rather than the planets. Each body, no matter what pigeon hole or classification it has been placed into in the past, is treated as a unique world with its own landscape, sky, weather, and character. Planets, moons, asteroids, comets, etc. are organized by size rather than type, yielding some very surprising revelations.

In this book, ex-Surfer Magazine editor Matt Warshaw captures the voice of surfing. By picking out the essential moment in a dleuge of interviews with the each of history's most influencial surfers, Warshaw exposes the true soul of surfing. This book touched me deeply.

My son and I played this during our recent vacation. We played for hours and hours, and could hardly put it down. We are going to buy more of the Brain Quest series in the future. Highly recommended.

Author, educator, editor and publisher Ron Miller uses his unique talents to present a brilliant overview of holistic education as a radical alternative to the assumptions, purposes and methods of conventional schooling. Caring for New Life discusses fulfillment of life's true purpose and delivers a series of essays that offer beams of light that illuminate educating our children in other and better ways.

While current educational systems seem to focus on the individual and a goal of financial success, Caring for New Life presents the views of prominent educators with a global view that include the whole self, spiritual as well as physical. For instance, Maria Montessori said, "The world was not created for us to enjoy, but we are created to evolve the cosmos."

Mr. Miller says, "Holism asserts that everything exists in relationship, in context of connection and meaning--and that any change or event causes a realignment, however slight, throughout the entire pattern." thus holism brings together rather than separates as "...a spiritual quest for compassion and peace."

Caring for New Life assembles the words and thoughts of Thoreau, Steiner, Wilber, Krishnamurti and Palmer (to name only a few), that education should serve purposes other than national defense and the manpower requirements of the corporate economy. Ron Miller cogently and effectively presents the logic of and the need for a more liberating educational system.

Here is an enlightening book that probes and asks fundamental questions that cause the reader to ponder about the human consequences of our educational policies. In this reviewer's opinion, the hallmark of a great book is that it gets you to think. Caring for New Life is a great book!

Bradamant is a rarity. A female knight in service to the Emperor Charlemagne. A respected and feared warrior knight, she is also a young woman coming of age and struggling with her beliefs. She is a lover torn between the enemy knight she loves and her devotion to her king. Fearless and ruthless on the battlefield, Bradamant is vulnerable and confused in love. With Bradamant: The Iron Tempest, Ron Miller has crafted a very highly recommended, classic medieval adventure tale of chivalry, humor, magic, treachery, and romance -- all from the perspective of a woman warrior holding her own in a male-dominated age of violence, intrigue, and treachery.

Ron Miller has given us a real treat! From white knuckle action and magical adventure to the highest ideals of chivalry and downright lust, BRADAMANT has it all. And it's presented in a richly literate prose reminiscent of Sir Walter Scott but doused with a wicked sense of humor. Don't miss out on this modern classic!!

A brilliant book destined to become a classic. Undoubtedly the best new fantasy novel of the past decade. I have read the book twice and plan to order the audio edition as soon as possible. I recommend this book without reservation--it's a must-read.

"The Art of Chesley Bonestell" is an extremely high quality Science Fiction art collection that comes around once in a decade or two. The last Chesley Bonestell collection of this calibere, "Worlds Beyond: The Art of Chesley Bonestell", was published in 1983. Chesley Bonestell's art goes back to the golden age of Science Fiction of the late 1940's, 1950's and 1960's. His work was displayed on the covers of SF periodical magazines, SF paperback books, and Space Science books of that era. His style is realistic and his work is breathtaking! His concepts of other-worldly-visions are naturally realistic and have a Zen-like feeling of mystery to them. The color plates in this book are of awesome quality. I guarantee this book will increase in price, as the 1983 collection has. The 1983, "Worlds Beyond: The Art of Chesley Bonestell", sells for around $100 or more. Buy this 2001 book, "The Art of Chesley Bonestell" now, because it will only cost MUCH more after it goes out of print.

I bought this book for the space art but found out there are many other excellent paintings to go along with them. Bonestell's art makes you want to be at the places he's painted except for places like New York under nuclear attack and ancient Egypt being bombarded by comets. The space art is incredible. I only wish I could get large prints of some of the pictures to frame them. I'm even considering buying another book and cutting out some of the pictures that are barely large enough to frame.

I am among the hundreds of thousands -- perhaps millions -- of people who owe their lifelong interest in matters of astronomy and space science to a childhood discovery of the art of Chesley Bonestell. I remember vividly pawing through the pages of The Conquest of Space at the age of about ten, my mouth open as I saw the marvels of the universe displayed.

It was thus actually rather nerve-racking when I opened this new book for the first time. Could the reality of his art possibly match my childhood memories? Could all of that vividness and excitement have been magnified in my mind's eye over the succeeding decades? Was I in for a disappointment?

I most certainly was not. If anything, the fabulous art inspired and excited me even more than it had way back then.

And there's a lot of that art here -- a real feast of it, superbly reproduced. And I discovered as I kept turning the pages, hands quite literally trembling as I discovered treasure after treasure. Even more excitingly, I found that Bonestell had worked in areas of art I'd never suspected before: fabulous landscapes, stunning sketches ... I have perused many, many art books, but I've never before reacted quite as strongly as to this one.

And it gets better. There's a long, beautifully written and utterly fascinating illustrated biography of Bonestell written by Ron Miller. It's almost as if one's getting two books in one.

An earlier reviewer (who cannot spell "Chesley") talked of this as if it were an expanded version of The Conquest of Space. He was talking through his hat. This is a completely new book covering the entirety of Bonestell's career both visually and textually; it contains a big selection of illustrations from The Conquest of Space (all the best ones), but they form only a small part of the huge and sumptuous collection on display here.

This is a gorgeous book, and an extremely valuable piece of work -- the authors/compilers deserve the highest praise for having brought this treasure to us.

For someone like me, who is lazy, but interested in physics, this book is superb. It does away with all the mathematical nitty-gritty to leave the mind-bending ideas intact. In this way, one can get a grip on how the universe works without needing to know hard maths which would take years to learn.

Reading this book gives you a powerful insight into the most fundamental aspects of existence, such as what is the universe's eventual fate, and does there need to be a god to create it? If you're interested in big issues like this, Stephen Hawking gives you ample food for thought. He is like a supplier of hard fact into the realm of philosophy, which is otherwise completely theoretical. With these hard facts and well thought out scientific theories, big questions like the meaning of life and the existence of god can be more meaningfully discussed; actual scientific evidence can be cited to support arguments about whether a Creator God is needed in this universe. With the t! heories Hawking writes about, maybe one day the creation of the cosmos could be attributed to a natural force, say, like gravity. A creative force. But then, that leads onto the question, what created the creative force?.....

Whatever, A Brief History of Time is a brilliant achievement, containing fascinating large-scale science that piques the reader to think of 'higher things'. Absolutely fantastic!

I am a college student, well versed in mathmatics and physics, and I stand in awe of the manner in which Hawking presents the most difficult concepts of science in a way that a layman can understand. This book should be required reading for all students of astronomy, physics, astrophysics, and even geology. Hawking's ability to explain abstract concepts in a clear, concise manner, without resorting to higher mathmatics is uncanny.

If you have ever wondered about the nature of our universe,and thought that it was beyond you, then this book is a must read.

I'm a student of Physics and Astronomy, and when I first read this book, I decided that I want to become a theoratical physicist, as it was so extremely fascinating. The second time I read the book, I again made a decision. Since then, I study Astronomy.

In short, Mr. Hawking perfectly knows how to wake everyone's interest for the fundamentals of the universe. And moreover, he explains the most difficult theories of our days in a style so that everyone can grasp the basic ideas.