This is a medicore book that spends quite a lot of time and chapters on programming Mindstorms with other langagues and APIs.

I found "Core LEGO MINDSTORMS Programming: Unleash the Power of the Java Platform" by Brian Bagnall to be a much better book. It is well suited to both beginning and advanced programers. It covers languages basics, but still provides much info to experienced Java developers.

It also includes detailed instructions and pictures describing on basic robotics...things like how to turn a rotary motion to a linear motion, how to change gear rations, how to build differentials, and much more.

There is also a detail chapter devoted to building your own homebrew sensors that even someone with little to no experience in electronics could easily build.

In short, this book is ok,

Personally, I enjoy this book. It's beaten my expectations, and that's a rare treat.

However....

If you have never done any programming in a language like Java, Python, or C++, and if terms like "firmware", "embedded", etc. leave you feeling upset, this book may be a bit of a challenge.

But then again, if you are interested in moving beyond the capabilities of the software that shipped with your Lego Mindstorms kit, this may be precisely what you want.

Also, if you have been trying to learn some Java but haven't found a project "fun" enough to sustain your interest, this book and a Mindstorms kit may thrill you.

Once again, I state that I've never been an Anderson fan. 'Golden Age of the Sith' had some streong points, like a decent plot and beautiful art. Alas, the art quality drops a bit here and the story goes into a nosedive. There's almost no plot, save for a big battle. Granted, it can be pretty visually complex and interesting, drawing back to an old style of combat, but overall its quite lacking.

I've gotten out a fine-toothed comb, but cannot find any cohesive story, unfortunately. Read it only as a conclusion for 'Golden Age', but don't expect a lot.

This is the conclusion of the Golden Age of the Sith. The Fall is also set 5,000 years before NEW HOPE. While the art work also improves, yes I said improves, the story seems to disintegrate into itself. Since I like some of KJA's work, I am assuming that he was not the lead writer, just placed first alphabetically. Nothing important happens here so don't feel you need to waste your money buying this book, unless you want to buy mine!

This is a cool book that is about the Sith and moast of all Sith Lord Exar Kun.

For a product titled "Interactive Language Exercises" and referring to its "workbook", I expected a textbook-like format with actual "exercises"-- fill-in-the-blank, multiple choice, translate this phrase, etc. All this has is a list of phrases in English and Spanish. All the CDROM does is pronounce said list of phrases. The only "exercise" is rote memorization of these phrases. There is no instruction on grammar or why you say things the way you do, so there is absolutely no flexibility in learning how to say anything other than the exact phrase they have.

I personally already speak quite a bit of Spanish, so I could use these phrases to pick up some more vocabulary, but I could do that just as easily and much more conveniently from a medical dictionary or from my other variety of much cheaper medical phrasebooks. For someone who doesn't speak much Spanish I think this would be terrible. Who can rote memorize "680 dialog situations, 1200 vocabulary terms, 200 common expressions"? This TEACHES absolutely nothing!

This book tries to cover Spanish for Health Professionals from the receptionist to the Doctor/Dentist. It does not adequately cover any of these areas. It tries to teach by showing the reader a conversation, but it goes no further. It has no discussion of common phrases or grammar, and the conversations are too situation specific. It does have a list of colors, months, numbers, etc. in the back of the book. The software portion is more of the same. I have limited knowledge of Spanish, and bought this book for a medical trip to Peru and found it to be practically useless. I would recommend spending your money on a good dictionary or phrasebook, or looking into some of the Spanish language software that is available.

I am a clinical social worker who works with Spanish speaking clients, primarialy around issues of sexual abuse. This compact book has helped me in the medical and mental health portions of my job. The authors have managed to choose phrases and expressions that are really right on target for getting the job done. The dictionary in the back of the book has the words I really need to assess my clients- these are not words that help you order dinner in a resort! I found the CD/ROM very useful, being able to replay a phrase as often as necessary to correct my pronunciation has made me feel more confident.

What a waste of valuable trees to produce this garbage. Environmentalists should be outraged.

This is a work of scathing satire and brilliant wit, it's no wonder that Fo won the Nobel Prize!!! A must read for anyone who loves freedom!

1) This is the thinnest plot I have ever seen. It's like they called Kevin J, said "Hey, we want a comic related to the Jedi Academy, but we need the whole script in five minutes" and this is what they got. Nothing is ever explained, nothing makes sense, the characters repeat themselves constantly, and the whole point seems to be to make Dorsk 82, who never really shows up again anywhere else as far as I know, feel good about himself. And I'm not even sure he does that!
2) Luke looks like He-Man on a bad day, and I originally thought Leia was some totally new character. Does Dorsk 82 have to be drawn *shaking* in every frame? Why must everyone have spit lines between his teeth? The art in this comic is rock-bottom awful.

It seemed more like Alien to me. It a good 'monster'-type story, despite Anderson's horrendously forced dialogue. But it has almost no elements of Star Wars, some bordering on the line of obscenely un-Star Wars-ish. My biggest complain may be regarding Dorsk 82. The idea behind him was by no means bad, but Anderson's writing turns him into an annoying, craven fool. Sometimes I wished that Leviathan would just step on him and put the reader out of his or her misery.

The art's good, although once again, not Star Wars-ish. It worked far better in the 'Tales of the Jedi' series than in the modern SW universe.

You wants real 'Star Wars' comics, see something like the X-wing Rogue Squadron comics, especially 'In the Empire's Service' and 'Mandatory Retirement'. You want a story transplanted to the SW universe, read this. I'm grading this as a Star Wars comic, and as a Star Wars comic its just plain bad.

This specific collection of chapters that form, "Leviathan", is one of the weaker installments from Dark Horse that I have read. The two key elements that are critical, a good story, and good illustrations are glaringly absent.

I generally don't enjoy when artists take great liberty with the appearance of characters that have been solidly established for nearly three decades. A way to get by this fault is to offer readers a great story, however this does not happen here. Luke starts the story by musing to himself about nothing of great importance, and this is followed by a task for his newest Jedi Knights that is vague and one dimensional. A planet appears to suffer total destruction on a fairly regular basis, and even though this is documented, new colonists keep coming back for more. For some unknown reason nobody ever catches on that this planet is a less than hospitable spot, and invariably the cause of destruction is routinely disturbed.

The only other consistent theme is how unsuited Kyp is as a Jedi, and how hopeless he would be as a Jedi Master. His treatment of a new potentially force sensitive recruit is hopelessly inept and abrasive. When the central conflict does arrive it is terribly predictable and not worthy of the material Dark Horse generally offers. It is rare when a written installment of this saga does not offer any new insight, however this one is nearly vacant.