Powell's book is a scientific detective story that meticulously, exhaustively, and painstakingly lays out his case for why he thinks the dinosaurs got wiped out by a meteorite impact. And Powell makes his case by combining such disciplines as geology, paleontology, chemistry, ecology, astronomy, and biology.

Although many scientists still think the meteor impact theory is "controversial," Powell's diligent research makes his conclusion appear certain. He convinced me!

But scientists are human, too, and Powell's book recounts how some scientists rejected this theory so strenuously that they lost their sense of proportion, particularly geophysicist Charles Officer.

On pages 216-217, Powell asks, "How far will scientists on the losing end of an argument go? They employ a set of stratagems that seem hauntingly familiar; they are the very ploys used by creationists and others who have no platform or logic."

The following examples paraphrase Powell's findings against Charles Officer:

1. Officer's confident assertion: "There IS no evidence for a meteor impact at the KT boundary." 2. His straw men: "Nobody has found big dinosaur piles." 3. His red herrings: "There are similarities between livestock fatalities and dinosaur extinctions." 4. His plea for equal time: "The journal Science published eleven favorable impact articles, but only two against." 5. His blame of the media: "The Earth science community is biased." 6. His impugned motives: "Scientists fabricate theories and evidence." 7. His false alarms: "The meteor impact theory is pathological and dangerous!"

Ironically, Powell says that Officer's tireless efforts to debunk the meteor impact theory forced geologists to vigilantly reinforce their case. And in the end, the earth science community has a lot to thank Charles Officer for.

But the previous Amazon.com reviewer is wrong when he claims that Powell believes all mass extinctions are attributed to extraterrestrial impacts. Powell does, however, point out that we've found approximately 150 terrestrial impact craters all over the globe, and scientists claim to discover between three and five new craters annually. And these don't include impacts that might've struck the oceans.

Also, you only have to look at the surface of every moon and terrestrial planet in our solar system to see that impacts once occurred regularly. And when a three-mile wide chunk of comet Shoemaker Levy 9 struck Jupiter four years ago, it left a massive impact streak as large as the earth itself! And this bolide was only HALF the size of the rock that bore the Chicxulub crater.

Powell only suggests the POSSIBILITY that periodic impacts triggered mass extinctions. And he thinks this premise deserves a fair hearing instead of being rejected outright.

As a combined scientific detective story and riveting historical account, Powell's book is a masterpiece! Every science student should read it.

James Lawrence Powell's book is a scientific detective story that meticulously, exhaustively, and painstakingly lays out his case for why he thinks the dinosaurs got wiped out by a meteorite impact. And Powell makes his case by combining such disciplines as geology, paleontology, chemistry, ecology, astronomy, and biology.

Although many scientists still think the meteor impact theory is "controversial," Powell's diligent research makes his conclusion appear certain. He convinced me!

But scientists are human, too, and Powell's book recounts how some scientists rejected this theory so strenuously that they lost their sense of proportion, particularly geophysicist Charles Officer.

On pages 216-217, Powell asks, "How far will scientists on the losing end of an argument go? They employ a set of stratagems that seem hauntingly familiar; they are the very ploys used by creationists and others who have no platform or logic."

The following examples paraphrase Powell's findings against Charles Officer:

1. Officer's confident assertion: "There IS no evidence for a meteor impact at the KT boundary." 2. His straw men: "Nobody has found big dinosaur piles." 3. His red herrings: "There are similarities between livestock fatalities and dinosaur extinctions." 4. His plea for equal time: "The journal Science published eleven favorable impact articles, but only two against." 5. His blame of the media: "The Earth science community is biased." 6. His impugned motives: "Scientists fabricate theories and evidence." 7. His false alarms: "The meteor impact theory is pathological and dangerous!"

Ironically, Powell says that Officer's tireless efforts to debunk the meteor impact theory forced geologists to vigilantly reinforce their case. And in the end, the earth science community has a lot to thank Charles Officer for.

But the previous Amazon.com reviewer is wrong when he claims that Powell believes all mass extinctions are attributed to extraterrestrial impacts. Powell does, however, point out that we've found approximately 150 terrestrial impact craters all over the globe, and scientists claim to discover between three and five new craters annually. And these don't include impacts that might've struck the oceans.

Also, you only have to look at the surface of every moon and terrestrial planet in our solar system to see that impacts once occurred regularly. And when a three-mile wide chunk of comet Shoemaker Levy 9 struck Jupiter four years ago, it left a massive impact streak as large as the earth itself! And this bolide was only HALF the size of the rock that bore the Chicxulub crater.

Powell only suggests the POSSIBILITY that periodic impacts triggered mass extinctions. And he thinks this premise deserves a fair hearing instead of being rejected outright.

As a combined scientific detective story and riveting historical account, Powell's book is a masterpiece! Every science student should read it.

What caused the great terminal Cretaceous extinction of both land and sea species, including the dinosaurs? Does the huge crater buried under half a mile of sedimentary rock on the Yucatán Peninsula have anything to do with the demise of Tyrannosaurus Rex, along with seventy percent of all species that were alive during the last days of its reign?

“Night Comes to the Cretaceous” answers both questions, the latter with an emphatic ‘yes!’ The Chicxulub (which means either ‘red devil’ or ‘place of the cuckold’ in Mayan) impact crater, first reported (and ignored for a decade) at the 1981 annual meeting of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, appears to exactly the right age and the right size to have terminated most of the life on Earth, sixty-five million years ago.

This fascinating book by geologist James Lawrence Powell is the first I’d read on the subject of mass extinctions since “Extinction” by Steven M. Stanley, published in 1987. What a difference two decades of discoveries made! Stanley, although aware of the discovery of the iridium concentrations at the K-T (Cretaceous-Tertiary) boundary, concluded that global climatic change rather than extraterrestrial catastrophe caused mass extinctions. Chicxulub was not on his event horizon, so he produced a very detailed and convincing argument for what was then the orthodox theory of extinction.

Unfortunately for orthodoxy, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Luis Alvarez and his son, geologist Walter Alvarez had already discovered the asteroid-impact iridium layer in 1980, and predicted the discovery of Chicxulub as the death-knell of the dinosaurs.

Powell in “Night Comes to the Cretaceous” details many more discoveries that supported the Alvarez theory of extinction, and changed the way scientists (and the rest of us) look at the night sky. His book provides a comprehensive overview of all the bits and pieces of the dinosaur extinction puzzle that I had been reading about in two decades of science magazines. It is really exciting to see the whole picture and the new orthodoxy as of 1998.

Furthermore, in the last few chapters of his book, Powell asks whether all mass extinctions on Earth were caused by asteroid/comet impacts. He lists the seven known mass extinctions and presents the impact evidence for each. Finally he discusses the theory that cratering and extinctions may be regularly spaced through time.

‘Night’ is pretty scary reading if you had planned to go out with a whimper, not a bang.

The Anonymous Author of this rather remarkable text has done the public a profound service. (S)He has managed to sweep aside the cobwebs of mystery-mongering-occultism, and unlock the fetters of will-to-power-magic. Sound Philosophy and Theology combine in this work revealing the integrity of its author. In citing not only Christian, but Kabbalistic, Magical, and Occult traditions, the catholicity of these meditations becomes apparent. The only negative aspect of the text is that it tends to get preachy and Dogmatic in chapters 7 & 8. However, if apparent dogma is read mystically, these chapters, too, shed valuable light. A must for Christian Contemplatives and for all Hermeticists wether they place themselves under this rubric or not!

I found this book in a public library six years ago, and have been studying it almost every day since.To say that it has changed my life is an understatement.In the final chapter the Dear Unknown Friend invites the reader to complete the book that he has started and continue with the minor cards - I have dedicated my life to doing this.

The cards of the tarot are a little like an encrypted message from God. The message is to be found in the images on the cards, but we have to decode them to understand their meaning.In other words, we see the message but do not register its meaning in our brain. This is the wonderful mystery of the cards which this author suceeds in revealing. Any one who thinks that all Tarot books are the same, should read this one. They will be amazed to see how much depth can be found in seemingly simple picture cards.This work goes very deep, but not quite deep enough.

I thoroughly recommend this book, despite some differences of opinion of the meanings of certain cards.This work is more than half way there I believe.I hope to bring the "other half" to light, with the Lord's help. 23/01/2001 H

Mr. Tromberg's work was favorably reviewed by both Joachim Illes and Urs von Balthasar, two of the most important theologians of the Vatican II Council. This work reveals aspects of an ancient Catholic Mysticism and the deep relevance that the Tarot has always had to that tradition. In its exposition it clarifies concepts in Eliphas Levi's Transcendental Magic and expounds on themes given in outline form in Papus' Tarot of the Bohemians. In addition, it confronts other modern concepts which challenge the traditional concepts of moral responsibility, creation from nothing, and the power of ritual sacraments. In all a book that punctures the misconception that such studies cannot be Christ centered.

This is collection of short stories that offers a wide mix of speculative genres. Fantasy, SF, horror, and just plain weird. The stories run the gambit and most are good. "Jeo Defined" and "Moon Warrior" were excellent stories and well worth purchasing the book. Even just the so-so stories were enjoyable and all the authors are names to keep a look out for. In the end, this is a book of up and coming writers and a few of them will no doubt be big names someday.

I didn't know what to expect from this collection of short stories but I was happily surprised. The stories cover a wide range from fantasy, science fiction, and horror to those hard to classify strange stories. Each one is worth reading. My favorites were the one about a radio personality who was singing the Siren's song and the one about a criminal who is forced to undergo "augmentation" to control him. Some wild stuff for a great read.

My opinion is divided. On the one hand, Powell gives excellent summaries of individual "postmodernists" and their positions. His readings of Baudrillard, Jencks, and Derrida, among others, are especially revealing. For this reason, I do recommend the book.

On the other hand, the book never adequately distinguishes the various understandings of what "postmodernism" is. There are several discrete views of postmodernism, and they are not all compatible. At least four of these views are discussed by Powell: (1)postmodernism is viewed by some as a recent global-cultural condition in which different societies confront one another; (2)postmodernism is understood by some as a technological condition brought on by new electronic and mass media technologies; (3)postmodern architecture, as a response to modern architecture, attempts to recover the human element of architecture, and to make it meaningful rather than just functional; and (4)postmodern art, as a response to modern art, varies from aimless free-play to a rejection of the very idea of representation. One can see how some of the thinkers discussed by Powell overlap these categories. For example, Lyotard blends views (1) and (2), while Jencks blends views (1)and (3). And one can imagine other possibilities. For example, one could be a postmodern -- i.e. anti-modern -- architect, without being a postmodernist in senses (1), (2) or (4).

Lastly, and most problematic, is that Friedrich Nietzsche is discussed as a modernist rather than the postmodernist who started most of all this. Powell's reading of Nietzsche has some merit, but I disagree. When Nietzsche proclaimed the "Death of God", he rejected all modernist commitments to other-worldy realities. This left the "void" which Powell discusses. And Nietzsche did attempt to fill in the void. But he did not do so by positing a new "essence of humanity" or "eternal value", as some of the modern artists after Nietzsche tried to do (pg. 13). What Nietzsche put in place of modernism was the view that reality is lived experience, and that reality is largely the product of human invention. One's "essence" is what one makes of one's self. This is what Nietzsche meant by the idea of a Superman. It is the vision of a post-modern human being who decides his/her own fate.

Nietzsche's critique of modernism, then, is a fifth distinct position: (5) some view postmodernism as a philosophical rejection or skepticism of all metaphysical systems. This is what Lyotard means when discussing the loss of "metanarratives". It is what drives Derrida's program of "deconstruction". And it is the post-Nietzschean "void" which frames the work of many postmodern artists. Indeed, philosophical postmodernism informs most of the thinkers discussed by Powell. In the end, postmodernism can be understood in philosophical, global-cultural, or technological terms. (Postmodern art/architecture is art/architecture motivated by one or several of the above concerns.) And again, the various thinkers summarized in "Postmodernism for Beginners" are responding to one or more of these distinct understandings of postmodernism.

So many introductions to postmodernism are boring, or even unreadable simply because they are written by people who cannot write. These "writers" simply parrot the same pomobabble that so many postmodern thinkers indulge in--as if they were all members of some wierd cult. Powell--who CAN actually write--frys them for this, but then goes on to present excellent overviews of several important writers. One would not expect to find such depth in a comic book. The summary of Baudrillard's work, for instance, is often more insightful than those found in much weightier and intentionally serious volumes. Powell, explains the evoultion of Baudrillard's thoughts from its Marxist roots. Powell is especially good when it comes to the enigmatic Derrida, and his 'deconstruction.' Although Postmodernism for Beginners does not tackle Derrida's major works--as does Powell's Derrida for Beginners--it does make Derrida less mercurial, so that readers can then go on to read Derrida's works forewarned and forearmed. Powell really brings postmodernism to light, however, in his presentation of postmodern artifacts: Madonna, Bladerunner, cyberpunk, etc. Joe Lee's illustrations often present subtle asides to Powell's Proustian prose. All-in-all, one of the best I've read in the For-Beginners series.

This is the first book on Postmodernism I've ever finished. It gives you not only Lyotard, Baudrillard, Foucault and Derrida, but also Blade Runner, Buddha, and Madonna. Always lucid and engaging, it meets you where you are by never presuming you have a background in the subject. Other books on Postmodernism begin by gleefully flooding you in terms such as "aborescence," "diegetic," "interpellation," and "simulacra." By the third page your head aches and you throw the book aside - if you're still awake. You might give up, concluding that Postmodernism is a kind of navel-gazing for college professors with too much time on their hands.

But Powell borrows Postmodernism from the ivory tower and makes it fun. Written in a lively "Q & A" dialogue style, Powell's book allows you to see, feel and think about our world the way the Postmodernist theorists have written about it. Talking about everything from T.S. Eliot to Beavis and Butt-Head, from college catalogues to MTV, Powell shows how almost everything in front of us evinces the postmodern condition.

Postmodernism is also easy to understand, the way Powell places it in historical context. He casts it as a way to understand the breakdown of the grandiose cultural schemes envisioned by the thinkers of the 18th and 19th centuries. God and Reason were going to conquer the world and make it safe for ... God and Reason. This did not happen. Instead, the last fifty years have brought us closer to minicultures and multicultures. This cultural flux has been spread by modern freeways, air travel, bookstore chains, movies, and MTV. Powell takes you through the reactions by thinkers such as Jean-Francois Lyotard, Fredric Jameson, Jean Baudrillard, Charles Jencks, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and David Harvey. He discusses art, architecture, the printed word, spirituality, TV and the Internet. With kindly democratic spirit, Powell sees Postmodernism as against the marginalization of anyone, and as embracing of the diversity of the world we live in.

Joe Lee's funny and irreverent illustrations carry forth Powell's well written presentation. The artwork includes cartoon characters, crusty philosophers, classical artwork, and the odd schematic diagram. Reading this book is like a friendly fireside chat with a well-informed friend. I immediately went off to look for Powell's DERRIDA FOR BEGINNERS.

...

Is this book worth reading? Yes. But beware of the author's biases. Robertson has written several excellent books (e.g., biography of Stonewall Jackson), but this book is NOT one of them. Yes, it contains much new and interesting information about Hill. But the author goes too far in blaming others (e.g., Longstreet, Jackson, Lee, the man on the street corner!) for Hill's own failings. And when Roberston does so, he usually simply states something like, "But of the course the true blame belonged with X." without explaining why he thought so. Robertson does present some of Hill flaws. But he is seldom willing to admit that Hill, whom the author obviously admires very much, made some major blunders - e.g., the 600 yard gap at Federicksburg, which Meade and Gibbon used to effect a temporary breakthrough. So read the book and enjoy. But do not take its portrayals of Hill comrades as accurate - too many other sources tell us otherwise.

My forebears served under Hill from his assumption of the III Corps until their end and his. This work is the best I have found, but Hill remains an enigma in the end. One must wonder why Lee promoted his most impulsive and contentious Mj.General to Corps command, and must conclude that Longstreet was right when he concluded that the three corps arrangement was "too much Virginia." Robertson aptly titles his 2nd Day at Gettysburg chapter "Bystander to Defeat," but offers no real explanation for the usually agressive Hill's uninvolvement on this pivotal day. One is left to conclude that the unfinished grudge with Longstreet and rivalry with R. H. Anderson led Hill to malicious obedience to his orders and noninvolvement in the battle. Similar accusations caused the vilification of Longstreet, yet Hill escapes unscathed. Robertson does do what few others have by showing Hill's conscientious defense of the Petersburg lines. This portion of The War, so much like WWI, is the least covered and least understood period. Robertson is very helpful here. A good read and a valuable addition, but much is left unsaid.

Dr. Robertson the historian teams up with VA. Tech's former atheltic physician Dr. Bullock to determine the cause of AP Hill's famous decline after promotion in regards to health and action after he was promoted to Corps Commander after Jackson's death. While many though of Hill as a case of the "Peter Principal" it is apparent from the descriptions of Hill's physical decline and symptoms that Hill was slowly dying of syphllis. The inability of his kidneys to function properly caused Hill sleepless nights and left him virtually unable to command. This book is the first to determin ethecause of Hill's physoical collapse. Some very good descriptions of the impulsive Hill who starts the 7 Days campaign prematurely when Jackson is late or lost, his famous role at Harpers Ferry, his mercruial temperment with Longstreet and Jackson and his severe failure at Bristow Station where he launches his corps into a virtual ambush without any reconnoitering. His role at Gettysburg is somewhat of a mystery but his illness may have contributed. Best parts of the book center on Hill and his corps at Petersburg where his divisions would swing out of the trenches and into the woods and hit Grant's probing left flanks from vitually any angle. Interesting fact that Hill was burried four times after death due to some unique circumstances. Hill's legacy survives with less criticism than Lngstreet because the south was always kinder to their dead heroes than the living.

I knew this was a kids' book, but it seemed to be the most interesting and recent biography of Tom Cruise, based on the reviews that I looked at on this website. I am a very big Tom Cruise fan, so I decided to take the risk.

I was a bit shocked to find out that the customer review on this website that claimed that Cruise had made punnish errors in reading movie titles seems to have been entirely fabricated. I don't understand why something like that isn't removed from the site.

The book was ok. I learned some things about Cruise's career. There were some nice photos. Still, it wasn't an adult book. I would have liked something more meaty and in depth. I guess that would be hard to write, since he's not a person who likes to reveal intimate details about himself. I suppose eventually some person in his entourage will start talking and we'll actually find out something about him. We'll just have to be patient.

This would be a good book to give to a child who is dyslexic and feeling discouraged about learning to read, though.

This cute little book gives insight into Tom's career from the beginning through his role in "Jerry Maguire". It covers his early interest in acting, as well as his struggle with dyslexia (which seems to be mentioned on almost every page). I gained a deeper respect for Cruise after reading about his trials dealing with the handicap and his non-compromising dedication to perfecting his job as actor, producer, director. This is definitely an enjoyable book!

The public only see the glamour - but Phelan Powell shows the significant obstacles Tom Cruise has overcome in order to live his life of pampered opulence. In Cruise's case dyslexia was the obstacle - it nearly cost him the part of the barman in "Cocktail" (he thought it was a film about cockatiels and told his agent he "didn't do parrots") and he bought his own wildebeeste to research the part of Lt Maverick Mitchell in "Top Gnu".

This is the best book currently available for Lotus Approach. Although it was written for Approach 96, it works perfectly for Approach 97 and with only some minor changes for Approach 2000. as with most application books, this is only very minimal information on scripting.

However the book does give good background information on database concepts and step by step information on developing applications.

This work is ideal for experienced computer users seeking a working knowledge of Lotus Approach 96 and the ability to construct their own databases. While some sections may be a bit advanced for novices, even novices could utilize 80% of the text. It is written in a manner that allows the material to flow easily from topic to topic, and makes it as interesting a read as database building can be. Well worth the purchase price if you intend to create your own databases with Approach 96.

This book takes a new point of view on the middle age crusade years, while describing each scenario in astounding detail. It is very well written and the ideas presented are in chronological order while being very precise. Perfect as research for projects on the crusade or as an interest subject.

"The Triumph of Liberty" is best purchased with the notion that you will chew on one or two short nuggets at a time to capture the essence of each "freedom fighter" profiled. Like Brokaw's "The Greatest Generation", it's a compilation of vignettes that illuminate and sometimes inspire, and which can be read in short bursts.

"Liberty" is short on historical analysis and long on basic biographical formula, which made my own read feel somewhat monotonous. Still, it's a worthwhile contribution to the bookshelf of anyone who cares about the rights of the individual, and who knows how precarious those rights have been throughout man's history.

Powell deserves great credit for surveying the last two millenia of Western history to find liberty's "greatest champions". I found myself at the end begging for more analytic input from the author to "put it all together". But I am grateful for his compiling this list of the good guys in the struggle to attain the freedom which we all say we want, and are too often willing to sacrifice by pieces to other ends. The book would benefit greatly from better editorial attention to correct obvious syntactical errors and repetitions. Overall, an admirable addition to the literature of classical liberalism.

In this book Jim Powell attempts to tell us the story of liberty by illuminating the lives of it's greatest champions.Mr. Powell is a great storyteller and for the most part he succeeds in his mission of telling us the story of freedom's champions from Cicero to Ronald Reagan.The book might have been better if Powell had started out by giving us a definition of liberty. In the biblical sense liberty implies the ability to be morally self-governed.This was certainly how Locke, Jefferson and Franklin among other libertarians understood the term.If the concept of self-government is understood as it relates to liberty the author would have to eliminate the chapters on H.L. Mencken,and Albert Jay Nock among others.I agree with a previous reviewer that the book's inclusion of Martin Luther King Jr. is highly questionable.Dr. King was certainly a great man who achieved great things.But He was not a libertarian, He was a socialist.But beyond these criticisms this is an excellent book.My favorite chapter is the one about William E. Gladstone. Mr. Gladstone's life was the personification of liberty.Like John Locke and Hugo Grotius Gladstone was a devout christian who practiced moral self-government in his personal life and attempted to impose that same sense of self-discipline upon government. Once again this is a great book, which ought to be required reading in all of our schools. God bless you Jim Powell.

I found the writing to be excellent and the story flow to be very compelling. However, I did feel that the illustrations left much to be desired. Very crude drawings with very little artistic appeal. I feel that when one purchases a graphic novel like this, it is as much for the story line as the art work. The stories are wonderful, the art work is very lacking.

Because I'm a huge fan of Spike, I knew that I had to find a copy of this rare graphic. I'm very glad that I did. It contains 3 reprinted stories, and 1 original story.

ALL'S FAIR- takes place during the World's Fair of 1933. The story follows Spike and Dru as they maim. Slash, and slay their way through the glitter and lights of the Fair. They also encounter hideous demons from another dimension and highly skilled assassins out for blood.

THE QUEEN OF HEARTS- As the pair travel to Sunnydale to be near the Hellmouth, the star-crossed lovers stop in St. Louis to do a bit of gambling and cause major mayhem on a riverboat casino. But, their blissful vacation is cut short by river demons.

PAINT THE TOWN RED- this story takes place shortly after Spike and Dru leave Sunnydale at the end of Buffy's second season. Dru's renewed love for Angel drives a wedge between the lovers. The end result is both of them trying to hurt the other as much as possible- which is a whole lot! With James Marsters helping with the writing, and Ryan Sook's artwork, this is by far the best story of all four.

WHO MADE WHO- tells the tale of Spike and Dru's final break up in Brazil. This is an epilog to Buffy's season three episode " Lover's Walk".

The only downside to this graphic is the artwork. Highly stylized, it's a deterant to fans who like Spike for his rugged good looks.

Still, if you like Buffy, Dru, or Spike and can find a copy of this graphic, than by all means buy it!

Spike has gradually become one of the most popular figures in the Slayer world. A hopeless romantic when alive he managed to cross over to the dark side with his capacity for love intact. His loyalty to Drusilla, who made him, was remarkable considering Dru's own flighty nature. Of course, his complex relationship with Buffy once again showed us a Spike who can be stubbornly in love despite every possible roadblock.

Dru of course, is the mad mistress. Psychically hypersensitive and more than a little kinky, her relationship with Spike actually lasted for a very long time. Her beauty is hard to define and her mind is, well, let us just say she is a bit distracted. Sometimes it is hard to see what the two lovers saw in each other, other than Spike's willing compliance with Dru's every wish. Certainly, as Spike developed more independence, the relationship between the two deteriorated.

This trade paperback collects the contents of three Spike and Dru comics, two from 1999 and the other from the end of 2000. In addition, there is a short from the "Lover's Walk" comic issued in 2001. The stories run from the Chicago World's Fair in 1933 to a more contemporary Carnivale in Brazil. During this journey, we will learn much about what makes our anti-heroes tick.

"All's Fair" takes a short flashback to China and the Boxer Rebellion and then jumps forward to the Chicago Fair. Spike and Dru treat the fair as a giant delicatessen until they run into some characters bent on vengeance from their past and a demon who wants to make earth its home.

To open "The Queen of Hearts" the lovers eat an entire topless bar and then move on to a riverboat casino. No one seems to have warned Spike that winning too much draws the wrong kind of attention - in spades.

In "Paint the Town" Spike is so frustrated with Drusilla's obsession with Angel. He ends the relationship in a fiery blaze and heads of for Turkey for a prolonged escape. Unexpectedly Dru tracks him down with a new friend in tow - a necromancer. She wants to get even, but before long, everyone is in trouble.

The final story, "Who Made Who," is a short finds the newly made up lovers in Brazil. However, Dru's attention once again wanders and Spike spoils the party.

I don't care all that much for the pencil work in these stories. Two were done by Eric Powell and the other two are by Ryan Sook. The work isn't bad, just a little to simplified and roughed in for my tastes. Since Sook has become quite well known, I am probably in the minority. Regardless of the artwork, the stories are all excellent, Chris Golden doing the lion's share on all of them. Certainly, any Spike fan will find this required reading.