This book is the best investment I have made and it applies to a lot of things you'd want to do, but never have thought about. 'Hyperlinked' contents point to other parts of the book if you need to know more is really a cool concept. It my Linux companion. I also used it to help those HP admins on some issues.

If you're an experienced Unix administrator or advanced Unix user, this is the book to have. The book goes one step beyond the usual books and goes into detail about getting things done in Unix.

In particular there is a lot of info here on shell scripting showing the differences between the Korn, Bourne and C shells.

What is good about this book is that it' not just a refernce but shows you the steps in getting really difficult things done.

Tim Powers is and always has been the master of atmosphere and research in his brilliantly woven longer works. Now comes an excercise in self-editing that satisfies the reader like a delicious Powers novel or a five-course dinner. You don't need to be a fan of fantasy to appreciate the prose that only a wordsmith like Powers can apply to a page. This book is a wonder to read and a pleasure to hold as well. Charnel House has done an unbelieveable job with the binding, the paper and even the printing. Reading such a fantastic story in this rare and beautiful form is indeed a tactile pleasure that one can experience again and again appreciating new and different elements with each new retelling of the tale. No one tells a better tale than Powers and this is a "Must Own" book for fans, collectors and lovers of fine works of art and fiction.

By my records, Where They Are Hid is Tim Power's first solo short story in damn near a decade and a half. And one would expect, with the typically lavish presentation Charnel House has given the novelette, that it would be a stunner. That expectation is more than reasonably met. I'd advise that readers toss out all others when it comes to this complex, marvelous story.

The bare bones: Mr. Stanwell has a certain amount of control over time. He's able to jump back and forth, with limitations. On precisely the same time each July 1st, he's visited by a future version of himself, given some sage advice, a pat on the head, and sent on his way though the next year. Stanwell uses his advice to secretly control the world. He's seen that the Atomic Bomb, Vietnam, and a host of other "real world" events are avoided, his way. A noble enough calling, eh? Meanwhile (as if that word has meaning in this story), Keith Bondier is damn near a negative image of Stanwell. He's stuck in a drab existence, on the dole, thinking mostly of seducing his friend Margie. Strangely enough, Bondier also suffers from blackouts.

I won't lay out more of the plot here, because that's the novelette's main strength. In Where They Are Hid, Powers has managed to cram a novel's worth of plot-and story-into a much shorter tale. I think many readers will spend a first reading just attempting to keep up with the way things are tied together, and the second marveling at the author's control and craftsmanship. Trust me, you'll want to read this story at least twice.

And the downside: The paper and binding materials are up to Charnel House's usual standards here, but the interior design's plainness doesn't accentuate the story. The author's illustrations are limited to a frontispiece, endpiece, and a single image repeated at page breaks. Caveats about design aside, as Where They are Hid is limited to 350 numbered copies, and 26 lettered, you can't go wrong in picking it up. I'd advise doing so before you have to pay extra on the collector's market.

Feeling down and out? Give yourself a shot of OPTIMISM. Tim will help you live a better life with the influence of optimism. When I feel the blues sneaking up I just pop in this tape. Believe me, optimism can change your life. Tim's words will motivate you to start enjoying life. I have tried a number of other tapes through the years to no avail, but Tim has a gift to help people with their lives.

After reading Tim Powers' "Last Call" I found myself wanting to play poker again and go to Las Vegas, but holding on to some magic charm to save me from being absorbed by spirit catching immortals.

Like his following book "Expiration Date" Mr. Powers characters are not what one would call "sympathetic" characters, who one could find some spark of identification. They are not easily liked: drunks, gamblers, crazies and evil characters misusing metaphysics to further their neferious ends. But because these characters are not sympathetic I found myself drawn into the story.

Never before have I read a story that touches upon so many diverse topics: Jungian schronicity, Tarot cards, poker, alcohol, magic, The Fisher King, TS Eliot, and gangsters. Only an author who has a wide view of the fictive landscape he rules can weave such a tale and make the reader stay up late on a work night to find out what is the next amazing and scary thing that is going to come up.

Although some fans of Tim Powers are sad that he strayed from the historical fantasies he wrote before I am glad someone is writing about contemporary things, places and people that are infused with magic.

The struggle between good and evil takes place everyday, with people who are less than likable, and this book speaks of one of those struggles. I await for his next book and hope he continues on this comtemporary theme.

When I go to Vegas, I'm definitely going to have to pay attention to the cigarette smoke. Not that I expect things in real life to happen like the events and magic in this book, but it's so good, I expect it to.

It starts being about people playing poker. It ends up being about a battle for the Kingship of the West, with a immensely powerful Tarot deck as the weapon.

Beyond that, you'll have to read the book. I highly recommend it, both because it's a really good story, and because Mr. Powers' writing is very well done.

In the event you're a role-player, I have a definite feeling this is one of the roots for Unknown Armies, and it has a major influence on Kenneth Hite's writing (in the Suppressed Transmission). It makes me want to play a UA game so bad, it isn't funny.

Read it.

Whenever I read a novel I can tell from the first few sentences whether or not I will enjoy the book by judging the author's writing style. From the first few words of Tim Powers' "Last Call" I was drawn in to this captivating story. Tim Powers is a fantasy author but what makes Mr. Powers' novels different from others is that his fantasy novels take place in our world and seem that what goes on really could happen.

Scott Crane was involved in a dangerous card game called Assumption many years ago and he is dreaming of the game. In this game his soul was stolen by the man that started the game. 20 years from when the game took place Scott decides that he wants to get back into playing Poker and Crane has no clue for what is going to happen to him. Scott is biologically the next Fisher King, the mythological king of the tarot card world. When Scott enter Las Vegas the cards are showing that he is in the city and people want him dead. From Vegas to Los Angeles to the Hoover Dam this novel is a tour de force that will keep you riveted from page one.

Tim Powers is a very different type of fantasy author. His fantasies take place in our world and deal with real people just like you and me. The whole fantasy premise of "Last Call" is based on tarot cards and Powers makes you believe that these cards really have meaning and are much more than bogus. Other myths are also used in this book such as some things from King Arthur.

Powers is an amazing author. From the first page of this novel you are grabbed and you will read and read and read until you have come to the ending. All of the characters are three dimensional people that you will care for and will either love or hate. There was just one thing about this novel that I didn't like. In fact, another reviewer brought something up along the lines of what I am going to say. I felt that the book's ending was a bit rushed and that Powers didn't let the ending work itself out. This minor wualm, however, did not make my reading of this book bad and therefore the book will keep five stars despite this.

This is my first Tim Powers novel and it defintely will not be my last. I will never look at tarot cards or regular playing cards the same way since I have read this book. This is the perfect fantasy for somebody that wants an original read.

Happy Reading!

This book offered a wonderful mix of history, fantasy, allegory, mythological creatures, and a middle-aged, drunken, grumpy hero. What's not to like?

Okay, if I had to pick something to criticize, I'd say that I found the plot a little slow at times. Also, the ending seemed a little rushed to me, and it didn't give me that sense of closure I was hoping for.

However, the writing style was gorgeous. Very atmospheric, beautifully detailed, mixed with just the right amount of humor. A perfect blend.

The characterization was also spectacular. Aurelianus / Merlin was my favorite character... but then again, that might just be my thing for cute old wizards again. I liked Duffy also. His grumpy attitude made him more endearing than any swash-bucking hero attitude he might have had. I also liked Bluto. Then again, I have a thing for hunch-backs too. ;)

And last but not least, I was utterly stunned when I finally realized where the title comes from! I won't give it away though... needless to say, it's very clever!

I'm looking forward to reading more Tim Powers novels. This was a very promising start, and I hear it only getts better from here! :)

Brian Duffy is just your average work-a-day soldier for hire when he is pulled into a plot involving forgotten heroes, strange magic, and bizarre creatures. Encountering monsters straight out of legend and meeting up with some guy named The Fisher King, Duffy slowly learns that his past stretches much further back than he realizes.

In typical Tim Powers style, the plot of this late Renaissance fantasy begins with threads of story weaving in all directions, and resolves at last by the end of the book. Powers works in the invading armies of Islam, King Arthur, a mystical brewery in Vienna, Vikings, and more in this fantastic yarn.

I enjoyed this book overall, but it wasn't Mr. Powers's best (which can be forgiven, seeing as it was his first book). The plot moved a bit slowly at times, and the ending seemed a tad rushed. But overall, this was an enjoyable read and very funny. Great for taking a break between other, more "serious" fantasies.

Tim Powers has a justly earned reputation for writing "different" stories, and each seems different than the others.

Hands down, my personal favorite is The Drawing of the Dark, which may be his first published work. He skilfully interweaves magic (Merlin brings Arthur, the West's hero of a thousand faces, back from the dead, in the form of a fiftyish, greyhaired drunken Irishman), sorcery, legend (the Fisher King), history and delightful characters until the reader neither knows nor cares where history stops and fantasy starts. Out of print for years, and very much deserving of a new publication, I heartily recommend this work.

This book has many scattered Tips on Unix from the user's point of view. It doesn't mention TCP/IP and protocols. You won't see Perl, here. Basically, it tells you how to write fine Bash scripts to take full advantage of Unix to solve mundane tasks, like changing your login prompt to display:date, time, hostname, etc. Setup terminal options. Very fine introduction to Regular Expressions (Regex). Nice tutorial on Awk. Fine chapter on Vi (not Vim). The chapter on How Bash interprets your commands will make you stop wondering why your ``*'' and variables ``$1'' are being misinterpreted. You must read it.

So, why not five stars? This book is old. No word about GNU/Linux, the most proeminent *nix outcome. The tools included in the CD-Rom duplicate some GNU utilities, now included in every distro. Some tips on formatting text using ``troff'' are hardly useful today (with X Window all around). BTW, no word about X Window.

Finally, if you're looking for Unix administration tips buy Nemeth (Unix administration). If you are looking for ``gotchas'' tips, that could save your time, this is THE book.

Every now and then I come back to it.

Unix Power Tools, an apt title not meant to be redundant (Unix is THE power-user's operating system, after all) has been the ShopSmith manual or the Unix Almanac since it first appeared in the early 1990s. The second edition appeared in 1999, and with the amazing, if not predicted, growth of Unix and expansion into many flavors; it's fitting that a 3rd edition should appear now. Over half of the articles have been revised since that last edition to include information pertaining to many of the smaller but ground-gaining Unix's such as Linux, freeBSD, and Mac OS X's Darwin.

This is a huge book; thus the need for four authors! For a network administrator who understands Unix, and who is contemplating the merging of Mac OS X Server and Client systems into their network, this book should pay for itself in dividends. I was impressed with how thoroughly this book covers the multitude of topics contained within. Everything from mastering the various editors to learning to write shell scripts to detailed instructions for maintaining and backing up a network is included.

I found the book organized logically according to various services. The O'Reilly web site has a complete list of the contents, the index, and user reviews. O'Reilly also has an online fee-based service called MySafari (cool name) which allows subscribers the ability to build virtual bookshelves of O'Reilly books to have at their beck and call whenever they are online. It's free to explore and there's a 14-day demo period as well. You may see a lot for detail of this book by visiting their site.

With more than 50 chapters detailing nearly every nook and cranny of the most common Unix distributions, there's something here for every Unix power user. The updated and expanded sections on security and Windows access are welcome indeed. Every topic is explained with examples and illustrated richly with screen captures. Common problems, mistakes, and real-world examples are distributed liberally throughout the book. If any one book could help a Unix administrator, developer, or power user come to Ôgrep' with the full capabilities of Unix, it would be this book.

Just a few high lights for me included the extensive section on the vi editor, detailing many functions I had no idea existed, such as running scripts within vi as shortcuts for oft-repeated commands. The section on eMacs got me excited about exploring that powerful editor to the extent that I downloaded one of the more extensive distributions for Mac OS X so I could try it out. For a Unix text editor, it is really a good one; however, coming from the Mac background I appreciate BBEdit more and more. Still, every Unix power user will find that some basic knowledge of vi or eMacs will come in very handy when they find themselves with console access and no local text editor other than these.

The closing chapters covering many security issues have captured my attention at this time, as I contemplate moving a few of my domains from a remote dedicated server to one directly under my control running Mac OS X. I think I understand a little better what my host providers have been doing for me all these years!

Make space near your workstation now for this book. If you are a mobile laptop user, like myself, consider becoming a user of MySafari services at O'Reilly, which would allow you to have a book like this available online when it is not convenient to carry the extra weight with you. Bottom line: no serious Unix user and no serious newcomer intending to become proficient in Unix should be without this book!

This is one of the best technical book that I bought in the last 10 years, at least from the organizational and layout point of the view. It contains hundreds of short articles, page or two in length organized in a remarkable way of cross-referenced, alamanc-like book.

Articles are logically organized in chapters so you can read the book from cover to cover if you wish. However more likely you'll end up reading the book more randomly, following the cross-references. (I have some bad experience with the books organized in this way but this one is a clear exception.)

The book is written for beginners and experts alike, since I'm a Unix newbie I can only confirm that; I hate to say but the life of Unix SA would be much easier if the man pages would be organized in a similar way -- including examples that're almost never there.

I'm waiting for O'Reilly to update their "Unix CD Bookshelf" with third edition of this book because it's a little too heavy for carrying it with me.

Tim Powers is amazing. I don't know how to describe the way he writes except maybe as the literary equivalent of juggling five or seven daggers while riding a mountain bike down a very steep hill and making it look easy. And he does this with a time travel story (what more can you possibly write about time travel, right? Wrong.) The way he uses historical characters and actual events makes you wonder whether this is a true story or not. He seems to know a lot about magic, ancient Egypt not to mention London in the 1800s. There's nothing I didn't like about this book! Even if you're not that much into SF/Fantasy, you will like this one for its story, its style, its realism and its characters.

A note of warning: make sure your copy has all the pages in the right order --- mine had about 30 pages missing in the middle and the few hours it took me to get a replacement copy were *VERY* frustrating. Also, start early in the day, or you'll stay up all night to finish it.

This is the first Tim Powers book I've ever picked up. It definitely won't be the last. 'Anubis Gates' is the best time travel story that I've ever read. I should mention, in the name of honesty, that I haven't read a lot of time travel books, because I am easily irritated by paradoxes that aren't resolved, cliches, and "scientific" explanations that don't make any sense. 'Anubis Gates' has none of these problems. I am in awe of the way that Powers neatly wrapped up every single loose end without making it feel contrived.

'Anubis Gates' takes you back to the early nineteenth century in London, with a quick jaunt to the mid-1600s in the middle of the book. The main character, Brendan Doyle, is a scholar who is researching the biography of the poet William Ashbless, hired to accompany a group of paying passengers back in time from 1983 to see a lecture by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I was very curious to see how Powers handled the paradox of changing a history that had already happened - and, to be honest, a bit skeptical that he would be able to satisfy me. I was pleasantly surprised. The paradoxes resolve themselves so neatly that it made me pause and think, "maybe this *is* what happened". The thread of Egyptian mythology that ties the story together makes the suspension of disbelief easy, since Powers isn't trying to convince you that the technology for time-travel actually existed in 1983, rather he is relying on a mysticism that has been around for millenia. And the ending was just perfect.

I cannot recommend this book enough. I can't wait to read more of what Powers has written.

After recently posting a review of Crichton's "Timeline" in which I compared the book not too favorably with "The Anubis Gates," I decided to skim through the latter again in order to post a review of it. Well, that lasted about one page, after which I was sucked in again completely and read the thing cover to cover. Wow! Even after repeated readings, Powers' tale of a mild mannered English Professor from 1983 who finds himself marooned in early 19th century Britain still manages to dazzle.

Brendan Doyle, after agreeing to take a mysterious but high paying gig to give a lecture about Samuel Taylor Coleridge, embarks on what was to be a four hour tour to London in 1810 in order to hear Coleridge speak at a pub. Things begin to go awry almost immediately when Doyle is waylaid by a band of Gypsies led by an evil Egyptian sorcerer who is in league with a vivisectionist clown to overthrow the English Monarchy. And then there is the intriguing and astonishing figure of William Ashbless, a minor poet and colleague of Lord Byron and Coleridge whom Powers manages to portray in vivid detail, weaving him convincingly into the fabric of the story. This brief description does little justice to the book, though. Powers' plot and pacing are phenomenally tight, and his characterizations engaging. There are moments of genuine pathos here, interspersed with deliciously macabre scenes. This is a brilliant book that deserves a place at the top of any time travel or science fiction best-of list.

--TR--

Probably one of the most entertaining books I've ever read. A hoot and a half, with a nice mix of history, horror and fantasy. A must for fans of piracy, dark fantasy or voodoo. A perfect vacation book in every right, and the reason I'm a Powers fan.

Brilliant. Tim Powers forges this book with nothing less than artful detail. Written about the era of pirates on the high seas, this book is full of dark villains and incredible journeys. With incorporation's of real history, the fiction becomes more potent and believable, gripping the reader with suspense and thrills. Anybody that loves intricate non-linear plots and intelligent writing will want to read this

This was the first Powers book that I ever picked up, back in the '80's, and he immediately became one of my favorite authors. This is the perfect pirate story, the characters are well-written and the original 'explanations' Powers concocts to cover some of history's puzzling moments are works of genius. If you enjoy fiction, you must read this book...and if you do, you'll surely be a Powers fan for life.

I am a big fan of Tim Powers, however, that said and done, this is one of the best Fantasy novels I have ever read. Byron, Keats, and Shelley are under the stresses of admiration if not love by a vampire-like creature who not only gives them imagination but ultimately destroys them. Literature fans will love it. However, the other characters in this book are fantastic people too. I could not put this novel down and have just reread it again! It's a great story by a great storyteller.

"The Stress of her Regard" is simply Tim Powers finest work. As in other Powers books, this one takes several historical figures (Byron, Shelley, Keets, and others), an vivid description of the setting in time and place, a bit of historical detail, and some wonderful fantasy and blends them together in an unforgetable book. "The Stress of her Regard" tells the story of Byron, Shelley, an heroic OBGYN, the terrible muse who "gives" them their poetry, and their attempts (sometimes half-hearted) to be free of her. Another wonderful Powers' novel is "Last Call" which is set in modern day California and Nevada and tells the story of Buggsie Seagal, Poker, Tarot cards, Las Vegas, and how they all relate to the Fisher King. If you like well thought out novels which draw a huge number of (often strange) bits of fact and fantasy together the novels of Tim Powers will be sure delight you.

...but not the last by a longshot.

I've enjoyed reading fantastic fiction (mainly SF, but with a touch of fantasy here and there) all my life, and this novel forced me to redefine my concept of what it means to have one's mind blown. Although the main character is a fictional doctor who is haunted by an accidental "marriage" to what may be one of the "giants in the earth" mentioned in Genesis, he crosses paths with several of the Romantic poets, who never struck me as "historical figures" in the way they were written. They were just as human as the protagonist, and just as terrified by the fate that pulled them together. That fact, along with the author's fine eye for period detail, did a lot to keep this story grounded in some sort of "reality" when the supernatural fireworks began.

In this novel, as with others such as "The Anubis Gates" and "On Stranger Tides," Powers picks out colorful characters from history--people who lived strange lives, and about whom we know little--then, taking care not to contradict anything we do know, he "fills in the gaps" in some pretty incredible ways. I liked the term another poster used: "gonzo history."

I should mention that this story, while ultimately very hopeful, goes through some dark, *dark* places, and with its moments of horror and eroticism, it's probably not a good choice for younger readers.

Because of the historical angle, many readers will already know the fates that await certain characters, but even those moments are suprising, and brilliantly executed. BTW: If you're reading, Mr. Powers, thanks for letting Shelly go out with such a bang. When the couple were on the beach, and she said, "I can see it! It's coming!" I got such a chill that I had to put the book down and just savor it for a moment.

Somehow Tim Powers lost me. I was the most avid fan. Everything he wrote, everything up to and including LAST CALL, I considered the most brilliant books. Pirates, English poets, avatars of King Arthur, poker games with Tarot. I mean he has an amazing imagination and I was drawn in. Then things took a turn for the worst. Too many characters that I didn't care about. Situations that started to ... dare I say it... disinterest me. The 2nd and 3rd books in his 'trilogy' were unnecessary and I disliked what he did to characters I had fallen for. Then came a new book, DECLARE, and I thought, hey, he's no doubt gone back to his roots. But I could not finish the book. I was lost, bored even, buried beneath too much detail and slow pacing that jumped time streams needlessly. Whatever intrigue and suspense was abandoned by the slow pacing, whiny love affairs, and niddling facts. I miss my old Tim Powers, the one that knew that the story, the plot, came first and took you on a breathtaking trip to Fantasy. Instead, he's become doddering.

Tim Powers' Declare is an amazing novel: it's imaginative, unique and compelling. And, it's probably like nothing you've read before.

Declare is part spy novel, part fantasy and part thriller. Although it requires a lot of focus on the part of the reader, those who pay attention will get drawn in to the compelling and rewarding story. Powers' writing displays remarkable credibility in these multiple genres, and he swirls them together into a strong and cohesive work.

The story features Andrew Hale, a former British spy who finds himself drawn back into the shadowy world of a former operation gone bad. The novel then diverges into several parallel stories, all from Hale's perspective but occurring at different points in his past. The multiple story lines, most of which share the same characters, converge admirably at a compelling contemporary climax. In weaving these plot lines together, Powers shows himself to be as much a master of suspense as he is an imaginative fantasy writer. In developing this story, Powers combines plot elements from The Arabian Nights, the Bible, history, and espionage. It's an;ything but dull, but it is complicated...you'd better pay attention or you'll get lost.

This was an amazing novel; I couldn't put it down. I especially like the appendix at the back where Powers explained his rationale for developing the story line. It's ironic that only real life could produce the basis for the head-scratching twists and turns that Declare provides. Enjoy!

"Declare" is a daring blend of spy and fantastorical genres. Tim Powers takes his familiar brand of historical mysticism and inserts it into Cold War European politics. In his afterward to the novel, Powers outlines the genesis of "Declare". He studied the biographies of Russian spy Kim Philby and the British agent commonly known as Lawrence of Arabia. Powers found unexplained time periods and unusual occurences. He filled in the gaps with pieces of his fictional story, all of which resulted in a fascinating and very well-written story.

The story tracks a fictional Englishman, born with the gift for bizarre dreams. British secret service drafts him as a child and not many years later places him into service as a secret agent. What follows is a powerful tale that jumps over various time periods and locales, filled with Russian spies, Nazi plots and all-powerful djinn.

As a devotee of both fantastic fiction and spy thrillesr I was treated to a masterpiece of bothe genres. The political plotting kept me on the edge of my chair. The demonic djinn left me enthralled. I particularly enjoyed the scenes of the assault on the djinn's habitat on Mount Ararat. Very compelling reading.

A word of warning however. I've spoken with several diehard Tim Powers fans who feel that is not one of his stronger works. I disagree with their opinions on early Powers novels as well as this one. If you're a big fan of his "On Stranger Tides" and "The Stress of Her Regard" you may be disappointed by "Declare". But as those same Powers aficionados said, even lesser Powers is great reading. I highly recommend "Declare".