Add this book to the six other Hot Wheels price guides currently on the market. Is there room for a seventh? In this case, yes, without a doubt. The Ultimate Redline Guide focuses on Hot Wheels from that era before Hot Wheels were considered collectible, and are now therefore the most highly prized.

Redline, for those of you just returning from a pre-Seventies alien abduction, refers to the red stripe on early Hot Wheels tires that distinguishes them from later models.

This book offers year-by-year color-coded pages of those important first ten years of Hot Wheels production, in large, definitive photos and sumptuous supporting text. Each page is devoted to a single model and its variations. This book is the definitive guide to the earliest and most valuable Hot Wheels.

"Bells of Horror" is the high point of the volume; it is a fine story set in California, a locale the author clearly enjoys. It is this setting in a number of stories that gives the stories a unique flavor; Kuttner's descriptions create a new millieu for the eldritch horrors that are the center of the Cthulhu Mythos.

It is also "Bells of Horror" that first mentions The Book of Iod, a volume which belongs on the shelf with the usual suspects--De Vermis Mysteriis, Unaussprechlichen Kulten, Cultes des Goules, the Book of Eibon, the Pnakotic Manuscripts, and, of course, (all together now) the horrible Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred.

Kuttner's ability shows itself most in his ability to create a mythology. Instead of a few separate stories, the contents of this anthology fit together in intriguing ways--but they don't fit together seamlessly, just as other myth cycles don't. All in all, this collection is a very worthwhile read.

...The world setting is very simplistic, with little or no backstory, and no reason to care. Plus, it is full of anachronisms that jar the sensibilities. For example, it is a fantasy book where everyone travels by horseback or ship and wields swords and crossbows. Yet they have electric generators and smoke cigarettes without any of the supporting pieces (like steam or coal power to drive the generators). Odd technological pieces thrown in for no reason. It just feels sloppy.

I ...the characterizations are fairly weak, and there is practically no character development in the story. Sadly, the best defined and most internally consistent character is the villian's henchman, an assassin. Supposedly, the main character is a retired super-spy. However, you would never be able to tell from his actions or mannerisms. And, for a main character, his presence is surprisingly scarce. I would guess that he is only in roughly 25% of the book.

All in all, the book is sloppy. It lacks focus, and pays too much attention to things that don't advance the story, but at the same time offer no other payoff. It is internally inconsistent, and lacks any compelling characters.

If you are bored, and looking for something to occupy your time, pick this book up. Otherwise, there are better selections out there...