Well, it's a fun book to read. It's interesting and the humor is original. Actually, I suppose it's not original since it's taken from Zork. What bothers me is that the book is written too similar to the video game. The Great Underground Empire is divided into rooms separated by passageways that go in the usual cardinal directions. That makes it easier for video game players to play Zork but isn't the book supposed to be a bit more realistic? An underground kingdom shouldn't just be a bunch of rooms.

Zork is one of those books you read every two or three years. It's highly enjoyable and it's a really easy read. Effinger did a good job on this one.

It's one of those books where you just keep turning the pages and before you know it your closing the back cover.

Really, if you want a refreshing fantasy novel, pick up Zork if you can find it. It's definately worth seeking out.

I bought this book a long time ago and would like to say it was very well done!

It's a journey through the great underground empire with intriguing characters and a good story-line (If you remember "Kill Troll with sword", you'll get an instant feel for this novel)!

I'd say pick this one up!

If you want a well-organized, step-by-step, basic approach to therapy for social anxiety, you will find this book very helpful.

This book is amazing. It truly holds the key to unlocking the door that social phobia bars shut. It works as a workbook, allowing you to write in your own stress management and anxiety charts, fears, goals, and a step by step guide on how to face those fears, overcome them, and literally better your life. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has even the slightest phobia's about meeting new people, or even self doubt, low confidence, or even to improve your social skills for everyday life. Before I was done with half the book, I was already the most optimistic, confident and happy, socially, then i've ever been in all my twenty years. And believe it or not, your social life variably effects all other areas of your life by determining the way you feel about yourself, in turn how you present yourself and how others view you, and setting the standard on your personal happiness. pick up this book! you wont regret it.

This book is an excellent source of help for anyone suffering from social phobia/social anxiety (sometimes mislabeled as shyness but actually a lot deeper than that). I found this book very easy to read and follow, unlike some other books I've read that seem to be aimed at therapists or people studying the phobia rather than trying to gain help for it.

This book has step-by-step plans outlined in each chapter that will help you get closer to overcoming your fears and anxiety. Of course, you have to work at it every day, and this book is very encouraging and supportive. Things like the authors considering our negative self-talk "maladaptive" (non-productive) as opposed to "irrational" (they don't feel we are irrational by dictionary definition) made me feel a lot better about myself and made me want to stick with it. I highly recommend this book.

This book appears to be a reprint of a book released in 1981. It covers a wde variety of useful subjects. However, the examples shown and many of the techniques and materials described in the book are dated. Modeling techniques and standards have advanced well beyond this book. Best to leave this one for the used book aisle.

With excellent quality of contents, paper, printing and photos, this is a valuable book for the millitary modeler.

It starts talking about major modelling periods, from ancient up to modern days. Here shows what could be the major flaw of the book, namely, that it is relatively old (1981), so you will find no references to latest conflicts (Malvinas/Falklands, Lebanon War, Gulf War, etc).

Then it talks about: How to start, figure modelling, weapons and equipment, soft skin and armoured vehicles, artillery and dioramas.

Most chapters are very good, with pictures and sample projects. Maybe the exception is the diorama chapter, rather short and raw for an issue as important as this for military modeling.

Given that the book tries to cover all the history of warfare, if you are oriented to, say, tank modeling, maybe you will feel that much of the book is not relevant for you (same could be said for figure modelers). But if you want a global review of the hobby and some insights, this book is for you.

I thought that the encyclopedia of Military Modeling was Great it was really helpful to me. I think any modeler beginnner or advanced should have it.

I guess we have finally reached the stage where anything written about the Vietnam War is considered a classic work. I was a student of the author in the late 70's, at which time his course requirement was purchase of this at the time unique work. One whole semester of this drivel. It was enough to make you wish you were in the foxhole with him and didn't survive. I guess if you suffer from flashbacks, this conjures up pleasant memories. What is next, poetry about the OJ Simpson trial, Chandra Levy or Desert Storm ? I guess it's easier to get published than we all realize.

This book, although not a classic, I agree, is a naked view of the war through the eyes of the soldier. This book addresses some of the most raw, most difficult things about war - the emotions behind the bloodshed. Previous writer may want to rethink their comments about the book, and read it for what it is - a bit of history through one man's eyes.

Wilfred Owen, Britain's warrior poet of World War I, could not have done a better job of describing war from the warrior's perspective. Bryan Alec Floyd has written a masterful collection of poems. Lovely stuff, really.

THis is an enjoyable read. Informative as it is a good survey of post colonial leaders in Africa. Among those illustrated are Mandela, Neyere, Mobuto, Kenyatta and Eugene Terreblanche. He srveys different styles of leadership from the royal African kings to the dictators who defined the cold war in Africa. He also has a chapter on the white supremecist movement in South Africa. A good introduction to African leaders and politics.

A great read about the political system in much of Africa. Why are African countries failing, and the rest of the world is advancing. It is because of the horrible leadership of much of the African states. Russell details the misrule of Mobutu, Banda, Mugabe, Savambi,and Moi. South Africa under De Klerk and Mandela is an example to the rest of Africa, but even then the possibility exists that Africans may be disappointed by the eventual outcome. In ten more years, I would like to find what Russell says about the possibilities of Africa.

This is an easy, enjoyable book of interviews with a number of leaders of African countries - leaders who came to power when their newly decolonised countries attained independence. Alec Russell, foreign correspondent for The Telegraph newspaper, had personal interviews with "Big Men" ranging from Dr Hastings Banda to Kenneth Kaunda, and the character of each comes through clearly in the book. The author's main assertion is that most African countries were decolonised too quickly, without enough preparation, that certain "Big Men" were thrust into or stole positions of power for themselves and could not be prised out of them. By drawing a portrait of each unique personality, he also writes the biography of a specific historic period - the "Big Man" era, when men used their charismatic power to become national leaders and, after a while, dictators. This book is a fascinating insight into the post-colonial, triumph of independence and its failures. The reader cannot help but be relieved that these men's era is over - that the "Big Men" themselves have almost all died or lost power, and that there is a move towards 'democracy' at the start of the new century.

this was a preety good book. It is about this guy named Garland Bunting, who has been engaged in caturing and prosacuting men and weomen. To do so he has droven taxi cabs and whatever else you can think of, to get these people to stop selling elligal liquer.he has learned several tips from huntes, they told him that coons can find a illigal monnshine bussnues any day of the week, so from that day on he decided to start raising coon dog's, so that he could catch the scum of the earth (as so he says) who are selling this illigal liquer. This man is 57 years of age and he is of a medium hieght, he has been doing this type of stuff for over 30 years. In north corolina it is illigal to sell liquer on sunday's so the people who are acaholics are always out looking for liquer on sunday's, and that is whern garland is out busting peoepl most of the time. I would recomend this book to any body that is all I have for know thank you for reading my review.

I grew up in Tidewater, VA, and I've travelled many of the roads and known the sorts of boys Wilkinson writes about. He really nailed that regional culture, and his ear for dialogue and dialect is finely tuned.

I grew up not far from Ahoskie, NC, one of the towns author Alec Wilkinson visits in his book. I was astonished at the accuracy of his portrayal of the people and way of life in rural eastern North Carolina. Wilkinson makes no judgments and draws no conclusions. He simply writes a wonderfully detailed and honest portrait of these people and the politics & life of the moonshiners and revenuers of the swamplands. In the past few years this rural way of life has quickly vanished - pressed from the east by the growth of the tourist industry and overdevelopment of the Outer Banks, and from the west by the rapid growth of the Research Triangle. Moonshine has been replaced by homegrown marijuana. Most small farmers have been bought out by corporate farms and the small towns have become bedroom communities for larger metro areas, with people in Gates and Northampton counties working as far away as Quantico and Williamsburg, VA. I've loaned out my copy of "Moonshine" so many times it is falling apart, but I've never found another book that so accurately describes the world I grew up in. For my transplanted Yankee friends here in the Triangle it has been a great introduction to the rural South. The first Wilkinson book I read was "Midnights", his description of a summer spent as the night patrolman in a small coastal town in Massachusetts. I was struck by his powers of description, and the honest effort of researching his subject by spending many long hours on the job. It is also a fine book. For anyone interested in a slice of life, or just great writing, I'd recommend this book without hesitation. Ken Strayhorn Chapel Hill NC

Questionable statistics?: 13% of a crop destroyed is quoted, when the actual figures were probably much higher--some say 90% of a crop rotted. Who is to say? This is why nobody will ever definitively write the economic history of the USSR. At best educated guesses. But the author tries.

However, an economic history as opposed to a political history is for the USSR a distorted picture of what happened, because of the bad data problem mentioned above. Hence the three stars.

Nove's history, already widely acclaimed (I had it as assigned reading at Cambridge), is updated in this "final" edition, completed just after the collapse of the USSR. It is extremely readable, just over 400 pages long, and gives a truly outstanding overview -- for the academic and the lay reader alike -- of the rise and fall of the Russian economy, from just before World War I until Gorbachev's resignation. Nove, one of the finest scholars in the field, makes full use of the then newly-opened Soviet archives to add to and refine what was already a brilliant work, and captures herein the first-ever scholarly assessment of the extraordinary Soviet experiment as a whole.

Alec Nove was Professor of Economics at the University of Glasgow from 1963 to 1982, subsequently becoming Emeritus Professor and Honorary Research Fellow.

I am a big Vikram Seth fan and this was a cute children's book. The drawings are simple, yet effective. The story is close to a classic Grimm tale, an animal that helps a human, but ends up getting killed by humans keeping it in captivity. Maybe not suited for very young children, but a very well written story. A story that you can discuss afterwards on themes portrayed, asking questions like what would you have done?

Alec Waugh has done alot of resurch to produce this book. I find it very informative, and should be used a required reading for any student studying Thai history.

There are side line storey involved in this book that would make a good movie.

This 3-novella anthology was first published in 1973.

Effinger, George Alec: "And Us, Too, I Guess", while written for this anthology, also appears in Effinger's collection _Irrational Numbers_. The viewpoint alternates between the 1st person narrative of Dr. Davis, a scientist, and the 3rd person narrative of Paul Moran, a factory worker.

Davis seeks to rebuild his career yet again after the latest of a series of catastrophes. In his own mind, at least, he's not responsible for any of the troubles that have befallen him - and in his secret heart, he admits that he enjoys disaster, if he can sit back and watch. Moran, on the other hand, would claim only one disaster - his unhappy marriage - but might be honest enough to admit his own contribution to the problem.

They seem to be a study in contrasts, save for the two points they have in common: dissatisfaction with their lots in life, and a passion for raising mollies (a breed of tropical fish). On the morning the story opens, both Davis and Moran find that all their pets have died in the night, with no visible cause of death. Upon seeking replacements, the hobbyists learn gradually that *all* mollies everywhere appear to have died that same night. Then a few days later, another species - an obscure fungus - is found extinct, and an ominous pattern of tragedy begins to unfold.

Dozois, Gardner R.: "Chains of the Sea", which also appears in Dozois' collection _The Visible Man_, is an SF story of the day aliens "invaded" Earth, and the story of a kid who retains the ability to see "the Other People" long after his friends have forgotten them. (They share the Earth, but in ways that most humans can't perceive, and that even the AIs who *really* run human civilization aren't really aware of - at first.)

The story alternates between 3rd-person views of the aliens' arrival, and of Tommy's problems. The alien landings thread is mostly to do with the AIs' handling of the issue. They've never bothered to inform their "owners" that they communicate almost instantaneously when they wish, with no regard to their "owners'" political disagreements. Tommy's thread ties up with this because the Other People, like the AIs and human governments, are preoccupied with the aliens' arrival.

The title is a metaphor from a story-within-the-story, made up by Tommy during his after-school games. Tommy himself is caught between his abusive father, the uncaring school system, and the mysterious activities of the Other People. "He knew now why Steve had said the dragon couldn't get away. It lived in the sea, so it couldn't get away by going up onto the land - that was impossible. It had to stay in the sea, it was restricted by that, it was chained by the sea..."

Alone of the trio, "Chains of the Sea" suffers from sub par copyediting, in the form of occasional spelling mistakes, and botched grammar during a flashback. Otherwise, it's an excellent story, my favourite of the three. For instance, the media near one of the landing sites gives it continuous coverage, even though they have nothing to say, and an attempted media blackout causes far more trouble than the initial coverage - including a rash of lawsuits. The only telltale sign of its 1973 composition date is a simile, describing distorted time perception "like 33 records played at 78 RPM".

Eklund, Gordon: "The Shrine of Sebastian", set far in the future, opens with a few paragraphs of quotation from a manuscript being written within the story: _The Book of Man_, a work that the robot Andrew hopes will rival the Bible in time to come. His less-than-objective opinion is that it's at least an equal, containing neither fiction nor parable but what actually happened millennia ago when Sebastian spake of his vision unto the people of Earth, guiding them to the great spaceships bound for a new world. As the story progresses, the reader can draw his or her own conclusions about the accuracy of Andrew's assessment of his work.

In one sense, the story is linear, beginning on the day of Pope Maria's death, leaving her downtrodden husband Julian with two legacies: the title of Pope, and a command to bury her at the shrine of Sebastian. Why did such an arrogant, self-satisfied woman want to be laid to rest at the heart of a heretical movement? (The reader, of course, has additional mysteries to ponder, picking up clues on the state of this far future world from evidence in the story - no heavy-handed exposition. In fact, the story avoids exposition to the point that the reader may be left floundering through the unsavory incidents that befall Andrew and Julian. I greatly prefer the thread following Andrew's better-organized viewpoint to that following Julian's.)