My favorite part of Pyramid Online is Ken Hite's column Suppressed Transmission. He can find nice juicy bits suitable for just about any gaming genre out there. This book is a collection of columns from his first year, with footnotes and bibliography added in. It's a very good reference to the weirder side of life and history, and Mr Hite covers it with a sense of humor and a solid grasp on reality (something all too few people writing about conspiracy theories can manage). It's useful for any gamer, and nongamers who are interested in bizarre facts will probably enjoy it as well.

If you're a gamer, it's a good idea to subscribe to Steve Jackson Games' Pyramid online magazine...if nothing else, because you get to read the Suppressed Transmission, Ken Hite's weekly column on fringe theory for gaming. This book is a compilation of the best columns, covering a variety of subjects, from pole shifts to the Tunguska blast to, and this was my favorite, the occult nature of Coca-Cola.

Mr. Hite has a distinctive writing style; it's slightly dense, a tad erudite, but very, very readable, and downright funny, when you think about it. When I go to Pyramid every Friday, his is the first column I go to.

If you're at all into gaming, or fringe theory, this is a great book. It's easily the most useful gaming product I've purchased in the last two years.

Page after page of USEFUL, INTERESTING material that will go a long way toward enhancing any roleplaying game. I use it as a source of inspiration. Just about any item in this book could serve as the source for an adventure, a series of adventures, or even a full campaign--and most will work in any setting. This is NOT a supplement simply to GURPS or other SJGames systems; it's something that any gamer can use. In fact, it something that anyone interested in the strange history of our planet would enjoy.

SJ Games has a reputation for putting out good supplements; this does NOT fail to deliver on that promise.

this book is perfect for practicing as well as studying postgraduation. a comprehensive volume on fundamental and advanced endo

Colin Thubron, in this extremely interesting and well-written travelogue, has shed a common (or, owing to his previous experiences, uncommon) traveler's light on this amazing region of the world. Set amid the turmoil and confusion of the year following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Thubron portrays the incredible diversity of sentiment displayed by the area's inhabitants. From fatalistic apathy to alcohol-driven nationalism, he finds it all as he makes his way between crumbling ancient cities and Soviet-era apartment blocks. Chronicling the tentative resurfacing of Islam and hesitant steps toward fumbling democracies, the author has described the birth of these fledgling nations, offering a wonderful snapshot of the dynamic countries.

Although clearly re-released to ride the wave of the post-9/11 world's interest in Central Asia, this book has as much to do with the current conflict as Persian poetry has with a Steven King novel. If anything, Thubron demonstrates the differences between the many ethnic groups in the area. Interspersing his experiences with variously specific tidbits and sweeping portraits of Central Asian history, he manages to contrast the immense historical role of the area and its current, virtually unknown part.

All in all, Thubron's work makes for a wonderfully interesting read. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone; most people could use a more in depth look at this remarkable area of the world.

What was it like when the breakdown of the Soviet Union unleashed the desires of Central Asians for self-governance and the expression of ethnic and cultural identities that had matured several centuries back? What happened when "the honeymoon was over" and the independent nations found themselves grappling with the problems of economic self-sufficiency and ethnic rivalries? I highly recommend this book as this was, to my knowledge, one of the first first-person accounts of a culturally and historically complex region that was "opened" to the outside world after the demise of communism in the world's largest nation.

This book also qualifies as a pleasurably readable armchair travelogue. Colin's exquisite prose took me to far-flung, almost mysterious places, peopled by different ethnic groups, some of whom originated thousands of miles to the west, separated also by millennia. The images and sensations of the Pamirs, the Tien Shan, and Kopet Dagh mountains flashed at me as I delved in his travelogue. To the Western reader, this region remains less explored yet has so much to offer with its variegated ethnocultural makeup and its complex and imaginably stunning topography (from Thubron's descriptions and from the few pictures that I have seen of the Pamirs and Tien Shan mountains). Indeed, I am thankful to a friend who gave me this book as a Christmas gift in 1994.

A terrific introduction to a part of the world that most people know little about. This is a book that compels you to read on...not because you expect a plot twist or some dangerous turn. No, you read on to find out more about the people and places Mr. Thubron meets during his most amazing journey. Your knowledge of this part of the world grows as you advance page by page, chapter by chapter. It's written in an easy to follow style. The only thing I would have added were more maps to highlight the specific areas we were visiting.

a nice review, with a lot of pictures. Good quqlity af color and paper.

This is a fabulous book for real students of modernism. This monograph goes beyond the handful of buildings we're used to seeing by this great architect. Aalto appears to be getting his just rewards these days as more and more of us return to his work.