I happened to pick up this book by chance. Also it is only part of the Island Worlds series by the authors (the others being Act of God, Between the Stars, & I beleive one titled simply Island Worlds though they all appear out of print so it is hard to tell for sure until I find more of the titles), so my opinion of the book is going to note the fact of this book on it's own & not as part of the group. It starts as a rather normal sort of hard SF plot, with the basicis being the exploration of a planet in of all places the Delta Pavonis solar system. It quickly jumps ahead & tosses in characters from previous books without introducing them very well (short one paragrpah discriptions generalizing why the are important), that edge the plot toward a sort of race to decipher some alien artifacts that are found. I like the plot though at times it seems to skip ahead by months or even a couple of years without much of an interlude. My only real complaint abotu teh book is the fact that it seems as if it would work better compiled with teh other books of the serious with the way past characters are handled & the fact that they jump ahead in time without much notice or recap of what happened until they seem to remember they skipped telling us this part of the story. I still recomend it, but if you can do yourself a favor & get the whole series at once or in order.

I just got this book a week ago. I haven't really done any repairs based on this book yet, but it seems to be an okay book. It has different sections on each of the major systems of the car viz. cooling, heating and ac systems, fuel and exhaust systems, engine electrical systems, emissions and engine control systems, transmission systems, suspension and steering systems, chassis electrical system etc.

I basically bought this book hoping to be able to troubleshoot a trouble code (P0183) that made my 99 Mustang's "Service Engine" light to come on. This code is not listed in the OBD II codes list in this book. According to my scan tool, this code means "Engine Fuel Temperature Sensor A shows a high input value". This book does not have any mention of an Engine Fuel Temperature Sensor. So, I have to warn you there may be a few things missing in this book.

I think one essential section that should be in any of today's auto repair manuals is a section on the possible trouble codes and step-by-step troubleshooting for each code. In the 3 cars that I have owned in the last 6 years, one common issue has been the "Service Engine" light coming on out of the blue. Dealers make big bucks just debugging the OBD code. My dealer charged me 120 for just reading the code and finding out what is wrong.

Also, I felt that many of the pictures are too close-up making it extremely difficult to determine the relative location on the car.

I found this book to be helpful in taking on small tasks such as doing your own brakes. In all, I would estimate this book saved me a few hundred dollars in repairs this year versus what I would have spent at the dealership or the local repair shop. (I was really upset when I found out how SIMPLE it is to replace disc brake pads) However, I would not use this manual for serious work, such as engine overhauls. In essence, this book is great for doing brakes, belts, spark plugs and minor troubleshooting. I would not depend on it for anything beyond such activities. Some of the chapters discuss engine overhauls and replacing struts. These are two pretty dangerous activities that the book sort of glazes over. They should have just left those things to the logic of "let somebody else seriously injure themselves doing this stuff".

It would have been nice for Haynes to include the Cadillac engine computer trouble codes, but you have to buy a seperate Haynes manual to get those.

It is great book as are all of Haynes manuals. It is informative and very well written. The directions are easy to follow and thought out. Well worth the Money!

This is really a nice, nice thriller. Seldom I have read a crime novel with so much human warmth and understanding. I could fully identify with Gabe. Much better than the SPQR-series (which is not bad at all) and a quantum leap from Conan or other "I have to feed some mouths" - works in the fantasy field.

I tried my hardest to ignore the bad reviews here on this book...but it was pretty bad. I felt like I was reading a scooby doo book. Especially towards the end when they almost literally pull a mask off of someone. I guess I suggest this to dragonlance lovers of course. and I suggest this to mystery book lovers. But if your looking for action or strong character development, its not here. Also while i can usually look past dragonlance flaws, its really hard to accept, not just one baby dragon who may have woken up on accident from its stasis, its very hard to accept that its mother would come searching for it. This makes me think that Mr. Roberts hasnt, in fact, done much research on the dragonlance world, which is disappointing.

The book was enjoyable to read and the caracters were interesting, but one thing is dead wrong with this Dragonlance novel: it happens between the Cataclysm and the War of the Lance, a time at which there no dragons (they were gone since a thousand years and more, see Legend of Huma), yet Roberts has put a black dragon right in the middle of his book. The dragon appears and nobody knows that they are supposed to be children's tales, not real beasts, nobody is affraid, nobody find this unusual at all!

So much for history...

Roberts has created some vibrant characters in this mystery about three misfit's given the responsiblity to solve a murder in the midst of a near-siege of Tarsis. The personal history surrounding Ironwood, the mercenary, and Stunbog, the former mage, is especially rich. The book leaves the reader guessing at the identity of the murderer all the way to the very end of the novel. And this is where I felt the book failed. A good mystery novel should present all the clues and motives needed to solve the crime before it reaches the last few pages. 'Murder in Halruha' and 'Murder in Cormyr' serve as very good examples of this. But 'Murder in Tarsis' dissapoints, because it presents key clues and most importantly the murderer's motive at the very end of the novel. The reader never has a chance to deduce who the killer is or why he/she did it. That's why someone will read mystery novels versus other type of novels after all. Because they want to test their powers of deduction. This book never gives the reader the oppurtunity to do so. An even better mystery novel will redirect or mislead the reader subtlely to suspect other characters of being the culprit. But without any real clues, save at the ending of the novel, the reader doesn't even know who to suspect in this story. The ending also lacked the excitement many have come to associate with suspense stories. Roberts has a good writing style and he knows how to create interesting characters, but his ability to create mystery novels is sorely lacking. If you are looking for a good fantasy mystery novel I highly suggest either 'Murder in Halruha' or 'Murder in Cormyr". Better yet, read them both.

i think this is actually the worst conan-story i have read. the plot didn't grab me, seemed to artificial to me. melodramatic. so the rest seemed pretty dull to me too. i never really believed in this story, which was carried out in a dull way too. not much suspence

Well written and fast paced, this book strongly captures the essence of Howard's original character even as it hints at a new, deeper characterization of the mighty Cimmerian. The plot is strong and engaging and goes down as one of my all time favorite Conan novels. An all around good read.

This story is about an epic adventure with Conan, a Cimmerian being captured as a slave and working his way up through the ranks in the army. He fights in many battles and wins most of them. In the end he has to fight a very powerful wizard whose name is Khondemir. I really enjoyed this story because I like a lot of action in stories. I like the author describing how people die. Most of the time it shows what is on their minds.

In this novel, as in reality, oil is becoming scarce, so this gives incentive to an international race to put a solar energy satellite into geostationary orbit to beam energy down to earth. This may actually happen someday, but mabe not, if it does it is decades off, at least.

I found the character development to be sketchy at best, with the plot amateurish at times. The ending was abrupt, with the whole novel being a bit too brief. It was not a page turner for me, however I have read worse science fiction than this. According to the cover on this book one of the authors, Eric Kotani, is a pseudonym for a world-class astrophysicist, so there is some actual science included here so not all is lost, it is informative to some extent, but for me it just did'nt have the 'fire' other science fiction I have read did.

I was first drawn to "Legacy" because of the premise of the solar power farming using satellites, a concept that inspired me 20 years ago to give up a dead end life style and go back to school. It was a senior project done by the Aerospace school at the University of Michigan named "Project Rodan", I believe.

The character development is wonderful with believable business and government senarios. The wheeling and dealing at the highest level reminds me of the Heinlein novels where money was secondary and vision and persistance win out over deceit and treachary.

My only complaint is that there seem to be a few chapters missing. These team of characters are too good to leave hanging out there... especially when a "first contact" may be eminent.

I thought this book was brilliant, John Maddox Roberts is a class writer anyway ( having read ALL of his SPQR series), and although I liked the SPQR series ( save the last book "Ships of Kleopatra") more, this is still a brilliant read !

This series is pretty lightweight. You don't feel that you've visited ancient Rome -- the city doesn't come alive, the people do not behave as we expect, e.g. Milo, Cicero, Cato, to behave. The scenary feels like cardboard, and it is hard to care about any of the people, including the 'hero' Decius.

Historical detective fiction has been done a whole lot better than this. Lindsay Davies' 'Falco' novels are far better written, and much more fun to read.

The funny thing is that Roberts can write a good tale when he wants to. But he seems to know nothing about ancient Rome, and it shows. I was disappointed, anyway.

The King's Gambit, the first of SPQR series by John Maddox Roberts, is a quirky mess than generally works. Compared to the Colleen McCullough's Roman historical fiction series The King's Gambit is almost shambolic on the historical bits. Compared to Steven Saylor's Gordianus Roman historical detective series, the characterizations are weak. And worse, John Maddox Roberts simply fails to produce prose to the standards of anything resembling better-than-average literature. Yet I liked The King's Gambit. Why?

Like the Gordianus novels, The King's Gambit introduces us to a sleuth unravelling a rather complex series of murders and mishaps. Naturally the corrupt and very wealthy politicians of the day are behind all this. While much of the story seems to lack inventiveness, John Maddox Roberts does manage to twist matters around in a most interesting fashion (..no spoilers here). And thankfully, the ending is rather good.

Bottom line: a good story somewhat poorly told. However the end justifies the means, and so even fans of more finer ancient Roman historical novels will enjoy The King's Gambit.

The ancient Rome murder mystery is a relatively new genre - and JMR could be held as its primary mover, so to compare it to Saylor, Davis or Todd is perhaps a little unfair. However it does stand up well. Having read this one I've promptly ordered the other five.
Well characterised, well plotted the opening mystery for the senator's son, Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger, skips neatly through the period around 70BC with some aplomb. His choice of a somewhat 'modern' (in his attitudes) young Roman of patrician nobility with various seedier supporting characters and faithful slaves has been echoed in later authors' attempts at the subgenre. It clearly works.
Given knowledge of the actual events around this time, my review is biased towards reviewing the author's depiction of Rome and actual historical characters and it falls down slightly on this point.
Two things lead fairly quickly to who dunnit:
1)If you have a good knowledge of the period then it is fairly clear what's going on as JMR follows historical fact - admirably
2)A lack of suspects points to the culprit.
JMR's depiction of both Clodia/Claudia and Clodius is OK, again, given knowledge of the reality of what both will become you leave feeling their depiction isn't perhaps quite true. Both Crassus and Pompey exhibit imperial traits; again, doesn't quite fit in with Republican Rome and a view of a younger Caesar and Cicero is really setting us up for later novels - given the titles of those later novels.

All in all, well worth reading. I think that those who know the history of the period in some detail will view (and review) this offering in a different light to those who have not. But this is a highly recommended Roman murder mystery. I suspect it will get better and better with each installment.

In Hannibal's Children, John Maddox Roberts presents a story of alternate history that branches from reality during the second Punic War by allowing Hannibal to be victorious over the Romans, casting them from their great city and sending them north into Europe and exile. In a society that has difficulty in remembering lessons from one generation past, his prologue provides the necessary historic background.

Without knowing what really happened, it would be difficult to determine where the changes lay. Roberts presents the facts in a manner that is compelling and concise.

Even though the majority of this story takes place a hundred years after Hannibal's war on Rome, Roberts provides very little in the prologue for comparison between historical reality and alternate fiction. Of course, all of the Carthaginians are fictitious due to the fact that Carthage was utterly destroyed during the third Punic War. However, it is an open question about how many of the other characters in this alternate history are based on real historical figures.

Even without a complete historical comparison Hannibal's Children, is a compelling novel. Being that this is an alternate history, it is hardly a foregone conclusion that the exiled Romans will succeed in retaking their homeland. Still, seeing these Romans operate with such mechanical precision makes it all the more amazing that they could ever have lost to Hannibal, no matter how brilliant a general he was.

Even as they operate together with mechanical precision for the greater good of Rome, each Roman stands out with a distinct personality. Marcus Scipio, brilliant leader of an expedition to Rome, and descendant of native Romans strives to manipulate whole nations to put Romans back in Rome.

Titus Nabonus, descendant of northern barbarians conquered by the exiled Romans, faces the decadent temptations of Carthage as he seeks glory not only for Rome, but for himself. Flaccus, an elder intellectual Roman who has little love for battle, faces his own temptation at the seat of Egyptian learning. These and other characters come to life through the simple and direct writing of Mr. Roberts.

This entire book is the first portion of a greater piece. The Romans set into motion a chain of events that will affect all of the Mediterranean civilizations during the first century before the birth of Christ. Despite the difficulty in discerning history fact from fiction, if the following books prove to be as compelling as this first book, John Maddox Roberts will have created a masterpiece.

Rome's rise from a tiny group of clans to a vast empire that endured for centuries has something inexorable about it. So it seemed to the Romans themselves when Virgil talked of destiny, to the Christians when Augustine proclaimed the empire divinely ordained, and to the barbarians who encircled and attacked it, yet always desired it. However you interpret Rome's history, the City's survival was on a knife's edge more than once. If the Etruscans had conquered the new Republic or Alexander the Great had turned west to Italy or Hannibal had led Carthage to victory, all of subsequent history would have been different. Or maybe it wouldn't have been? What if the Romans were exiled after the second war with Carthage and sent into exile, still a nation? That's the premise of Roberts' novel. The book is fun, fast paced, backed up with lots of historical knowledge and some interesting characters. I'd like to see a deeper sense of contingency and human imperfection in the sequel, with Roman soldiers who are not so perfect and undefeatable and with two main antagonists who are not so completely Good Guy vs. Bad Guy. But mainly I want to see how Roberts works things out. Will history resume along the lines we know, making the Mediterranean a Roman lake and the Hellenistic kingdoms Roman provinces? This book is good summer entertainment.

Once again John Maddox Roberts displays his extensive knowledge of ancient Rome (like in the SPQR series), and in this book Carthage as well. In this alternate Earth, unlike our own, Hannibal gets assistance from Philip V of Macedon during the Second Punic War and forces Rome to conditionally surrender. Rome's leaders agree to emigrate north out of Italy into the Roman province of Noricum: comprising most of present day Austria and bits of Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia.

The plot is revenge. After 115 years of forced exile the descendants of the Romans feel the time is right to send an expedition into the Italian penisula and down to Rome. The leader of the expedition is Marcus Cornelius Scipio, whose ancestor Scipio Africanus ultimately defeated Hannibal in actual history. The Roman party then visits the cities of Carthage and Alexandria and partakes in a war between the Carthaginian Empire and Ptolemaic Egypt.

This book is very interesting and I found it quite a page-turner. Maddox gives eloquent descriptions of the gods of the Roman pantheon, as well as those of many Eastern religions (Carthage and Egypt's). The reader is also given thorough explanations of Roman military tactics and warfare in general from that era. In all, the book is quite informative.

My only problems with this historical fiction novel are the development of the protagonist (M. Scipio) and the antagonist Titus Norbanus. Titus is descended from a Germanic tribe that is absorbed into the population of Roma Noricum. The Norbanus family is one of the "new" patrician families in the Senate who are at odds with the "old" patrician families that migrated from Rome, such as the Scipios. The author grants Marcus Scipio with all the virtues that Romans were noted for, while Titus is an incidious compilation of Marius, Sulla, and Caesar. I found these two characters simliar to John Maddox Robert's "Islander" fantasy series in that: the good guy is too good to be true, and the villain is so obnoxious that the reader (this one anyway) wishes that somebody would simply strangle the antagonist and remove him from the story. Further, I found the authority that the Senate gives Titus Norbanus not to be credible in the slightest degree. The author knows that Romans during the Republic were required to serve two magisterial positions and have some actual military experience before they are given the command that Titus gets, no matter how influential his family is. John Maddox Roberts glosses over this problem by saying that these were extraordinary circumstances, but that is poor justification in my opinion.

All in all, I highly recommend this book and will definitely read the next book in the series.