If you shivered at H.G. Wells' WAR OF THE WORLDS and quaked at John Wyndham's DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS, and if you can't resist those 1950s B movies about giant ants and tarantulas and critters, then you'll love THE FURIES.

1st book by Keith Roberts - even he can't stand it he said in a 1990's interview. But it has got some thinking behind it - not just giant insects attempting to take over the world. But advanced non-corporal intelligences that made a teeny mistake when they arrived at Earth and choose the wrong form....Essential if your a collector.

I read this book more or less by accident when it was originally published. Unfortunately the book belonged to someone else so I couldn't keep it.

I've tried many times to find the book since that time, always being told that it wasn't available or out of print. Now, thanks to the internet I managed to get a copy through Amazon and reading it again after all these years I remembered exactly why I spent that amount of time trying to find it!

This is an excellent sci fi book which keeps the reader on the edge of their seat with enough action to last a lifetime mixed in with plenty of human qualities.

Subtitled "Episodes of a Writer's Life", Lemady is a fascinating and idiosyncratic fusion of fact and fantasy that records some key events and encounters in Roberts' life. Although, from one perspective, the narrative can be perceived as a personal record, it also features a fictional character, the Lemady of the title, who interacts with Roberts as he remembers. Truth and fantasy are therefore never what they seem; one becomes the other and the reader must decide where real life finishes and fiction begins. Not a major Roberts work, but essential for anyone interested in what makes the author tick.

Lemady is subtitled Episodes of a Writer's Life and is a rambling, idiosyncratic stream of consciousness discourse which is probably the closest Keith Roberts ever came to writing an autobiography. Roberts is famous as the author of Pavane, an alternate history novel that brought him fame (though little fortune). Many of his other novels are worthy though they are very hard to find having been published mainly by very small presses with very limited print runs (though Wildside Press has brought several of the rarer novels back into print and they are now easily obtainable through Amazon.Com). One reason for this was Robert's rather irascible character - he had a positive genius for alienating his colleagues and sometimes he seemed to go out of his way to be difficult. Lemady contains its moments of bitchiness (he is quite scathing about Kerosina, a small press which almost single handedly kept many of his books in print in the 1970s) - but despite this a certain grace shines through. Nobody who could write such beautiful novels can be entirely devoid of soul and insight. Many of the obituaries published on his death concentrated on the negative aspects of his character - it seemed that even after he was dead, Roberts kept the enemies that he made in life, and those enemies proved to be very unforgiving. Well; distance lends enchantment. I never met Roberts, but I admired his books hugely and Lemady adds an extra dimension that I for one am very pleased to have discovered.

The authors of this novel have clearly NOT done their homework on the modern Greek state. For country which has been seiged by Ottoman Rule and genocide, which has been kept "in the dark" by brutal Turkish rule while other countries in Europe experienced such events as the Industrial Revolution and the Renaissance, and whose people have been used as political toys by countries such as the United States and Great Britain, Greece has come a long way in the last twenty years. After the dictatorship, which consequently was installed by the United States government, the country was crippled. For a country with so few resources and even fewer allies, I have the tendency not to agree with the viewpoint of the authors. The only true way to comment on the modern Greek state is to take all previous history into account. The authors clearly did not do that. For anyone interested in reading a more non-biased on the modern Greek state,a great source would be Richard Clogg's book, "A concise History of Modern Greece".

The author uses everything that has been written on Greece to present an image of Greece as hopelessly backward and certainly not worthy of entering into the European Union. It underestimates to a laughable point the danger of Turkey to Greece. It could have been written by the Turkish propaganda ministry.

Instead of one big novel involving characters from all six current Star Trek book series, this is a collection of six short stories, each one picking up from the cliffhanger ending of each of the Gateways novels from the individual series (if that makes sense). While this sounded like a cynical marketing ploy, I had hoped that the six stories would build on each other to present some sort of unified whole, bringing the whole adventure to one grand conclusion. How wrong I was!

The Star Trek (original series), Challenger, and Voyager stories could--and probably should--have easily been included as concluding chapters in their respective books. Each one is nothing more than an epilogue to the main story. The Deep Space Nine and New Frontier stories present somewhat separate adventures, but that doesn't make them much better. In both, characters get transported to significant locations (an important historical moment for Colonel Kira, a mythical afterlife for Calhoun and Shelby) where nothing of any real consequence seems to happen. Of course, since both series present ongoing adventures, it's possible that these tales plant seeds for upcoming stories. Even if that were the case, it doesn't make these stories any less inconsequential or any more satisfying.

The Next Generation tale, longer than the other five, does, indeed, wrap up the Gateways story. But, like the other five, there's no real reason (besides financial) that this story couldn't have been included at the end of Doors Into Chaos.

Because four of the stories are completely dependent upon what came before, there is a complete lack of tension or suspense. All the big events happened in the parent novels, and all the authors have left to do in What Lay Beyond is tie up the loose ends (even when there aren't really any loose ends that need tying up). Any opportunites for suspense that could have been sustained through the other two stories are completely ignored by their authors. Frustratingly, those two authors, Peter David and Keith RA DeCandidio, have done particularly good Star Trek work in the past, which makes their lackluster contributions here even more disappointing.

So, if you followed the Gateways saga so far and need to see what happens next, I recommend waiting for the paperback. Nothing of enough consequence happens to make this an immediate must-read.

The series Book 1-6 was promising, if annoying for having a cliffhanger ending that forced you to buy the next book, or specificially the Book 7 which contains all the endings.

Well after being built-up by books 1-6, wondering if the inconsistencies between those books would be tied together in ST Gateways Book 7, wondering if Book 7 "the grand conclusion of what lay beyond" would put forth a good explanation for the Iconian mystery, tie all the loose ends together and provide good conclusions for the cliffhanger endings of books 1-6...............it was most most most disappointing to see that this was not the case.

Book 7 creates more inconsistencies and the endings are [bad]. Oh some of the endings were ok, but the final ending...for the TNG book in the series...which was SUPPOSED to tie everything together, totally messed it up and failed, completely failed to deliver! I mean...first in books 1-6 they established that once activated a gateway cannot be destroyed no matter what they threw at it because it will simply absorb the energy. THEN in Book 7...suddenly Gateways CAN be destroyed by explosive force...no explanation given!!! Just a lazy author who didn't even read the previous book he wrote and ignored all stuff he established in the previous book! Once again, this is a MAJOR LETDOWN!

Star Trek-Gateways: What Lay Beyond written by Diane Carey et.al.is the culmination of a seven part series including all of the different genre of the Star Trek Universe.

Now, I'll be up front about this series... I'm not a fan of shelling out money for poor marketing and the way this series was presented to the reader was a downright travisty. I really do NOT understand the reasons why they (Paramount/Simon and Schuster) did this, save but one, to dig into the readers wallet.

Enough said, now, here is the contents:

Star Trek: One Giant Leap by Susan Wright
Star Trek Challenger: Exodus by Diane Carey
Star Trek DS-9: Horn and Ivory by Keith R.A. DeCandido
Star Trek Voyager: In the Queue by Christie Golden
Star Trek New Frontier Death After Life by Peter David
Star Trek TNG The Other Side by Robert Greenberger

Found in this volume are the conclusions to the above stories, but the hook is you have to buy the first six volume in order to make sense of these conclusions. This is why people believe they've been ripped off... and I can't blame them. I this was my idea, I'd expect a pink slip with my last pay check.

The only saving grace in this book is The Pocket Books STAR TREK Novels Timeline written by the Timeline Gang; Robert Bowling, Johan Ciamaglia, Ryan J. Cornelius, James R McCain, Alex Rosenzweig, Paul T.Semones, and Corey W. Tacker... with David Henderson and Lee Jamilkowski.

After you read the first six books you'll see what I mean, you really lose the flow of the story. But, now that all seven are available in paperback the contenuity should be easier to follow.

I had fond memories of using the 2nd edition of this book with college classes and so (carelessly, I admit) ordered the 5th for my current class. In it, under "Some Classic Arguments" is an excerpt from *Mein Kampf.* It is treated like the other essays in its section (Plato, Swift, Jefferson, etc.) An oversight? If so, it was also careless. I find this inclusion offensive, misleading and certainly not something I can cope with in the classroom, so am urging my students to return the book.

In response to oncomput@tri-town.net's review, I found the inclusion of Hitler to be very illuminating. The distinguishing factor between Plato and Hitler is the fact that Hitler used his persuasion techniques for evil. But we must not forget that no matter how heinous, THEY WORKED. Including "Mein Kampf" was not a bad judgment call, in fact it was very effective. Hitler's "success" shows the implications of persuasion in modern and post-modern society, which is a topic that must be coupled with education of argument and fallacies. Do not let moral judgments impede the merit of a reference text on the subject of argument. One would only be looking at the world through a distorted pair of glasses instead of looking critically at the world, which is what rhetoric tries to achieve.

Osprey's Campaign #116, First Newbury 1643, covers an action in the second season of the English Civil War. This book is obviously designed to appeal primarily to English audiences and hence, seems more narrowly focused than most other volumes in this series. American readers may ponder not only why this battle is described by the author as the "turning point" of the war, but also why such a seemingly minor action merits a book in the same series as Waterloo, Kursk and Gettysburg. The author spends the bulk of the volume relating events leading up to the battle then spends less than 10% on the battle itself. Furthermore, the author's plodding writing style and inattention to detail will surely make a murky situation even more opaque. First Newbury 1643 should only be purchased to round out one's Osprey collection, since it is not one of the better volumes in this series.

First Newbury 1643 begins with a rather lengthy eight-page introduction, followed by a brief section on the art of war in England in 1600-1650. The sections on opposing commanders and opposing armies comprise another 18 pages. The bulk of the campaign narrative focuses on events leading up to the Battle of Newbury, with only eight pages of text covering the battle itself. There are three 3-D Bird's Eye View maps of the Battle of Newbury and five 2-D maps (England in 1643, the siege of Gloucester, the march from Gloucester to Newbury, the march from Newbury to London, and England in late 1643). Perhaps the best parts of this book are the three well-done battle scenes: a parliament sally during the siege of Gloucester, cavalry clash at Newbury and Parliament infantry at Newbury.

Reading the first thirty pages or so of First Newbury 1643, I was struck by this author's seeming inability to describe military history in other than the most mundane terms (e.g. "on such-and-such a date, this body of troops marched here, and then on the next day, they marched there..."). The author incorporates huge chunks - actually far too much - of several contemporary accounts into his narrative and is constantly switching between 17th Century and 21st Century English in the same paragraph. As for describing the Battle of Newbury, not only does the author make no mention of casualties, but he seems at a loss to explain the significance of any of the events described. The description of First Newbury - a minor battle that ended inconclusively - as the "turning point" of the war appears ludicrous. Surely the battles of Marston Moor or Naseby were more significant and decisive. Overall, this book is superficially attractive but poorly-written and historically lightweight.

scymanski has an ok story here. price has a good one about the gorgon. that one was very enjoyable, and had some lovely details. otherwise, this was dreary read. so many of these stories were not only badly invented, but seemed so uninspired to. i almost felt sorry for the writers, for making so bad stories. i think this is chaosium's worst.

I found this book to be nothing more then the on-line help in book form. The book needed to be more technical in many areas such as how to setup, maintain and secure your servers.

Even at $8.36 this book disappoints as a 3D offering. There are very few 3D images and these are really awful. If you want to dazzle your child (or adult friends) with 1st class 3D imagery, spend $5 more and look into the Mark Blum books - Bugs in 3D and Beneath the Sea in 3D.

If your interest is in Space, and your intent is to teach your child about outer space, there are dozens of better offerings out there with 2D photo graphic images that will pique your childs interest better than this lame example.

Careful! The material appears to be good by the book is only 39 pages long. Keep this in mind when purchasing ...this book.