Starik is perhaps not as well known as Cardinal of the Kremlin. Nonetheless, it is a taut and well constructed thriller. The plot revolves around a change of power in the Kremlin which brings a neo-Leninist madman to power.

The characters who ultimately come together in this one to stave off World War III are interesting because they are an unlikely collection of rather unheroic people plotting to steal Lenin's corpse. This is more of an every-person type of spy novel, as such it does not force cliche secret agents down our throats, rather an odd collection of Americans and Russians.

Additionally it is well written, and does manage to crank the suspense up to a good level.

"TV Babylon" by Jeff Rovin might be nothing more than Hollywood gossip, but it is certainly done in the style of an expose. The focus here is on the flip side of the money, fame, power, and adoration that television stars enjoy, although the idea that the stars we watch on the tube are adrift in a seas of sex, drugs, personal and professional backstabbing, domestic tragedy and suicide can certainly no longer be called a true revelation. Since we go into this book with our eyes wide open reading "TV Babylon" probably constitutes wallowing rather than true enlightenment. But is that really a surprise either?

Actually, Rovin has dressed up his collection of tabloid as an object lesson (I am not sure if morality play really applies here, so I will refrain from characterizing the book as such). Dividing the world of TV Babylon into two kinds of people, the survivors and the dead, Rovin makes it clear his book is about the latter. But he begins with a brief profile of Joan Collins as the premier example of a survivor. The clear implication is that the stories of all that follow will be in contrast to Collins as stories of those who succumbed directly or indirectly to television, whether because they could not handle their celebrity or, in many cases, of losing it.

The stories in this 1984 book are arranged by categories. We have suicides (Freddie Prinze) and accidental drug overdoses (John Belushi), murders (Bob Crane), stage fright (Farrah Fawcett), drugs (Mackenzie Phillips), booze (Dick Van Dyke), exploited kid stars (Anissa Jones) and children of stars (Richard Meeker), stars injured doing stunts (Ron Ely), scandals (Charles Van Doren), censored rebels (the Smothers Brothers), egocentric stars (Arthur Godfrey), prima donnas (Suzanne Sommers), big shots (Johnny Carson), and doomed couples (Sonny and Cher). Following in the tradition of comprehensive categories established by Aristotle, Rovin comes up everything that can go wrong for a star living in Hollywood. Of course, there is some overlap as issues of drugs, booze, egos, and sex cut across all boundaries.

"TV Babylon" will remind readers of the tabloids not only because of the subject matter but because of the brevity with which Rovin covers each story. Basically, if you have heard about Herve Villechaize causing trouble on the set of "Fantasy Island" or the stabbing of Sal Mineo, this book will acquaint you with the facts, along with editorial comments from Rovin with regards to his idea of what lessons are to be learned from such tales. Not all of these stories are necessarily stories of despair; Erik Estrada survived his motorcycle accident on "CHiPs" and Daniel J. Travanti enjoyed a successful run on "Hill Street Blues" after his drinking nearly destroyed his acting career.

Rovin has authored several books about television and TV personalities, including "The Signet Book of TV Lists" and "In Search of Trivia." There is, of course, also a "TV Babylon II" that offers more "shocking secrets" in the same vein. This first book does not quite live up to the author's pretensions, but it cannot be dismissed as simple exploitation.

I bought this book a few years back, back when I was really into Mortal Kombat. The first movie had just been released, as well as the cartoon, and Mortal Kombat 3. I was excited when I saw this book, so I bought it. To be honest, I thought it was pretty cool, although I was confused by the various contradictions represented here. Scorpion, I thought, was a bad guy, only interested in revenge and not in stopping evil in general. I also thought Shang Tsung was a demon, not a human turned evil, but I could be wrong about that. Lastly, I thought Liu Kang was a Shaolin warrior and not a member of the White Lotus Society (? Sorry if I got it wrong!). Anyways, the story was pretty exciting, though it strayed too far from the previously established MK facts. Actually, I'm sorry I gave the book away.

Mortal kombat is a about a god name T'ien he come and made the earth and animals for entertainment. but it get boring so he human then the worship him and lot of people wonder how he looked.

This book was very good. I loved the plot and how the characters tie in with the whole saga. Characters that are unneccesary (like Johnny Cage) have no significance in the book. In the game Johnny Cage had no real significance, and in the book he does not. Jeff Rovin did an incredible job with description and detail. Rayden was not portrayed as weak like he was in the movies. In the book he stands a head shorter than Goro (who is 8 ft. tall) and Rayden is 7 ft. In the movies he is belittled. I read it 3 times it was so engrossing. It doesn't follow the exact plotline of the game because it was not meant for a sequel like the video game is. It is a novelization of the popular game and it goes in depth into the history of Mortal Kombat. A must for any fan.

Fatalis is one of those books that you can read and just picture the movie that it COULD become. There's nothing too in depth, and the characters are only slightly deeper than those in say Jurassic Park. Now, this may sound like a bad thing, but this book kept me reading and left me thoroughly entertained the entire time. It doesn't have the sheer kinetic energy of Rovin's last book VESPERS (which I highly recommend) but it does have a better conflict.

In FATALIS, you have two sides - Sheriff Gearhart who is looking to safe human life at any cost and Jim Grand who wants to save the "returned" Sabre-tooth cats. Obviously one is HERO and one is ANTAGONIST, however as I read this I found myself taking strange sides. It's a tough thing to follow a 'hero' who seems more preoccupied with saving an animal than with all of the innocents who are being slaughtered around him...and believe me there is a HUGE body count in this book.

All in all I'd say buy Fatalis, read it, and wait for the movie...which if Hollywood was smart...will be made!

Think Jaws with paws, and you've pretty much got the idea of this one. It's an old-fashioned 1970s style animal-monster-on-the loose story, though Fatalis is a little better than its genre.

The characters are stock, but Rovin ponders several interesting subjects during the story, such as cryogenic preservation, the nature of instinct, ecological balance, the role of evolution and the question of extinction of species. Anyone interested in anthropology and American Indian lore will discover a lot of material on the Chumash tribe.

Rovin's natural history of the cats is fascinating. Since no one's ever seen what a saber-tooth "tiger" really looks like, Rovin makes the cats his own. They're not really tigers, but described something more like outsize-incisored wildcats, and they behave more like a pride of lions. The explanation for their being around is a little hard to swallow, and once or twice they pull some tricks it's difficult to imagine any kind of big cat even attempting, but the author makes it credible enough to enjoy the ride.

This is a very fast, very easy read, and very enjoyable as well.

Rovin manages to take a seemingly implausible premise (prehistoric sabertooth cats in the LA hills) and let it play out in an enjoyable modern day monster thriller that actually is believable. Yes, on the surface you've got the requisite "good" girl and guy against the big bad sheriff. But when you understand where each of the characters is coming from, you can actually find yourself seeing all sides of the situation and more often than not, siding with the "bad guy" sheriff.

Some previous reviewers seem to be annoyed that there is anyone in the book that has an interest in saving the cats. Well, forgive me for suggesting that that is extremely realistic. You can't tell me that if creatures such as these actually did make an appearance in 2000 that there would not be a great moral dilemma played out between those dedicated to protecting citizens and those furthering the cause of science. And YES it would be fought out on the front pages of our newspapers.

THis is the worst book that I have ever seen for SNES! Shame Shame!

If you want a super nintendo book, this is definetly the best one. It is a total masterpeice!

This is Jeff Rovin's fifth encyclopedic book to discuss various characters from the wide range of American and, to a (quite) lesser extent, international popular culture, and I'm afraid that, as he chooses classifications of greater and greater range, he continually loses focus; he does well with what he offers us, as always, but his selection process seems to progressively dim. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SUPER-HEROES was forced to restrict some interesting international and golden age characters to brief appendices, while ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SUPER-VILLAINS could have been more all-encompassing as it picked and chose characters from throughout the century (understandable, there being so many more super-villains than super-heroes, after all); there are even more monsters, but ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MONSTERS did what it could, as did ADVENTURE HEROES, which covered a category somewhat harder to define than the preceding three. But with ALIENS ROBOTS AND SPACESHIPS, I'm afraid Mr. Rovin got too ambitious. By trying to encompass all sources, he devoted but sparse attention to most of them. Each of this book's three categories could have easily supported books of their own, especially given Mr. Rovin's habit of including various one-shot characters that have captured his interest; a book could be done on the aliens from magazines like AMAZING STORIES alone, ditto the robots in 1950s comic books or spaceships in science fiction movies. Other problems include flawed adherence to the title's restrictions (The book's not ALIENS ROBOTS SPACESHIPS TIME MACHINES PLANETS AND SO ON, after all), and repetitions from previous books (Superman is a super-hero first, and an alien second; he didn't need to be in this book.). Don't get me wrong; this book is interesting reading and a good reference book of its kind, but it doesn't quite live up to Mr. Rovin's previous efforts. He tried for too much and fell a bit short this time.

A decent book. Not one that one should crave to read but not a bad investment either. This book was on my bookshelf for at least ten years before I read it. It is better than some of the other ones out their.

They left themselves wide open for a sequel or two.

"TV Babylon II" is, of course, a sequel to Jeff Rovin's 1984 "TV Babylon." The difference is that whereas the original laid out the ways television stars could fall from grace in Hollywood category by category, this 1991 paperback just strings together a series of similar stories dealing with drugs and sex, back stabbing and self-destruction, with no particular rhyme or reason. The theme set up by the introduction is that since the publication of the first book that TV Babylon has become even more unsavory and carnivorous: the first book covered forty years of Hollywood, the second just seven years.

Actually, Rovin's Introduction ends up being the most interesting part of the book, wherein he notes that the professionalism of television stars like Lucille Ball and Sid Caesar is dead, replaced by stars who are more tyrannical, drugged-out, and paranoid than ever. Rovin posits several reasons for this, the power of the press to turn insignificant figures into major TV personalities and fear of being slain or attacked, but leaves it to Johnny Carson to draw a distinction between television stars who appear as twenty-one inches tall versus movie stars who are eight feet by ten feet.

Anyhow, the tabloid stories contained should be at least passingly familiar, from the alcoholism of Kelsey Grammar and the damaged childhood of Oprah Winfrey to the lawsuit of Valarie Harper against NBC and the weight problems of Delta Burke. Rovin certainly does not go out of his way to sensationalize these stories, and usually moralizes on the lessons to be drawn by lesser mortals. Not everything is necessarily a tale of despair: there is the example of Elizabeth Glaser, wife of Paul Michael Glaser, who received AIDS through a blood transfusion and became an inspirational advocate on the subject representing everyone afflicted with the disease.

Overall the book is simply the more of the same that it promised its readers to be, which reduces it one level in quality by statute. Of course, the story of the Hollywood Babylon does not end with this volume, which readers already know early on in the book when we read about the woman stalking David Letterman. Rovin even warns us to "Stay tuned" to see how that particular story ends; most of us remember that the woman in question ended up as a suicide victim. And so it goes and so it goes and so it goes goes goes goes goes...

This was the first book I read from the popular Op-Centre series created by Tom Clancy & Steve Pieczenik. I noticed
one thing though, this book was not written by Tom Clancy, it was written by Jeff Rovin. However, that did not dampen my spirits as I ventured out to read this book. This was mainly because of its exciting theme revolving around India, Pakistan, & the U.S., their elder sibling!

The story revolves around the possibility of a nuclear war between India & Pakistan. The other angle involves an American covert operations team called Striker, & a devious double agent in Kashmir who could be the deciding factor between war & peace in that region. Sounds good!

Well whatever drawbacks others have found with this book, I must say I definately enjoyed the book & finished it incredibly
fast. So then, let me begin with the good points of this book. Firstly, the plot feels amazingly real & as an Indian I shudder to think if it were actually true! The narrative is fast paced & theres some good characterisation, the ones I liked were especially Bob Herbert of Op-centre & General Mike Rodgers of Striker. The political situation in Kashmir is depicted beautifully with all the facts crystal clear & depicting reality. To add to all this, theres some good action (although it takes a while to begin), nice high tech equipment stuff & good use of local characters like a Pakistani terrorist cell & some Indian operatives. All in all there seem to be no loopholes in the story & the climax is very good with nothing over the top of reality.

Sounds perfect? How about a few drawbacks then? Well, it feels really bugging when the scenes in the book keep changing too frequently, almost every 4-5 pages. The story switches too frequently from Washington, to Kargil to Srinagar which tends to break the continuity a little. Also, the op-centre Striker team has very little to do in the first 200 pages or so. However, the biggest drawback I found was the character of Ron Friday, the devious double agent in Kashmir. I really failed to understand his agenda throughout the book. Being such an important character in the story, his character should have been explained more clearly.

In the end what really matters is this book is really good. Its worth picking up. My advice is: Read this book with an open mind with no prejudices towards any of the countries, especially if you are an Indian, a Pakistani or an American.
Happy Reading!

This is the first Tom Clancy's military kind of novel I've read. The book has its plot, which is a really interesting one between India and Pakistan and the involvement of US military force. However, the way the plot develops in the book is too slow with too many details, background information, and unrelated character. The chapters of the book keep on shifting, which is purposely used for getting the reader's interest, but then the constant shift of chapters is somehow confusing and some of the chapters in between are unrelated to the plot, which makes it even harder to follow. Also, since he puts in so many effort to the background and details, there¡¦s not much left in the ending, which makes the book a little unbalance.
The plot basically deals with the conflict between India and Pakistan, also the involvement of a striker team from U.S. Stuck with a double agent, which they can't totally trust in, the Americans are in big trouble. Also the trouble led by the bombing of Sharab and her group is another theme that the author mentions about.
Overall, the book was written in the form that not much concentration is required, even though there is some confusing part in the middle, the question will be solved when you get to the end, this is a good book for people whose into military action and stuff, so enjoy the book!

If you are looking for an indepth study of the intricate political, religious and personal battles that are being fought in the Kashmir region....go get a non-fiction book on the subject. But if you want a great, fast paced read with some interesting characters and plot twists in an international setting then you should enjoy this latest Op Center novel. The story uses the Pakistani-Indian conflict as its backdrop, and many of the regular Op Center characters are featured. But basically you've got a "Clancy" meets "Cliffhanger" thriller. Not a bad idea, even if occasionally you must suspend disbelief on some details. Worth a read.