I first read 'Sandkings' in the annual Best of SF edition of OMNI magazine when I was in 8th grade oh so many years ago... I am STILL in awe of this story. When I saw the book at a store several years ago I figured maybe George had taken his amazing short-story and lengthened it to novel-size...or had simply written a sequel or well I didn't really care as long as it was built upon the best short-story I had ever read. I am sorry to say that it was just a collection of short stories

with 'Sandkings' being one OF them. This in NO WAY dimishes how utterly original this story is, though. I'm telling you the last written line of 'Sandkings' is worth the price of the book alone...but please, please do NOT spoil the surprise by skipping ahead and doing so. The main character is flawed in that he loves to be sadistic with these tiny adaptable creatures that learn to revere him as deity. But what happens along the way is horrific...and amazing. Spend an hour or two and read this short story and get to know one of the best novelists of the past 20 years. George R.R. Martin is fast becoming one of THE prominant names in the fantasy field (just check out his 'Song of Ice & Fire' series beginning with 'A Game of Thrones') but he was first a sci-fi author...he's not just good at both, he's fantastic...

So, I was a young man sitting in a movie theatre waiting for "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (with Donald Sutherland) to begin. I happened to overhear two people raving about this story they had read in Omni magazine called "Sandkings." I was so impressed by their reaction to the story that I made a mental note to seek it out myself.

A few months later, I found the back issue of Omni magazine and rushed home to read it. After assimilating the last glorious line of "Sandkings," I decided right then and there that it was my favorite short story of all time.

Nearly twenty years later, it remains my favorite short story.

Admittedly, I'm more of a horror fan than sci fi or fantasy fan, so Sandkings is closer to my heart that his other works. However, if sci fi and fantasy is YOUR cup of tea, you'll also enjoy the other very well written stories in this collection (including "Way of Cross and Dragon" and "In the House of the Worm.")

But I can honestly say that "Sandkings" is worth the price of admission alone. It's a true modern masterpiece.

I wish i had some pet sandkings! But since i dont i am glad to have this book. The title story is the best of the 6 and is worth the price alone. The other stories i found to be very good were "Star Lady" and "Bitterblooms". Sandkings is really a moral based story on what power can do to people. Martin Uses the metaphor of a man who is a deity to some insects.... but trust me they are MUCH MUCH more than just insects...

Bitterblooms was a cool little story with Vampires, a Girl Trying to get through the dark woods, and a mysterious house in the middle of nowhere....

Star Lady is basically the story of a girl and an alien boy with golden skin who land on a planet and are made slaves by a pimp. its got a really cool ending...

Buy this book if you can find it in a used book store.

This set of three novellas grouped into a book is a strange and haunting work whose effect lingers long. The stage is Earth far in the future, but an Earth whose pride and will have been shattered by terrible reverses. Silverberg paints a picture of the aftermath of human hubris, whereby pride and technological prowess carried to an extreme have led to the destruction of the continents of North and South America and ultimately to a "bankrupt" earth being placed in celestial "receivership". Beaten down and dispirited, humanity has been splintered in to a number of profession-specific guilds in a reversion to feudal times, with loyalty to guild superceding all other loyalties. The story is told through the experiences of a "Watcher" who has devoted his life to scanning the heavens for the approach of a long anticipated punitive invasion from a planet mortally wronged by human hubris. The book tells of the aftermath of the fateful invasion, resistance to which is rendered impossible by humanity's own divisions, let alone its reversion to a technological stone age. We follow the Watcher as, post-invasion, he seeks a new life and ultimately redemption. The topography is familiar and yet different as Silverberg plays on the names of well known cities (the holy cities of Roum and Jorslem, the romance of Perris in the nighttime). In majestic metaphor, the Watcher, after having his life's vocation rendered meaningless, delves deep into the past for lessons and finally seeks a new redemption, literally and figuratively, in a new united vision of love, tolerance and humanity. A book that is strange, troubling and yet inspiring.

Dave Deubler's review, shown here, is excellent, so I will only add that this is one of Silverberg's best. A must for any Silverberg fan. If you haven't read anything by Silverberg yet, then this one may very well hook you.

In this exquisite gem of a novel, Silverberg introduces us to the world of the far future. In this mysterious and only vaguely familiar land, the social order is dominated by the Guilds, who exercise enormous control over the lives of their members, each of whom plays some small part in a grand scheme whose totality is shrouded in the mists of antiquity. Thus one of the main threads of the story is always "How did things get this way?" Silverberg uses the story of a simple Watcher to reveal a long and complex history of Earth's rise, foolish pride, and subsequent fall. The Watcher's job is to search the skies, but why and for what is not immediately clear. Against a backdrop of magic, sunken continents, alien creatures, ancient wrongs and endless wandering around what we would call the Old World (Roum, Perris, and Jorslem), we come to appreciate the Watcher as a human being. In his love for the Flier Avluela and his loyalty to the Prince of Roum, amidst his failures, betrayals, renewal, and redemption, we see a microcosm of the human race's own journey from arrogance to fear to humility and finally beyond. A quiet melancholy pervades this book, as our protagonist wanders among the remnants of Earth's glory years, now decrepit relics. Yet Silverberg finds a way to conclude with the promise of salvation. Despite the unfamiliarity of the social order and the slightly modified place names, the book is easy reading, even for younger readers. There is no over-abundance of action, or of science, either, really, so perhaps this book won't be a favorite of everyone. There is violent conflict aplenty, but much of it takes place "off-stage" so it won't overpower the fainthearted. The mild sexual content is handled pretty much the same way, making it acceptable reading for all but the most sheltered young teens. In short, Silverberg weaves a spell of quiet mystery, timeless beauty, and eternal human values that is sure to entrance.

I'm in quest for the books like this from the times I'd read Fred Pohl's memoir THE WAY THE FUTURE WAS. Not only books and stories I love, not only legendary magazine titles - but the real men and women of the Golden Age of science fiction. Now we know how they changed the world, and it's a great to read about how do they feel this.

Julius Schwartz is very private, he is not world-changer at all - but from the first meeting with Mort Weisinger he was in the bussines of improving of the reality. Comic books never were the subject of interest for me, but I understand that for the millions of fans they were, and I'm sure our world would be far less livable without Batman on the light pole of it and Jocker on the dark pole.

And, of course, with Julius - mastering them.

"Man of Two Worlds" is a pleasant walk down memory lane, from the perspective of someone who has been a major "behind the scenes" player in the comics and science fiction fields. Julius Schwartz was a literary agent for H.P. Lovecraft, Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, Robert A. Heinlein and a host of others from the golden age of pulp magazines. As an editor for D. C Comics, he was instrumental in the revival of the comic book industry during it's "Silver Age." He relaunched the Flash and Green Lantern, and he put the yellow circle around the Bat signal.

The cast of characters in this memoir is truly amazing, but the names are dropped out of true friendship rather than self-promotion. The book is brimming with affection for old friends long gone, and new friends to pass the torch to. There is a nice piece about Julie attending a Lovecraft convention, where he was the only person in the room that had actually met the author.

The book is not thick, and there are no secrets to be revealed. There is some interesting insight into being an editor in the comics field, but that is not the focus. However, the book is so charming, so full of love for this industry and the people in it that reading it is an enjoyable experience. The afterword by Harlan Elison ends with simply, "I love you, Julie." Definitely a guy I'd like to know.

The less than rapturous reviews below speak more to the cynincal nature of todays Media-Obsessed SF and Comics Fans than they speak to the quality and importance of this 1st person Memoir by the Great Julie Schwartz who straddles the linked worlds of Comics Fandom and Organized SF Fandom like the Colossus of Rhodes. He is, like the Colossus, one of the wonders of a more ancient world, one largely lost to fans such as myself who came of age in the 70's. His memoir, aided by the conservative style of his co-writer, Brian Thomsen (formerly of Warner Books and several other star-studded imprints) tells gentle and affectionate stories while hinting at some of the more seething controversies he witnessed first-hand. Any fan who has had the pleasure of 5 minutes with Julie knows he does NOT dish DIRT on ANYONE, not even the mean-spirited. In fact, as this memoir attests to so well, Julie's entire career was really one that proved him to be a force for good in his times, a hopeful optimist, a true Sci_Fi boy from the Bronx who envisioned a better world coming from technology. I insist that even the most jaded of us Baby-Boomers, Baby-Busters, GenXers, and GenY-ers can learn something from his remarkable narrative restraint and instead focus on the cherished memories he has chosen to finally share with his fans after a very discreet public life. True, Julie is often more forthcoming at Panels or at Autograph sessions if you put a direct question to him, but clearly the goal of this book was to state the things Julie would have us remember and to celebrate the people Julie feels we fans should look at more closely. Eventually, after coming to the end of what I sincerely hope is only the 1st volume of his memoirs (Please Julie, do three books like your good pal Isaac Asimov did), one is left with a more complete understanding of the intertwining of the two distinct art forms: Comics and Science Fiction. It's only fitting that a couple of years ago, DragonCon in Atlanta instituted a Lifetime Achievement Award called THE JULIE which recognizes oustanding accomplishment in both fields. Of course, Julie got the first one and I believe Ray Bradbury the second. MAN OF TWO WORLDS is also an opportunity for a person who considers themself primarily a fan of only one of these genres to see to just what an extent, they are in fact bound to the other in spirit. Finally, what thrilled me the most was Julie recounting his earliest years as a fan and his attendence at the 1st World SF Con. As brief as those chapters were, they made me yearn for a working Time Machine so I could be whisked away back to a time before Science Fiction had became so angry and negative. Many heartfelt thanks to Julie for finally getting this book into fans' hands and for all those panels he has sat on in the past 15 years.

The latest Niven book 'The Burning City' looked interesting, and having heard that 'Magic..' was a prequel-of-sorts, I decided to read it first.

This was my first experience with Niven and if it's representative of his body-of-work as a whole, I can see why he regularly collaborates with others...he's not very talented with the written word.

Most of this book was stilted throughout. Topping that off, it's just not horribly interesting. Perhaps we can give Niven a little credit for being one of the forerunners of the modern fantasy boom, but calling this book a classic isn't something I'll ever do.

The fact that other reviewers have remarked on its similarities to a popular children's fantasy game speaks volumes.

Here's an overview: Four magicians and a Greek soldier combine forces to find new sources of mana. Mana is what allows magicians to perform magic but it is a resource in limited supply and magicians in the past have squandered the supply away. They use the last bit of mana they can find to travel to northern Europe to find the last living god and steal its mana.

I read this book a number of years ago when I was younger. I decided to read it again because my memory of it was good. I can't say the book was bad, but it wasn't great. There were some interesting ideas about magic and the scene of travelling on a cloud still gets me excited (it sounds like fun). If you're into fantasy and magic this book is for you. It's a quick read and the version I have has fantasy drawings on almost every other page. It's almost like a fantasy comic book.

Most of Larry Niven's considerable oeuvre takes the form of the Heroic Quest,but using the vocabulary of hard science fiction. In "The Magic Goes Away", he leaves the space ships and gravity generators on the shelf, and addresses the Quest directly.
In doing so, he reveals a level of poetry of language and sensitivity of characterization that is rare in any genre, and unheard of in science fiction. "The Magic Goes Away" is in a class with "The Circus of Doctor Lao" and "Green Mansions": Small, easily-read fantasy novels that will stay in your mind forever.

I am a huge Batman fan, and more specifically, a huge fan of Batman's immortal nemesis, Ra's Al Ghul. After trying to hunt down this volume of collected tales for over a year, when I finally picked it up, I felt very disappointed. While the collected stories provide an interesting look into Batman's second-greatest foe (next to the Joker), their presentation leaves much to be desired.

More specifically, I never felt like I read any one, complete story. I have to think it was the way comic books were written at the time, and not that pages were edited out, but some stories begin with little to no exposition, or end way too quickly. At one point, Talia, beautiful daughter of Ra's, kisses Batman. Without dialogue or expository balloons, the story abruptly ends, and the next page sees a mysterious box being brought into Wayne manor. Another story has Batman automatically chasing Ra's from snow-covered mountains to the desert, with little explanation of his travels in between. In short, there's very little sense of closure and continuity, and it becomes irritating. On top of that, the pages of each story vary in length. This is also irritating because today's comic books have a set number of pages, and in the end I felt like I didn't read my money's worth of stories.

That said, there are some highlights for Ra's and Batman fans. Ra's was designed at a time when the campy approach was being phased out and the darker, brooding Batman was being brought in. What we have here is a mix, a Batman who sometimes scares his enemies in one frame and gives quirky, "Stan Lee" asides in the next. Definitely an interesting combination. The artwork is also pretty good, with more vibrant colors than some collected volumes I have of later comics. Lastly, for fans who have watched all the Ra's Al Ghul episodes of the animated series, they get to see where the original stories for "Veritgo" and "The Demon's Quest" come from. Ra's Al Ghul's duel with Batman in the desert, the kidnapping of Robin, Batman and Talia's final kiss - it's all here. Unfortunately, the animated series really did a much better job reinterpreting the material, and even though the panels are fun to see, they come off as a disappointment.

Tales of the Demon isn't a very good collected volume. There are better, cheaper volumes avaliable, and even fans of Ra's Al Ghul will probably want to skip this one.

Batman Tales of the Demon had a lot of promise. Judging by other Ras Al Ghul stories I've read, I thought that it would be a classic. Since it was written by the great Dennis O'Neil, and featured the most intresting Bat-villian ever how could it go wrong? I'll tell you...it was a buzz kill. Although the stories in this volume were written in the 70's, the material lacks considerly compared to the other stories being written at this time by O'neil, which can be found in 'The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told vol.1' ALso the characterization of Batman is still somewhat of a holdover from 60's camp, as we see the Dark Knight knocked out by...Molly the Ski-champ, who thinks Batman is assualting Talia(Ra's daughter).
This collection is intresting for the archival quality alone, and is not recomended as a definitive look at Ras AL Ghul. Try 'Batman: Son of the Demon' or the animated episode by O'neil 'The Demon's Quest'. This should be taken in the context as a historical look at batman in the 70's, and not as a serious offering to his present day mythos.

I thought that this was a great story, we see Ra's Al Ghul desperately trying to recruit the Dark Knight to be his successor, and he considers Batman the only one worthy enough in all the world. A very tempting offer, as it included his very attractive daughter to be his bride, so it's clear that Batman must remember to keep his focus and not let his personal feelings get in the way of his mission.

Also in the TPB, we see Batman square off against The Bronze Tiger, who proves to be Batman's match in martial arts combat. This just solidifies that Batman is a top 5 martial artist, because The Bronze Tiger was trained by Richard Dragon, who is supposedly was the greatest martial artist in the DCU. Dragon also trained Lady Shiva, who quite easily can beat Nightwing in open combat (Nightwing isn't exactly a slouch, either!).

This is one of my textbooks for my classes this year. For $73, one would expect to find color pictures, well written text, and current information, however, this book lacks all of these. Published in 1990, the info is at least ten years old. I can't believe they charge this much for a book. It is not Amazon's fault, it is the publisher.

This book has been around quite a few years, but the authors have updated each edition for new trends, especially in space exploration, technology, and the constructivist orientation to science teaching. I am using it for an Integrated Physical and Biological science content class for elementary teachers. I can supplement with web searches for jazzy pictures, or low information density lessons, but for a good all round knowledge reference, with the extra of alternating chapters to emphasize methods of teaching elementary science, I haven't found a better physical/biological science text.