Don't bother with this book. I used it for an intro-level astro course, along with Frank Shu's Physical Universe. In the exact words of my professor, the only reason we even had to buy this book was because Shu's was written 20 years ago and is slightly out of date.... we used Shu for important concepts and this for basically nothing other than revising what is in Shu with more up-to-date information. This book is kind of expensive to be simply a tool for updating Shu (which, btw, is a great book)... also, the high number of errors and typos really make this book a "don't bother"

This book is a good compromise between the less analytical texts and some of the books geared toward astonomy majors. It is not a great book but I felt it was up to date and comprehensive. One note though, the authors assume you have a good grounding in undergrad math and physics. On several occasions I had to pull out one of my math or physics texts to review a subject so I could understand the material being presented.

This is not a MEATY text. It is a good INTRODUCTORY text that provides a decent overview of general astronomy, including: basic celestial mechanics, the solar system, absorption/emission, stars, H-R diagram, galaxies, interstellar medium, evolution, Hubble's law, active galaxies, cosmology. The level of detail seems appropriate for a survey course. For example, the authors do a good job of describing basic spectral issues (absorption, emission, line broadening, Boltzmann, the Saha equation, optical depth, etc), but they do not provide a detailed discussion of stellar atmospheres. If you have had an introduction to astronomy and want more depth, then look at Bohm-Vitense's books, Elmgreen's Galaxies & Galactic Structure, etc.

I recommend buying Emperor's Codes. However, it is just
a small part of the history and has some significant flaws.

Michael Smith's book failed to convince me that the British
were the primary breakers of most Japanese codes and ciphers
before and during the war. Both the British and American invested
increasing resources to identify and break Japanese codes.
The efforts of both were separate, but as the war continued
agreements were worked out to share the results of their
individual work. Some of these efforts were impeded by
politics on both sides. The United States was not the sole
obstructor of efforts to share intelligence. Both sides also
made mistakes in ignoring intelligence from their codebreakers.
Smith's arguments come across as rather one-sided and sound
a bit too resentful for good history in my opinion. He would
have been better off detailing the British and Australian
efforts and let that speak for itself.

He greatly misleads the readers by implying that the breaking
of JN25, the main Japanese Naval Operational Code, by Colonel
Tiltman of GC&CS was a prime British triumph, and that
later codebreaking efforts by Americans to break JN25 was
mere catch up with the British. The fact is JN25A was broken
by Tiltman but not the successor JN25B. JN25B superceeded
JN25A and was a completely new code that was vastly more
complex than JN25A. It was related to JN25A in name only.
The British did not break JN25B. Joe Rochefort and his group

in Hawaii successfully discovered or guessed at enough code
groups to predict the Japanese invasion attempt on Midway, the
greatest code triumph of the war in the Pacific.

One thing I did like about this book was the identification of
the various codes and their purposes. Amongst those id'd
are JN11 (Fleet Auxillary Code), JN40 Naval Shipping Code,
ZMTW or 2468 (Army Shipping Code), JN152 (Navigational Warning
Code), JMA - Coral, etc. So many writers of the Pacific War
refer to the breaking of the 'Japanese Code'. Well, there was
not a single code but many different codes and ciphers with many
different uses. A code as minor as a contact report code used
by the merchant shipping was extremely helpful in identifying
the location of convoys. For this information alone I was happy
to have bought the book.

There is no question that the British and Australians contributed
to the codebreaking efforts in the Pacific. Especially when the
sharing of information enhanced everybody's efforts. For their
efforts I am surely grateful. It saved many lives.

I believe a good history remains to be written that identifies
the various codes, describes the cryptanalysis, the
intelligence value, and how the information was used for each
code. Until that time interested readers must cull through the
various books and piece together the story. I recommend reading
John Prados's 'Combined Fleet Decoded', Edward Drea's
'MacArthur's Ultra', Stripp's 'Codebreakers of the Far East',
and Edwin Layton's 'I Was There'.

Admittedly Michael Smith does have two important agendas in his book "The Emperor's Codes"; first to tell the largely untold saga of breaking Japanese military and diplomatic codes, and then, to emphasize the important role played by British codebreakers in unlocking these Japanese secrets. On both accounts, Smith succeeds admirably, even if he tends to dwell too much on the anecdotal first hand accounts given by some codebreakers. Smith notes that many of the most important Japanese codes were broken first by Australian and British codebreakers such as Eric Nave and John Tiltman, long before American codebreakers made significant headway in reading encrypted Japanese messages. However, he does not trivialize the important contributions American codebreakers made in this effort, though some readers may wish that Smith gave a more comprehensive overview of American achievements in codebreaking, which would prove to be far more substantial by the war's end. Nevertheless, Michael Smith has made an important contribution in emphasizing the important work done by codebreakers during the Pacific theater of World War Two, which unfortunately has been long overlooked in stark contrast to the well documented history of cracking Enigma and other Nazi codes by both British and American codebreakers.

Michael Smith's book is a wonderful addition to the growing list of books dealing with code breaking during the Second World War. I was less then familar with the breaking of the Japanese codes, so I picked up this book to educate myself about an unfamilar subject. Smith's book provided a great overview of British attempts to break the Japanese codes during the war. This is not a book dealing with all of code breaking, its primary focus is on the British role. Smith's assertion is that British codebreakers did as much as Americans in breaking the Japanese codes. Not a difficult argument to imagine from an Englishman who spent a number of years working in codebreaking. Smith obviously has a bias toward the British codebreakers who came before him. That aside, the book provides wonderful detail and a number of quotes from people who were actually involved. The personal stories help bring the war to life. Occasionally it become very technical about how the codebreaking was done but all in all a good read.

Having high expectations for Station X, I was disappointed with the lack of historical analysis and the absence of decent discussion of Blechley Park. The book is a series of anecdotes that are often irrelevant or historically inaccurate.

Upon fuller review of the book, it is acutely apparent that this text has more in common with a "pop tv show" than actual information about an interesting chapter in cryptography and cryptoanalysis. Overall rating is poor.

Better books:

Cryptonomicon The Code Book

There should never be any shortage of admiration for the work done by BP's codebreakers and staffers -- a great majority of them being women. Michael Smith's book on Bletchley Park is a collection of fun facts, historical highlights, and occasionally dense information on wartime codebreaking methods. It makes for untidy reading and indicates the storytelling of someone who's been too immersed in the story to really understand how to distill it for general consumption anymore. That said, I still found the book enjoyable, and I'm all the more motivated to find out more.

The subject matter originally attracted me to this selection, as secret codes have always interested me...but this holds alot more...you not only gain an understanding of what was done, but you get to feel like you were a part of it! The problem solvers are as engaging as the solutions are fascinating. Liked this enough that I'm buying another as a gift.

Right now, Brennan is one of my favorite authors, so even though this book sounded a little skeptical, I had to have it. I was a little disappointed to realize there were so many blank pages with like three words on each page and some pictures and stuff. There was probably only about 75 pages of real reading and that, was double-spaced.

For those pages, it was good, however, I'd recommend "Ragamuffin" or "Ruthless Trust" or his new "A Glimpse of Jesus" before reading this one if you want the full Brennan experience. There are several typos in the book which distracted me because I felt more like I was an editor rather than an avid reader. That normally shouldn't be in published books, right?

However, there were a few words that touched my soul and made me think hard about the crucified Christ. For that alone, I can't allow typos or few words on pages to hold me back from giving it an average rating, but sadly, this is the lowest rating I've ever given a book by Brennan.

I found 'Above All' a wonderful read, and perfect in length. A rather short read and amazing personal insights from Manning to the reader. To reach the point as to where Brennan is in faithfulness with Abba and his will to spread it as he sees it is unique and powerful! I think I'll re-read it again ... and again ....

For its time, this book may have been revolutionary. However, when so many great books have been written by/on black gay men (Brother to Brother, One More River to Cross, Vanishing Rooms, etc.), there is little need to read this book now. This book allows white men to speak more than blacks do. Relatives of Smith's black lovers say he exploited his mates. Why did Langston Hughes' estate allow his work to be published here but not spoken in Isaac Julien's "Looking for Langston"? Don't let the new cool cover fool you. There's better stuff out there, even interracial stuff.

'For the first time, the Afro-American and interracial gay experience: a collection of short stories, personal reminiscences, interviews, political articles, photos, poems, drawings -- from the most scholarly to the most explicit by 43 writers/artists. Re-issue of a gay classic. Includes work such as "The Double Life of a Gay Dodger," [on a black baseball player]; "Smoke, Lilies and Jade" -- a short story by Harlem Renaissance writer Bruce Nugent; "T'ain't Nobody's Bizness: Homosexuality in 1920s Harlem," by Eric Garber; "Racism in the Gay Press," "Struggles of a Black Gay Pentecostal," work by world-famous writer Langston Hughes, and much more......' - from Gay Sunshine Press

All in all, I picked up very few ideas from this generally bland manual, and the illustrations (clay figurish poseables) can, in their most flattering light, be described as abstract (or boring or unhelpful). There is not a single photo of an actual hockey player in the entire book. Large sections provide mostly-irrelevant info, in a well printed format trimmed in color. Towards the back their is some basic strategy that is useful, but as w/ many hockey manuals, these require a great deal of patience to piece together from the diagrams--nothing new.

Since the publishing of this book, Micheal Smith has become the General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs. After reading his book, I can understand why. Mr. Smiths insights into hockey coaching are very easy to follow, with increasing skill level for various ages, from 8 year olds to junior. He covers all aspects of hockey coaching, from preseason preparation,including off ice drills and individual skill development, through to description of systems for defence and offence. Well balanced that covers a lot.

The Bubbling Cauldron was real great. I like it A-Lot. It was real great, it was also real great.

The authorized biography, written in 1980 and updated in 1990. Not a bad book, summarizes Smith's life and contains a number of testimonial's by former players, including an introduction by Michael Jordan. Not as detailed as Smith's own recent memoir nor as revealing as Art Chansky's book, really only for the dedicated Dean Smith fan.

This book is designed to open the reader's eyes to the various types of mixed media art and how the techniques are used by different artists to achieve a wide range of effects. The photographs, especially those of the tools and supplies used in the techniques, as well as the photographs of artwork are especially informative, and useful for a beginner. However, if you're looking for specific technique instructions, or tips on how to combine the various mixed media techniques into your own artwork, you may be disappointed. This book left me wanting more, but it is still a valuable addition to a beginning artist's library.

This is an excellent introduction to using the power of Microsoft's Jet database engine in VB programs. It covers all the basics and provides example coding throughout. Having worked my way through most of it, I can write powerful database programs easily and quickly, in a fraction of time and using a fraction of the code demanded by VB to achieve the same results. I can even understand those dreadful Microsoft Jet Database Help Screens now!!!!!! I recommend the book to experienced VB programmers.

The book is not a 'VB programming for beginners' publication - you need to understand VB before using it. The sample code is full of errors that only an experienced VB user can detect and correct. The authour insists on using the Visdata utility to create SQL commands but does not make clear how to translate these into VB code; a VB beginner would be hopelessly confused and not understand the power and flexibility of this command. Readers also need to understand the concept of relational databases.

While I do agree with some reviewers in terms of errors which exist in some code in the book, I strongly disagree with those who condemn this book as being inadequate. This is not a book for Vb or Programming NEOPHYTES!

This book assumes that you know VB, and concentrates on teaching you how to develop database applications. In this area it does a marvelous job. I do agree with the authors mix of DAO/RDO and ADO. There is still a lot of DAO/RDO stuff out there which will need to be supported! It does an excellent job with its treament of ADO, DED, and data report designs. Not forgetting how to design and implement robust databases! Its database treament is even better than most database-only books I have reviewed!!

I know of pricier books that do not come anywhere close in terms of what this book offers(teaches). If you need more or exclusive ADO stuff look elsewhere.

I am both a professional VB/Database designer and also an instructor in VB and DB in a CIS dept and comparing this book to other books especially textbooks, you can't find anything more readable than this book!

I score this book a 4 because of code mistakes!

If you know VB, this is an excellent database design book for you! (Common! Let's be FAIR! The authors actually warn you up front about this fact!)

I agree with the other reviewers, this book could use a bit more proof reading, there are some errors. However, if you go through the book and type in all their code and try to figure out why some of their code doesn't work, you learn a lot. You won't learn anything by reading this book, you really have to get your hands dirty, do all the exercises. Overall, I was pleased with this book.