If hockey and baseball can have Total Hockey and Total Baseball what is up with basketball? Not a bad book by any means but needs a bit more punch to it. How about more insightful essays like those "Total" books go for?

The Official NBA Encyclopedia is the best book any hoops fan will ever read. Not only does it hold all the info for the current players, but it holds the complete history of basketball. The NBA, all its seasons, the Draft, International players, coaches, referees, expanding, photos, development, Hall of Fame, and tons of other great stuff are found as well as complete reviews of the ABA,NBL,and ABL. The NBA Seasons in Review is one of my favorite sections. The only negative thing about this book is that the seasons for the NBA are listed backwards. This encyclopedia has every stat for every player that ever played. I love reading this awesome history, and the Official NBA Encyclopedia is the perfect gift for any hoops fan. If I could, I'd give it more than 5 stars.

I know that what other reviews said is true : this book does not have EVERYTHING, but believe me, it's pretty close. More than 900 pages of basketball history is enough to know who made this game as great as it is today. You will learn about the players that lead the path to Kobe, Kevin Garnett and all of today stars, the great coaches, the commisioners, even the referees! You have all the stats for every player that played in the NBA, ABA and NBL. At least for me, that's enough to give it 5 stars.

Once again we have one of those As-Mediocore-As-You-Can-Get kind of books, with potential and a less than satisfactory execution.

Like so many other Trek books, this one- taking place in the post-Wesley phase of the fourth season- is also backed up with an ethical dilemma.

There is a very low risk in that kind of story, since intellectual people- myself included :)- rarely grow tired of ethical problems, like we do of so many other things.

It doesn't work that way in this novel, though, since the ethical questions concerning slavery are ignored entirely, instead pointing the story in the direction of the all-too-familiar action-adventure formula, and doesn't do even that very well. The continuing presence of Deja Vu is very disconcerting.

As for the plot-twists in this book: they are rare and predictable, but the story doesn't grow boring because of the professional writing style of the authors. But even that doesnt eradicate the feeling of this book being written as a distraction, as if the authors didn't have anything better to do.

The other big problem turned out (once again...) to be the characterization. Once again we get a bunch of characters who have the same names and positions as our familiar TNG characters, but- with the possible exeption of Doctor Crusher and maybe Riker, who have prominent roles in the book- don't have anything else in common with their television counterparts.

In short: This was a readable TNG book that wasn't good or bad, packed with unfamiliar characters, but an all too familiar plot. If you don't know what mediocore means, read it. This is it at it's purest.

Star Trek - The Next Generation: Chains of Command written by Bill McCay and Eloise Flood is an interesting story as the U.S.S. Enterprise and her crew explore a remote sector of space, they run acrossed a group of devastated class-M planets and wonder what had happened.

As the story progresses the Enterprise receives as distress call from a glacial world... and the call is from humans. Human occupation is not supposed to be this far out in remote space, but nevertheless, humans are calling for assistance. Now, the Enterprise crew becomes involved and finds out that there are human slaves on the forbidding world. But the ultimate slave masters are a big yellow avian race... known by the slaves as chickens but they are known as Tseetsk.

It seems that the Tseetsk have been in this sector of space for a very long time and have digressed throughout the years due to an ongoing war that has pretty much devastated this sector of space. All in all, this story will captivate you as you becom engrossed into the story and the resolution to this story is quite novel.

This is a solid 4 star book and has some unique parts as the Enterprise and her crew fall into the middle of a conflict.

I recommend the book be read, but don't expect a blockbuster like Vendetta or Imzadi. The book is a little slow at the beginning, but does pick up as the story progresses.
If you like a lot of political action, then this book has some good twists. Also, it introduces the reader to a new alien race with an interesting history.

Fourtune's Light....a priceless jewled seal of a powerfull trading house, has been stolen and an old friend of Rikers is implicated with it's theft. He can't belive his friend would have done such a thing, and is sent on a mission to find his old friend, and the Fourtunes Light, which must be present for a merger between powerfull houses.

In the meantime, Riker askes Data to check out a holodeck program he's been working on while he's gone. I must say that Data's portraial is innacurate, and I find it hard to belive Data could be so inept(for his standards) at Baseball, and understanding the rules. Still, it's an interresting sub-plot which breaks up the intensity of Rikers mission.

Once underway, Riker and his partner on the planet discover a web of decit and criminal activity. To top it off, someone is now on to Riker and his partner and he's a target from people who want to keep the Fortune's Light hidden, as well as other plots which have far reaching consequences.

A decent, but not great book.

Star Trek - The Next Generation: Forture's Light written by Michael Jan Friedman is a well-written book involving a detective stroy plot mixed with sports fiction as the Enterprise crew trys to solve a mystery and recover a theft of the Madraga Criathis family seal the Fortune's Light... that is supposedly stolen by Teller Conlon one of Commander William Riker's best friends.

As this plot unfolds, William Riker is working on a baseball holodeck program and is called away to the surface of Dante Maxima Seven where the government is controlled by huge social/economic entites that control the general population, to find his friend Teller Conlon. Riker leaves the baseball program in the holodeck and Data tries it out. This plot gives Data a real workout with all of the baseball speak and the nuances of the game as Data tries to understand and play the game.

Both plots were well-written as they kept the readers interest, for two unlikely plots to blend together and form the backbone of the book's plots, they melded quite well. This book is well-toughtout as well as well-written and you can tell it by the way the book flows. The only thing that I can't see is Riker being a detective... he's more like a bull in a chna store type who's rough and tumble antics get him out of a lot of tight spots, but Friedman used this quality to an advantage as Riker is teamed up with a local woman who's sole purpose is to help Riker investigate and they run into a lot of impediments along the way. Riker is no "Columbo" but he gets the job done with action-adventure following along with the mystery.

I gave the book only four stars as the character development was a little shallow at times and the plot was rather predictable. Only for those reasons, otherwise the story flowed well and you were entertained as you read on it the book.

This book is a very good example of just how far good writing can take a mediocre concept. I was truly unimpressed with either of the plots in this book, yet found myself being drawn into it in spite of myself due to the excellence of the writing.

I suppose it is unfair to actually say that the plots are BAD. They do not, however, resonate with me at all. The primary plot is a detective and mystery fiction plot in which Riker has to unravel a mystery on a planet where a friend of his has disappeared, allegedly after stealing a priceless artifact. I'm not universally opposed to detective fiction, but I generally find that they don't work overwell as Star Trek plots, and I certainly don't see Riker as a viable Sam Spade type. Further, this plot just seemed rather blase, and it truly required exceptionally adroit writing to get me to care about it. In a way, I never did, but in spite of that, I found it difficult to put the book down toward the end, so Friedman must have been doing something right.

Furthermore, the secondary plot involved Data playing "major league" baseball on the holodeck, trying out a program that Riker had written for himself just before being called away on his mission. Again, I don't necessarily object to sports stories; one of my favorites is "If I Never Get Back", by Darryl Brock. But I don't much care for holdeck stories in general, even if they are merely subplots and not the major focus of the story, nor do I generally care for the "Data does something offbeat in an attempt to learn more about what it means to be human, and in the course of doing so, commits many amusingly silly faux-pas" type of story, of which this was certainly one. In fact, I generally don't believe that baseball and Star Trek mix well; it's one of the things that cause me to grit my teeth whenever it's brought into play in Deep Space Nine due to Ben Sisco's hobby. I certainly disliked the episode "Take Me Out To The Holodeck" about as much as I've disliked any Star Trek episode in any series.

So imagine my confusion to discover that I was actually enjoying the scenes in that subplot also, in spite of the fact that Friedman's apparent knowledge of baseball is somewhat limited, and his claim that both Data and Geordi would have difficulty understanding the concept of a curveball somewhat dubious.(I realize that for years engineering types swore that it was an optical illusion, because it was physically impossible. But those days are ALREADY behind us; certainly, engineers from three or four hundred years in the future should have no difficulty with the concept. Nor do I believe that it would be all that difficult for Data to track the trajectory of a curveball and hit it soundly.)

I find that I can't in good conscience give less that four stars to a book so well written as to be enjoyable and even captivating in spite of a basic concept that I simply can't see the point to, but neither can I give five stars to a book with such an unattractive concept. If you find the idea of mixing detective fiction AND spectator sports fiction with your Star Trek fascinating, you'll certainly love this book. If, as I did, you find either or both of these concepts seriously dubious, you might still like it. But if you're unwilling to deal with the cognitive dissonance produced by enjoying such an unattractive story concept, steer clear of this one.

Star Trek - The Next Generation: Perchance to Dream written by Howard Weinstein is a lighter Trek novel... Oh, there is some suspense and intrigue, but it doesn't come out and grab you by the ears and makes you want to read this book in one setting.

In this book there is a planetary life force which can move mountains and dig valleys in a single day, make new oceans and change the course of rivers. With all of this said, this race is rather a benevolent and what they really want is to communicate with the humanoid species that are now claiming the planet for their own the Tenarins.

On a rountine survey of the planet Domarius IV, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the Starship Enterprise crew encounter the Tenarins as they try to hijack an Enterprise shuttle with Data, Troi, Wesley Crusher and two of his friends as they leave the planet with some interesting soil and rock samples. Caught up in the Tenarin tractor beam the shuttle is about to break up when it disappears in a flash of colorful light and is transported to a subterranian location.

Now, with the Enterprise closing in, the Tenarin captain and Jean-Luc Picard also become missing in a flash of colorful light and are transported to the planet's surface. All of the time under the watchful eye of the planetary intelligence which are diamond shaped with light of different colorsul coursing though them.

Until the planetary intelligence discovers how to communicate with the humanoids things become quite mystifing. Data is the link by which the planetary intelligence gains the knowledge to communicate. All along the planetary race that can move mountains is preparing the planet for humanoid life and as they begin to wake-up from their one-thousand year sleep, their mission is about to become complete as the Tenarins looking for a home are invited to stay.

This was an interesting read and kept my attention, but it wasn't one of the best TREK novels as the mystery, intrigue and action-adventure was rather lacking and some areas of the story bogged down to a near halt.

All in all, this story is a good 4 stars it could have been written with more action-adventure and intrigue to carry the reader to the ending.

Not the worst Star Trek novel I've ever read, but not the best either. It lacked tension. There was never a feeling that anyone was really in danger. I felt the inclusion of Wesley's young friends superfluous. It felt flat though not entirely boring.

I must say there our times when the book is better than the show. This is one of those times. It's a good thing Picard does alot of reading or the show and the book would have had unhappy endings. I enjoyed this book so much I read it twice in the same week. After which I brushed up on my Shakespeare. This book is very good reading for all

This book, published in 1981, is a wonderful introduction to Captain America. Partly text, the book contains three Captain America adventures. The first adventures shows Cap locked in battle with the Red Skull, whose acquisition of the fantastic Cosmic Cube has granted him nearly unlimited power. The book then goes on to give the story of the Red Skull, and discusses some other villains. The second adventure shows Captain America's rebirth when he is found by the Avengers (then Iron Man, Thor, Giant-Man and the Wasp), and resumes his fight against evil. Then Cap's friends are discussed, and the final adventure is presented. This adventure tells the history of Captain America during the early days of World War II.

I enjoyed this book, and was glad that I was able to give it to my son. The Captain America adventures are very attractive, and quite interesting. I question the order of the book, and especially the inclusion of the Cosmic Cube adventure, which I did not think was the best choice for this short book. But, that said, it is a nice book, and an excellent introduction to Captain America.

As the skies seem to darken yet again, I can't help but feel that the time has come for Captain America to once again rise to inspire a new generation of Americans.

This book is a good example of recent national case studies for understanding school to work transition in developed countries and some developing nations. Many of the case studies that are succesful share similarities in the way students in technical schools have close relation with the work practices and the skills that future workers will need in the work place. However, the rapid technological change in the work place is putting more pressure in the school curriculum and not always the adaptation of school performance to the needs of new industrial trends is the best answer for getting a job for future workers and employees. The wide number of national experiences that have been gathering in this book edited by Daniel Wagner and David Stern are a very useful overview for understanding recent government policies for linking more school and work environments. All experts and policy makers that presented their papers in the OECD Center for Education and Research in Paris during a especial seminar are in this book. Most of the authors took into account the History and pattern of development of each country as important issues to have in mind when analyzing school to work transition in an international perspective as it is discussed in this collective book.

I remember watching "Encounter at Farpoint" when it first aired with several high school friends, and the great groans of derision we all uttered when Deanna cried out, "I sense joy, Captain! Great joy!" The rest of the premier episode was hardly encouraging. It wasn't *terrible*, but it did not inspire great hopes, either.

David Gerrold took a generally weak episode and fleshed it out as best as anyone could do, but not even Shakespeare could have turned "Encounter at Farpoint" into a gripping read. There are, of course, a few problems with changed premises (for example, William "call me Bill" Riker and Picard's obsession with some woman named "Celeste"), but one can hardly blame Gerrold for that.

It's a good book, you get the chance to read what was going through some characters's minds but in this case, it is better just to watch the Episode. It's a classical... where it all begun.

David Gerrold did a wonderful job with the novelization of the episode that started The Next Generation! After purchasing the first season of TNG on DVD and watching Encounter at Farpoint I thought it would be interesting to go back and read this book again. If you want to get the few details of episode that weren't in it, read this. This is the Genesis of Star Trek The Next Generation!

I read this book some time ago and I have forgotten most of the plot and other finer details. (Reading the synopsis made me wonder if those things really happened in this book!) What I remember best are those wonderful humoristic moments which play with the cliches and pillars of the Star Trek universe. I know that Peter David is a gifted writer but this isn't his best book. However, it is wholly readable although - as I have proven! - forgettable entertainment.

This was definitely not one of Peter David's best, but I can't help but feel if it had been authored by anyone else - except maybe Michael Jan Friedman, who I also admire - I would have probably enjoyed it more because my expectations would not have been as high. It was humorous in parts and was still better than a lot of the material being churned out today, but still doesn't touch his Q books or even his DC Comics work.

My subject-line basically covers it. :-) I liked this book, as I figured I would since Peter David is an excellent writer. If you want to read a good ST book though, I would definitely recommend Peter David's "Q Squared" -- THAT one knocked my socks off!

The book How You Play The Game by Jerry Colangelo, is a boring book that is really not that interesting. It is pretty boring. Economics books is really not for me. This book is actually better than the ones I have read. Jerry tells us basically about his life. How he became a multi-millionair from being poor. I would recomend this book to any one that is interested in sports.

this book was pretty cool. Unlike the previous book I read on sports marketing, this book wasn't boring. This book was a pretty quick read. This book can be helpful to people who are looking to own a team or anyone who just wants to start their own business.

This book by Jerry Colangelo is very well written. It is a quick and interesting read and also teaches you many things about marketing a product. Jerry Colangelo is a very well respected person in the sports world and he is a real example of the American Dream. Colangelo began his life with nothing and slowly, using his intelligence in business, built himself a sports empire starting with the Bulls and continuing with the Suns, Diamondbacks, and Rattlers. This is a great book and I recommend it to everyone and anyone to read.

Finally together in one volume, Dr. Stern's masterful translation the Jewish New Testament and a complimentary Tanakh (Old Testament). The Bible in it's Jewish context and message from Bereshit (Genesis) to Revelation.

Dr. Stern has translated the Complete Jewish Bible using Hebrew names and focusing on the Messianic storyline that flows throughout the whole of the Bible. Also of note is the breakdown of the Torah into the weekly parashah including Haftarah and complementary readings from the Brit Chadasha.

This is a must have for any true student of the Bible and a necessity for Jewish believers to have the Complete Bible from a Messianic Jewish perspective.

I hope that the Complete Jewish Bible is used regularly in synagogue services and in Bible studies to further the great revival of the Messianic movement. Dr. Stern has done a great service to the Messianic movement and hopefully for the Gentile Church to see that the message of the Scriptures both Tanakh and Brit Chadasha is the story of God's dealings with Israel and the glorious foretelling and revelation of Israel's Messiah, Yeshua.

For those that disregard Messianic Jews as not being Jewish, I suggest you take a harder look at the New Covenant scriptures (that is, New Testament). This Bible restores the Hebraic terminology that has been excluded from Christian Bibles for too long. Often it's only a small adjustment, like saying 'Hannakkah' instead of 'Feast of Dedication' or 'Shavuot' in place of 'Pentecost'-- but, the more casual Jew, (and, actually, especially Gentile) may not be aware of just how Jewish the New Covenant is, with all of the translated english words present. Gentile Christians don't celebrate Hannakkah and the other festivals because it is not a part of thier culture--- hence, their is no need to use the Hebraic phrases--- this Bible uses the terminology that would have been used by the Hebrew speaking Jewish believers of the first century. Though I don't believe it is the single greatest translation ever, I have to recommend this Bible to anyone interested in understanding the New Covenant from the proper perspective--- the Jewish perspective. After all, the original writers were Jews, writing for Jews, in Israel, proclaiming the Jewish Messiah. Why write it off as 'non Jewish' when you can see for yourself?

In this translation of the Bible, David H. Stern makes every effort to be as accurate as possible and provides
an introduction to the Bible and this translation which is over forty pages long. Additionally, the books of the
tanakh (Old Testament) are arranged in the original order and the Hebrew names of books, people and places have
been transliterated rather than translated. For example: The first book of the tanakh is titled, B'resheet;
sub-titled (Genesis). To help with understanding the translitered Hebrew, Mr. Stern includes a glossary.
Also, there are weekly readings which coincide with Torah readings in synagogues world wide.


Most translations of the Bible come from a Greco/Roman world outlook. David H. Stern is
a Messianic Jew and provides a Jewish perspective in this translation.


Example Text:


Acts 20:7 -- On Motza'ei-Shabbat, when we were gathered to break bread, Sha'ul addressed them, Since he was
going to leave the next day, he kept talking until midnight. [Motza'ei-Shabbat - going out of the Sabbath. Most
Translations (using a Greco/Roman understanding) tend to imply that the meeting took place on Sunday morning
rather than Saturday evening as a Jewish/Scriptural world view would dictate.]