Daniel Easterman is the Nom de Plume of Denis McEoin, professor at Univ. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, an embittered ex-Baha'i.

The author, an excellent historian (check out his other books) couldn't seem to make up his mind whether this was to be a coffee table book filled with pictures (which are first rate) or a serious history of an epic, if largely unremembered, event that had significant impact on our society. As a result, this book doesn't quite make it as either. Still, it is interesting and provocative. It just but pales in comparison to Rising Tide, a magnificent work.

this book is good, but has no content. It's all politics and no action. I don't know about all of the people out there who find politics enjoyable but i hate it!

The book was published in April 2000, which means it was probably written during late 1999 and early 2000, when the NASDAQ was soaring to 5000 and tech had no boundaries. Its tone of breathless enthusiasm is very representative of that time. The book does accurately state the e-potential, but like NASDAQ investors in March 2000 did, it extrapolates unsustainable trends into a ceaseless upswing. The Web is here, and it is a true revolution, but ultimately it is simply another communication channel for insurers and their stakeholders. This is a great read, but only to help understand what kind of carried-away thinking created the tech bubble.

I thought that this book had difficult wording and was more a college-level book rather than a high school-level book. However, it covers a wide range of civilizations and concentrates on a fundamental theme to compare different times, places, and societies: the interaction of human beings and the environment. Emphasis is placed on technological development and how technology underlies all human activity. It also caught my interest because it included a unique phonetic guide to unfamiliar words.

The book should have more examples per topic, one example is not enough for a difficult subject like Numerical Analysis. The book does not provide the answers for the exercises and students do not have a way to check if they are doing the exercises correctly.

This text book is a thorough overview of the growing interdisiplinary field of environmental psychology. However, readers should not be fooled by the title. The text deals with the environment in which we as humans live, including work and home, not complete environmentalism. All the ideas can be applied to the "environment" in the sense it has come to be known, but they do not directly relate to this growing concern over the earth's health. The text book design of this book facilitates understanding and allows the reader to separate the ideas into segments in order to avoid becoming overwhelmed. Despite the confusion created by the title, the book is clear and concise and a great introduction to this field of psychology.

FALLS THE SHADOW contains almost everything I like to see in a first-time novel, though it also boasts many of the flaws that plague such novice works. From the first through the last page, there is a breathless collection of enthusiastic ideas that are simply impressive in their depth and their freshness. By the end, I couldn't help but notice that the story wasn't quite as good as it could have been, yet I would still recommend reading it simply for all the imaginative concepts present. The book is huge in scope and Daniel O'Mahony lets his imagination run completely wild. As a whole, it may appear to be slightly undisciplined, but it's an approach that has a lot going for it.

The Doctor and company land in a mysterious house where, as expected, Things Are Not Quite What They Seem. At least, one imagines that they aren't quite what they seem, since it is difficult to describe what it does seem like. It's a house that wouldn't be out of place in an Escher sketch, with rooms and corridors rearranging themselves, stairways that occasionally stretch off into infinity, and a dank, dark cellar full of strange and horrible things. Insane experiments are beginning to take place in the house, experiments which are being observed by unearthly visitors. To say any more would be to wander into spoiler territory, but take my word that it becomes a lot less conventional than the back-cover description would suggest, and a lot stranger. A whole lot stranger.

Some of the thoughts and ideas that constitute this novel almost make it worth reading just by themselves, regardless of anything else that the book succeeds or fails at. The grey man and his people are a fascinating creation, with the grey man himself earning extra praise for being a staggeringly interesting concept (I love how I managed to view him in a completely different light by the end of the story, even while O'Mahony had kept this character absolutely constant throughout). Gabriel and Tanith are marvelous ideas (even if their effectiveness in execution leaves a little to be desired). The settings used aren't exactly unique, but they gain a lot from the excellent descriptions. A few items that should feel tired and worn are instead made bright and enjoyable purely from the writer's skills.

Above all, FALLS THE SHADOW is a book dripping with atmosphere. It's not a happy tale, but the depressive nature never feels gratuitous. It can be a bit overpowering at times, and there may be a few places where the pain and suffering that the characters experience is just a bit too much. Still, it makes for very absorbing reading. The revelations surrounding many of the people (one in particular) are mind-bending and fascinating. They go through hell and back, and I must give a lot of credit for the author managing to make me care about all of the trials and tribulations that he throws at his characters.

And, of course, there are certain flaws, many of which are common to first-time novelists. O'Mahony doesn't quite yet have the knack of moving characters seamlessly around the plot. Many of the attempts to introduce and/or remove people from the story are clumsily done, and, in particular, the way in which the Doctor is separated from the main action feels far too contrived. The ending is also a slight problem. The author has done a great job of making the narrative ease satisfyingly into its conclusion (the last 100 pages or so convey a real sense of impending doom), but not in making the mechanics of the ending seem smooth. I think the conclusion is logical enough on paper, but it seems a bit of a letdown after the amount of build-up that the reader was subjected to.

A flawed work, I still found much to enjoy in FALLS THE SHADOW. A lot of the little subtleties really work, and many times during the read I would stop and just think about something that the author had presented me with. Sometimes what I thought about turned out to be a little shallower than I expected, other times there was indeed some impressive thinking behind the words. In any case, a book that makes me pause and wonder is definitely a good thing, even if it doesn't hold together completely from cover to cover. Not a book to be missed.

(As an aside, the extended length of this book made me hanker for the days of old when Doctor Who novels were published in the length that they needed to be, regardless of their page count. FALLS THE SHADOW is 356 pages long, far above the length of the average book in the series. One imagines that if it were published nowadays, it would contain the same number of words, but they'd be crammed into the 278-page limit via the insanely small text font and margins that made THE ADVENTURESS OF HENRIETTA STREET possible. I don't know if I'd be able to handle FALLS THE SHADOW written in a font that tiny; my eyes would be suffering as much as the characters in the book.)

It was very interisting but you had to pay full attention to what was going on. I like that in a book. You kept wanting to find out more and more but the plot wasn't all that great. If your the silent type i think that you should read it.

Although this book saw print only once it still has some very useful information about the late director. Due to its publishing date it stops at A CLOCKWORK ORANGE but does cover that and his other earlier movies with reasonable detail. If you are interested inthe director it is worthwhile to get it.