If you noticed anything about S/M fiction in over the last year or so, then you know that it's been impossible to get your hands on any of the Marketplace books. When Masquerade Books released the third book in the series, The Trainer, it quickly went through two printings before vanishing from sight. Why? Because Masquerade Books vanished from sight. Yes, no matter how many Masquerade Books you may see on your local Borders bookshelves, they are actually no longer in business.

Fear not. Mystic Rose Books has picked up where Masquerade Books left off, continuing Laura Antoniou's celebrated Marketplace series with the release of The Academy: Tales of the Marketplace. Set in Japan, Antoniou's newest novel places trainer Chris Parker in the heat of the Marketplace's annual gathering where he must present a proposal that could threaten a schism within its ranks. Parker's deft maneuvering amid the politics of the Marketplace becomes a lesson in savvy thinking and honorable actions for the reader.

And that's only part of the novel's rich content. Again, we're treated to Michael LaGuardia and his ongoing struggle to become a trainer. We witness more of the Marketplace in all its variety with pony and dog trainers, in its world-wide diversity which ranges from the upper crust of English society to the wild, wild west of Canada's northwest to the formality and stern expectations of Japanese mores. Plus, we learn even more about the elusive Chris Parker's identity (a Must Do for Parker fans). And, yes, there's the occasional orgy and hot sex too.

However, the one-hand pages are few. Antoniou intentionally puts the sex on simmer so she can turn up the heat on the world-building and she applies the same skill that SF/F writers use in their craft to her book. The result? The Marketplace has never been more fully rendered, and Antoniou's novels are pretty much the only pieces of S/M fiction that explore the inner workings of its world more than it explores sex and sexuality. (And I'd like to think the S/M reading world is big enough to accommodate and celebrate her brand of fiction.)

Just as innovative as Antoniou's world-building focus is her invention and use of her "novelogy" template. She invited authors Karen Taylor, david stein, M. Christian, Cecelia Tan, and Michael Hernandez to contribute a series of short stories to The Academy's pages. Each story weaves itself into the overall novel and furthers the lore of the Marketplace. On the whole, the stories explore everything from the first moments of submission to spotters gone wrong to husband hunting via the Marketplace.

Best of all, as you grow use to the stories' presence in the novel, you find that their interludes begin to take on a Canterbury Tales feel to them. You begin to enjoy their place and presence and look forward to one character or another interrupting the novel to tell you a story. I found the novelogy a warm and wonderful thing and I became as rapt as a child during kindergarten story time.

Perhaps the only real criticism I have with The Academy is Michael LaGuardia's role in the novel. Between The Trainer and The Academy, I invested a lot of energy in Michael (even when I didn't like him), and when Anderson reveals LaGuardia's most likely outcome to Parker and then to see it played out in a few swift pages, it all felt very abrupt and dismaying. Even if Michael's route was preordained, it was worthy of a novel in and of itself, given the amount of time readers have spent with him.

The Academy has smaller quirks as well, too. It's obvious that Antoniou wrote the novel some time ago, what with references to Hong Kong's impending (and now passed) return to mainland China and to the emerging (and now dominant) "World WideWeb." On the one hand, those passages do capture S/M sentiments circa 1996 and, in time, these portrayals will become charming. On the other hand, it does mark just how long Antoniou has waited for this novel to see print and reminds me just how disruptive Masquerade's demise has been for established authors.

Laura's getting back on track, though. Mystic Rose Books will release the first three Marketplace books in coming months, plus Laura's fifth Marketplace book, The Reunion, will follow soon after. She's even at work on a sixth novel, The Inheritor. Given the rich tapestry that Antoniou wove in her newest novel and given the pent-up demand for Marketplace books, the new novels can't see print soon enough. Which is a wonderful position to be in.

Although I've read (and contributed to) Laura Antoniou's anthologies, this was the first Marketplace novel I read. I must admit that I'm now eager to "start at the beginning," and am thrilled that the first three books are returning, and a fifth is on its way -- the tantalizing inclusion of the first chapter of the next novel was wonderful! For first time Marketplace readers, I found this to be a book that thoroughly immersed me in an exciting, erotic world of Owner/slave relationships, and the behind-the-scenes machinations that make such a world exist. The short stories were marvelous, and added new voices to the main theme. Antoniou's writing is excellent; I look forward to more from her in this series.

Of all the erotic bdsm fiction, this is the one series that consistantly mesmerizes. With its delicious characters, it's hot, yet tasteful scenes and it's totally original concept, Laura Antoniou remains the true master of medium. The most remarkable thing about "The Academy" is that even though more than one writer contributes to the piece (in reality a series of short stories rather than one fluid work), it reads like the perfect novel. With my personal hero Chris Parker being the tie that binds the stories together we learn so much about the players and (as always) ourselves. I hear there is one more book due for release in the imminent future. I hope there are many more.

When I first read Jon Land, it was this book that I read. Not exactly as good as one of the McCracken novels, but good in it's own over the top way.

I've quickly become a fan of Jon Land's espionage thrillers. As another reviewer stated, Land is like Ludlum without the fluff. However, Ludlum's better novels also have a much more in-depth plot/storyline. Land's novels tend to be non-stop action.

"Labyrinth" is like his other thrillers in that a hero fights against unbelievable odds to save the world. In this novel, a college professor is enlisted to get to the bottom of the plans of an organization known as The Committee. A friend of the professor's is killed observing actions on the part of The Committee and due to a past debt, he agrees to avenge his friend's murder.

A town is Columbia is burned to the ground to hide the plans of The Committee. The hero, Christopher Locke, visits various exotic locales including Lichtenstein, Geneva, and London in his trek to determine the scheme of The Committee. Friends are killed or turn on him, and enemies try to kill him or become his friends. Before he knows it, Locke is in too deep to get out and must stop The Committee to not only save his family, but also to prevent the downfall of the world's economies.

If you like non-stop action thrillers, Jon Land thrillers would be your cup of tea. If you want more in-depth, longer thrillers, try Robert Ludlum or Tom Clancy. All of Land's titles are quick, fun reads that make you wonder why he has never achieved the success or notariety of the major players in the realm of espionage fiction.

This book is non stop action. The book is pure fun. You get hooked on page one and you can't stop reading until the book is over. Land takes you all around the world in this thriller. If you are looking for a chance to escape the real world, sit back, relax and enjoy this book as you jet set around the globe and help Chris Locke try to save the world.

"The Real American Dilemma" is a jolting account of America's greatest problem. The writers gathered here do not worship at the shrine of multiculturalism or diversity.

Jared Taylor, Samuel Francis, Michael Levin and Philippe Rushton have all paid a great price for their honesty in discussing the biological, cultural and political consequences of a multiracial, multicultural America.

This book should be read by everyone who cares about the future of their country. Whites are going to have to start asking themselves hard questions such as: Do I want to live in a Third-World nation full of Third-World people? Must I continue to pay high taxes to subsidize those who cannot or will not assimilate into Western culture? What will life be like when people like Lani Guinier are on the Supreme Court or proficiency in Spanish is required for a government job? Do non-whites honor the rights and culture of whites when they are in power?

Because time is running out, they had better ask themselves these questions soon.

I bought this book in 1999, and never stopped to be reminded of it whenever some event in my personal experience related to immigration. We are losing this country only because white people believe that other races will be as tolerant as whites when they get into power in a future that is not even very far.

Perhaps this book is better for younger readers who, like myself, are too young to remember the civil rights movement of the 60s. I find that people from previous generations have very fixed ideas about race relations in this country and will not be open minded when reading Mr Taylor's book. It is an honest appraisal of the problems facing the US in the coming decades.

Michael Hickey's book has been promoted as being an in-depth analysis of the death of outlaw John Ringo which provides a final answer to who killed him. In my opinion, this massive book fails utterly to do this. The "analysis" seems little more than speculation and the evidence presented is absurdly thin, especially considering Hickey's reliance upon the discredited memoirs of Josephine Earp as "edited" by Glenn Boyer. Some of the maps and photographs are marginally interesting, but the authenticity of some of the latter must be questioned in light of the minimal information given their provenance. Students of Tombstone know that phony photographs have long bedeviled this topic.

The first half of Hickey's book is written in what can only be called a "novelistic" form, and it seems that this really should have been published as a novel rather than history. Many of the details given have no possible real source, and the rest are built upon very shaky ground.

I cannot recommend this book to anyone who expects to learn who (if anyone rather than Ringo himself) killed John Ringo.

A Treasure Chest of Earpiana

"John Ringo: The Final Hours" is yet another superb volume on Earpiana from Michael M. Hickey and a must for all true enthusiasts. Like his earlier book which delved into the mystery surrounding the killing of Warren Earp, this work centres on another controversial death, that of John Ringo. Also, like the other book, it is as big as the great outdoors, exhibiting a remarkable generosity in the vast amount of information it has to offer pertaining to the Earp saga. In fact, basically, here is yet another Hickey treasure chest of Earp lore for those of us who just cannot get enough of the doings of Wyatt and Co.

The book is well written and immensely readable. Hickey has the knack of keeping the reader enthralled, never quite sure along which trail he is going to be taken next. His writing style reminds me of the classic whodunit crime writers who always loved to surprise their readers. Such a style is particularly appropriate here for Mr. Hickey is, as he says, telling a "Tale of the Old West", and the first third of the book is a vivid dramatisation of the events immediately leading up to Ringo's assassination as the author sees it.

Michael Hickey has not been afraid to use contemporary hearsay and local legend as a starting point for his theories but he is always determined to find documentary evidence to back it up if at all possible. This is clearly proved by reading the final two thirds of the book which is described as the "Author's Working Notes and Documentation". Here the reader will revel in a veritable cornucopia of reference material: maps (including Wyatt's own map of the Ringo killing), documents of all kinds, letters, newspaper reports, excerpts from other authors' work and, of course, a myriad of photos, each with a detailed caption. Even here, in the "documentary" part of the book, Hickey keeps us guessing, keeps the tension going for the reader as, little by little, he feeds us more and more information about that time and that place.

For this book is far more than just the story of how one notorious outlaw came to meet his end. It is a detailed analysis, told with extraordinary insight, of how Wyatt Earp and his posse put an end to the Cowboy depredations in Cochise County with the backing of Wells Fargo, the Pinkertons, various national and local government agencies and even the U.S. and Mexican governments.

As an author, Michael M. Hickey combines an imaginative and intellectual grasp of the Arizona milieu of the late nineteenth century, the intellectual fervour of a detective determined to ferret out the truth, together with a vivid and most entertaining writing style. Long may he continue to give us these treasures of Earpiana.

The information, footnotes and research contained in Michael Hickey's book, "John Ringo - The Final Hours" are compelling evidence that Ringo did not commit suicide. It is indeed the "story behind the story."

Mesoamerican archaeology is a little world by itself - I know, because I used to live in it. It has a very cosy relationship with museums and the "art" collectors who buy the objects that are looted from archaeological sites, which lie destroyed, torn into shreds under the forests all over Central America and Mexico. But it has almost no touch with reality any more. The things they say about the ancient Olmec are almost fantasy, because in truth we know so little about these people. Almost all the objects in this book were stolen from Mexico, ripped from the archaeological context that might tell us something about their real meaning. These are probably religious articles - we may never know. But imagine trying to reconstruct the rich life of rennaisance Italy by looking at reliquaries in Catholic churches! If you are still persuaded by the "mysterious Olmec" propaganda spouted by Coe and his looter buddies, go read Flannery & Marcus in the first 2000 issue of the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, and think it over.

The Olmec World is an amazing resource for those who study or have an appreciation of early Mesoamerican Art. At its most basic level The Olmec World is the catalogue of the 1996 Olmec Exhibition at the Art Museum at Princeton University the first comprehensive show of Olmec art in America. Drawing upon nearly all of the major Olmec museum collections in North America from Dunbarton Oaks to Princeton's own expansive holdings, the exhibition also drew heavily from many private collections never before shown to the general public. For instance, John Stokes' amazing collection of ceramic babies and jade masks are showcased in this catalogue. However, almost as impressive as the pictures are the essays in this collection. Michael Coe has done a marvelous job of soliticing and editing a myriad of papers on the mysterious Olmec.

We were trying to replace the heater core, the instructions were foggy to say the least. Further repairs or maintenance just as foggy, its a good book if you have a lot of experience with repairing the vehicle and don't need a how to. Amazingly the "Ford Tempo Mercury Topaz 1984-94" book by Mark Christman, which is by the same company, was a lot better for repairs and maintenance. But neither book helped with replacing the heater core, we eventually used other resources for more ideas on how to actually get to the heater core to get it out.

I've used this book for nearly three years now, and keep wondering why I go back to it. (Actually, it's because it's the only Tempo/Topaz book I own.) I have found several major errors in the illustrations, usually due to showing a 2.0 engine setup as a 2.3 or vice versa. Some instructions, like how to change a water pump, are just plain wrong. Electrical schematics, particularly of the instrument cluster are sketchy to the point of being useless when troubleshooting anything other than a hard failure. I suspect that much of the text in this book was a quickie cut-and-paste job of info that pertained to these same components as installed in other Ford products. It really doesn't do justice to the model-specific problems of navigating the limited space of the engine compartment or tracing an intermittent electrical circuit. Proofreading was spotty at best. It's better than doing a repair job blind, but not by much.

Chilton's Ford Tempo and Mercury Topaz Repair Manual 1984-94 is not for the average car owner. It is probably not even for the average mechanic. It is written in difficult language and at times seems to display unnecessarily complicated methods of performing simple tasks. From beginning to index it offers low quality information and instruction. There are too many diagrams and not enough photos. The photos available are poor. Overall this book was not very useful to me. I have used the Haynes manual for the same car and found it much more useful.