Oh woes me! I lost my Penguin dictionary and had to shell out [price] for this sub-par and seriously inferior dictionary. Compared with Penguin...well there in no comparison: This one seriously lacks in idiomatic expressions, slang, synonyms and sentence examples for their words. I need to get another Pengiun dictionary fast!

Why are good Russian materials so hard to find? If you're a Russian guru, make some money and alleviate this problem!!!

This is a big thick heavy volume printed in nice large
font on fine white paper, and it is mostly useless.
I am a native Russian speaker and pretty good in English,
having studied it for good quarter a century. I was looking
for a decent dictionary to look up more difficult words,
and I was specifically looking for one volume two-way
Russian-English dictionary for ease of use.
This dictionary turned out to be a waste of money. It only
has the most primitive words both in Russian and English
sections, no slang (and I am talking standard slang, not
street speak), definitions are poor, very few synonyms.
It may be good for beginners but as a reference dictionary
I would not recommend it to anybody.

As a Russian translator in the U.S. military, I have used this edition as well as earlier ones in my work, and I have to say that this is an improvement upon the others, which were already very good. A question for the reviewer who wrote that the back cover contained spelling mistakes in Russian: Where are they? I know the spelling system of the language quite well, and reading the back cover several times, I could find neither spelling mistakes nor incorrect case endings. As for word choice in Russian, it could be that native speakers would have phrased some things differently (as a non-native speaker, it's hard for me to judge), but the Russian text is certainly grammatically correct and the meaning is clearly conveyed.

When I bought this book, my first thought was that it would be a story of Riverwind's journey to Xak Tsaroth and would probably not fit into the Chronicles timeline. I was wrong on both thoughts. The book is very well written and the characters are good. (although I wasn't much impressed by Catchflea, and there is a long draggy point of walking through endless tunnels.) The story is like two books in one: first Riverwind journies to an undergound city of lost elves and participates in their rebellion against an evil elven sorceres, (Li El has to be one of the most evil villians I have ever read about) and then he journies to Xak Tsaroth to battle draconians and Khisanth the black dragon. It tied in very well with the series and explained why Riverwind couldn't remember the adventure. I know most people say that the preludes stink, but this one doesn't. Pick it up if you were as curious as me about Riverwind's lost quest that was wiped from his memory.

Riverwind the Plainsman was an ok book. The biginning was somewhat dull but the ending made up for it. The prediction at the begining at the beginnig made you gess the whole time when and who it would happen to. Like some of the other readers have stated there is a slight confliction with the other books.

Your beloved needs you to go on a quest to claim her. You take the village idiot. You fall down a big hole into an underground kingdom of elves. You have an elf fall in love with you and you eventually take on a black dragon. All in a days work for Riverwind.

Riverwind is forced to go on a courting quest to claim Goldmoon. The quest involves finding proof of the old gods. Catchflea, the town idiot, joins Riverwind and they end up falling down the entrance to a city of underground elves. After an epic battle to free them from their oppressive ruler, the companions blunder into a city of draconians and a cleric making horrible lizard warriors. Only one person makes it out of this whole mess alive and sane.

The plot is implausible so it's up to the characters to make the read interesting. And they do. Riverwind is an interesting very sweet character. Catchflea gets annoying, but Di An is a nice character and Li El is truly creepy.

If you're looking for a good, light read from Dragonlance, you might want to check out this book.

If the person from Boulder Co. is such a wonderful editor, he or she, would have found out that LIGHT HOUSE PRESS is NOT a vanity publisher. And friend, I happen to like commas, they let people like yourself, write a review that sells thousands of my novels. It makes the much researched novel better reading.
Thank you for your review and have Happy New Year.

I can surely tell that Mr. Reader in Boulder has not traveled in southern New Mexico. As most of the characters I have met on my many adventures in this area of the country, they speak slowly, adding many pauses while telling their amazing stories. Mr. Thompson has caputured their ways of expressing themselves. I felt myself sitting by a campfire listening to seasoned ranchers tell of their lives. I could acutally see the landscape unfold in front of me as I went for the ride. I enjoyed this book and look forward to the next.

As one whose family came to the Southwest in 1811, I have had the benefit of listening to hundreds of stories told by our oldtimers. I recognize Paul Thompson's talent for writing books as tales are told by those oldtimers. Anyone who wants an authentic flavor of the the Southwest's tough and self-reliant rural culture will enjoy his books hugely.

BTW, reader in Boulder, you made several erroneous uses of commas in your review.

I tried to like this book, really I did. I went into it expecting a light read, not Shakespeare mind you. But light reads are supposed to be LIGHT! This book was either too conspicuously trying to take itself seriously or too conciously trying to be funny.

The main gist is that Sturm and Kitiara accidentally end up on another planet when the flying machine they are riding in with a band of gnomes breaks. Once on the planet it's a series of misadventures trying to get supplies to leave which eventually leads them to a brass dragon in an obelisk. When they finally get back to Krynn, Sturm inexplicably joins a group of herders to find his father, barely being saved by Kitiara before being done in by a magician warrior. Did I mention the deadend plot about a pirate ship? I won't even try to go into that.

The characters were strikingly bland. Sturm is such an over-pious, stuffy character it's hard to sympathize with him and Kitiara is just obnoxious, bemoaning how the world doesn't work out perfectly for her. The gnomes are interchangable and so annoying one wants to put them all in a box and sink them to the bottom of the ocean. The one chapter featuring Raistlin and Caramon was better than most of the other characterization put together. Raistlin is such a magnetic character it's hard to write him poorly.

Initially, if the authors had stuck to the later plot of the book, with Sturm looking for his father, this thing might have been a good read. But in the end, too much is attempted to be done and the book just runs out of gas. Oh, and where was the promised romance? I found none.

In the end, too many plot twists make an admirable rope to hang this story on.

This story, is indeed one of the more interesting works in the Saga. As stated above, it entales the story of Sturm and Kitiara five years before the War of the Lance. Traveling to his home land, in an effort to find his lost father, Sturm finds on the way, how very different he is from Kitiara, both in principle and action. Along the way, they meet with a group of gnomes, travel to the Red Moon, and engage a very real dragon. While this forshadows a part of Kitiara seen in the Chronicles, I find it hard to believe that Sturm would fail to mention to his companions that he had seen a dragon, even if the two had agreed to not speak of it. His honor as a knight, I guess. The story seemed detached from the rest of the Dragonlance plethora, and in doing so, left it somewhat unbelieveable (even for a fantasy world). Overall,however, it was well written, and very entertaining, thus making its good sides greatly outweigh the bad.

Before the war of the lance, when the companions split up, after a promise to meet in 5 years time, Sturm decides to head north to look for signs of his father. Kitiara decides to come along, and together they head north towards solomnia. But along the way they meet a rag-tag group of gnomes, all of whom man a very gnomish invention, a flying machine.

Sturm and Kitiara end up joining the gnomes on the flying ship, but something goes wrong and they end up flying all the way to the red moon lunitari. One the moon they meet a dragon, some weird talking trees, and an evil marrooned human..can they do to get home? their ship is broken!

This books bring together the adventure of sturm and kitiara in the years preceeding the war of the lance. They face many things during this book, i will not go about telling you what all the face, you will have to read and find out, but this book is a must needed addition to any dragonlance collection.

I am not the biggest fan of kitiara, but in this book she wasnt half bad, maybe it was because she wasnt hanging over every single guy that she saw, but this book definately shows you the relationship between sturm and kitiara, and brings to life the pain that kit might have felt, after she realized that she killed sturm (dragons of winter night). They face many things on their journey, as well as something that they never expected...love.

Kitiara goes her way, and sturm goes his. But this book is definately a good read. full of adventure, and humor (thanks to the gnomes) as well as a precurser to the troubles that a brewing on krynn, troubles that will eventually lead to the war of the lance.

While others have pointed out that there is a few inconsitencies in this book, like the parts with the dragon, and the draconions, who sturm was supposedly not supposed to know about until "dragons of autumn twilight" this is still a good read, and will definately keep you interested from cover to cover.

I would have to say, having been a sannyasin myself for the past 2 years, that this is a pretty good book on OSHO and his teachings. Written from an initiates stand point, this is a deeply heartfealt journey into the Master-Disciple relationship. Although I enjoyed this alot, I wouldn't say that it is extensive...however, how can you put into words that which is beyond all form. If you are new to Rajneesh, or not, either way...this book is worth it!!!

That's right, two stars, I would have given it more but only two thirds of the book was readable. Any one that has read my other reviews knows that I'm not the biggest Nancy Varian Berberick fan, and this book didn't help her score any points to win me over. You should remember before buying this that it is a source book, if you are coming in expecting some story that gives info on the Fifth Age as it goes along than you are wrong.

What you get is good old information, in a half way cool fashion. The way that the authors did that is that they made it as if they themselves were working for Bertrem in Ansalon, and he was nice enough to give a foreword, notes on the writings, and an afterword. I liked this better than just throwing out info and stats like most source books do.

Now the authors themselves, best to worst (and we all know who that is). First is Paul Thompson, he did a great job, the section about Politics is one of the most interesting source readings about Ansalon ever. Stan as always was funny and solid, but nothing that really kept me reading.

Last of course is Mrs. Berberick. She's not a bad writer, I just don't think she is a dragonlance writer, she is way too descriptive and flowery. An example is "Can we say with certainty that they yet pile up their lovely tresses of silver and golden so they may wear the shimmering veils of sheerest silks flowing from their coiffures as clouds stream round the glimmering sun-shining mountains?"...excuse me? I mean does that really belong in dragonlance? I personally think it is a bit overboard for DL, good for some other novel (romance?), but not in the Dragonlance shared world.

Final Thought: You really have to love the Fifth Age to get this and enjoy it totally, if you have money and want to buy a DL book then go ahead, but don't expect something that will change your view of Krynn.

For die-hard fans (like myself) this book is good, I did like the Arms and Armor section, and the games and stuff are cool. What really bothers me is some loss of continuity with the rest of the Dragonlance world. The most glaring example comes as a footnote in the aformentioned Arms and Armor section where Laurana was supposedly standing next to Sturm Brightblade while shooting a dark knight, I assume that means knights of Takhisis/Neraka which did not exist until 20 yr after Sturm died. Also, elves getting married at 20 yrs old or something, I thought they weren't even adults until the age of 80. If you can get past these few problems, though, it really can be an enjoyable read, but for the best filler information pick up one of the Leaves From the Inn of the Last Home titles.

If you're new to Krynn and you want to learn more about it , go straight ahead an buy this book , it explains a lot of stuff , including a nice amount of history about the various races in the book . However if you have been with Dragonlance for a while and , then pass it up , it has some nice stuff , but it doesn't describe a lot of stuff on the land of the Dragon overlords, talks a LOT about culinary stuff . Doesn't say anything about gnomes or gully dwarves but talks a lot about elves and kenders and ogres and humans , interresting but doesn't fo much for those who read the books and already knew everything about the current situation for the races listed above(except for the ogres) . The authors who wrote this did include a bunch of games and some celebrations and that was a litle original . All in all it is sort of entertaining but if you want to learn about the Legion of steell or the Knights of Nerak or any group ( except the knights of Solamnia) then don't bother picking this book up. I could go on about the weapon section simply talking about clubs and swords, nothing on weapons found only in Ansalon, such as the Hoopack , but I'll just let you choose for yourself....