Far from being "as exciting as a novel," this pedestrian re-telling of what should be a fascinating story is bland and far from insightful. The author's evident unfamiliarity with even basic military and naval terminology leads one to wonder about the accuracy of other elements. (A ship-of-the-line is a "gunboat.") The Recorded Books version is read in a sneering, condescending delivery by an Englishman who whistles into the microphone every second sentence, producing a "nails on the blackboard" sensation which accentuates the discomfort.

This was a good summary of a lot of secondary source material on Bonnie Prince Charlie, condensed into a fairly short biography. It's an enjoyable leisurely read, but don't look for depth, great detail, or anything like original thought about Prince Charlie and what he meant in the context of Scottish, English, European, or Catholic history in the 18th century. This is not a good text for anyone already familiar with the Jacobites and looking for any new scholarship on the subject.

The eldest son of James, the Old Pretender, Bonnie Price Charlie was raised to believe that the throne of England and Scotland was his destiny. Born in Italy and used as a pawn of Louis XV against George II, Charles was seen as a promising young man. In his early twenties, he sailed to Scotland and was able to convince several Highland chiefs to support his cause. Numerous victories came swiftly because the English were unprepared for the various attacks. However, once the English determined that the threat was real, Prince Charles and his troops were quickly over run. He returned to France where he was asked to leave and again settled in Italy. With no ambitions left to him, he quickly dissapated into an alcoholic daze. He fathered one child by a Scottish woman and later married a German princess but that marriage quickly soured. His later years were redeemed somewhat as his daughter Charlotte came to his aid. He died, leaving his youngest brother Henry as the last Stuart pretender to the throne. Henry was a Cardinal and therefore fathered no children so with his death the Stuart dynasty came to an end.

I enjoyed the book and found it useful for someone with limited knowledge of this time period. Not very detailed with but a good overview of events.

The Prologue tells about his past writings, and why he kept writing into his 80s: his job is to tell stories. This book was intended to be a chapter in his novel 'Texas', but was dropped because it was history and not part of the novel. Michener's reject can stand alone as a concise history of these men. Pages 29-30 notes his solid rules of work at 80: rise at 7:30, eat a frugal breakfast, write until 12:30. Eat a light lunch, take a nap, do research and teaching, then a brisk mile walk at dusk. Supper, the evening news, maybe TV, and the day ends. Michener lived to a ripe old age, after a quintuple heart by-pass, new left hip, dental rebuilding, and vertigo. Like an old apple tree, he kept on growing and producing. These pages are worth reading in themselves.

The book gives a concise history into the parallel lives of Santa Anna and Sam Houston. Both were destined to be famous politicians in their countries, but never did overcome their flaws. But how many of out politicians do when the historians release the uncensored facts?

Santa Anna won renown by his military action against the many rebellions. They were put down by executing most of the captured rebels, or making them imprisoned slaves. Santa Anna's talents lay in knowing just when to change sides. One morning Santa Anna led his troops against the rebels and was promoted to Lt Colonel. After lunch, he joined the rebels and was promoted to full Colonel! Santa Anna later supported Emperor Iturbide and became a General. All this suggests the Founding Fathers were right to require a small standing Army, and keep the professional military out of politics. This book does not explain who Santa Anna was fronting for; you'll need to read a more detailed history book. Page 112 tells of Santa Anna's use of double agents: military officers who pretended to defect to the Zacatecans, then betrayed the Zacatecan forces who also rebelled against the coup de etat.

The Mexican defeat at San Jacinto led to the capture of Santa Anna. Houston showed his political wisdom by getting Santa Anna to sign a treaty to be released. A live Santa Anna would try to justify his actions, and prevent another general from becoming ruler, and maybe starting another war against the smaller Texas. Houston became President of Texas, US Senator, then Governor. Houston opposed the Confederacy, and was removed from office. What would have happened if Houston used Union troops to stay in office? Could it have succeeded? At 68 Houston must have felt he had done as much as he could do in one lifetime. Houston retired to his farm and died in 1863 at 70 years.

Santa Anna was recalled from exile to lead Mexico into the war with America. Their defeat led to the loss of huge areas. Santa Anna was the most expensive President Mexico ever had! (I wonder if Santa Anna was a member of a Secret Society and a double agent? That would explain a lot.) Ever the opportunist, he backed the conservatives who invited Maximilian to be Emperor of Mexico. When the reign of Maximilian was on the wane, Santa Anna switched sides yet again. His one gift to America was to introduce chewing gum, a substitute for the ubiquitous chewing tobacco. Santa Anna returned to Mexico City a few years before his death to live in poverty and obscurity.

This is not one of Michener's better books. Apparently it stems from a chapter he orginally wrote for his novel Texas and later excised. For some reason he calls this book a novel, but why isn't at all clear, as it seems to be nonfiction. The illustrations are poor. And the book is simplistic and not particularly well written. The book was written towards the end of Michener's writing life, and he includes a long prologue that sounds like an old man reminiscing about his past, what he has found worthwhile in his life. I did find this of interest.

The book is worthwhile as a quick overview of Santa Anna, "the Eagle," and of Sam Houston, "the Raven." A much better book about Sam Houston, though, is Sword of San Jacinto, by Marshall De Bruhl. And Jeff Long's account of the Alamo, Duel of Eagles, offers a much superior portrayal of Santa Anna.

Mr. Michener spent the first 32 pages of the book explaining how it was that a writer in his 80's could produce so much in such a short period of time. It was almost an excuse. This book was originally intended to be a part of his massive Texas, but was dropped before the final editing. This book gives a very brief outline of the biographies of Santa Anna, the Eagle, and Sam Houston, the Raven. Though really just a thumbnail sketch of each man, Michener is not afraid to tell it like it really was, instead of the homogonized versions one usually finds in biographies. The subjects, Santa Anna & Houston, are fascinating, and Michener's sampling makes one long for a more detailed accounting of each man's life. Perhaps this was Michener's intent. The book is short, and somewhat choppy, jumping from man to man chronologically. As a book, it was very interesting, and a quick read. As an example of Michener's work......... look elsewhere.

Much of the advice in this book is incomplete, outdated, or misleading. After spending many hours attempting to use these forms to do my own divorce, I was tossed out of court by a rather displeased judge, and wound up hiring an attorney to re-do everything anyway. This might be a good reference for someone who is thinking about getting a divorce and curious about what the process is like and what is involved, but for actually using it to go to court by yourself, I can't recommend it. It caused me one heck of a headache.

the book did not contain all the forms necessary for my divorce, such as the judge signature portion for the pauper's oath.

The book is a little confusing at first, because the subject matter is so complicated, but overall it was very helpful. It saved me a lot of money in legal fees. Anyone with a no-fault divorce should find it very helpful and simple to use. I had no problem with having my divorce granted. I highly recommend it.

As a student of GSA (Glasgow school of Art), I am perhaps in the best position to comment on such a subject. It seems to me that if Mr. Mackintosh ever visited the school , he did so with his eyes closed. He has completly missed the point of the building. Radically undestating its importance and beauty. Most of all I feel that it is truly hurtful the way in which he described the "menial nature" of the staff which enhabit this fine establishment. Although the text itself is completly removed from the reality the pictures are sweet.

I too have been a student at GSA. I think that Dr. Macaulay's interpretation of Mackintosh's work is right on. Mackintosh himself was designing during a rather industrial area. It was a time when he was designing spaces for employees performing rather menial tasks, as well as weathly homeowners. However, he approached the design process in an organic and playful manner. This book expresses the best that Mackintosh had to offer.

Growing up in the Delta I find a lot to dislike about this exercise in academic revisionism of Southern history. The author is clearly ignorant of those times that shaped the history of the Delta, the floods of 1927 and '37 followed by the migrations of black people to the North followed by the mechanical cotton picker, followed by the emmigration of light industry to the "new" south. This superficial book is typical of the ideological rectitude among apologists that permeate parochial history departments. A person wishing to understand the psyche of the Delta should read instead, "Lanterns on the Levee",or "Rising Tide", both available from Amazon.com.

I loved what the book! As a 4th generation Mississippi Deltan, seventh generation Mississippian, white , 48 year old male, I was very impressed with Mr Cobb's research. He certainly dispelled many of the myths that we were taught as we grew up from a segregated society to a desegregated society. I now live in Colorado but my family and friends still live in the Delta. I wish this book was required reading in the schools in the Delta as well as anywhere segregation and racism exists to help people better understand why these problems that continue to plague these areas will not go away. A great study on the Mississippi Delta with more fact than fiction.

This books is valuable whether your debt problems stem from overuse of consumer credit cards or not. It is packed with wise advice and actual case histories of people who have done a turnaround financially. The best case study is that of the author himself -- a fast-track CPA enjoying one mortgage, two cars, and multiple credit cards. Somehow his training didn't give him a clue as to why he couldn't pay his monthly bills. One day he had to move himself (and wife and kids) back in with his parents. The ten principles (mostly derived from Bible study) that he used to climb out of the hole are well-explained, and the book includes helpful forms and strategies for achieving financial stability. This is a good, practical self-help book, and the Christian perspective is interesting too.

This is a easy entrance book for graduated students. Chemical Engineers will be safe with this.

Informative and beautifully presented, this book offers a unique guide to the struggles and successes of Native peoples on and of the reserve. Would give 4 stars if it wasn't so expensive!

If only if you are an investor, and enjoy such books. This is the place to get it and read about this excellent book to help with Monetary Economic Thought.

The Wheel of Time saga is an uninspired, hardly original, badly written pile of junk. It is difficult to see a plan into its development, and the story sounds like a free association of words at the psychanalist's office. If The Lord of the Rings had not been around may be the Wheel of Time would have had a shot...but, to be honest, if the Rings had never been written, Robert Jordan would have had nothing to (badly) copy.

What this is: an epic adventure. It would be imappropriate to review the WOT series when speaking of the Prophesies of the Dragon book; it's also not really a supplement akin to, say, The Monster Manual for D&D--the only extra skills, feats, backgrounds, etc are those directly related to NPCs in the campaign. What Prophecies is designed to do is take a party of characters through their first six levels of adventuring, which correspond roughly to the first six books of the series of novels. The players are allowed to play a key behind the scenes roll in the story of the novels and cameos have been scripted for many of the book's key characters. It's a really ambitious undertaking; players have to be given a compelling storyline, feel like they're making a difference in a campaign that covers over a year of game time, without letting them change what happens in the novels.

Does it work? I am currently GMing this adventure. On paper, it looks really good. Some of the scenes, especially in the later parts of the story, look exciting, moving even. Faile's cameo is perfect, for example. In practice, though, it's been an extremely frustrating experience. First, the early encounters (as pointed out by another reviewer) are unnecessarily difficult and add nothing to the plot. As things progress, the authors presume too much on the goals and motivations of the players. There is one chapter, for example, where the introduction says something along the lines of, "Upon entering the city, the players will want to find (a certain NPC) as soon as posible and will definitely want to investigate the actions of (another NPC)." The players in my campaign knew they wanted to talk to one of these guys eventually, but the other one was off their radar completely. Throughout, I've had to improvise ways to keep them approximating the plot line of the campaign and by chapter 3, they're feeling very manipulated.

The campaign assumes the party wants to do nothing more than hunt down dark friends and expose evil plots and will take great personal risk and go through great hardship (including, at one point, a monthlong trek through a winter wilderness without adequate provisions) on the chance of thwarting same. Characters with any other motivations (say, a character modeled after Mat or Nynaeve in the books) will feel forced into situations unnaturally. There has been more than one point where one of the players saying, "I *think* this is where the plot wants us to go."

So, in conclusion, while this adventure is excellent in its dreams and scope--and it's definitely better than something I could have designed myself--but it will fail often fail as a game. If you are intending to run a WOT campaign, buy this adventure, read it so that you thoroughly understand its scope BEFORE you even let your players make up characters. The characters need to be in the philosophy of the story or the story won't work.

It's not a supplement. That'd've been useful. It's a big adventure set. That could've been useful.

Then we met the Demon-Bear.

Allow me to explain. In d20, animals don't get feats. One of the early mini-adventures has a BIG bear that has lots of bonus feats...and a party of first and second-level PCs is supposed to defeat it. When it can kill a PC with one swipe of its paw. Right.

That's emblematic of the problems with this adventure set. It's written with little attention to rules or game balance, or even party survival. Some adventures throw opponent after opponent at the PCs, but with such poor healing capability, you'll inevitably have PC casualties. While those aren't necessarily bad, having the odds stacked so heavily against you isn't fun.

Another flaw is that, in many instances, PC decisions don't matter. You are, in fact, on rails in a good many adventures, and that's BAD. The adventure in Falme, in particular, comes to mind.

It could've been good. Really. Almost anything would've been better than the ... introductory adventure included with the main book (1st-level PCs...against 3rd-level trollocs that outnumber you, and, oh yes, have high strength and high-crit-range weapons!)...save this.

If you're intending to GM Wheel of Time d20 adventures, save your money and look elsewhere. You can come up with stuff that's easily better.