The story deals with Red Sonja getting mixed up with a prison break. The prisoners are made up of a band of thugs and a wizard who has sold his soul to an ancient and very powerful Hell spawned demon. Needless to say, Sonja joins forces with a military expedition set out to bring the convicts back in line. This story has it all, adventure on the high seas, acts of piracy, loads of action, character development(a rarity for this series), and an overgrown mud monster. Also in this story, we finally learn the origin of Sonja's famous, or rather infamous, metal bikini battle armor. But bummer of all bummers, as soon as we learn it's origin, it's destroyed in battle, and Sonja replaces it with more practical armor:( To date, this is the best Red Sonja novel I have read. I was strongly tempted to give it 5 stars, but it just falls short of this lofty rank. As with all Red Sonja novels this item is long out of print. But if you are diligent in your search, you will be well rewarded. As with all books in the series, renowned fantasy artist Boris provides a truly gorgeous cover painting. Fortunately, Boris chose to depict Sonja in her more famous metal bikini on the cover rather than in her knew practical armor:)

Superheroes (Titled "Titans" in it's hardcover printing) mainly covers the art Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell produced for the Marvel Masterworks trasing card series in the mid-80's, with a few covers and misc. art thrown in for good measure. While it's nice to see the art at a larger size, the limited variety of poses gets old after a while. Boris and Julie use each other as models, so most of the faces look alike; The ones that don't look like them are based on bodybuilders, so the female characters have a very hard look to them, facially speaking. The colors are gorgeous, though. The real problem with the book is the text, by Nigel Suckling, who manages to live up to the first syllable of his last name. The book is riddled with spelling errors (Ogum, instead of Ogun), characters have the wrong names attatched to their paintings (Mariko and Yukio's names are transposed, as well as Yukio being called by the wrong name). The text passages show that Suckling didn't bother to get more than a passing familiarity with the comic characters; He describes Spider-Man as being bumbling...? His passages about Boris & Julie's views on time-travel & Geography are hilariously bad.
Superheroes is a nice book for fans of Boris & Julie; I would have liked more information on their techniques, and their opinions of the pieces, though. Anything to save me from Suckling's turgid prose....

90% of Julie's work is stunning. 60% of Boris's work is stunning. By far, Julie is the better artist. Turn to any page and if there is a beautiful picture on it, chances are Julie did it. If the picture looks odd like the person's face or body being deformed, chances are Boris did it. They both have their share of throw away paintings. Some of them are down right terrible. But when they get it right it really is a feast for the eyes. One downfall for this book is the information on the comic characters. Why does it say Storm has gray skin? Like time I checked she was African American and they don't have gray skin. There are a ton of mistakes on the characters but it doesn't really matter since the paintings are why you're buying the book.

The artwork, featured on a very popular series of Marvel trading cards, is powerful and brings a certain amount of realism to our favourite comic book heroes. The problem is, some heroes benefit from a more realistic look, while stylised characters such as the Hulk, tend to look a bit silly in such glorified detail. I tended to prefer Julie's style, more in proportion and more recognisable. The text describes Boris and Julie's relationship and their approach to their art, no doubt of interest to the budding artist but a bit dull for the average reader. However, all in all a powerful and exciting set of super hero artworks.

Z for Zachariah is a book that deals with what it would be like to be the last person left on earth. After a nuclear war there is only one person left a 16 year old girl named Anne. Somehow the radiation passed over her home that sits in a small valley. When one day she sees smoke of in the distance, she realizes that she is not the only left. From there the book explodes into a fast action plot. Should she trust the scientist in his "safe suit" because he is the only person left with her? Even after he swims in the contaminated river and starts acting different, meaner? I recommend this book to people of all ages. Its makes you feel like you were right there and keeps you sitting up at night to finish the book to see how it will it.

I read this book beacause it was required 8th grade reading. So at first I didn't have an open mind about the book. But I soon found out that this book was VERY good. The book starts out so vague that you really want to keep reading if only to find out what this is about. The book takes place after a neaclure war that for all she knows distroyed the whole world. She is saved in her valley because the walls are tall and the valley has its own weather patterns. Soon into the book you find out that there is a man who is still alive. Ann and the man become friends and soon she starts to feel feelings for him. But this man turns out to be mean, scary, controll freek. Ann soons haveing to start living life from day to day just to save her self.
This book was very well written. It also keeps you invloved untill the very end. Z for Zachariah gives you a new view on life and makes you think what if I were in a stituation like that. I would read this book again and think other people should read it.

The novel Z for Zachariah kept me interested every chapter. It takes place after a nuclear war in a valley which had not been affected by the radiation that had destroyed the rest of the world. Ann Burden, the main character, is the only one left alive in the valley, but then a man in a plastic suite comes. Before he gets to her home, she goes away to a cave on the mountains and spies on him to learn what he was like. After a few days, Ann notices he is sick, so she comes down and takes care of him. She learns his name is John Loomis and that the suite he was wearing was to keep the radiation away. To be able to keep alive, Ann works on the fields next to her home, milks the cows, and gets canned food from a store. Mr. Loomis starts to become more demanding of Ann as he improves and notices that he will be able to live through his terrible sickness. Ann discovers that he is not really being that good to her. Then, something unexpected happens, which dramatically changes the story.

I thought this book was really good. Even though the idea of the novel seems kind of simple, Z for Zachariah is worthwhile reading because there is always something going on and it is quite realistic. It is pretty easy to read and understand and there is not much confusing about it. I thought the end was well done, and a sequel should be written. It is written in a diary type form, where Ann is the one who writes the diary entries. One thing I do not like about it is that the short summary on the back of the book tells what happens at the end, which kind of spoils the plot. I would really recommend anyone to read Z for Zachariah, it is really worth it.

The latest Niven book 'The Burning City' looked interesting, and having heard that 'Magic..' was a prequel-of-sorts, I decided to read it first.

This was my first experience with Niven and if it's representative of his body-of-work as a whole, I can see why he regularly collaborates with others...he's not very talented with the written word.

Most of this book was stilted throughout. Topping that off, it's just not horribly interesting. Perhaps we can give Niven a little credit for being one of the forerunners of the modern fantasy boom, but calling this book a classic isn't something I'll ever do.

The fact that other reviewers have remarked on its similarities to a popular children's fantasy game speaks volumes.

Here's an overview: Four magicians and a Greek soldier combine forces to find new sources of mana. Mana is what allows magicians to perform magic but it is a resource in limited supply and magicians in the past have squandered the supply away. They use the last bit of mana they can find to travel to northern Europe to find the last living god and steal its mana.

I read this book a number of years ago when I was younger. I decided to read it again because my memory of it was good. I can't say the book was bad, but it wasn't great. There were some interesting ideas about magic and the scene of travelling on a cloud still gets me excited (it sounds like fun). If you're into fantasy and magic this book is for you. It's a quick read and the version I have has fantasy drawings on almost every other page. It's almost like a fantasy comic book.

Most of Larry Niven's considerable oeuvre takes the form of the Heroic Quest,but using the vocabulary of hard science fiction. In "The Magic Goes Away", he leaves the space ships and gravity generators on the shelf, and addresses the Quest directly.
In doing so, he reveals a level of poetry of language and sensitivity of characterization that is rare in any genre, and unheard of in science fiction. "The Magic Goes Away" is in a class with "The Circus of Doctor Lao" and "Green Mansions": Small, easily-read fantasy novels that will stay in your mind forever.

This is the second volume of the pulp-style fantasy/adventure series known as the World of Tiers. This time around, Wolff's evil father has kidnapped his beautiful wife Chryseis. To find her, he sets off through a series of hexacular gates, each of which takes him and his fractious siblings to a new and more challenging world where an endless series of traps, dangers, and
difficulties await. Will Wolff be able to rescue his wife from the horrible fate that awaits her? Was there ever any doubt?

The specific ploy Wolff comes up with to defeat the villain is pretty clever, and is probably the best part of the book, which overall is just the same old same old. Instead of displaced societies, this volume's worlds feature geographic problems that the group has to overcome in order to get through the next gate. The result is a lot less swordplay and a lot more death trekking, not really Farmer's forte. The excitement level is pretty low, and the suspense level is almost non-existent, since many will guess the kidnapper's secret well before it is revealed, and many more will have stopped caring long before then. Farmer's characters are painfully flat; some of the siblings are no more than cannon fodder, while even the more important characters just strike the same single note over and over. As a result, the reader never cares whether the party succeeds in their venture or not. (This reader was even tempted to start hoping the villain would just kill them all off and spare us all any more unpleasantness). Wolff is a capable leader and combatant, but he has few other human qualities of any interest, and his siblings are plain irritating. So even though this book starts much faster and has a stronger ending than its predecessor, there still isn't much to like about it. Younger readers who can handle brutal, pointless violence may find this book a welcome diversion, but so far, this is the weakest series Farmer has written. Will A Private Cosmos be any better? This reviewer is disinclined to even bother to find out.

This book reads like something out of a freshman creative writing class. The dialogue is stilted, the plot is predictable, and the characters are utterly flat.

Skip it - there are plenty of other good books by these authors.

This story follows a young athlete as she trains for the new Olympics, which include intellectual competition and a de facto death sentence for the those who fail to take the gold. Sounds exciting, doesn't it? Ah, well. I have read of number of Larry Niven novels, and I understand the premise that maybe a book can be just a ripping good adventure, and not a contribution to world lit. But, ack, this was horrible. You will find the characters cliched, the plot "twists" too easy to figure out, and the ending is either a cop out because the author had filled the requisit number of pages, or a cheap way to prep for a sequel.

This novel is about love, life and sport. Based on a future Olympics where not only physical perfection is required but also extreme intelligence. It is a story where the nobel prize is inspired by elite athletes, and practical meets theoretical. It is a story of choices. Choose wrong and you may die. Either way you need to be fully committed to your descisions. If you are going to aim high in life then this is where you would be.

Achilles Choice was a light but enjoyable read. I am looking forward to a sequel.

I would recommend this novel for the age group 8-22 years of age. If you are an older reader the predictability of the storyline may be discouraging.