This was a great book. I am one of the lucky ones and I have a rare hard-back copy of it. It starts out in Kristins dream when she is walking up to Freddy's house. If you can find a copy of this rare book don't hesitate to buy it. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

From the raves garnered for this book and his latest release, "I'll Let You Go", I was intent from the first page on really liking this book. I came away disturbed and baffled more than anything else ... and slightly nauseous.

Wagner certainly is a prodigious talent. His dialogue flies off the page, and his characters, though a rather unlikeable lot, manage to convey a certain pathos that is truly revealing. I might even venture to say I was surprisingly moved by the ending. Unfortunately, though, Wagner comes off as a more impressive stylist than storyteller. As a result, the narrative tends to drift and gets lost amid virtuoustic and occasionally tangential verbiage. One particular complaint is that I often lost track of the characters themselves and how they were inter-related.

This is not - and I repeat NOT - a novel for everyone. It requires a strong stomach and an open mind. Some of Wagner's descriptions border on the pornographic, and occasionally seem to push the envelope just for the sake of shock value.

Still, there is quite a bit to admire here, and if one can get past the fact that these characters are - for the most part - utterly unredeemable, and the plot a bit unfocused, you are in for quite a read.

It's a novel set in present day Hollywood, but instead of focusing on Hollywood stars, Wagner looks at the hangers-on types, the agents, lawyers, doctors, massage therapists, etc. It's definitely black humor, as a lot of unfortunate things happen to the characters, but it's definitely worth reading.

The multiple pov is quite interesting. In the first section, Wagner focuses on 4 or 5 characters, and quickly switches the POV between each one in a rapid succession. One character is an exterminator, the other an agent, the next one an aging starlet, and the next a dermatologist. My favorite is the exterminator, the Dead Pet Detective, who longs to write scripts for a Star Trek like TV show called "Blue Matrix". His mother is a psychologist, Calliope, who only treats celebrities, one of whom is a Blue Matrix star.

The second section is even more interesting: it's told from multiple narrators, each of whom are women. A different set of characters who you saw through a different perspective earlier. One is a screenwriter writing e-mail to her lesbian lover, another is a producer dictating into a microphone (much like Julia Philips in You'll Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again), still another is a massage therapist writing in her diary titled "The Thief of Energy". These characters have an effect on each other's lives which is not immediately apparent until the end when things all come together.

bruce wagner is a genius and this book will rip your heart out of your chest, stomp on it, then give it a sweet little peck on the cheek before sending it on its way.

read it!

Mr. Wagner writes like the most clever boy in the Beverly Hills High School english class. He is obsessed with superficiality, has nothing to say, and is too pretentious to even be fun. Strictly "amateur hour."

For seven eighths of this book, I was astonished by Wagner's writing skill. His flawless evocation of the Dickensian novel is intercut with bits of modern dialogue that are shocking in their compellingly contemporary grounding. The characters are fully realized and sometimes alarmingly grotesque. Horrific things happen to the luckless, impoverished females in this book; descriptions of the horrors visited upon them are harrowing in their specifics. The author has great insight into the inner lives of children, both rich and poor; he knows of their secret dreams and fears and takes us with them on their journeys to freedom--both physical and psychological. His characters, particularly Topsy/Will'm and the baker Gilles, the grandfather Trotter, and the birth-defective, brilliant Edward and his impulsive sister Lucy, the orphaned and abused Amaryllis, are also Dickensian in their great passions and flaws. Sadly, about 75 pages from the end, the narrative wobbles badly when it moves into emails back and forth between the children, and letters between the adults. This contemporary segment, with little of the previous lavish language present, simply isn't as compelling as what came before. Fortunately, Wagner recovers to deliver an ending that is realistic in terms of the characters he's created. But those 50-60 pages near the end are overwrought and detract from an otherwise splendid accomplishment. That said, I recommend this book for its extraordinary vocabulary, its brand-name roster of designers and stars of every ilk, and for a gripping tale told in incredible style.

Plenty of books are described as "Dickensian", which usually indicates that they are teeming with characters and probe the seamy side of a particular world. Bruce Wagner understands what the Dickensian appellation actually means-to expose the ordinary reader to worlds so completely new that they might as well be on different planets. In "I'll Let You Go," the reader meets not only the desperate indigent, but also the out-of-sight rich. To most of us in the middle, either of these worlds might as well be on Mars.

Wagner's Pip, (or David, or Nicholas) is Tull, son of the daughter of the 18th richest man in America. He stays at his grandfather's fairy-tale estate with his drug addicted mother and two cousins. One of his cousins is hideously deformed but brilliant, and the other is an equally brilliant, funny girl who sees herself as a writer and makes things happen. By happenstance, they meet Amaryllis, a homeless girl who clicks with them. But before Amaryllis can be safely woven into their world, fate whisks her away on a nightmare journey.

One of the most appealing thing about this novel is that the children are treated equally. Tull and his cousins are not demonized because they are rich, nor is Amaryllis sainted because of her heartbreaking background. "I'll Let You Go" is full of quirky, interesting characters, surprising plot twists, and elegant prose. It is not a party-trick book, where the author shows off by demonstrating how many links he can make between Dickens' London and Tull's L.A. It is an affecting work with enough deep emotion, humor, and surprises to keep you hooked from start to finish.

Bruce Wagner is a screenwriter and director with a swirling disturbing perception of the subworld that is Hollywoodland. When writing the seminal though hardly remembered techrevolution packaged as a TV miniseries, Wild Palms, he locked himself away in the old 20s glamour haunt, the Chateau Marmont friend William Gibson has reported, and filled the room with books - not to read, but just to inspire or invoke in the darn thing. I think there were probably a lot of candles too.

Force Majeure is somewhat more contemporary than the near future world of Wild Palms, but it is spilling over with the same mundane paranoia that seeps through Hollywood. Bud Wiggins, a Willy Loman as screenwriter bumps and stumbles through a world and narrative that is part Day of the Locusts, part Terry Southern's Blue Movie. You feel like there's always a conspiracy around the corner, but its only showbiz. Force Majeure whips together trippyness, struggle, pop, and pornography in a way that makes me think of Leonard Cohen's Beautiful Losers, though the books are not similar otherwise.

Finally, this is a portrait of Hollywood. There's a beginning rule of screenwriting that says Hollywood is the only place where you can make a living on failure. And that's if you're really lucky. Force Majeure embodies that notion.

The first three Nightmare on Elm Street films in book form. The first two are excellent and you really feel you know the characters whose backgrounds are explored nicely.

But what happened to the novelising of Part 3? It starts off well but most of it bears no resemblance to the film at all and seems just an underdeveloped mish-mash. Very disappointing.

The feeble novelising of Part 3 barely deserves one star, but the novels of the other two make this publication on not to miss. And there are some nice photos from the films.

The back cover promises "Step-by-step instructions on how to use it in your systems." This is why I bought the book. However, there are only a handful of pages on "Using Twofish", and none of them have anything like a step-by-step howto.

Bruce Schneier is the Yoda of crpytography and information security, if you've heard him there's no need to ask anyone else. This book would probably only appeal to the genuinely avid crypto fan, its Greek to anyone else. It is a thorough exposition of the making of the Twofish cypher, the latest attempt to secure information as absolutely as possible. You must be well versed in cryptography to get anything out of the work.

This book is not a how-to-do thing. You will learn why this cypher was created, how it was created it all the details. Not an introductory book. But very worth to who ever want to enter modern applied cryptographic field.

Here is good evidence why Indiana is not a mecca of fine wines. Mr. Vine needs to take a few classes at U.C. Davis or read any of Amerine's books. The faults are too many but he did do a good job by inserting Government Regs and a lot of tables that would be hard for him to screw-up.

This book touches on all parts of the winemaking business from vineyard costs to winery costs and designs to marketing your wines. It has a good section on analytical testing procedures and 50 pages of charts, tables and conversions that come in handy.

The section on vineyard costs details year by year expenses from start-up through year 7. I also found the feasibility and finance section very helpful in starting up my own winery. The section on government regulations was very helpful in warning any prospective winery owners of what the ATF and state regulators expect. There are plenty of examples of good record keeping that various governments expect you to keep on hand at all times.

Of course this book also has 117 pages of good winemaking details along with good sections on microbiology, winery equipment, barrels and label designs. If this book has any obvious fault it would be that it does not go deep enough into some of these subjects, but then it would be thousands of pages long instead of the 440 pages it is.

An all around great book on winemaking and the rest of the business that goes with a winery and it's operation. This book has lots of good business information in it that I have not seen in any other winemaking book. I recommend it for anyone who not only wants to make great wine but also is serious about starting his own commercial winery.

As a wine 'amateur' (French meaning - no French person would ever say they were a 'connossieur' of wine, as one can never know it), this book was great in teaching more of the nuts and bolts of the wine biz. Grab this online somewhere - hopefully Amazon.com's out-of-print service - but grab it - it is very interesting.

I am certified on Exchange Server 4.0, 5.0 and 5.5 and have had experience supporting Fortune 100 companies in rolling out Exchange. I reviewed this book looking for a good study guide I could recommend for our clients and staff.

Simply put...look elsewhere for a study guide, as this one doesn't cut it. It seems very confusing, and I'm not exactly sure why they make everything seem so much more difficult in Exchange than it really is.

Admittedly, Exchange has a confusing interface, but it's actually quite easy to set up, troubleshoot and get running in real-life. Even in an Enterprise environment with cc:Mail, Notes, IMC connectors, and such...normally the worst thing you need to worry about is migration issues.

This book makes EVERYTHING in Exchange seem difficult, and skips very important issues that are not only on the test, but are some of the biggest issues encountered in real-life.

Avoid this book. We need less ill-trained Exchange support people in the world as it is.

This book will not prepare you for the exam! I found that the book was horribly put together. It is very hard if not impossible to locate and study for all of the objectives covered on the test. I would suggest the Sybex book on the same subject. I read this book and did not feel at all prepared to take the test and found the Sybex four days before the test and had to speed read it. I have found the Sybex book to be a better resource for real life also.

This book does a good job at explaining the basics. Being an MCSE but having limited experience with Exchange, I read the book front to back and took the practice exams. Do not try to pass the exam on this book alone. This book used in conjunction with Transender will help you succeed.

This book is riddled with typos, missing instructions, and organizational errors. I was forced to go out and buy another book on Access. Don't waste your time and money on this book