Worlds of Honor has four wonderful stories and one rather execrable one. My favorite was What Price Dreams? by Weber. The insights into tree-cat culture are fascinating to those interested in the tree-cats. The Stray (Linda Evans), Queen's Gambit (Jane Lindskold), and The Hard Way Home (Weber) are all good reads. The last story, Deck Load Strike (Roland Green) was a real let-down; I think it was bad editing to make it last because it kind of ruins the whole feeling of the book. The story seemed really bare to me. It lacked detail and characterization, and also didn't grab my attention the way the other stories did. However, for me Worlds of Honor was worth the price because the first four stories were very interesting and entertaining. My advice is to read the last story first and then proceed in order. That way, you'll be happy at the end of your read.:)

I didn't know anything about Weber, or Harrington, or treecats last Friday night when I first picked this up, idly, at a local bookstore. By Saturday night, when I finished the last story, I still didn't know that much about Harrington (or care all that much, based on the glimpse in "The Hard Way Home,") -- but Treecats were a different proposition altogether -- and that's why I thought "Deck Load Strike" shouldn't even have been included in this book. Its only mention of treecats is in a metaphoric phrase more than three-quarters of the way into a story that, unfortunately, is just another tired old war tale in which ultimately only the bad guys survive, and nobody really wins. However ... the other stories make the book well worth the cover price. What I'd really like to see is a fleshing out of the tale by Linda Evans; "Hard Way Home" has a pair of interesting proto-protagonists, and "Queen's Gambit" is a lovely bit of insight into not just 'cat culture, but people culture too -- specifically, the awful pain people can inflict on one another in the name of love. "What Price Dreams" brought tears to my eyes. Now, if only the last whole useless story had been left out, this would be a gem of an introduction into Weber's universe of treecats, chivalric services, and all-too-human royal families. What didn't I like about the last story, besides the lack of treecats? It's gratuitously profane and vulgar, it has very little originality and its style was tired before Ernie Pyle ever saw his first battlefield with the WWII USMC. Green should be ashamed -- and so should Weber, for letting this junk pollute what could have been quite a pleasing read.

This book has a number of short stories set in the Honor Harrington universe. One of them, by David Weber, is worth buying the book by itself. "The Hard Way Home" grabs you by the first paragraph and it does not dissapoint. If the other short stories are even close in quality this will be a great book.

I always consider it a warning sign when the reviews on a volumes cover all refer to other works by the author. Such is the case with the Excalibur Alternative. Although David Weber has written many notable volumes, this is a piece of schlock that is best avoided. Weber describes in his forward how this book began life as a short story, and it would have been better if it had stayed one. The middle 60% of the novel is nothing but filler, where the main character endlessly lectures on things to convey little additional information. Unless you need something to read on an airline flight and then throw away, look for one of Weber's other works instead.

I have always enjoyed reading books by David Weber. They are rich in detail and accurate with regard to combat. That said, this book is unlike his other work.

I appears to be three books in one binding. Book one is about the abduction of a group of English solders by the alien crew of a space ship. This covers the adjustment of the solders to their new environment and the reasons behind the abduction. It reads like the short story it was originally written as.

Book two reads like a sequel to the first book. The first several pages go into detail about what took place during the first book. It reads as though written for readers who had not read the first book and needed the situation explained to them. There is a great deal of repetition of ideas and information. This book ends abruptly with no transition to book three.

The beginning of book three seems to be a new story. A sequel to the events in books one and two. It does roll up the loose ends from the previous books but the transition is vary abrupt.

I did enjoy the story. I did not enjoy the way it was written.

An oft recurring theme in science fiction is that of aliens kidnapping or recruiting humans to act as their slaves or mercenaries. Several well received stories spring to mind. "Janissaries" by Jerry Pournelle, which depicted contemporary American mercenaries, spawned two sequels. "The High Crusade" by Poul Anderson showed English knights in the Middle Ages ready to march on Jerusalem. Instead aliens abduct them. "Ranks of Bronze" by David Drake was a short story of a Roman legion sold to aliens to fight endless wars against enemies of comparable (non-)technology. This book is an authorised sequel to the latter. Think of it as an alternative starting scenario for "The High Crusade".

The book ends with the English knights overthrowing their masters and setting up a pocket empire that is ready to confront the aliens in a Galactic War!! As others have noted, the end of this book is slightly at askance. Weber is positioning probably many sequels. He has just released "War of Honor" (2002), which is clearly the start of a new Honor Harrington series. (See my review on that for more details.) Plus he also published "The Shiva Option" which ends that series. He has built up an expertise in writing interplanetary battle scenes, and in doing so has attracted a devoted fan base. From a marketing standpoint, he is reinforcing success by introducing different but related brands, like Coke and Diet Coke. Also, if he experiences a temporary writer's block in one series, he can switch to the other, to maintain productivity.

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Here is an aside, and something that does not seem to have been noted by others. The stories mentioned above about humans being kidnapped or recruited have all had humans as the heroes. Are there any where the humans are bad blokes? Not as far as I know. But if you relax the restriction that they be human, then you get Kzin! Yes, that's right. The Man-Kzin wars by Larry Niven. The Kzin were pretechnological tribals who overthrew and enslaved their spacefaring masters. So if you want a different take on this theme, check out that series.

I greatly enjoy David Weber's books. I have hard cover copies of most of them. I do not understand why he thinks that we should buy another copy of Ms. Midshipman Harrington. I already have Changer of Worlds and the same story begins both books. Mr. Weber has been very successful and I have been a part of his success. This is very hard to take. Maybe I'll wait to read his next NEW book at the library.

I was very disappointed to start reading and found out the first story by David Weber was taken out of a previous David Weber book of short stories, "Changer of Worlds". I thought I was going to get a new story about Honor Harrington. Eric Flint's story was very entertaining. It was a continuation of the Belsarius alternate history. David Drake's continuing tale of Hammer's Slammers is always graphic, but Mr. Drake has tried to impress upon his readers that war is not neat and clean.

Even though David Weber's contribution is repeated from another anthology, Warmasters is worth buying for military sci-fi fans. The second story, set in the Belisaurius universe, is excellent, both for character development (Calopodius & his wife) and for adding a medical twist to the universe. The third story, about Hammer's Slammers, is also good. I read a library copy, but have purchased a copy for my personal collection.

The author takes a very "medical" look at heartburn. What this pamphlet (at 96 pages, half of which are blank or almost blank, I cannot call this a book) preaches is the same nonsense that medical doctors have preached to me for years, but there's just one problem: their four phase "treatment" process does not work very well in the long run, if at all. The first part of the book explains (in incredibly simplistic to the point of insult) terms what heartburn is, and what may cause it. This explanation and treatment process are completely one sided, as the author never for a second mentions that it may be the DEFICIT of stomach acid, not an increase, that may cause reflux and symptoms of heartburn. Unfortunately, medical doctors in this country swear by the process that is described in this book, and this is likely why this country has the largest occurrence of heartburn. Phase One is "lifestyle changes with occasional liquid antacid use." Garbage. If the cause of heartburn is in the DEFICIT of stomach acid or digestive enzymes, taking antacids will make the condition worse over time. Phase Two is "addition of H-2 blockers and more liberal use of antacids." The nonsense piles up. Phase Three is the "addition of stronger acid-blocking agents." You see the pattern. And finally Phase Four is surgery which promises symptom relief for "as long as five years." What exactly happens afterwards, the author does not say. He then proceeds to outline costs of each phase of the process. It becomes clear that the only ones benefiting from it are the MDs, drug companies, and pharmacies -- but not the patients. The book is also full of useless little facts. For instance, did you know that in 1994, a 6 year old burped 844 consecutive times which set a new world record? Finally, while the author fails to mention any alternative treatment methods that have actually been shown to work, he does provide about a dozen recipes said to prevent or reduce reflux. Let me close this review by saying that one of those wonder-recipes contains 3 cups of marinara sauce. Here comes heartburn salvation! NOT.

I began searching for educational materials on heartburn after I had lived with it for several years and had poured all kinds of antiacids into my stomach. This book is very informative, explaining the causes, treatments, and even the long-range effects of continuing heartburn. It educated me to where I was able to discuss my condition knowledgeably with my physician and had no "fear of the unknown" when it came time to begin treatment.

This book is good but, makes to many assumptions about ethnicity Severino's parents that he no proof of. It also takes much from Chavez's "But Time and Chance" much better book.

Its quiet good book for novices. Using this book we can learn how to create plug-ins and other things like how to install plug-ins, uses etc.,.

Weber departs from his usual action-oriented style that we know and love for the first half of this book. I found myself just plodding through it in honor (pun intended) of the loyalty I've developed in reading the previous nine books in this series. Fortunately, the pace picks up in the second half of the book and I finally found myself in the mode I love - not wanting to put the book down. I'm eagerly awaiting the next book, but hope Weber reads some of these reviews and watches the movie "Wonder Boys." Some good editorial decisions would have taken 200 pages out of the manuscript and brought this up to the level we expect from one of the genre's best writers.

I agree that this is long. There's not nearly the action in this novel that was in some of the others in the series. But...

The groundwork is now laid for at least two - three more novels in the series. (An upcoming war with the Solarian League should be in the offing.) And there is a depth to the characters that normally isn't explored in a science fiction series. The comments that Honor is acting like a teenage girl - think about it (and her) for a second. Prolong kept her gangly - then she was assaulted and nearly raped. Paul Tankersly was killed because he loved her. She has lost an arm and an eye. And she happens to be one of the wealthiest women in the Star Kingdom - who also has a full time naval career in addition to being a Steadholder. Now answer this question.

When has she had TIME to find out about love and her inner feelings?

As a seasoned reader of the series, after a while the space combat really becomes secondary to the characters. You get to know these people as friends - Rafe, Scotty, Sir Horace, Shannon Foraker. Action is nice - but after a while, it's all the same.

I liked David Weber's style in this terrific book even more than his 9 preceeding books in the Honor Harrington series. There is so much to grasp and remember as the reader is involved in a tremendously complex interweaving of challenging, fascinating plot lines. Weber's baste 'em and blast 'em battles were top notch nail biters.

The following comments are not intented to diminish this book in any way. First, based upon my own bottomless contempt for all things politic, I found myself overwhelmed by the excessive, overwrought political machinations of both the Star Kingdom and the Peeps. I was surprised to find Honor being diminished by her childish bad-mouthing the current Manticoran government of the, albeit, spineless, corrupt incompetents like Baron High Ridge, Descroix, New Kiev, Admiral Janascek, etc. Yes, they deserved it, but Weber has created Honor as a verbally elegant, sensitive and conscious iconic being whose very professional impartiality has always spoken volumes in itself.

Weber has clearly outlined how politics continues to sabotage foreign and domestic relations, create both wars and strange bedfellows even in futuristic worlds that some of us have daydreamed would be free of the contamination of greedy, power drunk politicians with their corrupt agendas. The Peeps Secretary of State Giancola and his Machiavellian manipulation of President Pritchart represent a dark mirror image of the behavior of the Star Kingdom's High Ridge, et al. This is scary to contemplate and to extrapolate into a possible context of our own nation. It stimulates all sorts of questions and concerns that fairly leap to mind.

Secondly, I think that Honor deserves a meaningful relationship in her life. According to the timelines of this book, she is in her 60 T-years, and despite Prolong, her tortured yearning for the Earl of White Haven seemed a bit adolescent as presented. I think that Andrew La Follett, who is clearly obsessed with her, would be a better option for her. Unless David finds a truly sympathetic way to eliminate Emily White Haven from the love triangle other than through her approval of a covert affair between her husband and Honor the story line will continue to be frustrating for some of us female fans who want Honor to either get the guy or getthehelloutathere, all issues of morality aside.

I am glad that Weber has made the Andermani and the Star Kingdom colleagues in the War against the Peeps. Plus, the additional tantalizing plot lines like the discovery of a new Junction Terminus leading to Lynx and its inhabited Talbott Star Cluster will, hopefully, provide at least a dozen more books for us to scarf up. As a guess, the next story arch could begin a move toward the long hinted at beginning of a confrontation with the Sollies, once the Manticore and Andermani slug the Peeps back into line for a time. This 10th book tantalizes us with the idea of new conflicts with the ConFeds over the territorial and governmental issues surrounding the corrupt Sillies, Silesians; the newly formed alignment between the Peeps and Eherwonese and whomever else pops up into the mix of David's outstanding and exciting futuristic fantasy. I love this series. It is tha' best!

This is the worst java book I've ever read. The book is unorganized and the content is not suitable for the beginner at all.

The companion CD-ROM is useless.

If the authors would like to publish the new version for JDK 1.2, there will be a lot of works they need to get accomplished.

Simple words from me.... Don't buy this book.

Covers alot of fancy staff but has a great lack of contents. It seems like the author has rushed through the book just to fill it out with the Java 1.1 features and forgot to describe the import basics behind the language. There's now way you're gonna be a Java guru by reading this book!

It is very thorough. Almost everything important about java is in there including JDBC, JNI, Java Beans, Servlets, security management, even the specification of the virtual machine and most is explained well understandble. It is the best java book I ever saw!

I just hate wasting my time trying to make a recipe from a cook book like this. For one thing, the author says things like, "Put batter in a pan." Um, what size pan?? And she makes no recommendations for which sweetener she uses for each recipe. Well, a half cup of raspberry jam used as a sweetener is going to have a whole different taste than a half cup of rice syrup. I have made one recipe from the book and it's a disaster; there was obviously a typo, probably in the amount of flour she says to use. I don't recommend this book to anyone.

Healthy? Almost all of the cake and cookie recipes call for eggs -- usually a minimum of 3 and most 6 or even 12! They have to be separated, so egg substitutes aren't an option... Convenient? If you happen to have 4 cups of dried apricots, maize flour and 3 cups of ground nuts to go in the 12 egg recipe... Thorough and tested? By the way, the recipe that lists apricots as an ingredient doesn't ever USE the apricots...