I have checked out many books on analysis. Many don't even come close to the way Prof. Clark describes elementary analysis. The examples he gives are very good. They won't drive you to crazy :) The explanation of the topics disussed is quite good. I have used Spivak's text Calculus. In comparsion, though Spivak tends to be a bit more verbose. He does give a lot of examples. Colin's explainations tend to be a bit terse but it is still very under standable. I bought this book 'cuase I like it better than Spivak's text. Any book that has a chapter called "Three Hard Theorems" might scare you away. Buy the book by Wilson !

This book contains many useful chapters on secessionist & autonomist movements in advanced democracies. It presents little attempt at explaining secessionism in general or trying to predict the future course of secessionist movements. It is quite useful, however, for the chapters on regions sometimes little studied in the English-speaking world, such as Corsica.

Christon Archer has assembled an interesting collection of articles and contemporary documents that provide a thematic approach to the era of the Spanish American Wars of Independence. Archer introduces the volume with an excellent review of the historiography of the subject, with an historical framework for the period and a fine overview and interpretation of these crucial years. In a separate article, Brian Hamnett offers a perceptive overview of the period and of the Spanish reaction to the popular insurrections in America. A section on New Spain provides a close-up view of the struggle at the local level, with articles by Virginia Guedea on the capture of an insurgent courier and by Peter Guardino on the war in Guerrero, along with a counterinsurgency order from a Spanish officers in Mexico and a report on the revolts by Viceroy Apodaca. On South America, Archer devotes considerable attention to Simón Bolívar, including a contemporary description of Simón Bolívar's revolt by Major George Flinter and an 1815 report from a Spanish officer urging conciliatory measures to maintain the loyalty of the local populace in Venezuela, followed by contemporary but opposing views of Bolívar by Generals Daniel O'Leary and Ducoudray Holstein. This is followed by an article by Stephen Sloan on the Morillo expedition and the Riego Revolt, 1815-20. Also in the South American section is General O'Leary's description of the meeting of Bolívar and San Martín at Guayaquil and Bolívar's subsequent dealings with Perú. A final section entitled "The Defeat of Spain in the Americas" includes Timothy Anna's astute account of the "fall of Royalist Peru," Rebecca Earle's description of the horrible toll taken by disease in the wars, and Margaret Woodward's informative discussion of the difficulties of Spanish Army service during the Wars for Independence. The volume concludes with a brief, but very useful bibliographical essay. Lamentably, there is no index. While the volume is by no means a comprehensive collection on the period, it does give considerable insight and knowledge on the nature and consequences of the wars of independence.

The review relates to the paperback version.

If you have just a peripheral knowledge of technology, you will be annoyed with the completely implausible things that happen in this book. For instance, at one point an aerial photo is taken from a helicopter of the innards of a satellite while it's being prepared for launch in a fenced-off area near the launch-site; satellites are only worked on in sterile. dust-free rooms. Also, from this photo, Forbes' super-scientist (whose name I have forgotten) can tell which phone-numbers it is programmed to dial up. Yeah, right! And the entire idea of killing people sitting in front of computers by sending signal over "the information super-highway" clearly shows that the author has no understanding whatsoever of how computer-hardware actually works. I stopped reading towards the end of the book, when the author, quite obviously, used one of his characters to get up on his (the authors) own little soapbox and berate us all about the dangers of modern technology. Not that I entirely disagree with the basic point he was trying to make, but I was done so clumsily that it insults the readers intelligence. Add to that several good, old-fashioned logical mistakes in the book (like Eve Warner seeing Marler in the back of Newmans car, and later having no knowledge of his existence, or Keith Kent having Eve Warner in his house and later not recognizing her when he is face to face with her in the street and talking to her, and more...) and I would recommend you skip this one.

Britain's best secret agents Tweed, Paula Grey and international foreign correspondent Bob Newman are back once again. In this 1996 thriller, they are on the trail of billionnaire Leopold Brazil, a communications tycoon. Tweed suspects he has a major world-threatening plan after seeing photographs of a rogue satellite being launched from French Guiana on the Ariane rocket delivery system. Brazil, with a base in Switzerland and a residence in Dorset, England, hides behind heavies and devious lawyers alike. Tweed's trail takes him and his team to Dorset, Geneva, Zurich and also the Swiss Valais canton. Paula Grey is almost kidnapped, and battle erupts on a mountainside when Brazil's plan to disable global communications and bring back Russia as a leading world power gets under way. Can Tweed and co. stop Brazil. You will surely guess the ending . . . or will you? Add to the plot a mystery assassin called the Motorman and Eve Warner, a disgruntled accomplice of Brazil's who nobody can trust and you have a surefire Forbes classic. One of his best of his later novels.

ANY BOOK WRITTEN BY COLIN FORBES IS 5 STARS +....... IF YOU GO TO AMAZON.CO.UK YOU CAN PURCHASE ALL HIS BOOKS WRITTEN IN PROPER ENGLISH. WE LIVE IN UK, AND CALIFORNIA, AND A BOOK OF HIS IS WORTH IT'S PRICE IN GOLD. ONCE TRIED YOU WILL READ ALL HIS, EVEN HIS EARLY LITLE PAPER BACKS. WONDERFUL MAN AND GREAT AUTHOR. SHARYN WHITING.

Not recommended for purchase, especially by academic libraries (this suggestion is from a holder of a 1985 Master of Library Science degree, University of Illinois). I admit that I'd have really enjoyed browsing in this book when I was a junior high school student, though.

Many readers who know a bit about the Inklings, and, certainly, scholars, will not find the book to be satisfactory, whether as regards style or as regards content. There are various usage and even spelling errors that should have been caught in the editing process. There are curious inclusions -- satanist Aleister Crowley? John Macgowan(1726-80), a Baptist minister, who wrote a book the authors think resembles Lewis's The Screwtape Letters -- though they don't think Lewis ever read it? It's weird to include entries such as these, and then leave out people such as Pauline Baynes, whose artwork won raves from Tolkien (she illustrated three of his books in his lifetime) and Lewis (she illustrated all seven of the Chronicles of Narnia)!

The authors really deserve censure for neglecting to discuss the major controversy in Lewis scholarship of the last fifteen years, the possibility of forgeries being offered as unpublished works by CSL. No responsible scholar would "stonewall" such an issue! One cannot understand why their bibliography, while listing some items twice, omits some very important books, such as Scull and Hammond's book on Tolkien's artwork, or Charles Williams's Outlines of Romantic Theology.

I wouldn't have bought this book if I'd known how unsatisfactory it would prove to be when I'd got it.

I gave this Colin Duriez and David Porter's book a five because it does exactly what it set out to do: give readers an excellent overview of The Inklings relationship.
I have collected, read and studied the works of C. S. Lewis for the past 30 years. This book filled an empty niche in my collection as it is a clear and concise handbook of the most fascinating group of friends known as The Inklings and the complex elements of the lives they brought to their relationship.
I have been pleased to know and enjoy the work David Porter, one of the authors. His research and that of Colin Duriez is meticulous. They have included an excellent bibiography, including Charles Williams' _Outline of Romantic Theology_ and other important works of The Inklings which will keep you reading and learning about The Inklings for a lifetime. At the end of each article further reading is listed. Pauline Baines, the great illustrator, is mentioned in the Narnia chapter. The entry on Aleister Crowley is much appreciated by those Lewis lovers who also read and enjoy the works of Charles Williams. The style of the book is delighful as authors often include interesting anecdotes and quotes. The book is not overly pedantic, or ostentatiously intellectual. _The Inklings Handbook_ is a must read for those who would begin to learn about the amazing alchemy of The Inklings.
You will find in this book much that is relevant in the 21st century about the spirited exchange of ideas- The Inklings as a model for living with great enthusiasm and vitality.

This book is disappointing, because it could have been so much better.

There are numerous inexcusable typos, e.g. "hbar" (Planck's constant over 2 pi) is invariably represented as "h", ellipsis "..." show up as "K", vectors appear as a letter with an "r" over them - very sloppy editing.

The presentation is uneven. A lot of time is spent introducing the weirdness of quantum mechanics along with its probabalistic nature - all at the elementary level, and then BAM! Here (Ch. 4) is a Feynman-like Hamiltonian that is a term with creation and annihilation operators plus its conjugate complex, and no explanation of it at all! Even if you have had undergraduate QM, this might be a bit much. Further, the concept of direct product spaces is important for quantum computing, but, although it is used, it is not explained. If you haven't seen it before, you will not figure out much of the stuff in Chapter 4 "Simulating a Simple Quantum Computer" which is the heart of this book. A bit more time spent on the essentials that go into the direct product space, and the use of creation and annihilation operators, Hermitian operators, etc., could have made this book so much better.

The Mathematica simulation is really just a movie. Unless you know enough about QM and Mathematica, you have no hope of doing anything with it other than just watching.

On the good side, the simulation does indeed help scratch the surface of what is different about quantum computing. Also a later discussion of Shor's algorithm for cracking an RSA code is excellent.

If you haven't had an undergraduate course in quantum mechanics, and even if you have, you may find that grasping this book is exceedingly difficult. However, if you skip the rough parts or just accept them, and take a look at the simulation, there is something there to be gained.

This is a very good introductory book for anybody with some technical or scientific background. It gives an overview of the major developments in the field of quantum computing and communications during the past decade. We find that the text is not intended for scientists working in the field or for physicists doing research in related fields.

Chapter 1 is well written and clearly presented. It describes in a comprehensive way the current trends in computer technology from different points of view. Everybody can immensely profit from reading it. Chapter 2 considers basic notions of computer science in a very understandable way with appropriate examples. Chapter 3 gives some ideas on quantum mechanics. It can be a useful introduction to this subject. Chapter 4 on simulations is very informative with many illustrative examples. Chapter 6 considers classical cryptosystems rather extensively and well. It also gives the basics of Shor's factoring algorithm. Chapter 7 describes the applications of random numbers, mainly in classical computing. Chapters 8 and 9 present quantum cryptography and teleportation respectively. This is a good and informative presentation for nonspecialist. Decoherence and error correction are considered in chapter 10 rather briefly and their description is not very much up to date. Chapter 11 gives a notion of the current experimental realizations of quantum computers and can be very informative for nonspecialists. A more extensive text on quantum algorithms (nature, examples, applications) is maybe also appropriate in the book, as is an explanation of the original ideas of Feynman (and their evolution) regarding the simulation of a quantum system on a quantum computer.

According to us the book is written intelligently and well. It responds to the current need to popularize the explosive developments in this field. The people who would profit the most of it are those who work in different areas of computer science and information technology. It provides a bridge between the ! world of computers and quantum physics with its possible applications.

This book is awesome!! It explains the ideas of quantum computing in terms I can really understand. It covers topics that are not covered in detail in the summary articles on the web. I specially liked the descriptions of Feynman's quantum processor, error propagation (from mistakes in manufacturing) and Shor's factoring algorithm. The description of the RSA algorithm for public key cryptography is the best I have ever seen. The book comes with a CD-ROM containing executable computer simulations of Feynman's quantum processor, quantum teleportation, Shor's algorithm, quantum cryptography and quantum error correction! It also contains hundreds of references that I have used to track down foundational quantum computing papers that pre-date the web based materials. The code in the BraKet.nb notebook is a mini-toolkit for manipulating quantum mechanical formulas. I was able to use and adapt the code easily, and it really brought the field to life in a new way for me. It is a pity that the book does not have a demo copy of Mathematica on board as this limits the executability of the code to people who already have Mathematica. Nevertheless, this book is an outstanding tour-de-force for Drs. Clearwater and Williams. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about quantum computing from scratch. I have not seen a book this original or exciting in a long long time.

The title is something of a misnomer because only six countries are presented (Germany, France, Italy, UK, Spain and The Netherlands. Europe is after all slightly bigger. The section on Germany is split in two, East and West, which is not bad, but the information on the former East Germany is by now pretty much out of date. The book is easily read and contains useful information but a little too much of the old stereotyping.

Often confusing, and leaving important details for later, this book got confusing enough that I had to eventually put it down. It does assume that you do have some programming experience in another language and thusly does not go into the basic programming theories which programmers already know.

Slavery was widespread through the Inca and Aztec cultures. Islam embraces slavery without reservation, it is expressly approved in the Koran. Segal documents the fact that 11 million Black Africans were kidnapped from their home by Islamic traders from 700 A.D. to 1900 B.C. Mohammed left many pages of directions to SLAVEHOLDERS on how to handle their slaves. The Ummyad dynasty of Islamic rulers castrated male Black African slaves and used them in battle between 700 A.D. and 1200 A.D.
By the way, where does one find a successful, stable, democratic non-capitalistic society? Planned economies don't work.

Given Koranic blessing, 11 million Black Africans were kidnapped from their home for service as soldiers and concubines in the Islamic and later Ottoman empire beginning in 700 and continuing to this day. From time to time the soldier slaves revolted and such revolts were put down brutally. Male slaves were routinely castrated and the children of female slaves were taken from them. The slavery system covered most of North Africa, the Middle East, Iran and parts of India under Islamic control. Due to the Koranic blessing, SAudi Arabis did not outlaw slavery until 1964, nor did Kuwait until 1968. No discussion of the world view phenomena is complete without an examination of this "eastern" slave trade. Note also that the Inca and the Aztec practiced human slavery in a non-capitalist setting. The author would also allow you to forget that it wsa the hated colonial powers of England and France that pushed for the end of slavery in North Africa, not the Islamic east.

This is the first time I have put down a book without finishing it. Puerile dialogue. If I had read once more about Paula saying something "merrily" I would have thrown up. Very jolly hockey stockings early 50s British kids books' dialogue. How the hell did Marler have all those contacts with arms dealers (presumably illegal)and yet Alvarez could provide licences immediately Marler returned to the hotel? Come on Colin! Until I stumbled briefly onto this I thought that The Devil's Teardrop was the worst book I had ever read and I finished that one. Apologies to Jeffrey Deaver but Colin Forbes' effort leaves yours for dead.

My second attempt at a Colin Forbes novel. I must put it down midway through the book. Unbelievable characters and childish narrative. A thriller? I think not.

In this typical Colin Forbes thriller, a billionaire industrialist called Vincent Bernard Moloch with concerns in the US, the UK and Middle East, and the director of the worl'ds biggest multinational called AMBECO, invents a new type of explosive called Xenobium. Supposedly more powerful than the A-bomb, Moloch makes a point of demostrating it with spectacular results and a view to selling it to Middle Eastern nations for military use. So who is there to stop him? Enter the British MI6's finest gourmet-loving, champagne-drinking, well-dressed secret agents Tweed, Paula Grey and foreign correspondent Bob Newman who infiltrate AMBECO and discover that the madman's plans are bigger than they realise. And as they fight off killers in speedboats, a loony employee of AMBECO with a mother fixation and use sniper Marler to pick out the bad guys(isn't it convenient he can buy all the arms he needs anywhere in the world! ), they still find the time to dine at the best parties! And the narrative contains some hilarious lines. For instance:

(p169): 'And he paid them very well. I don't know how much, but they started appearing in more expensive clothes.'

(p265-266): (referring to a courier delivering essential documents) 'They will reach you in seven hours time.' 'Seven hours? How are they coming? By rocket?' 'I've got government co-operation. They must be using one of their incredible new supersonic aircraft.'

Enough said. But on the book's finer points, it is a very good, if somewhat familiar story, and the pacing is fast and action never stops until two explosive climaxes in California and Cornwall. Worth a read, at least Colin Forbes's novels have a knack of being extremely entertaining, if somewhat in the wrong way, which is notable in his later books.