Having to keep up with CAD technology like I do, I do not have the time to take classes on the new AutCAD programs that come out. This book is constantly being pulled out and used to get me through Architectural Desktop R2. After I got through the beginning chapters that got me familiar with the program, I have been able to go to the chapters that deal with the specific commands that I need to use. The exercises that come with the book have been extremely helpful and make it so that I do not need to experiment on the drawings that I am working on. I have been able to, with the help of this book, make Architectural Desktop become a profitable purchase for the drafting company that I own. I would recommend this book to anyone that has Architectural Desktop R2 and for anyone thinking about purchasing the program. If you are in the latter category, you will be able to see the potential for the program. If you already have the program, get this book.

This book takes on a very difficult subject, African fetish statues, and with the help of wonderful photo plates, and a discussion of African American artist Renee Stout's contemporary interpretations of the subject, the work explains brilliantly the meaning of some of the most extraordinary works of art produced by humankind. Have you ever wondered why pins are stuck in voodoo dolls? Read this book and enrich your understanding.

The Loeb series is meant to aid students, which is why its translations often read very literally. When Murray writes, "The wrath sing, goddess, of Peleus' son Achilles," he is following the word order of the Greek exactly: "Mênin aeide, thea, Pêlêiadeô Achilêos." If you buy this book for the Greek text, the literal English translation will help as a quick reference when stuck on a word. If you buy this book for the English translation, you'll gain a sense of the logic of the Greek language and a much more reliable translation than most.

One thing I like about the 3E core rulebooks is it seems like WotC play tested the hell out of them. Nearly everything is fairly well balanced. Many aspects have been simplified from the 2nd addition in a good way (though sometimes too much.) Overall, I really like 3E and consider it worth buying.

Enter supplemental materials like Deities & Demigods. Let's take a look:

Chapter 1: Deities in Your Game -- Here's an abbreviated list of the sections:
Monotheism, Dualism, The Nature of Divinity, Why Mortals Worship Deities, Why Deities Use Mortals, Building a Pantheon, etc.

For me, this was the strongest aspect of the book. First, it explains different types of pantheons -- one God, vs. multiple gods/goddesses. Then it addresses a very key point: Why do divinities and mortals need each other? What is the relationship? As a DM, this part really helped cement that important concept.

Chapter 2: Deities Defined
The next section is another winner: How to make your own pantheon. In the previous chapter, there are tips for formulating your pantheon conceptually. How many? What domains? This chapter leads right into an explanation of the mechanics used in the book. So, you can take your idea for a new pantheon, and put it into d20 game terms.

Chapter 3 and on through the rest of the book:
I've heard complaints that there are only four pantheons in this book, compared to dozens from previous editions. Let me take a stab at why. Do you have a 3rd edition character, say, 10th level? My 10th level gnome druid takes up four pages worth of character sheet. Each of the gods & goddesses in this book are around 30th level or higher! Their stats take up a LOT of room! Thus, we are only given the Greyhawk, Olympian, Pharaonic (Egyptian), and Asgardian (Norse) pantheons.

Pantheon Strengths:
1) Some GREAT art: Ehlonna, Aries, Athena, Pan, Heimdall, Sif (yay!), Thor, etc.
2) Fully detailed d20 stats for each deity.
3) Maps for some deity-related dwellings.
4) We are told the deities will work well with the up and coming Epic Rules.

Pantheon Weaknesses:
1) Some painfully BAD art: Aphrodite, Dionysus, Ptah (and he is so cool!), Loki (this one really hurt me, I'm a big Loki fan), etc.
2) Very limited information about the deities themselves. This, to me, is the major shortcoming on this book. The info for dogmas, clergy & temples, etc., are each a short paragraph only. What does this tell us? Perhaps the game designers went a little overboard being able to actually make legal d20 stats for the deities, and didn't think enough about fleshing them out. I would have loved more background, more rituals, and more mythology for each deity. Granted, if you want to put these deities in a brawl, you've certainly got the stats!

Overall:
The 3E Deities & Demigods book has some vital information -- namely, the first few chapters. DMs and players alike will enjoy learning more about the place of deities and mortals within a D&D world. The rules for making your own pantheon are also very cool. After that, we have many, many stat blocks (with fairly limited background) for insanely powerful NPCs. Personally, I'm a stat fanatic, and enjoyed pouring over them. If they had only added another few paragraphs for each deity's background, religious holidays, expectations for their clerics, etc. I'd have given Deities & Demigods 5 stars. As it stands, it only gets 4.

This edition of "Deities and Demigods" is a very good addition to the realms of AD&D books. It's well written - and more importantly well edited. There's a great deal of information on Gods and how they interact with the game and how they should impact your campaign.

On the plus side, they have given much more detail to all levels of the pantheons and further defined divine abilities. Virtually all the characterizations, abilities and politics are spelled out for you in the books. All a dungeon master has to do is read the book and plug the his chosen pantheon into his campaign. It's a great help for a large number of dungeon masters. The artwork is also superb.

Now for the downside - such as it is. While they did an incredible job at bringing so much more detail to life, they only included three pantheons from world mythology. The Greek, Norse and Egyptian mythologies are great but it would have been nice to see something from Asia or Africa. There are so many more mythologies out there. The other, very minor, downside is the incredible level of detail (that is also a plus). They've take all the mystery out of everything divine. There isn't any level of divine mystery to shroud the inner workings of the Gods. Personally, I like that level of mystery so the players (who can read the book) never get too firm a handle on divine motivations.

Overall though the book is definitely worth getting for all the information it offers. The best advice I could offer with the book is to use the book as a general guideline and if your players read it - keep the level of mystery.

While I haven't time for an in-depth review of Deities and Demigods, I would say that I think it's one of the finest products produced for the system yet. The two major arguments I've heard against the product here are:

1) Who needs stats for gods?

Fair enough, but it isn't as if this book is new to the D&D system. The idea goes back a very long way indeed and has been done more than once. I think once the Epic-Level Campaigns book is released this volume will seem more accessible as well as a more natural progression from the Player's Handbook. Indeed, it seems almost as if the third part of a trilogy was released before the second, but that in no way makes this any less of a fun, useful, and enjoyable romp. For those of you that see this as only a glorified Monster Manual, I say free up your imaginations!

2) It only details four pantheons.

True, but it covers them very well. I think this is preferable to having a mixed bag of gods that you can only really use if you play a truly worldly sort of campaign. My only real disappointment with the D&D/Greyhawk Pantheon was that I wanted much, much more of it than was offered. And I think if the biggest problem you have with a book is that you wanted it to be bigger, then you just have to do like I do...and pray for a Deities & Demigods II.

The book is simply excellent. It begins by describing topics such as the nature of divinity (how a deity became a deity, where their power stems from, etc.), how to create your own gods, your own pantheons and so forth. There is a list of divine abilities and divine feats for fleshing out deities you create...as well as explaining the powers of those listed within. But, enough of about the nuts and bolts, because we know what everyone's waiting for...the gods!

The D&D/Greyhawk Pantheon is a real plus for those of you who want a look at and description of the deities mentioned in the Player's Handbook. It also includes Tiamat and Bahamut (dragon deities), Lolth (Drow), and for some reason Kurtulmak (Kobold). The artwork is Fantastic and the stats given make perfect sense for truly far-reaching epic campaigns. As I said before...the only thing I want from this section of the book is MORE!

The remaining three pantheons are Olympian (Greek), Pharonic (Egyptian), and Asgardian (Norse) and each are detailed comprehensibly. There are of course a few players missing from the deck (such as Fenrir from the Asgardian section) but with an average of 20 gods per pantheon you'll have plenty of stuff to keep you occupied and drool over.

There are also original examples of monotheistic and dualistic faiths and a mystery cult. These are interesting to compare to the pantheons, especially as you're given details on creating your own, but I prefer the pantheon system as it adds more diversity.

The book also includes several monsters spread throughout (cyclops, faun, greater mummy, minions of set, valkyrie, etc.), a few prestige classes and a list of "new" Domains and spells.

My only hope is that this book will be followed up, much like the Monster Manual, with a sequel that will detail other pantheons (Celtic? Babylonian?) and include more D&D/Greyhawk gods such as those found in the Living Greyhawk Gazeteer.

Until then (assuming it ever happens) enjoy what is here. The seeds for a great deal of high-level fun, and low-level awe when Fharlanghn meets you on the crossroads at the beginning of your next adventure.

Oh, yes...and don't let anyone tell you otherwise: The artwork is far beyond "okay"...it is superb!

This collection is a travesty indeed. Great poems no doubt, but abysmally read. Furthermore they should have put all the introductions together separate and apart from the poems. It's nice to hear intros the first time around. But who wants to hear the intros everytime you listen to the poems? Sometimes I want to hear just a stream of poetry without any interuptions and this format makes that impossible. It's incredible that such a great concept could be so terribly executed.

I could not get this back to the store for a refund quickly enough. While the poem selection is great and the poem introductions are narrated well, the choice to use "modern poets" as the readers made this compilation utterly unlistenable. The only one that I found acceptable was Anthony Hect--the others were notably bad. In particular, I found Jorie Graham's "readings" to be abysmal. She reads each poem as if it were simply a string of unconnected words, giving equal stress to each, with halting pauses between them, never breaking out of a drowsy monotone. Other readers were not much better.

There are three major flaws in the readings:

1) The readers are no better than the average untrained person, and often much worse. (You've just got to hear them for yourself to appreciate how bad they are.)

2) Successive poems by the same poet are read by different "readers." It's jarring to hear 3 or 4 poems from Poet X, each in a wildly different voice.

3) No regard is given to matching the sex of the poet and reader. In general, it is really annoying to hear your favorite poet read by the wrong sex. In particular, making this mistake on "gender specific" poems (like having a woman read Poe's "Annabel Lee") is unforgivable.

Why is this all so upsetting? Because it is practically impossible to find poetry collections on CD, making this a serious waste of limited resources. If you are looking for a good collection on CD, buy "81 Famous Poems CD" by Audio Partners (ISBN 0-945353-82-0). It's a good collection on two CDs and is read by professionals: Alexander Scourby, Bramwell Fletcher, and Nancy Wickwire. In the meantime, we can only hope that the producers of this collection will eventually come to their senses and re-record the poems with the services of trained professionals.

If you are prepping for the GRE in literature or are trying to gain a basic understanding of literary periods and poets, this audio-collection is a must. It features a brief introduction about each poet's life. It also includes a brief introduction about the theme of each poem. The fact that you have to listen to these introductions before listening to the poem inculcate the poem and aids retention. If literature has turned into a cumbersome and overwhelming task, this collection will not only provide you with a sense of direction but will also make literature far more pleasurable.