Twelve Kingdoms, The - Hardcover Edition Volume 1: Sea of Shadow

Book Description

For high-schooler Yoko Nakajima, life has been fairly ordinary--that is until Keiki, a young man with golden hair, tells Yoko they must return to their kingdom. Once confronted by this mysterious being and whisked away to an unearthly realm, Yoko is left with only a magical sword; a gem; and a million questions about her destiny, the world she's trapped in, and the world she desperately wants to return to.More than just a fantasy story filled with horrific monsters, half-beasts, and magicians, The Twelve Kingdoms centers around a world reminiscent of Chinese mythology and rife with civil and political upheaval. Sea of Shadow, the first volume of this ongoing seven-volume epic, takes you on a wild ride that leaves you questioning the bounds of reality and fantasy."An exciting, fast-paced adventure that will keep readers on the edge of their seats."--BookLoons.com "This is a fantasy novel displaying a grand imagination and soaring adventure."--ActiveAnime.com"Fuyumi Ono weaves a bewitching tale of strength in adversity, bravery despite fear, courage above all, and trust â€" in yourself and in others."--Yabookscentral.comFuyumi Ono was born in Oita Prefecture, Japan. She graduated from Otani University with a major in Buddhist studies. During college she was a member of Kyoto Universityâ€™s mystery story club for readers and writers of the mystery genre. In 1988, she made her publishing debut in Kodanshaâ€™s teen-targeted X-Bunko Teens Heart series. Besides The Twelve Kingdoms, Ono has written other novels in such genres as mystery and horror.

Customer Reviews:

Astonishingly good.......2007-06-25

I couldn't put this book down. I stayed up all night to finish it, and went to work the next morning like a zombie. The story is extremely well-written and the translation is handled perfectly. I did not expect the character development to be so in-depth--this book is a must-read for both children and adults. I can't wait for Book 2 to come out!

A fun read..........2007-06-19

I enjoyed the anime series and since it's based on novels instead of manga I figured I'd read them. The book takes you deep into the world of the twelve kingdoms, and also into the mind of the heroine, Yoko, who is dealing with her own faults while trying to survive in an unfamiliar and hostile world. The author's descriptions give a vivid account of what it's like to be Yoko by mentioning "other senses" type of details, by which I mean senses other than sight. We hear about sounds, smells, and most importantly how things feel. The story is rich and complicated, but not so much that one can't put things together. I enjoyed this book, and anyone who is a fan of anime or manga would probably like it as well.

Good ending, lukewarm beginning and middle.......2007-06-12

I wish there were half-stars on Amazon, because my actual rating for this book would be a three and a half. For most of the book (i.e. the beginning and middle), my reaction was merely that it was okay. I had liked the premise for the book, which was why I bought it, but it didn't quite live up to my expectations as I began to read. After the initial set-up, I felt like the same things kept happening over and over again: Yoko fights demons, almost dies, gets help from strangers, and then the cycle repeats. There are also long periods of reflection, both in Yoko's mind and in conversation with "herself" (the blue monkey), which always seemed too similar to one another as well; there wasn't much progression until the final conversation. The whole idea of the "good girl" and Yoko's eventual lack of trust didn't feel natural too me~it was as though I could see the author pulling the strings, purposely feeding me information to get me to believe these character traits that just didn't seem to develop properly.

Don't get me wrong, though~there were quite a few things about the book I did enjoy, especially the ending. While much of the book gave me a humdrum feeling, by the time I closed the book I was left with the impression that I actually liked it. I am now even looking forward to the next volume. In short, the ending saved this book for me, which is why I wish I could give it three and a half stars instead of three. There were also other enjoyable points/ideas as well: I especially liked the concepts of beastlings, egg fruit, and the various other demons in the story, among other things. I just wish I was able to like all of the book, not just parts.

Outstanding !.......2007-06-09

I have seen the Anime version and was very pleased that the book is so different. I cannot wait untill the next book is released.

Beautiful Read.......2007-06-02

This book was a joy for me to read, plain and simple. I am an avid anime and manga fan, and I was intrigued by this book, simply because I had heard a friend mention the 12 Kingdoms anime long ago. I was surprised and delighted to find this book was worth far more than I paid. The book is very well written and I had trouble putting it down. The story is captivation and keeps you guessing, weaving a very surprising and I enjoyed it, just when you think you finally start to understand, you are taken in a whole new direction. The world put forth in this book seems limitless, and the characters, most notably Yoko, grow in such a fantastic way it's hard to put into words. I am very pleased and recommend this to anyone who has a hint of imagination, a taste for adventure and a love for the unknown

In Darwin's Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace: A Biographical Study on the Psychology of History

Average customer rating:

Darwin forever under a cloud....
In the shadow no longer
Interesting biography
The new phrenologists?
Cursing the darkness

In Darwin's Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace: A Biographical Study on the Psychology of History
Michael Shermer
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0195148304

Book Description

In Darwin's Shadow is the gripping story of the heretical British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace who co-discovered natural selection independently of his more well-known contemporary Charles Darwin. Utilizing a number of never-before-used archival sources that bring to bear new interpretations of this most fascinating scientists, best-selling author Michael Shermer applies his training in both the history of science and psychology to reveal the life, science, and personality of Wallace to unravel the mystery of his scientific, quasi-scientific, and non-scientific ideas. Shermer's unique approach goes beyond narrative story-telling to analyse the science, culture, and ideas that lie beneath the life story, in a path-breaking approach to biography. Shermer presents the two major points of intersection and conflict between Wallace and Darwin, one so radical that Darwin accused his younger colleague of intellectual murder! Wallace has always appealed to lovers of travel and adventure stories, because that is the life he led: In Darwin's Shadow will also appeal to historians of science, readers of popular science, and fans of Shermer's previous books.

Customer Reviews:

Darwin forever under a cloud...........2003-11-30

After reading a review in NY review of books of Shermer's book I snapped out of my previous opinion and decided to revise my previous review here. Distracted by the issues raised in A. Brackman's book, A Delicate Arrangement, 'rebutted' by Shermer, I wavered wrongly in my original view at what appears now as a clever whitewash of Darwin.
Putting Brackman's arguments to one side for the nonce, the plain fact of the matter is that Darwin was, and has been ever since, engineered by Big Science propaganda into the exclusive icon for the discovery of evolution. And is Shermer just the fellow for this displacement job on Wallace. Wallace confuses people because they think that Darwin on the descent of man is established science, when the reality is that an immense con job has always finessed the fact that science has no conclusive theory here, and Wallace honestly pointed it out. Period.
As to the rest of Shermer's arguments in his book, viz. on the 'science' of history, they are without merit and constitute another of the 'bilge and balderdash' necessary to cover up the fact that there is no science of history, also.
The whole Darwin field is addicted to a pack of lies and it seems all parties have lost the ability to distinguish truth from distortion. Reviewing the details of the Ternate affair, we seem to see the ambitious Darwin concerned to rescue his priority, after years of so doubting his theory he couldn't publish it, and getting his priority by rigging the priority list and rushing into print. We have spent over a century beholden to this farce. Time for a little skepticism.

In the shadow no longer.......2003-11-17

Alfred Russel Wallace seems to rate hardly more than a footnote in the history of the theory of evolution. Like most who have studied this subject, I knew of Wallace's mutual discovery of the theory and evidence in support of it. I knew too of Darwin's generous introduction of the man as a co-discoverer, and even of the theory that that introduction might have been more premeditated and less generous that it appears. In some of my reading I had even learned of Wallace's "defection" to spiritualism. However, where Darwin's life is everywhere paraphrased and his thoughts on the subject of evolution almost subject to canonization, Wallace's life and thoughts seemed just to have "fallen out" of the picture. Michael Shermer's book, In Darwin's Shadow, The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace, provides a more detailed look at Wallace the man and scientist. It also looks at the subject of how history and biography reflects the psychology of their time-in some ways, he does so unintentionally.

In many ways A. R. Wallace, though not a formally educated man, was more of a research scientist than Darwin. He apparently plunged into the pursuit of regional studies with a vengeance for most of his youth, some twelve years abroad, studying natural subjects in their native habitat. Whether it was beetles in the tropics, indigenous people in their native and in their European dominated settings, the communities of animals characteristic of different regions in Southeast Asia, or the geology of various regions, etc, his studies were extensive and detailed. According to Shermer, he logged in over 20,000 miles on various collecting trips, and just on his Malay trip collected almost 125,000 specimens, over a thousand of which were new species (p. 14).

His reputation for openness and exposure to new experiences was amazing, especially for the day, and recognized even by those who did not necessarily agree with his opinions. His written output was prolific and varied, with topics ranging from ancient history, animal behavior, botany, ethics, history of science, linguistics, plurality of worlds, phrenology, spirtualism, taxonomy, womens rights, agricultural economics, literature and poetry, poor laws, and trade regulation (p. 15). Shermer indicates that even into old age Wallace wrote on a variety of subjects and had a life-time average output that ranks high, even when compared to modern writers like Gould, Sagan, and Ernst Mayr.

While I found Shermer's historical matrix model interesting, I felt that I learned more about how history and biography are created in our own time and what it says about us than I did about Wallace or his contemporaries. The matrix model seems to smack of psychobabble and Oprah "awarenesses" and introduces a lot of introspection into the possible effects of birth order, etc. on behavior. It tries to hard to get at the "whys?" of human behavior and motivation for which there is little proof for or against. It was only once the author got into the life and times of the man himself that I could more easily settle into Wallace's world. For one thing, I understood better what the flap about the man's delving into spiritualism was all about. I also learned where Wallace and Darwin differed, even from the beginning, in their own individual approach to evolution, and why Darwinian evolution is the model that gained the greatest respect and serves as the foundation of modern theories.

I think more than anything, the book introduces the reader to the fact that science is a communal thing, a human thing, and is subject to the vicissitudes of other human endeavors: chance, political and social prejudices, personalities and egos, readiness for new ideas, plain old mistakes, etc. I learned again that scientific discoveries occur in tandem, when the world is ready to receive them, that they're sort of "in the air." I learned that more than one person can come up with the same or similar idea, putting their own personal stamp on the concept, thereby forwarding human knowledge just a little bit more. I learned that scientists can be wrong or partly wrong about their topic and can be wrong or partly wrong about topics outside their expertise, and most importantly, that reputation should not be given total credence without proper thought. Because a person is famous does not mean that their opinions are any more valid than anyone else's.

An enlightening biography of an interesting man. While I think that Darwin's is the more carefully thought out and supported theory of evolution, I think that Wallace was the more interesting and happier person. I suspect it would have been more fun to have known him than to have known Darwin.

Interesting biography.......2003-06-09

A nice story of the scientist who came to a similar conclusion about natural history as his elder and more famous colleague, Darwin. I enjoyed reading about Wallace's background (quite different than Darwin's), his world travels, and the ways in which his theories differed from Darwin's. The author uses multivariate analysis on personality traits to attempt to explain some of these differences; I'm not fully convinced of the validity of that (for every statistical rule there are exceptions, and as Mark Twain colorfully observed, "there are lies ..."), but it's an interesting possibility.

The new phrenologists?.......2003-05-25

I bought this book rather in spite of than because of the other Amazon reviews, and lugged it with me on a flight out to the West Coast. The book lasted from Boston to Atlanta, and when it was over I closed it with a sigh of relief. While Shermer is certainly at times an engaging writer here he indulges in a rather peculiar form of quantitative psycho-history mixed in with the equally peculiar allocation of behavioural traits to birth order. There MAY be something in this somewhere, but at the same time it smacks of the 19th century Victorian fetish about cranial measurments that Shermer's evident hero-mentor Stephen Gould took to task in THE MISMEASURE OF MAN. That Shermer is so obsessed with his methodologies (he devotes a substantial portion of the book to 'how he did it") is a shame because it lessens and weakens his focus on his putative topic, the fascinating Alfred Wallace. Instead of really delving intoWallace's background and early experiences we get a few pages of quick gloss intertwined with what frankly struck me as mumbo-jumbo about what it means to be a Younger Child. This may be all very new Age & Hip right now, but I strongly doubt it will prove to have much in the way of scholarly legs. Then there is the tedious re-hashing of Gould's speculations which other reviewers have already re-hashed. Yup, they are old, they are trite, and can we please now move on? Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is the discussion of Wallace's involvement with various "Spiritualist" frauds during the second half of his career. Here the writing really picks up & one has the sense that "aha, now we are going to get somewhere". Alas, the excitement soon fades & the book itself fades out to a gentle glow at the end. i really don't know how to categorize this text. It is far too incomplete for someone unfamiliar with Wallace's life & work to get a real sense of the man and it offers such an odd view on Wallace's relationships with friends, family, colleagues & rivals that one is left wondering just what was intended. A footnote to a more general study? Maybe, but i agree with the reviewer who calls for the need of a REAL biography that puts Wallace AND his science in proper context.

Cursing the darkness.......2003-04-27

Restoring Albert Russell Wallace's reputation is an occasional occupation with historians. Some wish to elevate him over Darwin, usually on the question of "priority" - who first thought up evolution by natural selection? Others portray him as the victim of Britain's class structure - doomed to obscurity because of his humble background. Shermer, although the title implies otherwise, makes an attempt to reconcile Darwin and Wallace, at least over natural selection. From that point, Shermer follows Wallace through a complex life. This readable, if somewhat shallow, biography does Wallace justice, but at the cost of shedding the broader context. In support of his programme, he relies heavily on Frank Sulloway's research on "birth-order" and creativity. This innovative study has had a rocky career, but Shermer finds it useful. For him, the findings have meaning, but their validity remains unclear. Especially when comparing but two subjects.

Wallace was a complicated personality, perhaps even more so than Darwin himself. In order to build a coherent image of his subject, Shermer creates a "historical matrix model". This is a three-dimensional visual aid of the elements he's utilising in erecting Wallace's biography. Mixing time, Wallace's various excursions and interests, Shermer ties the whole structure to his subject's views on evolution of humanity and the mind. Whether this method works may depend on your attitude about applying mathematical structures to a man's life. Fortunately for readability, Shermer keeps the application of this device at a low key, saving his analytical summation to the end of the book - where it falls flat.

Shermer traces the voyages Wallace was virtually forced to undertake. Financial woes dogged the naturalist throughout his life, although it's hard to see that from Shermer's portrayal. Although Shermer puts Wallace "in Darwin's shadow" he was easily as fluent a correspondent as his more famous counterpart. Yet few of the cited letters contain appeals for employment. Instead, Shermer takes us through Wallace's views on social questions, spiritualism and variations on natural selection. He also shows how Wallace traveled and dealt with a broad spectrum of issues and the people associated with them. Darwin, of course, maintained almost a hermit's life at Down. It's strange that Shermer makes little note of the contrast of the two since much of Darwin's information leading to natural selection came from a global correspondence. Wallace, ever the field researcher, relied more on his own collections for evidence.

Although providing us with a highly readable biography of the man, Shermer is virtually silent on the general social scene of Victorian Britain. In pursuing his subject's life, we are given quirky events and some questionable people. There's an excuse for avoiding the tumultuous politics of the era, but Shermer follows Wallace in his admiration for socialist Robert Owen and the role of Mechanics' Institutes to educate the workers. Both schemes were designed to generate worker contentment at minimal cost - Britain retained a horror of worker rebellion after the Napoleonic era. No mention is made of the Luddite or Chartist movements, which should have elicited comments from socialist Wallace.

A more bizarre oversight is Shermer's failure to impart Wallace's feeling on some of natural selection's sharper criticisms. One in particular, Lord Kelvin's assessment that the age of the solar system was too short to allow the needed time frame for evolution. Fleeming Jenkin's point that changes in organisms would be blended back, a point that Darwin, ignorant of Mendelian genetics, agonised over, is also overlooked by Shermer. Since any biography of Darwin will deal with these issues at length, it's only logical that Shermer should have addressed them. Either that or Wallace ignored them - we remain in the dark either way.

Shermer's sins of omission may be forgiven as retaining clarity and brevity. His committed sins, however, cannot be condoned. His long career as an acolyte of the Pope of Paleontology leads Shermer to peck at Darwin's image. The worst examples are intrusions of "punctuated speciation" in a variety of disguises. Shermer's attempt to promote his mentor's outdated thesis borders on the pathetic. He aggravates it later in the book with other Gouldian pronouncements. Gould makes the index six times, with "punk eek" scoring another ten. In a biography of Wallace, this ploy is simply an outrageous non sequitor. He puts Wallace in "Darwin's dark shadow" [what other kind is there?], implying some sinister agenda. Wallace is "eclipsed" by Darwin - as if Darwin so intended. Darwin's opposition to spiritualism is a "secret war". The position is misleading. The shadow is cast by the long-lived eminence of Darwin's contributions, but Shermer makes no mention of that. It's history's verdict, not Darwin's.

Shermer's use of Sulloway is bewildering. Parallels between Darwin and Wallace are inevitable, but the author's are flimsy. "Birth order" as an issue with these two men is misleading. If he wanted to compare the two as personalities, why does Shermer ignore the similarity of Wallace's losing his first love, Marion Leslie and Darwin's loss of Fanny Owen? That Wallace delved into a wider list of topics than Darwin keeps the former's public life more interesting, but doesn't move the latter into a "shadow." Wallace wasn't dogged by illness throughout his life - his long life certainly suggests good health. He shed whatever Christianity he had at an early age, while Darwin was driven to abandon it from his studies and the loss of children. Shermer doesn't need to shatter Darwin's image to restore Wallace's, but that intent is broadcast in his title. It was a mistake. If Shermer is intent on restoring Wallace's reputation, he should have hired somebody to do it for him. Janet Browne would be a good first choice. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Average customer rating:

Didactic

not my Furst book by this author

The War Before the Fighting Began

Taut, well-written yet ambiguous espionage novel best suited for deep reading

Erudite Exploration of Wartime Hungary

Kingdom of Shadows: A Novel
Alan Furst
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0375503374
Release Date: 2001-01-16

Amazon.com's Best of 2001

Penzler Pick, January 2001: The thrillers of Alan Furst usually take place in the dark days preceding World War II, but while the main participants in that war are of course portrayed, Britain, France, Germany, and the United States do not usually star in Furst's novels. He prefers instead to focus his stories on the citizens of those countries whose allegiances and roles in that particular theater of operations are much more contradictory and conflicted.

Kingdom of Shadows is set in Paris during 1938 and 1939. It is unclear at that time what the fate of Hungary will be if Hitler has his way, but a small group of expatriates would like to insure that events turn out in their country's favor. Nicholas Morath is an Hungarian aristocrat who fought bravely in the Great War. He is now part owner of an advertising agency in Paris, while his uncle, Count Janos Polanyi, is a minor diplomat stationed in Paris. Polanyi calls on Nicholas to take part in missions against the Hungarian Fascists: carrying letters or bringing individuals back across the border in the course of his business trips.

As Nicholas's dinner parties, business deals, and dalliances with his mistress start to take a back seat to the escalating crisis in Europe, his tasks become more complicated, dangerous, and bewildering to him. He knows far less than the reader, who understands that his actions will have far-reaching consequences even beyond the fate of Hungary. Nicholas just does what he can without the luxury of historic hindsight.

Furst has fashioned here an elegant gem that vividly portrays the city of Paris during the last peaceful days of 1938 and the menace of Hitler's ambitions in the Sudetenland and beyond. Nicholas Morath is a charismatic and sympathetic figure who will come to understand, as the war progresses, the consequences, both good and bad, of his smallest actions during that turbulent time. --Otto Penzler

Book Description

In spymaster Alan Furst's most electrifying thriller to date, Hungarian aristocrat Nicholas Morath—a hugely charismatic hero—becomes embroiled in a daring and perilous effort to halt the Nazi war machine in eastern Europe.

Download Description

Paris, 1938. Forty-four-year-old Nicholas Morath is a handsome, sophisticated former cavalry officer in a community of declasse royalty. The co-owner of a small Paris advertising agency, he seems to live for dinner parties and love affairs. But looming over this elegant world is the shadow of Adolf Hitler, and as the small nations of eastern Europe fall under Nazi domination, Morath's uncle, Count Janos Polanyi, recruits his nephew for secret missions to oppose the Hungarian fascists. As Europe edges toward war, these missions grow ever more daring and dangerous, until Morath is risking his life in the fight against the secret police, Germany spies, and Soviet assassins. Breathtakingly evocative and surprising to its final page, Furst's latest espionage thriller is a triumph.

Customer Reviews:

Didactic.......2007-07-10

Sorry -- a quick judgment. I only read a bit. The author seems very inent, and heavy-handedly so, on filling us in on details of Hungarian culture. This gave every sign of weighing the plot down so that it could barely move. Two of the principals are having lunch in a seedy cafe. They talk about a friend who died and they take the opportunity to review Hungarian customs and beliefs surrounding dealing with the dead. Of course, we will pay close attention to their eating habits, too -- equally well researched. If I were very particularly interested in or attached to things Hungarian, I might like this, and I can imagine sensible people who would enjoy it, but it isn't what I was after.

not my Furst book by this author.......2007-05-09

Once I discover an author I like, my life-long habit is to read almost everything that author has written. (This took several years in the case of Patrick O'Brian.) This practice is particularly rewarding with Alan Furst's books, since they provide different perspectives of the same period of time (1933-1943).

I claim to have "read" most of Furst's books but honesty compels me to admit that I had George Guidall read them to me. (Did you know that George has narrated over 800 audiobooks?) I think if I had read the Furst novels the old-fashioned way instead of listening while I drive I might have been more impatient with some of the minor weaknesses pointed out by other reviewers (plot, characters, motivation, abrupt endings etc.)

Furst's books have helped me better understand the events that lead up to the Second World War. This is partly due to his detailed research and partly due to my own research - I always hit the books and the Internet immediately after finishing each Furst novel. After finishing the "Kingdom of Shadows", for example, I read numerous articles on the Sudetenland which made me more sympathetic to its German inhabitants than Furst's pro-Czech point of view. This is not to criticize Furst's research but to compliment him for inspiring me to read more on this subject.

If you "read" the Guidall audiobook version of "Kingdom", you'll enjoy the bonus interview of the author. Guidall asks Furst about the interesting quote "life is like licking honey from a thorn" which Furst attributes to someone else. I poked around on the web and found several versions of this - nothing too definitive - including "Hungarian proverb" "Welsh proverb"(!), and "quotation from the Slovenian-American author Louis Adamic."

Anyway, "Kingdom of Shadows" was a good read and if in fact Furst mangled some Hungarian poetry as a more erudite reviewer pointed out it certainly didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book!

The War Before the Fighting Began.......2007-05-09

The period covered by this novel are the years 1938 to 1939, just before the German attack on Poland on September 1, 1939. While the French and British try to placate Hitler, Hungary under Admiral Horthy is trying to remain an interested friend to everyone. But one Hitler starts to dismantle Czecho- Slovakia, the Hungarians have to decide whose side they will be on. For sure they will be on the anti-Russian side, but who will they be with.

We once again meet the incomparable Janos Count Polanyi who is working out of the Hungarian embassy in Paris. Janos is still doing his bit to try and save Hungary from the next war, by fighting against the facist Arrow Cross. He is now using his nephew (and heir) Nicholas Morath as a go between as part of teaching him the family business. Morath gets involved with various types of intrigue, mostly related to smuggling both money and people across borders.

After Janos sets up the suicide of the embassy fascist in charge of the intelligence service (by shooting him in the head), he disappears. Everything including the title is left to Nicholas. As Count Morath, he is now expected to take over ALL of his uncles duties. Though we get the feeling that Uncle Janos is really somewhere behind the scene watching to see how his protoge is doing. He has nothing to worry about.

All this is done against the backdrop of the German demands for the Sudetenland, the Ansluss of Austria, the take-over of Danzig, the splitting of Slovakia into an independent state, and the Hungarian take-over of Ruthenia. Furst is a master of creating the feeling that you are there in the steamy backrooms with members of the White Russians underground, and those from other empires destroyed by WWI as they bargain to get back to and control of their homelands.

Taut, well-written yet ambiguous espionage novel best suited for deep reading.......2007-03-15

"Kingdom of Shadows" is the first novel by Alan Furst that I have read, and I have to say that I am very, very impressed with Mr. Furst as a writer. Unfortunately, I am not in a position in my life where reading Mr. Furst's kind of writing is easy to do.

Full disclosure - I work long hours and I have two small children. Accordingly, there are very few quiet hours at home for sinking into the armchair for some "serious reading." Instead, I get to do most of my reading on the bus or on the elliptical machine at the gym. While I am able to enjoy most books to their full measure in that manner, this is not the optimum way to savour a dense or subtle book - and "Kingdom of Shadows" is both. (And I mean this as a compliment.)

A lean work at 238 pages, "Kingdom of Shadows" has a lot of story. The hero, Nicholas Morath, is a Hungarian expatriate living in Paris in 1938. Europe has barely recovered from the Great War, in which Nicholas fought heroically, and yet the Nazis loom on the horizon. Working with his uncle, a minor Hungarian diplomat in Paris, Morath is thrust deeper and deeper into an mysterious world of espionage where not only does the right hand not know what the left hand is doing, but the fingers aren't exactly communicating, either.

Furst sets most of "Kingdom of Shadows" in the world of Hungarian pre-war politics, something about which I was completely ignorant. That places me on a good footing with Morath, who has no idea what his missions are really about and surely has no clue as to the coming conflagration that will sweep across Europe. But I loved the book as Furst took me from the streets of Paris to the Carpathians to an idyllic holiday on the shore to a Nazi-occupied hotel in Vienna. Rich, vivid descriptions of both the countryside and daily city life make "Kingdom of Shadows" a wonderful read.

The only thing that makes me give this book four stars is the fact that the dialogue and plotting of the book was so darn subtle that I think I missed at least half of what Furst meant for me to catch. After re-readinng several passages, I still had virtually no clue as to what was going or why. Some will chalk it up to my shortcomings, but to be fair I have read books by John Le Carre, Daniel Silva, and Graham Greene on the bus and at the gym and not felt so stymied.

I am sure that if I can give Furst's words the care and attention they deserve, in an armchair and fortified with a tumbler of Scotch, I would write a rave review. As it is, "Kingdom of Shadows" must content itself with a very good review and a solid recommendation.

Erudite Exploration of Wartime Hungary.......2007-02-26

Alan Furst excels at bringing to life the nooks and crannies of World War II-era Europe. Furst's extraordinary knowledge of the history, politics and culture of that time is brought to bear in "Kingdom of Shadows," his sixth wartime novel. This time, the protagonist is a Hungarian patrician who owns an advertising agency in Paris and spies for a faction of the Hungarian government. And that small country, whose borders seem to shift every few years, contained no shortage of factions: enthusiasts of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Arrow Cross fascists, and those who simply wanted to cut deals with Germany to avoid joining the war.

The more interesting, and tragic, country described in this book is Czechoslovakia. Here was a country that was a liberal democracy and was at one time admired by the West. It also had a strong army bunkered in the hills of the Sudetenland. In order to obtain this prize, Hitler decided to provide justification for ceding the mountainous Sudentenland to Germany, by forming armed groups within the Sudetenland and fomenting riots. The Czechs, of course, were quickly blamed when they tried (with one hand tied behind their backs) to quench the flames. In a vain attempt to appease Hitler and avoid war, the West quickly agreed to cede the Sudetenland to Germany. With its defenses gone, the rest of Czechoslovakia fell quickly. Furst does not overly dramatize this story, but the pain of this betrayal stings.

As always, Furst's attention to detail is impeccable. The normality of pre-invasion Paris (women in bolero jackets and hats with veils) is juxtaposed with the giddy fervor of Austria on the day of Anschluss, when Nazis destroyed the Jewish community overnight. His clear discussion of the complicated details of late-1930s alliances and politics engaging. And Furst again draws sentences that you will want to read twice: a barman in Paris was "A man who hated having to be grateful for a job he hated." The night train from Budapest passes through one of Alan Furst's finest works.

Average customer rating:

Some of Knaak's best
A Page-Turner for Sure
Richard Knaak needs an editor.
Couldn't Put it Down!
Knaak you are the best!

Kingdom of Shadow (Diablo #3)
Richard A. Knaak
Manufacturer: Star Trek
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0743426924

Book Description

Since the beginning of time, the angelic hosts of the High Heavens and the demonic hordes of the Burning Hells have been locked in a struggle for the fate of all Creation. That struggle has now come to the mortal realm...and neither Man nor Demon nor Angel will be left unscathed....

Legend speaks of a long-dead city known as Ureh, thought by many to have been a gateway to the High Heavens. It is believed that every two thousand years, when the stars align and the shadow of Mount Nymyr falls upon the ruins, Ureh is reborn -- and all its lost riches are revealed to those brave enough to seek them out.

Now, after a lifetime of research and intense calculation, the Vizjerei sorcerer, Quov Tsin, has come to witness Ureh's rebirth for himself. But that which awaits Tsin and his hired band of mercenaries is nothing like what they expected. They will find that the dream of radiant Ureh is, in fact, a twisted nightmare of horror -- one that will draw them inexorably into

The Kingdom of Shadow

An original tale of swords, sorcery, and timeless struggle based on the bestselling, award-winning M-rated computer game from Blizzard Entertainment. Intended for mature readers.

Customer Reviews:

Some of Knaak's best.......2007-04-01

Origin aside, anyone looking for a good fantasy/adventure with very likeable characters, a dash of comedy, and an unusual plot twist, look no further. Some of Knaak's finest work, this story is well worth the read. If you haven't played any of the game(s) don't fret, the story and characters are unrelated, albeit anyone who has played the games will find it even more enjoyable.

A Page-Turner for Sure.......2006-09-04

Diablo: Kingdom of Shadow (Book 3)
By: Richard A Knaak

I liked this book a lot more than I did the second one. This one hid the "evil" part of the story until really late in the book, I mean, there wre evil parts to it, but unlike the first two in which the real evil parts of the story come into play really early, this one kind of built up the suspense with a couple of small evil events that took place.

In this story, a group of mercenaries and a Vizjeri sorcerer are one a quest to find an ancient city that appears only every now and then. It is in this hope that the merc's hope to get rich in jewles and the sorcerer rich in knowledge from the ancient holy city. That's all I'm gonna say though because if I say too much it'l give away the story.

I'm giving this book a 10/10, especially since they brought the necromancers back into play, they are my absolute favorite character in the Diablo series.

Richard Knaak needs an editor........2006-02-12

I would like to point out a passage that is particularly terrible: "The blade severed the upper part of the fiend's torso, but that upper portion still managed to wrap bony fingers around the upper part of the weapon's shaft" (p. 319). This book is filled with such linguistic gems. There is no excuse for this kind of writing making it past an editor and onto the shelf at the bookstore.

The story is mildly entertaining, but I found myself wanting it to end at about page 100. I think Knaak's plots would work well if the number of pages and unnecessary descriptions were cut way back. So much of this genre exists in the mind of the reader, but Knaak does not trust his readers to think for themselves on any page of this book.

Couldn't Put it Down!.......2005-05-06

The story is about a group of adventurers that discover the Lost Kingdom of Shadows. This book has everything. Action, Comedy, Romance, Suspense, Horror...

The characters, action, and story are all very well done.

Knaak does an outstanding job at weaving in and out of the story arcs. The book is paced well and a really fun read.

(TV Reference: It's paced like one of the early seasons of 24 or Prison Break.)

This book has nothing to do with the other books in the Diablo Series, so you don't have to read them to understand what's going on in this book. You also don't even need to play Diablo. It's a great stand alone adventure that will keep you frantically turning pages until the end.

(Then you're sad because there's no more book to read.)

Knaak you are the best!.......2005-02-22

Thanks Knaak for this wonderfull masterpiece, it's full of action and adventure.

Please, followers or not of Diablo, read this book! And be sure to read Diablo 1 and Diablo 2 books first.

Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game And the Race for Empire in Central Asia

Average customer rating:

Sweeping, Very Readable History
Amazing Stories, Hard Reading
A survey with hopes as large as some of the explorers it portrays
Disapointing book about a great topic
a must read

Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game And the Race for Empire in Central Asia
Karl Ernest Meyer , and Shareen Blair Brysac
Manufacturer: Perseus Books Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0465045766

Amazon.com

Throughout the 19th century and well into the 20th, the Russian and British Empires played out a chess game of diplomacy, espionage, and military thrusts into Central Asia to protect their expanding interests. When play began, the frontiers of their empires lay 2,000 miles apart, across vast deserts and almost impassable mountain ranges; by the end, they were separated by only 20 miles. Karl E. Meyer of The New York Times and Shareen Blair Brysac, documentary filmmaker for CBS, update and significantly expand earlier studies of the imperial rivalry, notably Peter Hopkirk's pioneering The Great Game. Tournament of Shadows reads like a racy adventure story, yet there is no need for the authors to embellish their well-researched facts. The region attracted a host of bizarre characters, each with his own idiosyncratic goals. The authors begin with the journey to Bokhara of an ambitious horse doctor, hired by the East India Company in 1806 to improve its breeding stock, and end with the CIA's assistance to anti-Chinese guerrillas in Tibet during the cold war. American participants in the opening of Central Asia have not previously received much attention, but Tournament of Shadows introduces adventurers such as William Rockhill, commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution in the 1880s to explore Tibet, and William McGovern, who, to the chagrin of the British, reached Lhasa in 1923. The wealth and instability of Central Asia continue to keep the region in the headlines, motivating the Soviet Union's disastrous 10-year intervention in Afghanistan and fueling an international race for resources--especially oil--today. --John Stevenson

Book Description

"Much more than a magisterial work of scholarship: it is an absorbing inquiry into men and motives that is one part le CarrŽ, one part Indiana Jones." (Jason Goodwin, New York Times Book Review) From the romantic conflicts of the Victorian Great Game to the war-torn history of the region in recent decades, Tournament of Shadows traces the struggle for control of Central Asia and Tibet from the 1830s to the present. The original Great Game, the clandestine struggle between Russia and Britain for mastery of Central Asia, has long been regarded as one of the greatest geopolitical conflicts in history. Many believed that control of the vast Eurasian heartland was the key to world dominion. The original Great Game ended with the Russian Revolution, but the geopolitical struggles in Central Asia continue to the present day. In this updated edition, the authors reflect on Central Asia's history since the end of the Russo-Afghan war, and particularly in the wake of 9/11.

"Well-written and fair-minded.... The sheer sweep of the contest, its imperial scale and its exhilaration, are admirably conveyed." (New York Review of Books)

"Tournament of Shadows teems with highly readable, half-forgotten yet fascinating incidents.... [An] absorbing chronicle of almost two centuries of geopolitical turmoil in Central Asia." (Boston Globe)

Customer Reviews:

Sweeping, Very Readable History.......2007-04-30

The Redux of History - When everyone is dead, the Great Game is finished. Not Before - is neatly summed up in the introduction to this excellent and sweeping history of Central Asia.
This work is well written,highly readable and sweeping in its coverage. It is a story of "preclusive security" as the players struggle for control of buffer states; and ,it is also a story of "Pre-emptive strategy" as the players attempt to control the chess board of this Great Game.
There are lessons to be learned from this book. If one explores this book from the perspective of lessons in "Counterinsurgency",one of the most glaring is the political and military miscalculation of your enemy and not understanding the type of enemy that you are fighting. There is also the failure to fully understand the consequences of your decisions and the resulting "Blow-back" from a failed decision making process.
The book does begin to slow down a bit around Chapter Eighteen but is still worth the time and effort.
I highly recommend this book.

Dr. Terry Tucker
Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan

Amazing Stories, Hard Reading.......2007-03-30

If you are an admirer of the great explorers, adventurers and opportunists of old you will enjoy the accounts given of this fascinating time and place in history. Meyer and Brysac explain, "The players in the Great Game were men of action, not reflection." It is precisely this reality that made this particular dot on the map of history so intriguing. Each chapter tells short stories of various characters in "The Great Game," ie the furious race for land, glory, and empire in Central Asia during the 19th and early 20th centuries. From William Moorecroft's five year journey to the mysterious city of Bokhara to secret meetings with the Dalai Lama conducted by the spies of various nations, the average reader will walk away from this book with a much greater understanding of the roots of the present day turbulence in the regions of Afghanistan and its neighbors. Though exciting reading, this book has its dry spells which can sometimes be hard to get through. At various points I had to read something else to let my mind rest. For the most part this book paints an amazing picture of real men and their ambitions, secrets and fatal flaws, just be ready to put in some work in order to sift through pages of historical detail in order to find the true gems.

A survey with hopes as large as some of the explorers it portrays.......2007-02-28

In a sentence I would recommend this book only as a gateway into Central Asia and much of its history.

You will find names of people and their published accounts, events and journeys that you can then look up on your own and gain a greater understanding.

This ambitious work introduces some 500 odd proper nouns of people and places, rarely devoting more than a few paragraphs to each person or event. Often people are mentioned and disappear in the next sentence, leading me to reread certain passages more than once. In that sense it is difficult to follow. I would not say that the book is "well-written" or "very readable" as some of the blurbs say, although the prose is understandable it sometimes resembles an excited youth telling a story as fast as he can just to show what he knows.

That being said the book actually is very informative and brings light to many events and people long forgotten, using sources and quotations you would otherwise probably never learn of. Much of its appreciation comes from parallels to current day operations in Afghanistan, which are not much unlike British attempts to subdue the country during the First and Second Afghan Wars.

Throwing around names and places Meyer succeeds in sketching some broad strokes of the Great Game, and thus introducing the reader to it, but don't expect to remember more than a few names.

Disapointing book about a great topic.......2006-12-15

This book is a valiant attempt to cover an interesting topic but in the end it just comes up short. It is very badly written and the prose is so academic that it does not even hold a candle to other books on the subject. (see any of Peter Hopkirk books). The book goes into voluminous detail that the only advantage is you get it in one book instead of five smaller ones. Overall though I would recommend you go with the five smaller ones which give you more detail and a better written story. Meyer just could not pull it off on this one which is unfortunate for such an interesting topic.

a must read.......2006-08-16

if you want to get a little background about the central asia (afghanistan, pakistan, india etc) read this book. the authors let you draw your own lessons for the current era. but please look for the march 2006 reissue. the introduction and prologue update the 1999 version and add some context for your consideration of the roots of the current middle east crisis

Average customer rating:

Gothic Terror from the Old World

Shadows of the UK (World of Darkness)
Aaron Dembski-Bowden , Chuck Wendig , and Wood Ingham
Manufacturer: White Wolf Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1588463346

Customer Reviews:

Gothic Terror from the Old World.......2007-01-07

White Wolf's new and revised 'World of Darkness' game line has been full of creative and useful ideas, and this first book to highlight the 'World of Darkness' beyond the US is nothing short of brilliant. The authors, mostly Brits themselves, do a wonderful job mixing the nation's rich cultural heritage, folklore and myth with thematic material, mysteries and the outright bizarre.

The first chapter gives a wonderful overview of the British Isles as they exist in the World of Darkness, paying full attention to Vampires, Mages and Werewolves (though there is a strong focus on werewolves), along with other stranger things like alien big cats, the owl man of cornwall, great lake worms, fox-spirits, djinn, ghosts and tantalizing hints of the fae. Things like the blood farm and 'the other city' of Glasgow are outright brilliant, but equally interesting are cultural changes that make British Vampires, Mages and Werewolves unique from their American counterparts. Notes are given on social changes, prominent individuals, rumors and even a few Bloodlines and Legacies, like the Pakistani Brothers of Sadr-Ud-Din and the 'chav' Tanners, though none are actually written up. As I said before, many of the writters on this book are Brits themselves, and it shows. Gone are many of the stereotypes that older books sometimes suffered from.

Like I said, this book is really aimed at the Werewolf audience (though others will get use out if it too), and the second chapter highlights this. It focuses on the Uratha of the region, even goes as far as to make write-ups for each Tribe, mentioning things like how British Bone Shadows study human ghost lore and take tokens from fallen foes, or how the British Iron Masters have adapted to the cities. Several new Lodges are written up, like the Lodge of the Howling Death, who fight the Pure to the death over territory, and the Lodge of Scavengers, who are cunning urban survivors. A small number of lesser Lodges are also mentioned, but not written up, like the Lodge of the Baital, Bone Shadows who study Asian myth. There are also a number of British Totems, Fetishes and Rites given, even some cultural notes on Klaives.

The third chapter gives some more setting information for Great Britain, including notes for American players, historical games, and bringing foreign characters into the UK. Once again, there is a strong focus on the setting for Werewolf, showing different cultural variations on typical foes such as the Beshilu (the idea of the Rat God thing is horribly creepy) and the Pure (such as inbred, aristocratic Ivory Talons who hunt two-legged prey on their estates, and Fire-Touched with a different fervor from their American brethern). Theres more ST material in the fourth chapter, which includes information on prominent NPCs and antagonists in the British Isles, and other useful crunch (like a new Cruac Ritual). All in all, theres alot of good stuff to throw at players, and for developing the United Kingdom as a unique supernatural landscape. But the creepiest stuff are the unexplained and bizarre things that have no real connection to other supernaturals. Things like the Drowned Men, who may or may not be the Fomori of Irish legend, and the hints about the Fae.

Like I said before, the authors have a deep sense of what's 'British' and really draw on alot of obscure regional folklore - like the Green Children of Woolpit, alien big cats, ghost stories, and the like. They also do a good job making mention of material from other books that can be brought in - like the Bron and Melissidae from Bloodlines: the Legendary, or the Sodality of the Tor, Daksha and Pygmalian Society from Legacies: the Sublime (and Wood's signature character Lucy Sulphate even gets mentioned). I was a little disappointed we didn't get write-ups for the Tanner or the Brothers of Sadr-Ud-Din, but theres always room for me to make up my own stuff for that. The vague hints and allusions to the Fae are also a great tie in with the forthcoming Changeling game (if the ST is so inclined that is). So yeah, this is a great book, an essential for Americans planning on running a game set in the UK. Even so, Brits will still get a kick out of many of the things in this book too.

Average customer rating:

ancient AND modern story lines are great
Ugh
Wonderful!
Clare, Clare, Clare...at last! ISOBEL!
Kingdom Of Shadows One of Her best

Kingdom of Shadows
Barbara Erskine
Manufacturer: Dell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Accessories:

philosophy hope in a jar daily moisturizer

ASIN: 0440502004
Release Date: 1989-10-02

Customer Reviews:

ancient AND modern story lines are great.......2003-10-20

Like other reviewers, I found myself regretful at leaving the 13th century part of this tale to return to the world of the modern woman here, Clare. A few lines into Clare's story, though, I would forget my frustration and once again fall into the narrative. Dark, frightening, and forcefully compelling, both interwoven stories are excellent. The exploration of love, obsession, and "supernatural" connections is not unique to this author or this novel, but it is all done very well here.

The book was hard to put down, though not as chilling or downright terrifying as another of Erskine's novels, MIDNIGHT IS A LONELY PLACE. Perhaps the strongest element here is the characterization: all of the characters are worth caring about, one way or another; even the purely despicable ones are well-drawn and very much alive, and you wait with baited breath to know what happens to them.

KINGDOM OF SHADOWS is -- if it is nothing else -- excellent escape reading. Be warned, though, it may leave you with a nameless shadow on your mind...

Ugh.......2003-05-09

Unlike the similarly-themed (we won't say cookie cutter) _Lady of Hay_, in this one the historical sections of the book do not save the boring modern sections. Isobel, Countess of Fife fulfilled her family's destiny and crowned Robert the Bruce King of Scotland. For that, she was captured by the English and forced to spend years living in a cage. But I think having her life history exploited in this book is an even worse crime.

Wonderful!.......2003-01-14

If you like Scottish / English history and/or time travel, you need to read this book! It lead me to investigate the real Isobel and what happened to her. I don't want to give away any spoilers but what the book has Edward I condemning her to really happened!

I've read several other books by Barbara Erskine and highly recommend them all. Lady of Hay is another one that has a story based on real people. The format of the present day character always switching places with the historical person wears a bit thin after a few of her books but I guess if you find a format that works, don't change it!

Highly recommended

Clare, Clare, Clare...at last! ISOBEL!.......2002-10-06

Kingdom of Shadows weaves a tale of a modern woman with that of her ancestor, and it makes for interesting reading.

I enjoyed this book tremendously, but there is no doubt that Isobel, Countess of Buchan is the true heroine of the book. I found myself skimming through the modern story of Clare in anticipation of the tragic story of the wild Isobel.

There seems to be an irony in that Isobel - who belonged to a time when women were expected to do nothing more than enter a convent or marry and provide heirs - never stopped fighting to be free of her loveless marriage, while Clare - a 20th century woman who belongs to a time when women are much more empowered - submits meekly to her selfish husband (except for, of course, the issue of selling Duncairn).

Also, in the hero department, Isobel's lover, Robert of Carrick -later to become King of Scots - is much more likable than Clare's Neil. Both husbands (John Comyn - Lord Buchan - and Paul Royland) were despicable.

If only for the beautifully told story of Isobel of Fife, I recommend this book.

Kingdom Of Shadows One of Her best.......2001-10-21

I really got hooked on this book, great plot and well written.
I wasn't all that anxious to read the modern parts of the novel as I find with Barbara Erskine she tends to write excellent "past" stories but the "present" storyline aren't as interesting to read. However even the "present" storline in this book wasn't half bad. One of her best infact.
I just love how she can bring the characters and scenery to life and she does it very, very well in this novel as she did in Lady of Hay.
It seems this novel isn't easy to get, but I recommend you try because it's worth reading.

Robert E. Howard's Weird Works Volume 1: Shadow Kingdoms

Average customer rating:

Beware two versions of book with different collections of stories
Not Free SF Reader
Book of Lies
Big FAT warning!
the series

Robert E. Howard's Weird Works Volume 1: Shadow Kingdoms
Robert E. Howard
Manufacturer: Wildside Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0809510979

Book Description

Shadow Kingdoms is the first volume of the Weird Works of Robert E. Howard, presenting all of Howard's work for the pulp magazine Weird Tales meticulously restored to its original magazine texts. This volume begins with "Spear and Fang," Howard's first professional fiction sale, and concludes with "Red Thunder," a gripping sword & sorcery tale. Series characters present in this volume include King Kull and Solomon Kane. Edited by Paul Herman. Introduction by Mark Finn. Cover by Stephen Fabian.

Customer Reviews:

Beware two versions of book with different collections of stories.......2007-09-13

I purchased this book assuming I was getting 'Wildside Press' book, but what I actually got was the 'Cosmos book'. Same cover art and title, but different selection of stories from what people have mentioned in the reviews. The Book I got contained

"The Lost Race"
"The Song of the Bats" (poem)
"The Ride of Falume" (poem)
"The Riders of Babylon" (poem)
"The Dream Snake"
"The Hyena"
"The Gates of Nineveh" (poem)
"Red Shadows"
"The Harp of Alfred" (poem)
"Easter Island" (poem)
"Skulls in the Stars"
"Crete" (poem)
"Moon Mockery" (poem)
"Rattle of Bones"
"Forbidden Magic" (poem)
"The Shadow Kingdom"
"The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune"
"The Moor Ghost" (poem)
"Red Thunder" (poem)
"Skull-Face"
"Dead Man's Hate" (poem)
"The Fearsome Touch of Death"
"The Voice of El-Lil"

It's a good selection, but was missing some of the stories I expected to get, but that's my problems not Amazons. I enjoyed the book and think it was good value for the money.

Not Free SF Reader.......2007-08-02

An eclectic collection, with a supernatural theme, and encludes a good chunk of Solomon Kane and some fine Kull, as well as some poetry, which I haven't mentioned, that is a general thing for the 'Weird Works', having poetry, etc.

Weird Works 1 : Spear and Fang - Robert E. Howard
Weird Works 1 : In the Forest of Villefere - Robert E. Howard
Weird Works 1 : Wolfshead - Robert E. Howard
Weird Works 1 : The Lost Race - Robert E. Howard
Weird Works 1 : The Dream Snake - Robert E. Howard
Weird Works 1 : The Hyena - Robert E. Howard
Weird Works 1 : Sea Curse - Robert E. Howard
Weird Works 1 : Red Shadows - Robert E. Howard
Weird Works 1 : Skulls in the Stars - Robert E. Howard
Weird Works 1 : Rattle of Bones - Robert E. Howard
Weird Works 1 : The Shadow Kingdom - Robert E. Howard
Weird Works 1 : The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune - Robert E. Howard

Young pretty Cro-Magnon are still young and pretty to Neandertals who fancy some sex and violence.

2.5 out of 5

Choose carefully when you kill a werewolf.

2.5 out of 5

Hanging around Spanish noble types is bad for your health. This time, it took a while to work out whether this gentleman Was Don Leopard, or Don Lupin. The latter was the case, and causes quite a few problems.

3.5 out of 5

There are still some strange old Picts around, it appears.

2.5 out of 5

Scary snooze leaves sleeper smooshed.

2 out of 5

Shapeshifter of the not so high class variety.

3 out of 5

A group of local seamen and basically criminals, and when they cause the death of a girl, a woman curses them, quite impressively :-

"I curse you by sea and by land, by earth and by air, by the demons of the swamplands, the fiends of the forest and the goblins of the hills! And you"--her lean finger stabbed at Lie-lip Canool and he started backward, his face paling--"you shall be the death of John Kulrek and he shall be the death of you! You shall bring John Kulrek to the doors of hell and John Kulrek shall bring you to the gallows-tree! I set the seal of death upon your brow, John Kulrek! You shall live in terror and die in horror far out upon the cold grey sea! But the sea that took the soul of innocence to her bosom shall not take you, but shall fling forth your vile carcass to the sands!"

This is what she causes them to run into :-

"From the hell of lost craft Satan sent a ship of bygone ages!"

Needless to say, not good for them.

3 out of 5

Kane comes across Le Loup twice in his life, once after he comes across
a dying girl, one of his kills, and once at the temple of the Black
God. He leaves him mortality challenged, and watches as his underling,
Gulka the gorilla slayer finds a ape who is more than a match for him.

3.5 out of 5

Kane is tracking, and being hunted by a swamp fiend, and realises when fighting it:

"For man's only weapon is courage that flinches not from the gates of Hell itself, and against such not even the legions of Hell can stand."

He finds the man that created the fiend, and adds the man to its list of victims, to appease it.

3.5 out of 5

In which Kane enters the Cleft Skull tavern, and finds that is most definitely lives up to its name.

3 out of 5

There is evil treachery afoot in the time of Atlantis, the serpent priests are stirring, and a cunning old king brings them to the attention of a somewhat restless Kull. More pity them. With a stalwart Pictish spear-slayer at his side, he wreaks bloody havoc among them, and vows to take the war to them. No-one else would ever have copied this plot later on, would they?

4 out of 5

Introspection and philosophy are not cures for what ails a bored warrior-King. Neither are wizardly mirrors or Lovecraftian elder races.

Thankfully, the stout, pragmatic Spear-Slayer is there to remind him.

4 out of 5

Book of Lies.......2007-07-31

I was sorely disappointed with this softcover book edition. It states on the back cover, for instance, that this is "the first volume of The Wierd Works of Robert E. Howard" and that it has "meticulously restored to its original texts" the stories within. Further that "This volume begins with Spear and Fang, Howards first professional fiction sale, and condludes with Red Thunder, a gripping sword and sorcery tale." Spear and Fang appear NOWHERE in this book and while Red Thunder is in the book, it does not "conclude" with it.

In my opinion, leaving OUT Howard's first professional fiction sale and NOT concluding with Red Thunder (BOTH AS ADVERTISED ON THE BACK COVER) doesn't speak well of the "meticulous" alledged restoration alluded to.

While containing almost two dozen Howard pieces, I somehow doubt the dedication, attention to detail and/or the "expertise" of the publisher as to authenticity or accuracy that should be a hallmark of a series of this sort. Don't waste your money.

Big FAT warning!.......2007-07-12

This lil' item is just one more attempt by the folks at Wildside Press to go to the trough one more time with the same material. First they came out with a hardbound edition of this title- fine, it was a fair addition to the number of Robert E. Howard releases that seem to be coming out of the woodwork these days. However (big however) this book, like several in this series, had a number of errors in the texts. Then came the trade paperback: same errors and even some layout problems. Several books into the series the publishers then decided to change cover artists (god only knows why) and therefore reissued it with new cover art as well as re-typeset to increase the page count (which was quite low in the original. I would also hope this was done to correct at least some of the errors). Now in this latest testament to Murphy's law they've released it as a regular sized paperback with (drumroll) three of the stories missing! Including one mentioned on the back cover!
Now I must state clearly that I am a definite Howard fan, I have a huge collection of editions of his works as well as a not-small collection of his stuff from the pulps (including Weird Tales). It's important that his work remain in print. It is equally important that the people reprinting it actually get it right!

Approach anything from this publisher with care.

the series.......2007-04-17

I figure very few people will just buy this book so this covers the series, which is currently up to volume 6.

What we really need, and probably most people reading this really want, is a complete chronological edition of Howard's tales (or at the least the weird/fantastic stories) using the best texts available taken from the manuscripts and corrected proofs, and including all the unpublished stories. This is what i originally hoped this series would be, but its just the published stories from Weird Tales Magazine, with a few extras here and there. This does mean you get most of the Conan, Solomon Kane and Kull stories that were published in Howard's life time, plus the other published horrors and fantasies.

This is bar far better than nothing and, as far as I know, there is no real competition around at the moment. The Bison press series might eventually be better but the publication schedule is all over the place, and it is not sure if it will ever finish. This series should be complete by 2008 at the latest. The series is well produced. So far all my copies have been sewn bound in cloth lined boards, so the books are not the usual paperback binding in stiff cardboard that often passes for hardcover nowadays. The font is a good size and readable. The books are expensive, but Howard's stuff has always tended to be that way if you wanted it in a lasting format. In general these are as well produced as any Howard items I have seen and can be recommended as books.

It is good to see Howard's writing abilities improve as the stories move on, and the stories are almost exactly what you might expect. However, I'm a little more troubled by coming across them on mass than I have been previously in small doses. Whereas the more Lovecraft I read (letters, miscellaneous writings etc) the more convinced I am that he is a major writer dealing with interesting problems and ideas and developing as he writes, the more Howard I've read the less sure I am about his status. He seems to have a few obsessions which he works over again and again - sometimes extremely effectively it is true, and no one would say that he is not an exciting writer, but I feel a degree of discomfort. Many of the stories depend upon an attitude, and response, to race that I find difficult. May be I should just take it as part of the times, but Howard is writing in the late twenties and early thirties, the KKK and so on are active, people still can remember those times with pain, and we know where the glorification of action and racial dislike lead elsewhere. I'm not sure that without those attitudes you would have much rationale for a lot of the stories. Ok, perhaps everyone else will find this a bit crazy, you too may not be of the 'races' he dislikes, in which case don't worry - I'm probably still going to buy the rest so it's also a bit hypocritical perhaps.

If you like Howard, then if the publishers decided to do a set of posthumous tales to complete this series, it could be recommended without hesitation. As it is it's the probably the best around.

In the Kingdom of Shadows: A Companion to the Early Cinema

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In the Kingdom of Shadows: A Companion to the Early Cinema

Manufacturer: Cygnus Arts
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0838637248

In the Shadow of the Pyramids: Egypt During the Old Kingdom (Echoes of the Ancient World)

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good information about daily life

In the Shadow of the Pyramids: Egypt During the Old Kingdom (Echoes of the Ancient World)
Jaromir Malek
Manufacturer: Univ of Oklahoma Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0806120274

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good information about daily life.......2000-06-17

The book is a slim volume depicting in vivid detail the daily lives of the Ancient Egyptians. A crucial component of this presentation is the marvelous 120 colour plates strategically located to provide a balanced effect and overview. Nothing escapes the author's keen grasp : the Terminal Predynastic, the Early Dynastic with the continually evolving social structure, the economic basis of the country, agriculture, the rise of the necropolis and the funeral cult estates, and how all these factors combined eventually to bring about the downfall of the Old Kingdom. The author demolishes the popular misconception that this was a dictatorial period. It is a creative work for all and serves as a valuable introduction to the beginnings of Ancient Egypt.

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