Games Books

Though I found a few of the plot elements more than a bit contrived (even for a fiction title), I thought this book was well-written and interesting. I would recommend this title. However, those with a highly technical background might find some of the creative liberties taken a bit hard to swallow.

Mind Games by Alan Brudner holds the reader hostage in a world of manipulation and mind control. The inept can empathize with technologically challenged, Cliff Lightman, as he's dumped into the world of techno-nerds, geniuses, monopolies, holographs and subliminal suggestions. Cliff isn't really interested in the computer his genius son Sky brings home for him, but attempts to learn so he can communicate by e-mail with Sky. The machine is programmed to lead him into the computer age gracefully, but neither of the men has any idea how quickly the fear of losing his son can make Cliff computer literate. Sky, a computer programmer for Avery Kord in Portland, Oregon, disappears days after setting up his father's computer in New York.

Cliff puts his new computer to use along with good old fashioned gum shoe investigation to find his son and uncovers a cesspool of technology designed to make and break governments, sway elections and influence court decisions without leaving a trace. Using the special avatar Sky programmed for him, Cliff learns how helpful, intelligent, comforting, resourceful, invasive, controlling and dangerous computer technology can be -- and maybe already is.

Mind Games is what block buster movies are made of. It kidnaps the reader's mind on the first page and reluctantly relinquishes it at the end impregnated with seeds of . . . fear, wariness, uncertainty?

This book is amazing! I think it is great. Definetly keeps you on the edge of your seat. Looking forward to Alan Brudner's next book.In my opinion, this book is worth every cent! Don't miss this one.

This is definately worth a read. Very clever thriller from an author that (at least until now) was an unknown. Reads quickly; so it is perfect for a plane flight or a rainy weekend. I got it as a gift and could not put it down. Who is Alan Brudner???

Terrific techno-thriller. The books zips along at a brisk and exciting pace without losing anything by way of intelligence. A rare find.

THIS BOOK IS PART MEMORIES AND PART SOCIOLOGY AS IT EXAMINES THE UPS AND DOWNS OF BEING A FANATIC OF ANY MAJOR COLLEGE TEAM (IN THIS CASE THE BASKETBALL TARHEELS). THE MEMORIES OF THE AUTHOR ARE AUGMENTED BY THE DIARIES KEPT BY 15 DIEHARD UNC FANS FROM THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY AND BEYOND. ITS A GREAT BOOK ABOUT BASKETBALL AND MORE IMPORTANTLY WHAT ITS LIKE TO BE A FAN IN THE AGE OF TELEVISION AND THE INTERNET. A MUST READ FOR ANY SPORTS ENTHUSIAST.

THIS A COMPILATION BETWEEN MEMORIES OF CAROLINA FANS AND A STUDY OF MAJOR COLLEGE FANATICS. THAD DOES A WONDERFUL JOB TALKING ABOUT HIS HISTORY GROWING UP AS A TAR HEEL FAN. THE DIARISTS ALSO PRESENT AN INTERESTING PICTURE OF THE UPS AND DOWNS OF A COLLEGE BASKETBALL FAN. THE LAST SEGMENT OF THE BOOK PROVIDES INSIGHT INTO THE BASKETBALL FAN IN THE AGE OF THE INTERNET AND CHAT ROOMS. ALL IN ALL A GREAT BOOK AND A WORTHY ADDITION TO YOUR BASKETBALL LIBRARY.

I'm a student at UNC and when I first got here I didn't know much about our basketball team. I thought this book was really cool because it has so many fun facts in it and I learned so much about the proud tradition of UNC Basketball!

Mr. Williamson's unique position, growing up in Chapel Hill with close connections to the Carolina program, provide him with a perfect vantagepoint from which to view and analyze the phenomenon that is Carolina Basketball. Part history, part social analysis, part simple fandom, More Than A Game is an extremely interesting and impassioned book which provides the reader with questions to answer for him or herself about extremism vs. a fun hobby. Particularly interesting is the fan survey which gives us a look at the nuances of everyday life from alumni, fans and those who take it to another level altogether (like myself). Reading the book took me for a stroll down memory lane, comparing Mr. Williamson's view of Carolina basketball history to my own. Sports fans, hoops fans and recruiting junkies will love it.

First off, I'll admit that I'm biased - I'm a member of the email list-serve that figures so prominently in this book. But the appeal of Thad's work reaches far beyond this core constituency. It presents a scholarly analysis of the good and the bad of fandom, and an insight into how one arrives at the stage where a basketball team can mean so much. Divided into four parts, there's something here for everyone: social commentary, philosophy, statistics, and yes, basketball. Carolina basketball, no less! The combination of the fan diaries and the survey give powerful insight into the UNC fan community - at least, that portion of the community on the internet. To my knowledge, such an honest assessment has never been performed on any team's fans before now, but it's worth the wait. If you've ever felt the Fever, and wondered, even for a moment, whether it was a good thing, pick up this book and let it help you decide for yourself.

I bought this deck nearly 15 years ago. I have since purchased several other decks, but this one is, by far, still my favorite. The images and messages are light and powerful. They are clearly filled with love. I went in search of Morgan's Tarot in order to add them to my website. They are perfect for encouraging good self-esteem, which is especially beneficial to the content of my site. It is unfortunate that the cards are no longer available, but I will not give up the search.

The "noise" referred to in my earlier review was about lines of text in the book like, "This is an opinion sponsored by entity X-1513." That line doesn't seem to relate at all to the rest of the card's description. Or the du wacky du description? I read my own descriptions into those cards... DWD makes no sense to me at all. I usually take it to mean that I'm not looking around at what is really going on, that I'm navel-gazing.

Morgan's Tarot is truly an inspirational deck. It is the only deck that I know of that communicates to people who have not spent hours memorizing and meditating on typical major and minor arcana symbols.

I have had a person tell me that I did not truly perform a reading for him using the cards because I actually made him look at the cards and interpret for himself (laugh). I only provided insight where he couldn't see an answer for himself immediately.

I highly recommend you to find a copy of this deck if you need some help laughing at yourself (this deck has multiple laughter cards). Be warned though, if you know the answer of your query in your heart, do not be surprised if you find yourself being harshly chastised for asking the question.

I've had this deck for 20 years and I love it. Nothing to memorize, no esoteric secrets. Even tho it's a cartoon, it gives accurate great readings. The imagery and captions are in modern, new age vernacular with a 70's flavor. Everyone smiles when I pull it out. Easy to read and I hardly ever refer to the book, even tho I numbered the cards to match the entries. People don't find it intimidating and find themselves adding to their own reading. Get this deck if you don't take life too seriously and want to have fun with reading. If you want to mystify people you don't want this one.

Morgan's deck is my favorite ... with 'real life' images. When I first began looking at various Tarots, Morgan's deck was the one that felt "lightest" and "cleanest" to me, and so it was where I started. I've now been doing my professional readings "card free" as it were, for years ... as Morgan's cards lent themselves to the opening of my intuitive, to the degree I could relate the information faster than I could turn the cards. As to the "noise" referred to, Morgan had a Very tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, and didn't really believe the deck needed a book, but that each user could develop their own interpretation for the symbols. (in fact, when Morgan himself was publishing the deck, there was no book.) So, when U.S. Games stepped up to be the publisher, and required a book, as part of the package, Morgan's sense of humor stepped up to meet them. Just enjoy or toss out the humor, and use the underlying thoughts as your guide.

The cards, originally, weren't meant as a tarot or even as anything for anyone other than Morgan. When he described their origin to me, he said he was working as a dishwasher at a small place in the Santa Cruz mountains and studying his own personal development. He got some cards (I assume index cards) and started writing down the key ideas he'd been thinking about, just as sort of reminders for himself. There are even around a half-dozen cards in the deck that he attributed to the cook at the same place.
Morgan just carried the cards around to be reminders of his focus in terms of consciousness. (being a spiritual being seemed to make sense, easily, to him, but the "living a human" life was much harder to integrate and make sense of ...)
He described his confusion as other people started looking at his cards and getting something from them ... and started insisting that he should publish them as a tarot. (I'm sure those others pictured that as a simple path to a "well beyond dish washer" income for him ... when I met him, he was washing dishes, again, for a place that would trade food and lodging and some pay ...)

He found the artist ... and thus the black-and-white line drawings came into being ... and, from somewhere, scraped up the money to actually print decks ... and set about selling them himself. Eventually they gained enough "grass roots" popularity to be in Metaphysical (and other) bookshops all over the place, to the extent U.S. Games found him and picked up the rights.

You have to put this all in the perspective of the times, this was during the first waves of popularity of "awareness and consciousness" in the western world ... Timothy Leary and Ram Dass (under his other name) were exploring LSD at Harvard ... and many other folks were doing their own explorations along similar paths ... so, when I met Morgan, over a beer, I told him, first, that I'd been reading with his cards for years and loved them. Then I confessed, (somewhat embarrassed) that based on the mythology around, I'd been describing the author, him, as ... ' a drug-crazed hippy out of Santa Cruz...' ... he paused a long time, looking at me, and finally replied..."Boulder Creek, actually, but nobody knows where that is ... I guess Santa Cruz is close enough..."

Morgan passed over some years back ... and I have to confess, my first thought when I heard about it was, "Wow ... he made it ... he finally finished what ever lesson was SO hard for him to learn ... and made it out..." Being a spiritual being was pretty close for him to touch, it seemed ... but being a spiritual being living a human lifetime ... seemed to be a mystery to him for the whole time.

Scout Bartlett
Scout@LifeInsights.Net

Mortal Kombat 4 is probably the most defining fighting games ever made, so the strategy guide will be right up there with it. This book will pretty much give you all you need to master this unbeliveable game. So if you like MORTAL KOMBAT thiis book is for you.

i havnt bought this book yet but i have looked at it in stores,and its the best one ie'v seen.this book gives good pictures and cool cheat codes.

this guide is awsome you must buy i

Mortal Kombat 4 is probably the most defining fighting games ever made, so the strategy guide will be right up there with it.

This book is the best because it shows you every move and fatality you every wanting to see. But with this book you can do the moves and fatalities.

This book is a great companion for the MotherPeace cards. The cards themselves come with a small booklet that doesn't offer much information, but this book really has a lot of information, and is very well laid out.
I would recommend it highly!

If you order or have the Motherpeace tarot deck, you must have this book to go along with them. It describes what each card means and it's layed out in a way to easily access the card definition you are seeking. It gives one a lot to think about while reading your cards. You will also learn a lot about women's herstory.

I've been using the Motherpeace Tarot cards with the original version of this book for almost twenty years. The cards have a wonderful matriarchal/woman/goddess focus, and the book uses gender-nuetral language, so the cards can be used easily by both men and women. I continue to gain new insight and inspiration from this deck even after all these years! The detailed symbolism in the artwork is incredible, and the book is well organized to either read about the card in detail or get a quick summary. I don't usually use the cards in the suggested layout because it can take a long time to go through each position. I usually spend a little time centering myself and form a question or situation clearly in my mind, then shuffle and cut the cards and lay out one to three cards (one for just the situation, or three for past-present-future interpretations). I then spend some time looking at the cards to see what jumps out at me, then read about them in the book. Sometimes I'll keep a card from a reading out on my nightstand for a few days to continue contemplation of the image, or to remind me of an affirmation or message that came to me from the card. I don't necessarily use the cards for "telling the future", but rather as a tool to help me clarify and focus my intuition and thinking. Every now and then, for really key situations, I'll use the layout described in the book. It's very comprehensive and can be useful to help think about things in many different ways (atmosphere, hopes, fears, obstacles, conscious and unconscious impressions, etc.). I also use the Motherpeace Tarot Playbook by Vicki Noble and Jonathan Tenney, which goes into more detail on how to interpret cards that are leaning in one direction or the other, or are reversed (upside down). The Playbook also has more information about the recommended layout, and about using the cards with astrology and the chakras. I would recommend that anyone who plans to use these cards frequently get both of these books to use together. I've used other tarot decks, but have always come back to my Motherpeace cards!

it is a most have book.with easy to read for beginners.you will not regret purchase

I've used this book and matching Tarot deck for 7 years or so. (I go through phases where I consult it regularly and then periods when I don't use it at all.)

The book is easy to understand, explains in detail a lot of symbolism you might not know, and also offers a quick "if you get this card in a reading" section if you just want to zoom into your current reading. It importantly also encourages users to use the book for general understanding of symbols in the cards, and the larger context of the cards, and to trust in one's own intuition for readings.

One thing I really liked about the book is how the 22 Major Arcana cards tell a story of the history of the world--one that has not yet been completed. It is all a big cycle, with many little currents running through.

This is a tarot focused on the goddess, a panorama of earth-based and matrifocal cultures. But I am a man and have never felt astranged or put off by this focus... quite to the contrary it has been helpful.

This is a good product. But, for the price, i was hoping for more...of the easier ones. THere are lots that i still have not done becuase they make me feel less than stellar. :)

This is exactly what it promises - a collection of 10 weeks of M-F NYT crossword puzzles. It's spiral bound so that you can work on it flat and the puzzles are fun and challenging (more so as the week goes on), without the doozies of the Sunday puzzles.

NYTimes -- so you know they're good puzzles. Clever, fair, and with difficulty as advertised. The Monday-Friday assortment let me stretch on some puzzles, coast on others. A good time was had by all (me)!

For those that don't know: the answers are int he back, six to a page. Some may have trouble with this and feel the desire to glance at the other answers on the page. If you are doing the puzzles in order, you may glance and remember an answer.

The book is spiral bound, so it lays nice and flat, unlike those that are cheap and glue-bound like a magazine.

Printed on newsprint-like paper, which makes it even lighter and packable. This book is much better than those cheap $1 crossword puzzles you find in the store.

Great brain buster, I don't know how can one finish even an easy NY times crossword without an encyclopedia...as in Wikipedia...

Very interesting facts that actually help you to be a winner with this game!

I had to read through this book a few times, as it is quite complicated - I never really knew there was so much to RPS. I always assumed rock beats everything, but after my second or third reading I started to understand the intricacies of the game. I now choose paper everytime, and my winning rate has increased almost 1%

I bought this as a gift for my wife. Whenever it's time to clean the cat boxes or change a dirty diaper or do anything else unpleasant, She always wants to RPS for it. Now, we at least play by the rules and the decision is made fairly.

You think Rock Paper Scissors is a game of chance? think again! This book offersgood information on the game, its history, strategies, and much more.

this guide has really helped my game!

My two year old grandson loves loves loves this book. I loved the photos and he found things that I could not find on my own. Great to help alleviate fears that children may have of some "scary" things.

Each night we read with our 5 year old before bedtime. At the end of reading, we select a page from this book and the 3 of us spend a few minutes trying to find all the items within the pictures. It's been a fantastic way to bring all 3 of us together, spending time laughing, patting each other on the back, and creating confidence and self assurance in our son. We'll complete the discovery of this book tonight, so I've ordered 3 more from Amazon to keep our fun going!!

This is my #1 choice for the new Halloween books released in 2008 feature on my blog at thirteenforhalloween.com

OK. Absolutely awesome!!! This book is so, so cool. From the photographer of the I SPY series. They built a set worthy of a full-scale stop animation film like "Nightmare before Christmas" and then photographed it for the images in this book. It is so amazingly detailed. The story concept is taken from the well-known "In a dark, dark wood" classic. You start far away from this incredible castle, work your way through the village, inside and up the top most room where there is a cabinet and on a shelf of that cabinet is a bottle and in the bottle is a . . . well, you just have to see it. Did I say it was amazing? It absolutely knocked my socks off.

Dixie (my 1st grade teaching wife) and I look at every new Halloween book we can find, and we both agree, this is the cream of the 2008 Halloween releases for kids.

My 3rd grade daughter and I enjoy doing look and find type books (we have a lot of Disney ones), and we recently picked up this Halloween themed one by Walter Wick, who also helped create the "I Spy" books. We bought this at the Scholastic book fair at her school.

This is an excellent Halloween look and find outing. There are 12 pages of pics that you can spend a lot of time pouring over trying to find the requested items. The production quality of the pictures is top notch, and they have just the right Halloween atmosphere.

The pages are very challenging, and there are a lot of additional items thrown in the pics, giving you plenty of "replay" options. I plan to buy the Christmas themed one next since this one was so well done.

It's also fun trying to find the red and yellow wooden robot included in every picture.

Great book! Fun for the whole family! Could anyone find the "too" on the spirit potion picture?

So as you might expect this book includes extensive research as far as magi and cabala's are concerned. The artwork is amazing, the setting is perfect and the ascension war has begun. I you want my opinion, buy it, it is surely useful in completing your storyteller skills and knowledges and will prove your wisdom to your players. Really, this book is worth it.

Easily the Best historical Game and maybe the best game white-wolf ever came up with. The setting takes upa majority of the space but it also doesn't explain the Spheres like it does in Mage for example- Mage2nd:Life5:Transform complex lifeforms. Mage:TSC: Life5- Greater Godhand. Also the game greatly Stresses magic Faith and Science. The only flaws it has in it relates to them. Their is a form of Paradox regardless of what people would think but It can help or hinder you. It is also interesting to have the Technocracy (or Order of Reason) be the ones strugling. Any Player of white-wolf games should get this it is a must! and has a map of Europe in 1500.

The Sorcerers Crusade is a fine book, which contains everything you need to get a Renaissance game going. The Traditions and the Order of Reason are both given equal treatment. It is interesting to see the Order of Reason before they got reorganized into the Technocratic Union. This was a time when their paradigm was not as accepted as miracles and traditional D&D-style spell craft.

This book is more thorough than the second edition of Mage the Ascension. Not only does it provide a lot of examples and explanations for spells, and rituals, it also cleared up a lot of the limitations and potentials for the various spheres.

Even though there are already party lines, the rules make it possible to have both Traditional and Technocratic magi working together. It is a time of reorganization and both parties are trying to find their destinies. In fact, the reader will follow the experiences of a Celestial Chorus member and a member of the Hippocratic Circle throughout the book. The idea of same goals through different methods was stressed.

The time period seemed to be the ideal setting for Mage. Not only are their so many possibilities in terms of new ideas and beliefs, the age of exploration in the high seas, the skies, the unknown continents, as well as the Void are all available for curious magi and their associates.

This book is a must for anyone who is interested in Mage. It is a very complete work and has vital information for storytellers and players who want to use the Renaissance setting. Whether you have an interest in high artisans, explorers, knights, shamans, witches, alchemists, there is something here for you.

Mage: The Ascension is, without a doubt, my favorite RPG. It's concept about Awakened beings who *know* they can change reality because they are convinced in their paradigms is the best concept I've ever seen.

In the Mage timeline, though, there was a crucial event which splitted history in two: Renaissance. It was then that the whole world started believing in science and it's apparent limitless capacities. It was then when people started removing some attributes which made the world turn from God, and it was then when the church started the most brutal prosecution against "pagans": Inquisition.

This is a book about the clash between 3 forces: Faith, Science and Magick. And as the Mage storyline goes, it's the perfect moment to play a Mage.

The Sorcerers' Crusade is a good setting for Mage. A lot of the modern game focuses on how magic doesn't really work the way it's supposed to because people's belief in science is too firmly entrenched in the world's paradigm. In the SC setting, science is a bit less accepted, and magic works a little better. Paradox, which in the modern game is always bad, is called Scourge in this setting, and can occasionally help a Mage. The Technocracy is on more equal footing with the Tradition mages here, as both are struggling to put their paradigm forward as dominant.

There's quite a bit of history and world setting information in this book. Possibly too much, depending on your needs. Relatively little of the book is taken up with game system mechanics. What system rules there are cannot be found all in one place. The organization of the rules is somewhat loose. Like the modern game, the magic system is open-ended, with ability defined in areas of control rather than specific spells. But like most other Mage books, spells (rotes) can be found if one looks hard enough.

If you've played Mage: The Ascension, it will be easier to understand this book. If not, some of the game rules might be confusing. If you like the Mage magic system, but don't care for the dark-goth game world White Wolf sets the games in, this is probably the game for you.

I first bought this book a year ago, and have used what I learned to optimize computers that I would have normaly considered obsolete. It's allowed me to put off having to upgrade untill the new memory standard (DDR) comes out in march, saving me lots of $. I also bought copies for friends this year (2000) for X-mas. Some may say it needs updating, but the authors web site has all the info you would need updated. Many thanks for the Book Dave!

.............Curtis

I use computer frequently, but I am not that of an advanced user. This book really brings me into a higher level of understanding about how Windows works. The author goes into lots of detail about what happens while Windows is running (e.g. during boot up). Yet, the text is very easy to be understood. This book also gives me a new way to look at computing. A faster CPU doesn't always give you a faster computer. If you think your computer is too slow, THERE ARE things you can do to make it runs faster. When performance matters, you have to give up things that you are used to, but not usful. (I can't complain that my computer is too slow when I am using a fansy theme that costs too much memory.) Also, this book does not simply tell you what to do. The author's explaination enables me to make decisions on my own.

This is not a book that simply tell you how to improve your computer's performance. If you have some experiences in using Windows and want to know more about the operating system, this is a nice size book that can get you started. What's more? My machine is faster now. :)

This book has a huge collection of excellent tips for getting the most out of Windows. Every Windows owner owes it to themselves to go out and get this book!

I am an experienced windows user, and I bought this book because I figured it was cheaper than upgrading my PC. I run a K6 266 overclocked to 300, 160 megs of ram, 7200 RPM 27 Gig HD. Once I implemented ALL of the tricks in this book (This is no easy task... it takes a lot of time, and is very high maintenance), my system out performed my ex-girlfriend's Pentium III 850 with 128 megs of ram for applications (not for games, though it still does those well).

I don't mind making the effort, but some people might. If you have lots of time, and you love customizing your PC, you can't go wrong.

Litestep, registry hacks, DOS utils, 5 partitions on a HD... if you like this kind of stuff, get the book! If you don't know what any of these things are, you may be better off upgrading you PC.

This book is an attempt to collect (and organize) a series of tricks to speed up Win9x machines (it does work for Windows 95, 98 and ME, but most of the advices do not translate to WinNt and Win2000, as the author honestly points out).

The author's idea is that you can actually obtain a lot of performance even from older machines, if you are ready to do some work for it (tracking down utilities, testing different configurations, dropping some "cool effects" in the standard UI and so on).

I've recently applied the book ideas to "renew" a couple of very old machines (a 486-based, 24MB ram Compaq portable and a Pentium-75 with 64 MB Ram). I am not a Windows Guru by any stretch of the term, and I did learn a lot on how Windows is organized in the process. This fact alone is probably worth one extra star in my rating.

The book is clear, and is a good read (i.e. it is not a simple itemized lists of tricks, but tries to tie up things in a coherent thread).

Unfortunately, the end result of my attempts to optimize my two museum-quality machines were less stellar than what other reviewers submitted. I think that the main reason is due to the fact that most of the tips seem to be aimed at computers which have been subjected to a lot of "install-the-new-software-gizmo-I-just-found-in-this-magazine-CD".

If you start from a clean installation (or work on a machine on which little extra sw was installed) there seems to be very little gain from applying most of the techniques offered by the author.

Another problem is that both SW and HW are a moving target, so when you try to obtain some of the utilities which the author recommends, for example, you may find out that the current versions may have grown new requirements which makes installing them on an older machine a little troublesome.

This is even more obvious when we talk about RAM or other HW specific issues.

All in all, I'm pleased with the book, but mostly because helped me to better understand how Windows works. People who already have a lot of first-hand experience in installing and maintaining Windows machines would probably give this book three stars at most.